#and even the casteless would have access

[bhalspawn]

what's orzammar's water supply like

#???? is it all from the surface??? that seems tricky and i feel like if it was then it would be mentioned #i dont think we see any bodies of water in orzammar itself. i know there are some in the deep roads. in the calling duncan finds one but #is that water even potable? i cant quite remember #i think it like #glowed green. so #besides that was far into the deep roads but just as an example that the dwarves do have access to water #i mean ofc they do lots of engineering so they likely found a way of getting it but whats it LIKE and who has access to it #are the casteless worried about their water supply? new meaning to dust town #HMMM #wytxt #dragon age #talk to ME!!!!

[fluffynexu]

imperial life (sorta)

life within the empire is very structured. it’s a society where everyone Knows Their Place and what they’re supposed to be doing.

for ex. there is a certain “life schedule” that imperial citizens are expected to adhere to.

ages:

0-5, raised by family as infants. sent to daycare during toddler years.

5-10, primary school. begin basic education.

10-15, junior school. continue education.

15-20, senior school. start some training alongside education.

20-25/30, MANDATORY SERVICE TIME.

25/30+, marriage and having children encouraged and you can live your life.

now after an individual completes their mandatory time actively serving, they can either continue to serve or return to other jobs and functions in the empire.

so you can have someone who was a foot soldier or sniper during their service time, but then return to “civilian” life as a florist or school teacher.

the sith follow a similar “life schedule”.

ages:

0-5, raised by family and like minded peer groups.

5-10, primary academy. basic training and education.

10-15, secondary academy. continued training and education.

15-20, preparatory academy. continued training and education.

20+, sith academy (proper) and from there, it depends on the individual sith’s master and rank.

tho the purebloods have a tendency to marry their children off after at the age of 20 (or young 20s) in hopes of procuring grandchildren (and therefore, securing family legacies) before anything... unfortunate happens.

another aspect of imperial life that is deeply entrenched within the civilization but never talked about too openly is the caste system.

everyone in the empire, sith or slave, is shoved into one of these castes. it is possible to move UP and DOWN. moving upward requires marrying someone of a higher caste, but ppl usually (tho not always!) stick to and marry within their own castes. moving down tends involves committing a crime and being punished for it, or disownment from family.

there are certain advantages of being a part of upper castes. which include, but are not limited to:

wider access on the holonet

higher pay

more options for housing

priority healthcare

less restrictions on travel

etc.

the two main groups the castes fall into are sith and imperial. obvs the sith castes are above the imperial ones.

castes among the sith are categorized by “blood purity” and family lineages. the older, purer bloodlines that can trace their roots to korriban are seen above sith who might not have such a heritage.

pureblood, greater families

pureblood, lesser families

human, greater families (usually have some pureblood family members as well)

human, lesser families (usually all human)

human, common (usually an individual that comes from a non-sith background that found sensitivity in the force)

alien

imperial castes on the other hand are categorized by “occupation” rather than bloodlines.

officers. self explanatory. within this caste the officers follow the rank order. ie, moff > captain.

healers. ppl who can help and heal others. doctors, psychiatrists, therapists, etc.

scholars. those who spend their time studying, researching, or teaching. scientists, philosophers, lawyers, professors, etc.

protectors. internal security of the empire. police type, firefighters, paramedics, emergency responders, imperial intelligence, etc.

farmers. self explanatory, also includes breeders (for fancy pets and vanity animals).

crafters. for those who MAKE or design things. artists, architects, engineers, cooks, tailors, etc.

traders. folks who buy and sell things or deal with money frequently. business people, vendors, bank folk, accountants etc.

entertainers. mostly performers of some type. actors, musicians, athletes, sex workers, etc.

cleaners. those who deal with trash or bodies. janitors, butchers, housekeepers, manicurists, waste management, groomers, etc.

casteless. ironically named, but still technically a caste. includes non citizens that may be visiting or traveling through, new imperial citizens, or disowned (usually non force sensitive) sith.

slaves. self explanatory.

in the old, old sith empire (pre arrival of exiles), the sith also had a ruler and priest caste. it can be argued that the two were simply merged into the modern sith grouping and all of their castes within.

as far as any that might be lawmakers and where they’d fit in. that’d be the dark council with some occasional input from very high ranking officers like the grand moff.

so in theory(!), anyone can move up or down the caste ladder. in reality it’s very rare and ppl are often born into one caste and simply live their life within its confines and die. but ppl across the entire caste system can and do work together frequently.

an ex is the sw and crew.

akrona is not only sith, but a pureblood from a greater family. making her one of the most privileged and (potentially) influential ppl in the empire.

quinn comes from a family of officers and they’ve all been at the relative top of imperial society for generations. even after his court martial he’s considered to be very lucky to have remained in the same caste.

pierce actually comes from farmers but managed to be promoted to an officer during his time in service. but since he wasn’t born into it, quinn some officers have an obvious bias against him for his position.

vette, being a freed slave is casteless. tho thx to having a sith benefactor and friend, she can get away with a lot more than others within her same social standing.

some notes under the read more since i KNOW you ppl don’t go to the op to read my darn tags! >,< lol

so... i know. i KNOW i didn’t list literally every single conceivable job that exist or could exist. you’ll have to excuse me on that lol.

and in case it wasn’t obvious, yes, i used my sw and my own hcs for the crew. NO, i am NOT saying that quinn dislikes pierce ONLY bc of “lower caste upbringing”. just that it’s one of many factors of tension between the two.

and regardless of caste, every citizen* in the empire is guaranteed food, shelter, water, and medical care. but obvs those in the upper castes would be eating the fanciest~ of feasts in their big ass floating mansions while the lower castes live off of ration bars and street food while living in small, utilitarian apartments. *does not include slaves since they are technically not citizens.

i am once again here to remind you that the empire is NOT

a democracy

capitalist

or a utopia

(but if for some reason you wanna make your empire all those things, go for it. i ain’t stopping you lol.)

but why castes?

bc it was an aspect of the ancient sith In Canon and thought i’d tinker with the concept.

lastly! i stfg...

IF YOU THINK ME MAKING A HC/WORLDBUILDING POST REFLECTS UPON MY MORALITY OR HOW I THINK A SOCIETY SHOULD BE RUN...

YOU HAVE NEXT LVL BRAIN ROT.

also, yes, you can use any/all concepts in whatever way you see fit if you want. you can also, ignore the whole thing!

#swtor #sith warrior #malavai quinn #sith pureblood #worldbuilding #heh #first post in forever :'D #i am bad at this #long post

[wizardofozymandias]

WIP Wednesday

Thanks to @noire-pandora and @nug-juggler for tagging me over the past few weeks. I’ve been resting and dealing with my less-than-optimal mental state. But I’ve managed a little progress on my Solas/Dagna fic, As Dreams Fade in the Light. Here’s part of a conversation from just before Solas leaves for Halamshiral: 

“Was there something you wanted to discuss with me before we depart?” Solas asked, wondering what had led Dagna to his office in the first place.

“Just wishing you luck. I’ll practically have this place to myself for the next month, so I want to see all the friendly faces I can before you leave.”

“You consider mine a friendly face?”

Dagna laughed. “Compared to most of the First Enchanters I’ve dealt with, anyone’s face would be friendly. So, yes. And you haven’t scolded me out of your office yet, so we’re practically good friends at this point. That’s much faster progress than I’m used to. Most high-ranking Circle mages shooed me away for at least six months before they’d even let me ask any questions.”

“Perhaps I have been too careless.”

“Why, because you don’t consider yourself too important to talk to a dwarf?”

Solas felt his teeth come down on his tongue in regret. “Was that their reasoning?”

“They wouldn’t say as much, but it always comes back to that. I’ve got a whole trunkful of letters that boil down to the same thing: you’re a dwarf, you don’t belong near magic. Magic is for special people who can dream and access the Fade.”

Solas studied her face. Dagna didn’t look angry, only tired. “You said they wrote letters?”

She sighed. “The Carenthes Circle in Tevinter had a petition to keep me away. Thankfully, the First Enchanter overruled them. But one of the Senior Enchanters gave the letters to me. All two hundred of them. That was when I had to get a bigger box for the collection.”

“Why would you keep the things ignorant people write about you?”

“To remind me of why I do this. Because so many people want me to stop. Sometimes I just need to know that it’s worth it. To—” her voice faltered—“to never be able to go home again.” 

“You are—” 

“Casteless, yeah,” she murmured. “Once I set foot out of Orzammar.” Her voice took on its usual cheerfulness as she continued, “But it was either stay there and make daggers for the nobles to stab each other in the back with till the end of time, or leave and learn something useful. And interesting. So here I am. No regrets.”

Solas wasn’t quite sure he believed her. But didn’t he know that feeling well enough? He lived in exile, considered a traitor to his own people. He, too, had no hope of returning home. But unlike Dagna, Solas could never claim he had no regrets. 

#my writing #fanfiction #dragon age #solas/dagna #solasmance #wip wednesday

[lairofdragonagelore]

Awakening: Kal'Hirol

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

When the fortress of Kal'Hirol was founded, the Paragon expanded the thaig making it a center of learning for smiths. While in the thaig's workshops, Hirol conceived important inventions one of which was the Inferno golem, an invention that made normal golems more resilient and powerful. Hirol also personally trained other smiths and his favourite apprentice is known to have conceived a method in storing refined lyrium. His contributions to his thaig were so important that Kal'Hirol continued to expand and become greater and richer even after his death.

These breakthroughs brought Kal'Hirol great prosperity, but this didn't last long, as it fell to the darkspawn during the First Blight.

The dwarves of Kal'Hirol had almost finished the construction of dwarven barrier doors which would have kept them safe from darkspawn, but they didn't manage to finish the mechanism in time. As the dwarves of Kal'Hirol were evacuating the thaig, five hundred casteless were left behind. Despite opposition amongst some of the casteless, approximately two hundred volunteered for the duty. It is not known what happened to the others though at least a few attempted to find a route to the surface. With the fall of Kal'Hirol a lot of dwarven smithing knowledge was lost too.

We can have access to this thaig thanks to the collapse of part of the deep roads.

The first thing we see when properly accessing to the thaig is the symbol of the Darkspawn.

In the path towards the fortress seen ahead, we find Sigrun's friend. He raise awareness of the new creatures we found in Awakening: the children, an anomalous darkspawn type. This is quite interesting since until that moment, we only knew that the broodmothers were the ones giving birth to darkspawn, and by what we could infer in DAO, it was in the mammal way. Every female  of each race is turned into a different kind of boodmother: Qunaris give birth to Ogres, dwarves, genlock, elven ones: shrieks, and so on.  The Children are an oddity [they are born from eggs], and there is no way in the game to reach an answer about why they are such. However, once we played DAI, we can have a better guess.

