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v-arbellanaris · 1 year

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PLEASE share about the Cullen Cult Arc

sighs. this is my second time writing this post ;~; literally why does the autosave option exist if tumblr doesnt actually bother to autosave anything, i dont fucking get it.

this is going to be much briefer than the original post i wrote because im still REELING over how tumblr just ate the entire fucking post. its fucking gone. and idk if i have the energy or mental capacity rn to rewrite the whole thing. basically, this arc - which is the arc i developed for him in vee verse - is the arc i think cullen should've had in dai.

firstly, i'm not retconning anything he said or did in dao or da2. this is because those things serve a narrative purpose. cullen is a good templar - that's the entire crux of the problem. he exists in these two games as a narrative tool; he represents the views of the chantry. as such, anything you do with his character arc cannot be divorced from the reality of the mage/templar conflicts, and the glaring issues of the chantry and must, actually, address and involve those things, because cullen is a product of his surroundings. i'm not saying this to minimise or give him excuses for anything he's said or done, but that is made true for him by his very positioning in the narrative as being the chantry's voice. for most of my playthroughs, which lean pro-mage, cullen is an antagonistic force - he has to say and do horrific things, and it would be stupid for me to retcon the horrible things he did.

secondly, my main issue comes from his writing in dai - probably to no one's surprise. i am not unopposed to having a redemption arc for him in dai - this is villain-fucking the blog, sorry not sorry - but the problem is that he does not have one. to have a redemption arc, the following two things needs to happen:

the realisation/acknowledgement/knowledge/whatever that he caused harm to people with his actions/inactions

addressing the False Belief that he has embraced that has previously justified his harmful actions/inactions in order to accept the Truth (this is just basic character narrative construction).

and dai fails to do both of these because the writing team in inquisition is physically incapable of admitting the chantry is wrong and has done wrong and will continue to do wrong. they are physically incapable of looking at fucked up power dynamics and clear cases of oppression and not going "but what if the oppressed people. wanted to be oppressed. NEEDED to be oppressed, even."

which leaves his character arc - whether you want to consider it redemptive or not - confusing. he's trying to shake a lyrium addiction? sure, okay. but why is he addicted to lyrium? why is being addicted to regular ol' lyrium bad? it's not blue lyrium that killed meredith, it's not blue lyrium that corypheus and samson are using.

you get confusing things like cullen's entire character arc being centered around lyrium addiction... but no one seems to give a shit if the inquisitor takes lyrium and becomes a templar, except cullen. you get confusing things like cullen's entire character arc being centered around recovering from lyrium addiction and the templar route in dai and you get to the scene where all the templars get their lyrium draughts. the ceremony and chanting and celebration around getting the lyrium, when barris takes his draught, which is frankly revolting. but it highlights the inconsistency - lyrium, this scene tells us, is good. because the templars are good, and they use it for good. yet cullen's entire arc is about overcoming his lyrium addiction, but don't worry!!!! templars are still good and lyrium is still good. its fucking INCOHERENT!!!!!!

he is addicted to lyrium because that is how the chantry maintains absolute control over its templars. it is a mind-altering substance that causes paranoia, which the chantry specifically takes advantage of and feeds with their all mages are inherently dangerous rhetoric, which is a false rhetoric, as i've pointed out before. but instead of acknowledging any of that, dai's writing goes "lyrium is Bad because [mumble mumble] and its So Important that he doesn't take it so that [mumble mumble]".

because the story is physically incapable of uttering anything even vaguely critical of the chantry.

so, this covers my main issue with his writing in dai. i would ideally try to fix it - without retconning anything he did in dao or in da2. this is what the cullen cult recovery arc is referring to.

i'm not going to go into it in too much detail but the templar order - inclusive of the seekers - fits a lot of the parameters of a cult. specifically, the BITE model, but also this checklist, and a whole bunch of other parameters i found when researching into cults for this specific reason. (which. makes sense. seeing how the orlesian chantry is was also technically a religious cult that becomes the main religion of the lands by actively slaughtering all the other sects)

but what's particularly interesting about it specifically is that, in-world, no one else seems to think it's a cult. for all of cullen's views, he is not the extreme end in da2 - alrik is. meredith is. what's particularly disturbing to me about cullen's point of view is that because he's a product of his environment, because he's a narrative tool representing the chantry's views, cullen's opinions and actions are actually a normality test. people in thedas don't find cullen's views repulsive because most average joes in thedas agree with him. i think it's easy to forget cullen isn't the outlier in-universe - we are.

but, canonically speaking, this is what happens: cullen, like most good antagonists getting a redemption set up, misses his chance to Embrace Change at the end of da2. he sides with meredith too late for it to matter or make a difference - mages (who you learn on the templar route, he's not exactly eager to kill) who he's supposed to protect are already dead. but what happens in kirkwall shakes him to his core and he looks to leave the order entirely - a good step.

the problem is that he leaves the order to join the inquisition. the inquisition, which is headed by the left and right hands of the divine. the right hand of the divine is a seeker herself. the inquisition is spearheaded and justified by the divine, who he has been trained for most his adult life to be subservient to. the divine who formed the inquisition to replace the templar order and hired him to essentially train and recreate the order.

worse, still. no one thinks he did anything wrong. kinloch was not his fault, it was the fault of greagoir and the older templars who were simply not vigilant enough, meredith told him. how he acted to keep order in the circle and the city after the viscount was executed is admirable, cassandra tells him. he was only following orders, leliana admits grudgingly, he stood up for what was right when meredith went too far. no one thinks he did anything wrong, because he is a good templar. because all the atrocities he committed were not committed against people - they were committed against mages, who are not people, not like you and me.

cullen hops from one cult to the next. the inquisition is the exact same thing he's always done and known, just repackaged - quite literally, considering the inquisition's symbol. but canonically, he thinks it's something different. he wants it to be different.

it's not, though.

