KJ

We finished it yesterday. I am relatively satisfied overall -- some things I enjoyed, some complaints for sure. From what little I've seen of a consensus (since we played so slowly I haven't been following along with commentary at all), I agree that the story and characters had a lot of potential but were underwritten. Given where the story starts, I feel like we missed almost an entire game of backstory (the story DA: Dread Wolf was going to be?). I understand why, from a practical position, this game stands so separate from all the others -- there are so many potential world states by now that managing all the different versions would be a Herculean task (I suppose that's what fic is for) -- but divorcing the action and characters almost completely from what happened in southern Thedas over the past ten years made it harder for me to connect to the larger world. Also T got pretty bored with the sidequests about halfway through -- he felt like they weren't interesting enough on their own to justify spending the time. So we focused on main story and character quests, and toward the end on getting every faction up to a rank of at least two stars.

To the surprise of no one who knows me, we played a Grey Warden dwarf and romanced Harding (although we flirted with everybody until we were forced to make a choice, and it was hard to resist Neve (T's favorite companion by far) and Davrin (thereby breaking my streak of romancing the Grey Warden companion the first time through every game; I justified it because we were the Grey Warden this time)). Everything else is spoilers, so I'll put it behind a cut).

Here be spoilers, you are officially warned.

( Spoilers for all of DA:V )

For a game in a series that's been so important to my fannish life, I feel like I ought to have more to say, but maybe its inevitable, given that I've been disconnected from the fandom for so long. Maybe it's time to fix that.

Who else has played? What do you think? Feel free to leave spoilers in the comments (but mark them as such in case there are others here who don't want them).

Title: Harmonic Convergence
Fandom: Dragon Age (DAO, DAI)
Rating: Teen I guess
Wordcount: 13,604
Characters: Alistair, Fergus, Stroud, f!Hawke, Leliana, Fiona; past Alistair/f!Cousland
Spoilers: For the Grey Warden quest line in DAI and the Redeemer ending of DAO
Notes: This is a sequel to Face the Music, which is my "what might Redeemer ending Alistair be up to during the time of Inquisition?" story. Although I hadn't specifically planned to write a sequel at the time, the possibility was always in my mind; at some point, I started it, then set it aside; when I was setting my writing goals for 2021, I decided I would pick it back up as my entry for this year's wipbigbang. And so here we are! purpleyin was my artist, and they created a lovely series of moodboards that I've embedded in the fic on AO3.

The other thing that helped me finish this story was a realization that I wasn't going to wrap up the entire series just yet. I was trying to cram in too much plot and character growth, and the beat that'd I'd planned as the midpoint was actually the end of this story and the jumping-off point for the next. So yes, this will be a trilogy. I haven't decided whether I'm going to forge straight ahead with part three or give myself a bit of a break (I can make arguments for either way).

Summary: Feeling the effects of the false Calling, Alistair leaves his home in Redcliffe (where he landed after Teagan rescued him from his lonely life in Kirkwall) to tell the Grey Wardens of the red lyrium he discovered in the Hinterlands. Instead, he discovers Stroud, who draws him into a much deeper web of conspiracy and drama. Along the way, he discovers some dark secrets about the Wardens -- and some surprising truths about himself.

On AO3

Well, I did it. I played an ultimate sacrifice for the first time ever. ( I know we're way past the statute of limitations on spoilers, but I'm going to cut this anyway. )

Devin Tabris is in Orzammar -- just starting on Jarvia's hideout. Three armies in, and I still haven't quite figured out who she is yet. A little violent, a little impulsive, genuinely wants to help people, but I'm never 100% certain what she's going to do. ( Some thoughts on her choices, and on where I'll probably take my next Warden as a result. )

Yesterday (Friday) was my birthday. I took the day off of work, spent the morning relaxing, the afternoon playing DA:I, and the evening eating crab for dinner and then playing Gartic Phone with friends. It was supposed to mostly be Among Us after a round of Gartic Phone, but GP was so hilariously ridiculous that we played it all night instead. It's an online implementation of Telephone Pictionary, which is one of my favorite party games, so I'm not at all sorry we shifted gears. Today I had a backyard visit with a friend I hadn't seen since the initial lockdown began, and tomorrow I'm having a backyard meal with other friends, so all in all, as a birthday weekend, it's been pretty nice, especially by current standards.

Also tonight I finally wore T down -- he signed us up for Disney+ and we watched the first three episodes of WandaVision. No spoilers please (although I've picked up a few hints of what might be going on Twitter and in other places); I am very excited to see where it all goes. I will definitely watch The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as it airs, or at least on the same weekend. I also need to catch up on The Mandalorian and probably some other things as well -- any recommendations?

