ah shit here we go again

a DA sideblog for all my DA nonsense, at long last. icon credit to @dalishious main blog follows from @sir-bertrandbell

[oopsallmabari]

what do you MEANNNN blackwall's va is playing hades rn in the west end AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[sha-brytols]

my favorite thing about orzammar's politics is it literally is exactly the same as most of thedas' political corruption it's just the dwarves do not even hide it.

[shewolfofvilnius]

Bhelen vs. Harrowmont is literally Gaspard vs. Celene from Wicked Eyes, Wicked Hearts just louder and with less dancing.

Monarch candidate who believes in a return to tradition (Gaspard, Harrowmont)) vs. one who is more open to social reforms within the lands (Celene, Bhelen)

The one open to social reforms would also directly benefit from them: Celene's relationship with Briala, Bhelen with Brosca's sister Rica.

(Conditional) The one who would benefit has interactions and a story themselves. Briala, enough said, while Rica has an entire B-story with the Dwarf Commonder Warden, their sibling.

At least one person in the royal family died under suspicious means.

Person who wants to rule the lands in the broader story is interested in the outcome but ultimately stays out of it (Loghain's men are rejected at the Gate, Corypheus is waiting to strike depending on who wins)

The world stands ready to fall to a blighted nightmare so of COURSE the nobles are fighting.

Factional violence can and does erupt, and opinion starts roughly deadlocked and flipped based on the protagonist's choice.

Subtle changes in story and dialogue changes depending on whether Player Character is seen as an insider or Outsider (Dwarf Noble vs. Commoner vs. Others; Human Non-Mage vs. Others)

Fight a 3rd party group who has involved themselves in the matter (Venatori, Carta)

Resolves by nature of a hide-and-seek where eventually you gather a thing or things then make a choice (the Paragon-Forged Crown, All the little secrets) and/or someone dies (so much dying).

The Chantry has a vested interest in the outcome

No fewer than two companions have extremely interesting storyline connections to the goings on OR the events offer insights on their characters. (Oghren/Shale, Vivienne/Sera/Blackwall/Solas)

Morrigan and Leliana are both present.

It takes entirely too long to get to the ending and you wind up angry at everyone by the end of it, but after it's over it's often the part you thought was the most fun.

[biancadavri]

we should have gotten Brosca & Aeducan travelling to Ostagar and staring daggers at each other the entire time and realising they have to work together to stop the Blight and clashing and fighting and challenging each other and wishing the other didn't survive the joining and having to learn how to fight side by side and feeling their jabs gradually lose bite and tentatively sharing a drink while keeping watch at camp and returning to Orzammar and Brosca offering Aeducan condolences for Endrin's death when they clearly don't mean it but still trying and Aeducan awkwardly attempting to say something genuine after what went down with Leske and making everything worse and surviving the Deep Roads together AND MEETING THEIR BABY NEPHEW and never ever confronting the fact that they're now family and they don't mind and going back to fighting and having screaming matches about who's the one who gets to deal the last blow to the Archdemon

[biancadavri]

we know they were there to introduce the players to the idea that there's something more sinister to the circles & how they operate but may I propose a much funnier option

[evilvarric666-archive]

Hey you should totally recruit me. Yeah I've spent the last year in a solitary confinement cell hopped up on my own imbalanced brain chemicals and talking to cats about magic theory. I'm definitely not going to go monkey mode on the first templar who looks at me funny. I totally remember how to be a human. *grabs Warden-Commander's hand* I Love You.

[rosieofcorona]

blood of calenhad

(frank dicksee study, 2026)

[dajo42]

the beginning of dragon age 2 where you can be an undocumented mage in a world where mages are essentially prisoners and you need to go to a new city but have to walk through a place called The Gallows and find out it’s primarily a circle of magi where mages are imprisoned so you walk right up to a guard and say “let me into this city my uncles here” and he says “okay brb” and then some random ruffians are like “thats bullshit lets fight” and you, an undocumented mage, just start chucking fucking fireballs everywhere with the magical staff you carry on your back,

[ikarons]

bravely . i think aveline and isabela should primarily be fighting over who gets to do violence and against whom. and what actually counts as violence . instead of what being good at woman is like

[ikarons]

like. aveline becomes captain of the guard after having previously been a soldier married to a templar. her Life essentially is defined by sanctioned, culturally noble and respected violence against those perceived as Other, Deserving by the state she serves. child bride to pirate pipeline isabela (who is on the run because she took on her powerful boss to free slaves he would have profited from the sale of) has been the Other against whom it is Acceptable To Commit Violence (but who is not legally or morally permitted to retaliate) her whole life, and i think this has made her incredibly protective of her right to engage in violence of her own. to me this has always kind of been the heart of their conflict— ideas about who is respectable, who is Allowed, who gets to define what that even means. especially with the context that As captain of the guard, aveline quite actively reinforces her institution’s right to enact violence & the Taboo against the disenfranchised returning it; her guardsman sexually assaults an elven girl, and she not only protects him, but literally (accidentally.) starts a war over her right to prosecute the girl’s brothers for killing him in retaliation when She failed to deliver appropriate justice. ISABELA WAS SOLD AS A CHILD BRIDE. it’s such a gimme. that’s like the main thing that differentiates them and the main difference in their interests. literally how is this not the main thing they’re clashing about?