so, the thought process behind my thoughts for him boils down to this: how does he get the language to describe exactly why this is wrong? how does he get the language to describe why it matters, why it's important, that he hurt real people? how does he get past the Lie that he believes - that he has to be a good templar, to stop anything like kinloch from happening again, since kinloch happened because they weren't vigilant enough, because they were too sympathetic to mages?

his arc shouldn't have just been about overcoming lyrium addiction. his arc should have been a story about recovering from being part of a hate group, a story about recovering from part of a cult.

there's several ways to go about it, i think. and if you want to specifically know how i'm going to do it, you guys should encourage me to write vee verse 😌

#asks #vee rewrites da #admittedly i cheated a bit but i gotta leave SOMETHING for the fic!!!!#cullen critical #just in case #bioware critical #dai critical

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v-arbellanaris · 10 months

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i think positing loghain's patriotism over everything else actually directly ignores loghain's characterisation in both tst and the calling. as far back as tst, loghain's goal was never the liberation of ferelden from orlais. i do think & agree that he hates orlais, and he's furious about the occupation, but he also doesn't rly seem to think there's any way to oust them. he doesn't see the point in trying & he doesn't understand his father's sudden loyalty to a "king", to maric. he looks out for maric, not out of a sense of patriotism or duty to his country, but because it was the last wishes of his father - something maric himself makes explicit when loghain attempts to abandon him. loghain sacrifices hundreds of soldiers to save maric - to maric's fury. it's maric who is patriotic. loghain takes over maric's job in the calling not because of ferelden but out of love and concern for maric. he tries to talk to maric about his depression several times and he comes back to denerim specifically & explicitly to support maric after rowan dies. he does the same after celia dies, to support anora and cailan.

i don't think patriotism is really what drives loghain. it's loyalty, it's love. loyalty to his father, because he loves him, leads him to protect maric and act in (what he thinks is) maric's best interests. loyalty to maric, because he loves him, is what leads him to protect ferelden and act in (what he thinks is) ferelden's best interests. protecting maric - who his father sacrificed everything to keep safe - kept his father's principles alive and, in that way, he honours his father. protecting ferelden - which maric sacrificed everything for - keeps maric alive and honours maric. and if the warden wins his loyalty, he's willing to follow the warden's lead on whatever they think is best - whether that's the dark ritual, or for either of them to take the sacrifice, or anything else.

to me, it seems like his patriotism is a symptom, not a cause. i don't think it's as clear cut as loghain makes it in his dialogue in dao, but i do think he's self-aware enough to accurately gauge his motivations here. he says that he didn't do any of this because he hated orlais, he did it because of maric. and when the warden comments that maric is dead, loghain's response is telling.

why should that matter?

#he abandons ostagar for layered reasons but i don't ever imagine that maric's orders to abandon him #and save their soldiers if it came down it. did NOT factor in.#narrowing his motivations down to 1. his intense hatred of orlais and b. patriotism #actually flattens the complex & layered motivations he has throughout dao #anyway.#vee rewrites da #my da meta #loghain mac tir #yes this was my first thought after finishing work today. rotating that old man in my mind palace like a prized jewel

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v-arbellanaris · 1 year

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working on one of my dao fics atm and i'm actually SO obsessed over the obvious conflict brewing between the chantry and the wardens in dao & da2 (and a proper resolution to it ofc instead of just getting dai to bonk us over the head with "wardens evil because ~*blood magic*~")

like it is so SO fascinating to me. ok. with the exception of the dwarven origins (specifically because of the lack of chantry & standing of the wardens in orzammar which! could even be CONNECTED couldn't it, fuck!!!!) and the dalish elf origin, the way the wardens are introduced is so fascinating.

in the magi origin, the conflict between the grey wardens and the chantry is already there in duncan's very INTRODUCTION. from the get go, you're immediately alerted to the fact that greagoir is aggravated by duncan's presence, because duncan is recruiting mages for the grey wardens and he cannot deny duncan a recruit. duncan then conscript amell/surana right out from the circle, before they can be punished as per chantry law, and there's nothing greagoir can do about it. even when amell/surana returns to the tower during the events of broken circle, even once you've resolved the issues in the tower, greagoir does not just drag you back to the circle, despite you technically being an apostate because you are a grey warden before you are a mage.

in the city elf origin (i've only ever played f!tabris tho), duncan's the one who gives nelaros and soris the weapons they need to get the elves back from the castle. carrying those weapons is a crime -- presumably, then, supplying weapons to elves is also a crime. the chantry mother that attends tabris' wedding does absolutely NOTHING to stop vaughn (she lit even steps aside PHYSICALLY to allow him to approach the elves) but duncan, the commander of the grey wardens, straight up gives you a weapon and then conscripts you to get you out of being punished for killing a bunch of humans INCLUDING the arl's son. AND THERE'S NOTHING ANY OF THEM CAN DO ABOUT IT.

BUT... in the human noble origin, it's really emphasised how strong of a hold the chantry and andrastianism has on the couslands. as you're wandering about the castle, there's almost a whole segment that's just making it explicit that you were raised Very Andrastian, in the interactions with the chantry mother there. and duncan is painted in the worst light here, being willing to let cousland die in the castle if they dont agree to the conscription. when you get to ostagar and try talk to the king about it, duncan makes it clear you're a grey warden before you're a cousland and that's now a bad thing. you don't get vengeance for your family -- you can't, because your duty to the wardens trumps everything else. cousland has a lot to be bitter about when it comes to duncan. becoming a grey warden is framed in the worst possible way in the cousland origin -- the most strongest origin in terms of andrastian faith -- and i don't think that's a coincidence. that's SO fascinating to me.

then you get to ostagar and you're introduced to alistair, and his entire character background hinges on what is. ostensibly. a pissing contest between the chantry and the wardens over him -- the chantry, who got him from arl eamon, and put him through templar training vs the wardens who can legally just take him from them and there's nothing the chantry can do about it. he's literally an escaped templar and it's clear the chantry despises that as much as they would despise an escaped mage.

and this is all before ostagar!!!! like?!?!?!?! you can SEE the chantry and the wardens' power struggle, and the chantry is losing

