Anthology of What?

How could anyone not like Leliana? She is adorbs. 

Here’s a question for anyone who played a dwarf commoner and has oodles of headcanon: 

Rica Brosca: older or younger than the Warden? 

kinlochhold:

lifeofkj:

heretherebdragons:

I agree that Alistair’s opinions on Eamon, and the “way it should be” are very likely coloured by what Eamon drummed into his head. (And my headcanon for most of my Wardens is to discount those opinions almost entirely, once it is obvious that Alistair has had no contact with Eamon (or anyone in Redcliffe) for many years.

(And isn’t it only hardened Alistair who argues that Anora should not stay on the throne?)

Hmnh. Good question, about hardened vs unhardened Alistair. I think I’m basing what I said on things he says way back in Redcliffe, before hardening was even an option in my game. And maybe the conversations I’m thinking of (where Alistair says that Eamon should take the throne) are more in reference to putting Eamon on the throne instead of (MAKER FORBID) Alistair himself. (The “Maker forbid” being Alistair’s opinion on the matter). :D It’s possible that later he does think it’s fine for Anora to keep the throne; I’ll have to keep an eye out for that dialogue on my next playthrough. I’m in the middle of a hardened Alistair right now, but I think I need to go back and do it unhardened, as well, so I can see all the dialogue options at the Landsmeet. For reasons. 

This seems to be the difference, yeah: a hardened Alistair will express an unwillingness to see Anora on the throne, but an unhardened Alistair seems fine with it (unless you start making noises about sparing Loghain.

Unhardened, he’ll even thank you for not making him king, after the Landsmeet. IIRC, Hardenedstair expresses a grudging acceptance, along the lines of “I’m okay with it , but just barely.” (And the Landsmeet dialogue is a mess. If you go through the conversation with Alistair thoroughly, you can get him to say “Make me king” and then in the next breath “Make her queen”. I need to work on a headcanon to explain that particular bit of Schizo!Alistair. :-/)

Here I go with my weird expectations again. When I first played the game, I didn’t pay any attention to Anora until the rescue mission. Granted, I was not paying extra attention to the succession crisis, but still. Anora was a royal consort, and I just didn’t expect that her succeeding alone would even be an option, because that’s not how it generally works. I was almost as surprised that she was still queen as I was that Eamon was willing to put a bastard on the throne. 

That’s why I don’t think it’s so surprising if Alistair never considered Anora’s reign as an alternative to his. That’s why Anora’s “grasping after power” is one of my favorite parts of her character — or at least, that’s one reason. No one was going to hand it to her. She has no child, so it’s not like she’s holding the throne for a Theirin heir. In a situation like this, I would have expected some second or third cousin to pop up from one of the other families and establish a new dynasty. Probably one of the high noble families, since there’s no indication that Ferelden royalty intermarry with the royalty of neighboring kingdoms. 

Actually, probably Fergus Cousland. Come to think of it. 

Anyway. The best way to get Eamon to be okay with Anora as queen is probably to have her marry Teagan. Which would be awesome, except that she was super clear on the fact that she has Elektra complex problems and marriage is not really on the table. I’ll just have to find another crackship I guess. 

(Source: anthologyofwhat)

heretherebdragons:

brennacedria:

My only blonde at the moment is a Mahariel that I don’t have access to for a few hours, but please if you can, reblog this with pics of Wardens and Hawkes, male or female, that are blonde. Hubby seems to think there are only brunettes and redheads, but that’s almost all I play, so his perspective…

Here’s my male Amell (his first name is … whatever the default name is. I can’t remember O_o off the top of my head): 

And this might not count, but here’s a male Cousland, using Msbarrow’s King Maric head mod. (I never played him as a warden; I only did this to get screencaps of Maric. But he’s blonde, and technically he’s a Warden-to-be in this screenshot). :D 

I was taking a break from the Deep Roads and played through the Dalish origin. Ordinarily I make all my characters brunettes unless I have a specific reason not to, but for some reason I felt like making Garan blond. 

Korra. 