Kal'Hirol is infested with red rocks and red patches of things that may look like flesh, but also look like red Lyrium [read this post to see how constant the presence of these red textures and rocks are  all along the thaig] . It's not by chance that many of the eggs that we see explode to give birth to the Children are most of the time close to these red rocks:

Returning to the description of the thaig:

We find the entrance infested with red rocks and the same faces we saw in the security chamber before reaching the Anvil of the Void [probably nothing more than re-use of elements].

There are also these structures that inside the thaig usually pour water from their mouths.

More of these faces appear in other chambers, filled with traps. As we are seeing the pattern, these faces tend to be related to security systems or alternative paths.

Minor detail: Doors in Kal'Hirol have a particular geometrical design on them (blue ones), while their frame is the same one we find in Orzaamar (red ones).

This carved painting is a detail found in Orzammar too, but this one stand out particularly aggressive; since it has yellows and oranges, while most of Kal'Hirol is blue [to make the red rocks stand out, most probably]. It may have connotations of Titans and The Stone.

In a particular chamber we find a skeleton infused with lyrium. This is quite important because this may be the only detail in DAO before the DLC The Descent that showed us an attempt or a consequence that ended up with lyrium infused in a living body. “Lyrium-infused” weapons can only be found in The Descent, all of them related to Sha-Brytol. The other creature we know with lyrium infused in his body is Fenris.

As I explained [here], there are many chambers with red rocks, red veins and big red patches that look like red lyrium spreading all across the thaig.

We can find a room with the paragon's remains

And the final chamber where we see two disciples discussing on behalf of the Mother and the Father. This room is where we fight the inferno golem.  Water pours down from the faces on the wall.

Deepening into the thaig, we cross some bridges where the broodmothers' tentacles appear.  They come from the red patches, which is why I wonder if these are just flesh and not red lyrium, but certainly they are always accompanied with those red rocks.

In the main chamber of the final-final fight, we see many veins of lyrium with no red lyrium around.

One needs to break the chains that keep suspended one of those artefacts that in Amgarrak were part of the lyrium wells. The use of this dodecahedron is probably meaningless, and its only function is to destroy the broodmothers in the pit, lacking of any info lore-wise.

In the bottom of the pit, we see three broodmother. Even though all this zone is clean of red lyrium, we can see that the broodmother were exposed to many lyrium veins. In the epilogue, we learn that Orzammar has cleared all the paths that connect with Kal’Hirol. I wonder if this means that they had access to red lyrium for the first time

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore ]

#Awakening #blight #the blight #Darkspawn #Dwarves #Lyrium #Red Lyrium #Taint #Thaig #Playing DA like an archaeologist

[cloudgazercadash]

1, 35

1. What is their specialisation and why?

Thora has a specialisation that isn’t accessible in DA:I, aka the Beserker specialisation. She learned it before Inquisition, although informally, and there’s the potential for her to get a professional trainer during Inquisition the same as an Inquisitor with one of the in-game specialisations. I was talking to Joly the other day about the idea of Thora meeting Oghren, and finding herself in this place of really not liking him but also forcing herself to interact with him because she realises he could teach her more about being a Beserker. Realising that though made me very disappointed about the complete lack of Oghrens to plot with.

As stated in DA2, “The dwarven culture is in decline, and many dwarves have turned to the surface, bringing their customs and battle traditions with them.” (x) Thora learned from a Surface dwarf who learned from a Surface dwarf and so on, until you eventually reach someone who was trained by a professional Orzammar Beserker such as Oghren. She pursued it for a few reasons. First, anchoring herself in dwarven culture is something that’s incredibly important to Thora. It’s why she educates herself about the Stone as best she can despite being raised by Andrastians, and it’s why when the opportunity to study an ancient dwarven battle style presents itself, she takes it.

Second, Thora’s appetite for battle and blood is low. Working herself up into a rage so potent she can hardly think straight is a coping mechanism. Not a particularly healthy one, either, there’s a reason that after Trespasser she doesn’t want to relearn how to fight. But for the years where she has to battle just to get by (or to save the world) it’s the thing that’s stopping her from breaking down after every battle.

Third, while it’s not the healthiest way to deal with her pent-up frustration, it’s more or less the only place she gets to explore what’s making her angry until later in Inquisition. Before the Conclave, living life as a Carta dwarf, it was pointless to express why she was angry in her head because the reasons she was angry were things she couldn’t change. Then as Inquisitor/Herald, it takes her a while to form connections with people, but she does eventually find a place where she can talk about her frustrations without battle needing to be an outlet. Because when it comes down to it, although she strives to be optimistic and kind, she’s found herself angry about the way the world is (and rightfully so tbh) which leads her to feeling guilt for that. Her friends in the Inquisition and her agency to do more about what she’s angry about helps her grow past that.

35. What did they think of Bianca?

When Bianca showed up she trusted her and took her at her word, which in hindsight was a mistake. She knew Varric was capable of lying, but trusted his judgment anyway.

She was friendly to Bianca throughout the quest up until the revelation that she lied to get them here, at which point she got a little mad. If Bianca had been honest with them from the beginning, the quest would have more or less panned out the same. Bianca, of course, couldn’t have known that so I can honestly say lying would have been the better move from her perspective (though being honest with Varric, at least, would have been ideal. Especially because Varric has been shown capable of lying to protect people he cares for). But from Thora’s perspective, she was used for basically no reason.

What’s more, she was lied and used to by a member of the Smith Caste, one of the most respected castes in Orzammar and a caste that still has a lot of respect on the Surface– both by kalna Surface dwarves and by human society. Thora may be in a completely different position than she was a year or so ago, before the Conclave, but she still carries a lot of the hurt from being essentially the Most Casteless even among Casteless that she can’t just let that detail drop. It was kind of a slap in the face, realising that even as Inquisitor dwarves of higher castes could still use her. It does teach her a lesson, though, one she’ll keep in mind when interacting with other high caste dwarves in the future.

Ultimately though, she doesn’t hold a grudge against Bianca and I think the two could be friends if they were allowed more time together. There’s a lot about Bianca she respects and has sympathy for– both of them have experienced the pressure to marry, and Thora loves the idea of her being made a Paragon. Two Surface Paragons within Thora’s lifetime isn’t something she would have ever dreamed of as a girl.

#guardianlost #( asks ) #like dust i'll rise ( thora ) #v; once more unto the breach #( headcanons ) #poor little rich boy ( varric ) #[ except when she was so little she could play a pretend game where she was made a paragon ]

[pyotra]

Even the privilege to remain casteless is only made available to Savarnas. Which is why in spite of all the half-baked things that TM Krishna says, writes and does, he is going to be thrust on us as a revolutionary. Whenever one remarks something critical about TM Krishna's 'radical' initiatives, it is always met with responses that claim "But hey, he is at least doing something. So we can't completely reject him!" or the even more boring, "Do you know how many Brahmins hate him for the radical things he is doing?" (A big yawn.)

There is a glaring irony in any Brahmin trying to become an anti-caste revolutionary. If TM Krishna or any other Brahmin has to be regarded as an anti-caste revolutionary, then their contribution should weaken the caste structure, in at least the domain they are working. Which means that the Brahmin-Savarnas who have accumulated privileges over centuries should lose some of it. And those who never had any privileges, gain some. This must be achieved through a structural change and not through any philanthropic activity. Just a bare minimal requirement, right? So going by this basic principle, I am sure we can agree that the Brahmin revolutionary too (being part of the caste structure) should lose some of his/her privileges in the process. (Yes only, no?) But what has TM Krishna's supposedly 'radical' initiatives led to?

1. He wins the Magsaysay award. The same year, Bezwada Wilson too wins the award. Wilson has been fighting to end manual scavenging for over 30 years. On the other hand, TM Krishna lived most of his life as a very privileged Iyengar. And suddenly discovered 'Caste' on one lazy summer morning. 'The Hindu' when publishing the news about the Magsaysay award winners allots a huge chunk of the first page to Krishna and a small box news for Wilson.This directly reveals how the caste structure works. TM Krishna's pointless, patronizing but well-publicized events allowed him to reap a huge benefit here. But Wilson's 30 plus years of work put him behind the new Iyenger kid on the block. (Obviously!)

2. TM Krishna quits the December music season citing reasons, which include the domination of the Carnatic music scene by a single community. Ahem! The same community he belongs to, that is. As someone who has drawn all possible benefits out of the season by being part of the community, he decides to quit it one day. Did it make him lose his privileges? Not one bit. In fact, he has already sucked all the privileges out of the December music season and become some sort of a star singer. By quitting the season, he actually becomes an even more sought after singer. And basic economics tells us that when you lower the supply, the demand automatically goes up. Which in this case would naturally translate to an increase in ticket prices for his concerts. By making the decision to quit the season, he has become a bigger star, who is commercially better off. He is no more one among the several singers of the crowded season. But someone you can only access exclusively. (Smart move, right?)

3. Every now and then, TM Krishna works with lower caste singers, musicians or art forms. And if you cared to notice (am sure, you have), we hardly get to see any of their names or faces. The only name that is repeatedly pushed down our throat is TM Krishna's. All his generosity in willing to work with art forms or artists from oppressed communities has not done anything significant to them. And it can't too. But on the other hand, it has made him some sort of a benevolent and revolutionary cultural icon. Which further increases his market value as a Carnatic singer. In the crowded Carnatic market scene, TM Krishna has been able to stand out by stepping on the shoulders of these nameless, faceless artists. It was alleged that there was a tough competition for the top spot between TM Krishna and another Carnatic singer Sanjay Subrahmanyan, an Iyer - leading to some sort of an intra-agraharam tussle. But with the kind of posturing Krishna has been doing the last few years, he has been able to easily overshadow Sanjay Subrahmanyam. (Is Iyengar the new 'higher'?)

4. There is a direct commercial value in artists indulging in socially woke activities. When actor Salman Khan drunk drove and killed people sleeping on the pavement, he was advised to start the 'Being Human' brand. Tamil actor Surya and his family members make emotional appeals about their Agaram Foundation. Another Tamil actor Kamal Hassan peddled atheism and Periyar to appeal to the Dravidian audience when his competitor Rajinikant was doing better with the masses. Actor Aamir Khan confirmed his progressiveness by repeatedly sobbing on his show Satyamev Jayate. The thing is, in highly competitive environments, artists can never become huge stars by just minding their own business. They have to create goodwill karma and build a cult around it. And the return on investment in such activities is freakingly huge and translates to better business. We don't know and will never know if anyone really got benefitted through the 'Being Human' initiative. But it has made Salman a bigger brand than he already was. Similarly, TM Krishna has only become a bigger brand through all his philanthropic initiatives.(Whatte wow!)

