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jade_sabreI have a peach cobbler in the oven! We shall...see how this goes. The batter for the topping was kind of thin and I have no idea if it was supposed to be. WE SHALL SEE HOW THIS GOES.
so this is not my best work, maybe, but here it is anyway: a brief and somewhat poetical description of my DA playthrough. Commentary on actual game stuff and potential picspam to come later. I shall say, though, that I am 100% at peace with my decisions, and that actually, I really loved the outcome.
eta: COBBLER IS OUT OF THE OVEN, AND COBBLER-Y LOOKING-AND-SMELLING. still too hot to taste. sudden important thought: do we have vanilla ice cream?
I sing the lay of Laemira, Grey Warden and Hero of Ferelden (Anora's insistence), who rose from humble and near-silent origins to defeat an archdemon and stop a Blight in its tracks. Granted, its tracks went from the Korcari Wilds to Denerim before said stopping, but no one said stopping the Blight would be easy.
(Well, Cailan did. And we all know how that turned out.)
I sing of the child born to parents whose faces are dim with memory, who gladly sent their mage daughter to the Circle, where the First Enchanter took her under his wing, for no child ought to have a face so serious as hers. Quiet and shy, she excelled at shaping the elements to her will, but it was in studying with Enchanter Wynne that her talents showed themselves, for nothing brought a smile to her eyes like healing the hurts of others, watching mages work miracles in the face of those who called their abilities a curse. She loved the Circle, the comfort of her fellow mages, the joy of her studies, the walls curving around her, despite the templars' watching eyes. Yet she saw in her gifts opportunity, to show to others that magic is not something of innate terror, but wonder.
I sing of the betrayed, who helped her friend Jowan and his love Lily for the sake of their love, who defied Chantry law because she believed their restrictions unjust, because she believed in her friend's story. When Jowan turned to blood magic, Laemira saw her future disappear on the edge of Greagoir's blade; yet, impossibly, the Grey Warden Duncan intervened on her behalf, for the sake of the First Enchanter and perhaps even that of the Knight Commander. She was yet a young mage, and her burning belief sincere, and her powers would be of use against the coming Blight, though how much and to what ends, none could guess.
I sing of a girl at Ostagar, confronted with an ex-templar with a genuine laugh, with battle and the blood of darkspawn and men alike, forced to use her abilities to violent ends. Bloodied and bruised, uncertain as to her uses on the battlefield, she nevertheless found herself the leader of the soldiers guarding the watch tower, herself illuminating Loghain's betrayal even as the other Wardens--her fellows, though she never knew them as such--died slaughtered on the battlefield, and she and Alistair saved by Flemeth's magic.
I sing of the leader, who gathered armies and companions alike--who stopped the walking dead at Redcliffe without further loss of life, who marveled at Andraste's ashes, who saved her Circle from the very blood mages who caused her exile. She walked the Fade without fear of abomination; she walked the Deep Roads with disgust in her heart, at the monstrosities the dwarves brought upon themselves, at their unwillingness to decide their own fate. She befriended the Dalish and broke the curse of the werewolves with gentle words, the same words that earned her the friendship of an Orlesian bard and an Antivan Crow. She taught friendship to a Witch of the Wilds and love to a bastard prince, and she treasured these things in her heart, for she had learned that such delicate things do not last long when war is afoot.
I sing of the Grey Warden who won the Landsmeet, who spoke to the nobles of Ferelden and earned their support, who faced the traitor-hero Loghain in single combat and won, who yet showed him mercy. I sing of the woman who watched her love walk away while duty kept her word to her queen, kept her silent, kept her alone. I sing of the new Warden, and his love for his daughter and his country; I sing of the old Warden, who offered himself as a sacrfice to end the Blight. I sing of the Witch, who asked for a child, and the Wardens who agreed for the sake of their salvation.
I sing of the Hero of Ferelden, who stood before Ferelden and promised to stay to aide her chosen queen, lauded as a singular hero yet seeing the causes of her salvation scattered amidst the crowd. She begged a boon from her queen, and gained the only prize she had ever sought: freedom, from systemic suspicion, from distrusting and prying eyes, for her Circle. She set her friends free, to stay or go as they wished, and stepped into the world a woman, Warden and mage, with endless possibilities before her.
