#But as a templar main there are a lot of similarities

[feykrorovaan]

Arcanists are just nerdy Templars.

Don't get me wrong. Arcanist is super fun and I love mine, but it feels like a reworked Templar build. As a templar main, I've noticed a lot of similarities. (Especially "Jesus beam"/"book beam")

Obviously it has its own unique moves, but it handles a lot like Templar (at least dps wise, no idea what tank/healer is like).

I think that's why I love it so much and all of my non Templar friends gave up on it so quickly. Because it feels familiar.

Anyway, just my two septims.

If anyone from ZoS happens to read this,

*Bard class cough*

#feykrorovaan #elder scrolls #elder scrolls online #eso #tes #Arcanist #Not salt #Arcanist is super fun #But as a templar main there are a lot of similarities #It just feels like a reworked Templar build which is fine #Next time bring out a bard class eso #Also coming from a Templar that uses a full rotation and not just jabs. :)

[sc4llywag]

Since I got Tumblr and have free range to rant however I want, its time for the Assassin's Creed main characters and how they walk post!!!

With each of the games, they change the main characters walking animation to fit their vibe and I need to be able to study them beheehe

Desmond

I don't have too much to say about Desmond's other than his is simple and similar to Ezio's and Altaïr's and I like to think that this is due to the bleeding effect(it happened to me too I walk like the assassin's all the time) his is a little more confined and he keeps his arms closer to himself so he's very typical in the way he walks

Altaïr

In his walk he has a sway to his hips and steady hands(probably to keep himself ready for any assassination), but goddamn the SWAY I never noticed it.

His shoulders also sway with his walk and I love how fluid he is in general, this ties back to his robes for me and how flowy they are to show the grace of an assassin in high profile but when low profile they stay to his sides and he's all in the shadows and I REALLY love that about him.

Ezio

This gif is all I could find so i can't really remember if Ezio's walk is different in Ac2 from Altaïr's because ubisoft is the king of recycling things but whatever. He still has the outward stance but I do notice his head is pointed low to try and keep himself hidden(shadows shit be like) but ofc hes holding the apple here so it's hard to tell if he's trying to swing his arm a lot lol, anyway body language is important to Ezio so hes very good at looking broody as well as fluid in his movements

Connor

(Walk Cycle Research | PKlover4078)

My man my man my man my man😍‼️‼️

The way Connor walks with his hands stretched out and then clenching his fists every moment because he's always ready for a fight goddamn this MF could take me in an alleyway and I'd be happy. I'd like to note with this gif, it doesn't show his slow slow walk and I remember it pretty well, he has a slight cautious aura in his walk, he's really careful in his foot placement(I think) and he's super awesome and I love him a lot. Since we have him running I'd like to talk about that too. He has such an efficient sprint it's so mesmerizing, he keeps his head low and just fuckin vrooms across the colonies<3

Aveline

You can barely see her here bc the damn community doesn't care for Aveline much but I like her even tho I haven't played Liberation, I enjoy the way she walks in a proper manner and she's got that strut the runway strut is everything. I also like how she has a wider swing in her arms, more carefree and comfortable.

Edward

This is such a great quality gif thanks so much Ac fandom!!

Anyway, I really love the difference in Edwards walk compared to the rest of the assassins because he's a pirate, he hasn't had the teaching of grace and secrecy. Therefore his walk is staggering in his footwork but still proper bc he's a sword fighter and very good at it. In a longer gif you'd be able to tell but his footing is a little messy, showing that drunken sailor pirate personality shows in his walk. He has a close arm swing due to him always needing to be close to his weapons, ready for a fight(like his grandson<3)

Haytham

I can barely see how he's walking but I'm pretty sure he had his hand on his sword hilt which says so much abt his character, again always being ready for a fight. He has a very straight posture due to his pompous nature, quick in his form to be efficient because why walk if you don't look proper and efficient?

Shay

Ok he's a Templar and so is Haytham but fuck you I love them.

His walk is so GOOD his walk has a heavy step and he's very prominent, got that straight posture again, not much to say about his arm sway other than the added shoulder sway, love that for him bc he's just so intimidating.

(For reasons I'm not doing Arno, Evie, Jacob, Kassandra, and Eivor since I haven't played their games)

Bayek

Bayek's walk is very different from every other assassin and that makes me love him so much more. He feels very carefree and relaxed but when in combat good lord does he go off!! He puts more sway in his arms than his hips and that's probably why he has a combat centered walk, like Edward.

If you've reached the end thank you for reading my rambling ass get over excited over walk cycle animations :) follow for more rambling!!

#assassin's creed #assassins creed #desmond miles #ezio auditore #connor kenway #ratonhnhaké:ton #altair ibn la'ahad #aveline de grandpre #edward kenway #haytham kenway #shay patrick cormac #assassin's creed rogue #assassin's creed 1 #assassin's creed 2 #assassin's creed 3 #assassin's creed black flag #bayek of siwa #assassin's creed origins #ac1 #ac2 #ac3 #ac4 #ac rogue #ac origins #rant #infodump #ac nerd #character analysis #analysis #scallywagrants

[animasola86]

Nebbia's Origin Story

You might have seen and/or read about my HL MC Nebbia DeLuca, who I kinda revived for my HL playthroughs. But this very OC has been in my brain and in several attempts at writing her story for almost a decade now.

She's also been a shotgun/blood magic wielding Templar in The Secret World/Secret World Legends, or a necromancer with a greatsword and a staff in Guild Wars 2, and a car collecting maniac world explorer in GTA Online. So having "just" a wand was quite the adjustment for her!

But enough about her alter egos, how did she come to be?

She's been in my brain ever since I came into contact with The Last of Us. That game had a serious impact on me and the stories whirling through my head. I've always been a storyteller, have written stories since an early age. I've created a lot of original characters, fleshed out, with detailed backstories, but I was never able to finish their respective stories.

The themes were always pretty similar: younger woman, older man, size difference, gruff but protective male, innocent but feisty female. Side characters were always of the jealous, dangerous kind. I've always loved taboos and kinks, and the above-mentioned dynamic is one of my favorites to write (and read) stories about.

So, inspired by Joel and Ellie's relationship, I wanted to create characters that were similar, but different. My main motive for writing was always: Something's missing in those stories, let's write it myself! It started with adding romance to a thriller, love to a murder mystery, or found family/forbidden feelings to otherwise "innocent" scenarios.

For example, I've written a story about a young woman falling in love with the married father of the kid she's supposed to babysit (I swear there's more to that story than the porn clichés, it ends up turning into a psychological drama about jealousy and domination, mental illness, murder, abduction, what's real, what's not kinda scenes; unfortunately I've never finished my first proper original work that's sitting on a USB-stick somewhere since 2011. One day I'll get to finish your story, Tasja, don't worry. You'll get your happy ending!).

And then, someday in the year 2017, I started writing a story (though the idea is much older) about a post-apocalyptic world, based on an island near my hometown. I've thrown ideas around and around, researching, visiting places, creating characters, always changing something, but the basic idea that stuck was this (I suck at summaries, btw, sorry!):

Twenty years ago, there was a black-out and society collapsed. The people on that island live in groups, as far away from each other as possible to avoid conflict, as they are all stuck there, with no way to leave the island.

Enter Nebbia, born after the End, who is a girl living in an all-female village run by a group of older women called the Elders, whose daughters (creatively named the Daughters) do all their "dirty work". Nebbia is classified as a Motherless, you guessed it, lives without a mother.

And the backstory of that, in short, is: her mother was pregnant when she was found by one of the Daughters and brought to the village, gave birth, and fled the place after she discovered their dark secret (because what's a post-apocalyptic community without a dark secret, eh?), but she left Nebbia there because she knew she would have a safe home in spite of it, that is until she turns 18, when things go really dark.

In short: there's a strange little celebration, all the girls of age are dressed in their best dresses, and then leave the village on their way to another village nearby that is run by the Men... and, uh, well, yeah, society collapsed, so they try to rebuild it, it's a breeding station, oops, you get the idea.

And that is when our male protagonist comes in: Ben, in his late thirties, a gruff, lonesome smuggler/outsider/person who doesn't have a village/group, but works between them. And he is hired by none other than Nebbia's mother, Kira, to get Nebbia and save her from the horrible fate of being bred helping society grow again.

But something happens (there's a mysterious fog that keeps the people from leaving the island, but never mind that, although that is why Nebbia is called Nebbia, because fog=nebbia in Italian, because her mother is half-Italian - also, hey, off-topic, but there's a fitness clothes store called Nebbia in the Slovak Republic, isn't that cool?) and Ben loses his memories, and when he sees Nebbia, he thinks she's Kira... and kinda falls for her, because, of course, him and her were sweethearts before the End (but they had a falling out, but he doesn't remember that yet).

And Nebbia is this innocent girl, who basically worked as a slave her whole life, can't read, can't swim, is treated very poorly, can't exist outside her village, really. (And to have such a character and let her explore the world and learn stuff and blossom would have been so interesting to write!)

So Ben saves kidnaps Nebbia from the village, and they try to find their way back to Kira... and somehow this is where my ideas froze. I wanted to show their journey through the post-apocalyptic world, how their life is, what they do to survive, who they meet, that he slowly regains his memories and realizes his feelings for this girl, and once they get to where they want to go, they find out that Kira is gone/dead/I don't know, something, aaaand their journey continues? I have no idea. I never came to those parts.

I've written so many versions of that story, in German to start with (because the island it's set on is a German island), then tried recreating it in English without the local color, but it never really worked. I didn't know where it would end.

But the characters remained inside my head, I've had so many scenarios for them because I loved their dynamic, but I've never written any of them because back then I thought I needed a full story, something with beginning and end, the whole deal. I've never written one-shots before, or even short stories. I was fixated on the whole "novel" thing, that was my goal, my dream.

But now, after having written sooo many one-shots for a fandom, just snippets of people's lives and what they do in the moment, I feel confident enough to tackle it. To create little short stories centered around those very characters: Ben and Nebbia.

I've also read so many original works on AO3 lately, and seeing how people just put their own ideas out there, for everyone to see, did something to me. I always wanted to keep my ideas to myself, because, maybe, someday, I'll finish a story and could send it to a publisher and one day have my own work in book-form, but honestly, it is such a daunting idea, when all I wanna do is tell stories.

And so now I will just tell stories. I've started by writing for these characters everyone knows and loves (and I'll keep writing Sebastian smut, don't worry!), but now it's time to branch out, give those people inside my head their story, or at least snippets of their lives, and share it with the world.

And as I write this, I am working on an AU of those characters, with a completely different setting, but the same dynamic: older man, younger woman, gruff/protective vs. innocent/feisty, love in dangerous environments. Of course, it's gonna have my usual smut elements, but also world building, side characters, character development, etc. and new things to research!

(Lemme throw in some words I learned that may give a hint to where the story is set: withers, spats, stirrup. As for the time, well, it's actually an era I've already written for, but the place is a lot more... west, way west.)

I feel very inspired, and I hope I can one day (hopefully very soon*) share their story with you.

(I've made a side blog @animasolaoriginal where I'll post it once it's done or I grow too impatient to wait! I'll also post moodboards and inspirations there - eventually! If you'd like to follow me there too, I'd very much appreciate it!)

Thank you for letting me get this out. These characters are very dear to me, and I hope, once I start uploading my original work, I might catch your interest with it, and you will start to like them too!

Edit: *I did it, I posted the first chapter! 🤠

#original character #nebbia deluca #things to come #things i'm doing behind the scenes #also sorry for the radio silence #I've been stuck on a horse #🤠

[djsherriff-responses]

I desperately need season two of CLH I’m going insane right now

Unlike my Jade and Sarah posts, this one is a lot more speculative as I’ll be discussing my theory regarding what Bullfrog’s backstory is and he’s the character we have the least information to go off of. I may also ramble about other stuff, but Bullfrog is the main focus

We got a lot of Sarah’s backstory in the show already , Dolph had a manga dedicated to explaining his and while Jade and Pey’J don’t have much going on, we do know they’re a close “family” (die Pey’J) and any other details about their lives we can at least make some educated guesses based on information from the show and outside sources. Cody probably has a wiki dedicated to him or something, idk

Bullfrog though, we know very little on him. We only know for sure that he’s the last member of the Assassins Creed, a group who fought for freedom and has been in conflict with the Templars for most of human history

But maybe that’s all the information we really need to figure the frog out

I made a lot of heavy comparisons between Bullfrog and Sarah beforehand in my Sarah post , especially in terms of their colour palette and the symbolism regarding that, but what exactly could Sarah's backstory hint to us regarding Bullfrog's backstory?