#there's more points too but let me just get this out there bc this post is already long as it is #vee.txt #my da meta #vee rewrites da #anti chantry #the grey wardens

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v-arbellanaris · 1 year

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i admire people who ship maric/loghain in a healthy way mostly bc i'm not one of them. there's SO MUCH weird & fucked up history between them. loghain's dad ends up dying because loghain brought maric to their camp, and loghain blatantly blames him for it until he doesn't. loghain tries to leave maric but maric begs for him to stay on his knees, shirtless, and loghain agrees to it and also gets on his knees to swear fealty to maric. loghain stabs a bann for disrespecting maric and maric just goes along with it. a bog witch possessed by an elven god tells maric that loghain will continuously betray him. loghain pushed maric into killing his lover and maric married loghain's lover, who was maric's childhood betrothed anyway??

and then she held such a grudge about it that loghain exiled himself from denerim until she DIED and he only came back because mother ailis asked him to, and she only did that because maric was inconsolable until a 30 minute peptalk with loghain. loghain moves back to denerim and motherhens the fuck out of maric until he feels so suffocated and overwhelmed and alone that he tries to off himself in the deep roads but DOESN'T because he falls in love with another elf. maric dreams about his wife being married to loghain. maric genuinely believes that if loghain had married rowan, rowan would still be alive. maric gets kidnapped by darkspawn and is remarkably chill about it because he's 100% sure that loghain is going to rescue him. and somehow, loghain manages to find the exact location maric is at about 5 minutes after he arrives there and saves him

loghain is still married to another woman the entire time he's living in denerim with maric. and he only goes back to bring his daughter to denerim and then leaves his wife on the other side of the country to live with maric. loghain brings his daughter to denerim and raises her with maric's son, who he then leaves behind to die, in part because of a promise maric told him to make. when maric goes missing, loghain almost bankrupts the entire country looking for him

maric, despite being the most aggravating annoying bullheaded impulsive person loghain knows, is such a paragon of goodness in loghain's mind that everyone else is judged on a maric metric. no one else ever measures up to the maric that lives in his head, least of all either of maric's sons, or himself, or anyone else, ever. he yells maric's name in battle years after the man's gone missing, presumed dead, and when he passes out, thinking he's dying, his last words are about how he's disappointed maric. maric, trapped in the fade for years, refuses to come back to the waking world because loghain is not in it.

like. hello. they're so fucked up & i love them for it

#vee rewrites da #is there anything more delicious than a love that could have been so good except everything went wrong about it from the start #neither of them can see past the myth of the other and it makes me FERAL #loghain mac tir #maric theirin #loghain x maric #vee.txt

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v-arbellanaris · 6 days

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in light of this post i wanna talk abt my ocs names!!!! obv some of u were already here for the changes but!!!! the logic behind my da oc names hehehehe

WARDENS

Evadne (/iːˈvædniː/; Ancient Greek: Εὐάδνη): From Greek Εὐάδνη (Euadne), from εὖ (eu) meaning "good" possibly combined with Cretan Greek ἀδνός (adnos) meaning "holy".

Explanation: Felt like an unwell name for a trans Circle mage to choose for herself.

Kalyani (/kæljɑːni/; Sanskrit: कल्याणी): Means "beautiful, lovely, auspicious" in Sanskrit.

Explanation: Default Tabris is Kallian, which seems like a good Fereldan name, but I really wanted to draw on themes around belonging and identity with Kal, and so giving her a name that could be confused for Kallian was something I really wanted to do - to reflect the Anglicisation that often happens to our mothertongue names. Also, desi elves ftw.

Faris (/ˈfaː.ris/; Arabic; فارس): Means "horseman, knight" in Arabic.

Explanation: One of my favourite names.

Aedan (/ˈeɪ.dən/; Old Irish: Áedán): From the Old Irish name Áedán meaning "little fire", a diminutive of Áed.

Explanation: Literally just the default m!Cousland name because I could not be bothered.

CHAMPIONS

Lysander (/laɪˈsændə/): Latinized form of the Greek name Λύσανδρος (Lysandros), and it means "liberator".

Explanation: Pro-mage Hawke. Self explanatory (:

Miranda (/mɪ.ˈɹæn.də/): Derived from Latin mirandus meaning "admirable, wonderful". The name was created by Shakespeare for the heroine in his play The Tempest (1611), in which Miranda and her father Prospero are stranded on an island.

Explanation: I do just like the name but hmmm potentially some thoughts around mage!Hawke and Malcolm dynamics...?

Damon (/ˈdeɪ.mən/; Ancient Greek: Δάμων): Derived from Greek δαμάζω (damazo) meaning "to tame". According to Greek legend, Damon and Pythias were friends who lived on Syracuse in the 4th century BC. When Pythias was sentenced to death, he was allowed to temporarily go free on the condition that Damon take his place in prison. Pythias returned just before Damon was to be executed in his place, and the king was so impressed with their loyalty to one another that he pardoned Pythias.

Explanation: Thinking about Handers so no one talk to me rn.

Amalia (/a.ˈmaː.li̯a/; Greek; Αμαλία): Short form of Germanic names beginning with the element amal. This element means "unceasing, vigorous, brave", or it can refer to the Gothic dynasty of the Amali (derived from the same root).

Explanation: Chose this one because I wanted a warrior!Hawke, who was only ever really a warrior because of necessity. Of all my Hawkes, Mal is actually the one who adapts to being a noble well (Leandra's daughter, through and through), and so I wanted to explore different kinds of strength.

Alexis (/ə.ˈlɛk.sɪs/; Ancient Greek; Ἄλεξις): From the Greek name Ἄλεξις (Alexis) meaning "helper" or "defender", derived from Greek ἀλέξω (alexo) meaning "to defend, to help".

Explanation: Felt like a super fitting name for a red warrior Hawke tbh!!!!

Joan (/ˈd͡ʒoʊn/): Medieval English form of Johanne, an Old French form of Iohanna (Joanna). A famous bearer was Joan of Arc, a patron saint of France (where she is known as Jeanne d'Arc). She was a 15th-century peasant girl who, after claiming she heard messages from God, was given leadership of the French army. She defeated the English in the battle of Orléans but was eventually captured and burned at the stake.