I sing the lay of Laemira; and now, dear friends, I ask for tales of your own.
so this is not my best work, maybe, but here it is anyway: a brief and somewhat poetical description of my DA playthrough. Commentary on actual game stuff and potential picspam to come later. I shall say, though, that I am 100% at peace with my decisions, and that actually, I really loved the outcome.
eta: COBBLER IS OUT OF THE OVEN, AND COBBLER-Y LOOKING-AND-SMELLING. still too hot to taste. sudden important thought: do we have vanilla ice cream?
I sing the lay of Laemira, Grey Warden and Hero of Ferelden (Anora's insistence), who rose from humble and near-silent origins to defeat an archdemon and stop a Blight in its tracks. Granted, its tracks went from the Korcari Wilds to Denerim before said stopping, but no one said stopping the Blight would be easy.
(Well, Cailan did. And we all know how that turned out.)
I sing of the child born to parents whose faces are dim with memory, who gladly sent their mage daughter to the Circle, where the First Enchanter took her under his wing, for no child ought to have a face so serious as hers. Quiet and shy, she excelled at shaping the elements to her will, but it was in studying with Enchanter Wynne that her talents showed themselves, for nothing brought a smile to her eyes like healing the hurts of others, watching mages work miracles in the face of those who called their abilities a curse. She loved the Circle, the comfort of her fellow mages, the joy of her studies, the walls curving around her, despite the templars' watching eyes. Yet she saw in her gifts opportunity, to show to others that magic is not something of innate terror, but wonder.
I sing of the betrayed, who helped her friend Jowan and his love Lily for the sake of their love, who defied Chantry law because she believed their restrictions unjust, because she believed in her friend's story. When Jowan turned to blood magic, Laemira saw her future disappear on the edge of Greagoir's blade; yet, impossibly, the Grey Warden Duncan intervened on her behalf, for the sake of the First Enchanter and perhaps even that of the Knight Commander. She was yet a young mage, and her burning belief sincere, and her powers would be of use against the coming Blight, though how much and to what ends, none could guess.
I sing of a girl at Ostagar, confronted with an ex-templar with a genuine laugh, with battle and the blood of darkspawn and men alike, forced to use her abilities to violent ends. Bloodied and bruised, uncertain as to her uses on the battlefield, she nevertheless found herself the leader of the soldiers guarding the watch tower, herself illuminating Loghain's betrayal even as the other Wardens--her fellows, though she never knew them as such--died slaughtered on the battlefield, and she and Alistair saved by Flemeth's magic.
I sing of the leader, who gathered armies and companions alike--who stopped the walking dead at Redcliffe without further loss of life, who marveled at Andraste's ashes, who saved her Circle from the very blood mages who caused her exile. She walked the Fade without fear of abomination; she walked the Deep Roads with disgust in her heart, at the monstrosities the dwarves brought upon themselves, at their unwillingness to decide their own fate. She befriended the Dalish and broke the curse of the werewolves with gentle words, the same words that earned her the friendship of an Orlesian bard and an Antivan Crow. She taught friendship to a Witch of the Wilds and love to a bastard prince, and she treasured these things in her heart, for she had learned that such delicate things do not last long when war is afoot.
I sing of the Grey Warden who won the Landsmeet, who spoke to the nobles of Ferelden and earned their support, who faced the traitor-hero Loghain in single combat and won, who yet showed him mercy. I sing of the woman who watched her love walk away while duty kept her word to her queen, kept her silent, kept her alone. I sing of the new Warden, and his love for his daughter and his country; I sing of the old Warden, who offered himself as a sacrfice to end the Blight. I sing of the Witch, who asked for a child, and the Wardens who agreed for the sake of their salvation.
I sing of the Hero of Ferelden, who stood before Ferelden and promised to stay to aide her chosen queen, lauded as a singular hero yet seeing the causes of her salvation scattered amidst the crowd. She begged a boon from her queen, and gained the only prize she had ever sought: freedom, from systemic suspicion, from distrusting and prying eyes, for her Circle. She set her friends free, to stay or go as they wished, and stepped into the world a woman, Warden and mage, with endless possibilities before her.
I sing the lay of Laemira; and now, dear friends, I ask for tales of your own.
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Re: links links and more links
Date: 2010-08-14 03:08 am (UTC)WHAT IS SIDE QUEST SATURDAY?
ooooooh *stares at the mods*
YAY FIC
also
*omg I would too. but I would have to play Awakenings first and in answer to your last questions YES, BUT PROBABLY NOT FOR A YEAR, or at least like four months, idk how long my Christmas break will be and maybe by then the game will not be $30 *sob* but omg, she needs a name. (Loghain/Morrigan baby has a name. Alistair/Morrigan baby is currently just...blonde. With her mommy's eyes.)
