#thedosian

[thedosian-zine]

Heroes PDF File Update!

It wouldn't be our maiden voyage as a digital publication without some fumbling along the way, and so we have updated the zine's downloadable file to add a missing piece of art our typesetter (me) forgot. The artwork in question was made by the artist @artafix707 and is now included in the first issue of Thedosian.

The download page remains the same, so you will find the updated zine right here!

Thedosian Issue No1 - Heroes by thedosian-zine

The Dragon Age fan zine

[thedosian-zine]

The first issue of Thedosian is here! It's available as a pdf for free download on Itch Io

This couldn't have happened without our lovely contributors and our volunteer mod @ladysavannah908 . Huge thanks to you all for your patience and creativity! One of you actually made me cry over your fic as I was typesetting the damn thing... You got me in the feels fair and square.

This issue's beautiful cover art was made by the talented ThatGayGoat, and within the zine you can find works by many more talented people.

Without further ado, please enjoy:

Thedosian Issue No1 - Heroes by thedosian-zine

The Dragon Age fan zine

[randomfromtheabyss]

I believe in nothing

Severe edit needed. Inspired by Dragon Age 2, Thirty Seconds to Mars 100 Suns, and a VERY vivid dream.

The two parts rang in decent tones against one another. We newer transplants took parts in the call. The elders had beautifully complex harmonies with each answer. My gut wretched each time I consented to losing the faith I held in everything all these years. I believe in nothing? Not my education? My training with my friends and comrades? Do I believe in the certainty of the chemical reactions I have manipulated and cost so many deaths? Was I here to hide or repent? Am I a refugee or a prisoner? I close my eyes and listened to the answers not the earth. The land is changing consistently. It makes micro steps each day. It shifts and particles with the wind and rain. I focused on a rock in front of me. I cracked it into with ease. Why believe it will be there for me when I can move it from another? There are others out there, even here, more astute more powerful than I. The stars, fixed, so far away their light that hits us is long past. Some are dead, some alive and shedding their influence and we have yet to mark them. We channel and pin our personalities From and to them. But is it safe to hold an untimely point?

“I believe in nothing.” I chanted picking whatever harmony I could pick out that I could comfortably seeing. I tried to settle into the thin cushion barely comforting my weight. I tried to forget my thoughts with the chanting, but the more I chanted, the stronger my desire grew to ruminate. Where was Dresan? What was he trying? Was he safe? My heart begin to race again. Comet, I heard his voice again. I am still too volatile. Not the day. As the sun beat up on the gathering, I could watch the shadows shift. Blinding lights dance stuff glass chimes. The heat drew moisture from me, weakening me. Every second begged my anxiety to feel me with uncertainty. The night, seemingly slower, was not much better. I lay on my thin cushion and made myself not think. But whatever light reflected lied. Colors distorted. Sounds amplified, morphed to suit fears. Time played with certainty. Taunted patients. I closed my eyes. My heart still raced from the creepy anxiety. But with a focus and deep breath‘s, it’s peace even in told of each second, each moment, the belong to me. Time is irrelevant. It means only what I have lost control of. Each beat seem to stall and quick and time at Once. 100 sons? Is that the number of days until I feel whatever change release I am here to experience? Will Dresan come back for me in that time? But each day is a fresh count. Open hundred Sunburst before we are released from these endless wars? Are we under the hundred? Are we the last to stand up to our oppressors or the first? We do not believe in sin.

I stewed over my simple breakfast, that chant, the only words we were allowed to speak, haunted me. Was it the puzzle I was trying to solve or was it as simple as the few words the echoed in strange harmonies?

Not in sin? This troubled me. Am I not to believe certain actions are wrong? Abhorrent? What about murder? Killing in the name of war? Killing in the name of freedom? Does that count? They choose their side. Are they as willing to die as I am? Is that death more favorable than, say, the beheading of a mage too young to control their talent, guilty of an accidental death? Who sins more? The executioner or the prosecutor that marks the young to die?

How can any nature be sinful? Is a talent to control molecules any less deadly than the spells a politician casts over desperate masses? Sin is as much a fallacy as time. Regulated by those who benefit most from it.

The same can be said for gods. Some believe in one deity. Does their certainty outweigh that of those who commune with older guards? When a God is a word on a tongue, whose will is wielded? Few experiences allow me to believe any will different than the speaker. Their words just as damaging as the law man.