Firstly I want to take a quick detour to talk about Jade and Dolph , which will only highlight my theory on Bullfrog's story

While the relationships are very different at a first glance, upon further inspection I have noticed some similarities between the relationship Dolph has with Alex, and the relationship Jade has with Pey'J

Jade/Dolph takes care of Pey'J/Alex's well being , with Jade taking care of Pey'J emotionally while Dolph takes care of Alex physically

Pey’J/Alex sexualised Jade/Dolph , Alex was a groomer. Pey’J , despite knowing her since infancy and basically raised her, has confessed being attracted to Jade. How Pey'J sexualised Jade may just be my theory that he's meant as commentary on fathers who partake in purity culture, I think it's still worth bringing up regarding this pattern

Despite how young they are, Jade and Dolph are also more mature than the older men in their lives. While with Dolph that's debatable considering he spends most of season one dealing with a lot of negative emotions and wanting revenge, prior to the betrayal Alex behaved much more cocky and playful than Dolph who took the heist job more seriously than Alex. I already wrote a huge post about how Jade is basically made to mother her own uncle

Alex and Pey’J died on the same night by gun shots

But the major similarity between Jade and Dolph is they're victims of men much older than them, and those men are fatherly figures that Jade/Dolph trusted to protect them

Jade and Dolph are , possibly not by pure narrative coincidence, both orphans too. Jade's parents are straight up dead and Dolph has no clue if he even has a living relative, nevermind finding out what became of his parents

The common thread between Jade and Dolph's story is primarily focused on non blood related father figures that traumatised them

(I got nowhere else to add this but if Jade is in season two, I want her and Dolph to bond so badly and for them to become friends and help each other heal. They deserve a second chance at a good life)

What does that have to do with Bullfrog?

Let's look at the other ghosts

Cody is a celebrity cameo and isn't really a character with narrative purpose , so can't really pull anything from him. And Pey'J is.... Pey'J

Which leaves us with the one who kidnapped these people to form team ghost in the first place: Sarah Fisher

Now while Sarah is a character whose story is tied to her relationship with an older man , that relationship is nothing like the relationship Jade and Dolph have had with their respective old men

Though the relationship between Sam and Sarah is messy, the two also have genuine love for each other regardless of everything that's happened. Sam , while a human with flaws, was at the end of the day a loving father who wanted nothing but the best for Sarah and her well being. Sarah , as twisted as she has become, wanted nothing more than to have her father be safe

Sam has never been a predatory person to anyone , much less one that's comparable to Alex or Pey'J and certainly not towards his own daughter

Sam is a father who'd do anything to protect Sarah, his own flesh and blood

Since Sarah and Bullfrog are meant to represent the Templars and Assassins as well as the conflict of those two groups, than Bullfrog's story could have a strong focus on his bloodlines. Both groups in the original assassin games have had a strong focus on bloodlines within their respective organisations

Side note: While I’m not an expect on creed lore, being an Assassin or a Templar isn’t always something you’d inherent directly from a a parent or even grandparent. While the memories of past assassins is important to preserve, you don’t need to have any blood relation to join the brotherhood. I think I read somewhere it’s actually sometimes discouraged for assassins to start families (at least while they’re still actively an assassin? Need to look more into it). So while I do think the theme of family/bloodline and their legacies are going to be part of Bullfrog’s story, he himself isn’t going to be picky on who who can join him in (hopefully) rebuilding the brotherhood, it just adds to the already high amount of pressure the guy is under

Based on the deciphering on Bullfrog's mugshot, people have managed to make out that his full name may be "Bullfrog Korvin Jr". While some argue Bullfrog's surname may be "Kermit" instead, the Junior part of the name is easy to make out

Bullfrog Junior implies that there's a Bullfrog Senior for a little tadpole to be named after

I wanna point out as well that hybrid children exist in this universe and are seen along side human children, ( I'm assuming this is a field trip or something?). So while hybrids were created to fulfil a purpose in Eden , they can still get together and start families like any other hard working American Eden couple and if they're lucky their children can be involved in society along with human children, such as school activities

If I am onto something regarding Regan being in the Templar order and her being the reason Sarah has the ideals that she ended up having in the show , than it's my belief Bullfrog's story will parallel with Sarah in that regard and that Bullfrog had an Assassin parent, and that Assassin parent is the person who gave, or at least inspired, the beliefs Bullfrog holds on to in the show

This may be wishful thinking, but I'm gonna believe until proven otherwise that it was specifically Bullfrog's mother that was the Assassin parent

Besides wanting more women in this show I do actually have reasons to think Bullfrog's mother is the parent who passed on the assassin legacy to him, rather than his father

If Sarah and Bullfrog story's parallel each other , and the two are meant to represent the conflict between Templars and Assassins, how does Sam fit into that?

Simple: Sam doesn't

While it's entirely possible that Sam could've learned about the existence of the Assassin brotherhood before he died, we know that he had no knowledge of either the Assassins or their conflict with the Templars when Sarah was growing up. If he did, he would've been far more vigilant about the propaganda that was brainwashing his own kid, even if Regan was directly feeding it into Sarah’s brain

At most, we can take a guess the earliest Sam could've learned anything about the Assassins was some time after he lost custody of Sarah when she snitched on the watch dogs, and that's just a guess on the earliest he could've discovered them. Depending on how open they were in their involvement with the wasteland war or if they were even "public" at all in Eden prior to Bullfrog becoming the only member of the brotherhood, Sam may have died completely unaware of the mere existence of the Assassins

In other words, Sam was pretty much in the dark about the Templars and that side of Sarah’s lineage

Going off of this and my theory that Sarah and Bullfrog’s stories are meant to be parallels of one another, it stands to reason that Bullfrog Senior was , much like Sam , left unaware of the Assassin brotherhood and that part of his own son’s lineage

Bullfrog and Sarah inheriting their mothers’ legacies of eternal conflict with each other can be a sort of play on the phase “sins of the father”. At least with Sarah , having it be “sins of the mother” makes more sense since Sam is more or less a good guy in the narrative who doesn’t have any sort of millennial old legacy to uphold, and for Bullfrog? Again , wishful thinking

If I really wanted to push that angle, I can probably make a reference to Eve , the first sinner and mother of all humanity. Bullfrog is technically already the snake offering a fruit of forbidden knowledge to Rayman’s Adam , so the symbolism is already present

“But it’s kinda weird that Bullfrog, a frog hybrid, has a bird themed surname if he’s from a family of frogs and was raised by his biological frog parents” And while the basic answer would be “it’s an Assassin’s creed reference and even if not , surnames don’t always make sense for an individual” the other possibly answer to that is to bring up another old man in Sarah’s life:

Marcus Holloway

I’ve seen a lot of people theorise that Bullfrog was adopted by a bird (usually crow or raven) hybrid and that’s how he got the bird themed surname. It’s an adorable headcanon

But going off of my theory I’ve explained thus far, I believe that a member of the Assassins creed , who happens to be a bird hybrid, was a friend of Bullfrog’s mother (and maybe father, but Senior wouldn’t be aware of the brotherhood’s existence) and was basically the Marcus to Bullfrog’s Sarah

Now, while I’ve said I believe Bullfrog’s backstory will parallel Sarah’s, I don’t think it’s going to be exactly one to one and the two are different characters , and my Marcus comparison here is an example of that

Remember the hero’s journey and how I used that to figure out Sarah had a hero complex?

While this entire post is a ramble of a theory and I’m most likely off the mark on a lot of stuff (besides maybe Bullfrog’s story involving blood lines and their legacy) , based on everything I brought up till now, we can probably take some (wild) guesses on what events Bullfrog experienced prior to the show's events

Having used the hero's journey as a template to explain the events in Sarah's life and keeping in mind that her story is likely meant as a parallel to Bullfrog's, we can use that to estimate what events happened in Bullfrog's life

Call to adventure:

Considering Bullfrog has a French accent and speaks French, his family originated from either France or a country with French as the dominant language

In season one , we do not have any information about what life is like outside of Eden. The only thing we know in this universe is that America was a country that existed when Rayman came to earth along with the rabbids, but soon after that the very concept of America disappeared and slowly became Eden, essentially wiping almost all traces of the country ever existing beforehand

There's a massive desert area called the wasteland smacked in the middle of Eden, with how a large piece of area in the middle of a capitalist nation where every other corner is a city building wanting to sell you something became untouched is not known

With how control is a defining factor in their beliefs and how they're a global threat , the Templars may have control of other countries , or least the more powerful countries (such as several European nations) in similar fashion to how Eden is currently functioning

Alternatively, Eden may be the only place left on earth that's actually bearable for most life , with every other country essentially being wastelands ,less likely due to the Templars and more so the Rabbids doing

Either because France sucks under Templar rule or Rabbids made it a hellscape , Bullfrog's father decided to leave and try getting into Eden to get a better chance at life , much like what Sam tried doing for Sarah

Supernatural aid: The crow hybrid assassin (or some other ally character) helps out Bullfrog and his family

Threshold , beginning of transformation: Bullfrog gets someone arrested

Bullfrog tells Rayman that he used to watch his show as a tadpole. While Bullfrog is clearly disillusioned by Eden propaganda as an adult, it could've been a very different story when he was a child

Maybe even a raykid?

Now obviously if Bullfrog's mother was an assassin, she would've kept her children as far away from Eden propaganda as much as possible

But going with Sarah and Bullfrog being parallels, so are their mothers. Sarah doesn't speak of her mother in the show but it's safe to assume that Regan, while someone who existed, was absent in Sarah's life before Sarah snitched on the watch dogs

It's likely then Bullfrog's mother parallels with Regan in sharing same fate as her, whatever that would be

Another reason I actually prefer for the mother to be Bullfrog's assassin parent is another parallel that can be made with Sarah: their fathers being against their conviction

While Sam wasn't part of the assassin brotherhood, Sam was never on the side of Eden . Sam may not have had all the information, he did know what Eden was doing was wrong and didn't want Sarah to become another cog in their machine

So paralleling with Sam , Bullfrog's father in contrast was pro Eden, at least by some extent, and thus would've encouraged Eden propaganda onto Bullfrog

Especially when his wife was no longer in the picture to say otherwise

So at some point after arriving in Eden proper , Bullfrog gets someone arrested in a similar fashion to how Sarah got the watch dogs arrested. Who that is exactly and under what circumstances I can't really say, but I can say one thing: It makes Bullfrog feel wrong for doing it

While Regan ensured that Sarah knew of her Templar heritage and the ideals that came from that, so that Sarah knew when "to do the right thing". Bullfrog's mother ensured Bullfrog knew of the beliefs of the brotherhood and understood the importance of justice

Bullfrog , despite being surrounded by repeat propaganda and his own father's belief in Eden, knew on a subconscious level something was wrong

I mentioned that I believe that a bird hybrid assassin would be a parallel to Marcus , and I believe that bird hybrid and Bullfrog have a bond that Marcus could've had with Sarah

If only their circumstances were different, Marcus could've been a second dad to Sarah

At some point there'd be conflict with Bullfrog senior being against his son becoming "terrorist" , and thus Bullfrog deciding to distance himself from his father and take on his mentor's name , Korvin

Challenges and Temptations : most likely Bullfrog's assassin training, maybe something to do with revenge (?)

Revelation, Death and Rebirth: Okay either the brotherhood dies, probably in the wasteland war or Bullfrog senior dies

The brother hood dying fits this better, but Senior dying or rather getting himself killed could be the final step from Bullfrog to let go of his past and fully commit to his destiny as an assassin

You can probably make a plot of Senior seeking revenge only to end up getting innocents and himself hurt along the way, and this that's what formed Bullfrog's views on revenge

Transformation: Bullfrog becoming a master assistant, maybe?