*TEAGAN/ANORAAAAAAAAAAAAAA although I did read Alfstanna/Teagan and I would probably ship that too.
*being a dwarf usually feels that way. Especially because you are always SHORT. But I will def. play all the origins; I doubt I will ever play through the game as a dwarf.
Or a dude. Why am I so bad at playing dudes?*oooooooooooooooooooooh really? that actually makes me really happy inside. (Anora/Alistair would be Laemira's second IC option, but again, see: relief that he was gone.)
<3
Re: links links and more links
Date: 2010-08-14 03:41 am (UTC)* You can write it without playing Awakenings! There is nothing *too* plotworthy there. Well. Sort of. Stuff does. But! nothing that should interfer with Morrigan/Alistair baby fic. If you want, write it and I shall beta, telling you if anything gets contradicted?
* I thought I read somewhere that Awakenings was down to $20? Maybe not, though.
* A friend and I discussed the baby name thing. We like Dolanna--it's Scottish (like everything in Dragon Age) and means "world leader" so it's also appropriate. If it's a male baby, though, it's gotta be Urthemiel, as that's the archdeomn's name. (not really but IDEAS, man).
* also I usually make the old god look different--dark hair and Alistair's eyes. And I usually give her Alistair's personality completely because it would freak Morrigan the crap out.
* I used to like Teagan/Anora but a certain fic (re: read more Cris) and some fanart totally converted me to the joy that is Teagan/Leliana. Face is, Eamon and Teagan have a thing for Orlesian accents, okay? PLUS ANORA/FERGUS.
* I actually have a ridiculous amount of love for some of my male characters. Rhen Aeducan, Theron Mahariel, and Faron Brosca are my 'canon' dwarf noble, dalish, and dwarf commoner characters.
*fact: if you harden Alistair, you can convince him to make Loghain a Warden and become King. He leaves your party and marries Anora, but at least he doesn't become a wandering drunk.
* also also lightning round at dao_challenge is one of my favorite things ever you should participate!
Re: links links and more links
Date: 2010-08-14 04:01 am (UTC)*WELL OKAY I'm not sure how it would go, though. Where would it start? Where would it end? (It would start with her showing up in town, and end with her coronation? But then I would have to kill off Alistair. Alas.)
*Maybe I am looking in the wrong places.
*Oh that is nice. I had a really awesome find last night for Loghain!baby but it is a boy name (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feidlimid). Behindthename.com says it may mean beauty (http://www.behindthename.com/name/feidlimid), and anyway it's the name of Deirdre's father, and Flemeth's story is the Deirdre story (Connobar/Conchobar, come on), so I have asked my friends who have studied Irish how to feminize it. Because I have trouble imagining Morrigan with a boy. I feel like boy!babyarchdemon is more prone to doing evil destructive things, while girl!babyarchdemon is more likely to be mischievous.
*My A/M baby has her daddy's personality hiding behind her mommy's mannerisms, because I feel like Morrigan was like DO NOT ACT DUMB, ACT LIKE ME and she was like but but but I like acting dumb, and Morrigan was like FINE BE DUMB BUT DON'T LET ANYONE KNOW THAT EITHER OF US ARE PUSHOVERS.
*Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. I will read fic.
*I just have a really hard time playing dudes in any game. I've made it over halfway through Jade Empire with a dude, mostly because I wanted to romance Dawn Star and didn't want to go the threesome route, but the dude is basically a pushover. Also see last post where male NPCs I tend to find attractive are pretty obnoxious to the dude characters I play, and I can't balance it out.
*OH GOD, IS THIS TRUE, BECAUSE THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY ON SO MANY LEVELS, OH MY GOD, JAK IS THAT REALLY TRUE.
*also I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE, LINKING ME TO A CHALLENGE COMM. >:(
/loses rest of her life to challenge fics
Re: links links and more links
Date: 2010-08-14 03:17 pm (UTC)* I play both dudes and ladies in games because I believe in equality for all. My general rule of thumb is that if one game is canonically male, the next game will be canonically female, and vice versa. EQUALITY FOR EVERYONE! It was my Revan was a lady and my Exile was a dude. It just made sense! Therefore, while Commander Queen Cousland is my personal canon for DAO, I'm planning on playing a dude for DA2--Ethan "Ebon" Hawke, ftmfw.