Explanation: Joan is my pro-Templar Sebmancing playthrough. Of course I named her after Joan of Arc.

Maimunah (/maj.ˈmuː.nah/; Arabic: ميمونة): Means "auspicious, blessed, favourable" in Arabic, in the Malay and Indonesian form.

Explanation: Thought about Malcolm naming his tiny mage daughter and wanted to cry. Also, I've always really loved this name - I knew an adult with this name as a kid, and she was really just... I admired her so much. So why not!!!

INQUISITOR

Isra (/ʔis.ˈraːʔ/; Arabic: إسراء): Means "nocturnal journey", derived from Arabic سرى (sara) meaning "to travel at night" - refers to the Prophet's journey from Makkah to Jerusalem (Isra' and Mi'raj)

Explanation: If you know the context behind this name, then the link to the Herald is quite obvious.

Iskandar (/ʔis.ˈkan.dar/; Arabic: إسكندر): Arabic, Malay and Indonesian form of the name Alexander, which is the Latinized form of the Greek name Ἀλέξανδρος (Alexandros), which meant "defending men" from Greek ἀλέξω (alexo) meaning "to defend, help" and ἀνήρ (aner) meaning "man" (genitive ἀνδρός).

Explanation: I've talked a bit abt it before over here!

Mahanon

Explanation: Default m!Lavellan name.

Ellana

Explanation: Default f!Lavellan name.

Marya (/ˈma.rʲjə/)

Explanation: Actually, I wanted to do Arya but. Um. I accidentally. Anyway.

#vee rewrites da #evadne amell #kalyani tabris #faris mahariel #aedan cousland #lysander hawke #miranda hawke #damon hawke #amalia hawke #alexis hawke #joan hawke #isra trevelyan #iskandar trevelyan #mahanon lavellan #ellana lavellan #marya lavellan

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v-arbellanaris · 1 year

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i'm thinking abt the differences between arcane warrior and knight-enchanter (definitely not bc im gonna redo my amell pt or anything hahahahahahahaha nope no way im doing HAWKE next remember) to try and understand the shift, if there is one...

so in origins, you've got the spec that can be learned directly from what seems to be an elven spirit trapped inside a phylactery. this allows you to use magic in place of strength for damage and also for equipping weapons and armour. there's other abilities that block most damage, provide bonuses to armour, resistance, atk, defense and damage as well as mana regen. you have one weapon specific for arcane warrior, which is spellweaver.

this same spec actually also comes up in dai in multiplayer. it's split into two trees, mentalism and elemental. in dao you could have the aw spec and then have additional spells so im assuming the elemental tree (which has a lot of overlap w the rift mage spec) is maybe something specific to cilian rather than a general arcane warrior thing. the mentalism tree includes combat clarity, spirit blade (w defending blade ug) and fade shield. interestingly, it also includes passives that increase armour, bring up protective barriers, filling the area with sympathetic magic, stun when hit, increases in magic, willpower and constitution, immunity to flanking, reduced % of stagger, phasing when hit, threat reduction, damage bonus for missing mana, damage bonus against panicked. there are also actives that cause panic, dispel magic (w upgrades that allow that dispel to fuel your own damage and barrier), mindblast (w similar upgrades).

then you've got KE in dai, which also has spirit blade, fade cloak and disruption field. and the focus ability, resurgence, which is traditionally a spirit healer ability so idk why it's now a KE ability but that's certainly. a thought. especially since the spirit blade uses an actual spirit or wisp i think? the passives in this spec mainly deal with supplementing barriers, returning damage and faster mana regen.

so in an effort to like... expand/solidify what any of this means:

arcane warrior:

spirit weapons - like a spirit blade. (i assume spellweaver would've been something like that if they'd been able to pull it off with those graphics in dao). but i think arcane warriors - esp in dao - would have asked spirits or wisps to become part of the weapon.

barriers that are. not like normal barriers we see mages cast. these barriers absorb and reflect damage, boost mana regen, defense and damage, presumably because of whatever the differences are between something like shimmering shield in dao and a barrier spell.

knight enchanter:

also uses spirit weapons & barriers but spirits or wisps are bound to these weapons. there's no asking about it; i just think that fits the circle & the chantry's viewpoints about mages, but also spirits, and the relationship between the two.

specifically in terms of barriers, i think KE's are casting regular barriers and then learning how to add all these additional things to the barriers they're casting to mimic shimmering shield and aura of might in dao, simply because that knowledge is lost.

similarly, the way fade shroud (in dao) is cast is different to how KE's are casting fade cloak. that's why one is passive and the other is an active that only lasts for a short amount of time.

KE's also don't have the sustained combat magic that dao has. to me, this implies that KE's strength comes from the mage directly as opposed to being able to convert their magical power to strength. (BUFF MAGES BUFF MAGES BUFF MAGES BUFF MAGES--)

more spirit-school aligned than arcane warrior is on its own (i get the vibes from dao and cilian's ability trees that arcane warriors work well with elemental schools but ive also done entropy arcane warriors that have also been fun in dao? so hmm), hence you get resurgence, mind blast, disruption field (which reminds me of some of the mage abilities in awakening?) & mostly dealing spirit damage

#i might add stuff later as i think of it but HMMMMM #vee rewrites da

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v-arbellanaris · 2 years

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the same way that i wish we could’ve gotten some evolving complexity with the party banters in da2 for a lot of the companions, TODAY!!!! i’m having THOUGHTS about what an anders and merrill progression could look like. i know ppl are always doing this for fen & anders and don’t get me wrong... i love them but i’d absolutely run them over to defend merrill bc she deserved BETTER, from the writers and the writing, and from the other companions (except isabela, love them, merrilbela should’ve been canon if neither of them were romanced idc).