Atonement: Much like Sarah, Bullfrog's story isn't finished yet and thus, we'll have to see what happens in season two

#captain laserhawk #Sarah fisher #Bullfrog Korvin Jr #Splinter cell #Same fisher #captain laserhawk spoilers #rambles #It's almost one in the morning why are hyper fixations like this

[lairofdragonagelore]

Songs and elements that sing and whisper in DA Lore

Dragon Age presents us a lore which has an excess of things that sing. Some of them seem to be related to the same source, while others appear to be alternative songs or corrupted versions of the first ones. It's still not clear if all of them are related to an original source. Each of the concepts that has a Song has a lot of lore attached to it too.

In the present post I gather all the pieces of lore I found related to each title, summarised the most important concepts and ideas from them, and drew a general conclusion about the song of that particular object. Since some of them are related, I will be a bit repetitive in some items. At the end of the post a general, integral conclusion will be shared.

Main objects with songs attached to them:

Lyrium

Templars and Dwarves

Titans

Red Lyrium

Old Gods, Archdemons, and The Blight

Elves and Uthenera

Magic and Fade

Extra things with unclear songs

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]

[This post belongs to the series “High Speculation”]

Lyrium

Lyrium has had a song since DAO. The mining cast of the dwarves say they can hear it and that's the reason why they can find lyrium veins easily [Lyrium (Origins), Lyrium]. Lyrium in crystals also keep memories at the hands of the Shaperate, and produces indestructible metal when combined with iron. [Orlais: Shrine of Dumat]. Lyrium is also used to write the memories of the Shaperate, sever a mage’s mind from the Fade [make them tranquil], and it was a key element in the construction of Caridin’s golems [ which uses molten lyrium,  Caridin's Journal].

Justice when nearing large lyrium container in Kal'Hirol Trade Quarter:  "This...this substance...sings to me. Do you hear it? I did not know something so beautiful could exist."

Justice [after giving him the lyrium ring]: What is that sound? Such beautiful singing. The stone within this ring… is it lyrium? [...] When mortals dream of lyrium in the fade, it is not like this. The song saddens me, but it is breathtaking. Of all the things I have seen in this world, this is the most precious. I will keep it at my side as a reminder that even in misfortune, good can be found.

Lyrium also sings to the spirits in the Waking World: When we give Justice a lyrium ring, he says that it has a beautiful song that summons an ache in him [probably this is the Sadness of the Titan]. He also states that lyrium doesn't sing in the Fade and regrets his inability to bring the music there for the other spirits to hear.

Wynne rummaged through her pack, pulling out a large bottle filled with a glowing blue liquid. Pure, unrefined lyrium. Even from here, Rhys could hear its faint song, a melody that played in his head and danced upon his skin.

In the book Asunder, a Mage sensitive to speak with spirits, Rhys, can hear its song.

This staff gives a faintly audible hum when touched: A wistful tune, as if it were thinking of a faraway or forgotten place.

We can notice this song with the staff Isana's Song.

As the Titan's blood runs through Valta's veins, she claims there is loneliness to its song. [Ending of dlc, The Wellspring]. Lyrium carries a song that explains that the dwarves were broken into two [ Titans ]. 

However, there are some codices such as Kolg's Journal, that show that an excess of Lyrium produces a maddening song, that it's not clear to which point it's truly the Titan's song or merely lyrium poisoning. Due to the artificial way of connecting to the Titan through consumption and fusion of their bodies with Lyrium, the Sha-Brytol may be in a similar state of mind.

Conclusion on Lyrium: The Lyrium certainly carries the song of the Titans’ Fall and how their children were split into two different kinds of dwarves. Sensitive mages, dwarves, and spirits can hear this song in the lyrium  but not to understanding it. Only a deeper connection like Valta’s would allow it eventually. The song summons ache and loneliness.

Templars

"You take it like medicine at first, the lyrium. Your whole body sings with it, like the Maker's own fire. You're not scared of anything, not even abominations. After, it even takes away the nightmares. But the ration's too small. If they don't give you enough, your hands get cold. The sky starts to press down on you. Little things slip away. So you have to stay." [Confessions of a Lyrium Addict]

Cole, If Cullen is told to take Lyrium again: "He sounds right again with the chains in place, but the music makes him sad."

Inquisitor: Can you tell me more about how the templars feel to you?

Cole: They feel older than they look. They’ve been changed, and their bodies are incomplete now. The lyrium helps, but their bodies always want to connect to… something older. Bigger than they are. That’s why they block magic. They reach for that other thing, and magic has no room to come in. Like when I listen to Varric.

This makes us suspect that lyrium causes a kind of slavery [addiction if you drink it, or forced shape in Ancient Elven codices; Fen’Harel’s mountain ruins ], which can be connected with the concept of "lyrium vallaslin" we talked in other posts.

Templar's body and modern dwarf’s body want to connect to the Titan through the small bits of Lyrium in their blood. This is what causes the block of magic: the Fade cannot enter in their bodies because the need to connect with the Titan is bigger. Magic has no room.

This lets us infer that the Sha-Brytol tried to force an artificial re-connection with the Titan by drinking lyrium and fusing their bodies with it. We can assume that this insanity may have been caused by the despair they felt when the connection was broken.

Conclusion on Templar: Templars of course can hear the song of the Lyrium after drinking it, giving them an overwhelming sense of power. Lyrium usage, through consumption or otherwise, always causes a kind of slavery. It prevents magic, since the constant need to connect to the Titan thorough the small bits of Lyrium in their blood system blocks any attempts of the Fade to “enter” their bodies.

Dwarves

Solas: Do you ever miss life beneath the earth? The call of the Stone? Varric: Nah. Whatever the Stone - capital S - is, it was gone by the time my parents had me. Solas: But... do you miss it? Varric: How could I miss what I never had? But say I did have that sense, that connection to the Stone. What would it cost me? Would I lose my friends up here? Would I stop telling stories? I like who I am. If I want to hear songs, I'll go to the tavern. Solas: You are wiser than most.

If the inquisitor is a dwarf, Cole will say: "You’re too bright. Like counting birds against the sun. The mark makes you more. But past it… The stone, still there, silent and reaching up for the blood that walks. No dreams with the cord cut. You sell it."

Cole: I like traveling with Dwarves. Varric: Glad to hear it, Kid. Cole: You're quiet, but the old song still echoes inside, almost like Templars.

Cole: Do you write to reach across? To hear the song that was sundered? Varric: I'm... not sure what that even means, Kid, but probably?

Cole reinforces the idea that Dwarves have an echo of the "old song", I imagine, it's about the song that Lyrium carries: the Titan’s fall and its pain.

When Cole speaks about dwarves calls them “blood that walks” [Titan’s blood].

Dwarves have no magic ability because they are constantly reaching to the Titan, preventing the magic/Fade to enter in their bodies.

Apparently, it is implied that if a dwarf can access to the connection to the Titan, they can dream [since the cord would have been restored]. So, was the Titan always connected to the dreams, and therefore the to the Fade so the original dwarves could dream? However, Valta stops sleeping when she connects to the Titan, but she has access to any space and time, so she seems to be living the Reality with the flexibility of the Fade. In a sense, does she live Reality as if it were a dream? The implications of this bit of information are wild.

This confirms a bit the interpretation of the Mural “The Death of a Titan”, where we find a green Fade-like colour around the heart of the Titan: Titans may have been connected to the Fade originally? Or they controlled the Fade as much as Reality as Massive Shapers?. This makes the connection with the old unreliable Dalish lullaby about Mythal [Torn Notebook in the Deep Roads, Section 3] more impossible to understand.

Conclusion about Dwarves: Dwarves apparently could dream when they were connected to the Titan. It’s not clear what this exactly means since Valta stops sleeping when she connected to the Titan in the same way the ancient dwarves did. However, she bends reality as if it were made of Fade. Once the connection was severed, the dwarves became “silent or quiets”, with faint echoes of the Titan’s song in their blood. The constant desire to reach this connection or to reach the Titan, prevents the Magic from entering inside their bodies, hence they are unable to perform magic.

Titans

Cole: I like travelling with Dwarves. Varric: Glad to hear it, Kid. Cole: You're quiet, but the old song still echoes inside, almost like Templars.

Cole: Your stories aren't real. But then people read them and they are! Varric: Get the readers invested and you'll have them forever. Cole: So many people reading, dreaming, feeling. Spirits spill around the veil making shapes. Reality from writing! Varric: I've got fans in the Fade? Well, that's something. Shame I'll never meet them. Cole: Do you write to reach across? To hear the song that was sundered? Varric: I'm... not sure what that even means, Kid, but probably?

There is a book from the time of the Paragon Orseck Garal, which describes the stone as singing: “I awoke to the singing stone. Our kingdom trembled at the Titan’s hymn”.

Cole, when he reaches the Bastion of the Pure (descent): "It's singing. A they that's an it that's asleep, but still making music."

After the first fight with the Sha-Brytol in the Bastion of the Pure (descent):

Cole: It sings softly under the silence. The Stone took him back. He's home again. Valta: Somehow that brings me comfort.

When entering the Overlook (Trespasser) "Songs screaming far away. It wants to wake up but can't remember how. No one should be here."

When walking along  Excavated Caves, he refers to Qunari: Cole: The stone sings. The song scares them. It's the wrong song, the wrong blood. They don't know how we stand it. Dorian: If we can convince them to stop murdering us for just a few years, I'm open to a cultural exchange.

“Its blood now flows through me, and its song fills the gaps in our history. I close my eyes and see glimpses of the world that was, before everything changed and the dwarven race broke in two. Something caused the Titans to fall, and the fate of my people fell with them. The Titan wants me to know. No, more than that. It wants me to understand. There is a loneliness to its song.” [Valta in Titans]

Cole describes the Titans as an "it" in singular, and they sing "the old song".

The song of the Titans is about loneliness and the Fall of the Titans that also caused the fall and fracture of the dwarven race. This most likely refers to the war against the elves: The Fall of the Titans, the sundered of the dwarves, and a forced sleep through ages as the Elvhenan mined their bodies and did "something else". This story is partially told from an Elvhenan point of view in the mural “The Death of a Titan”.

Cole seems to imply there is one last titan: "A they that's an it". Valta also speaks at the end of the dlc about the loneliness of the Titan. It’s not clear if there is a last one of their kind or it’s a loneliness due to the disconnection from its children, the dwarves, or due to this eternal sleep that the titan is submitted.

Titans are sleeping but producing a lonely, aching music unconsciously. They forgot how to wake up. However, their song echoes in the blood of the disconnected dwarves.

Apparently, Dwarves keep trying to "fully" hear this song, and that's the origin of their "constant reaching" that blocks magic from them.

The Stone is always singing under the silence, and apparently this song scares the Qunari because "it's the wrong song, the wrong blood". It’s impossible for me to interpret this, even when we know the wrongness of the Qunari’s blood is because they are a created/experiment race.

When Valta connected with the Titan, she stopped sleeping at all, and has no sense of time, past, present, future, nor distance. She seems to be able to violate all the [The Cardinal Rules of Magic].

According to Cole, there are many other songs that seem to imply that keep the Titan unable to wake up. “Songs screaming far away. It wants to wake up but can’t remember how.” This is the reason why I personally suspect Uthenera is related to a song/spell chanting sustained forever [as the codex Raising the Sonallium seems to imply elvhes could do in the past].

Curiously, Corypheus and the Archdemons displayed a similar or the same ability that the Titans: they were “asleep, but still making music.” We know both of them unconsciously produce an song despite being sleeping that causes blighted creatures to reach to them in a compulsive way.

Since Valta’s blood now carries Lyrium too [but in a different way to the modern dwarves, or the Sha-Brytol, or the Templars], she can hear and translate the song that explains that part of the ancient dwarven History. Even though Valta is only hearing one voice: the Titan’s voice, it seems a similar situation to the Well of Sorrow; an entity with access to the mind of Chosen Ones who can understand  it.