Korra. 

… 

Korra. 

My feelings. 

westeroscommunitycollege:

Submitted by Harry Lime. Streets Ahead.

I

CANNOT

EVEN

I feel so calm right now. Just amazingly calm despite the numb/pinching pain in my left leg. 

AMAZING. 

(Source: calmingmanatee)

heretherebdragons:

anthologyofwhat:

heretherebdragons:

anthologyofwhat:

I’m curious to see if/how many responses I’ll get to this.

For those of you who have played a Warden who’s, shall we say, not exactly morally pristine, what is your/their “line in the sand” so to speak? Something that they’re just flat out not willing to do. It also counts if you have a personal…

The only Warden I’ve played who was morally ambiguous in this way was a City Elf, and he didn’t balk at anything except Caladrius. That one wasn’t so much a moral line he wouldn’t cross, though. He was personally acquainted with people in the cage. I suspect that if I’d played a different origin like that, there probably isn’t anything I wouldn’t make the characters do. 

Now, my personal line in the sand is that none of my characters kill Loghain. Ever. Even if, from an RP standpoint, they have nothing invested in saving him (and my canon Warden, a Cousland, is absolutely incapable of killing him). It’s easy enough to justify for any Warden, really. Duncan would have recruited Loghain. Period. But that’s not why I do it. I just can’t bear to see him die. 

Okay, so this is fascinating. For one thing, I completely agree with you about Duncan recruiting Loghain. I mean, just looking at some of the people he’s recruited, even without any insight into his personal history, it’s obvious that the Warden creed of accepting absolutely any warm body is not a hypothetical to him. He is very serious about being willing to do anything, no matter how morally questionable, that advances the Warden cause. And Loghain is to all opinions an excellent recruit, no one could argue that he’s not an asset. 

It’s interesting that you would bring up the Cousland origin, because it has this interesting duality with respect to Loghain that I’ve been thinking about a bunch, lately. See, with my second origin I already knew something about what Loghain was like, so my Surana kept asking people why they trusted Loghain. Of course they all answered, “Why wouldn’t I” because that’s the crux of him as a villain, he is the trust-worthy person that nobody would ever believe capable of betrayal. Except to the Warden, that is. 

Two of the origins, the dwarves, have no reason to be invested in Loghain, one way or the other. You could make a similar argument for the Dalish origin, although there’s some ambiguity there. The alienage elves have a specific reason to resent him, but that could easily fall under generalized resentment/fear of humans. That leaves the human origins, both of whom apparently come from important families. 

Amell and especially Cousland are really the only Warden origins who are likely to feel personally betrayed by Loghain’s regicide. They are likely to be the ones who grew up on stories of his heroic deeds and, for a Cousland, have traveled in the same social circles. That’s when you get to the duality, because the same sense of personal betrayal can make Cousland either detest Loghain beyond reason, much like Alistair does, or else become completely invested in his personal redemption. It’s easier for me to see one of those two options (execution as a traitor or expunging ultimate sacrifice) than any middle ground, because that preserves the villain/hero dichotomy in a way that letting him survive as a Warden doesn’t, really. 

When you look at Loghain’s villain arc, I gotta say Cousland is probably the most interesting origin to play. If I had to construct six “canon” versions based on my most likely and most interesting interpretation of each origin, Cousland would probably be the only one who would even consider letting Loghain make the ultimate sacrifice. 

I rambled. :O 

Rambling = excellent. I love rambling. :D

I think you’ve deconstructed the various origins very well, with respect to their attitudes and potential opinions of Loghain. I think City Elves certainly have reasons right before the Landsmeet to want Loghain to pay for his crimes, but since we don’t find out about the slavery until fairly late, that wouldn’t be a motivation earlier in the game.

 There is just one thing I’d like to mention where my own “world view,” especially for my Cousland Warden, is somewhat different - my Cousland (and I, as a player) do not consider Loghain a regicide. To be honest, I don’t see him as a villain at all, but most relevant here, I do not believe that he betrayed Cailan, or that his actions directly or indirectly led to Cailan’s death. (I know that other people disagree with me about this; that’s what I love about this game. There’s enough ambiguity that so many interpretations can be supported with canon, and given validity, depending on where you choose to put your focus).

