Started as a meme ended up as a DA OCs line-up so I guess here are my boys (no Rook cause I haven't played VG yet)
I will make a more in-depth introduction for each of them later, this is sort of a baseline for them. Age is listed at the start of each game. Tags as followed:
#oc: aulathar surana
#garrett hawke
#oc: corellion lavellan (character sheet №1)
Also here's a meme that started it all:
More pic variations and lore under the cut
Aulathar Surana (he/they) — Aul [əl] for friends
Sweetest, kindest, most innocent accidental troublemaker you ever find. Can end up doing something very illegal and morally questionable just because someone said it would help them dearly, like helping a blood mage destroy their phylactery (looking at you, Jowan) or running an underground criminal organization. Probably one of the reasons he fell in love with Morrigan so quickly and irreversibly.
He is quite naive, full of self guilt and very susceptible to indoctrination. Hence growing up in a Circle made him andrastian and a devout believer in Circle's cause. To the point where he would rather face his punishment for helping Jowan than become a Grey Warden willingly. Duncan had to invoke the Right of Conscription to save him from his own stupidity and this was the freedom Aulathar didn't know he needed.
Doesn't talk much and passive in general because he's used to being bullied by others in the Circle, but becoming a Warden pushed him to stand up if not for himself then for those in need.
Irving was always like a father figure to him and Aul did everything to try and impress and please him, completely oblivious that it will be the very reason for Jowan, his best and only friend, to become a blood mage. They were like brothers since day one and even after everything Aul would do anything for him. Which is what, in turn, opened Aul's eyes to how bad Circles actually are.
By the end of the Blight he was so done with the world's BS (it's his first year out in the world, he didn't really expect everything to be so dire) that all he wanted was to find Morrigan and hide in the deepest corner of Thedas, but the world yet again kept falling apart. So he begrudgingly followed through with his duties, founded the most chaotic replacement group and finally ran away with his love and son into the sunset, hoping someone else will fill in his spot while he, for the first time in his life, lives.
Garrett Harwell Hawke (he/him)
The most chaotic and unserious disaster bisexual. In reality he spent his whole life doing everything and anything to protect his family, to provide for a better life, never feeling enough and always guilty for being born a mage, even though his father taught him it is a gift. So finding out Malcolm wished for his children to never be mages hit him like a ton of bricks.
Despite how close he was with his family Garrett always suffered from abandonment issues, afraid he's too much of a burden or just too much for someone to deal with. Part of the reason he never let himself get close to anyone.
Prone to anxiety attacks because he constantly feels responsible for everyone around him and not knowing if he can actually protect them. Every loss he considers to be his fault regardless of whether or not it is true.
Hides behind jokes so noone would see that not knowing what to do actually scares him or that years of being responsible for his family left him not understanding who he is or what he wants and without any plans for his own future. Only in Kirkwall, finding genuine friends and slowly falling for Anders(despite his best efforts not to and his own obliviousness to it at first) is what let him dream of at least some things in life just for himself.
Corellion Lavellan (he/him)
Oh boy do I have a lot to say about him.... His only memories of his parents haunt him in some of his numerous everyday nightmares. Most of the time he's not even sure which ones are real and which are just twisted versions of his mind. He lost both of them when he was six, it traumatized him to the point of forgetting that dreadful day. Next thing he remembers is stumbling on some dalish hunters in the woods, who turned out to be a part of his future new family – clan Lavellan.
To others he seems like the very stereotypical angry and quick to fighting dalish elf they warn you about. Which he is, but only to strangers(regardless of race, my boy is just always angry) and especially to people who treat others unfairly. Has a very strong sense of justice and not afraid to use all available options even if dangerous and reckless to achieve it.
Has a 'kick first, talk later' kind of mind because he's been in a survival mode his whole life. And as a result has a very quick temper which made it hard for him to fully bond with his clan, even though he loves them dearly. From his point this was also the reason he wasn't made First but Second and thought sending him to the Conclave was because he was a disposable mage of the clan.
