she/her. AuADHD. Full-time (reluctant) corporate cog, part-time artist. Multi-fandom blog.
PS If I disappear without a trace for months on end - I’m not dead, I’m just not in my fanart hyperfocus!
Any veteran Solasmancers taking adoption applications for newbies to Solavellan Hell by any chance?
Playing Inquisition for the first time (about 10 years too late lol), after playing Veilguard - I knew what I was getting myself into, so why does it still hurt so bad 💔
Part of the physical merchandise order has arrived to our shipping mod in Sweden and the rest is en route! We anticipate its arrival shortly, and will get individual orders shipped out ASAP once it does.
The digital release will be held until after physical orders have shipped. Thank you for your patience while we accommodate this slight production and manufacturer shipping delay.
Digital orders of DAA 2026: Arcana are still open until January 31st, 2026 - Click Here to get yours!
Don't miss out on this unique compendium of Dragon Age fanfic and fanart! All proceeds go to support MSF Sweden 💜
this is not a drill, this is a thread on the creation of Flemeth from David Gaider!! as kind of the self professed Flemeth stan blog around here, I had to reshare
(alt text and full text transcript of the images included)
Link to the original post
Full text from the images below the cut:
CHARACTERS - DAY THREE: Flemeth
I have a type. I admit it. There are certain wells I can return to repeatedly and always find something new to explore.
One of them is older female characters. Mike used to rib me about it. Consider Wynne. Meredith. Genevieve. And, of course, the biggie: Flemeth.
Why are they a type? I... don't know, honestly.
I guess I have a feeling that older men fade, they strive to regain their youth or establish a legacy and we've seen that story a thousand times, but older women? They become free to become something new. I guess I see so many possibilities in that.
I had a conception of who Flemeth was, and why, right from the very start. Her creation went hand in hand with Morrigan, as a being whose thirst for retribution hundreds of years ago attracted an entity (slight confession: I didn't know Mythal specifically, at the time, "an elven god" was enough).
I also knew where Morrigan was right and very wrong about her. Misconceptions of the truth are built into DA's foundation, and they were fundamental to this mother-daughter relationship I was building.
Like many seeds I'd put in the world, however, I had no idea whether I'd ever get to explore it.
Knowing that she was a character of possible future importance, if not a major player in DAO, I wasn't much surprised when she was one of the first cuts the art team made in terms of getting a unique appearance. Thus the "batty old woman" players met in DAO. Not as hard a cut as the Qunari, though.
Going into DA2, I wanted both Morrigan and Flemeth, but we could only have one. So I picked Flemeth. This was the game where she really got to come into her own.
I remember the art team coming and asking if it was OK if she got a new model, as it'd be a retcon of sorts. I didn't care. I wanted it.
I honestly don't remember whether Kate Mulgrew was cast before or after Claudia. After, I think? All I recall is that Cab came into my office one day and asked if Kate might be a good fit
The squeal I made was un-manly. Cab took that as a "yes". 😅
I didn't get to talk to Kate until DA2, however. Schedules being what they were, we had a tight window to record Flemeth... so I had to write all her scenes before almost anything else in DA2 was written, before I even had a team! Ack!
It was OK, though, for the most part. I knew where I wanted to take her, and a big part of it was going to explain her transition - to set her up for the future. So I whipped up a script in, like, two days and off we went. Kate was a marvel in the booth. She adored Flemeth and you could really tell.
I didn't get to meet Kate in person, however, until DAI. This came pretty late in its development, compared to when we recorded her for DA2, and we flew down to Virginia (to accommodate her schedule - she was writing her memoir at the time, I think) for a single session. It was going to be *tight*.
I was a mess. I was finally going to meet Captain Janeway... and yes yes, I know she's also more than that. But come ON.
When we sat down, I figured I'd have to talk her through the character all over again. It'd been years since that one session at the start of DA2, right? And even more since DAO.
But, no. Kate remembered Flemeth perfectly.
I remember sitting there as she told me how much she loved the character, how rare it was to get one with so much texture and possibility. She called out my writing - my writing! - and waxed poetic about how she viewed Flemeth's arc. I... I was floored. 🫠
Then we began recording. One issue that quickly reared its head was how Caroline had to speed through the lines if we hoped to finish. Kate was a trooper, and most takes she'd get it in one (which is rare), but I was alarmed because we weren't giving Kate time to read the VO comments on each line.
I brought it up, as there were some lines (so much sarcasm) that required nuance - Kate was getting them, oddly, but I was worried.
"Oh, it's fine," Kate said. "I read the comments as we go."
"How could you? We're going so fast!"
"I'm a speed reader."
Oh. OK, then. That certainly explained it. 😁
We got to the confrontation scene with Morrigan and she nailed it. Over and over. More than once, Caroline would make a call and, before I could even interject and say "no, Kate had it right, actually" Kate would explain exactly why she did it that way and why it worked for Flemeth. I was in love.
She did the "I will see her avenged!" section all in one go. I got chills. Then we got to the final scene.
You know the one. With Solas.
It was this beautiful moment. She took it somewhere quiet and sad... and when she got to that last line, we all felt it: Flemeth was dead. Everyone was in tears.
I suppose I could talk more about the process. How she started off aligned with Morrigan's original Delirium inspiration, but I didn't pull back her loopy way of talking as much (bet you wondered).
I still don't know why it was so easy to slip into her voice, but I'm grateful I got the chance. ❤️
This is a compilation of some Dragon Age elven names I’ve been adding to sporadically. I was hoping to have a longer list before sharing it, but hey, I can always update and probably will.
Sources include the DA Wiki, Katie’s Best Guess at Elvhen, and this thread.
In DA:O’s city elf origin, you have the option to speak with two young elves who tell you they do not know of any elven heroes. Considering the Chantry’s active erasure of elven history, this is not surprising. But there are great elven heroes and notable figures, past and present.
Correction: There is only one question that relies on DATV knowledge, no questions required to know any retconned information, and no questions exclusive to DAO knowledge, (as in it's also brought up elsewhere.)
But there's nothing wrong with 40% when many of the questions are deep cuts!
