Black Emporium is a rare pair exchange that encompasses everything Dragon Age – provided they have less than 300* completed works on Ao3. Whether you’ve been a fan since the beginning or got in to it via Veilguard– whether you write snappy dialogue or draw detailed scenery – we want YOU to participate!
*Except for Rook; see our post about how we're handling that!
2025 Schedule
All deadlines are as of 9 AM US Pacific / 12 PM US Eastern / 4 PM UTC+0.
Nominations: June 24 - July 1
Signups: July 1 - July 13
Assignments Go Out: When mods are done matching (probably sometime on July 14th)
Now that authors are revealed, I can share the fics I wrote for the Black Emporium Exchange ( @black-emporium-exchange )! BE is a rare pair exchange, so all fanworks have to be for ships with less than 300 works on AO3 (<500 works and other restrictions on Rook ships). I had so much fun writing for this exchange and ended up at around 13.6k written after a long period of not being able to write anything. I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoyed writing them!
Nine Bells
Link
Ship: Connor Guerrin/NB Treveylan || Rating: E || Words: ~9k
Minsu never really fit in while at Ostwick Circle. But when a strange Ferelden boy gets transferred to the Ostwick Circle, everything they thought they knew got turned upside down.
The best friends to lovers fic you didn't know you needed. Circle politics and mage-templar dynamics in a Korean-inspired Ostwick!
I'll Bleed Out For You
Link
Ship: Krem/Lace || Rating: T || Words: ~680
Krem's trapped in the infirmary after a battle gone wrong, so he asked Lace what really happened.
Battle couple, where both Krem and Lace get to be badasses. And they're in love <3
Take the Reins
Link
Ship: Viago/F Human de Riva || Rating: E || Words: ~1.1k
Taking a contract after saving the Veil was just as miserable as she remembered. Time to fuck Viago about it.
I had SO much fun writing this. I borrowed @crabs-with-sticks 's Electra de Riva and she got to femdom Viago within inches of his life. This fic is about Electra's pleasure and making Viago very pathetic.
Bet You've Never Had a Lover Like Me
Link
Ship: Tarquin/M Elf Mercar || Rating: T || Words: ~470
Koba took Tarquin on a date, but the lug can't seem to get it through his head that Mercar actually likes him.
Tarquin needs to be romanced by a goofy little guy, so Koba Mercar takes this grump on a date! Short, sweet, fluffy!
For the First Light
Link
Ship: F Amell/Jowan || Rating: G || Words: ~1.2k
Yva Amell has been imprisoned in Redcliffe, waiting to eventually die. But then an old friend shows up and helps break her out.
Role swap AU! World's soggiest warden (Jowan) and a scheming blood mage finally get reunited after so long apart from each other.
of fatal flaws and vices
Link
Ship: Nathaniel/Sebastian || Rating: M || Words: ~250
nathaniel was bad for a chantry-reformed sebastian and his new partner hawke. really, really bad.
Hawke awoke some sexual tension within Sebastian so it's time for Seb to make some very bad decisions. A messy ficlet for my special boys.
Ariadne's Apology
Link
Ship: Josephine/F Trevelyan || Rating: E || Words: 850
After duelling Otranto, Ariadne has an apology to make. Josephine has some ideas about how it should go.
Look. Last year I treated someone and created Ariadne Trevelyan. I love her so much. However, I never wrote the smut scene for frocks, frills, and thrills. So here it is. Oral for my queen <3.
I had so much fun this year! I can't wait for next year.
This was my first time participating in a fic exchange and it was a fun experience! But more importantly: the rarepair food. As someone who usually has about 1 fic a month to read at best, I've been feasting, kudoing, and commenting all day and wanted to rec some of my faves so far (and I'm only halfway through my open tabs)
"Leave a Light On", Neve/Rana and Bellara/Irelin. Delicious end to end but special shout out to the comedy of Irelin and Rana struggling to act normal after being left alone together in a Minrathous gay bar lol
"sweet dreams are made of these", Erlina/Anora. The most important thing about an elven servant x blonde southern regent ship is that the elf is delusional and the regent is ignorant, but... the love...
