Illustrator • 18+ only • 🏳️🌈 • they/it • Dragon Age, soapghost, Arcane, and whatever else piques my interest
for my socials, commissions and more: https://maaagpie.carrd.co/
happy holidays to _chaosservant over on twt! here's my gift to them for the 2025KCDExchange ! thank you to them for providing me with the opportunity to draw more isterik!
Written by: Swan
Illustrated by: magpie and Luinquesse
Rating: Explicit
Content Warnings: Please see the work for complete warnings
Fandom(s): Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Major Pairing(s)/Character(s): Emmrich Volkarin/Lucanis Dellamorte
After being cursed by a Nevarran palace necromancer after an assassination attempt gone wrong, Lucanis and Spite must recover in the Grand Necropolis from wounds both physical and mental, old and new, as they work with Emmrich to untangle the curse and its ties to the mysteriously long-lived King Markus. As they unravel a royal conspiracy, Emmrich and Lucanis' trust and friendship gradually become something more: something worth living for.
More from Swan: AO3 | @veil-song
More from magpie: BlueSky | @maaagpie | Twitter/X
More from Luinquesse: BlueSky | @luinquesse
messing about with sketchy rendering and learning how to draw inception characters today! just an eames to share for now but more soon (it's gonna be dreamhusbands y'all already know)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
The Dragon Age Reverse Bang collection has been revealed! I'm so glad to have gotten the chance to participate by writing a Dorian/Cullen story set during the plot of DATV, inspired by absolutely incredible art by the amazing @maaagpie. The image linked above is only a glimpse at their wonderful piece!
This fic has been such a fun project, the Reverse Bang has been such a great experience with wonderful people, and I can't wait to check out the rest of the pieces from the collection!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
The Dragon Age reverse bang collection was revealed today! Here's a peek at the piece I worked on and the absolutely stellar fic @corvidaerook wrote alongside it! I can't wait for y'all to read this!!
You can check out the rest of the collection here too! Everyone's work is phenomenal please go show them some love!
15% off for new customers, and 20% off for returning customers (please DM me for the correct link if you're a returning customer wanting to order via ko-fi!)
You can check out my carrd for more info, order via google form here, or order with discount via ko-fi here!
A pair of commissions for my lovely friend megalohdon on twt! So, so pleased with how these turned out! I love getting to draw dragon age ocs so much it truly is such an honor every time!!
If you'd like a piece like this, my commissions are 15% off until October 31st! For more information, check out this post!
A pair of commissions for my lovely friend megalohdon on twt! So, so pleased with how these turned out! I love getting to draw dragon age ocs so much it truly is such an honor every time!!
If you'd like a piece like this, my commissions are 15% off until October 31st! For more information, check out this post!
15% off for new customers, and 20% off for returning customers (please DM me for the correct link if you're a returning customer wanting to order via ko-fi!)
You can check out my carrd for more info, order via google form here, or order with discount via ko-fi here!
15% off for new customers, and 20% off for returning customers (please DM me for the correct link if you're a returning customer wanting to order via ko-fi!)
You can check out my carrd for more info, order via google form here, or order with discount via ko-fi here!
The Collaboration period has begun! In these quiet months before works are due, we want to foster a sense of excitement, camaraderie, and celebration among our participants. To that end, all participants were given the option of a formal interview by our mod, Dema, or an informal “ask-game” survey. We hope you enjoy getting to know our phenomenal creators as much as we have!
Area Artist Rambles, Reveals Secret Technique is Overthinking
Magpie and Dema talk anthropomorphic turtle guys, early digital art adoption, and OCs
Dema: In your intro on the DABB server, you mentioned that Dragon Age was what got you into fandom. Can you tell me about that experience?
Magpie: Yeah for sure! So, I played Dragon Age pretty young - I think I was about...14? 15? the first time I managed to actually complete origins. And at the end of the game I was FULL of questions about the plot and lore and ideas for fanart, but I didn't have anyone in real life to talk to about it. So I went online and found groups (mostly on tumblr and deviantart) talking about it, and it was the first time I really realized the... extent, or potential maybe, of what fan communities could look like online. I saw so much cool art and theories and fanfiction that I couldn't help but want to be a part of that myself.
Dema: What was your first piece of fanart?
Magpie: So, this is the funny thing - I was making fanart long before I learnt about online spaces to share it in. I was very much in my own little world with a lot of media I loved for a VERY long time haha. I think my first fanart ever was either.... Inuyasha? or maybe Harry Potter? Or for one of the weird, obscure fantasy books I read as a kid. My first Dragon Age fanart was, I believe, my first ever Warden though. I don't draw her anymore, but she was a favourite subject of mine back in the day.
Dema: Ok you cannot drop "obscure fantasy book you loved as a kid" and not tell me the titles hahaha
Magpie: OH MAN okay so. My dad used to have a HUGE collection of fantasy books, and he'd let me read through them when he figured I could handle the contents. My favourite was a series by Alan Dean Foster called Spellsinger, and they were about this college student that gets plucked out of our world by a turtle sorcerer to come and save this other...dimension? I guess? Except he has no magical abilities and doesn't know what the hell this weird anthropomorphic turtle guy is talking about. He eventually manages to do magic through music (hence the title lol). It’s been ages since I read them and i don't even remember if they're actually GOOD, but I have so many fond memories of them.
