Heart of Stone

A blog devoted to Dragon Age, RP and Fan Fiction

[itskatdancer-blog]

Fic writing questions!

So reblog this if I can pop into your box and ask you questions about writing (You can probably make a version for art, too). And you can ask them to me if you really want to.

Specify fandom if you want for any of the questions.

1. Which is your favorite of the fics you've written for X fandom?

2. Favorite piece overall?

3. Which was the hardest to write, in terms of plot?

4. Which has the most "you" in it, however you'd define that?

5. What is an image/set of images that you're particularly proud of?

6. Idea that you always wanted to write but could never make work?

7. Least favorite plot point/chapter/moment?

8. Favorite plot point/chapter/moment?

9. Favorite character to write?

10. Favorite line or lines of dialogue that you've written

11. If I'm showing off just one of your pieces to someone, which one should it be?

12. What WIPs do you have going now? Are you excited about them?

13. Are there any things that might have happened in any of your stories, but you changed them at the last minute? (So-and-so dies, they don't actually kiss, main character has long extended ballet-based dream sequence, etc.)

14. Would you want to write canon for any of your fandoms (like be hired by showrunner to do an episode)? Which one?

15. Does font matter to you when you're writing a draft?

16. 3 favorite comments ever received on fanfic.

17. Any mean comments? How'd you deal with it? Who laid the smackdown?

18. If you could go back and revise one of your older stories, which would it be?

19. Do you make up scenes at work/on the bus/at the gym? Who are the characters that pop up the most? Do you write them down?

20. Go nuts, and talk about writing. Or write me a little ficlet-whatsit using a character/image/line I shall now specify:

[lollipopvanity]

"There’s nothing glorious about me."

[durianhedgehog]

The Chantry is an Empire, okay.

Elthina wasn’t a sweet innocent grandmother. She was one of the Empire’s generals. The brothers and sisters and missionaries of the clergy were its soldiers. You can cloud it in as much religious iconography as you want but that doesn’t change the fact. There are lots of generals who want peace and lots of soldiers who want absolutely nothing to do with actual physical fighting, who care about helping people. But if they go into their position completely deluded about the reality of what it is, that doesn’t make them innocent. It is wrong to attack people for their religious beliefs. It is not wrong to attack people who are trying to infringe on your rights and manipulate the law for the benefit of their own absolute rule, even if they’re doing it by way of or under guise of practicing their religion. Religion stops being about differences of belief when it starts being backed by military power. The Chantry has had this since day one. They were always free to trample over anyone and anything they wanted and to paint those people in as negative a light as possible to justify their actions. The Chantry has never, once in their entire span of existence, ever been about diplomacy or peace or talking anything out. Ever. The Orlesian Empire and the Chantry have been in each other’s pockets since their inception. There are a whole lot of times where they practically act as a single entity. Orlais pumped a ton of power into the Chantry early on, and it was an incredibly wise investment. Orlais has always been about sucking up as much of Thedas as possible for themselves, and the Chantry learned how to imitate them so well that they eventually even surpassed them. Maybe it’s cynical, but it looks like the places where Orlais really started to falter and fail were the places where they couldn’t rely on the Chantry to come running to help them out by declaring an Exalted March on their enemies. And then even when Orlais lost power, it was still connected enough to the Chantry—and the Chantry’s constantly expanding power—that they never really completely got crushed. If you’re curious about the details, there’s a free quick-and-dirty history lesson under the cut.

Read More

[almaluminescent-deactivated2014]

Dragon Age 30 Day Challenge

(Day 2) Favorite Character

Loghain Mac Tir. 

I won’t lie. During my first play through I killed him, and didn’t regret it for a second.

I was playing the game solely on the surface. I didn’t care about the motivations of, well, anyone really.

Over the course of reading up on the game, after I bought it, I managed to spoil a good part of the ending for myself. It’s a habit that I still cannot manage to break in for any of my fandoms.

What really caught my eye was the idea that I could be Queen. What little kid doesn’t dream of being King or Queen someday? I know I sure did. 

That’s what I set out to do, and I did it.

[Insert period of time during which I became obsessed with Dragon Age fan fiction, over-modding my game, and all things Alistair. I played Dragon Age 2, romanced Anders, and waited on baited breath for a cameo from my favorite cheese-loving King of Ferelden.]

Eventually, though, something changed. I’m not sure what, and I’m not sure when. All I know is I was seeing Thedas in a whole new light.

In fact, I was looking at everything in a whole new light.