"Exalted In the Scene", Charter/Tessa. SO sexy and romantic and has bumped these two up my schedule of ships to be insane about
"For A Day", Krem/Bethany. Great execution of a trope fic (in this case, fake dating and only-one-bed) where the trope serves the scenario perfectly.
"All Souls", Female Hawke/Aveline. More like All Feels and strikes at the very heart of DA2, on top of the heart of Aveline and Hawke.
"With these hands", Isabela/Shathann. Canon To Me, and suits the characters so well.
"Safer With You", Lysette/Minaeve. Two women who've lost their footing in the world, finding a new way to be (pre-)together
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
This was written as part of the 2025 Black Emporium Rare Pair Exchange!
Rated: E
Word Count: 6,200
Primary Ship/Characters: Johanna Hezenkoss/Shathann
Summary: Shathann is sent to attend a meeting of the minds in Rivain. Johanna Hezenkoss is there to remind everyone how much smarter she is. Unfortunately, Shathann has read her writings and has no problem telling Johanna how wrong she was.
What starts as an argument does not always stay as one.
Yes sweet nuglets, it’s that time of year again: Time to sign up for Black Emporium!
CLICK HERE TO SIGN-UP!
↳ Helpful Links:
Rules & Assignment Requirements || Participation Walkthrough Guide || FAQ || Requests on Ao3 || Tagset || Nominations Spreadsheet || Request Database || Parent Collection (All Past Years)
Signups end: July 13th 12th @ 9 AM US Pacific / 12 PM US Eastern / 4 PM UTC+0 || Countdown
↳ Reminders
RULES & ASSIGNMENT REQUIREMENTS: Please take the time to re-read our Rules and the requirements for assignments before signing up.
RATINGS: If you are interested in receiving or creating Mature/Explicit level works (see Ao3 rating(s)), you must "opt in" by checking the "E" box for both offers and requests. Please note you must be 18+ to offer/request/create Mature or Explicit level gifts. For a more detailed explanation, click here.
TREATS: If you are open to receiving treats, or a specific type of treat (single-recipient, multi-recipient, fanart, fanfic), you must "opt in" by saying so in the sign up description box. This field does not apply to your offers. For a more detailed explanation, click here.
"OTHER ROOKS": Because there are so many different options for Rook, we are allowing participants to opt-in to a wider range via the Optional Details box so long as they'd be considered eligible. For a more detailed explanation, click here.
For a how-to-guide of the whole exchange that includes all of the information in this post, please take a look at our Participation Walkthrough Guide and FAQ.
DETAILED STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO SIGN-UPS BELOW THE CUT:
1. SIGN IN TO AO3
If you don’t have an Ao3 account, contact the mods for help!
2. GO TO THE BLACK EMPORIUM SIGNUP FIELD (LINK)
3. SCROLL TO THE “REQUESTS” FIELD
Once nominations are finished, you'll be able to sign up. In your sign-up, you'll specify the works you'd like to receive and the works you're willing to create. (They do not necessarily have to be the same!)
You must fill out at least three requests and three offers. You may only select each pairing once, but may give multiple ideas per pairing in your prompt.
If you are interested in receiving Mature- or Explicit-rated works, you must be at least 18 years old and opt-in by checking the appropriate box ("E"); this is not a guarantee you will receive a higher level.
You will have to fill out several fields on the sign-up form:
↳ Relationships
Here you can write in the relationships that you wish to request. As long as it is part of the tag set/eligible nominated pairings, it should be able to be selected here.
If your chosen relationship is in the tag-set but isn't auto-completing, this is unfortunately a bug on AO3's end that we cannot fix -- but if you copy and paste your relationship from the tag-set into this field, you should be able to submit. (Please contact moderators via email at [email protected] if you get an error and let us know what the error was.)
You may list between 1-3 pairings in the same Request field. That does not (necessarily) mean you want all three ships in the same fanwork. We allow multiple pairings in the same Request Field because it allows participants to request up to 30 unique pairings, rather than just 10. Some people group thematically, or by character.
Example of someone requesting three, non-connected pairings. The participant here loosely grouped their "platonic" ships together into one Request Field.
Example of someone requesting a pairing.
↳ Additional Tags
This field is to mark if you're open to receiving fanfiction, fanart, or both (check both boxes), for this request.
Example of someone requesting ONLY fanart for any pairings listed in this Request field.
