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soldier-poet-king · 1 year

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finally sat down to watch da: absolution and i have Some Brief Thoughts and Jokes and absolutely NO political discourse bc fuck that shit i wanna talk about LOVE

the good

tevinter architecture my beloved

A SQUAD doing a HEIST aka my fave and why da2 is forever my fave game

little tidbits and easter eggs to the games for Lore Nerds

and then SOME BIG ASS CALLBACKS to the games

hawke continues to be incapable of killing their villains, next is the arishok or orsino ig ??

THEY GOT THE ELVISH NOSE BRIDGES RIGHT. MY BELOVED BIG NOSES.

terrible french orlesian accents

rezaren, this matt mercer looking mf, was an excellent villain. because like. he’s sympathetic. he has good intentions but he’s HORRIBLE and SELFISH and the story doesn’t shy away from showing him as horrible and manipulative. like yes maybe he doesn’t know better and he does care for miriam and neb in his own twisted way. that doesn’t make it right. doesn’t make it okay. doesn’t make him not a slave owner. and this really comes to a head in the dream sequence where he’s completely incapable of understanding why miriam doesn’t want to return to him, and then completely disrespecting her wishes, her autonomy, when she refuses him. he just cant see her and neb as real people even tho he cares about them in a childish selfish way. road to hell is paved with good intentions etc etc etc. like he’s so fuckin bad but also still sympathetic until maybe 2/3 of the way through the show when he goes full villain.

rezaren, had things played out slightly differently, could have been a dorian. dorian has some GOD AWFUL opinions in da:i and some deeply ingrained privileges and prejudices, esp re: slavery. he learns and grows and becomes better in the inquisition, and possibly leaving tevinter (even under such horrible circumstances) was the thing that saved him from becoming terrible because he didnt know any better. rezaren in many ways is a mirror of that, but slightly worse, slightly to the left, with fewer allies, never having his position of power challenged, etc etc etc. tldr i just think it’s neat :) it’s an arc i really enjoy and im just. obsessed with sort of well intentioned but also horrible people becoming better (or like. dying as full villains in the grave theyve dug for themselves and refuse to exit. either or yknow)

like blind privilege rather than outright malice is how 99% of the irl world’s evil happens and yet it is also where the most irl grace and atonement and forgiveness and betterment is possible. im fascinated by tevinter characters and tevinter in general. im never gonna shut up abt this.

cassandra cameo my beloved

as much as i hated the overabundance of quips (see below) roland is just. handsome. funny. charming. i saw a man so beautiful i started crying

tassia. her relationship with tevinter is complicated, much like dorian’s and i just. really love the whole ‘the place im from does horrible things and many would call it irredeemable and i understand that but also i think there’s a kernel worth saving there and i am going to work my whole life thanklessly trying to save it even if it wont try to save itself and even if that makes me the bad guy to both those opposed to and those loyal to my homeland’, i just think it’s neat and not at all a personal thing for me and religion :))))

‘no one ever saves us. so we save us’ maybe im sentimental and crying ok. whos to say. big believer in small kindnesses save the world.

the bad

negative points bc elves are wearing shoes and i like to think of them like hobbits and im v irrationally attached to this

qwydion is just. tall conventionally attractive woman with horns. not a vashoth qunari. where is my giant qunari woman. i demand a giant qunari woman.

suffers from mcu-funny quip disease. like fun quips can be enjoyable. in moderation. not constantly. we’re ALLOWED to have moments of genuine emotion, not everything needs to be counteracted and made light with a quip

some of the crew are caricatures but like. it’s a miniseries. i’ll forgive them. even if qwydion is comic relief and ofc lacklon (the dwarf) is the ‘suspicious untrusting one’

how could they kill fairbanks hes my da robin hood fave minor character and how dare they make me spend SEVERAL EPISODES thinking he was a traitor

the tevinter templars were....effective??? and had influence??? how does tassia have the authority to order rezaren around when in canon they’re just glorified bodyguards and only do what the magisters tell them? why are they actually effective against demons? why the fuck is tassia all like ‘oh no blood magic is evil im gonna report u to the divine’ like????? MAAM THIS IS TEVINTER AND THIS IS A MAGISTER not like. a soporati or laetan mage. how tf did u get the position of knight commander in tevinter if you arent willing to look the other way when magisters do blood magic

haha hawke is human disaster joke but also FUCK MEREDITH SO BAD I HATE THIS BITCH the joke is funny but i dont want her backkkkkkkk even if she WAS such a good villain UNLESS the da2 squad comes back but they cant do that bc anders’ fate is entirely up to the pc. also isnt varric the viscount of kirkwall. what the FUCK is going on in this city

ppl are saying miriam is ‘fenris but better’ but i resent that statement the show tried to do his 7 yr arc in 6 eps and it didnt work (understanably but STILL) and also im a fenris girlie first and foremost forever and ever so i will not stand for any besmirchment of his nearly perfect arc. he’s the PERFECT ‘character made to be a tool learns to be a person and love and be loved’ arc ok.

