#hasmal

[raven-6-10]

So it turns out Hasmal is a Free City and not part of Nevarra.

Well, too bad. I already made Allegra's Nevarran husband be from there and them living there after marriage. I'm not going to change it now. Hasmal is now a border city in Nevarra, close to both Tevinter and Free Marches.

Blame some random butterfly for the change from canon.

[thisfragilesky]

Hey there! I noticed you (and other fan map creators) put Hasmal inside Nevarran borders, which I thought was part of the Free Marches. Same for Nessum, Caimen Brea, and Trevis which I thought were in Tevinter. I was just wondering what that decision is based on since I've seen it a couple times now! Thank you for sharing your work I love fan maps so much ;-;

i have no idea when this ask arrived the timestamp says Recently i hope you haven’t been waiting for like Five Months--

tldr: to make my fan map i overlayed several different maps on top of each other. first and foremost is the official map of thedas from bioware (i think.. it’s official)

for the country borders and some minor cities, i got those from a fanmade ethnolinguistic map of thedas (found here). it places the locations of hasmal, nessum, caimen brea, and trevis within nevarran borders.

i haven’t personally cross-referenced or checked if this is entirely accurate.

the city stuff got a bit long (oops) so snippy snip the rest of the quasi-politic-economics teal deer is under the cut

as far as nessum, caimen brea, and trevis are concerned, the wiki does list them under tevinter and they do sound tevene-ish (??), so they were at least founded by tevinter. i’m not entirely sure why the ethno-linguistic map maker put them under nevarra, in that case.

theoretically, they’re all along the same minanter river so it would make sense for them to belong to the same nation (within reason). politically i don’ know that nevarra would just have the capital city on the river and have perendale all the way out there but let tevinter have the tail end of the river, and thus have their territory push a lot closer to the city of nevarra. and perendale. rivers are useful for trade and transportation, depending on how wide they are, and maybe once upon a time nevarra and tevinter fought over the tail end of the river (and thus the three cities too).

(i’m writing all this without knowing the exact state of nevarra and tevinter’s political relationship at the time but the general idea i’m rolling with is Tevinter Lost Land Or Other Nations And Empires Took It and nevarra taking that whole section of river seems Apt.)

regarding hasmal-- i did just check the fan wiki and found the hasmal circle listed as ‘free marches’ instead of nevarra. nevarra already has circles towers in perendale and cumberland and hasmal as a third would be.. A Lot Of Circles.

given the flavor text for the war table quest ‘answer a request from hasmal’ which shows the hasmali people being pretty hostile to the mages, but the templars wanting to help the mages, the city and circle being part of either nevarra or tantervale could have different meanings i think? nevarran mages seem to have more power and standing (According to the wiki), so it would make sense for the templars to stand up for them but less sense for the city people to be that willing to ‘feed them to the wolves’. maybe.

on the other hand, tantervale is said to be Super Chantry, so it makes more sense for the people there to be hostile to the mages of hasmal circle. the templars should, theoretically, feel the same, but instead they accept the inquisition’s aid to get the mages out.

geographically speaking, hasmal supposedly has a bunch of tevinter (slave) refugees too, which could fit into either nevarra or tantervale narrative wise. if we consider that the escaped slaves also make up a portion of the city people hostile to the mages (perhaps even the reason they’re hostile to them?), then the templars being more nevarran-trained would balance that out.

it could also be possible that hasmal is still considered free marcher territory even if it’s part of nevarra? nevarra might have taken them in but the people there would still consider themselves free marchers.

hasmal being so close to the capital city of tantervale would also play into it narratively too. i’m not so good at politics but the idea of a city being kind of Pretty Close Across The River yet part of another nation is kind of hmMMMM in terms of ‘would you really let that happen’. something like that. makes sense that hasmal would be in tantervale in that case. if hasmal still isn’t, then there’s probably tensions there (the same kind of tensions that could lead to the largely free marcher/chantry heavy city folk being hostile to mages?).

then again the templars being tantervale-trained yet still opting to help the hasmal circle mages is also Pretty Neat. though one would expect tantervale’s circle to be in tantervale itself, like most of the free marcher circles (i.e. starkhaven, ansburg, kirkwall).

if you go with the idea that ‘a circle as part of tantervale would likely be in the city of tantervale itself so the chantry can keep an eye on it’, then the hasmal circle being part of nevarra would be reasonable.

