Syntax Sovereign

SyntaxSovereign delivers structural sovereignty to your manuscript. I specialize in developmental feedback that strengthens narrative architecture: pacing, character authenticity, thematic cohesion, and emotional resonance. My approach is analytical yet empathetic—honoring your voice while refining your story’s foundation. 🔹 Current Focus: Speculative Fiction (SFF, Dark Fantasy), Literary Fiction, Queer & Neurodivergent Narratives (Own Voices prioritized) 🔹 Feedback Includes: Scene-by-scene analysis, character arc mapping, pacing diagnostics, sensitivity notes (where applicable), and actionable revision pathways 🔹 Ethical Practice: Content warnings required in queries. Full boundaries detailed in pinned post (closed to graphic SV, animal harm, hate speech) 🔹 Collaboration: Open to trade beta reads; volunteer capacity reserved for marginalized creators. All queries acknowledged within 72 hours. “Clarity is kindness. Precision is respect.” 📩 To inquire: DM with genre, word count, 1-paragraph synopsis, CWs, and one specific question about your manuscript. Your story deserves sovereignty over its syntax.

[hyperions-light]

The Weekly UpDAte 2/10/2026

Locally

Rook Into Hour: Yesterday + Monday, February 16th

WIP Wednesday Thursday: Thursday, February 12th

biowaredisasterbisexual's Sharing Sundays: Submissions open until Saturday, February 21st

becausedragonage's Reflection Ruesday: Tuesdays

And bda's Imitation Station

pixiedurango's Antivan Postal Service + Rook dates: Always open

hedwigoprah's A Word With Friends (Bellara Week edition!): Wednesdays (but answer whenever!)

woundedsoul12's Thursday Bangers (Bellara Week edition!): Thursdays (answer whenever!)

Greater Thedas

Ongoing/Repeating Events

thedasweekend: Weekends! [Instructions]

dadrunkwriting: Fridays! [Instructions]

Events in Preparatory Stages

Trans Thedas Fest Prompt Submissions: Submissions open until February 14th

Pride's Solace: A Solas Exchange: Sign-ups open until February 22nd

Hanged Man 10k Mini-Bang Signups (Artists): Will open on February 15th

Grey Warden Zine Applications: Open until February 13th

Shadow Dragon Week Prompt Survey

Announcements

Anders Week 2026: March 16th - March 22nd

Bellara Week 2026: March 20th - March 26th (for clarity, this event is not being run by DATVCW.)

Sera Sundays: Will occur on the last Sunday of every month

Currently Happening/Beginning This Week

DATV Companion Weeks' Bellara Week 2026: February 7th - February 13th

Teiago Week 2026: February 8th - February 14th

3rd Love of Dragon Age Event: February 1st - February 14th

Big Bad Templars Fest Creation Period: December 2025 - February 25th, 2026, Posting Starts February 5th

Zine Preorders/Downloads

Dragon Age Terminus Zine: Leftover Sales open until February 14th

Vol 1 of The Thedosian Available Now (free)

World of Thedas Volume 3 Available Now (free)

RARA Avis Zine Available Now (free, optional donation)

The Unexpected SplendAUr Zine Available Now (free)

Wanderers of Thedas Zine Available Now (free)

Faith: A Leliana Zine Preorders Open (digital)

And, of course if you want to know the full scope of everything happening in Thedas, dragonagefanevents is your one-stop shop, including instructions for hosting your own event!

Disclaimer that I'm not affiliated with most of these events! (if you would rather I not mention your event, please contact me.)

[the-garden-of-electric-light]

I.

What do mountains say to mortals that may assuage its impassable cliffs for the enchanted to climb upon? Dare you approach me chin lifted, and lament of your needs? Dare you traverse my treacherous paths which only to your demise doth lead? What say the short-fated to Everest? Whose peak lay in Heaven's only light! Whose soaring cliffs have seen all there is - been all there is - Done wonders only by rising from deepest blue to highest cloud by sheer might! What do mountains say to mortals - NAY! Upon learned privilege does such sentiment rely. What shall mortals say to their mountains but "Be Kind."

[queridogentilleitor]

Entre velas que ardem discretamente nas madrugadas mais silenciosas

e pétalas que já conheceram dias mais gloriosos,

esta autora dedica-se ao delicado ofício

de transformar silêncios inconvenientes

em confissões inevitáveis.

Pois, querido e gentil leitor,

há verdades que jamais suportariam a luz do dia

sem antes vestirem o elegante disfarce da narrativa.