↳ Ratings (Requests)
If you are open to receiving Mature- or Explicit-rated works, please check the box to indicate your interest. We use the AO3 ratings guide as far as judging what each rating entails.
Any participant under 18 should NOT indicate interest in M or E works, as those are intended for 18+ audiences only.
Please choose your ratings carefully! Indicating interest in receiving higher rating works does not mean you are guaranteed to receive them, just that other people will be allowed to gift them to you in this exchange. If you're not comfortable with that possibility, do not check this box.
This recipient did not check the "Explicit" box; they will not receive any Mature or Explicit level works.
↳ Letter
This is a place to put a link to a letter, if you have one. A letter generally is a completely optional, longer version of the description field, and might include more details you'd like your creator to know, or things like pictures that are hard to paste into the description box.
Letters are commonly hosted on Dreamwidth, Tumblr, Google docs, or other such freely accessible websites.
Please note that the moderators cannot enforce any DNWs you put only in your letter.
Completely optional field. Leave blank if you don't have a letter.
↳ Description
Please feel free to use this field to go into some detail about what you would like; this helps give the creator of your work some different ideas about what they could make for you.
If you are open to treats, please indicate interest. See "Treats" for more.
Because there are so many different options for Rook, we are allowing participants to opt-in to a wider range via the Optional Details box. If you've participated before and used our Treat template, this is a similar idea! Post here explaining how.
Examples of prompts or helpful information you could share with your recipient (reminder, your creator is not required to follow your prompts/likes):
General trope likes, e.g., Fluff, First Kiss, Dwarven lore, There Was Only One Bed, Enemies to Lovers, etc.
Stylistic likes, e.g., 2nd person writing, Tarot Card art, chat-fic, etc.
World state options you favor that are relevant to your prompt, e.g., Anora is Queen/Alistair is King, Canon Divergent - Multiple Wardens, Modern AUs, etc.
A sentence or two about why you like the pairing, e.g., "I love Cassandra being flustered around people she likes!"
"What If?" prompts, especially open ended ones, e.g., "What if Blackwall did the Joining ceremony with the Hero of Ferelden in DAO? Or met HoF in the Deep Roads during the Jaws of Hakkon DLC in DAI? Would they have similar perspectives, or different?"
Rating restriction clarifications, e.g., interested in E rated smut, but not E rated violence
Be sure to list your Do Not Wants (DNWs) — if they're not listed in the Description box of your sign up, then the mods cannot enforce your DNWs. If your DNWs are poorly worded or go against exchange rules, they will also be considered unenforceable.
Example Description. This person has NOT opt into treats and cannot receive any. Please see here for more help formulating your DNWs.
4. CONTINUE TO THE “OFFERS” FIELD
The process to Offers is similar to Requests when it comes to pairings and denoting interest in creating fanart and/or fanfic. However, there are a couple differences one should make note of:
↳ Ratings (Offers)
If you are interested in creating Mature- or Explicit-rated works, please check the box to indicate your interest. We use the AO3 ratings guide as far as judging what each rating entails.
Any participant under 18 should NOT indicate in creating M or E works, as those are intended for 18+ audiences only.
Please choose your ratings carefully! You will be matched on this field; if you're not comfortable with receiving prompts that may include NSFW or "E" elements, do not check this box.
↳ "Notes to mods" Field
If you want, you can write notes to the mods, but this isn't required. Some things you might want to include:
If you are under 18 or do not want to receive any "E" requests/prompts from your recipient, please put a simple "No 'E' requests" or in your sign up. This will not disclose your age as we have adult participants who have asked this of mods over the years.
If you're attempting to avoid all spoilers related to Dragon Age: The Veilguard, including any details that may be included in a prompt sign-up, please write a note to alert mods.
The AO3 username of any individual(s) you don't want to be matched with. You don't have to provide a reason as to why you don't want to be matched with someone, but we will rely entirely on the name(s) you enter; if you ask not to be matched with FanficWriter69 but you meant FanficWriter96, we can't guarantee you won't get matched. For the sake of everyone's stress level, triple check any names and make sure you're giving us their AO3 username.
Please do not use this field to ask to be matched with a specific person.
↳ "Any Relationship" Box
If you would like, you can offer to create a work for "Any Relationship."