So where were we? Yeah. We kind of agreed that if TM Krishna's radical initiatives are worthwhile, then it should leave him with fewer privileges than where he started. But is that what is happening? Not at all. He is rather becoming a bigger star and only accumulating more and more privileges. And by amassing these privileges, will he be strengthening the caste system or weakening it? (Tell me, please!)

By wallowing in a series of photo-op friendly initiatives, TM Krishna is only robbing the voice of several Dalit-Bahujan activists who have been working in the anti-caste space for decades but will never be heard. In a caste society, for any real revolution to happen, the Brahmin should learn to shut up. Or in TM Krishna's case, he can also use the ancestral property (polite term for caste property) he has inherited to create a new Music Sabha and ban Brahmins from it. Doing anything else is just the equivalent of loud farting. And we all might have to just close our noses for a while.

#this is soooo good #and everything i agree with about tm krishna's frivilous Op-eds on scroll and the wire #frivolous*** #feel bad for pa ranjith i saw the twitter comments and trolling #rajesh rajamani #tm krishna #pa. ranjith #but more power to him

[shae-c-art]

Theory for Bull’s Chargers Backstories: Rocky

I love the Bull's Chargers. I don't think that's a secret to anyone whose talked to me for about five minutes. I love their interactions with each other, I love their relationship with Bull, and I love how they're so much more than just fodder fighters. They feel real, even though they're only given a short time on screen. I think one of the other reasons I love them so much, is that it feels like we're given some clues to piece together about who they were before becoming Chargers, beyond just their few lines. I've talked to @dichotomous-dragon and @scarletfoxtales, ( bless them for letting me ramble) and Dee suggested I write up some of the headcannons we've talked about, and share them here. I thought that'd be fun and it's good for me to have concise write ups for myself as a reference to.

These are just my opinions and headcannons, but I'm trying to use my knowledge of the world, the timeline, and clues I've picked up from them personally to give an understanding of the conclusions I got. I'll do a separate post for each Charger eventually, but these get pretty indepth so it's best to break them.

Dwarves are my favorite to play as, and learn about, so I thought I'd start with Rocky.

Headcannon/theory: Rocky was originally from the Noble Caste before being exiled from Orzammar and likely worked at the Shaperate.

That might sound weird to say at first, because it's Rocky. If you ever had to pick a dwarf least likely to be part of the Noble Caste, he'd really fit the bill. He's comical, he likes explosions, and he got himself kicked out of Orzammar for blowing up part of the Shaperate. But I have genuine reasons to think he's so much more.Theory and evidence under the cut.

First thing is we know he wasn't casteless because he doesn't have a brand. The only people who can put on and take off a brand are surface dwarves when they visit Orzammar. Otherwise those things are tattooed and Casteless dwarves get them soon after they're born. Even the Casteless who are raised up to nobility, like Rica in Origins, don't lose theirs; so Rocky absolutely wouldn't have lost his on the surface. Also if he had been Casteless and blown up part of the Shaperate, he'd have been killed. It's as simple as that. Leske tells us in Brosca's origins, once you wake up in a cell, that a punishment for a Casteless even touching a properly smithed weapon is losing their hand for defiling it. So a Casteless literally blowing up part of where they keep all their history? Dead. No question. I know it's allowed for game mechanics, but generally Casteless are not allowed in the Diamond Quarter where the Shaperate is located either. When a Casteless dwarf steals a tome from there in origins, it's said that's the first time someone's ever dared steal from the Shaperate, and him being Casteless makes it an even bigger deal he was there at all. It is mentioned that possibly Casteless might be allowed inside since all dwarves are supposed to have access, but considering your interactions with the Shaper and others in that area, I'm willing to get it's more likely than not something that isn't really allowed, or at least often.

Rocky isn't dead, and doesn't have a brand. So we can rule out him being Casteless and coming to the surface for a better life like a lot do.

But not being Castless doesn't make someone Noble. There's seven castes in total, not including Casteless or Surface Dwarves. The castes are: Noble Caste, Warrior Caste, Smith Caste, Artisan Caste, Miner Caste, Merchant Caste and Servant Caste.

At first I thought because of his knowledge of explosives, and I'd argue that includes a bit of alchemy, that he could have been part of the Smith Caste like Dagna was. And his experiments got a bit out of hand. That would explain why he had access to certain materials as well as his knowledge for making things.

But then I started to wonder why would someone from the Smithing Caste actually be doing something that could cause part of the Shaperate to blow up, be by the Shaperate to begin with. It didn't make sense because Rocky would have likely just stayed near a forge where he knew it'd be safe, heck even expected, for experiments to happen and possibly go wrong. There'd be no reason to take a chance at getting himself and other people hurt by doing something like that at the Shaperate if he had access to another place actually designed to do those things. From how Rocky says it, I don't think him blowing up the Shaperate was intentional at all. He mutters it. Like it was an accident he's embarrassed by, and then adds on 'Bunch of Noble crap.' Which I think is actually important. Especially since again, he isn't dead. Now I know other castes aren't subject to the same punishment as Casteless by any means, but even someone from the Smith caste doing that kind of damage? I'd be willing to bet that he would have been executed as well. Or at the very least, exiled to the Deep Roads where death is certain, instead of the surface.

But again he wasn't. He was sent to the surface.  

Now that I laid out the evidence for why he isn't Casteless, or part of the Smithing caste, lets get to why I think he was nobility and in particular a worked at the Shaperate and the timeline.

The timeline for him doing the damage to the Shaperate I'd say happened within the last ten years. It's hard to pinpoint exactly when, but we at least know that it was after everything happened with the Arch Demon and the Hero of Ferelden going through Orzammar. We know that because in Origins, the Shaperate itself is completely intact. There's not even a hint of it having been destroyed or repaired, and that's something that would have been noted. Also Bull likely formed the Chargers within the last ten years as well. I'd give a rough estimate as to the last five to seven years based on what we can guess about his own timeline, him talking about the Chargers and how long they've been together. I think Krem and the other Chargers we meet were the six original Chargers because of a comment Bull makes about a job they took. It's the comment about the villagers who paid them in rice, and that was in their early days with only him, Krem and five others. Because those are the Chargers we're meant to meet and care about, I think him specifically aligning the number of Chargers then with the number we meet, is probably significant. So I'd be willing to bet Rocky was an original member.

The timeline doesn't really do much except it's fun to kind of think of when all the events take place, though it does play a small part in how he survives, depending on whose king. But for Rocky's personal timeline,  I'd say he probably left Orzammar at the earliest three years after the Hero of Ferelden came through.

Now the reason I say that Rocky is nobility, is because throughout history, the nobility and clergy  have often been the people with the greatest access to education and tools for experiments in science. And Rocky, for all his comic relief, is terrifyingly smart. Bull himself says Rocky is one of their best sappers.  A sapper is defined as: a soldier responsible for tasks such as building and repairing roads and bridges, laying and clearing mines, etc.

But Rocky takes it further. He's not just building things, and mines should be noted, are the kind that detonate, not the kind you actually mine ore out of. (I'm noting because it took me a second to realize the different use of the same word, especially in context to dwarves.) Bull's actual comment is 'He can take down enemy fortifications faster than a golem.'

If Rocky is able to do that, and be counted by Bull, who is a Seheron veteran, as one of their best, that's saying something. That's saying he's not just clearing things, but to me, he understands strategy, the way to find weak points in a structure and where they'll likely be, how to do it without causing damage to his own side and perfectly understands how his own weapons work. He doesn't just make things go boom, he actually understands the tech and strategy that goes into other people's fortifications, buildings and their own defenses. People can definitely have a natural talent for that, but you also need a lot of training in order to do that effectively in the field. While that might put him as someone who could have even been part of the Warrior Caste, as I'm sure they're taught similar things, Krem says Rocky, like Stitches, usually hangs in the back. He's not a front line fighter, he's sabotage. If he was from the Warrior Caste, he'd likely be up front swinging a weapon.

Again it's also about the place where whatever he was doing went wrong. The Shaperate. As well as what Rocky himself says about his own projects.

He's working making qunari style black powder. That kind of powder, Gaat-lok, is one of the  Qun's most guarded secrets. That's something that even Tevinter fighter's fear. No one gives that information up. I'm willing to bet even Bull wouldn't offer any info on that to the Chargers, and here's Rocky going: I'm gonna make it.

That's ambitious as ever. And it's the fact he knows enough about it to to even begin working on it. Because the fewer people that know much about it other than it's effective, the fewer people that will try to attempt to make it, the better for the Qun in keeping how it's done a secret. Now Bull says he hasn't got it, but this might be a case of Bull not being the best one tell us if Rocky does or not. It could just be a comedic 'He thinks he has it and doesn't' or it could be Bull not wanting to let Rocky know if he was close or not. Because at this point, Bull is still in the Qun. He's still Ben-Hassrath. He doesn't want someone else to figure this out, and I think it'd be hard for him to omit to his superiors in a letter that Rocky had figured it out. Because if Rocky figures it out, and they ever fight someone who recognizes it as black powder used in the Qun's fighting, it could cause a lot of danger for people. It could make who they're fighting either think the qunari are making a move by making them think Bull still has access to that, effectively calling his cover as Tal-Vasoth, which was the part he was supposed to be playing then, and starting another conflict. It could also make them think Bull knows how to make it, making him a target for capture, or it could even put Rocky in danger. Both from people who recognize the powder being used and want that knowledge, and from the Qun itself.

Because if the Qun found out, from Bull or otherwise, that Rocky, a Bas, whose never seen the qunari black powder in action, actually figured out how to make it? They'd either want him in the Qun, or dead. Those would be the options. And I don't think Bull is willing to take that chance. So it's better for him to make Rocky second guess himself on that. Is he close? Is he not? Bull isn't going to let him know, and it's a perfect little trick of an unreliable narrator in that sense. Because neither us, nor Rocky, actually knows.

Now it's possible he heard about Gaat-lok from Bull, but again, would Bull really give him enough information to start making the stuff? Or even start trying? Would he really even talk about it much to start? I don't think so. But you know a place that might have records of it? The Shaperate. Because Orzammar for awhile actually had strong connections to Tevinter. Even today, Tevinter is one of the places where dwarves aren't just treated like a servant class, and more and more dwarves are actually going to Tevinter which has put a strain on how the Shaperate itself defines surface dwarves, who were also from other higher castes. But in any case, having those records of people who did see it in action, maybe people who even tried to make it themselves, would have been a starting point.

And as nobility, Rocky would have had access to all the Shaperate's books and information. He could have absolutely learned of Gaat-lok from there and later decided to try and make it.