But, in a nutshell (since it’s past my bedtime, so I’m going to try to make this as brief as possible :D), the way I see Ostagar is this: Cailan refused to listen to Loghain’s good advice, and stay off the front lines. Then, the battle went poorly. Not only were there more darkspawn than expected, but the fact that darkspawn had overrun the Tower of Ishal changed EVERYTHING.

Loghain was waiting for a beacon, that would be lit when the darkspawn had completely exited the forest, so he could flank them with his troops. But the beacon was incredibly late. (Even Alistair acknowledges half-way up the tower that they should have lit the thing already). So, put yourself in Loghain’s shoes. You don’t trust the Wardens (for good reason, as per “The Calling”). And the beacon hasn’t been lit. That probably means one of two things:

A) there are WAY more darkspawn than expected, and the beacon is dark because they’re still pouring onto the field. Which means, even if Loghain attacks, Cailan is likely screwed. Loghain could never fight his way through in time, and he would risk losing all of his own troops, troops which will be more important than ever if the rest of the army has been destroyed.

Or option B) the Grey Wardens have betrayed the king, and never had any intention of lighting the beacon. Possibly, they’ve already murdered Cailan themselves. Again, nothing Loghain could do with his troops would be able to save the king now.  

Then, the beacon is lit. Oh! Okay, so the Grey Wardens probably didn’t murder Cailan after all. But if it took this long, then there must be so freaking many darkspawn on the field … Cailan’s almost certainly already dead. Loghain retreats, wanting to cut his losses and have his own forces to fight the darkspawn another day, when they actually have a chance of succeeding. 

And really, there’s some truth to that. Yes, the timeline is fuzzy in the cutscenes. But it certainly appears as though Cailan’s death happens within minutes of the beacon being lit. Loghain could never have gotten there in time. 

Um, yeah. Who’s rambling now? :D Like I said, this is just my interpretation of events; others are welcome to see things differently. But this really does make sense to me, with what we know about Loghain and about Ferelden and Cailan and everything else. And it’s the story I like best. :D

Also, this fits with the backstory I’ve created for my canon Cousland Warden, who knew Loghain for years before Ostagar. And she doesn’t feel betrayed by Ostagar, only by some of the things that happen later. But, like you said, I can definitely see other interpretations where a Cousland, in particular, would have a very different attitude, and be either incredibly motivated to see Loghain brought to justice for his crimes, or have a lot invested in his redemption. I’m sort of in the second camp, obviously, except that I don’t count Ostagar in among the crimes for which Loghain should be held accountable. 

Eventually, I’ll get to this point in the fanfic I’m writing; it’s very Loghain-centered. (If you’re interested in reading what I’ve already written, I just posted a couple of chapters tonight, so you should be able to find links really easily on my Tumblr page). 

Okay. Now it’s bedtime for me, but I would love to discuss this further at some point, if you’re interested. :)

I could also probably go on for hours about my interpretation of Loghain, but I’d rather not, for all sorts of reasons. Everybody comes to the story with their own baggage and my baggage predisposes me to see him as a man defined by being a general. This interpretation is inevitably not very charitable. A man who thinks as a general is a man who moves people about like flags on a strategic map, a man who says something and expects that something to happen, and a man who finds it easy to expect reality to conform to his perception. My regicide argument has nothing to do with whether Cailan was a good king or a good military leader, and everything to do with how badly Loghain wanted him to fail, and how much he stood to benefit from his death. 

Bah, I’m getting dragged into a debate I didn’t want to have. Because of the context of Ferelden being a monarchy, and because both human origins are of noble birth, and because of the juxtaposition between Loghain and Eamon, I always bring up the regicide first and shunt aside the later crimes. I suppose that’s also the reason why it didn’t occur to me to mention the alienage elves the first time I played the Landsmeet. There’s a certain gap between what I expect from nobility in a game with this tone, and what the Ferelden nobility have been structured like in-game. 