like!!!!! some considerations:

anders still obviously struggling with the idea of needing to be a ‘good’ mage in order to be ‘worthy’ of freedom, and merrill representing everything he thinks SHOULD make her a ‘bad’ mage (talking to demons, blood magic, etc) but like... she’s not. she shows him all the kittens hiding around in lowtown and lets them bite her toes. she fixes the feathers on his coat when they’re turned the wrong way without ripping any of them out. she’s the only one who talks TO justice like justice is a living being separate to anders.

and how does anders reconcile that? does merrill deserve to be in the circle “just because” she’s a “bad” mage (according to andrastian standards)? knowing what the gallows are, what’s done there, does anders REALLY THINK “bad” mages “deserve” to be in the circle? ANSWER THE QUESTION, WHITE BOY

bonus points for anders going on about blood magic and merrill literally being like. THAT’S where your line is?? JUST the circle?? that’s where your line is with the chantry?? everything the chantry says about magic is designed to oppress us EXCEPT the stuff about blood magic?? what about the stuff about elves?? what about all of that nonsense?? like are u serious and he’s like ....... oh. i have to think about this

+bonus: surana/amell who chose a blood magic spec or if you gave anders one in awakening. merrill asks about the Rumours and anders either defensively saying wardens use blood magic to fight the darkspawn OR that they’re just rumours (if its him) but it wouldnt matter anyway bc it’s to fight darkspawn. merrill asking why it’s okay to use blood magic to fight darkspawn but not ok for her to use it for the blighted mirror/pointing out that if there’s THAT many rumours about it surely there must be some truth to it. and anders just not being willing to talk abt it or confront it.

ALSO!!! more banters about mahariel!!! positive ones where they can share their memories of them instead of just anders going well the hero of ferelden is rather private (i get they did it to preserve whatever your hc was of your hero but STILL). PRE-BLIGHT STORIES ABT MAHARIEL!!!!

more banters for the dissent quest but instead of it painting anders’ views in the correct light abt how he’s an abomination and merrill could become one (fuck you for that one, writers), it could be more an attempt to understand justice between the two of them.

or just more exploration/acknowledgement of how becoming an abomination IS merrill’s fear. how anders is maybe being antagonistic to her initially out of WORRY for her too (not just his fucked up andrastian thoughts abt blood magic and “bad mages”)!!!!

follow-up banters where they Discourse about the idea of an abomination maybe? that would be SUCH interesting lore...

MORE DISCUSSIONS AROUND THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN ELF AND MAGE. violence against elves in the alienage under the pretext of “looking for apostates” or “hiding apostates”. violence against mages, tracing it back to arlathan and pointing out that the “fear” of magic (in a non-magical ancient tevinter population) could be inextricably linked to the “fear” of elves. elves being more likely, maybe, to be mages???

!!!!!! merrill talking about how more templars are patrolling the alienage or going into it, looking for “”apostates”” in act 2 or act 3...... anders grimly saying he’ll look into it... updates on this situation in some more banters... leading to the implications that merrill and anders may have killed some templars on patrol... love that for them

NO MORE OF THAT NONSENSE about how elves and humans don’t have any differences in the circle. NONE! OF! THAT! that’s some BS. the chant is telling ppl that elves are furthest from the maker and yet they’re trying to convince me there’s no fantasy racism in the circles from the templars or the mages. absolute BULLSHIT imho

anders asking merrill about how mages are trained by the dalish! the role keepers play! merrill mentioning MULTIPLE mages in the clan and anders being surprised because its “common knowledge” that dalish like... give up their mages when there’s too many per clan and merrill coldly debunking it bc FUCK YOU dai, you’ll pry this from my cold, dead fingers.

anders growing to respect the way dalish mages are trained, instead of seeing it as inferior, & wishing that the circle could be that supportive. thinking of how many mages he knew would’ve benefited from that kind of upbringing. thinking about how the way dalish mages are trained could be something for people to learn from, after the circles are dissolved.

BANTERS LIKE THE ONES IN DAI BETWEEN DORIAN AND SOLAS. because merrill is a fucking scholar (LOVE her approach to the ruins in dao) and anders thinking he knows so much about how to cast magic and merrill knowing better. LMAO follow-up banters where merrill is like :) i noticed you casting that spell differently today :) and anders aggravatedly being like YES ok you were right it DOES conserve more mana to cast it that way and merrill being like :^)

MERRILL KNOWS HER SHIT. anders has got rigid circle training and whatever training (if any) the wardens gave him. INTELLECTUAL EXCHANGE. something something anders respecting merrill as a formidable mage who KNOWS WHAT SHE’S DOING even if he doesn’t always necessarily AGREE with what she’s doing, he can at least respect that she knows her shit

romanced merrill stealing anders’ book for sex magic. i know that one is canon but i wish anders had been more amused and obliging about it. isabela going “OOOOOH you could show her the electricity thing” and anders being like “HMMMM i could. and maybe the fire thing too.” and isabela going “you never showed ME the fire thing :(” also anders going like “ooooh do you do that magic vine stuff?? i knew a dalish elf who did it and i really did have some.... ideas...” and merrill going “oh yes, love doing that” (listen. merrill is not like. innocent. she just doesn’t understand human culture. she’s absolutely kinky in bed, no one who isn’t would go through anders’ grimoire, specifically to look for sex magic spells. sorry not sorry about it).

OK HEAR ME OUT. ANDERS AND MERRILL ARE ABSOLUTELY COPARENTING SOME OF THOSE STRAY KITTENS IN LOWTOWN. NO. I WILL NOT BE TAKING QUESTIONS.

if taken on mirror image, anders asking whether she really thinks its worth it to talk to this demon for the mirror and merrill saying yes and anders sighing, obviously thinking it’s a bad idea, but going well alright i’ll back you up, i know you know more about this stuff than i do

anders calling marethari an idiot for not having faith in merrill :^)

OK ALSO MERRILL SHOULD NOT HAVE FALLEN FOR THE DEMON IN FEYNRIEL’S QUEST. THIS ISN’T EVEN ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP, IT’S JUST BULLSHIT THAT THEY HAD HER GIVING INTO PRIDE. GET FUCKED, MERRILL KNOWS WHAT’S SHE’S DOING

i think a lot of these are anders-centric bc bias and i feel like merrill IS v sweet to him anyway (UNDESERVINGLY! he’s so fucking mean to her, most of the party members are) but my adhd brain is so fucking scattered rn and i can’t think beyond this so PLSSSS add more if you want to !!!!