We also know from a letter later that talks about some of the Chargers adventures, that Rocky at one point, blew up half a mountain to bring down on enemy troops. A mountain. He destroyed half a mountain. That is not an easy thing to do at all. That requires some serious explosives and a serious knowledge of those explosives, what they'd use, where to place them, even geology ect. Especially because that was on top of enemies. They weren't excavating for building, that was just straight up fighting.

He could have gained more knowledge on the surface, as I'm sure he did, but that kind of knowledge? After being exiled, with no surface connections, I'd say it'd be really unlikely he would have had access to anyone at first who could have taught him all of that. So he had to come to the surface with a strong knowledge and understanding of application to start. So him being nobility is directly tied to him having the education, and means to that knowledge in order to achieve that kind of proficiency, as well as access to ingredients he'd need in order to try different experiments and see hands on effects. That would also explain his understanding of strategy in a fight, as well as him being more towards the back because he wasn't trained as a front line fighter.

For him working at the Shaperate, I based that on my theory he was from the noble caste, because Shapers are usually always from the Noble Caste. Much like Clergy throughout history was often from the Nobility class when it came to higher up positions. It's also mentioned that, with rare exceptions, people who work at the Shaperate are from the Noble Caste. I keep emphasizing that the Shaperate is what he destroyed part of, but it's important to my theory he worked there. Why would someone from the Noble Caste be doing experiments at the Shaperate, when they had access to other areas that would have been safer, unless they had another reason for being there? I don't think they would. I think they'd have gotten what they needed and left, unless it was expected for them to stay there or nearby. And that would only be expected if they were the Shaper, or working there themselves.

What I think likely happened is that Rocky was chosen to work at the Shaperate because they saw how smart he was. Maybe he even wanted to leave, but if someone leaves Orzammar they leave their entire caste behind. Unless they're the Shaper or work there. Those are the only people who can leave, and are even encouraged, in order to bring back knowledge from the outside world, and still retain their caste. So rather than risk losing him, they put him in a position where he could explore the outside, but not lose his status and Orzammar wouldn't lose him. It should be noted to that children of nobility are especially important because of the low birthrate among dwarves. If they can stop one of their children from leaving or dying, they will. That said, working at the Shaperate wasn't actually something Rocky wanted. Even if it was an honor, it was still just a duty. But it wasn't something he could say no too. So he went with it, basically accepting what would be his lot in life, but he never stopped learning and wanting to do more. He never stopped loving science, and alchemy and figuring things out. But he couldn't just leave every time he wanted to do an experiment or study. He had to be there, so between other duties, he would do some of his own experiments, learning and reading from the old texts and trying new things. Then it went wrong. One mistake was all it took and a bit of the Shaperrate was destroyed.

As for why he got exiled to the surface and not the Deep Roads or even killed? I think that ties into whoever you put in charge and the timeline.

If Bhelen is in charge, then there's a couple things to keep in mind. One is that Bhelen is not really a traditionalist. The Shaperate would have still been massively important to him, but he's also the guy who, despite how horrific he was to his own family, actually starts improving the lives of the casteless, opens Orzammar up for more trade and really improving the lives of his subjects and pushing forward. But not everyone is happy and he can be brutal. He has a better relationship with the surface as well as being a bit more progressive in some areas, but the House of Assembly is also disbanded under him. The Deshyr, basically the head of every noble house, that used to hold a lot of political power, now don't. That's going to be very hard to swallow for a lot of people. So if Rocky had been part of the noble caste under Bhelen, then you have a king whose a bit more progressive with a better relationship to the surface and has angered a lot of the nobles. Does he care about angering nobles? Absolutely not.

But I'd argue he does know how to pick his battles. So if Rocky's parents had instead asked for their son to simply be exiled to the surface, instead of killed or thrown in the Deep Roads, depending on who they were, he might have agreed. I think it could be likely that, even if Rocky's parents where furious at what happened, and no doubt they would have been, to have their son killed by a king who disbanded the assembly, took away a good chunk of their power and is challenging the older ways? That might be pretty hard for them to be okay with. Though it's possible if they supported Bhelen in his claim for kiingship to start with, it could have been a personal favor. But with either favors, or some serious pushing, Rocky was allowed to live but had to leave. And the political tension at that time, if played the wrong way with the nobles, could have really, really gone wrong if Rocky's parents spun it as 'Bhelen killed our son for an accident.' Even worse if they supported him for being king too. Better to just get him out of sight and out of mind. Then, Bhelen also has some nobles who owe him big and he really likes when people owe him.

Now if Harrowmont was in charge, it might be trickier. Because this guy was a staunch traditionalist. This is the guy who, despite seeming more honorable, even more trustworthy, than Bhelen on the surface, puts down a revolt in Dust Town, (one he caused I might add by making things somehow harder for the Casteless) so brutally that dwarves in other castes are horrified and challenge him on it. He keeps the House of Assembly, but closes off Orzammar even more tightly from the outside world than before. This isn't the guy who would pardon someone destroying the shaperate as it just being an accident. This is the kind of guy who would take this personally because to him tradition and preserving that mean everything. So how does Rocky survive him? This one is more dependent on the timeline because there are two ways I think, depending on when it happens. Since Harrowmont doesn't disband the assembly, it actually becomes tighter knit under him. So still having a lot of political clout, Rocky's parents could have petitioned him to let their son go the surface, a place Harrowmont  was cutting off more and more contact with so it'd likely be just as terrifying an idea as the Deep Roads. For someone from the Noble Caste and who had worked at the Shaper, this might even be worse than the Deep Roads. As dying on the surface and away from Orzammar would mean Rocky couldn't properly return to the stone and become an ancestor. Essentially it's exiling him for all of eternity, not just his mortal life. Harrowmont  might have actually see that as worse than death or dying in the Deep Roads.

Or, Rocky could have outlived Harrowmont, who either dies of illness, or is assassinated. No one knows what happened, but he dies not to long after being made king. Which leaves a serious power vacuum again. And if all that is going on, there might be more pressing issues than what Rocky did and he could have just slipped under the radar a bit. Yes he has to be punished, but are they going to cause more political strife by killing the child of a noble family? Again, birth rates for dwarves are incredibly low which is how noble hunting is even a profession. So a noble family having a child is a huge, huge thing. They're not just casually killed or thrown away. So if there's an option besides death, it'd probably be what they go for. He could have been sentenced to the Deep Roads, but again I think that comes down to if his parents tried to call in some favors, and their own political position. Either way, because Harrowmont  really isn't there to push it, and there's so much chaos going on already, Rocky would much more likely be able to slip by a death sentence and get sent to the surface instead.

Then later he meets up with Bull, and the Chargers and the rest is history.

So that's my theory for Rocky.

#Rocky #The Bull's Chargers #Bull's Chargers #Dragon Age #Dwarves #Meta #my headcannons

[extravagantliar]

👀 Varrianca romantic ship because I apparently hate you and want you to suffer

send me 👀 + a ship ( platonic / romantic / hate )  //  meme cache

1. Varric and Bianca’s love was a young one. They met early on in their lives because of their Carta contacts and ended up working together for several months before any passes were made for one was a first generation surfacer and the other one was casteless. Their roles went unbeknownst to one another for quite some time into the affair, that was until one of them stumbled on papers exposing their heritage and their specific alliances within the Merchant’s Guild. After that and the repeating crossbow experiments, they both returned to their respective home cities, Bianca to her parish in Val Royeaux and Varric to Kirkwall, letters were exchanged. Assassins ( infamously known as the Antavian Crows ) were sent as a threat to the Tethras house by the Davri house. 

As many know the Houses within the Merchant’s Guild are as tepid as they are welcoming, issues have arisen from less than nothing, and Varric has even stated that men would sell their own mothers and betray their own families for a bigger share of the Lyrium market, so even though the Davri house and Tethras house are driving forces in the Merchant’s Guild it’s very likely that Bartrand did something to incur the wrath of the Davri Patriarch, such as setting up the multiple business fronts used to smuggle the goods that are referenced throughout DAI and DA2. These systems of businesses made the Tethras family one of the richest families in the Dragon Age series and makes Varric one of the richest companions after he takes over the estate. This fact, plus Bianca’s family being tied to smithies of all kinds meant they may have been wanting to woo the Vasca House for some time. 

Hence why the Varric and Bianca relationship would have almost caused a clan war within the Merchant’s Guild.

So --- Bartrand, as head of the family, forbade any more contact, seeing that he was trying to raise the standing of the Tethras family, and having assassins ransack places of business and breaking the nose of his spymaster was not something he needed to be dealing with, and Bartrand most likely told Varric off at one point, with Ilsa backing him up ( let’s be real, Ilsa took Bartrand’s side on this for good reason ). And let’s be real --- Bartrand most likely wanted Varric to marry strategically, as the Davri family wanted Bianca to marry strategically as well, however I do think that Bartrand listened to his brother and did inquire for Bianca’s hand for Varric --- because the Tethras family was connected and had a lot to offer, alas there was no return or acceptance on the proposal from the Davri family. 

Varric, with a broken nose and wounded pride, resigned for the moment and placed the relationship with Bianca on hold, at her insistence after she had heard of the assassins and the insistence of the Tethras Household. 

Obviously, as the memories in Until We Sleep show, that did not last --- since Bianca apparently had plans to market the repeating crossbow as both families hunted them.

2. Varric made it all the way to Jader out of Kirkwall, to meet Bianca in a Chantry and marry her. However, he was met by hired hands before he could meet her at the halfway point --- he ended up with his nose broken again, a scar on his back and a pair of broken ribs.

Bianca left Jader on charter and returned to her forge in Val Royeaux, while Varric made it to the Chantry to wait for a night and a half for her before he departed for Kirkwall --- and was later informed by a statement within the Merchant’s Guild that the Smithy Bianca Davri had married a Smith Caste dwarf, Bogdan Vasca, within the guild cementing the very alliance Bianca and Varric almost jeopardised. The alliance did wonders for the Davri inventions, allowing them access to materials and more liquid assets than the Tethras House could offer. 

This pliability in wealth and resources allowed Bianca to develop many of her well known and well use creations, and her husband’s standing allowed her to be a speaking point for Paragon, if Varric had been her husband, I doubt she’d be considered. 

3. Regardless of the banter in Inquisition, I do believe while Varric holds a deep fondness for Bianca he has fallen out of love with her, and the Valammar and Primeval Thaig fiasco was the metaphorical nail in the coffin for it all. 

Their letters and meetings had been dwindling through the years, and perhaps for the lack of trying to keep what they had once going, but people grow and fall out of love. Their love didn’t die with a bang, but meerly fizzled over time, for they both wanted and needed different things. Varric wanted someone who would choose him and Bianca needed someone who would silently support, which she obviously found in Bogdan. 