ik it’s been said but holy shit the dragon animation was BAD

#da:a spoilers #da absolution #da absolution spoilers #not discourse in the insufferably da fandom way lmao #just THOUGHTS bc i have a love hate relationship with tevinter #long post #dorian feels abt tevinter the way i do abt christianity send tweet #yes im a redemption for all truther #for better or for worse #ppl arent wholly evil even tho it is easier to think that way #and im just. i got a big heart and it is full of love but also so much anger

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absynthe--minded · 4 years

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hi i'd LOVE to hear your thoughts on the quenya ban (diffrent anon than the one who asked about sindarinized names) 💖 also 100% agree that it's pretty wild they translated their names, like just. why

oh boy.

okay.

everything that I am about to say is 100% My Opinion. there are other ways to interpret the canon, and other ways to frame this decision that Thingol made. we don’t get a lot of discussion in-text for his motivations or emotions. if this is not how you, the reader, interprets the Ban, that’s perfectly fine and I have zero interest in quashing discussion from other viewpoints. I have a lot of reasons for thinking what I think that tie into my perception of Thingol the character, the geopolitical situation in Beleriand, banning languages as a rule, etc. everything that I think feeds back into my own takes on the canon.

okay. below the cut because uh. yeah.

I fucking hate the Quenya Ban.

gonna open with that because I don’t really have another way of putting it? I think it was a rash, harsh decision that Thingol made in a moment of anger and then couldn’t back down from/refused to back down from out of pride. My reasons for thinking this stem mostly from the fact that Thingol has a history of making stupid snap decisions and then being like “oh fuck whoops I gotta uh. back down from that.” and then not being able to. (see: Lúthien)

I think that there were probably some legitimate concerns that he had about preventing elves who were technically Sindarin subjects but living in/around Noldorin land from being mistreated? but also it’s - to me it reads like baiting people you don’t like into starting a war. language, and names, and naming? all these are central to elvish identity. they named themselves the Quendi before all else, for fuck’s sake. these people cling to their mother tongues. they love learning new languages and new ways of speaking? but by choice, not by force. I am going to refrain from my Spicy Thingol Opinions here because I have many of them, but I will say that I don’t personally think that worrying about the people outside Menegroth who called him King was very high on his list. I tend to see Thingol as someone who responded to the chaos of the outside world by closing the borders and focusing on only those inside.

but I think the Ban was the dumbest fucking move he could have made. what, exactly, is accomplished by banning a language? by forcing people to change their names or risk war? yes, they did murder your relatives, but if you’re mad about that, challenge them to a fight! don’t passive-aggressively ban their language and only tolerate some of them and then use your daughter’s boyfriend as a targeted missile designed to throw their whole family into chaos, fuck that noise. be frank about how you feel and if you cannot stand them just say so. reach out to their king and not their family of seven hotheads and get information on what’s going on. hear the whole story. the majority of the Noldor who were involved in the Kinslaying weren’t there because “fuck the Teleri” they got swept up in the greater conflict and while they’re still culpable and responsible there are degrees of subtlety here!

I don’t think the Noldor adhered to the Ban in private. I think that in places like Barad Eithel, you had Quenya spoken privately and Sindarin used in official business, as well as speaking Sindarin with any visiting dignitaries or with humans or dwarves, while in Nargothrond or Minas Tirith (not that one) on Tol Sirion you probably had solely Sindarin spoken bc Arafinwëans and all that. Anywhere in the northeast with Fëanorian leadership except maybe the Gap (artists’ colony and all that)? uh, what the fuck is Þindarin and how do we þpeak it?

he was “Lord Nelyafinwë” or “my lord Maitimo” in Himring. not Maedhros.

that’s all.

#replies #anon replies #absynthe's meta #okay THIS time I was less kind to Thingol #tolkien

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pegaeae · 6 years

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pls i need facts about your mahariel

yes!!!!!