Behind all this anger is a completely different person — very kind, caring, loyal and frankly funny, silly little guy fighting to be better and not let the worst part define him. Imagine the most elvhen elf there is, that would be him: elvhen history and magic nerd(although would never admit to being a nerd, but Dorian saw right through him), has been planning his vallaslin for years since learning about it as a kid, set on finding every little piece of old history and lore, absolutely LOVES learning new and different ways of magic and about other cultures. He is always loudly, proudly, unapologetically himself.
Becoming inquisitor was both a gift and a curse, but if he finds courage(or lack thereof, depends on how you look at it) to admit it, most of the time it is a curse and he would give anything to just get rid of that part of him, but he can't ever do that. So he has to use all that power to make a better future for the People, so all his suffering would be worth it, so his life would be worth something for once.
What the fuck? How do you get up there? What's the point of a big ass bridge if you can't even get to it?
It's not even a lack of accessibility, that's negative accessibility atp
There isn't even a road visible and even if there was, the gate is too high up. How did they get all the animals and equipment to Skyhold??? Sorcery, istg
And then they say "ally with the Templars" GIRL you won't even survive Skyhold if you join up with templars, you legit need some proper magic to just access Skyhold 💀
I mean, none of this is wrong, but I do know a cool thing about doors/gates being halfway up a wall which everyone now has to sit through (or scroll past, I guess, but please grab some tea and stay - I think it's cool!)
Anyway, on that note, welcome to Castle Fraser. It's in the North East bit of Scotland. Image from here
I did the below diagram in the mighty graphics program of MS Paint, so you might want to brace yourselves for its awesomeness...
You braced?
So that very precise big blue square? That's the original tower. Loads of Scottish castles start out this way - a big square lump in the landscape with other bits added on over the centuries.
That red square, though? That's the interesting bit.
It's the original doorway. It would have been accessible via a wooden staircase. If the old tower (or 'auld tour', if you're being Scots about it) had come under attack, residents would have just burned the wooden stairs and waited out the siege.*
I'm not saying that's why Skyhold has going on - goodness knows what that's about - but there is precedence IRL for high-up doors in buildings likely to see combat.
Other cool things you might be able to see from this picture: there are no low windows on the auld tour - that's to stop folk from trying to climb in that way. There are some arrow slits (I think - it's been an age since I was in that neck of the woods... a Dragon Age if you will 😉) but the lower floors would have been used for storage. When you get high up enough for accommodation, the windows get bigger to let in light. They're still not big though, for actual windows that might be useful, you have to look at the newer parts of the castle.
Anyways, I just think it's cool to see tower-defense strategies that aren't just moat or motte & bailey related - that tends to be most of what we see in fantasy. And like, the Scottish tower houses are still from the same neck-of-the-woods as these other structures - it'd be nice to see what the rest of the world outside of Europe was doing for defense at this time.
Anyways... yay castles? Maybe knowing this can help suspend disbelief a little at the stupid Skyold gate?
__
*Because archaeology, a lot of people argue over this, stating that residents wouldn't have had any water, given that wells are generally outside of buildings at this point, but I would say that... have you ever been in Scotland? Shove some barrels on the roof and you could drink for months because R A I N. Sooooo much rain omg.
I'm not sure if wooden stairs would make sense at the gate to the bridge (cause carts and stuff) but something like a wooden ramp that they could also burn down in case of siege is an amazing concept!
Thank you for the history lesson! I fucking love Scottish castles and now thanks to you Skyhold is a Scottish castle in my mind fkjgdkkg
(also as a side note: I did rummage through my art book and didn't find a mention of a lift or other mechanism BUT early concepts of Skyhold DID have a road to the gate. idk what went wrong lmao)
Still in the trenches, still trying to draw without line.... btw wish me luck in drawing Corellion's body vallaslin, I made a guy who hates shirts have the biggest amount of tattoos cause apparently I hate myself or smth
What the fuck? How do you get up there? What's the point of a big ass bridge if you can't even get to it?
