THE ONLY WAY OUT IS TO GIVE IN

multifandom + writing sideblog for @trismegistuwus! cheyenne, 28, F, US, kinning the dark urge A Reasonable Amount

[leofwines-deactivated20250831]

affirmations: you are not real, you don’t have feelings, you don’t want anything, this will be over soon

[unknown-mel]

The Hierarchy

(Finally done with this one. No way. Did I ever mention how much i love this evil sucker?!?)

[v-arbellanaris]

lmaooooo that post really got me thinking. because tranquility is the most compelling argument against the circles, dai completely skips over them and paints circle mages as the ones abusing the tranquil which is just… so fucking insane

the first tranquil mage you meet is in redcliffe and he’ll tell you that the tevinter mages have kicked out the tranquil and asks to go with the inquisition because they can be useful. which makes no sense because literally in the same part of the game you can find a bunch of tranquil skulls in a shed, because the venatori have been killing the tranquil. you get commentary from EVERYONE about how the circle mages abandoned the tranquil. you talk to minaeve in haven and she implies that the mages somehow didn’t see the tranquil as people and that’s a fault of the mages themselves.

like… who made the rite of tranquility? who lobotomised them in the first fucking place and then USED THEM to handle lyrium to make money for the circle??? who displays tranquil mages all around the circle to remind mages of what will happen to them if they disobey?? WHO USES THE RITE OF TRANQUILITY AS A PUNITIVE MEASURE AGAINST MAGES??? the chantry and the templars themselves level the tranquil as a threat and use them as things but somehow it’s the circle mages’ fault that the tranquil were killed off??? whose fault is it that the mages fear and are uncomfortable with the tranquil?? who DESIGNED it that way??? whose purpose does it serve???

and it’s literally the stupidest thing anyway. how did tranquil mages END UP in fucking redcliffe in the first place IF THEY WEREN’T WITH THE MAGE REBELLION??? like??? hello??? tranquil mages HAD FRIENDS in the circle. they had LOVERS in the circle. they were people before the chantry ripped everything away from them and there’s evidence that MAGES ACTUALLY WENT OUT OF THEIR WAY TO BRING THEM OUT OF THE CIRCLE TOO

there’s NO commentary or dialogue or even shock about avexis being made tranquil in dai even tho cassandra is RIGHT THERE and PERSONALLY KNEW avexis. you can make mage prisoners tranquil as a mage inquisitor which is SO fucked up because it’s literally the most horrible thing that could happen to a mage? EVERY SINGLE MAGE, irrespective of personal political beliefs about the circle, fears tranquility??? the only time a mage doesn’t fear it is when they genuinely think the templars will otherwise kill them??? wouldn’t it make more sense for a templar spec inquisitor or an andrastian inquisitor specifically to have that option?? why make it so MAGE inquisitors can do it, like they didn’t grow up with the threat hanging over their heads the entire time they were in the circle AS CHILDREN??

cass’ quest where you find out they always knew how to reverse it and simply … didn’t, essentially permanently lobotomising millions of mages for a thousand years, is less impactful when you don’t understand how horrific tranquility is. finding out they’ve essentially abused the rite to abuse mages and then telling cassandra that actually no, the seekers dont deserve to be rebuilt, the chantry deserves to crumble, generates disapproval! she DISAPPROVES of you disapproving of their abuse of power! and you can’t do ANYTHING about it afterwards! cass just decides to keep it a secret until they can find out more about it… when? how will you find out more if no one else knows the reversal exists? there’s NOTHING about helping the tranquil even as a throwaway line in the epilogue slides! there’s no tranquil walking around discussing it, making note that cassandra approached them or anything like that at all!

there’s just NO real exploration in dai of what the tranquil are – why the rite of tranquility is used (other than the “claims” of it being to “help save mages” who otherwise can’t control their magic), what function the tranquil have in the circle (there’s literally an economic motivation for the chantry and the templars to keep making mages tranquil bc tranquil mages can manipulate lyrium for enchantments), and there’s NO conflicting opinions on the necessity of the rite in the first place and NO REAL TRANQUIL VOICES. the one person who DID have the rite of tranquility used against them punitively in kirkwall ends up working for one of the antagonists!

considering people went into dai for the first time and didn’t have the bg knowledge of tranquility from dao and da2, it’s just so deliberate. the problem, suddenly, isn’t that tranquil mages are made by the chantry and the templars, it’s not even that the rite is used punitively irrespective of whether it should exist or be used at all. the problem, dai argues, is that mages treat tranquil mages badly. that without the circle, the tranquil mages are killed and abused bc they’re vulnerable. as tho tranquil mages are just naturally occurring in nature and not a horrific abuse resulting from the circle in the first place.