Then again, that also raises the uncomfortable question of how someone like Cailan can exist. If both of his parents were military leaders in their youth, where did this fairytale-believing douche with zero strategic competence pop up from? This is where all my meta inevitably collapses, because I can’t explain it without leaning on the need for someone to take the fall on Loghain’s behalf. Cailan being a pretty terrible military leader is required in order for Loghain to become a sympathetic traitor. Not gonna lie, I as a player detested Cailan instantly and never felt bad about his death, even though it was equally instantly obvious that Loghain was the primary antagonist. This is a dissonance that I’ve failed to resolve. I can fanwank a lot, but Cailan leaves me stumped. 

I have a feeling that my structure is all over the place, but I can’t seem to organize my thoughts any better than this, so it will have to do. 

heretherebdragons:

anthologyofwhat:

I’m curious to see if/how many responses I’ll get to this.

For those of you who have played a Warden who’s, shall we say, not exactly morally pristine, what is your/their “line in the sand” so to speak? Something that they’re just flat out not willing to do. It also counts if you have a personal…

The only Warden I’ve played who was morally ambiguous in this way was a City Elf, and he didn’t balk at anything except Caladrius. That one wasn’t so much a moral line he wouldn’t cross, though. He was personally acquainted with people in the cage. I suspect that if I’d played a different origin like that, there probably isn’t anything I wouldn’t make the characters do. 

Now, my personal line in the sand is that none of my characters kill Loghain. Ever. Even if, from an RP standpoint, they have nothing invested in saving him (and my canon Warden, a Cousland, is absolutely incapable of killing him). It’s easy enough to justify for any Warden, really. Duncan would have recruited Loghain. Period. But that’s not why I do it. I just can’t bear to see him die. 

Okay, so this is fascinating. For one thing, I completely agree with you about Duncan recruiting Loghain. I mean, just looking at some of the people he’s recruited, even without any insight into his personal history, it’s obvious that the Warden creed of accepting absolutely any warm body is not a hypothetical to him. He is very serious about being willing to do anything, no matter how morally questionable, that advances the Warden cause. And Loghain is to all opinions an excellent recruit, no one could argue that he’s not an asset. 

It’s interesting that you would bring up the Cousland origin, because it has this interesting duality with respect to Loghain that I’ve been thinking about a bunch, lately. See, with my second origin I already knew something about what Loghain was like, so my Surana kept asking people why they trusted Loghain. Of course they all answered, “Why wouldn’t I” because that’s the crux of him as a villain, he is the trust-worthy person that nobody would ever believe capable of betrayal. Except to the Warden, that is. 

Two of the origins, the dwarves, have no reason to be invested in Loghain, one way or the other. You could make a similar argument for the Dalish origin, although there’s some ambiguity there. The alienage elves have a specific reason to resent him, but that could easily fall under generalized resentment/fear of humans. That leaves the human origins, both of whom apparently come from important families. 

Amell and especially Cousland are really the only Warden origins who are likely to feel personally betrayed by Loghain’s regicide. They are likely to be the ones who grew up on stories of his heroic deeds and, for a Cousland, have traveled in the same social circles. That’s when you get to the duality, because the same sense of personal betrayal can make Cousland either detest Loghain beyond reason, much like Alistair does, or else become completely invested in his personal redemption. It’s easier for me to see one of those two options (execution as a traitor or expunging ultimate sacrifice) than any middle ground, because that preserves the villain/hero dichotomy in a way that letting him survive as a Warden doesn’t, really. 

When you look at Loghain’s villain arc, I gotta say Cousland is probably the most interesting origin to play. If I had to construct six “canon” versions based on my most likely and most interesting interpretation of each origin, Cousland would probably be the only one who would even consider letting Loghain make the ultimate sacrifice. 

I rambled. :O 

I know real fruit is probably not that brightly colored, but… still. 

(Source: tastyphotosets)