1) she’s a snow baby and does NOT do well in the heat. the heat makes her lethargic and whiny... not really more irritable, just like a grumpy toddler who doesn’t want to do anything

2) she picked up stealth very quickly as a child--btwn that and her very small size, she’s basically a ghost when she wants to be. it wasn’t uncommon in origins for her to just disappear during the day’s march and show up an hour or so later covered in mud and leaves or with a brace of rabbits or a deer slung over her shoulders

3) she and zevran settled down in antiva city for a few years and the only thing she really loved about the experience was that she was able to plant a small garden + have potted plants she could regularly care for--she’s always loved nature and foraging, but she found out that she loves gardening even more, which is smth that’s hard to do when the clan is always on the move

4) she doesn’t like very sweet things (esp like, very fruity or things with refined sugars), mostly bc it wasn’t part of her diet growing up, but she goes fucking nuts for things that have honey in them

5) she was a lot more polite and respectful growing up, but after dealing w/ all the shit during her origin (losing tamlen, etc) and blaming humans for most of it, she just kind of snapped and says whatever is on her mind now--which she can get away with just because of who she is (hof and also.. a very accomplished assassin) but she just gives No Fucks

6) after she and zevran get married and go on their wild seafaring honeymoon, she plants a tree for tamlen (in a pretty typical dalish funerary rite) and encourages zevran to plant one for rinna too

7) speaking of said seafaring honeymoon: lyna found out she gets incredibly fucking seasick and refuses to set foot on a boat ever again in her life

8) the time travel magic that’s done in redcliffe--lyna knows why no one should have that power, and while she is happy with her husband and daughter and with her life the way it is, there’s a huge part of her that wishes she could turn back time and keep her father from being killed so that she wouldn’t have had to grow up without her parents

9) idk if i’ve ever specified this anywhere but lyna is 5′0″ and 95lbs soaking wet

10) lyna speaks and can read/write fluent elvish--which is something she couldn’t during her origin but after seeing those ruins with tam it’s kind of been her life project to visit as many elven ruins and try to learn and recover as much elven history as she can. she does a lot of going around to clans w/ zev btwn the end of the blight and the beginning of awakenings and then between mydha being born in 9:36 and the beginning of inquisition they also do a lot of travelling. zev gets dragged to arlathavhen every time (lyna is also trying to find his mother’s clan).

#ask meme #mahariel #exalted-plains #replies

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witchdoodle · 7 years

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random dalish headcanons

halla are not raised for slaughter like goats or sheep, but when they die of illness or age or accident, every part of their body is used, to honour their life. usually a funeral is performed first. things like halla leather and halla horns are very expensive because of this; it’s rare the dalish will sell either to non-dalish, but the high price those goods fetch when sold to shems is a pretty good source of income if they get really desperate.

halla milk is definitely a staple of their diet though. halla milk isn’t as sweet as cow or goat milk but it is HUGELY superiour in terms of fat and protein content and makes really tart, tasty cheeses. you milk a halla for the same reason you milk a cow, it’s good for them.

all dalish can understand halla, who do not talk but make themselves understood to elves. it’s not just reading their body language like you would a mabari or a cat, but neither is it verbal words nor telepathic thought. the process is impossible to explain to shems. “you just /know/ what they mean,” lavellan says to cullen after trying to explain it to him for like an hour.

dalish spirits are strong as fuck, but their wines are typically shit, and mostly used ceremonially. that varies by clan, location, year, and luck, though. sometimes you forage some good shit.

lavellan was BLOWN AWAY by the ABUNDANCE of readily available sugar in haven and skyhold. sugar would have been an expensive luxury to his clan. that and the idea that shem are used to food just being like… delivered to them is like ????????? to him. most shem have never even butchered a chicken in their lives????????

like city elves, dalish marriages (they dont call it marriage, but lbr it’s marriage) are mostly arranged. dalish clans that we’ve seen are mostly small, and after a while everyone in it would be related to everyone else in some way, and i hc that they’re you know, intelligent enough to recognise incest = bad. there’s no stigma against a love match, it’s just kinda rare bc most of the people in your clan who you spend 99.99% of your time with are like, your first cousin. so chances are once you’re an adult your keeper eventually arranges a match, and it’s not like YOU MUST MARRY THIS PERSON OR BE CAST OUT FOREVER it’s like hey i found this girl from another clan who i think would be perfect for you, you should spend some time together and see if you’re into it.

for them, it’s about tracking bloodlines for the purpose of knowing who everyone’s parents are; “pedigree” is a non-issue, unlike human nobility. you’re not matchmaking for pedigree kids, you’re matchmaking to create healthy, long-lasting, loving relationships that produce happy, healthy, supported children.

family lines are tracked through the mother. they have no word for “bastard”

the attitude about homosexuality varies wildly both by clan and individual, but nowhere is it forbidden, no one sees it as inherently wrong or sinful, it would be refusing to reproduce that would be the problem. at WORST, the attitude would be that it’s a selfish individual choice.