I believe in nothing. Not in peace and not in war. My brain has been reluctant to process this. 40 Sons of 100 And I was still so sad on my belief in this war. I believed it would bring peace. These monks aren’t peaceful, they are complacent. Hiding they are so remote from the travesties affecting everyone. But as I looked, I watched them interact. They attend their needs, but keenly understanding each other’s.

The individual capable of lifting the spoon fed herself, then he who is not. Then her self. He, intern, folded his legs to provide support for the larger bowl they shared. As they finish his book he framed carry the heavy satchel full of gardening supplies. No one is without use. But we must care for ourselves to be fit enough to lend the care where it is needed. Not one body here use their advantage to gain influence or power. They took their advantage and made the experience of there. Equally gratifying. For what good would too much soup do the gardener if she could not Carry the excess and her supplies. How would the stronger keep his strength and his dignity eating with crippled arms?

Where either keeps people without it today or tries to strip the pride from those with the advantage. Pieces in the opposite of war. Peace as a tool to spur wars on. One more battle and then peace. How can peace be held in the same hand is grief? Loss? Pain? All these I feel acutely now. I grow angry at this Utopia only because I seek peace in opposition to my suffering. I could not so easily measure my loss if a false hope of peace remained. But I can chat on my loss and to creation. I can turn the garden and see my mothers hands at work. I can copy the text my father once read me and hear his voice again. I can train and keep Willam and Dresan And all my dear friends close.

I will hone my skills because peace is a lie. War is not a brief state. It is an idea, a religion in and of itself. War is too big concept for belief. War is only a series of choices to exploit or uplift.

“I believe in nothing but the truth and who we are.” The 60th son of 100 and these Added words were now permitted.

We are.

The truth is, as much as I am an individual filled with choice, talent, opinion, I am always a part of a Wii. We my family. My mother somewhere I know not, I don’t know if she lies in rest with my father, or find a way to survive two tomorrow, but we will always be. I will take My father is dying words with me everywhere I go, every action I take.

“We are worthy of freedom. No one will cage us willingly.” He found a way to make a life for me without the cage is meant for him and the rest of our kind.

The way of my fellow fighters. I trust we are moving to a common goal and their every choice will keep me alive as mine will keep them. I trust in the way that is the white prince and I. He seeks me as strongly as he does Dresan now. We will hunt each other until one of us is dead. I trust him to kill me. As he trusts me to defend myself to his death. I trust the way that his Dresan and I. I trust he has placed me here where I can remain safe and grow. I trust he fears my abilities are too great to control in the situations he needs me to create to keep momentum against the white prince.

My dream still replayed my chaotic energy as it tore through the growing horde. I wake violently is the energy of my rage tear through everyone I love. In my sleep paralysis I watch my friends tear apart as they scream my name. I shake as I think every God I can name that Dresan was able to shield us all from my rage. Even awake I can see the ripped bodies of an entire troop as Dresan drug me from the canyon. He didn’t speak a word as we trudged up the mountain side. I didn’t know what to say and he said nothing. But he said me, cleaned my clothes, tended my wounds. His golden brown eyes found mine from time to time. His face never betrayed a single thought, but he made sure I was comfortable and had energy for the ascent. When he departed, 75 sons ago, he kissed my forehead and turned away without a word. I miss him. As strong as I did during that first son without him. But he felt here with me my every move. I trusted the way he took care of even after such a display of chaos. I was never scared because he was never Scared. I was in shock. I realize now he knew nothing he could say would comfort me. So he just found me comfort.

I stopped counting sons that morning. There was no marker of time here, so it’s easy to forget if I start counting six or seven days ago. I recalled the morning like yesterday regardless, so why worry how long ago it was. I was allowed all the parts in the chanting now. But I still kept the car. I believe in nothing.

I believed in nothing for quite some time.

Then as I chanted my strong beliefs and nothing I figure sat next to me and sang the answers in a clear baritone. That voice sent shivers across my skin. I closed my eyes. I didn’t believe my ears. So I believed in every day without him. The long fingers wound around mine. I look to them. My father’s ring and return to me. I kept singing the chance. To center myself, to hear him answer. He rose and pulled me to my feet. We walked out as Unceremoniously as we arrived. No one moved to us. No one stood to not a farewell. They trusted who we were and that we would be we no matter where we were.

