Dragon Age: Origins - Role Playing Game
I started running a DA:O role playing game with a group of friends via Roll20 in... mid-February, I guess. The main goal of this game is to put ALL my ideas and headcannons into this massive RPing project with 4 of the best players I know. I have been testing these ideas in solo games with my wife @element-104 since 2010, so, yeah, I want this to be an apotheosis in my GMing carreer. I’ve posted a few posts about the game already (Thank you SO much for all the feedback, @fereldenpeach), but without giving any context as to what is going on and who the main characters are. So the purpose of this post (and a few others to follow) is to bring you up to speed, generally, on who are the characters, their players, the NPCs and how things are going. Me and Gwen Cousland’s player will be generating most of the content. You can see all the posts related to the game here.
Oh, one more thing: I don’t believe spoilers should be an issue. But they might be! =p So beware.
If you played Dragon Age: Origins, the game, at its beginning, is not very different than the one you find in the videogame. The difference is that this game starts in the spring of 9:29 Dragon, as the characters will slowly advance in their origins towards the main events of the story. As I said before, this is a collection of my headcannons, so here are some of them:
The Grey Wardens are NOT an esteemed order: the Fourth Blight was 400 years ago. While the dwarves of Orzammar and, Cailan specifically, cherish the order, they are very few, with dwindling numbers, and the vast majority of the people do not even know who they are. Put together, the number of Grey Wardens in all of Thedas in 9:29 Dragon would not reach 100.
There is NOT a common language: 8th Century Brittain had a few languages to count. Anyone with a minimum knowledge of language knows a Common Language is a construct that cannot sustain itself. Thus the “English Language” is actually Fereldan. The Orlesians speak French, the Antivans Spanish, etc, etc.
The Dalish are a myth: The Dalish elves inhabit the dense, virgin wilderness, protected from the humans by the very magic of the places they wander through. For all elves who live in human cities, the Dalish are but a tale, and it is the same for the humans.
Magic is rare: The rate of mages to non-mages in the sentient races is about one to every 10,000. The mages are successfully kept in check in the circles, and apostates are very careful about their magic. You can’t go to the Wonders of Thedas in Denerim and buy one robe and a couple of staves.
Sexuality is not open: l really don’t have a reason to say the sexuality taboos of Thedas would be like our world’s. But one of the characters is a lesbian, and the player and I agreed she would prefer her character’s conflicts to be in line with those a lesbian woman would go through in the European middle age. So, in this world, men don’t marry men, women don’t marry women, and any relationship between them is frowned upon, except in few clusters, like the Avvars.
The World is becoming patriarchal: Despite the Chantry and its Prophetess, women in Thedosian society, Ferelden included, are on the way of being only mothers and priestesses. Warring women are increasingly rare, and men are assuming a more decisive role in society. Women are not free to express their sexuality, and a “decent”, “pure” behavior is expected of them. Again, there is nothing in the lore to back this. This was agreed as a conflict source for the female characters, in discussions with their players.
The Templars are NOT able warriors: the knights Templar are an order focused on hunting and guarding mages. Their other duty is guarding chantries. Thus, the Templars are able at wolf-packing individual mages and bringing them down - either for the capture or the kill. Also, since men cannot join any proper rank in the Chantry, second sons and the male faithful join and spoil its ranks because of their status in secular society. Templars are not apt at massive arm battles, shield walls, wedges, etc. The average Templar would be no match in single combat to the average warrior. But they do can hunt (and hurt) mages.
Timeline & System: As a whole, Thedas is in the technological equivalent of the early 13th Century, exception to full plates, which are the stuff of kings, champions and heroes. The rule system we are using is GURPS.
So, now that you all know the world state we’re in, here is a bit about the players and characters:
An apostate woman, recently escaped from the Circle with the help of Templar Bran. In her youth, she had been raped and abused repeatedly by Knight-Captain Kendells, brother of the Arl of Denerim. In hopes of losing herself in a mass of people such that her philactery would not be able to pinpoint her, she made her way to the Denerim alienage. There, she wanted to provide healing and succor to the elves, and find a shelter amid the faceless mass who live around the Vhenadhal.
She starts the game trying to manage to stay hidden, while at the same time dealing with the issues the elves face.
Beorn was the eldest son of a family of freeholders who could afford to send him to become a Templar. He was sent to the monastery against his will as soon as he became a grown, tall, strong giant of man, who could stand against his abusive father and the mistreatment of his mother and more-than-beloved-sister. As a child he learned of the history of the Blights and always dreamed of becoming a Grey Warden (which is an exception to the general knowledge of people about the Wardens). He is a man of deep faith and mistrust in the Chantry as an organization. Beorn started the game in his and Alistair’s joining ritual, after having been recruited along with this only friend in that monastery.
Beorn’s player is also a Dragon Age veteran, and the one whose insisting led me to agree and run this game.
Fionn “Giantsbane” ar Morwen o’ Stonebear
Fionn is an Avvar barbarian who never managed to adhere completely to the many superstitions of his people. From an early age, he realized the Lady of the Skies, Korth Mountain-Father and Hakkon Wintersbreath were flimsy deities who toyed with the destiny of their followers, and thus he bade them no love. This questioning behavior led him to be somehow of a joke theme among his fellow avvar, but never an outcast. The fact that he was not the tallest or strongest of the hold’s warriors added to the general perception of Fionn as a quiet trickster.
Fionn was always fascinated by his opposite: Astrid Cirildotten o’ Wyrmhold, an enormous, strong, battle-driven woman who encompassed all of his desire. He did attempt to kidnap her and marry her according to Avvar custom - only to fail for being unable of carrying her weight - despite her not resisting at all.
In the beginning of the game Astrid is married to another member of the Stonebear hold who did manage to kidnap her. But his mind is distracted with the strange sickness of Storvacker, the hold-beast.
Fionn’s player never played Dragon Age before!
Gwendoline “Gwen” Cousland
Even though Gwen’s player never played Dragon Age before, @element-104 insisted (and so did I!) that she should play a Cousland. As you can see from my url, me, as veteran Cousland, walked her through the specifics of the family, and she created this character even though she has no idea of how the Cousland origin plays in the video game. The difference from the default Cousland is that Eleanor, her mom, died at childbirth, and Bryce married a younger woman years after.
Gwen has been brought up shielded by the eternal bliss of being a younger daughter, and spoiled by a father, a brother and a grandfather who love her very much and saw to her every whim - including allowing her tomboyish ways with bow and arrow, and allowing her to refuse every possible suitor - even king Cailan himself.
Gwen starts the game accompanying Fearchar MacEanring, her grandfather, in an expedition to hunt a weird bear who Fearchar wants as a prize. In this expedition, he suggests that Gwen should go and meet a good friend of his - another rebel woman, Bann Alfstanna Eremon - in a trip to Denerim, where she intends to confront the son of the Arl of Denerim about a series of slanders he has been saying about Alfstanna. But of course - only after Gwen helps him hunt the bear.
This is all for now - I’ll follow up with another post about the NPCs, and probably another with the current events so far.