The only odd piece of information I gathered about Titans that I can’t fit in all this list is this one:

Cole, as he walks through the  Forgotten Caverns (descent): "It’s wrong here. Too many whispers. The song is wrong. Chords cut to silence."

We are close to the Titan that will be connected to Valta, so these songs are not the ones Cole listen later in The Wellspring. Since this is the level where we meet the Sha-Brytol, I assume they are the whispers? But this is extremely strange because the lyrium sings one song [the titan’s, not many different songs or whispers], and the Sha-Brytol have fused their bodies with lyrium and drink it and feed on it.  Unless Cole is referring to the remnants of dwarves that he can heard below all that lyrium: these may have been the original sundered dwarves who, disconnected from their Titan, lost in despair, passed through this insane process of fusing their bodies with the lyrium to get closer to the titan in an artificial way. Valta, once connected, calls them “lost dwarves”, which would make a bit of sense for Cole to call them “chords cut to silence”. So Cole is hearing the dwarves below all that stuffed lyrium and not the lyrium itself? This confuses me a bit.

Conclusion on Titans: The Titans have an "old song", filled with loneliness about the Fall of the Titans and the sundered dwarves that were disconnected from them. The song may speak about the Elvhenan who forced them to sleep and forget how to wake up while their bodies were mined and "something else" was done to them. This song still echoes in the blood of the modern dwarves, but apparently not in the Sha-Brytol’s ["Chords cut to silence"]. This same song scares the Qunari because "it's the wrong song, the wrong blood".

This curious connection between the Titans and their dwarves feels similar to the connection that the servants of Mythal have through the Well of Sorrows to her. It’s also curious how similar Corypheus and the Archdemons can produce a song to make the blighted creatures become compulsive in reaching them. It seems a “bad, perverted” version of the same mechanics that affects the dwarves in relation to the Titans and prevents them from having magical abilities. 

Red Lyrium

"Red lyrium isn't the weak stuff they fed you all your life. The song is deeper. It's got a will of its own [...] Soon you won't need to stop to hear it. Practice, and the song will always be in your blood." [Red Templar Archers]

Cole in Emprise du Lion; near red lyrium: "It sings... sick music."

Cole in the Darvaarad, near red lyrium: "The song is different, but the pieces fit together".

Cassandra: Cole, you killed Lord Seeker Lambert so he wouldn't hurt people. Cole: Yes. Thank you for remembering. Sometimes people forget me. Cassandra: Is that why you went to Therinfal? Cole: Most sounded the same, but the leaders they listened to were hurt, hollowed, sick with a new song. They swallowed lies until they sang with darker music. The sound hollowed them. I wanted them to stop me if I harmed people, but I had to stop them instead. Oh, wait. You had a question.

Inquisitor: Can you tell me more about how the red templars are different? Cole: The red lyrium is different, darker. Daggers under the skin. It eats you inside until you're nothing. They hear a different song. The song behind the door old whispers want opened. They are dead and dark and done.

The red Lyrium has a sick, dark, deeper song to it.

I'm not sure what Cole means when he says that the song is different to the normal lyrium, but “fits together”.  Is this a way to say both lyrium are singing complemented songs?

The most meaningful comment of Cole about the red lyrium is "The song behind the door old whispers want opened". This comment connects the Red Lyrium directly with the concept of "Old Whispers", which makes us remember the codex Whispers Written in Red Lyrium. In this codex we read about entities that were in the Dreams before being sealed. This can be interpreted in several potential candidates: 1) If the Titans truly were able to sleep and walk in the Fade original, a possible interpretation is that the Red Lyrium’s whispers may be the consciousness of all the titans that can’t awake, 2) the Evanuris sealed by Solas through a bound process, or 3) the entities that Tevinter considered the Old Gods; but this piece of information is based on the unreliable Chant of Light. After all, it’s only in the Chant of Light that we are told that the “old whispers” are related to the archdemons/old gods.     

[Speculation] We know the Magisters Sidereal entered the Black City and saw it empty [Corypheus’ words in Legacy and his memories in Shrine of Dumat], but we also know, thanks to the last mural of Dread Wolf, that the Black City is infected with Red Lyrium. If we take into consideration the codex above, and we assume these whispers belong to the Evanuris, we can conclude that the Evanuris may have been bound or sealed to Lyrium. Since Solas seems incapable of using Red Lyrium on purpose, the contamination may have happened accidentally when he forced the bound process. We also know through Zathrian story that these strong bound process may produce curses or infections that can spread, so I suspect that Solas’ banishment may have caused an unexpected contamination that required extra layers in the Fade to contain. Another possibility, removing the old lore content of Zathrian is that simply bounding Andruil caused the contamination of the rest because she was already contaminated with Blight or Red Lyrium [Elven God Andruil]

Conclusion on Red Lyrium: The red Lyrium has a sick, dark, deeper song to it that "fits normal Lyrium's", even though it is a different song. Red Lyrium seems to be associated with "Old Whispers" that wanted to be released. They could be related to Titans [if they were truly able to dream originally], the Evanuris sealed by Solas, or the unknown entities that the Tevinter called "Old Gods".

Old Gods, Archdemons, and The Blight

“The Old Gods are dragons.” The Architect chucked with amusement. “Is that all they are, human? Is that such a small thing, then? Are there so many such creatures in the surface lands that they are not something of wonder?” [...] “I do not know what an Old God truly is,” the Architect admitted. [...] “I have never seen such a creature in my lifetime. Nor do I know if doing so would be a good thing. All I know is that the call of the Old Gods is a thing of perfection.” It turned to look at Bregan again, its expression indiscernible but its tone soft and sad. “We are things of darkness, human. You know this better than any other might. To us, the call is the only light we shall ever know.” [Book The Calling]

“The Grey Wardens have never been successful in wiping out our kind. Four times we have found one of the ancient dragons slumbering in their prisons beneath the earth, the beings you call the Old Gods.” The Architect looked off into the distance, its demeanor melancholy. “They call to us, a siren song we cannot resist. We seek them out, and when they rise up to the surface, we follow. We cannot resist. And when your kind drive us back down, the cycle begins anew.” [Architect in The Calling]

Isseya heard a faint, strange melody seep into her mind. She had no sense of it as actual sound; rather, it seemed to come from within, almost as if she were humming the tune to herself. She could never have imagined such a song, though. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever heard. Aching and ethereal, it seemed to pull her toward a memory of nostalgic bliss that she had somehow lost—but that she would do anything to recover. Anything at all. [Book Last Flight]

“The corruption that allows us to sense the darkspawn, and protects us from their taint, also causes us to experience some things as they do. The Archdemon’s call is among them. It’s the same song you’ll hear when the Calling comes upon you, and it will grow stronger as the corruption sinks deeper into your bones. Someday, if you wait too long, you won’t be able to resist. Your duty is to answer the Calling while you still have the choice.” “Does that happen faster because we hear the Archdemon’s song?” Isseya asked. Turab shrugged in a clanking of steel and silverite. “It might. It comes a little differently to each of us.”

Avernus [DLC: Soldier’s Peak and Avernus’ notes]: " I am starting to hear things, even while awake: A voice—more beautiful than any other—that calls to me from the depths. In my dreams, I see the Black City, and I am drawn towards it. There is something there, an answer to what this taint is, this taint that we share with the darkspawn..."

“What happens if the Old Gods perish? Does the song die with them?” [Awakening, The Architect's Notes]

Only comment of Cole when stepping in front of the Shrine of Dumat: "This is a sad place, filled with old pain. People spoke here, and something listened, until it didn't."

Those who consume Darkspawn's blood can hear the song of the Archdemons [Ghoul (Inquisition)]

Cole, in Western approach says two lines:  “The song never sang for them. They were lucky.” [Probably about warden who died in duty without experiencing the Calling, or he may be referring to the Call of Corypheus] and “The darkspawn are below us. A long way, but still singing.”

"It scratches at my thoughts, the music almost a voice, at once unearthly and beautiful. I found myself humming it aloud a few days past. Where once it intruded, it now feels a natural part of my mind's course. It coils around memories I hold dear [...] and inserts itself into them, so that I could almost swear that music, that sense of a presence watching and calling, had always been a part of what I remember. [...] I should not find it beautiful. I must remember the corruption and recognize that my mind is slowly losing the wit to differentiate between this world, and that which would consume and destroy it. [...]  But if I am to die, after all I have given, can I not at least allow myself the pleasure of the song's beauty?" [Regarding the Calling]

"I hear a song in my head. It's deafening. The most beautiful thing I've ever heard. But I don't hear it with my ears. It's in my brain. A blissful sound. This must be the call for which the darkspawn yearn, what causes them to dig so feverishly." [To Be Corrupted]

“I can't explain the sound—the song—but I knew. It's a poison that grows in the mind, then consumes the body.” [Warden Ailsa's Diary]

The song of the Blight sometimes is a set of sounds or a voice.

The Old Gods, or their corrupted version the Archdemons, sing a song of "perfection". The Blight and the blighted creatures are things of darkness, and this song is the only light they will ever know, creating a compulsion to reach it.

The song they hear is mixed with their dearest memories, building up the compulsion. The song is ethereal and aching too, an extreme beauty.

Avernus in particular feels a voice directed towards the Black City, which will answer his questions about the Taint.

The song intensifies during the Blights, so the Grey Wardens may end up suffering their Calling in a premature way.

It's not clear if the song will die with the extinction of the Old Gods.

The only true reference that Cole does to an Old God was in the Shrine of Dumat. I'm saying "true reference" because we can't be sure that these dragons trapped underground are the same Old Gods that the Tevinter heard in their dreams in the beginning of times. So far, Cole does not say they sing, and he describes the place as an "old pain". He uses "old pain" usually to describe elves, but I think here the context is different: the old pain is in the whole Shrine, probably when Dumat stopped talking to his priests, and the people worshipping him entered in despair.

There is only one case of a person who was free of her Calling, as well as the Taint: Fiona. Her conditions may have implied a pregnancy by a dragon-blooded man [Maric] that may have caused a resistance to the Taint; or her previous possession by a spirit/demon. This last situation may have given her extra resistances to the Blight since we know Seekers, who are touched by spirits after a year of being tranquils, are resistant to things such as Red Lyrium.

Corypheus can reproduce a song similar to the Old Gods’ even when he is unconscious, since he did it at first as he was sleeping. Grey Warden mages were the most sensitive ones to this calling.

Conclusions on Old Gods, Archdemons and the Blight: The Archdemons' song and the song in the Taint are the same: it's a beautiful set of sounds, a song, or a voice of immense beauty, that mixes itself with the dearest memories of the blighted creature, and creates compulsion. Clearer minds know this song comes from the Black City. It is suggested that killing the Old Gods would not end the song because the origin of it is not the Old Gods per se, but the inside of Black City.

Elves and Uthenera

The elven song Uthenera seems to be translated as a process where they sing, rejoice, but there is sorrow too [In Uthenera].

Elvhen weep as they enter Uthenera. It's a sad event, more than a relief to an eternal life [A Flowering Imago, and Untranslatable Elven Writing]

Flemeth returns to life in DA2 when Merril narrates a part of the Song Uthenera.

If Cole is a spirit, and walks along Excavated Caves, he will say: "The songs are old here. Sleeping sadness already forgotten. I can’t help this hurt." [He says songs, so I assume it's the Elvhes. The titan's song is usually one.]

Cole in the Deep Roads, where we find the chamber with the Uthenera elvhen in Trespasser: “They're all singing. Coffers, coffins, corpses that aren't dead. A song crying out in the dark.”

Cole: There are songs in every part of you, Sera. Soft silly sibilant, sighing in silence, waiting for you to hear them. Sera: Could someone please shut him up. Or I’m going to shaft him in his creepy, little eyes. Cole: You...you called me “him”. Thank you!

Cole: You are quiet, Solas. Solas: Unless I have something to say, yes. Cole: No, inside. I don't hear your hurt as much. Your song is softer, subtler, not silent but still. Solas: How small the pain of one man seems when weighed against the endless depths of memory, of feeling, of existence. That ocean carries everyone. And those of us who learn to see its currents move through life with their fewer ripples. Cole: There is pain though, still within you. Solas: And I never said that there was not.