PLEASE ONLY CHECK THIS BOX IF YOU TRULY MEAN ANY RELATIONSHIP.
The only qualifications you can make are the category of pairings (i.e. F/F, F/M, M/M, Other, Gen, or Multi) or by DA game (i.e. DAO, DA2, DAI). You cannot differentiate by any other qualification or request.
An example of someone offering to draw fanart for any F/F pairing.
An example of someone offering to create fanart and/or fanfiction for the pairing "Fenris & Donnic Hendyr," but requesting not to be matched with a specific user.
5. A NOTE ON MATCHING
After sign-ups are completed, creators and recipients are matched based on their sign-ups. Matches are one-way; that is, while it is possible A may write for B and B may write for A, you are more likely to have A writing for B, and B writing for C, and C writing for A.
You will be assigned to someone who has at least one request that matches at least one of your offers for the below two fields: relationship pairing and type of fanwork.
You will be matched with someone who requested:
at least one of the pairings for which you offered to write or draw ("Relationship" field), and
at least one type of fanwork you offered ("Additional Tags" field aka fanfic, fanart, or both — if both, you can create an assignment in either format; you are not obligated to create two assignments), and
whether or not you've both indicated interest in Mature- or Explicit-rated content ("E" checkbox)
You are guaranteed to have a match by the end of the date listed under "Assignments" in the schedule. If you do not have a match by then, please contact the mods via email at [email protected].
Nominations for the Black Emporium are live until July 1st! Reach out and tell someone (namely: us) about your favorite rare-pairs (namely: any pairing under 300 complete fics on Ao3 -- unless it's Rook, in which case it's 600, but you should really just go read the Rook guidelines). This year, you have FORTY nominations to use. Pairings can be twosomes / threesomes / moresomes / etc. We believe in sharing the love.
How do you, in fact, become a true Fereldan buckaroo by nominating a rare pair or 40?
Go to the Dragon Age Rare Pair Tag Set and click Nominate (you have to be signed into Ao3 for the button to appear). For inspiration or to check if someone had the same idea as you, we have a Searchable Nominations Spreadsheet that we manually update.
For more information on this stage of the exchange and how best to format your nominations, please see below the cut:
Full Participation Walkthrough Guide || FAQ
Important things to remember:
Pairings/groups must be nominated in order to be requested during the next phase of the exchange, Sign-Ups.
Nominations require a set format — keep reading for more details
All nominations should be under Dragon Age - All Media Types (for the first 20 nominations) and Dragon Age (Video Games) (for the second 20 nominations).
Pairings/groups cannot have more than 300 completed works on AO3. (Except Rook, whose limit is 600 completed works; see here for more info.)
We allow original characters in this exchange as well as canon characters.
Nominating a pairing/group is not “binding”; you do not need to request or offer the pairing later.
Nomination Formatting:
All nominations should be nominated under the "Dragon Age - All Media Types" and "Dragon Age (Video Games)" fandoms. Please only use the second option if you are nominating more than 20 relationships; this is because Ao3 does not let you nominate more than 20 in a single fandom. If you are nominating more than 20 relationships, please use "Dragon Age (Video Games)" as your FIRST fandom and "Dragon Age - All Media Types" as your SECOND.
Nominations do not need to auto-complete to be accepted; if Ao3 does not complete your ideal nomination, just type it in manually.
For romantic/sexual relationships, please nominate the characters you wish to nominate with a “/” between each character. For familial, platonic, or otherwise non-sexual requests, please use a “&.”
e.g., “Meredith Stannard & Orsino” would not have any sexual or romantic undertones. “Meredith Stannard/Orsino” would be considered sexual and/or romantic, even if the fanwork itself didn’t include any sexual acts.
Nominations should be spelled correctly.
e.g., “Merrill”, not “Meril”
Nominations should ideally be in alphabetical order, by last name. If a character does not have a last name, use the first name instead.
e.g., “Zevran Arainai/The Iron Bull/Solas”
If a character has multiple names or aliases, go by their “main” name.
e.g., “Blackwall”, not “Thomas ‘Thom’ Rainier”
For Dragon Age player-characters (such as the Warden, Hawke, and Inquisitor, etc.), we treat different surnames and gender as different characters. Female Surana will be evaluated differently from Female Brosca, Male Surana, etc.