Prossiga, se assim desejar —

mas que o faça com a prudência

de quem sabe que certas palavras

não podem ser “deslidas”.

Com Carinho.

Lady Valmont.

[delicatechrysanthemum]

I don’t think I’ll ever cringe at this.

I don’t think time will make me smaller

for the way I loved you.

I don’t think I’ll feel embarrassed

for reaching for you with my whole heart,

for acting the way people only do

when they mean it.

I don’t think I ever loved before

not like this,

not with the way I loved to love you,

like it was instinct,

like my body recognized yours

before my mind could catch up.

I don’t think I’ll regret this.

No matter how hard I try

to tell myself I was dumb,

too emotional,

too much.

Because I did it out of love.

And love was the truest thing in me.

What you felt for me was real.

I know it was.

I could feel it when you looked at me,

in the space you held open,

in the way your energy softened around mine.

Right person, wrong time

I know it’s true.

Love at first sight

I felt it happen.

I know what passed between us.

I know what I felt in my chest

when you were near.

Even if nothing followed,

even if it ended here

what we felt

was real.

[reverie-quotes]

One day Ilan found her reading Anna Karenina. She saw the ember come alive in his eye. "Every scene of that book is a painting," he said. "Don't read that or it may become a mirror to our own fate. You'll live your life to follow the book—and that book has many victims, by the way." Sonia remembered she must never provoke him with beauty created by others.

— Kiran Desai, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

[craftmausoleum]

I made a more official tutorial on how I created the worm ties for this apple needlebook. Strangely, I didn't find many resources on how to achieve a rounded end when it came to bias tape, so writing down the process felt important. I hate turning tubes inside out!!!!!!!! (this is a very long answer to the question "did you embroider their tiny smiles by hand?" re: @syntaxsovereign)

[fulljudgement]

in currently reading A Good Girls Guide to Murder (enjoying it so far, i’m only a few pages in) but it’s very apparent to me how cheaply made books are nowadays? Like, it’s a paperback copy i have, and the pages are SO thin and flimsy. I feel like books used to be much sturdier??? I borrowed an older copy of Frankenstein from the library, which was an older book, not exactly paperback, not exactly hardcovers, and the pages were thicker and grainy. I miss it ☹️

[rscroix]

Flowers were never fragile to me.

They endure seasons without asking to be remembered.

— r.s.

[bnhaobservation]

You always say how Shouto deserved better treatmenr or love ftom the auhor but what about Touya?

Of course he did, this is kind of a weird ask for me because, not only I also said many times he deserved better but, in general, I always says the whole Todoroki family deserved better treatment and more love, especially considering ultimately they all ended up on having a bigger role than other characters and yet... it didn't seem to matter much.

If I were to consider all the Todorokis as equal in importance, Rei is the one who has it ABSOLUTELY worse than everyone else, Horikoshi and Bones handling her like a mob character who just exists to serve for other characters and doesn't even deserve a profile or an internal exploration.

However there are priorities in a story in regard to how to handle the characters.

Shouto is the most important character of the Todoroki family so, by default, he deserved the best handling possible and he didn't get it. This is a very sore spot in the narrative as a whole.

However the poor handling of Touya is also a sore spot.

I've said it many times already and I could still write plenty of pages about how his handling (and the handling of the whole League because Touya, more than in the poor handling of the Todoroki family, likely falls in the poor handling of Villains in general) was overall poor and this is bad also in terms of narrative because even if the Villains aren't as important as the Heroes as character, they are important in terms of the theme of the story.

I get annoyed each time I hear the new theme for the final season saying "The day has come" and the visual tries to delude me into thinking the day has come that Midoriya will save Tomura and instead the day has come that Midoriya will murder him and this is still meant to be a hopeful story about saving.

It's not really good writing when a reader spent so much time praying for a character to survive and then I watch Touya's fate and think 'maybe it was more human to let him die in chap 390' but of course Horikoshi had to keep him alive, because he had failed to have Touya and Shouto connect and so he desperately need Touya to be alive for the soba brothers scene which he had thought last minute because he didn't really care about it to exist.

In a way, the fact that each member as a whole deserved better but didn't get it, influenced the characters arc of them all so that they all got less than what they deserved even because the others' got less.

As fans many of us are grasping at straws and making desperate attempts at connecting and smoothering the narrative so that it would work better and writing genuinely good pieces that, in all honesty, I don't think Horikoshi even considered.

The Soba brothers and their family deserved better, it's not really a race about who of them got worse, and the fact that some had it worse doesn't make the handling of the others good, in the end each of them was done dirty and I don't get why since they are awesome characters with plenty of potential and fans who wanted to read more about them.