#dragon age #da2 #anders #merrill #their friendship could be LEGENDARY actually #back on my da2 BS.... i wanna replay #vee.txt #edit: some of tht opening paragraph was repetitive af sorry its the adhd #vee rewrites da

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v-arbellanaris · 1 year

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do you have any nice headcanons to share? feeling under the weather and I really enjoy your posts. :) (you don't have to share if you don't want to, of course.)

i'm so sorry to hear you're not doing great :( i hope you feel better soon. and ty for asking - im really flattered that my posts are so enjoyable for you!!! idk if you wanted something specific, so feel free to let me know if you wanted something different!

but one nice (like opposite of sad as opposed to complimenting myself eogkgjdfkgj) headcanon i have is that all senior enchanters have a repertoire of entirely useless spells. things like, for example, the ability to create entirely harmless little creatures made of light, that glitter and sparkle -- butterflies and puppies and dragons and birds and kittens. it's useful, they argue, because it helps calm down the younger apprentices and entertain them. it's not, though, because there's other ways to do that, which means this magic has no use.

and we never really see magic that isn't for use. and i assume this is partly because of things like the in-game mechanisms (and ive been feeling out a whole host of ideas to make thedas feel more... magicky) but i also think it's a product of magic primarily being used for war and battle. (magic, after all, exists to serve man - a universal truth in thedas that seems to persist across cultures and races.) i think a lot of things that aren't useful have been carved out of regular magic practice because the idea of magic existing - without purpose, without use, but just existing, as natural as air and water - makes people extremely uncomfortable (i haven't quite decided if this is applicable to all cultures but i do think it's something to think about because i HAVEN'T seen the kind of casual magic use i'm imagining).

and so it brings me fierce joy to think about useless magic. not just in apostates who have never had to be in the circle but specifically for circle mages, who are incarcerated and told daily that the only good thing about their magic is that it's useful. and they know all these useless bits of magic - magic that doesn't cause harm or hurt, magic that isn't for healing or making someone stronger, magic that has no use for battle or war.

it's just... magic. magic cast for the sake of magic.

#asks #vee rewrites da #i do have a bunch of ideas swimming about in my soupy brain for how to make thedas magical LSADKFJ as in like i think mages experience #the world through a very different lens - like on a very physical level bc theyre connected to the fade - compared to non-magical people #which is partially canon i think??? but i dont think the game mechanisms or the writing ever really conveys that #i think mages and magic is and should be WEIRDER. you should look at a mage and just Know they're perceiving another layer to the universe #that you don't really think is real LSDKFJF #but that's a different post i think #but also this hc is about the metaphors <3 project as u will and wish onto this #something something you don't have to walk for a hundred miles in the desert repenting

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v-arbellanaris · 1 year

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Re the power struggle between the Grey Wardens and the Chantry. You can also snatch Anders right from the templars grasp and it's possible that a big reason why he's left alone in DA2 is because he's a Grey Warden. Anders hardly makes his actions in DA2 a secret. He is loudly rebelling, yet the templars leave him alone.

That's why the whole Warden arc in DAI makes no sense. The Chantry and kingdoms of Thedas have no authority over the Wardens, but an upstart order who is effectively nothing but a branch of the Chantry does?

YES! i started writing the post abt the wardens in the middle of collating more info about it but i was so gobsmacked at how much there was just pre-ostagar that i wrote the post before getting to the rest of the series and then the post blew up LMAO

i think part of anders not getting snatched up by templars when he's in the party with you is just nonsense mechanics stuff (they should've had a quest like they did in dao -- tho i think that quest was deleted lmao -- where if you try hand morrigan over to the templars, she leaves the party permanently, or even like in lothering where they can ask that templar what he'd do with an apostate and he susses out that you and morrigan are mages and goes "ive got bigger problems than apostates atm") BUT there is dialogue & quest stuff confirming that the templars raid darktown fairly often looking for him outside of whenever he comes on quests with you, so i dont think he was untouched because he was a warden.

if anything, i think him being a circle mage seemed to be more important than him being a warden since the chantry explicitly sends templars after him while he's with the wardens. to repeat: the chantry sends templars to hunt down warden mages, which is fucking illegal. wardens exist outside of the jurisdiction of the chantry! they have no right to drag warden mages into the circle, even if the warden mage was originally an apostate OR if they were a circle mage. AND justinia was canonically looking for the warden to become inquisitor before she sent cassandra looking for hawke -- the implications for a surana/amell are pretty horrifying.

i hated HLTA for so many reasons, but mostly, i hated it because it justified the inquisition taking action against the wardens, as if they had a right to it. "we're going to stop the wardens from summoning demons to fight the darkspawn and kill the archdemons" and that's a bad thing because Summoning Demons Is Bad, as if blood magic isn't the most effective thing against darkspawn (which! considering the implications of red lyrium being magic repelling is so fascinating. does being a grey warden mean some of your connection to the fade is messed up???). as if wanting to end the blights is bad -- we have solas calling the wardens ignorant and stupid as if the wardens killing archdemons and fighting darkspawn isn't the only thing that has saved the world every time a blight has erupted. and it pisses me off that no real reason is ever given for WHY it's a bad idea, we're just supposed to take it at face value that because solas, an elven god who definitely knows more than we do just trust bioware ok, says its a bad idea, it's a bad idea. the warden's plan is a bad thing because Someone Else Will Use The Demons To Take Over The World and Only The Wardens Could Ever Summon This Many Demons as if kirkwall doesn't have shades popping up outside of the hanged man every other day. corypheus was literally in kirkwall???

it would've been something if corypheus was using the wardens to get the location of the archdemons. wouldn't it tie into his crisis of faith and the sense of danger so much more? he's gone looking for his gods but raising them is definitely going to cause a double blight. but why bother raising the stakes or creating any level of danger for corypheus, right? that's not the point of the game :)

and yeah, the inquisition 100% has no authority or leg to stand on to engage with the wardens or even to kick them out of orlais. yet the quest -- and most of the game -- is framed in such a way that these actions seem justified. in general, this quest was a clumsy way to end a conflict that's been building over the course of the entire franchise -- which can be said about any of the longstanding conflicts addressed in dai tbh.