Uthenera seems to be a very sad process more than a relief to eternal life. Always that an elvhen enters Uthenera, there is weeping and sadness. It gives the impression of being a process without return. 

Cole speaks of "old songs" when we head towards a Chamber of Uthenera.

When we see the Uthenera coffins, Cole reinforces the idea that they are singing. This brings to our minds the idea implied in Raising the Sonallium [“The well-dressed elves' shouting grows so loud, it can be heard over the magic.” It seems to imply the spell is related to some communal chanting].

Elven bodies naturally have songs associated with them. Cole detects Sera's songs who are ignored by her, and Solas', which is quieter and sad. 

Conclusion on Elves and Uthenera: Elves seem to have songs associated with their bodies. It’s not clear if the Uthenera allows the elves to maintain a song while eternally slumbering, or their natural, intrinsic song is what Uthenera uses to keep these songs. In any case, entering Uthenera is a sad, weeping process, implied that has no turning back, and it’s seen more as a final death than a relief.

[I will eventually make another post about Uthenera in a more global approach beyond its song-aspect]

Magic and Fade

The Fade or the Magic also have a song, that may be the one associated with the elves:

Dorian: Cole, do you hear magic? Cole: Yes. I do. Don't you? Dorian: Spells sometimes makes a sound but... I don't think we hear the same thing. Cole: Don't your spells whisper things to you? What is and could be, music in the mind of strange, far away places? Dorian: Not lately. Cole: Then we don't hear the same thing.

Cole: Do you feel spirits move around you when you cast a spell? Bits of them push through with your magic, tiny, a wisp of a wisp, free before falling back. They pool around you, water in a cup, defined, deafened, hearing only your song. They want to skate, scintillate on skin. You made them them. Their Maker. Vivienne: Now. I need. A bath.

Cole: Dorian is like you, Vivienne. Vivienne: I think not. Dorian: Vivienne, the poor thing is trying to pay you a compliment. How so, Cole? Cole: The Veil sings around both of you. It whispers through you and makes you both brighter. Vivienne: The same could be said of any mage. Beyond that, I have little in common with a noble from Tevinter. Cole: No. For most mages, it's a tool. A toil. You make it you.

Cole on Inquisitor who specialised on Rift Magic: “The Fade sticks to mages. Little figments, flitting, floating free, then forced into shapes. Fire, ice, lightning. You use the Fade itself. You make it charged but not changed, channelled enchantments. It’s strong and pure. And loud.  You ripple like water when the tone is dropped. Solas is the same, but quieter. The Fade is his friend. He doesn’t need to look to know where it goes. Vivienne is crisp and cool. The Fade dances, darts, lashes and leashed. Dorian pulls at pieces, pushing them to bodies. I like him more when it’s just fire. And the Venatori are dark and hard and cracked and old. They pull the Fade with blood and pain and ancient lying whispers. […] [Rift Magic] is familiar.  It reminds me of me.”

"The ancient dwarves who inhabited this place could not have known, as they are deaf to the song of the Fade " [ Note From the Silent Quarter, from Hissing Wastes]

Conclusion on Fade and Magic: Spells are cast tapping into the Fade, and apparently, this is from where the songs and the whispers come from. Sometimes it’s implied they come from the Veil too. It's also described that the Mages produce a song that attracts spirits and shapes them into magic, ironically turning the mage into their Maker [this is an interpretation very close to Zathrian and the Lady of the Forest]. The Fade used in order to cast blood magic seems to invoke ancient lying whispers. We have an unreliable source [the Chant of Light] which claims that the blood magic was taught by the old gods, while the Fel grimoire [a bit more reliable] claims it was the Forbidden Ones were those who taught it to humans, so this may imply that casting magic makes use of the songs of different spirits in the Fade. These ancient lying whispers could be connected to the Red Lyrium whispers and to Cole's line: "The song behind the door old whispers want opened".

Extra things with unclear songs

Cole, in the Shattered Library; Courtyard: "Your hand hurts. A heartbeat. Not yours. Hammering the beat of a song in its final verse. I'm sorry."

Here, Cole refers to the Anchor, and its song may be related to the same song that we covered in the Magic and Fade [after all, the Anchor is made of Fade energy]. Combined to this bit follows:

In Solasan Temple, Coles says once the inquisitor collected all shard: “It will open now. They can all sing together”

Where Cole seems to refer to the small pieces of energy we find in the sarcophagi of the Solasan Temple, which want to join the Anchor. These songs seem to be related to the Fade too. 

Cole, in Forbidden Oasis: “Digging and delving like dwarves. Do they hear the old song, too?”

Cole refers with this line to the miners in the Forbidden Oasis, thinking they are like dwarves, drawn to the “old song”=Titans.

Cole in Fallow Mire: So many old songs under the water.

I’m a bit confused with this one. In Fallow Mire we have people who died due to a plague. Many of them ended up as walking corpses inside the water. If Cole is referring to something underground, we have no idea about it, since it was never implied that Fallow Mire had any ruin or the like underground. So my guess is that the spirit of the people, trapped in the corpses, are the ones making the song. But this is weird too, since humans do not seem to have a song. At least Cole never suggested that. Only dwarves and Elves have it.

Cole as he approaches the flooded lake in Crestwood:  It sounds different. The water changes the song.

We know that under Crestwood there was a strange dwarven ruins which had Paragon statues but also Tevinter ones that resemble a bird or a dragon [Tevinter bird].  This confuses me a lot, because Cole refers to one single song. Is there a titan below Crestwood?

Cole, in Storm Coast: “The temples have a lot of keys. They all sing, but never the same song.”

Again, I’m not sure what he is referring to. This is Storm Coast, and there are no Temples, and underground there is only an old place of business exchange between dwarves and surfacers. Below there, we find the Titan of the Descend dlc, although along the way we find some chambers with Claw of Dumat and Tevinter birds that may be considered a “kind of temple”. But this would imply that these gods also have a different song to the titan deep below? I’m super confused with this one. 

Dorian: Do you need to eat, Cole? Or sleep? Cole: I thought I had to. But I don't. The Old Songs can pull me.

In general, we know that Cole speaks of the Titan’s song as “the old song”, while the elves have different old songs. In this line he may imply that the Old elvhen songs pull him into the Fade when he sleeps? Or to the Black City? I’m not sure how to interpret this one.

What Cole reads in one of banters where he simply reads Solas' mind for some seconds: "He hurts, an old pain from before, when everything sang the same. You're real, and it means everyone could be real. It changes everything, but it can't. They sleep, masked in a mirror, hiding, hurting, and to wake them... (Gasps.) Where did it go? Solas: I apologize, Cole. That is not a pain you can heal. "

This may imply that all these small songs we found in different places, were all the same: The titans, and the Fade’s song, and the elves’ and the lyrium’s. I’m not counting on their corrupted versions. They seems to be the other part of the songs that were broken.

General Conclusions

In Principle, there are FOUR songs: the Titan’s, the Red Lyrium’s, the Archdemon’s and the Elves’.

First song: the titan’s

It seems very clear that the Lyrium, as a titan's blood, carries the song of the Titans. A sad, lonely song about the fall of the Titans and the disconnection with their children, producing two different kinds of dwarves. Some with the echo of the song [modern dwarves], others apparently silent [Sha-Brytol?].

Modern dwarves have no dreams and can't manipulate magic because there is no room for the Fade to enter them, since they are all the time reaching to this original song and to the Titan.

Apparently, when the Titan was whole and the dwarves were part of it, they had an unclear connection to the Fade, dreams, and magic to a point where the modern limitations of magic did not affect them.

Due to the consumption of Lyrium, Templars sound a bit like dwarves, and we can even consider them “artificial” children of the Titans. However, they are chained to Lyrium, reinforcing the idea that Lyrium can be used to create a kind of slavery. In the Templar's case, this slavery comes from the addiction to it.

The Qunari fear this song in the lyrium, but it's unclear why. It may be related to their own nature of being a race created through experiments. Maybe their fears comes from an unconscious perception that their wrong blood was created through the use of painful procedures based on lyrium?.

Second song: the Red Lyrium’s

Red Lyrium is a different song to the Titan's; it is darker, deeper, sick, but it seems to "fit" together. It’s associated with a song that uses whispers to ask for the gates to be opened. It may be related to blood magic as well due to the link Cole does with the Venatori magic.

It’s not clear what the entity that whispers into the Red Lyrium is. It may be Old Gods, Evanuris, or Titans [if they were capable of dreaming before the war against he elvhenan]. 

Third song: the Archdemons’

Another song comes from the “corrupted Old Gods”, the Archdemons, and the Blight in general which seems to point out to the Black City. This song seems independent of the Titans', but quite closely related to the Red Lyrium’s. 

Curiously, the Archdemons and the Blight seem to have a lot of common mechanism with the Titans and their blood: Lyrium. It’s as if the Blight were a creation trying to imitate the characteristics of the Lyrium. What I mean is: The Blight works for the Archdemons in a similar way as the Lyrium works for the Titans: they carry a song related to them and their needs. In the case of the Archdemons, it’s a song that inspires compulsion to awake them and free them [even beyond the dragons itself, since Avernus can feel the call towards the Black City].  In the case of the Titans, it’s a song to reach their children and know the truth of the past and connect the dwarves to them.

The natural children of the Blight are the darkspawn, born from broodmothers, while their “artificial” children are the wardens and the ghouls [those who connect to the Archdemon through the consumption of blighted blood], all of them suffering compulsion as a sort of slavery. The natural children of the Titans are the dwarves that were severed from them, while their “artificial” children are the Templars [and Sha-Brytol?] who connect to them faintly through the consumption of Lyrium suffering addiction as a sort of slavery. 

I think that due to these common mechanisms, and taking into account their differences and subtleties, it looks like “someone” tried to emulate the lyrium’s powers and its relationship with the Titans, and created the Blight and attached it to the dragons. I would not be surprised if the Evanuris created the Blight trying to emulate the Titan’s power and their control over the dwarves as a means to slave elvhenan in another level, and ended up creating the Blight, trying to attach it to the only dragon we know for sure among the Evanuris: Mythal, killing her in the process [but this is a speculative motivation, I think the Evanuris may have had many other reasons to develop a new kind of slavery of their own people by using Titan-like mechanism].  

Fourth song: the Elvhen and the Fade’s

The Elvhes and the Fade have mixed different songs. It’s implied that Uthenera may be a process to sing forever to, probably, control the slumber of the Titans [this is also a speculation].

It’s not clear what’s the meaning of the song in the body of the elves. Each of them seem to have several different songs one another. They seem not to fit well neither with the Titan’s song, nor the Red Lyrium, nor the Archdemons’. This song in the elves may be a red herring to confuse us in identifying the Titan’s and the Archdemon’s songs. 

#da song #uthenera #titans #elvhen #elvhenan #elves #red lyrium #lyrium #fade #the fade #templars #templar #dwarf #dwarves #old gods #Archdemon #blight #the blight #magic #High speculation #codex focused

[heliosoll]

Hi! I really like your blog and thanks for sharing your experiences, I'm curious about your winx dr (I wanna create one too) and I would love if you could respond some question:

1.What is the main difference between: fairy, witches and specialist in your dr?

2. In Alfea do you study also normal subject like maths or literature?

3. What do the witches study that fairy don't? (And viceversa)

Thank you in advance you would really help me to define better this dr❤️

Oh how fun! I hope you enjoy your time there!

In my DRs, we have "magic streams". Magic users can pick a magic stream to dedicate their magic to, and this stream changes a few things like their magical input, their magical output, and even their physical abilities. Magical output is essentially how someone's magic physically manifests (ie the wings, the outfit, what a spell actually looks like once cast, etc). This output changes from person to person but streams share similar outputs. For example, fairies have shimmery, semi-solid wings while witches have no wings and templars have angel wings. Fairies tend to have bright, shimmery magic while witches and wizards have smokey magic.

On the other hand, magical input is what a person needs to put into magic in order to use it. Fairies use positive emotions and feelings of goodwill to power their spells while witches use intense passion and feelings of self-will. They both have their pros and cons!