#professor-isabel #this is more like six billion things and world building #anyways #.From the Desk Of: V. Tethras ( Headcanon )

[wolftraps]

I never really thought about it, the possibility of the main character being illiterate in any of the DA games. Now I'm picturing my rogue city elf warden with Alistair and Morrigan bickering over who is going to teach her to read. And by the time they finish fighting about it, Leliana has already started to teach her. And it makes me laugh.

It’s definitely an area where I imagine mages have a leg up on most every other origin (excepting, obviously, the nobles). Circle mages get an education that I imagine is more theory than practice and relies heavily on books. With the Dalish, the Keepers are supposed to record and protect their history, so Firsts would obviously learn. And they’re supposedly the only one even allowed to learn to read Elvhen anymore. 

A Dalish hunter, though? A casteless dwarf? A mercenary grunt? A city elf living in the slums? Historically, in our world at least, literacy has been a privilege reserved for those rich enough to afford the time and materials. Books seem a bit more accessible in Thedas than they were here in roughly equivalent times, but I would still expect literacy to be a lot lower than they make it seem. (This was something I appreciated about DA2, when Aveline said she might have Varric “pen some warnings for the lawless” and he went “who’s that for? Are most criminals big readers?”)

So yes, having an illiterate Tabris seems super plausible to me. And you know by the time Alistair and Morrigan stop cutting on each other, let alone arguing over who would be a more effective teacher, Leliana would absolutely have a small stack of romance novels in Tabs arms. (When Zevran joins and learns this is a thing that’s happening, he starts suggesting racier and racier books.)

I may need to draw this.

#tabris #leliana #dragon age #dao #socializing #Anonymous #you asked

[skiesofeternity]

Skies of Eternity Chapter 4 (Tera x DAI crossover)

Skies of Eternity Chapter 4 (Tera x DAI crossover)

Rating: Teen and up

Pairings: DorianXMale Lavellan (in later chapters)

Warnings: None so far

Fandoms: Tera Online, Dragon Age Inquisition

You do not need to know about Tera online to read this story.

AO3 link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6452602/chapters/14767501

Higher Resolution of scenes: https://miadrawsart.tumblr.com/post/158769843134/better-resolution-of-the-pictures-from-my

Chapter 4

Questions

“This is so much BULLSHIT!” Eruno yelled in frustration. She punched the stone wall of the cell, the guards stationed outside the bars fidgeted.

“Eruno. Behave.” Eirai warned her younger sister sternly.

Eruno huffed, dropping down to the floor on her blanket in a cross-legged position with her arms crossed in annoyance.

Zyllian sat with her back against the wall, her steel mask taken away. She wrapped the flimsy blanket around her neck to cover the lower half of her face. Tucking her knees under her arms, her thin-leather gloved hands curled into fists. The Reaper felt exposed without her scythes and armor but she did not put up a fuss like her younger sibling. She refused to show any weakness.

Eirai was beside Erune’s sleeping form on the straw cot. The eldest sister continued to stroke the young Elin’s hair as she slept. “We must be patient. Remember, we are foreigners in another world-it is best that we avoid instigating any kind of conflict.”

The squirrel Elin let out a noise of frustration and fell flat on her back, her bushy tail knocking around the dust. After a few minutes passed, she tucked her head back up. “By the way, what happened to lil’ sis? She ok?”

“She’s fine. She just used up all her mana that her body could hold.” The Reaper’s sudden voice startled the guards for a moment as they had barely heard the third Elin speak before. “She’s recharging it through the Dream.”

“But doesn’t she usually just need quick nap, or a good night’s sleep? She’s been out of it since she helped the elf-guy deal with the Breach.”

“It’s because we’re in a different world, and the only thing that links ours to this one is the Fade rift. It takes more effort to be able to reach the Dream from here. Hence why she’s taking so long.” Zyllian murmured. “I can feel her presence there and her body still needs time to regain her mana.”

“Because we are so far away from our world, we must be careful in using our willpower sparingly.” Eirai spoke. Zyllian nodded in acknowledgement. The four would have to rely more on their physical strength.

The three heard the sound of the main door of the cellar opening. They watched the guards salute as the two women from earlier come in, followed by a man with curly blonde hair and a thick fur coat over part his armor and the bald elf with the short, stocky man.

Leaping to her feet, Eruno grabbed at the bars and scowled at the one the redhead had referred to as Cassandra before the Elins had been detained. “So what’s the big idea?! We’ve been waiting here for a day now!”

Cassandra glared. “I would hold my tongue if I were you.”

“Oh yeah?!” Eruno pointed back. “You better have some explanation as to WHY you arrested us-especially AFTER I saved your ass back there!” Sneering, she continued. “You should be fucking grateful that my sisters and I came to help!”

Eirai rose and put her hand on her second youngest sister’s shoulder, telling her to back off.

The curly-blonde haired man looked at the four Elins. “So, these are the mysterious girls that claimed they are from another world?”

“As we told you Curly,” The short man spoke. “Popped out of the Breach.”

‘Curly’ moved closer to the cell, taking a closer look at their animal features. “Such strange ears and horns...are they demons?” Eruno snorted.

“I had never seen a demon take on such a strange form before, and I do not sense any Fade magic from them” The bald elf answered. “My wards in this room would entrap them anyways if they did try anything.” He thought aloud.

Eruno swerved on her feet with her arms crossed. “It’d be appreciated if all of you would just talk to us instead of discussing amongst yourselves about us as if we weren’t here. We aren’t animals. And of course you wouldn’t sense ‘Fade’ magic because our Willpower and magic is different from yours.”

“What do you mean?” The elf blinked in curiosity.

Eruno grinned. “You down wards right?” She gestured her head to the side. “They don’t seem to be working - my sisters can still access the Dream and we can still do this:” A spark of red spiraling energy flickered around her index finger.

“What?!” Cassandra, the blonde-haired man, and the guards immediately grabbed their swords. The elf and shorter man staggered back in shock. “How are you able to still cast magic?! What kind of mages are you?”

Eruno rolled her eyes. “We’re not mages. At least, the three of us.” She jerked her thumb at Erune. “Lil’sis is a Priestess so she is able to use magic in greater amounts-at least, healing and holy type.”

“A mage is a mage, even if they are a healer, they can still be a threat-such as you.”

Eruno’s tail flicked in annoyance as she glared back. “I told you, we’re NOT mages.”

“Eruno.” Eirai hissed. She looked at the others outside the cell. “My apologies of my younger sister’s behavior. She is still young and brash at times.”

“Are you the leader?” The hooded woman asked.

“In a sense, yes. I am the eldest of my sisters.” She crossed her arms. “Your apprehensiveness is understandable and it is probably best that we explain our part and hear your side of the story as well.”

“Very well.” The woman nodded in acknowledgement. “Perhaps you should start first.”

“As I had said before, we are Elins from the world Arborea…”

***

Keeper Zathrian’s voice could be heard from outside the araval. Quen slowly sat up, trying to avoid reopening the wounds under the various bandages. His little sister, Riella, snuggled deeper in the blanket made of druffalo hide.

The young elven boy pushed aside the flap of the tent and looked over at his Keeper. Before the Keeper stood a large group of people. Eight of them said they were Grey Wardens.

As he surveyed each of them, faint remembrance of their names came back to him.

Alistair...the awkward Shem who let the noblewoman, Ilena, do the talking.

Griff and Ren...two mages from the circle, both looked around curiously as they had never been in a forest before. Besides the Shemlan and elf was another mage, but she did not wear circle robes. The woman called Morrigan scowled to herself.

The casteless dwarf, Denev, stood close by a young red-headed Shem. The female Shemlan looked familiar to him. A sense of realization came to Quen as he remembered the woman’s name: [Leliana...]

Another dwarf was farther away from the group. Brandil, he was called. He held an air full of pride and arrogance. His arms were crossed in an impatient way.

The other two elves, cousins he remembered, one Dalish like his clan and the other born from the city. Lance, the city-born, noticed Quen looking his way and waved back. His Dalish-clan-born cousin, Verandra, with her vallaslin markings of Sylaise upon her face, stared back at the young elf.

***

The sound of a door opening roused Quen from his dream. As he sat upright, he heard a squeak of surprise-followed by a box crashing to the floor. Looking over from the bed he was on, he saw an elven girl with her eyes widened.

“I, I didn’t know you were awake! I swear!” She stammered.

He cocked his head curiously and opened his mouth to speak. “It’s fine. I-” The elf girl collapsed to her knees into a groveling position. Quen was taken aback.

“I beg for your forgiveness and blessing. I am but a humble servant.” Quen was definitely awake at this point, getting out of bed quickly as the other elf continued. “You are in Haven my Lord. As well as the strange four girls.”

“Hold on,” The elven girl flinched. “Why are you calling me “Lord”? And what about those four girls?”

She looked back at Quen. “They say you saved us. The Breach stopped growing. Just like the Mark on your hand.”

Quen lifted the sleeve of his clothes to look at his arm. The green scar on his palm had quieted down, still slightly throbbing and shining but to a much lesser extent from before. His nerves and veins no longer bulged under the skin; the spider-like markings were gone.

“One of the girls, the blue-haired one, helped you ” The elven girl spoke. “The two of you have been out of it this entire time. The people of Haven have been talking about you two for the past three days.”

‘She...helped me…?’ Quen thought to himself. “But what about my trial? And who are those girls?”

“I…it is not my place...” The elf girl hesitated, wringing her hands together. “Lady Cassandra would want to know that you’ve wakened. She said ‘At once’.”

“Where do I find her?” Quen shuffled around the room to find his belongings. His armor and boots were on the dresser beside the bed, alongside with his knapsack. He checked to make sure all of his things were there, especially the small object wrapped up in cloth at the bottom of the bag.

The other elf quickly gathered the contents from the crate she had dropped earlier. “At the Chantry,” She stood up, cradling the crate close. “With the Lord Chancellor. ‘At once’, she said.” Immediately, the elven girl shoved open the cabin door and was gone.

Quen continued to stand there for a moment, taking it all in with a deep breath.

He was alive. Alive.

The Breach had been stopped - and he survived it.

Whispering a silent prayer to the Creators, he sat down on the bed to put on his boots.

***

Somewhere around the same time Quen had awoken, Erune’s eyes fluttered open. Zyllian noticed and went by her younger sister’s side, stroking her hair. Erune purred, her cat ears twitching underneath Zyllian’s fingertips.

“Zyllian…” She smiled gently at her older sister. It was rare for Zyllian to show such affection to her sisters, so Erune never took these moments for granted.