[v-arbellanaris]

sorry to jump in on your tags here…

#Thing is you have to remember each game is told from the perspective of those around the main character. A human mage would know for sure ab#but a Dalish might have heard about it but not know much and those they speak to only have their perspective to share

like… yeah, that’s kind of my point. as the PC, who may not know about the rite of tranquility whether that’s the result of the PC’s in-game bg (dalish, qunari, dwarven) or because it’s the player’s first DA game, it’s insane that NO ONE ELSE AROUND YOU has any insight to offer. almost unanimously, they all agree that the deaths of the tranquil at the hands of the venatori are the mage rebellion’s fault. that they like. abandoned the tranquil during the rebellion. at no point does anyone consider it the fault of the templars, who made mages tranquil using the rite and then left them to die when the circles fell despite their apparent “duty” being to take care of mages, or the fault of the chantry, which uses the tranquil to essentially fund their military arm and also uses the potential of the rite as a threat to keep mages in line thereby alienating them from their own mage peers. 

NO ONE disagrees with this opinion, not vivienne, a circle mage who is pro-circle (she believes in reforming the circle but insists on their necessity because mages need a place to study) but templar critical (she thinks templars have their uses and if she’s made divine, she tightens chantry control over the templars which is certainly. A Method. A Choice. but i think it speaks to her views about the “freedoms” and liberties she believes the chantry allows templars over mages, and her shifting that power imbalance using the chantry’s control over templars), and not solas, who is pro-mage and anti-circle. not cassandra who will get angry that the templars shirked their “duty” in COTJ and is touted to be templar/seeker critical, and who even says they should’ve investigated what was going on kirkwall properly. everyone has an opinion on it, but it’s just the same opinion expressed in different words. there aren’t any differing perspectives on it. that’s gotta be deliberate; they (the nebulous out-of-narrative they, the devs or the writers or bioware itself) want you to think a certain way about mages, and the mage rebellion, and so they basically killed off the tranquil and still somehow made it the southern mages’ fault.

you can speak to fiona in skyhold, but not about the tranquil mages. you can speak to leliana, the left hand of the divine who absolutely knows what tranquility is, and she has nothing to say about the tranquil mages. you can speak to cullen but all he’s got to say is that meredith (and only meredith, apparently, because no one else ever abused the rite? because the rite isn’t an abuse in the first place?) would basically use the rite for any small infractions. you can speak to helisma, a tranquil mage, and she says nothing about the tranquil mages. helisma and avexis both display a vague discomfort at the idea of not being tranquil anymore, because it would cause them distress that they were made tranquil in the first place, and that’s just the end of that, then. 

the cure to tranquility is just swept under the rug, because it doesn’t fit the overall theme driving inquisition which is to paint a “grey morality” aspect to the templar v mage “debate”. hard for the issue to be “grey” when one side has literally been lobotomising the other for a thousand years, a procedure which could have been immediately reversible but specifically WASN’T to allow a method of exerting control over this minority, without shedding blood (as ameridan points out), and so that the order (seekers, templars, maybe even the chantry itself? it’s never clear where the money from the circle goes, but it’s clear it’s not to the circle itself) could make money off of tranquil mages handling lyrium to make enchantments.  

#and there should have been more about the tranquil in the game considering the bombshell you find out#i think they might be paid off in the next game though

considering mark darrah’s statements about da4 moving to a more epic-style high fantasy, and away from what they called low, dark fantasy, i actually really, really doubt it. in-game, by now, they’ve had the venatori kill off most, if not all, the tranquil mages (there were tests to try and figure out how to get their skulls to work for the ocularum. i don’t think they got it in 3 tries…). they’ve effectively buried the cure to the rite of tranquility. they’ve done their level best to quell the entire mage v templar issue they built up for over two games by “settling” the dispute in a single arbitrary choice (IHW or COTJ), thereby leaving the unchosen party to die or be enslaved or made into like eldritch monsters to kill on sight. i think they’re moving on from mages v templars because it was undermining their supposed grey morality stance on clear issues of systemic oppression. i don’t expect it to come up at all.

[vonspe]

surface idiom eludes the drow yet again

[sweet-once]

omg. bc my durge canonically defaults to shadowheart if neither are romanced, and has a chance to betray you for gortash or the emperor depending on how low her approval is, ppl would say it's wrong to ship ur oc w her bc it gets in the way of their doomed cultist yuri or act-three-big-bad-villain ships. bc it does <3

[luna-azzurra]

The thing about a good character flaw is that it has to be the same thing as their greatest strength just turned up too high. the person who loves deeply and therefore controls. the person who sees everything and therefore trusts nothing. the person who is so loyal they lose themselves. there are no clean villains and no clean heroes and once you understand that in fiction you can't unsee it in people. everyone is just their best quality at the wrong volume.