So, fairies, witches, wizards, and other magic types are all considered different magic streams. Another big difference between the types is what kind of magic they use. There are some kinds of magic that all magic types can use (like potions) but there are others that can only be used by a specific stream (like witches with curses).

A specialist is not a magic type and doesn't belong to any of these streams. It's just a job hahah. Red Fountain is a military school so being a specialist is like being a soldier or knight. As a specialist, you're tasked with protecting the universe! Some specialists are magic users and some aren't :)

We did study other non-magic related things at Alfea, notably history, language, and diplomacy. We didn't have math because I hate math hahah

Witches study a lot of the same material that fairies do, but for witch specific things: curses, necromancy, demonology, and bone reading are a few fun ones off the top of my head! As for things that fairies study that witches don't: fairy dust and maybe convergence magic? Other magic types absolutely can and do use convergence magic, but it's much more common among fairies.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have more questions 💞

#letters 🎀 #dr storytime

[broodwolf221]

i love how solas is an antagonist bc... it would be so easy to make him the protagonist, instead. like, they can't, they won't, it wouldn't work in terms of what the franchise has been offering, but yknow... it could work, narratively speaking, if we played as solas in da4. seeking a restoration of the world, that's not outside the realm of a videogame plot, not at all. it would be the smallest twist to establish him as the main character - he's only the antagonist in dai bc the inquisitor - and by extension, the inquisition - is the protagonist.

but like... is it? really? they do good work, sure, but it's just... it's an arm of the chantry. it's religious fervor if not fanaticism. it's pointing at a victim and calling them a god-send and a sign of divinity and righteousness. we're meant to sympathize with them bc we play as the inquisitor and get to have a say, but even then, do we really? setting aside issues of game mechanics and focusing exclusively on the narrative for a moment...

we as the player are not given a lot of autonomy. we can make some big choices, sure, but the results are all the same. side with the mages? okay, they help close the breach. so do the templars. in the one, we get dorian early, but still get cole. vice versa for the other. it doesn't really matter to the game who rules orlais. corypheus is defeated no matter who you ally with. in fact, all the allegiances you've spent the game building up become immaterial in the final battle.

the dai protag is a cog in a machine with a narrow range of choices. ultimately, they have to be the inquisitor, even if they hate the chantry, even if they have a different faith - because of the anchor, because they're the only one who can seal the rifts and the breach. it's a burden of utility that shifts into a religious calling, regardless of their own faith/lack thereof.

so what kind of protag are they, speaking to the broader narrative? no matter what they do, no matter who or how they are, the end results are very similar. sure, they can be brutal and unyielding and leave death in their wake, but even then it barely impacts the overarching story. solas is the one shaking and shaping the narrative, far more than the inquisitor ever gets to.

the inky is a plot device we get to customize, but not much of a protag. one could argue, i dont think unjustly, that the inquisition itself, as an entity, is more of a protag than the actual inquisitor, because as an entity they have more - again, narrative, not gameplay - ability to shape things.

#hi im just musing aloud #daydreaming idly about getting to follow the minutiae of solas' quest

[littleladymab]

FebruarOC - Ghoti

Hello and shout outs to the 🦀🎮 crew this one is for you! Happy "Wednesday that Feels like a Thursday". So it's like honorary Thedas Thursday post tbh

Ghoti (pronounced "Fish") Lavellan is our Inquisitor for Thedas Thursday, continuing our tradition of silly names for our main characters. Our Warden was Kviiilynn Cousland (an extra 'n' for an extra special boy) with his dog Fonzie Scheme, and our Champion was Abcde Hawke with her dog Zzyzx. 

Ghoti is our mage, specializing in Knight-Enchanter because who doesn't ALSO want a sword (aka I'm real bad about staying out of melee even when playing a mage). She's very extremely AGAINST being called the Herald of Andraste because hello she's an elf??? stop making her into something palatable for humans? 

Cara and I have decided to make all our Lavellan inquisitors be cousins,  so her Lokir (tempest rogue) and my Kaspar (assassin rogue) are there too! In our hearts, of course, and whatever fic I end up writing. They traveled with Ghoti to the conclave as her back-up and now well, that sure didn't go well for her. I haven't started the Lavellan clan quest yet, but as it went tits up for Lokir and Kaspar, i'm going to have to keep the same outcome, y'know? 

Ghoti has been very fun to play; she's a lot more aggressive than my first Inquisitor (and Kaspar, who was just sass incarnate). A lot of "get your head out of your ass we have shit to do". While there are a lot of choices I'm making that are similar to my other two playthroughs there's some things that I, as Mab, am unable to commit to. Like both full playthroughs have been siding with the mages and sparing the Gray Wardens (though in Kaspar's I did leave that random Warden you get in lieu of Alistair (when you make Alistair king) in the fade). I started a Playthrough on my PC previously of a female Trevelyan that I was playing as a paladin which meant doing Templar vibes and suffice to say I didn't get far. Siding with the Templars was, WILD. 

We were originally going to romance Cullen which was my basic-bitch ass choice, because of who I am as a person. But when I was asking the chat for prompts to write for the drabble both Kaite and Dianne were like "UMMMM JOSEPHINE PLEASE?" and so I went "WELL YOU KNOW WE'RE NOT LOCKED INTO A ROMANCE YET, HOW ABOUT WE PIVOT" so we might try and see if we can romance Josephine. (So like, keep an eye out on OC x Canon week in March hehe)

This is the art that I commissioned from Jack, from left to right Ghoti, Lokir, and Kaspar!

You can find the drabble I wrote of her (and Josie hehe) for free over on patreon!

#dragon age oc #februaroc #wait does this count as a lil miss original or a lil miss fic #eh it's oc month so #a lil miss original #lil miss writings

[kaltacore]

it’s a little hard for me to imagine anders and fenris becoming friends and reaching a complete understanding despite the similarity of their situation. merrill, on the other hand, has a lot of potential to reconcile with both of them after the events of da2. let me elaborate

fenris and anders' trauma is something they could have bonded over, but at the same time this is the reason they cannot overcome their distrust and dislike of each other: for fenris, anders is a magister in the making — someone who wants people who abused fenris to be free and out of control, and for anders, fenris is someone who rejoices in his kind's suffering because he was once mistreated by people from completely different country and society who also happened to be mages. fenris is too wary of magic to see anders' point: as someone who'd gotten possessed, anders proved himself to be weak and willing to submit to a demon for power, even if he claims he had his reasons and his cause was just — and this is exactly the type of a mage who would build another tevinter imperium here, in the place fenris feels almost safe because people he fears the most are locked up. anders may say he's open-minded as much as he likes, but his own trauma and experience won't let him see the origins of fenris' attitude — it feels like a direct attack on him and the people he's fighting for, because anders himself is in fact too hot-tempered and quick to judge.

mages and templars and tevinter imperium will not disappear with the chantry explosion: even if both of them have an opportunity to rethink and question their own actions, the main point of their conflict, their apple of discord, will still be there and it will matter.

meanwhile, the thing with merrill is slightly different for both of them.

fenris despises her because she's willing to sacrifice things he desperately wanted, and she does it for desires he sees as completely worthless. merrill had a clan, people who cared for her, and a family, and she gave it up for chasing ghosts of ancient glory. fenris himself was sacrificed to become a weapon designed by people long gone; he got stripped of his family, his memories, and his identity because someone else was seeking power and knowledge. it is not the ideas he cares about; more likely, he's repulsed by them. he may even envy merrill at some point: she still has a home to return to, a people she belongs to, somebody who's waiting for her. fenris has a sister somewhere in tevinter, but he can't save her, can't get back to her, he doesn't even remember her clearly, and merrill has everything he yearns for. and she gives it up willingly. and for what.

it changes in act 3. merrill loses her last chance to reunite with her clan: they're either dead or she's exiled for good. fenris loses his family too, in a different, but still ugly way, and it comes with the utter feeling of betrayal and emptiness he has to face. he does still despise merrill: he thinks she brought it upon her clan and herself, but the truth is, the decision she had to make was forced upon her, as well as the decision he himself had to make with varania was forced upon him. fenris is left alone and he doesn't know what to do with his life anymore, and merrill — she got everything taken away from her because of the choices she made, but she is still holding up. somehow, she still has hopes, wishes, and goals.

when all of them have to leave kirkwall and when the ashes are settled, does it matter? fenris has no home. varania sold him to a man he hated the most; the place he was living in for six years is out of his reach; the only people he stuck around with are all here and there are things between them that can no longer be fixed. that fleeting feeling of home that was kirkwall was stripped away from him and what's left? does it matter anymore that merrill threw away things he desired so badly when both of them cannot return to the place they called home because of things they had no control over? the only choice they've made in the matter was following hawke, and, well, could they choose otherwise? maybe he will see merrill not as a blood mage, someone weak, someone who never valued the things she had, but as a person strong enough to endure everything she went through: the weight of her decisions, the loss of everything she cared about. fenris respects strength of many forms, the strength of mind, the strength of will. when both of their lives turned into one white blank page he can finally see that maybe, just maybe, merrill was not the power-seeking mage who was tossing with people's lives for a glimpse of long-forgotten history, but a keeper's first who was willing to sacrifice everything for her people and had to pay dearly for the things she believed in, just as he had to pay for his own belief that finding his family will take the loneliness that was eating him up away, that it will make things right.

anders considers merrill to be nothing more than a foolish child. for him, she's an embodiment of everything the chantry hates mages for: a scapegoat for caging his people and spreading propaganda about all of them being dangerous, tempted, power-seeking monsters. he never tries to understand her: she's a blood mage, an obstacle to reaching acceptance of his kind. her future as someone who's working with a demon is also painfully similar to his own present: he believes she's walking the same path as he did, maybe an even uglier one, because the thing whose help she uses so carelessly is already a demon. and she doesn't even want to listen to him. anders doesn't get that she doesn't take his warnings seriously because he doesn't even try to listen to her as well. he never even considers that she is not as careless as he thinks. just like fenris, he doesn't get the importance of her work: he witnesses her turning to the darkest and most dangerous forms of magic not out of desperation, but out of an obsession with some useless relic, and all of this happens while his people — and her people — get slaughtered and tortured because of who they are.

in act 3 the decision to blow up the chantry is entirely his, and just like that in the eyes of whole thedas, he becomes everything the chantry warns people about in its sermons: an uncontrollable, dangerous abomination that burns down cities and slaughters families out of simple, frightening bloodlust. no one will be asking him about what made him do it, or what he felt, or what led to all of it. there's no place for him anywhere because of what he did, no matter how necessary it was because people won't listen. they won't even try.

and after all that, does it matter that merrill was dealing with demons, that she used magic the chantry hates the most? he is the demon now. he is the chantry's worst idea of an apostate. some of his own people in the circles will despise him for what he's done, and the common folk will curse his name all over the southern thedas. he does not regret starting the rebellion, but this is the price he has to pay — and is he in any position to judge merrill for doing what she thought was necessary to save her people, as she's always claimed? she accepted the hatred she was facing all these years, whether it was coming from her clan or him or anyone else. and when anders himself thinks that the line between justice and vengeance is too thin to separate them, maybe, just maybe, it will be worth hearing what merrill has to say about spirits, about none of them being good nor bad?

the thing is, merrill never had that much of a problem with them. and if they have a wish to finally let her close, let her be their friend, she won't turn them down. she was never good at making friends, but she would certainly give it another try

#i'm so sorry i'm a little insane over whatever is going on between three of them #like i really want them to be friends. but this is a little too complicated. but also there's beauty in overcoming the complicated #also love how the da2 post-canon feels. bittersweet and a little depressing but not as hopeless as it could be #would tag that as meta but i'm not qualified enough to make more sense of it so. throwing these thoughts here anyway #merrill #anders #fenris #dragon age

[niofo]

I will never be normal about the multiplayer mages. There is not much about them, but what is there is really fun and i really hope that they bring some of those characters in dad, it would be great to have some of those former field agents of the inquisition running around, and they're blank slates enough to leave writers with quite a free range.