Zyllian retracted her hand, standing up. There were a few guards stationed at the stairs that lead into the room of prison cells. Although the four were no longer locked inside one of the cells and given free roam of the room itself, the guards still kept a close eye on them. Eruno was doing handstands and push-ups while Eirai meditated in the corner of the room.

Erune then perked her head up. “The elven boy...is he alright?” Zyllian paused at the unlocked cell door.

“He’s been out of it, just as you have. But he’s fine.” One of the guards had left to inform the others about the fourth Elin finally being awake.

‘Oh...thank goodness…’ Erune sighed with relief, clutching the blanket close to her chest. As she rose from the straw bed, Eirai got up to fill her little sister in on the events and details of what had happened while she was asleep.

***

On his way to Haven’s Chantry, Quen was surprised to see the people saluting at his presence, considering the fact that they had given him looks of disdain three days ago.

Glancing back at the sky, he could see the Breach was still there, the clouds that swirled around it still glowing green.

As he stepped into the Chantry, Quen could hear the voices of Roderick arguing with Cassandra and Leliana. The guard stationed by the door, knocked and opened it to let Quen in.

The Grand Chancellor had both his hands on the wooden table, his face in what Quen assumed was a permanent scowl at this point. Leliana and Cassandra were on the other side of the table, Cassandra holding a thick book in her arms.

The moment Roderick saw Quen, the man attempted to instruct the guards to take Quen away in chains for trial, though Cassandra immediately then told the guards to disregard such actions and to fetch the others. Nodding, the guards closed the door behind them, a heavy air of silence followed soon after for a few moments.

Roderick glared back at Cassandra. “You walk a dangerous line, Seeker.” He spat.

“The Breach is stable, but it is still a threat. I will not ignore it.” Cassandra huffed.

Quen swore under his breath. He had hoped to close the rip in the sky but it looked like whatever he did was not enough. It had already taken a lot out of him to stop the Breach from growing and he did not do it alone. “I did what I could to close the Breach and it almost killed me.” He said.

“Yet you live.” Roderick grumbled. “A convenient result.”

“You were not there, Chancellor.” Leliana stepped in. “He was doing everything he could and the Breach was going to kill him before he could try and close it. If it were not for the aid of that ‘Elin’, he may have been dead. And then we would have had nothing left to close the Breach.”

“Elin?” Quen asked.

“The four girls who appeared from the Breach rift. Their kind are called Elins.” Cassandra said. Someone then knocked on the door and she told them to enter.

The four Elins came the room. The blue-haired cat girl smiled an air of relief when her eyes made contact with Quen’s, her hands clasped together in delight. It was still bizarre for Quen to see the girls with animal ears and tails that actually moved. Roderick wrinkled his nose in disgust at the sight of the four.

The rabbit Elin stepped forward to Quen, her right hand in a fist above her breast. “Greetings. We are the Fae sisters. I am Eirai Fae and this is my twin sister, Zyllian Fae.” She gestured at the white-haired Elin with the demonic horns. Zyllian watched Quen closely with sharp eyes.

The squirrel Elin grinned, jerking her thumb at herself. “I’m their younger sister, Eruno Fae! And this is my twin sister…” She put her arm around the cat Elin who fidgeted nervously.

“Erune. Erune Fae.” She spoke with a quiet voice. “Thank the Gods that you are alright.”

“These four are from another world called Arborea,” Leliana said. “It appears that the Breach and Rifts have appeared in their world-acting as a link between ours. They have been sent by their head organization, The Federation, in means of finding a way to aide in closing the Rifts.”

“A likely story.” Roderick interjected. “How do you not know if they are demons? Especially that one!” He pointed at Zyllian specifically. Zyllian ignored his accusations.

“We are actually the opposite of demons.” Eirai stated. “Our kind are originally Spirits of Nature given a physical form. Why we have animal features reflects nature itself.”

Such information was quite a surprise for Quen. How this ‘Elin’ said such things nonchalantly, as if she was used to explaining this. Perhaps what she said was true? Already their appearances were proof enough that they were odd. Such ideas of other worlds and species were never thought up so casually.

“Spirits? Hah! You may call yourselves that but we all know you can easily become demons.”

Eruno stormed into Roderick’s personal bubble, the small Elin glaring up at the man as if he was little of a threat to her. “For YOUR world probably. Have you NOT been listening? Are your ears old? We’re from a different world so things work differently there.”

Roderick started back, raising his finger as if to scold an adolescent. “Listen, child-!” Eruno batted his hand away.

“I’m 36 years old, you Senile Old Geezer!”

Roderick was taken aback, both by the insult and the Elin’s age. “W, what?! But you look just like a child!” The others, sans the Elins, raised their eyes in surprise.

Eirai sighed with annoyance while Zyllian grabbed Eruno by the shoulder and tugged her back. “That is another thing about our kind,” Eirai continued from before. “Our bodies do not physically age.”

Throwing his hands in the air, Roderick sputtered. “Well, even if they aren’t demons from our world-who’s not to say they aren’t here to attack us?”

“Because, Chancellor,” Cassandra hissed. “They surrendered to us willingly when we first arrested them. Their reason being here also leads to our other pressing issue. The Breach is not the only threat we face.”

“Someone was behind the explosion at the Conclave. Someone Most Holy did not expect.” Leliana stated.

“Whoever it was, they are probably also the cause of the Rifts being formed.” Eirai added.

Leliana nodded at the Elin. “Indeed. We both have the same agenda as to finding out who. They may have died with the others at the Conclave-or have allies who yet live.” With her last words, she glared at the Grand Chancellor.

Roderick flinched. “I am a suspect?”

“You. And many others.”

“But NOT the prisoner. Nor these things.” He pointed at both Quen and the Fae sisters. Eruno stuck her tongue out at him.

“The Divine called to him for help at the Temple. And then there is the woman we all saw who was also there when the Elins appeared.” Cassandra said.

“So, his survival from the Temple’s destruction, that THING on his hand, those girls-All a coincidence?” Roderick continued to question.

“Providence.” Cassandra walked around the table to look at Quen in the eyes. “The Maker sent him to us in our darkest hour. And he aided the Elins’ journey to our world to help Quen.”

Eirai raised a brow in curiosity while Eruno snickered to herself. “Heh, are we considered ‘Saviors’ for a Chosen One now?” She giggled, nudging Erune.

Quen immediately decided to interject. “But I am not a Chosen One! Wouldn’t it also be considered blasphemy, considering I believe in the elven Creators while you are hailing me as a Chosen for the Chantry?”

Cassandra looked at him sympathetically. “Even so, no one can deny what they saw when you first appeared after the explosion AND after the Elins arrived. The woman from the Rift...everyone has been saying she could only have been Andraste herself.”

Andraste, a historic figure to the Chantry. Later considered the Bride of the Maker who fought the Tevinter Imperium for the freedom of slaves.

“Nevertheless,” Leliana said. “The Breach remains, and your Mark is still our only hope of closing it.”

“This is not for you to decide.” Roderick protested.

Cassandra then slammed the thick book she had held in her hands on the table. The metal cover of the book had the insignia of an eye inside a sun. As she placed her hand on it, she looked at Roderick. “You know what this is, Chancellor.” Straightening her back, she carefully looked around the room. “A writ from The Divine, granting us the authority to act.

As of this moment, I hereby declare the Inquisition to be reborn.”

She then moved towards Roderick. The man stepped backwards, intimidated by the woman’s looming presence. “We will close the Breach. We will find those responsible. And we will restore order. With or without your approval.”

Roderick glared back at the Seeker. He then shook his head in disbelief before storming out of the room. The door slammed behind him, the wooden frame shuddering. “So… Inquisition?” Eruno piped up, grimacing. “What’s all that?”

Leliana smiled at the young Elin before looking back at the book. “An old Chantry Order from long ago. This was the Divine’s Directive should the Conclave fail: Rebuild the Inquisition of old. Find those who will stand against the chaos.” Her smile then fell. “We aren’t ready, though. We have no leader, no numbers, and now no Chantry support.”

“But we have no choice: We must act now.” Cassandra then looked at Quen. “With you at our side.” She then nodded to the Fae sisters. “And the Fae Sisters if you wish.”

“Why do you need my permission for them to join you?” Quen asked, finally having a moment to speak.

“Because,” Leliana replied. “These girls have an interest in you particularly.”

“You can close the Rifts.” Eirai pointed out.  “And that is very important for our own mission. It is necessary to work together. However, it is best to have your permission since you are the one we were looking for.”

“In the end, it is up to you.” The women in the room all looked at Quen . The elf suddenly felt slightly uncomfortable being put at the center of attention. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as he thought it all over.

Once again, he was put on the spot - at least the world wasn’t ending this time. He had made his choice before he went to the Breach. He wanted to help the people. And seeing as he was the only solution, he had agreed. He had made his choice before and it was his decision even now.

He looked back at the others, more confident now. “If your Inquisition’s goal is to try and restore order from all of this chaos…” Cassandra smiled and held out her hand to him. Quen took it, shaking in agreement. “Then I’ll do whatever I can.” As the two withdrew, he turned to Eirai, holding his hand out to the Elin. “And I would be grateful to have you and your sisters alongside me.”

Eirai shook his hand. “It’ll be a great pleasure to work with you.” She smiled

***

“Sis, why didn’t you mention anything about the God who helped us?” Eruno whispered to Eirai as the four settled into the cabin that was provided to them. The previous occupant of the place was one of the unfortunate victims from the destruction of the Conclave. She hadn’t wanted to discuss it in the open environment of the Chantry cells.

“Remember what the ‘God’ told us?” Zyllian said. “She wanted to stay out of the people’s affairs. Besides, these people take to their Gods on another level. They do not appear to them unless it’s seen as a divine intervention. Such as with Quen.” She set her small pack on the table in the room. “The people seem to think the glowing being who helped him-and us is their Prophet, Andraste, and being in her presence has ‘blessed’ us. It is better to play along with such notions for the time being since we don’t really know who that spirit really was.” As soon as she found her mask amongst her belongings, she put it on her face.

“Poor Quen though…” Erune murmured. “It must be strange for him to be hailed as the Herald for a religion he does not practice.”

“Even so, we cannot do anything about it. We are foreigners.” Eirai sighed. “We are here to help Quen and find out who is behind all of this. Once it is over, we can return home.”

“How exactly?” Eruno asked, sitting down on the bed, her tail swishing around. “How are we going back?”

“Princess Rida told me that the God who helped us get here would come to us when it is time. Be it in secret or out in the open, we will see.” Eirai said as she undid the bun in her hair, allowing her long magenta braid fall to her waist. “For now, we must wait and see how this ‘Inquisition’ turns out.”

Later that night, most of Haven had gone to sleep, few still up doing preparations in forming the Inquisition. Varric sat outside his tent by a campfire.