Dema: Did you draw the turtle guy??
Magpie: Yeah! there was a whole cast of these anthropomorphic animal people (an otter?? iirc was also a main character) and I drew a lot of them over the years.
Dema: Adorable! So you have been making art since you were a kid, I take it? When did you start your journey with digital art, and what prompted that?
Magpie: I’ve been drawing basically for as long as I could hold a pencil. It's always been my hobby (even though now as an adult it's expanded into much more than that). I started with digital art pretty early - my dad was a really techy guy in the early 2000s, so between him and my older cousins that were already online (on deviantart mostly) and playing a lot of video games, I saw a lot of digital art and was always so fascinated by it. My parents were super supportive of my interests so I think I got my first tablet when I was maybe... 12? I still remember it was one of those little wacom bamboo drawing pads. I had a HELL of a time with it - I've never been very good at drawing on the separate pads compared to paper (and later display tablets), but it still stuck with me even if I never really got good with it.
Dema: Since you were twelve! That is amazing. What do you work on, now? What are your favorite programs to use?
Magpie: In a lot of ways I was really lucky just to have access to it. That was...18 years ago, so REALLY early days for a lot of the tech for ease of access at a hobby level. These days I have a Huion display tablet and and iPad, and I use them interchangeably. I only draw in Clip Studio Paint now, but I still have a soft spot for paint tool sai which was my program of choice for a number of years.
Dema: Niche question but: do you have a favorite brush, and what's it like?
Magpie: I do!!! It's the soft sketch&line (and here’s the link!), and it's SUCH a nice brush. I mostly use it for....well, sketching and lining lol, but it's fantastic. It allows for a really nice variety of line weight and because it's soft (so a little blurry, almost), it forces me to try and not be quite as precise with all of my lines, lets me keep things a little looser. I am.. SUPER prone to wanting things to be perfect and line up just so and redoing lines over and over again to make that happen, so this has really helped me speed up my process and not be so worried about the legibility of every single little detail.
Dema: Perhaps related to that, do you have any tips for digital artists who are trying to improve their art? Or maybe they are even stuck?
Magpie: Yeah absolutely! I love this question because I think about it for myself all the time. When it comes to feeling stuck, the best advice I could give is throw out your process and try something new. You don't need to worry about keeping any of the new things you try, but studies, trying to replicate another artist's workflow that you admire, or even just drawing with a different medium than what's comfortable for you to use is, from my experience, the most consistent way to gain a new perspective on your art. Whether that's just finding what isn't working in the process that comes most naturally to you, or finding a new technique, doing that has been the most helpful thing to me when I'm feeling like something just isn't working.
Dema: Love that! Excellent advice. I cannot let you go without asking some DA questions. I know you said Veilguard and DA2 are currently your favorite games in the franchise. Who did you romance in each of them? What are your OC's like?
Magpie: OH I love talking about my OCs so thank you for this lol. So, with DA2 I play literally default Garrett Hawke and romance Anders. I've had other customized Hawkes before, but regular old Garrett has grown into his own character in my mind and I can't bear to change him when I start the game anymore. He's VERY pro-mage and definitely feeds into Anders's actions (I like to imagine even more than the game lets you roleplay with). He's primarily purple and deeply sarcastic and even though he'd probably think he's a nice guy and cared a whole lot about Kirkwall and the people who live in it, he's mostly just selfish with the exception of like, the 3 people he cares deeply about. With Veilguard, I have 3 that are properly fleshed out. I really need to sit down and write more about them because there's so much I want to say about them but briefly: Leo is my grey warden Rook. He's romanced Davrin and is probably the most stern, no-nonsense of my Rooks. His romance with Davrin is quite sweet because it's basically the two of them learning it's okay to open up and stop… living to die, basically, as most wardens are wont to do. Aven is my crow Rook, and they're a jokester romancing Lucanis. I sort of imagine they're a foil to that traditional crow....dourness? seriousness? and it's a tool they use to disarm marks and acquaintances alike. They're a lot more cunning than most give them credit for at first look. Gideon is my Mourn Watch Rook, and he's my Emmrich romance. I think he's the weirdest of my Rooks - certainly mostly because of the whole Mourn Watch thing - but he's an awkward guy just in general. I think he struggles the most with fitting with the companions because he never really tries to shy away from his nature of creepy skeleton guy. I've been working my way through Veilguard doing same faction romances and it's been quite nice having all the additional dialogue that comes along with them. It's given me a lot to work with for fleshing out both their characters and their romances, I think.
Dema: They all sound so interesting! Thank you for telling me about them. We are a smidge over time so, to close: you may know that last year, the writer interviews featured clickbait titles for the fics. I couldn't think of an artist version of that, then, because clickbait is way harder for art. So INSTEAD, THIS YEAR, I invite you to write a Florida-man-style headline for yourself.
Magpie: Omg that's amazing. I am thinking something liiiike, 'Area Artist Rambles, Reveals Secret Technique is Overthinking'
Dema: Haha perfect! It has been a delight to chat with you today, Magpie!
Magpie: Thank you so much for the questions! It's been quite thought-provoking.