Mostly I realized not everything is black and white. The world is a big grey area. 

I also developed an obsession with fictional antagonists (Loki, Zod, etc.). It was the whole tall, dark, and deadly thing.

(My personal DA canon went from what Mass Effect would consider the “Paragon” path to what my headcanons would consider “Renegon”.)

One day I was looking up random pairings on FF.net (before I discovered the ever-glorious AO3) and came across Arsinoe de Blassenville’s “Victory at Ostagar”. After reading about half of that story (I haven’t actually finished it. It’s perpetually on my to-do list.), I started reading up on Loghain. 

Knowing why he made the decisions he made shed yet another whole new light on the whole of Dragon Age: Origins.

The man made mistakes. Big ones. And most Loghain fans I know don’t make excuses for him. They do, however, look at the events surrounding the game from his point of view.

Even if I didn’t like Loghain as a “person” (which I do), his character arc is truly one of the best I’ve ever come across. In anything. Ever. 

I always think of Harvey Dent’s quote: ”You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” when thinking of the Teryn, even though I hate the word “villain”. I much prefer “antagonist”.

So… I think I answered the question the challenge presented (Way after the actual “Day 2”). It became a rant. I apologize. 

[nymny]

This appears to be extracted from my mind, it’s so similar to what happened to me. Almost to the letter. So… I feel you, OP.

[melysandecousland-deactivated20]

My epiphany came after reading the Stolen Throne (writing aside it’s still Maric, Loghain and Rowan!!)  This young kid rises to the occasion, makes a king and bullds a country.  It fleshes out the reasons behind what he does and what he becomes.  I saw him in a new light after that.

Yes antagonist is a much better word.

[heretherebdragons]

Dragon Age place claim for “Unshaken by the Darkness" 

The Fade

The study of the Fade is as old as humankind. For so long as men have dreamed, we have walked its twisting paths, sometimes catching a glimpse of the city at its heart. Always as close as our own thoughts, but impossibly separated from our world.

The Tevinter Imperium once spent vast fortunes of gold, lyrium, and human slaves in an effort to map the terrain of the Fade, an ultimately futile endeavor. Although portions of it belong to powerful spirits, all of the Fade is in constant flux. The Imperium succeeded in finding the disparate and ever-shifting realms of a dozen demon lords, as well as cataloging a few hundred types of spirits, before they were forced to abandon the project.

The relationship of dreamers to the Fade is complex. Even when entering the Fade through the use of lyrium, mortals are not able to control or affect it. The spirits who dwell there, however, can, and as the Chantry teaches us, the great flaw of the spirits is that they have neither imagination nor ambition. They create what they see through their sleeping visitors, building elaborate copies of our cities, people, and events, which, like the reflections in a mirror, ultimately lack context or life of their own. Even the most powerful demons merely plagiarize the worst thoughts and fears of mortals, and build their realms with no other ambition than to taste life.

—From Tranquility and the Role of the Fade in Human Culture, by First Enchanter Josephus.

Bristlecone pine, California Sossusvlei, Namibia Lone tree The Grand Canyon, Arizona Gothic gate Arid landscape Lyrium: calcite under long-wave UV light, Florida The Notorious Tintern Abbey, Wales

[molecularlifesciences]

Top 5 misconceptions about evolution: A guide to demystify the foundation of modern biology.

Version 1.0

Here is an infographic to help inform citizens.  From my experience most people who misunderstand evolution are actually misinformed about what science is and how it operates.  That said, here are five of the biggest barriers faced when one explains evolution - I have faced these and they are documented in the literature.

I hope you can build on my work and improve the communication between the scientists and the public.

Want to do more?  If you want to donate to the cause of science education I suggest the National Center for Science Education http://ncse.com, your local university, or an equivalent organization.  Volunteering at schools and inviting scientists into classrooms are two ways to encourage an informed society.  Attend hearings if school boards start questioning evolution’s role in public curriculum.  Raise a storm if anyone tries to ban science.  Plus, it never hurts to reblog a well made evolution post. Thank you followers for all your support! Love,  molecularlifesciences.tumblr.com

[heretherebdragons]

This is EXCELLENT. And if any of my followers ever have questions about this material, please feel free to ask me. I’ve got a pretty decent background in evolutionary biology, so if something is confusing, let me know, and I’ll try and explain it another way. But really, this infographic is excellent. 