Last but definitely not least, I set aside my m!Trevelyan game, because I think I'm to the point where I played DA:I endgame too recently, and I'm rushing him through when I really ought to give him his due. So instead, I rolled up a new Warden for the first time in five years? six years? (I went back to look it up, and the actual answer is NINE. July 2012.) It's finally time to play Tabris; she's a rogue, likely stealth-and-sneak because that's my favorite mode of gameplay in DA:O. I got her to Ostagar, and oh, starting up that game again, Denerim, Duncan, the music, random dogs barking everywhere in the background and, of course, Alistair... it does the heart good. I don't quite yet know who Devin Tabris is going to be (though she killed Vaughan with gusto, and while she had less than zero interest in an arranged marriage, she still put on the wedding ring that was on Nelarose's body -- all that must mean something), but I look forward to getting to know her.

Here he is! Alexander Trevelyan, Alec to his sisters and to close friends, mage formerly of the Ostwick Circle, Herald of Andraste, recently named Inquisitor.

It didn't occur to me when I gave him that style and color of hair that it was going to make him look an awful lot like Anders; fortunately, except for being a mage, he is unlike Anders in almost every other way. Believes in the Chantry and in the system, and like his sister Kendra in another universe is certain that he is Andraste's chosen -- though a bit more humble about it, and not quite as quick to trust the templars or follow every bit of Chantry doctrine (he disbanded the Templar Order rather than taking them on as partners, for example, and is more trusting of Cole than Kendra ever was). He's a bit brusque, and has a ruthless streak, but I'm not sure how that's going to play out yet; I have a theory that he may walk some of the darker paths I haven't yet dared to tread (let the Chargers go, make Cullen take the lyrium, leave Blackwall to his fate, etc.), but we'll see if I stick to it.

Meanwhile the romance with Cassandra is off to a lovely start. I haven't yet gotten it any further than my Lavellan did, but it's early days since we just got to Skyhold. I look forward to seeing the rest.

Title: Heroes
Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Rating: All ages
Wordcount: 955
Characters: Dorian/m!Lavellan
Spoilers: Through the Arbor Wilds
Notes: Well, here we go. Turns out I'm pretty invested in this relationship -- who knew? Well, mostly I'm invested in Mahanon Lavellan, who is rapidly becoming one of my best beloved OCs. Anyway, this scene, following up on the events at the Temple of Mythal, hit me very hard as I was wrapping up yesterday's game, and I knew it wasn't going to get out of my head until I wrote it down.

Meanwhile, it's become increasingly obvious that I need some more DA:I icons. I don't even know where to find icons any more; suggestions?

Also on AO3

( The party who had ventured into the Temple of Mythal popped out of the eluvian one by one: first Morrigan, then Dorian, followed by Solas and Cassandra and -- after a wait that was most likely only a second or two but to Dorian felt like years -- the Inquisitor, Mahanon Lavellan. )

Romance: My sweet kind Lavallen boy is really into both Cassandra and Dorian. The game seems to think he's romancing Dorian; I'm still getting flirt lines with Cassandra, even after she commented on the rumors about Mahanon being involved with Dorian, but my research suggests that I would have to cut things off with Dorian to get her to reciprocate, and since there's no guarantee that she'd go for it even if I did, I think it's better to roll with the romance that's clearly working right. Clearly, I'm going to have to headcanon an OT3, and then play another male Inquisitor who is more in tune with his role as the Herald. I've already thought it might be interesting to play a human mage who supported the Circles; no reason that can't be a dude.

Story: Given that neither the Qunari nor dwarf inquisitor had much extra content when they were running around out in the world, I've been pleasantly surprised to see more Dalish-specific reactions from NPCs both minor and major, especially but not exclusively among the other elves we encounter. There's something lovely and bittersweet about wandering around the Emerald Graves as a Dalish elf, even one who isn't actively angry at modern humans for what their ancestors did to his people. As we get more deeply into elven lore later in the game, I'll be interested to see if it gets even more specific. (When I was designing Mahanon, I picked one of the vallasin for Mythal, so... yeah.)

Okay, I am 100% aware that I'm going to be in the minority on this but...

( Cut for unpopular opinion so as not to harsh everyone's squee. I know everyone says their opinions are unpopular but no, this is legitimately not going to be popular. )

I wanted to give this a little more visibility than where it's currently hiding in my November writing goals post: two lists of prompts for codex entries about Dragon Age OCs. One; Two. The first is more generic; the second includes DA:I specific content.

This strikes me as something fun and light to work on this month. I probably won't post them all individually, but here's the first:

( A description of your OC from someone who hates them )