#asks #the grey wardens #anti chantry #bioware critical #vee rewrites da #bc that corypheus plotline IS smth i'm including in my fic anyway looool

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v-arbellanaris · 10 months

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OK SO OC POSTING TIME. evadne picks up blood magic as a spec first and i've been wanting to talk abt the reasoning behind it for ages. she leaves the circle - bright with potential. but the circle didn't really teach her to fight, the circle didn't teach her to survive. the sun is harsh on her skin, leaves her pink and itchy and burnt. blisters form and burst on her feet from walking - she can see the tightness in duncan's face when they have to stop more than usual because she tires so easily. daveth saves her life in the korcari wilds - she almost eats a poisonous berry. she's so woefully inadequate, she can't keep up, she can't pull her weight. and after ostagar, it only gets worse - alistair lost to his grief. all of ferelden lies in the soft, uncalloused hands of a mage who has spent almost her entire living memory locked up in a cell.

so when she finds those books in irving's study, it's a lifeline. it's an edge - it's something to survive with, something she can rely on to get all of them through this. it's not something she'll ever use, she tells herself, assures herself, but duncan said it could help. that it's effective against darkspawn. she could finally be useful.

#Disclaimer: I Am Telling You All Of This Of My Own Free Will. I Have Not Been Coerced or Otherwise Threatened or Emotionally Blackmailed.#evadne amell #anyway. the road to hell or whatever i guess #vee rewrites da

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v-arbellanaris · 1 year

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i was talking to @justcallmecappy and we've decided ser pounce a lot is actually a grey warden btw. if the warden's mabari can be considered one, pounce should be as well. the fact pounce can literally revive party members makes him AS USEFUL in combat as the warden's mabari. the warden's mabari is damage focused but pounce is support focused, but that does not make him LESS of a warden. in this essay, i will

#im just saying that NOT having pounce as a grey warden is just anti-cat agenda #someone definitely got courtmarshalled for sending pounce away. he's killed 36 genlocks and is a valuable member of the team #and if you disagree the warden (me) thinks you should be fired out of a canon #vee rewrites da #IF THE DOG CAN UNDERGO THE JOINING THEN SURELY POUNCE????

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v-arbellanaris · 1 year

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Once Again, I Am Dissatisfied With DAI. which! yknow. in other news. water is wet. but like. a lot of the arguments -- both in-world (e.g. from vivienne, wynne, etc,) and from the fans -- for keeping the circles as a system, even with reform, seems to revolve around the idea that mages need some kind of magic school to learn how to control their magic. i don’t disagree that mages need to learn how to control their magic, but i disagree that they need a place for it, or some kind of magic school, for it, and i definitely vehemently disagree that the circle is that kind of place, in the past or the future.

there are canonically other ways, other than the circle -- ways that aren’t formal education systems -- for mages to be educated, with as little risk to themselves, spirits or others, as possible. ways that don’t involve chantry oversight, templar guards, or segregation from the rest of society while they “train”. and, in truth, the circles weren’t created to protect mages or to educate them in the first place -- it’s an incidental feature, not an intentional feature.

like... let’s dig into the history of the circle for a second. because the circle hasn’t been around since the beginning of time, and surely, whatever the mages were doing before to learn to control their magic was working, seeing as how there’s nothing to indicate mages or anyone else was dying en masse from an inability to control their magic. the southern thedosian circle system was "adopted" from the tevinter circle system, with a critical difference -- where the tevinter circle system was a formal schooling system, the southern thedosian circle system was not.

drakon used mages against the darkspawn in the second blight (which started ~1:5 divine). by that point, the first inquisition was already a functioning organisation -- the inquisition itself predates the chantry (the inq starting around -100 ancient and the orlesian chantry established by drakon in -3 ancient), and hunted down dangerous mages and demons (the original inquisition is EXPLICITLY mentioned to be andrastian hardliners who also hunted “cultists and heretics” but this makes no sense as the inquisition predates the chantry. i can only imagine then that this was twisted/added later on, after the nevarran accord, as the seekers’ role became to hunt down cultists and heretics, to act as though that had always been their job/purpose). under inquisitor ameridan, and during the blight, in 1:20 divine (the second blight ends in 1:95 divine, seventy-five years later) the inquisition signs the nevarran accord and become the seekers and the templars, the latter of which exists to hunt down mages to drag them to the circle, which is also established at this time, in an agreement between the inquisition and the andrastian chantry/orlesian empire. the templars are explicitly created to capture mages unwilling to submit to the circle and bring them in. that’s why templars are also referred to in-game as “magehunters”.

i want to note that there’s no indication here that the circles were set up for the protection of mages from the public -- mages had been living in society openly before this. mages themselves (as far as we can tell; maybe bioware will retcon this later and say mages in the first inquisition pushed for this... ) did not push for the creation of the circle; it was created under drakon’s chantry, in conjunction with the inquisition, which contained mages but at this point, the inquisition’s (mostly as a result of ameridan) main priority had shifted from dealing with magic -- it was supporting orlais against the blight. (which further establishes the very roots of the templars and the seekers as the chantry’s army by the time of dai.)

the inquisition’s whole purpose was to hunt down dangerous mages. they then transitioned into... essentially, what they are now. magehunters. but why hunt mages in the first place? orsino asks at the end of da2 why the chantry doesn't just drown mages at birth -- why lock them up in the circle? from a colder standpoint, why aren't mages just made tranquil the moment they're taken into the circle? it's certainly more profitable for the chantry, who can use the tranquil for enchantments, and it would entirely eliminate the so-called danger that mages pose to themselves and others simply by existing. presumably, it might even serve as a “punishment” for the magisters sidereal who were mages that unleashed the blight on the world (according to the chantry). why put them into a "magical boarding school" (again! it’s not a school, it’s a prison. the circles are a prison) in the first place if the very existence of mages is such a danger?