like the qunari, the dalish see transgender individuals as just being the gender they say they are, because surely they’d know best, right? nonbinary individuals are not unknown to them, and elvish has always had gender-neutral singular pronouns, and gender-neutral forms of gendered words, like lethallin (masculine), lethallan (feminine), lethallen (gender-neutral).

trans and nonbinary individuals are widely viewed as special and important. shem don’t understand but fuck ‘em.

kicking out mage children to die in the woods is stupid. if i HAVE to acknowledge it as canon because apparently it is now, i hc that was that an extreme minority view. one or two specific clans’ stupid decision is NOT a common, widespread practice. if a clan already has a lot of mages and is worried about templars, they make contact with another clan to harbour the mage child until a more permanent placement can be found. elves do not fear magic like humans do. magic is a precious commodity, and a USEFUL and RARE skill. it is a gift to them, not a curse.

dalish religious ceremonies involve a lot of song and dance, especially call-and-response type of songs. a lot of their song uses sounds that aren’t explicitly words, necessarily, but which are loaded with meaning anyway; this is a result of them substituting what they’ve lost of elvish.

they don’t really have the space to be hauling books around. they have an oral tradition, and most dalish are functionally illiterate in terms of the common tongue. they don’t really need to read. that said, some choose specifically to learn, and keepers/firsts usually make the effort to learn, since they’re usually the ones preserving and studying ancient elven artifacts which does include some books and scrolls.

their history being mostly oral, they also use song as a teaching tool. it’s much easier to teach a bunch of six-year-olds history lessons if it’s presented as catchy songs.

dalish dancing is way more expressive and interpretive than ballroom dancing. it’s meant to tell a story, not follow a set of rules, and how good you are at it is determined not by how well you follow predetermined steps but how good you are at getting your point across and how creative you are. your dance should make your audience *feel* something.

it’s also how the Youths flirt with each other, you gotta really practice ya moves for the next arlathvhen cuz what if neria from clan whatever thinks ur a scrub... ya gotta Bust A Move...

they craft elaborate costumes for their dances. everything on those costumes is symbolic in some way, meant to express something.

generally speaking storytelling is SUPER important to their culture. much of their values are taught by fables. elvish is an inherently metaphorical language, this has always been the case.

all dalish are taught to track and hunt with bow and arrow. obviously some are better at it than others, but everyone learns the basics just in case. everyone learns to provide for themselves just as everyone learns to defend themselves. children, men, women, elderly, everyone learns.

dalish courting involves a LOT of gift-giving on both sides. usually one party initiates it with a gift, and if the other party is interested, they return with a gift, and so on and so forth, the purpose being to show mutual commitment to providing for each other. it’s not regulated by gender roles.

the vallaslin ritual involves taking just enough lyrium and felandaris to trip balls and go into the woods and have a spiritual experience. used to be elves would take lyrium and meditate and receive a message from their chosen god, and that’s how you picked your patron, but the gods aren’t listening anymore, so you just kind of have to have your own epiphany about life and culture and yourself and stuff. it’s meant to purify your mind and clear any lingering fears or doubts away. then you purify your body and the keeper mixes your blood, their blood, and the keeper’s magic into an ink they embed under your skin.

vallaslin is applied when you are ready, not at a certain age. some get it as young as fourteen or fifteen, others have to wait until well into their twenties. it’s about maturity and being ready for adulthood.

nobody has ever failed the ritual. that is, sometimes people can’t do it on the first or second etc attempt, but nobody has ever PERMANENTLY failed to complete it. a keeper who senses that a young adult is sensitive and might not do well at it is likely to encourage them to get a small design. it’s a keeper’s job to see their whole clan safely through the ritual. if someone fails, it’s as much the keeper’s failure as theirs.

everyone in the clan has a “job,” but if you’re not up to speed or where you should be, the keeper intervenes, finds out why, and fixes it – whether that’s through counseling, or assigning extra training, or figuring the individual just isn’t suited to the task and finding them something else that brings them pride to do instead.

they bathe a LOT, cleanliness is super important to them. shem stereotype them as being stinky wood savages but nah, once or twice daily bathing is widespread practise, and they’re super careful about keeping their water sources clean.

nomadic life is hard as shit. most clans lose a couple members every year from age, illness, accident, starvation, or shem interference. some years are harder than others. babies and the elderly are especially at risk.

there’s a dalish saying of “two keepers, three opinions.” the arlathvhen can get… heated… with debate, but nobody takes being argued with personally, because if you can’t defend your position then it’s a bad position. debate is a bonding activity. it’s the keeper’s job, also, to make sure everyone’s opinion is heard.

you will pry shoeless elves from my cold dead fucking hands

#lizard time #my Opinions

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