[sheaymin]

Baldur's Gate 3 x Dragon Age: Origins( main mods used I II III IV ) / do not reupload

[coriphallus]

“The Crows buy all their assassins that way. Buy them young, raise them to know nothing else but murder. And if you do poorly in your training, you die.”

[falcatas]

[stonesense]

lately i was considering how in a sole king alistair worldstate it’s kind of depressing that i couldn’t imagine how anora would get out of the whole scenario alive, because there’s no way she isn’t ever going to try and lead a rebellion, it’s just not plausible. she refuses to swear an oath to renounce her claim, she might as well say I’m Going To Rebel At Some Point right there in the landsmeet, it’s not subtle. and then i was like, well, there’s nothing to say she can’t successfully rebel. but that’s a whole other can of worms.

[stonesense]

the cons are that a) i only have the one sole king alistair worldstate and this would just be turning it into yet another anora worldstate and b) it would be a total headache to figure out opposing politics for them to fight about that then make sense with how i want to portray ferelden in the future and c) we’re running low on fereldan relevant nobles already and we’d have to cut them in half AGAIN for another damn civil war. but the pros are that king-in-exile alistair who finally got freed from that terrible job to go live his best life and hot rebel queen anora claiming her rights by the sword are like, peak final forms for these characters and i’m kind of obsessed with them.

[stonesense]

unhardened solo king alistair when anora is marching on denerim and eamon is like you have to go out there and convince the people to fight and die for your personal right to have the job you hate but also there’s a boat leaving for the free marches any minute

[biancadavri]

usually I'm very "don't tell me what to do" regarding the implied age of customizable player characters (this fucker I'm piloting for the next sixty or so hours is forty-three at their youngest and the game will have to deal with it) but I've gotta hand it to Dragon Age, the Warden has to be pretty young. Unfortunately "hmm. I wonder what would happen if I put on this dude's armor and pretend to be him while I kick the asses of a bunch seasoned warriors who have been fighting darkspawn longer than I've been alive?" is a deeply twenty years old idea to have 😔

[eastern-lights]

Throughout the history of Thedas, there had been multiple attempts to set the Litany of Adralla to music, both to serve as a memory aid and to have the melody provide a sense of comfort to the petitioner, in addition to the protection from demonic forces the litany itself provides.

None of these compositions have quite managed to rival the popularity of the rather controversial Mother Nicana version, which will be presented to you shortly.

Born in Jader in 7:56 Storm, Revered Mother Nicana was a figure as beloved by her faithful as she was inconvenient to her superiors.

Ever practical, as well as a fierce advocate for following the spirit of the Chant, regardless of the politics of the time, she faced criticism from peers in the Chantry for choosing the original Tevene text as the basis for her composition. When pressed, she simply answered that if she could find a single translation that fit the original's metre, she would consider it.

In spite of this short-lived controversy (or perhaps because of it), this version became popular especially among those who had need of the litany for practical uses, such as the Mourn Watchers of Nevarra.

The following are two performances of Mother Nicana's Litany of Adralla. One was performed by the lay sisters of the Tantervale Chantry. The other was heard sung in Kirkwall's Lowtown by an initial survivor (presumed to have been a minstrel employed in the Hanged Man tavern) of the catastrophic fallout of Anders' destruction of the Kirkwall Chantry in an attempt to protect himself and several others from the demons that surrounded them.

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[oopsallabominations]

[hollytree33]

Day 3: Yearning

For @dragonagesapphicweek 💖💖

[floralprintsharks]

[ID: a black and white drawing of Morrigan and Tabris from Dragon Age Origins. They're silhouetted by the archdemon. Morrigan cups Tabris' face and leans down to kiss her. Tabris is blighted and her light, curly hair is braided. End ID]

[stonesense]

i think realistically the wardens + orlais + everyone involved did not expect emriel to actually get anything done successfully and if he DOES manage this and save both amaranthine and the keep (which i’m pretty sure he will at this point) then weisshaupt is going to be like oh shit we didn’t realise this was serious and immediately try to replace him with someone they actually want in the job. unfortunately they are underestimating how much this whole thing is only balanced precariously on how much everyone likes emriel specifically

[stonesense]

emriel: okay hey look i know nobody is happy about this news but the new commander has lots of experience so let’s try to give him a good welcome and make the best of it. i’ve been getting a lot of suggestions about [checks notes] barring him from the castle and [checks notes] locking him and bann esmerelle in a room together with a high dragon and [checks notes] okay i’m not reading out oghren’s suggestion in public. but my point is that this is all insubordination and while i appreciate the sentiment, let’s try having open minds and some discipline, because i would really, really love you guys to please not get court-martialled.

sigrun: ooh, honourable death opportunity!

emriel: no.

sigrun: :(

[stonesense]

preliminary thoughts are that witch hunt maybe actually makes sense as a barely relevant wild goose chase to send emriel on to get him out of the way while a new warden-commander tries to establish their authority, and even if that falls apart and either the wardens lose amaranthine or emriel has to get hastily brought back in, it’s too late for anders and justice