The merchant dwarf was in the midst of recording the recent events that had occurred in his journal. If he planned to make a novel out of it like the one about his friend Hawke, he doubted it would even be considered a historic novel based on its content.

Sure, the Champion of Kirkwall book had some exaggerated passages but they were meant to play up the heroics of his companions (and himself of course). But giant holes in the sky which connected to the Fade and four girls who came from another world? Varric mentally shook his head in frustration. This shit was just too weird.

“May I join you?” Varric looked up from the embers of the fire at the rabbit Elin named Eirai, who approached, carrying her bag. He nodded and watched as she dusted away some fresh snow on one of the logs and settled down on the hard bark. Eirai took a notebook with ripped pages out from the bag; alongside with a quill and ink bottle. The final item she withdrew was a short stone cylinder that was made up of a series of discs stacked together. Alongside each disc had segments that had markings unrecognizable to Varric. Opening the notebook, she began to write by the firelight, lifting up her head now and then to examine the Breach in the sky on the mountain.

“So…” Varric began, the Elin pausing in her writing. “What brings you out here instead of being with your siblings?”

The Elin looked at the dwarf. “I did not want to disturb them as they rested. As for what I am doing, I am writing a report for my superiors from my world. We do not know if letters can be sent back and forth so far, but I hope it will be successful. I am currently detailing what happened to the Breach here.”

Varric took out a bottle of wine he lifted from the tavern’s storage earlier along with two mugs, pouring himself a drink and one for Eirai. “Not every day you meet a completely different kind of people.”

Eirai smirked back as she took the offered mug to her. “Likewise, you are a dwarf and my world does not have people like you. The only similar species I’d say you look like is the Popori race-but you have human faces and much, much less hair.” She then eyed his hairy chest from his robes. “Not that you don’t have any hair, of course.”

“Popori?” Varric raised a brow as he took a sip of the wine.

“Small, humanoid animal people.”

Varric sniggered into his drink. “What a thing to be compared to. Rosy, you wound me.”

“Rosy?”

“Your nickname. Solas is Chuckles, Cullen is Curly, and Quen is Frosty. It’s a habit of mine.”

“And what prompted such a label for me?”

“Your hair color reminds me of roses.”

Eirai let out a laugh, taking a drink of her wine. It tasted like some of the other ales during her travels around Arborea. “And do my sisters have nicknames as well?”

Varric grinned. “Of course, I decided to go for a plant theme for you gals.” He took a moment to laugh to himself. “Fitting since you did say you’re Nature Spirits. Anyways, your youngest sister is dubbed ‘Blueberry’ and Eruno I call ‘Apples’.”

“Apples?”

“Her cheeks when she smiles.”

Eirai was bemused by Varric at this point. “And Zyllian?”

Varric brought his hand to his chin in thought for a moment. “Sweet Pea.” He concluded.

“Now I wouldn’t have thought you’d think of her as ‘sweet’.”

The dwarf shrugged. “It makes an ironic nickname at the least.”

The Elin chuckled in her mug, finishing her drink. The two went back to their writings for a while. Once Eirai had signed her letter, she ripped the inked pages from her notebook, rolling them up together. She then unscrewed the top off the cylinder from earlier and placed the rolled-up parchment inside the tube. The individual discs with the markings were then turned until there was a specific sequence of them between the two arrows on either end of the cylinder.

Placing her hands on either side of the tube, she closed her eyes and concentrated. The sequence of runes in the line began to glow for a few seconds. Once the runes stopped glowing, Eirai put the tube back into her bag.

Varric offered to pour her another drink, which she accepted. “Now what was that if I may ask?”

“A portable mailing device. It’s the fastest way to send reports to my colleagues. All one has to do is input a little bit of their Willpower to activate it.”

“Willpower?”

“A sub-form of magic. Everyone from Arborea is born with it. My archery skills in battle for example, involve a great use of it.” She demonstrated by forming a solid rod of light in her hand that morphed into an arrow.

“I was meaning to ask about that too.” Varric took a swig of his drink. “Your arrows were made of the light stuff, so that is…?”

“My Willpower, yes. Including the bowstring itself. Archers first learn to use a bow and arrow naturally before attempting to form a bowstring and projectile. Hence why I reach behind my back as if to draw one from a quiver. A personal habit which can be very useful if one’s Willpower is not strong enough in a certain situation and one must resort to using actual arrows.” The Elin then sighed as she diminished the projectile from her hands. “Which is a dilemma for my sisters and me right now actually. Being here away from our world is very limiting on our abilities. I can still form my own bowstring for my bow but I may have to rely on arrows made from the blacksmith here.”

Varric shrugged. “Well sometimes things happen and you find yourself in a situation where you have to make do with what you have”

Eirai smirked. “Wise words to live by.” She then proceeded to change the subject. “By the way, your crossbow was very interesting. May I have a look at it?”

“Bianca? Sorry Rosy, she’s one of a kind so I’m kind of touchy about others touching her.”

“You named your crossbow Bianca?” She laughed.

“Yep. My pride and joy.”

The two continued to talk by the firelight, sharing small stories with one another.

***

“Come on, get up! You’ve been lying there for five minutes!” A boy’s voice huffed.

“Let her be, Pilt! It takes her some time to fully materialize in the Dream.” A girl’s stern voice scolded back.

Erune’s eyes opened slowly. She was lying in a meadow of grass and daisies. Looking up at the light blue sky, she spotted a few shapes amongst the clouds.

Carefully sitting upright, she looked over at Kiecey, the young elven girl with soft golden hair, who was continuing to reprimand Pilt, the human boy ignoring his friend.

The two then noticed Erune was awake and helped her to her feet. “Finally,” Pilt grinned. “The others have been waiting for you!” He tugged her along, Kiecey following while shaking her head, a smile was across her face.

Erune was led to a grove of tall trees that stretched up towards the sky. She continued to follow the two children through the lush orchard until the three of them reached a pile of boulders surrounding a pool. An Amani boy sat atop one of the boulders, dangling his legs over the edge of the rock. A young Popori child was swimming in the water while a little human girl collected flowers that surrounded the pool.

Pilt called over to grab the attention of the three. The girl dropped her bouquet and ran over to hug Erune, her brownish blonde hair bouncing past her shoulders.

“You’re here!” Anya beamed. “It’s been so long!”

Erune smiled back. “I’m so sorry, Anya. There has been much going on in the waking world.”

“Well,” Jerdan stood up on the boulder, his scaled hands on his hips. “We have plenty of time for you to tell us all what has been happening.”

“But big sis Ruru was going to teach us some new songs!” Niyum protested as he rose from the pool, shaking the water from his tanned fur. “She promised she would the next time she came to see us!”

Erune brought up her hands. “One thing at a time, everyone.” She said gently. Smoothing out the bottom of her dress, she sat down on the grass. Jerdan scrabbled down the boulder to join the other children who all gathered to sit around Erune. “It would be best,” She began. “If I explained what has been happening first…”

As Erune wove her tale, the five children looked on with wide eyes and fascination. She told them of her sisters entering the Breach and walking through the Fade; exiting into another world and helping fight against various monsters to Erune helping the elven boy Quen close the large Rift for the time being; to the creation of the Inquisition. When she finished, Jerdan and Pilt began to ask the Elin questions about the new world. Kiecey even threw in some praise of her own to their Elin friend. Erune flushed, embarrassed by the attention.

Anya placed her hand on Erune’s. “Eru,” She said. “You should have more confidence in yourself. You’ve been working so hard.”

“Anya...thank you.” Erune smiled back at her friends. “I try…” She then perked her head up. “Now, what song would you guys like to learn?”

“Hmm…how about, a lullaby?” Kiecey thought aloud. Erune nodded, taking a deep breath to begin her song.

***

Quen tossed and turned on the mattress, sweat upon his face as his face contorted in pain amidst the nightmare he was having. The Mark on his hand flashed violently, its light flickering across the walls of the cabin. Green lines crawled up his arm like before after the Conclave. Frost began to form around his fingertips while the candle by his bedside sputtered to life and then blinked out before relighting itself again.

His mind was trapped, unable to escape the monstrosities that lingered there and chased him. Memories he wished not to relive.

In his nightmare, he let out a cry for help.

***

Erune paused in her singing, her cat ears twitching. “What’s wrong?” Jerdan asked.

“I, I don’t…I thought I heard someone in pain. But…” Her brow furrowed. “It doesn’t seem like it’s around here in this realm…” She rose to her feet. “The voice…it sounds like…his voice…”

“Erune.” Kiecey stood up with the rest of other children, each of them looking at her. “You have to go to him. It’s the only way to help him.”

“But how?” The Elin asked the elven child.

“The first thing you have to do, is Wake Up.”

Erune jolted awake. Eruno was drooling onto the pillow with her large tail wrapped around the both of them; Zyllian was cuddling Eruno’s tail while tucked into the blankets. Their eldest sister was missing from the room.

Untangling herself from the blankets and her twin sister’s tail, she quietly slipped on her shoes and walked across the wooden floor to the door, opening it and stepping outside into the snow covered by the night sky.

***

Varric paused in what he was saying to Eirai, something catching his eye. “Hey Rosy,”

“Hm?”

“Any idea why Blueberry would be out at this hour?” Eirai followed his hand where he was pointing. She watched Erune sneak across the grounds of Haven towards one of the other houses, away from the cabin she and her sisters were staying in. The older Elin huffed. She collected her belongings and bid the dwarf a goodnight as she left to follow after her youngest sister.

She found her sister enter one of the small cabins. As Erune opened the door, a bright green light filled the doorway that then dimmed as the little Elin closed the door behind her. Eirai quickly went up to the house and yanked the door open, shielding her eyes from the bright light, this time also mixed with a soft blue.

As her eyes adjusted, she lowered her arm. Erune was sitting on the floor besides Quen’s bed, holding his left arm. The Mark on the elf’s arm was flaring up again, acting like before when he was trying to close the Breach. His body spasmed on the bed, Erune quickly trying to whisper soothing words as the soft blue glow of her healing magic flowed from her hands.

“Erune? What are you doing?” The young Elin jumped at her older sister’s voice, turning her head.

“I...I heard him cry out for help...he’s hurting again…” Erune whispered with a worried look on her face.

Eirai nodded and let her little sister continue in her work. Quen let out a gasp of pain as the Mark reacted with Erune’s healing magic. The young Elin kept calm, letting a small hum dance from her lips. The humming eventually turned into a song. Eirai listened closely to the melody. It had been a song that Princess Rida taught her sister some time ago.

The song was an ancient lullaby hymn amongst the Gods of old. Some say it originated from the Titans who created their world. Whatever it was, it was in an ancient, long forgotten language

As Erune continued to sing, the blue light began to soothe the Mark, its green light dimming.