I mean if they were to release a spin off solely about the Todoroki family, their past, present and future I would totally buy it!

But whatever, that's it. Maybe Horikoshi was just too tired.

I hope this answers your ask!

[youhatemymusic]

i just finished babel i liked it more than i thought i would. however i did feel like it maybe didnt need to be that long. the characters were a little flat for me, maybe because robin is the narrator 95% of the time. and i felt like the auhor was just telling us how great of friends they were instead of showing us with your words, thats what i mean like the length couldve been utilized better.

[negativ00]

[negativ00]

[craftmausoleum]

Would you still love me…if I was a worm…?

[changingplumbob]

Layla: It sounds like you have a good plan. What do you need from me?

Daniela: Your fame and influence. I want it to mainly be an eco friendly thing. Once kids have used their prom dress that they won’t wear again they can return it rather than leave it in the back of their closet. Plus the next season other kids can use it. But we will need semi regular new stock of formal wear to make up for ones that get sold

Layla: You want me to talk to the fashion houses? Get a discount?

Daniela: Not a discount, I wouldn’t want them shouldering the cost, but if they can sell us their leftovers from the season at cost...

Layla: Leave it to me. Several already send me free samples hoping I’ll wear them to a book signing. I think some of them will want to donate their spares just for the good press

[zackprincebooks]

Adorian is a god of Neonia; specifically the god of love in all of its forms. Despite his wide reach and popular temples, he has very few devotees--mostly because he's not a "fun" god to be a paladin of. Adorian has very little martial talent, but he's got a lot of clerics who champion compassion and volunteerism.

As a god of love, Adorian's mythology has been long and storied. The moment love existed in the world, Adorian existed. But gods are shaped by the minds of their followers, and Adorian was initially a female god of love.

He was never comfortable with this appearance, and despite attempts to nudge his followers towards a more male depiction, it never came to fruition. Adorian decided this required a more direct approach, and so sought out the gods of medicine. With scalpels of diamond and gold, they reshaped Adorian's body to his liking.

Those tools hang in the Day Dream Quarters, Adorian's home temple. The procedure became common among other gods who wished to shape their appearance as it cannot be altered by their devotees' depictions.

Adorian keeps many lovers among his courtiers, and some of his clerics enter into a spiritual marriage with him as part of their vows.

[rad-travels]

How do you become a good writer?

You write. A lot. You read even more: across genres, seeking opposite and contrary perspectives, selecting delectable morsels of prose to generate a sense of authorary self, what some call your “voice” - even when you know the word count of your fingers far outweighs that of your mouth.

You explore careers for those that excelled at reading or writing, which quite opens more doors than one would think. You consider the doors and the root of the allegory you liken them to. You open one and close even more.

You keep writing, technical, consumer-centric, you write grants and computer hardware manuals, short stories, journal entries, blog posts, you dig into each new blank page with a soldiers mindset and march on through the chapters and years.

Your Grandpa falls ill and you’re the one to be championed for keeping a medical update blog on his progress. You resent writing, you keep doing it anyways.

You continue to be your biggest critic, and spend occasional evenings rereading your old work and feeling. You write, you read, you feel. A vicious cycle.

But you read some really good books, and reread the occasional self-made piece or paragraph that you are actually a tiny bit proud of.

You write, and write some more, and keep reading.

Your hands grow old, they are not so reliable anymore, shaking when you pour tea and aching with the cold weather. You write anyways. These days it’s just a daily journal of the going-ons, grocery lists, the occasional birthday card for a grandchild.

You look back on your life’s work: a collection of journals, childhood through old age; pages and pages of grants proposals that resulted in funding for nonprofits that continue to do good in the world; two books; obituaries for loved ones; copious copies of recipes that fed your family time and time again; itineraries for trips; manuals instructing one to do everything from tuning a piano to installing antivirus protection on your laptop; blog posts you’re proud of; blog posts you wish you could bring yourself to delete; poetry.; to do lists; reminders; opinion pieces on favorite movies and plays; descriptions of art that moved you and why — your bible, your manifesto, your autobiography.

[vomitingmynotesapppoetry]

Flashback

Remembering is a fog

Panic goes numb

The scenes themselves fuzzy

Zone out, people look at me funny

I tried for years to lie to myself too

Live in another reality

In that one there, he never touched me

Never leered and pried apart small limbs

To hidden places

Never crept in

Made drunken faces

There he kept hands away

From a growing child

Tasked with chores

I ask myself

Is there a way

I could forget more?