& i think the answer to that question lies in the relationship between the leaders of a nation and the chantry/the templars. the way it seems to work is that chantry law supercedes sovereign law (evidence: loghain's use of apostates against the wardens is labelled a crime by representatives of the chantry during the landsmeet; later in da2 alistair claims he can’t free the ferelden circle as the chantry opposed it) BUT the grey warden treaties supercede even chantry law (duncan is able to conscript amell/surana/tabris (the alienage, of course, is a chantry invention), the warden is able to conscript anders). when you play the mage origin in dao, you're immediately alerted to the fact that greagoir is agitated by duncan's presence, because duncan is recruiting mages for the grey wardens and he has no right to deny duncan that recruitment. this is explicitly exacerbated by the fact that cailan has been demanding mages for the battlefront for the king's army (confirmed by duncan & irving (in the circle tower) and alistair (in ostagar) separately) -- that's why wynne, uldred, and the group of circle mages were present at ostagar.

according to chantry law, which supercedes any ruling cailan could pass, mages belong in and to the circle. so how come cailan legally has the right to demand mages for the battlefront? why can’t greagoir -- the knight-commander of the tower -- simply say no? unless... you know. that was the real purpose of the circle’s creation. not for education. not for the protection of mages. but so that, as emperor, drakon would always have easy access to mages to supplement his army. he “utilised” mages during the blight (again! there’s no explanation of what the hell that means. did mages sign up willingly to fight for drakon? did he force them to work for orlais whenever/wherever he found one??) and splitting the inquisition (ameridan implies the inquisition were actively supporting orlais/drakon during the second blight) between hunting down mages and fighting the darkspawn seems like a waste of resources. but maybe that’s why the division between seekers and templars exist in the first place -- seekers were sent to the battlefront whilst templars, lesser in number maybe at the time, ran the circles as a source of mages. (over time, maybe, the numbers balance between seekers and templars reverse -- templars are easier to control, once the chantry monopolises the lyrium trade, compared to the seekers?) now that would be justification for shoving all these mages into a circle together, rather than just eradicating them on sight.

(it might even explain why meredith/elthina rejected alrik's tranquil solution in da2 on paper; they still needed the mages to fight against the qunari at the time, if they were ever to attack kirkwall. you can kind of see it during the battle in hightown -- meredith sent the mages ahead of her to deal with the qunari. mages are weapons to them. the circle exists to support the military endeavours of the chantry or of the leader of the nation.)

it would also explain why there’s some instances where sovereign law does seem to supercede the chantry law. on the one hand, templars are under the chantry’s control and nations could be convinced to allow the (orlesian) chantry to train templars in their lands to bring mages to the circle and combat dangerous magic (and of course the orlesian chantry monopolises lyrium trade with orzammar so presumably other countries can’t get their hands on it for themselves which yknow! what do people like to say about how the chantry is neutral or helping people again? monopolising the anti-magic serum so no one else can have it sure is very helpful and altruistic...). but why allow the circles to exist, under the power of a foreign-based system (the seat of power for the chantry, who controls the templars, is in orlais after all)? it could so easily be used against you... unless you were convinced that you could also utilise these mages during war.

so, considering this as the central reason for the establishment of the circle, does it mean the circle can't become a school? irl, as far as i know, formal schools started off as a way to educate the military, later to educate the workforce, and schools in colonised nations often served as a vehicle for cultural and religious assimilation. i don't think the circles, as they are, are exempt from this. we already know that the circles approach magic from an andrastian perspective -- it's most clearly highlighted in conversations between anders and merrill in da2, and vivienne and solas in dai. but we see it in how much keili is taught to hate herself in the magi origin in dao, the way magic is taught to be some unforgivable curse and sin. we know (some of) the circles teach mages battle magic (within reason; i always wonder if being set on fire or hit with lightning or whatever else is more than just a game mechanic and reflective of some kind of underpowering of spells so that mages can’t turn against their oppressors easily) probably specifically for the reason i outlined above -- you see mages being taught how to fight in the circle in dao during the magi origin alongside all of the lessons about how they must only ever use their magic to serve. already inherently, circle education functions to supplement the military and to serve as a vehicle for cultural & religious assimilation.

so... even if you were to "reform" the circle -- by removing templars, or removing it as an institution from chantry purview... or whatever vague "reforms" are actually implemented in dai...is the circle, itself, even as a "magical boarding school" necessary? is the circle actually necessary for mages to learn how to control their magic? and tbh the answer is no <3

like you see it time and time again, that you don’t need to go to magic school to learn how to use your magic. you meet so many talented mages who don't succumb to demonic possession or struggle with controlling their magic who didn't receive any education in the circle -- merrill, morrigan, zathrian, lanaya, aneirin, velanna, the hawkes (pc mage hawke, bethany).

later, you learn of the dairsmuid circle, where mages continued the same teachings that have been passed down to them for generations, with no sign that the city has been overrun by abominations or was threatened by uncontrollable magic. you learn of the avvar who willingly become “abominations” and unbecome them, with no loss of life on either side, or threat to the rest of their people.

the reason behind the establishment of the circle has nothing to do with education. any education that results from the circle is incidental to the main purpose -- which is to supply armies with magical power.

#i think there's a... trend sometimes to assign value to a formal education over other forms of education #but education itself is incredibly related to privilege STILL #tevinter essentially having a ruling mage class and the circles there being an elite education system like real-life universities...#it's not a coincidence lol #idk! i just really don't think a formal education system for magic should exist in the first place #it's not necessary???#mages in thedas do absolutely fine without needing some paper qualification saying they're now a qualified mage #my da meta #vee.txt #anti chantry #vee rewrites da

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