[randomthoughtshere24]

Praise Ambition ✨

Did that one reference trend on my instagram but reels are a struggle so here's our godly wizard in all his glory for y'all <3

[whizzer-mp3]

FEEL JUSTICES BURN

[animentality]

Gortash secretly cheering when you tell him you rejected Bhaal because he always wanted you to be free and truly equal with him, and not just a slave to your father's will, he was just too nervous to say it before.

[hangsawoman]

NO LIVE ORGANISM CAN CONTINUE FOR LONG TO EXIST SANELY UNDER CONDITIONS OF ABSOLUTE REALITY EVEN LARKS AND KATYDIDS ARE SUPPOSED BY SOME TO DREAM

[rosella-writes]

The Chant of Light: Writing Prompts

Bitter is sorrow / Ate raw and often, poison that weakens and does not kill.

Heav'n filled with silence, then did I know all / And cross'd my heart with unbearable shame.

Let the blade pass through the flesh, let my blood touch the ground, / Let my cries touch their hearts. Let mine be the last sacrifice.

Come to me, child, and I shall embrace you. / In my arms lies Eternity.

That like the leaves after a long winter, peace too might return to the land.

That peace bore a heavy price which must be paid in blood.

At last, the Light shall shine upon all of creation, / If we are only strong enough to carry it.

Hope abandoned the armies of the faithful / At the sight of their Lady in chains.

From among them voices raised / In threnody for Andraste wreathed in flame.

The heavens wept, and yet no rain could extinguish the flame / Which was now a funeral pyre.

Blessed are they who stand before / The corrupt and the wicked and do not falter.

Blessed are the peacekeepers, the champions of the just.

Blessed are the righteous, the lights in the shadow. / In their blood the Maker's will is written.

The first of the Maker's children watched across the Veil / And grew jealous of the life they could not feel, could not touch.

In blackest envy were the demons born.

And those who slept, the ancient ones, awoke, / For their dreams had been devoured / By a demon that prowled the Fade / As a wolf hunts a herd of deer.

A dog might slink back to the hand it has bitten / And be forgiven, but a slave never.

Let us not fall into the jaws of the wolf together.

No mortal foot could tread those halls, / No hand knocked upon the gate.

No small sacrifice would open the gate.

Yet none could bear that rivals might walk in the Light / Of their gods, when they did not.

Ninety-nine knives gleamed in the firelight / As the sacrifices began.

The legions of dead slaves rose / To the zenith of the black sky.

By blood and lyrium were they drawn / Inexorably to the Unreachable City, / The heart of all creation.

At a touch, the gate swung wide, / And the Light parted before them like a curtain.

Then the Maker heard the distant cries / Of the sacrificed. A chorus of voices beyond counting / Calling out for justice.

Dragons with wicked eyes and wicked hearts, / On blacken'd wings does deceit take flight, / The first of My children, lost to night.

And the Maker in sorrow turned His gaze / And no longer hoped for His children to return.

Their pride refused all measure of blame.

Magic could not undo / What evil had done.

They looked on what pride had wrought, / And despaired.

You have brought Sin to Heaven / And doom upon all the world.

With passion'd breath does the darkness creep. / It is the whisper in the night, the lie upon your sleep.

As the moth sees light and goes toward flame, / She should see fire and go towards Light.

For You are the fire at the heart of the world, / And comfort is only Yours to give.

And though I bear scars beyond counting, nothing / Can break me except Your absence.

In the pounding of my heart / I hear the glory of creation.

We are alike in sorrow, sculptor and clay, / Comforting each other in our art.

I cannot see the path. / Perhaps there is only abyss. / Trembling, I step forward, / In darkness enveloped.

Now her hand is raised / A sword to pierce the sun / With iron shield she defends the faithful / Let chaos be undone

And the stars stood still, the winds did quiet, and all animals of earth and air held their breath.

And the Maker wept for his Beloved, and turned once again from all creation.

Though I walk through the mists on the edge of the void, I shall not fear, for you are with me.

The righteous stand before the darkness and the Maker shall guide their hand.

[rainvri]

girl so confusing

[baldursgateconceptart]

Elder Brain

Concept art for Baldur's Gate 3

Art by Jane Katsubo

[caramelized-creampuff]

The Stairwell of Loss - Sharran Shadowheart Fanart :>

[nokair-noir]

Life of The Dark Urge.

Inspired by lines from Elminster:"Be a moon unto yourself. Even the waves of fate can break upon the shore of will."

[doraingrid]

Shame, such a shame I think I kinda lost myself again

[metal-junk]

“You were not conceived. Bhaal sculpted you from a drop of his own gore. No Bhaalspawn has ever borne the Urge, the holy guarantee of murder. It was woven into your blood alone.”