aside from this there’s also the interactive fanmap which delineates the borders a little differently from the ethnolinguistic one, esp in the free marches-nevarra area, using rivers more than empty space. i’d forgotten about this one when making my map.

here nessum, caimen brea, and trevis are all toeing the border between nevarra and tevinter just along the river, which could also work. instead of being lost to nevarra, it could be said that tevinter is maintaining their border there using these three cities and the river. it’s pretty far from all the other imperium settlements though, so if they want to maintain the border then the cities would likely be heavily militarized, assuming they’re not on good terms with nevarra... even if they were on good terms and the cities weren’t militarized, they would probably still be mixed with nevarra more than tevinter? being on the same river would make trade between the two easier than keeping touch with the imperium.

hasmal is still part of nevarra in this one. the river being used as the border looks fairly wide enough that it would enough to prevent someone on the other side from taking the city easily.

personally i may revise my map a little using the interactive one as reference and thinking about the borders more in regards to the related geography. as for hasmal.... who knows where it’ll go.....

so i think you could probably go either way and get away with it? until bioware tells us concretely otherwise anyway. unless they have and google has failed me.

[thisextensiveuniverse]

“Monkey see, monkey do.”

-hasmal, when he finds out Abraxos was Puriel’s mentor, and a giant tickle monster

[jarebear20]

Worldbuilding Wednesday

I’m going to use this as an excuse to worldbuild for an idea that’s been floating in my head. Thanks go to the lovely people at @a-productive-manor for the questions!

Today, let’s explore a bit of the Free Marcher city of Hasmal, shall we?

1. In your story, what is the single most important natural resource? How is it obtained? What is it used for? How prominent is it in your narrative?

The Free Marches are considered the breadbasket of Thedas. As such, Hasmal has several natural resources, such as water from the Minanter River, fertile soil, and even a few mineral deposits along the outer reaches of the city’s territories.   

However, the most important resource is people. Thanks to being situated near the border of Tevinter, Hasmal is usually the first stop for refugees from the magister-ruled nation. There is a great deal of business in moving desperate people trying to escape slavery and other such unpleasant things. It is that sort of business that plays into my story. 

2. Is there magic? Where does it come from, and what are its range and costs? What impacts does it have on your story and characters?

Considering this is Thedas, of course there’s magic in Hasmal. It shares the neighboring Tantervale’s approach to magic, which is to say that it is tightly regulated by templars and the city guard alike. 

While many characters are not mages themselves, several have personal histories that have been shaped by magic and mages alike. This is part of the driving force behind the story.  

5. Are there non-human sentient beings? If so, what are their biologies and physical appearances? What makes them distinct? Do these distinctions matter socially?

Elves are a large group within the population, particularly since many of them would be on the run from Tevinter. There are also a few dwarves. Qunari usually do not make it this far into the Marches, though there have been a few spotted in recent years. 

Socially, these races are pretty much treated like they are elsewhere. Elves in particular aren’t trusted by many, because they often bring trouble.

6. Languages! Is your world monolingual or multilingual?  Is there a lingua franca, and if so, whose is it? Is there language loss? How does language (and communication more broadly) come to play into your story?

The Trade Tongue (otherwise known as Common) is the most common, but Nevarran, Orlesian, and Tevene also have appearances in local dialogue. 

Language is important in that it is dangerously easy to be taken advantage of by unsavory groups if you are not familiar with Common. Even more important, however, is being able to read between the lines and gauge what others’ intentions are. If you guess wrong, your life could be on the line.

10. Religion & Divinity. What religious beliefs and practices exist in your story? What are their tenets? What role do their play in the narrative?

As mentioned before, Hasmal shares similarities with Tantervale in how the Chantry is involved. Which is to say that it has a great deal of control. Chantry law here is absolute. Even if you are not one who worships the Maker or Andraste, you must follow their rules or face the consequences. 

As some are about to learn... 

[panarchie]

The Circle of Hasmal in 9:31 Dragon - Immutable - Dungeons and Dragon Age

same old energy, baby history repeats same old energy, baby they'll march you through the streets same old energy, baby they fear what they don't know same old energy, baby you've burned this way before Kiki Rockwell

Before the last Circle of Thedas joined the Inquisition after the failure of the Divine Conclave - led south by Hasmal's First Enchanter Yael Amell - there was darkness, and secrets, and the one templar that got away.