I always found it interesting how Cillian was obviously inspired by Fenris with his design, but also his opposite in the others. Obviously he's a mage, and an arcane warrior on top, someone who spent years just meditating in abandoned elven ruin, probably has an enormous knowledge about ancient elven lore - but also he's just this calm and friendly guy. He's so positive and full of wonder when looking at the world around him. Despite certainly being warned about templars by his keeper, he still calls Belinda da'len, bcos he sees that she's young and enthusiastic, and a bit naive. His vallaslin is June, which doesn't fit his character on the first glance (i would rather put him as a Dirthamen or even Falon'din guy), so i wonder if it was intentional to shine more light on Fenris' lyrium markings looking like June vallaslin. But also maybe there is some untold story to explain why Cillian picked June in particular.

Hissera was going to be a tamassran when her magic first manifested. Obviously there's not much about her bcos she doesn't have any dialogue, but i just find it interesting, that unlike Ketojan, she decided to live free from the qun after losing her arvaarad, i wonder if it has something to do with her previous priestess training. Her name means hope, which is also not something ever associated with saarebas. It would be nice if Bull too her under his wing after the Inquisition is done.

Neria is someone my Ilen Lavellan would love to hang out with, just talking about their respective clans, how it was as the First, perhaps reminiscing about past arlathvens where they met. She wishes to be back with her clan, but she considers defeating Corypheus too important to just let shems take care of it alone, she wants people to remember about dalish and not have them pushed to the sidelines again. I wonder is it was meant to be a neurodivergent trait, but Cillian remembers her as a little girl trying to solve an unsolvable puzzle, and that she was so focused she didn't even notice him leaving. Her vallaslin is Dirthamen, which is fitting for a future Keeper, but also shows her inquisitive nature.

I know most people hates Sidony, and for very good reasons, but i experienced her only after i created Idris, and the parallels were just too fun to let go. They're both necromancers specializing with ice magic, they are both not particularly nice and warm people, although Sidony certainly made it into an art. I think if idris wasn't the Inquisitor he would have a similar reputation, but as much as for him it's just his personality and actually he cares about people too much even, Sidony really seem to mainly care about the pursuit of knowledge and to be left alone. I would love to meet her as a grumpy hermit who lets us use her arcane book collection on the promise that afterwards we'll leave her alone and never come back. Maybe with a little treat that if the players decides to come back after all, she blasts the party with a blizzard.

And of course i have already way too many thoughts about Rion, de facto having him as one of the main characters of my fic. It all started just because he is from the Ostwick Circle, just as mage!Trevelyan, but he's an endearing character on his own. Hhe dresses in a same sort of feathery thing Anders does, for some reason. He makes a lot of jokes, including ones at his own expense, and it reminds me of awakening Anders - perhaps something to ease the tension, to make himself seem less threatening in eyes of the templars, just a silly little mage, yk. But also he is very much threatening, he throws fireballs at people and trying to show off this his spells. He really is dealing with years of complex circle trauma and it's not easy to shake it off. WoT2 also suggest that he was from a rich or even noble family, but refuses to speak about it - and considering he doesn't have any family name listed, maybe they disinherited him on the spot when he became a mage. Just another point of connection with Trevelyan, as they might even be from the same social circles before the Circle of magi.

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition multiplayer #my meta #i love those silly mages too much

[aikideo]

so i was thinking about all the stuff about guustaldt in that alex mentioned once and that the psychiatrist seemed to get really interested in and it doesn't make any sense. and i'm sure that's just bc it was thrown in as a second thought

like the whole idea of gestalt psychology is that it's focused on the entirety of a persons mind and behavior and that individual actions or thoughts the person has can't be looked at as the main idea.

in therapy it's used in treating traumas. like trying to heal someone from a specific part of their trauma in order to find the larger cause of their issue.

and if that could work for nigel because his whole being was obsessed with the templar idea and more importantly obessesed with alex and just looking at one small thing of him, like when he gave alex help on his essay for example, makes him become a very different character. and bc alex was in turn so obessessed with nigel ( in that hate/love way) maybe that makes more sense as to why he believes it? bc it's a good way to describe this person that he's obsessing over? but then he says "it's how you use it" and in the scene where the paychiatrist is doing a lecture on gestalt she makes it sound like it's a sort of manipulation, or that it's similar to the idea of twinning?? like two people being able to communicate thru their minds??

so all of that is to say that i don't think the writers understood what gestalt is, bc it doesn't make a whole lot of sense

#at least to me #like minds #murderous intent #nigel collie #alex forbes #and ik it's a pretty shallow film and tbh in some parts it feels like they forgot a scene but i still find the relationship between nigel #and alex compelling none the less #maybe i'm just looking in weird places for representation but who knows #tbh (and i'm sure this is a cold take) but it would've been better if we got to see nigel and alex's relationship evolve even more than it #did #and also i love the idea that in the beginning nigel was writing in his little notebook like ''alex forbes is an egotistical megalomaniac... #he's perfect''

[deflare]

Day 8 means we’re back to successor chapters, and today is the first chapter I didn’t recognize on sight. Today I learned about: the Silver Templars!

Focus and Fury!

The Silver Templars are another Ultramarine successor (we’ll get to the Ultramarines next week, I promise). The reason I didn’t know about them is that they’re brand new--the Silver Templars are one of the first purely Primaris chapters.

See, Primaris Space Marines are the product of a mad genius named Belisarius Cawl, who’s spent thousands of years tinkering with the Emperor’s original supersoldier formula. Cawl had a bunch of test marines sealed in stasis, along with the tools to turn Firstborn marines into Primaris, and the tools to raise up new aspirants as Primaris right out of the box. The debut of these Primaris soldiers was the ‘Ultima Founding’. Many of the new marines went to already-existing chapters whose geneseed they used, filling out their ranks with a wave of new extra-big recruits. But many new chapters were founded around this time, made entirely of Primaris marines, and the Silver Templars are one of them.

The Templars’ main claim to fame is their focus on one-on-one duels. They believe in focus-firing down one opponent at a time, and on a broader strategic level, will often carve a bloody swath through the enemy army to murder their leader. Interestingly, this resembles the behavior of one of the lost traitor legions, the III Legion Emperor’s Children (who got so lost in their pursuit of military perfection that they fell to Slaanesh). Hopefully the Silver Templars don’t walk the same path.

The Silver Templars also have a culture of bonding with their weapons*. They’ll formally and ritually connect themselves to a particular weapon, mastering that particular tool’s use. Losing the bonded weapon is a Big No-No, and they’ll go through hell to get their bonded weapon back.

So that’s the Silver Templars. They don’t have a ton of lore, since they’re so new; as far as I can tell, their backstory is mostly told in some rulebooks and a single novella. But they’re kinda neat. I like their aesthetic, and being “the super duelist-focused chapter” is a cool distinctive trait while still mechanically being similar to others. Sometimes it’s nice to learn about a new thing.

*Hey, what weapons do Space Marines use, anyway?

All the little guys in my advent calendar are holding bolters. A bolter is a weapon designed based on cutting-edge speculative future tech... in the ‘80s. They’re gyrojet weapons (which means the bullets have their own little rockets that propel them once they’re fired) with giant explosive bullets. They’re designed to hit armor, punch through, and then detonate inside the target, turning their insides to soup. Bolters are the standard firearm of the Space Marines, and they come in a wide variety, including sniper, machine-gun, and super-fancy-rounds.

The next step up in power is plasma weaponry. These are glowy blue guns that shoot a lump of super-heated... well... plasma at the enemy, hitting enemies with star-stuff. Plasma weapons can be super-charged to shoot enemies real hard, but the Imperium is bad at making and maintaining plasma weapons, so there’s always a risk that they’ll get too hot and explode on their user.

Then there are specialized ranged weapons. Melta guns use the power of nuclear fusion to punch holes in any solid matter at close range (they’re used for tank-hunting). Flamers are flamethrowers, burninating large swathes of enemy nerds. Missile launchers shoot missiles, it’s not that complicated. Tanks and heavy weapons platforms will carry large auto-weapons (basically a regular gun) and laser weapons. They’re rare these days, but the Legions used to also use graviton weapons (gravity guns that use a target’s weight against them) and volkite weapons (basically heat rays, cooking people inside their armor). I’m probably missing a lot of other obvious weapon types; Space Marines are not short on ways to kill people.

Warhammer 40k is a world that loves its hand-to-hand combat, too, and Space Marines have options in spades. The standard close-combat weapon is a chainsword, which is exactly what it sounds like--a chainsaw stuck on a sword hilt, used to saw through enemy armor (no, this would not actually be effective). Chain weapons also come in axe and bayonet form. Then there are power weapons, which have an in-built force field that reacts violently to any matter they encounter and can thus cut through armor like it’s butter. There are normal-looking power weapons (swords, axes, clubs, Wolverine claws), then there’s thunder hammers (they go ‘boom’ when they hit something), and then there’s power fists. Power fists are giant gauntlets that Space Marines use to punch tanks to death. Some power fists come with a chain-blade attachment, and they’re called chainfists. This shit gets silly.

Last major weapon category is force weapons. A force weapon is basically a power weapon, but instead of having ancient super-tech juicing it up, force weapons are powered by the wielder’s own psychic power. Obviously, they’re only really usable by psykers; for anyone else, it’s just an overly-fancy normal weapon. They’re really good at fucking up daemons.

Again, I’m sure there are obvious weapons I’m forgetting. It gets hard to keep track of all the ways that Space Marines have to murder people. And when they’re in a pinch, they always have their acid spit.

Master post here

#warhammer 40k #space marines #advent calendar #lore dump #text heavy #40k advent #silver templars

[robotlesbianjavert]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

oh it's been forever since i got a top characters ask - this has probably changed a lot since i last considered a definitive top ten. and actually this has tormented me a lot. had to kill a lot of darlings. oof. not actually definitive this could probably change a lot.

10) it's a really good thing i never got into Supernatural when the fandom was in its heyday i think there would be something wrong with me if i did. anyways november 5th unlatched something in me and i do think that Castiel is real and alive and gay out there in the universe in a way that precious few characters can lay claim to. everyone please respect him.

9) Battleborn is a dead game and a dead fandom which i grieve all the time, not least because it meant one of the greatest yuris of all time was lost from knowledge. anyways i love Galilea for largely gay reasons - tall woman in armor sword and shield, intense relationship of deep friendship and betrayal with Ambra, being a knight templar cursed by eldritch powers. i miss her. we truly lost something great. being so trapped between duty and love that it rips you apart for the rest of your existence. insane.

8) when Locus from Red vs Blue was first introduced like i kneeeeewwww they were gonna do something with him and also he had a sexy voice (tragically the voice actor turned out to be a dick.) and my knowing paid off. i love it when a character tries to abdicate their autonomy in order to escape their crimes but ultimately can't it's soooooo juicy.

7) Beast Wars has so many insanely good characters who are all my favourites and it is so so so hard to ever choose among them. but Blackarachnia claws her way to the top. funny enough it's a point where i think the show failed with her character that pushed her to the top - a large part of her characterization is trying to win and protect her autonomy/individuality, and "proving grounds" is such a triumphant climax of that. but she's also stuck in a toy commercial and needed a new design to sell so "crossing the rubicon" had to happen. it's something about how she had to be literally knocked out for the writers to make that upgrade happen that's both infuriating, but also speaks to how strong she is as a character.

6) Denji & Power from Chainsaw Man, do not separate them. i'm actually incapable of separating them. i have a lot of beloved characters from csm - makima, aki, kobeni, asa, yuko, it's probably easier to name the ones i don't like - but denji and power as both individual characters and as a relationship in the story is so important to me. denji was a character i actively didn't think i would love as much until the narrative gut punched me so hard with the full breadth of his story and development. power i always knew i would love, and it paid off i was so pleased with her and chapter 90 was pure euphoria for me. i need to see them together again so much.

5) Eleanor from The Haunting of Hill House, SPECIFICALLY the novel not the tv show, the tv show is nothing to me. she's anxiety incarnate she's trying too hard she's a uhaul lesbian she's a jealous paranoid waif of a woman but this house loves and accepts and wants her so she'll let it have her. there are a lot of parts of eleanor that are painfully familiar and no one will ever understand her like me. certainly not mike flanagan.