It's not even a lack of accessibility, that's negative accessibility atp
There isn't even a road visible and even if there was, the gate is too high up. How did they get all the animals and equipment to Skyhold??? Sorcery, istg
And then they say "ally with the Templars" GIRL you won't even survive Skyhold if you join up with templars, you legit need some proper magic to just access Skyhold 💀
I present you with Garrett "obsessed with his boyfriend" Hawke:
But really, this man is so obsessed with Anders he can't spend 5 seconds without mentioning him even tho no one asked
Case in point:
Inq: Hey so apparantely Varric's been talking about me, what was he saying?
Hawke: Oh, you know, the usual.. that you're gonna fix my boyfriend's mess (his Varric impression was hilarious lmao)
Inq: ok.... what were you doing after Kirkwall?
Hawke: so me and my boyfriend -> we thought ... -> ... to hunt for us. -> We helped ...
They're married atp in my mind, like come on
Inq: So where's your family at this trying time?
Hawke: well I had my friend kidnap my brother but that's not the point, MY BOYFRIEND THO, I'm worried about him, I don't ever leave him alone and now I'm anxious
He's been away from him for 5 SECONDS and can't shut up about him and has to mention him every other sentence or he'll explode
Anyone: wha—
Hawke: ya know MY BOYFRIEND—
I get it, me too, Hawke, me too....
And then yeah, one actual question about Anders and I bet he's been rehearsing that speech let me tell ya. Defending his boyfriend anytime someone asks about him, it's like an instinct for him after so many years
I'm eating up those DAI Handers crumbs like it's oxygen and I desperately need more
Drawing almost every Dragon Age character — Part 21, Nathaniel Howe
Out of all available Dragon Age DLCs the Awakening is my second favourite after Jaws of Hakkon and that is mostly due to the amazing companions we get. Each and every one of them is perfect in their own way to the point that this dlc made me truly connect with dao and my Warden the way the main game couldn't. I wish we had a whole game with them and not just one DLC.
Nathaniel Howe, my beautiful grumpy boy, has never left my party since the moment I found him. That man singlehandedly clearing his family name by just existing and being an honorable man that he is.
Thank you @chalkituptofate for an ask, I had a blast drawing Nate!
I just pored over all of your DA portraits! If you drew Nathaniel Howe I would love you FOREVER (but no pressure; I already will because of your tags on Carver and Bethany 😭)
Glad you enjoyed! I love Hawke siblings to bits!
I haven't drawn Nathaniel yet but dw he's on my list😈 Awakening companions have a very special place in my heart so I wouldn't miss the opportunity to draw all of them at least once (but probably more cause they're all my pookies)
I don't know when I'll draw him tho, cause I have some work related stuff keeping me from drawing rn, but since you asked he will definitely move up to be the next on my dao list. Probably somewhere around next week I'll have some free time and I could tag you in the post if you want!
Drawing almost every Dragon Age character — Part 20, Anders
My love, my heart, my rebellious troublemaker. No words could describe how much I adore Anders so I'll just leave it at that
Previous parts
(i've finished drawing da2 characters for this mini series, these were all i had on my da2 list, if you want me to draw someone else feel free to shoot me an ask! for now next will be dao characters or something else entierly, still da related tho)
Drawing almost every Dragon Age character — Part 17, Isabela
Gorgeous, stunning, beautiful woman, no other words necessary. One of my faves in da2. Romanced her first and truly her support after Leandra's death was what got my Hawke (and myself) through it. For a person who doesn't do feelings and emotions she's sure as hell pretty good at those when it counts
Drawing almost every Dragon Age character — Part 15, Merrill Sabrae
Merrill, my love, you deserve the world😭 She is the sweetest, most wonderful person out there. All she ever wanted to do is to help her people and find Tamlen. Every Keeper and their First bear an immense weight of their people's legacy and future on their shoulders. And Merrill felt like giving in to blood magic was worth it for her people, fr Tamlen.
After all the horrors: almost loosing hope for her and her people's future, a sense of self at some point, loosing Tamlen and Marethari, getting treated like a child or a demon, despite that she's still the same sunshine, ball of hope for better days. Still compassionate, willing to help and believes in second chances for people like Anders, because she knows what it's like to feel powerless in the face of cruel injustices, to try your best to help instead ending up making things worse one way or another.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 16