We were well away from sight of the large stone doors that hit the monastery before Dresan stopped. So many words filled my mind but I was so used to seeing none. He didn’t speak either, he just looked at me a long while.

“42.” He said finally. “You took 42 of the princes men in one spell.”

He squeezed the hand that he had yet to release. I felt no need to answer. He did not lecture. He was odd and eager to discover more. I watched his face, kept my focus on his features. I Tried to ignore the Glistening of sweat, the ripple of the wind through his hair. It was nice to have him in front of me.

“It seems they are saying their loss in that gap was due to a rockslide. No one can rightly explain what happened. No one suspects the level of control you can obtain, but no one understands enough to fear the magnitude of your chaos. We are safe and unsuspected. The white princess ignorant, now is our time to move to him. I’ve left evidence of my travels as far south as (a town name). He will have sent scouts to the mountains there.”

“So we are headed up the snowy twins?” My voice was soft, but seemed to echo in the cooling evening air.

[thedosian-zine]

Hello fellow Dragon Age fanatics, it is I, @perkeleen-lavellan , and I come to you peddling that serialized zine project I mentioned!

Introducing Thedosian! Its goal is to be a fanwork sharing zine with three issues per year., each with its own unique theme. This year there will only be one, however, as I will be taking extra time to set everything up initially.

This zine is completely free and digital in the spirit of fostering a more interactive community. We value inclusivity, bringing visibility to smaller creators, and showcasing all the talent that this fandom has to offer.

MODERATORS

I am looking for 1-2 moderators to help me by moderating our discord and assisting me with communicating to our creatives, and in genral with planning the first iteration of this project.

You will have a schedule that I have planned and other guidelines to help you. Any relevant skills or input you have will be more than welcome. Although this project aims to be a long term one you do not have to stay with us for more than this one issue. The deadline for issue No. 1 is at the end of October, so you do need to be able to commit to being involved until then.

Mod apps end a week before the contributors.

1.8.2025

MODS APPLY HERE

ARTISTS & WRITERS

This issues theme is Heroes. We want you create art and writing focused on the protagonists that have made these games what they are, be they Wardens, Hawkes, Inquisitors or Rooks.

The contributor applications end August 10th, and you have until August 15th to accept the position.

The deadline for all the works is October 26th, so only apply if you believe you can finish in time.

Artists will be asked to create either a vertical single page illustration or a horizontal two page spread illustration. In addition we are looking for a cover artist, which would be a horizontal illustration covering front and back. We'll provide all our artists with proper page templates.

ARTISTS APPLY HERE

Writers will be asked to write a 5000 word fic at minimum with no hard upper limit. We do ask that you keep it at 3 chapters at maximum, and remember that you need to leave time for yourself for editing and beta reading if you wish to do that. It will not be a requirement however.

WRITERS APPLY HERE

[musetta3]

Some Musings on Thedosian Calendars

So in one of the Dragon Age server I’m in, the question of the Thedosian calendar came up. So I did some digging and analysis, and found some really cool correlations. Please note that these are my opinions, based on the Dragon Age Wiki and canon sources. There are many interpretations, not just mine <3 

Southern Thedosian Climate Thoughts

Thedas is, from what we understand, in the southern hemisphere of their world, for the sheer fact of south = colder, north = warmer. However, if we look at the Common names of the months, there can be 2 different interpretations

-1. Either Southern Thedas has climate like an IRL northern hemisphere, where Wintersmarch = January = winter weather/snow, and thus follows seasons that way. It's easy to consider it that way, because the 8th month in Thedas and Earth, match: they're both August (according to the wiki, this is carried over from when Andraste was named Augusta in earlier drafts of the game)

 -2. OR the Thedosian calendar year starts in, say, what we would consider summer in the IRL northern hemisphere/winter in the IRL southern hemisphere (such as IRL March) and then follows a southern hemisphere pattern of weather. Considering the Tevinters first set up the calendar, and the Roman calendar year starts in March, that can also be a consideration.

either of these methods can work. I personally use the first method in my longfic, The Songstress and the Swordsman, but, as stated above, there are many proverbial roads to Rome, and different interpretations.