4) Community is one of my favourite tv shows, and in a similar way to beast wars there's so many characters that i love love love. but Shirley is actually a very easy choice. a choice with a lot of hang-ups as shirley is easily the most mistreated and least developed of the main long-term cast and every day i imagine myself shaking dan harmon violently saying hey if you were so proud of have half a room of female writers maybe you should have a) kept going with that and b) make less of them right. there's so much ground that could have been covered with her anger issues and past alcoholism, her crossed paths with jeff as kids, finding herself outside of being a wife and a mother, and they just struggled to really do right by her. but also she's so cute the way she says "i'm so sorryyyyy" in competitive ecology. kills me all the time.

3) i have written 18 spinaraki fics with more in my wips and i think it's fair to say that Spinner from Boku no Hero Academia is an all time forever favourite character for me, just barely edging out over shigaraki. obviously spinner is a gay little evil henchman so that clinches it. but also it's just like - seeing him go from a nothing character that could have easily have been written out, to being given his own plotline and character arc about trying to find meaning and purpose and ultimately finding it in caring SO HARD about one weird guy. and he's so moe. i believe in him.

2) jose from cybersix but i can't talk about it.

anyways i'm actually really at killing my darlings so really quick a couple of runner ups based on long-term history vs faves with a recency bias.

Runner-Ups Based on Intense & Passionate History

mr lahey from trailer park boys; enrico from stravaganza; bulk & skull from power rangers; jason voorhees from friday the 13th; redcloak from order of the stick; gob from arrested development; soundwave from transformers (franchise-wide); harvey dent from batman: the animated series; hardison & sophie from leverage; rabbit from winnie the pooh; cobra commander from gi joe; hyde from jekyll and hyde; griffin from the invisible man; bosola from duchess of malfi; masquerade & gus from bakugan; claptrap from borderlands; hook-handed man from a series of unfortunate events; kaiba from yu-gi-oh; rorschach & laurie from watchmen; stephanie and reverend putty from moral orel; demidevimon & impmon from digimon; quickstrike, inferno, dinobot, and rattrap from beast wars; chang & abed from community; cybersix from cybersix; shigaraki and honestly all of the lov & mla in bnha; six & makoto from bnha: vigilantes.

Runner Ups Based on Recency Bias

jessica from cannibal farm; mimi from psycho goreman; oj from nope; barbara howard from abbott elementary; evelyn & joy from eeaao; kinsey from the strangers: prey at night; misty, taissa, and shauna from yellowjackets; eva from monster; akagi from kimeno jihen; dimple from mp100; uma from disney's descendant (a movie series i have not watched. but i like her sooo much.)

okay with all that off my chest, my most number one favourite character of all time ever.

1 ) Meowth from Pokemon he's my best friend.

#thanks for the ask my dear this was fun to think over

[breadedsinner]

One topic that I won't really be able to cover in Tether, and really thinking about it, have not given a whole lot of thought, is who Sebastian becomes after the campaign.

Which feels weird since he's been rotating in my head like a convenience store hot dog for years, and grief is a subject that interests me.

But also it makes sense that I have not, because I have no real canon to lean on. Yes, he becomes Prince either way, either a helpful one or a vengeful one. I have not read Knight Errant, and while I am relieved it keeps to him being kind and thoughtful, he's not a main character in it and can't go into how the events of DA2 shaped him. That's the meat I am looking for.

I was reading meta on Meredith and the visual connections to Andraste and it mentioned how Sebastian could not fathom a more..destructive version of her. Which makes sense, listen to his indignation when A/ders says "Andraste died, that doesn't mean she failed," or Elthina saying she only favors peace when pressed about the templars/mages situation.

Buuuut I like to think he is *capable* of growing from this, given that he urges Elthina to take a stronger stance and "calm this fire".

So that's the question, how does The Last Straw shape his beliefs, how does he move on from a home he held dear for so long. How does one cope with mourning while simultaneously processing the thing in which you are mourning could be on the wrong side of history.

A friend who's no longer in the fandom would sometimes headcanon Sebastian taking something of a Martin Luther approach to his religion, breaking away from the main view of things and creating a more accessible version. I always liked that; keeping his faith but acknowledging his worldview needs to change.

It's for this reason I go with (softened) Leliana as Divine in my own timeline; these characters are very similar, but while Sebastin was in the *process* of expanding his worldview, Leliana was able to keep doing that, so by Inquisition her views have changed. I like to think Sebastian would be heartened to learn of a Divine that accepted everyone and broke down some of these walls.

Anyway....it's just a topic I would like to explore in the future. If there's fics about it --that don't insult his character, I know it's sad I have to clarify that--let me know.

#DA Tag #Prince Hunny

[felikatze]

the recent chapters r really making me like olivia like damn. at first she's just kinda this pitiful person to be saved from her awful situation, yeah? but the story still says, "her survival is super important, actually" and it doesn't rlly click. cuz after she's free olivia turns into a bit of a stock character.

she's then just always kinda flirty and irresponsible and clingy. and that makes sense to me, cuz her upbringing was super strict and repressive, so she wants to sever all ties with that and is acting in the opposite way than she was raised. priests of her religion aren't allowed to marry so she starts flirting with reinhardt not because she's romantically interested in him but because she enjoys the promiscuity and he's the one who helped her most so he's easiest to talk to like this. this also shows especially in how she reacts to compliments back; she becomes easily flustered because the flirting is just a face she puts on for fun and beneath that she's still deeply inexperienced with such things.

the sponsorship event chapters really hammer home that she's a kind person truly deserving the title of saint. she's been raised to do good and be kind that she doesn't know how to live for herself at all.

add to that the gradual collapse of her religious beliefs. obviously she cuts ties with the knights templar cuz they tried to kill her and her own stepdad lead the charge to do so, resulting in a distrust toward the gods, because what kind god would have followers like this? but she at least still believes the gods exist. But then the tiamata arc happens and she discovers that even the gods themselves are a falsehood. the gods of purity and corruption are the same being in two directions; so if your own faith decides the nature of your god, does said god exist at all? if your will shapes god's will, does god have a will at all? she's basically discovered this setting's version of atheism.

tlde she's just plain lost. And yeah the novel is always blatant abt feeding you character details like this but i still think it's set up well.

all her eccentric behaviours are attempts to find herself but nothing sticks. she has no more dreams, no ambitions, just drifting with the flow. she just doesn't know how to have ambitions not dictated to her, how to do anything besides following orders.

and again like. the story says "her survival is going to change things" and we learn its bcuz olivia is an insane fucking powerhouse who can outclass ellen. and with her being the way she is now, any faction could snap her up. she'd just go with the first one that suited her fancy. as long as its not the knights templar, she'll be fine with anything.

which i think reflects a lot of people with impending graduation on the horizon? i sure know when i finished high school i didnt know what to do. i'm happy with my career path atm but i also feel like i could've been happy doing anything else. i just stumbled into it. olivia reflects that feeling of not knowing who you want to be, with all these external pressures, religion, family, peers, that have all these expectations for her.

also how the story then immediatly contrasts this against reinhardt. he's presented as like, a pretty selfish, self-assured character. he knows who he is and what he wants. but olivia asks him, "do you?" and challenges him to reevalute. cuz is he selfish? he's just acting that way, when he's actually concerned with the well-being of others above all, same as olivia. the only thoughts he'll spare for himself are for his own survival.

and like, again!! olivia was putting on a selfish seeming face when she's fundamentally still just kind beneath it all and both of them don't know how to be any other way!!

hell, even the circumstances are similar! olivia ditched the knights templar to save her own life but doesnt know what to do with the life she saved, and reinhardt escaped the demon king's castle to save his own skin. the main difference here is reinhardt is still working toward averting the crisis he's written into prophecy. he's still essentially trapped in the beginning of olivia's arc. so comparing the two is asking what will he do when the world's saved?

Chapter 244 i am kissing you on the mouth.

#feli speaks #the demon prince goes to the academy #long post #RAMBLE TIME. #also sidenote another epic win for the aro reinhardt agenda because this all deconstructs the seeming attraction olivia had for reinhardt #which was fucking WEIRD because she's 22 and he is (seemingly) 16 #but doing it like this takes away the One Aspect i disliked abt her so now i love her actually. you go olivia. #please learn some self-respect girl. i know you can do it #also another sidenote. god bless that one post that shows how to make readmores on mobile #otherwise yall would be dead five times over #dont have anyone to be autistic abt this series with so tumblr will have to do!!!

[lairofdragonagelore]

Arbor Wilds: Temple of Mythal - Part 1

Main Quest: What Pride Had Wrought

The Arbor Wilds is a thick forest located south of the Dales in Orlais. As most of the forest is uncharted and unexplored, many that daringly venture into this alien-like land never return. Some believe that dryads inhabit the area. In fact the "Sentinels"—Sentinel elves— guard the land against outsiders. Many ancient Elven ruins lay dormant and abandoned within the forest, rich with ancient elven artefacts and treasures, such as the Temple of Mythal.

This post contains the following sections

The Forest

The Gates of the Temple of Mythal

[This is part of the series “Playing DA like an archaeologist”]

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]

The forest

With Morrigan’s advice, we head to the Temple of Myhtal, thinking that Corypheus wants an Eluvian to cross the in-between planes and access to the Fade physically. However, it’s never explained in the game why and how Corypheus would get “godhood” powers just by accessing the Fade.

This dense forest is filled with elvhenan ruins and statues. Usually the archer statues are used to guide us to the entrance of the temple. We find the typical elven statues: Elven hart statue, Elven Archers, Howling Fen'Harel statue, Elven Owl statue and Sitting Fen'Harel statue. 

It seems this forest had a lot more of structures that were reclaimed by nature. We can see the remaining ceilings of enormous chambers. I assume that, considering what we learn in Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal, if we are reaching the Temple of Mythal, it is likely that a big set of buildings would have grown around it, as the cities used to do around the main temple. Probably the remnants of this city is what we see along the jungle. [The Temple of Mythal]

We also find along the path Red Templar encampments which have little to offer.

At some point we kill a sentinel, and the game brings our attention to their unique design: they don’t look Dalish. They are bulkier and bald. The armour of these elvhens can be seen in detail here. I find it curious how they pauldron and knee protectors are made in the shape of a face, iconography more typical of Orlais, because in Orlais’ case, it represents Andraste. Would this mean that for these elvhens, this face in their armour is a representation of Mythal?

Hard to tell. Mythal’s face has never been seen in her iconography, not even in her concept art.

The Gates of the Temple of Mythal

When we finally reach the entrance of the Temple, we notice it is surrounded by a lake, a configuration that may be considered similar to the Citadel du Corveau, in the Exalted Plains [main fortress surrounded by water].

The entrance to the temple is flanked by two Dragon Myhtal statues that work like a defence system as we see when Corypheus tries to force his entrance to the temple. In the background we have some enormous Humanoid Mythal statues, and a bridge made of yellow/brown mosaics [typically found in elvhenan buildings, easily seen at the final chamber of the The Lost Temple of Dirthamen or in the Cradle of Sulevin].

The temple lies on a circular platform surrounded by Elven hart statues.

The entrance door has the typical dragon-like shape associated with the dragon form of Myhtal. As usual in Elvhenan design, the frame of this door is surrounded by typical elvhean patterns.

The cinematics of Corypheus forcing his entrance while the sentinels defend the temple shows to us that after Corypheus is stricken by a deadly ray that comes from  Dragon Myhtal statues, and dies disintegrated, he is reborn in a Grey Warden [blighted creature]. This process is exactly the same that Archdemons have. This is a hint for us to suspect that Blight (magic?) allows a kind of effective immortality. 

Then Corypheus' dragon appears and the whole group has to run across the bridge and close the door of the temple before it attacks, giving us access to the main section of the Temple: the rituals [aka puzzles]

Arbor Wilds: Temple of Myhtal - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

#main quest #playing DA like an archaeologist #temple of Mythal #Sitting Fen'Harel statue #Howling Fen'Harel statue #Elven Owl statue #Elven Archers #Elven hart statue #elvhen #elvhenan #Shadow Sentinel #Corypheus #Humanoid Mythal statue #Dragon Mythal statue