* Yes, this is true. It's what I did for the m!Surana playthrough. Word of caution, though: if you don't sacrifice Loghain's ass to the archdemon Alistair remains pissy and bitter; however, if you sacrifice Loghain Alistair's like "Yay friendship!"
* What's the most important thing we've learned from this, jade? HARDEN ALISTAIR. If you don't know how I will explain this to you!
Re: links links and more links
Date: 2010-08-14 05:04 pm (UTC)*Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan I envy your ability. I tend to roll up a dude character and go WAIT, CAN NO LONGER FLIRT MY WAY OUT OF EVERY SITUATION, WHAT FAIL. (I might be able to play through with Aeden, because he is the first male OC my head has ever generated for a game, and so going in knowing who he is will help. Except I don't think he's romance Morrigan, but I would totally try to romance Morrigan just to see how it would go. My elves have Leliana and Zevran covered.) However, I am LOVING EBON HAWKE, OH MY GOD, FTMFW INDEED, AH-HAHAHAHAHAHA.
*(I really need to double-check on all these last names because people keep using them and I keep going WAIT, WHICH ELF IS THAT.) You know what, pissy and bitter Alistair, I DON'T CARE. /loves Loghain
*YES APPARENTLY
also two side things
1) APPARENTLY WE NOW HAVE A PS2 CONTROLLER SO I CAN PLAY FFXII FFFFFFFFFF I'M MOVING IN LESS THAN A WEEK WHY WORLD WHY
2) Jak, you know what I feel like I haven't squeed enough about? THE FACT THAT I GOT TO FREE THE CIRCLE OF MAGI. MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. I GOT TO SET THEM FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE AND ANORA WAS LIKE YEAH, THE CHANTRY WILL BE PISSED, BUT 'SOKAY, THEY ARE FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. I think my exact reaction was something like
UKALJSDFLA;SDKJFAL;KDJFA;SLDFJK;JKTRLYASDF
:lk;asdjf
I CAN
I CAN ASK FOR THE CIRCLE'S INDEPENDENCE
OMG
KLA;SDJFA;SDKJFA;DKGFLJA;SDFLKAS
AFRAID TO CLICK
AM AFRAID IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
OH GOD
I'M CLICKING
KLA;DJFA;SDFJADFKLA
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
SUCK IT TEMPLARS
you know i was just really excited okay
Re: links links and more links
Date: 2010-08-14 05:17 pm (UTC)Cousland- Human Noble
Amell- Human Mage
Surana- Elf Mage
Tabris- City Elf
Mahariel- Dalish Elf
Aeducan- Dwarf Noble
Brosca- Dwarf Commoner
It may help if you stop calling her Laemira and just call her Amell in your head. In your fic/universe, she has a name, but everyone else will just call her Amell.
2. XD each origin gets their own bonus boon at the end. Mages can free the Circle. City elves get the Alienage made into their own Bannorn, which they can then choose the Bann for (Shianni! The elder dude! YOURSELF!) Dalish elves get their own land finally. Human nobles take the Howe's lands and give them to the Grey Wardens. And the dwarves are given soldiers to help drive back darkspawn and end up recovering several lost thaigs. Word of God implies that all of these things happen regardless so you can play a city elf and sleep at night knowing that, come the sequel, you will have also freed the mages. :D
Also, Side Quest Saturday is here: http://community.livejournal.com/dragon_age/152639.html?style=mine
Re: links links and more links
Date: 2010-08-15 12:42 am (UTC)*THAT IS SO AWESOME it goes with my in-head wishing to read a fic that had a Warden for every background, so that you have, you know, seven Wardens, instead of just two. SHIANNI AS A BANN, THAT MAKES ME SO HAPPY.
also the templars, well, I mean, some of them are okay, but the general WATCHING DISTRUST ALL THE TIME was not okay
also also I have started posting your fic. IT TOOK ME LIKE TWO WEEKS AND IT IS ALL YOUR FAULT.
Re: links links and more links
Date: 2010-08-14 05:19 pm (UTC)Re: links links and more links
Date: 2010-08-15 09:11 pm (UTC)Re: links links and more links
Date: 2010-08-16 07:45 pm (UTC)