As for the Southern Thedosian climate: from what we see in the games, there’s so many different climates present in DAI. So you can interpret it a number of ways, including: 

-visiting different regions during different time of the year. We know that DAI takes place over a period of time, so that’s not a stretch. ex: ‘I’m visiting the Hinterlands in the summer, and the Emprise in winter’

-The Frostbacks could act similarly to the Rocky Mountains  in the Pacific NW of the US, where one side is lush and green, and the other is dry prairie/grassland

-some areas could be affected by magic, which would also affect things in its own way

But, we can mostly agree that it’s relatively temperate in Ferelden and the Free Marches. There's some snow in parts of it. 

What of Tevinter/the North, though? That's where things get interesting.

Tevinter Calendar and Climate

Here is the calendar, directly from the Wiki

so let's break this down. Tevene shares roots in Latin, so I used Latin to translate this... 

 1: Spring-month/Wintermarch; celebrate First Day 

2: 'it rains' (from that Latin verb 'to rain')/Guardian; celebrate Wintersend 

3: 'hazy/ cloudy'/Drakonis 

4: Eluvium: sediment/rock debris formed from running water or rain/Cloudreach 

5: I strive/work (or, alternatively a tweak of 'melior' which is 'better')/Bloomingtide; celebrate Summersday 

6: Hot/boiling (from 'fervens')/ Justinian 

7: Sun (easy: sol for sun)/Solace 

8: Pertaining to matrons/married women (further push it to Mothers)/ August; celebrate All Souls Day 

9: Small (can be interpreted as ‘little ones’ or children)/Kingsway 

10: Grain/Harvestmere 

11: Shadowy/cloudy/Firstfall; celebrate Satinalia 

12: Hollow or empty/ Haring 

Notice that we have a clear period of 3 rainy months, 2 intense summer, a harvest, and then a cloudy, empty period of not much going on. This, to me, follows the typical climate found in India. 

If we ascribe to the first theory of 'Wintersmarch = January = Winter' I would consider SE India, where there are monsoons during the IRL winter months (speaking from a northern hemisphere perspective, at least) 

 If we use Theory 2 'Wintermarch = IRL March' then this aligns with the SW monsoon pattern during the IRL summer (again, northern hemisphere perspective <3 ).

I interpret it as this:

Guardian-Cloudreach: monsoon season 

Bloomingtide: super short respite, planting season 

Justinian-August: S U M M E R 

Kingsway-Harvestmere: autumn 

Firstfall-Haring: winter 

Wintermarch: super short spring

Could it be that it these names are simply cool names slapped onto the IRL Earth calendar? Possibly. However, the correlations are a bit too coincidental for me to rule that out completely.  

Tevinter Calendar, The Weather, and Holidays

I found some correlations between the Old Tevinter names of the holidays, and the translated month names in which they occur

Wintersend/Urthalis: dedicated to Urthemiel, the god of beauty. How does holding tourneys match up with 'beauty?' well, two ways: flex your political muscles and put on some epic pageants/events that are beautiful. OR celebrate this right before the monsoons start, when the weather is still 'beautiful.' Parts of Tevinter will become muddy and muggy, soon, definitely not pretty

Summersday/Andoralis: dedicated to Andoral, the god of unity. We celebrate this in Bloomingtide/Melior, or the 'I work' month. Andoral is the god of unity, so why honor him during this month? To unify together and plant before the summer comes 

All Souls Day/Funalis: dedicated to Dumat, the god of silence. this is a very interesting holiday, because after Dumat rose in the first Blight, Thedosians rededicated the holiday to remembering those who have passed. In the South, it represents Andraste’s death, coming from August (Augusta was, remember, an old name for Andraste before the devs switched it over). Bonfires are common, to represent Her pyre. In the Old Tevene, Matronalis is ‘pertaining to matrons/married women.’ Andraste is the Bride of the Maker, a married woman, and mother.

It’s interesting to note that in some Northern countries, people dress as spirits and parade down main thoroughfares at midnight. Is it a carry-over from Dumat’s celebration in the ‘dead silence of night?’ Perhaps!

Satinalia/Feastday: originally attributed to the god of chaos. Now. This is like... two letters off or something from the Ancient Roman Saturnalia, and bears some really close resemblances (not to the month name, this time). Wild celebrations, masquerades, gift giving: in some areas, like Antiva, it lasts a whole week! So a whole week of chaos! Epicness! It’s my favorite holiday, and I never attended it before <3 

It’s a good thing to note that the holiday got its name from Satina, the second moon. It could be that, during this time of year, Satina is really visible/prominent in the sky, hence why the holiday is named for it.