Nominating Dragon Age “Player Characters”
For the purposes of this challenge, the Dragon Age protagonists will be considered different characters based on their gender and surname. The three gender options we utilize for this exchange are: Male, Female, and Nonbinary (written as NB to save space).
When nominating player characters that are not Rook, please format as such:
Male [Warden Surname / Hawke / Inquisitor Surname] (e.g., Male Trevelyan)
NB [Warden Surname / Hawke / Inquisitor Surname] (e.g., NB Brosca)
When nominating Rook, you must specify gender, lineage, and faction, in that order. Do not include "Rook" as part of the nomination; it's not needed. You must also put Rook FIRST in their ship, regardless of alphabetical order. For ships of 3+ people, make sure you alphabetize the other characters involved!
So, for example: "Male Qunari Ingellvar/Male Cousland" will be accepted as a nomination; "Rook/Warden" will not.
You can nominate pairings where one version of the pairing is over the limit as long as the version you nominate qualifies. For example, you can request "Male Lavellan/Solas" or "NB Lavellan/Solas," even if "Female Lavellan/Solas" is over the limit. This also applies to the ineligible Rook ships; "NB Dwarf Laidir/Lucanis Dellamorte" is acceptable but "Female Human de Riva/Lucanis Dellamorte" is ineligible.
Customized or individualized Wardens/Hawkes/Inquisitors are not valid nominations. For example, “Mary Trevelyan/Vivienne” would be ineligible; the requester would need to use “Female Trevelyan/Vivienne,” “Male Trevelyan/Vivienne” or “Nonbinary Trevelyan/Vivienne.”
In your prompts in your sign-up, you can request preferred details (such as specific OCs, a first name, looks, personality traits, class, background, etc.), and creators may choose to incorporate those elements into their gift for you. However, creators are not required to incorporate those preferred details, and works will not be checked for that by moderators.
Nominating Characters from Other Canons (i.e. Crossovers)
We allow crossovers from other series so long as they are interacting with at least one canonical character. However, when nominating a character from another specific series, please put the name of the fandom the character is from in parenthesis after the name, for example: “The Iron Bull & James Vega (Mass Effect)”
For crossovers that are from different media within the Dragon Age fandom, no specification is needed, e.g., “Merrill/Solas.”
Nominating Other Original Characters
Original Characters who are not Wardens/Hawkes/Inquisitors are also allowed to be nominated, provided they follow the following guidelines:
The OC is listed in such a way as to give someone freedom in how to write them.
OCs should be generalized or archetypal.
e.g., “my OC Gerald D’Vivir” is too individualized and customized, but “Male Orlesian Noble” is eligible
A good rule of thumb here is whether the character idea can be summed up in 3 or less words; if you can, it is probably a good option. If you cannot, it probably is too complex for this kind of exchange.
e.g., "Tal-Vashoth Mercenary" or "Original Templar Character" is eligible; but "Older Blonde Warrior Dwarven Warden Widower” is not
If the gender of an OC is considered important to your request, please include it. If you are fine with any gender option, gender does not need to be added, and the creator of the work can choose their choice of gender options for the character.
e.g., "Orlesian Noble" or "Female Orlesian Noble”
The OC is not listed in such a way that would, essentially, reflect the spirit of a canon character that is otherwise not permitted in a relationship.
As an example, while it is possible to have an Original Female Elf Inquisitor who is not Lavellan, it is so close to canon based on that description that it would essentially function as the same character.
Lastly...
What are you waiting for? GET YE TO THE NOMINATING!
That's right, you heard it here first. Or second, if you've checked your email and saw a notification about a shiny new gift(s). Or third, if you're part of the Discord and joined in on the celebratory messages. Or possibly even fourth, if you saw it on Dreamwidth.
Regardless, works are now live!
Click here to start reading the 2025 Black Emporium Exchange Collection
Read, kudo, comment galore! A week from now, September 7th, we will reveal creators. If you would still like to post a treat, you may do so at any time—just ping a mod after submitting to make sure we see it in the queue.
If there is a problem with your gift, do NOT message your creator or comment publicly on the work. Contact a mod asap at [email protected] so we can handle the issue and find a solution.