***

Kiecey hummed the song Erune had taught them before she left. The young elf danced around in the grass, her stocking and shoes put to the side as she let her toes dig into the soft dirt.

Anya watched her friend as she wove a flower chain. “You really like that song, huh?” Kiecey nodded, smiling. She continued to dance, wrapping her arms around herself, occasionally resting them over her stomach. She looked up to the blue sky dotted with clouds and butterflies and smiled.

***

Quen fell back in the dirt, the monsters drawing near. As he scrambled backwards, his back hit the remains of a broken wall. His eyes widened in fear, the moans of the disembodied creatures grew closer and closer.

Suddenly, everything stopped. Quen looked around, the monsters beginning to disperse into dust. A faint song could be heard. The tune was familiar, filling Quen with a sense of warmth and hope.

He remembered his mother humming a lullaby like this once to him when he was a child, holding him beside his father.

As his eyes closed in content, the dream world around him began to fade.

Quen woke with a start, the nightmares receding. He felt hands on his left arm. As he looked down, he saw Erune resting her head on the edge of his bed.

“She fell asleep. It was a lot of strain on her.” He snapped his head up to see Eirai in the doorway, walking over to him. “Your Mark...was being erratic. You were obviously in pain physically and from the looks of it,” She observed him closely. “Mentally.”

“Why is she...?”

“I… I do not know...she said she heard you call for help and then came here.” She was then silent, waiting for Quen to answer.

“It...It was a nightmare…” Quen finally said. He looked back at Erune. “Did she help me again?”

“Yes. She used her healing magic, and it seems your Mark has calmed down again.” Eirai furrowed her brow as she brought her hand to her chin in thought. “I do not understand though what is happening and why.”

“I have a theory…” The two turned back to the door, seeing Solas standing in the doorway. He held up his hands in surrender. “Apologies. I felt an increase in the Mark’s magic and thus came to investigate. But it thankfully seems to no longer be an issue.”

“What do you mean?” Eirai asked.

“The Mark is related to the Breach, which connects to your world and ours. Such is that it must be a strain on the Mark itself. Not only does Quen have to close the Rifts here, he is subsequently closing the Rifts in your world. There is an imbalance of power and that partially may have to do with the fact that Quen is not a mage. If he could wield magic, perhaps he would be able to handle the pressure of the Mark on his own.

I had tried using my own magic to help him but it was repelled. Somehow…” The apostate mage gestured at Erune. “Her magic acts as a converter, dispelling the Fade magic in the Mark...very fascinating...it would be in my best interest if I could study this further in the future if I may.”

Eirai sneered. “That is for her to decide.” She then knelt to help pick up Erune. “Anyways I should take her back.”

“Wait.” Quen sat up. “Is it...is it alright if she stays here?” He got up, looking for extra blankets and pillows in the room. “I do not want another experience of that again so…”

“That would be wise actually.” Solas said. “Her presence seems to alleviate the symptoms of the Mark.”

The elder Elin looked at the two of them before sighing in defeat. “Very well.” She then helped tuck Erune in the makeshift bed on the floor beside Quen’s bed.

Solas and Eirai then bade Quen a goodnight before closing the door of the cabin. Quen looked over the edge of the bed down at Erune’s sleeping face.

She reminded him so much of his sister when she was young and... He shook his head, it hurt to think about that other little girl since she was long gone. He reached out to pet Erune’s hair before falling asleep himself.

That morning when Quen woke up, he found the Elin snuggled by his side on the bed, holding his left hand.

#writing #dragon age #dragon age inquisition #tera #tera online #fanfic #fanfiction #lavellan #skies of eternity

[a-gay-bloodmage]

—Tread—

Pairing: None

Pairing Type: N/A

Words: 1,344

Warnings: AGB's Ink 2019, Harta's Birthday Fic, Semi-Graphic Descriptions of Poisoning, a Loving Carta Family, She's Nice I Swear, And Yes I am Aware She Has a Lot of Siblings, That's Just How Old Italian Families Are

A lot of people had misconceptions about the Carta. They imagined rough Dust Town Casteless constantly fighting for scraps, of public knife fights and backroom killings, of mannerless brutes that only lived to stay alive.

The Carta wasn't like that. Well, at least, the Surface Carta wasn't like that. Harta's life wasn't like that.

The Carta was the beautiful bridges of Seleny, the Antivan sunlight that glinted off knives hidden not-so-secretly beneath sheer dresses. Rivals died with stomachs full of good food and quick blades. People lived for their families. People died for their families.

And people tread carefully.

The family restaurant was one of the more popular ones in their corner of Seleny, even if most people knew where the profits went. They usually didn't care, so long as they didn’t have any damning family business.

Harta bit down on her lower lip in concentration as she strained against wild auburn curls, pulling them into thick braids and pinning them into a tight bun.

"Almost done?" Her youngest brother, Alemanno, yelled out from the top of the stairs. The house portion of the family estate was almost completely underground, accessed both by stairs in the back of the restaurant and by an egress door at the front. There was another hidden door, just in case, that nobody ever mentioned. Just in case.

"I'm done when I'm done!" Harta yelled back, wrestling with her hair and jabbing a number of pins in. She was still getting the hang of self-styling, seeing as mamma stopped helping with her hair only two years ago. She was nineteen and still just coming into her own. At least she was pretty sure there wasn't going to be any more siblings coming along. Alemanno, at fourteen, was probably the last one. Both him and Lodovico were accidents, even if mamma and papa didn't acknowledge the fact.

Pinning a few preserved flowers in her hair, Harta pulled one of her nicer dresses on and slipped on her house shoes. She slid her favorite knife into the holster on her stockings.

The house was largely empty, meaning that most everyone was up in the restaurant. Her brothers always hated that she got to come upstairs a little later than they did under the excuse of taking more time to get dressed. It wasn't her fault she had so much hair and had to wear nice dresses and makeup, even if she was just working. Appearances were everything. 

"Morning, bambolina," her father, Guidobaldo Cadash, called out as she stepped up the stairs, closing the door behind her. "How is being nineteen treating you?"

She grinned, grabbing a washcloth from the back. "Not sure yet, papa," she said, giving him a kiss on his scruffy cheek before setting to scrubbing down the tables. She always had to stand on her toes to clean them efficiently. "I'll have to see."

"Well, you look lovely," he chuckled, patting her on the back before moving to the always reserved table and setting to pouring over the recent business deals.

She noticed Ruggieri, her second eldest brother, trying to balance a finance record in one hand and a baby in the other. He was never without one nowadays, what with his new wife having three in one go. She had laughed at the announcement along with her other brothers at the horrified look on Eri's twenty-one-year-old face. She felt bad for his wife, though, but, apparently, she had hardly felt the third one.

"Hey," she said, waving at him with her free hand.

"Morning, birthday girl," he called back, smiling, nearly moving to wave back before he realized he had a tiny baby in his hand. "Excited about getting married soon?"

Harta stuck her tongue out at him. She was still completely single despite liking both men and women. In Antiva. At least only two of her six brothers were married so far. She still had time before she was the single one.

She bounced from chore to chore before settling into playing hostess for the patrons that soon began to come in. Despite it being her birthday, the work didn't stop, but she found she didn't really mind. She didn't know much different, and having nine people in the family, plus Bindo—her eldest brother—and Eri's wives and five total children, there were a little too many people to spend time celebrating birthdays. That wasn't even counting extended family.

"Pretty little thing, aren't you?" One of the patrons commented as she set his meal before him and his associates. He was a human man who seemed a little too happy to look down at her. He held her cheek in an affectionate, threatening way several seconds too long before she backed up, turned, and left with a sweet smile.

"Table five," she said to her mother as she grabbed a bottle of red wine from the cabinet.

Her mother, Tullia, the perfect Carta wife, peered out the archway to the restaurant. "Which one?" She huffed, shaking her head.

"The one with black hair and pierced ears," Harta shrugged, grabbing four wine glasses. "Not my type."

Her mother sighed and pulled out a small vial of black liquid from behind a stash of fresh vegetables. "Just a drop," she said, stern as per usual.

"Oh, Maker's sake," her brother Bartolome said, leaving his cooking post to look at the offending human patron. "I don't blame you for wanting to off that one." He was two years older than Harta and probably the chattiest yet least threatening one. His twin, Alhambra, was almost as loud, but certainly more willing to knife someone. Bartolome was... sensitive, by Carta standards.

She poured four glasses of wine and mixed a couple drops of the subtle poison into one, swirling the wine to render the tampering unnoticeable.

"Good girl," her mother said, smiling affectionately before turning to semi-lightly smack the back of Bartolome's head to get him back to work.

She made her way back into the main room to the human's table, handing him the tainted wine glass. The fool took it without bothering to inspect it, his associates equally stupid, even if they had no reason to suspect they'd been slipped something extra in a complimentary glass of wine. They weren't regulars, and it was unlikely they ever would be, now.

She got back to the kitchen, only having to wait a minute for the coughing and sputtering to start, followed by the sound of a glass shattering on the floor. She rushed back out, false concern on her face.

"Signore!" She gasped, crouching near him as he fell to his knees on the floor, one hand at his throat and the other cut up by glass as he tried to support himself. "Are you alright?"

"You dwarven whore!" He choked out. "You- you poisoned me!" Pained tears rolled down his olive cheeks.

She huffed and stood up, grinning a little wickedly. "I'm nineteen and you're not my type," she said, smug despite herself. "I suggest you leave before papa figures out you were touching his daughter, signore."

The gasp he let out wasn't so much caused by the poison, this time. When a pretty Antivan girl—and especially a well-dressed, dwarven one—threatened to tell her papa about unwelcome flirtation, a little bit of throat-burning poison was the least of one's worries.

Drool running down his chin, he scrambled to his feet and ran out, hand still bleeding and face still wet.

She looked to his companions, and nodded to them as she noted that they seemed unfazed, continuing to drink their wine. Either they were confident they hadn't been poisoned, or they figured they had built up an immunity to the certain type of toxin. Knowing her fellow Antivans, both were likely.

Harta Cadash always walked with a certain type of conviction that made it obvious she knew she could get away with anything. Others saw her and knew they had to take caution.

And people tread carefully.

#agbink2019 #dragon age #dragon age inquisition #hart's birthday #harta cadash #original content #fanfiction #her first fic!!!!! yes!!!!! three days late!!!!! fuck!!!!!!!!!! #but yes! she has six brothers and (and as of dai she has six nephews and two nieces) #she's a fun aunt #she's proficient in poison brewing and very much so loves that fact #my sneaky lil girl i love her so much! she can come off as a lil spoiled simply bc she's used to being able to threaten people so easily #fuckin southerners don't respect the cadash name as much >://