One thing I would add is that evolution is not just something we have guessed at, based on ancient fossils. We can WATCH it happening in real time - that’s why you need to get a flu shot every year, because the flu virus has EVOLVED in the meantime, in an attempt to overcome our immune system’s defenses. It’s the same with the common cold, as well. Evolution happens. That is not in question. Our ideas about HOW it happens may shift over time, but not the fact of it. 

[itskatdancer-blog]

OMG Yes, thank you, thank you, THANK you.

[biowarefangirlism]

the sum of us

[lesbeast]

leave kudos to fanfiction writers. bookmark their fics. give them reviews. let them know you enjoyed reading their fic. its really important do it

[schnickledooger]

#we don’t get a lot of responses like fanart does#because creators don’t reblog or tweet about our stuff for legal reasons#and we get a lot of shit for being ‘not real writing’#so nice comments help a ton

(via justplainsomething)

[itskatdancer-blog]

30 Days of Character Development

10. Is there an animal you equate with your character?

I see Risa as a wolf.  Most people see wolves as dangerous, violent loners.  In truth, they are shy of humans but amongst themselves gregarious, social animals, doing best knowing their place in the pack.  They are loyal and can be fearsome in defense of those they love.

[itskatdancer-blog]

30 Days of Character Development

9.         Can you define a turning point in your character’s life? Multiples are acceptable.

Trian’s murder, Risa’s being framed and subsequent exile without even being allowed to speak in her own defense was a major turning point in her life.  Up until this point, she felt very secure about who she was and what her place in the world was; when she suddenly went from admired to reviled, she was knocked for a loop.  She never expected that she would be exiled to the Deep Roads – a death sentence – without so much as a word from her father.  That was the first fracture in her self-esteem.

The second was when her lover, Gorim, who had sworn to wait for her in Denerim was in fact there – but had married and had a child on the way.  Risa was devastated to hear his reasoning: it could never work out because she was a princess and he a mere warrior – because on the surface, they were both casteless.  Added into that mess was that Gorim handed her the Aeducan shield and a note from her father – saying he had not allowed an investigation into what he knew was her innocence because of the scandal it would have caused and begging her forgiveness – and the news that her father was dead.

Each successive failed relationship has left Risa convinced that there is something fundamentally wrong with her, and that she is cursed never to be happy in love.  She is therefore cautious about getting involved with anyone, because the pain of being abandoned yet again is too much to bear.

[itskatdancer-blog]

PSA: risaaeducan.tumblr.com is now my RP blog

I decided to separate them to make it easier to keep track of my RPs.  If you were RPing with Risa on this blog, please be aware you’ll be getting responses from the ExiledPrincessofOrzammar.

Thanks.

[persephonechiara-archive-deacti]

Take a look at him there.

What do you see?

I’ll tell you what I see. I see someone deeply troubled, consumed by self loathing, guilt and regrets spiraling further down as time progresses and circumstances beyond anyone’s control are weighing him down bit by bit until he almost snaps.

This isn’t the expression of an evil being determined to make a power grab.

This is a man staring into the abyss and what he sees terrifies him to the core.

[itskatdancer-blog]

He made what he judged to be the best in a sea of bad decisions, knowing that the decisions he made were horrible, but in his view, necessary.  And because he did not know one crucial bit of knowledge -- that Wardens were absolutely necessary to ending the blight, he very nearly destroyed everything he loved.

A very flawed, very wrong, very human man. 

[frikadeller]

love and hugs for all of you <3

[itskatdancer-blog]

PSA: risaaeducan.tumblr.com is now my RP blog

I decided to separate them to make it easier to keep track of my RPs.  If you were RPing with Risa on this blog, please be aware you’ll be getting responses from the ExiledPrincessofOrzammar.

Thanks.

[itskatdancer-blog]

PSA: risaaeducan.tumblr.com is now my RP blog

I decided to separate them to make it easier to keep track of my RPs.  If you were RPing with Risa on this blog, please be aware you’ll be getting responses from the ExiledPrincessofOrzammar.

Thanks.

[itskatdancer-blog]

PSA: risaaeducan.tumblr.com is now my RP blog

I decided to separate them to make it easier to keep track of my RPs.  If you were RPing with Risa on this blog, please be aware you’ll be getting responses from the ExiledPrincessofOrzammar.

Thanks.

[itskatdancer-blog]

PSA: risaaeducan.tumblr.com is now my RP blog

I decided to separate them to make it easier to keep track of my RPs.  If you were RPing with Risa on this blog, please be aware you’ll be getting responses from the ExiledPrincessofOrzammar.

Thanks.