SEEKER OF TRUTH.

#CHANTLIGHT. I know I want a world where people trust the Chantry and that trust is respected. I want to respect tradition but not fear change. I want to right past wrongs but not avenge them. And I have no idea if my wanting these things makes any of them right.

This is an independent roleplaying blog for Cassandra Pentaghast from the Dragon Age franchise. This portrayal is canon divergent on a number of points. Affiliated with chantdeath and weptfreedom.

guidelines // biography // verses // canon divergences // important metas + hcs aesthetic sideblog // pin board // playlist 1 // playlist 2

My name's Holly! I go by she / her & they / them pronouns. My discord is available to mutuals upon request. A list of my blogs can be found here. — ACTIVITY NOTICE

THIS IS SO FASCINATING . . . I've thought about this a lot. The interesting thing is we don't know if she can affect lyrium in other states. Can she target raw lyrium, refined lyrium, lyrium potions, lyrium used in enchantments, etc.? Or is it specifically lyrium that has entered a person's blood stream? Does the refinement process make a difference? What about red lyrium?

The reality is I don't think she's experimented with the ability much. She takes it very seriously for one. She's haunted by the Seeker who used it to kill for another. She is also, in my opinion, careful to use it to incapacitate, not torture. She has clear boundaries for herself regarding ethical use of this gift.

But, I digress. I'm going to rule that making a body out of lyrium results in something like a constant supply in the bloodstream. This contributes to the firstborn elves being so strong: it's like they have a direct IV of lyrium potion at all times. Not a perfect analogy, but it gets my thought across. I am also going to rule that the concentration of lyrium in a person's veins makes a difference. Since that's what she's setting aflame, it makes sense that the presence of more or less would raise or lower the effectiveness of her gift. (Sidebar: This would make her more effective against Southern templars than Southern Circle mages. Templars take a constant stream of lyirum phials much stronger than what's available to mages, who don't even take a constant dose of lyrium.)

So yeah, if she using her ability against someone who's made from lyrium and has a constant source in their blood — like, we're assuming it doesn't run out over time, it renews like skin cells and blood cells and whatever — she could crumple them with little effort. In my opinion, she could even kill them. The scary part is she could do so unintentionally. The concentration of lyrium would be beyond anything she's encountered before, meaning her metric for what's too much would be completely skewed. Unfortunately, I do think how strongly to apply her ability is something she's had to figure out through trial and error, and she has no basis for beings like the firstborn elves.

( blood and darkness // accepting ) JOSEPHINE [ @chiefambassador ] WROTE: ❝Do you understand how little sense that makes?❞

❝IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE,❞ CASSANDRA snapped, then immediately squeezed her eyes shut and inhaled. She had not meant to respond so sharply. The topic of politics simply boiled her blood, and she wearied of retreading the same ground with . . . really everyone in her life. All the same, that didn't justify barking at the ambassador. She knew Josephine had the Inquisition's best interests at heart. Truly, they would all have been rounded up and executed months ago without her.

Which was why it baffled Cassandra that she couldn't see the futility of her request. Trying to capitalize on Cassandra's Pentaghast blood was like trying to dig a tunnel with a nail. Her relation to the Prelate of the Mortalitasi, advisor to the monarch, made no difference — not to one who knew Vestalus as she did. Cassandra's own honors need not be mentioned. She'd earned them all in service to the Divine. They were therefore religious, not secular. She would argue that point into the ground, regardless of where said honors had actually come from.

( circe // accepting ) SIONED [ @kirkwll ] WROTE: ❝I never claimed to be good.❞

❝FEW HAVE CLAIMED IT FOR you.❞ Her voice was steady as the Frostbacks, but her heart beat like a hummingbird's wings: fast and fragile. All her anger at Varric's deception had fled the moment she'd heard the Champion's voice. Doubt took its place. Inadequacy. If Cassandra had not failed to find her — if she'd been at the Divine's side, even if Sioned did not assume the mantle of Inquisitor —

But, it was pointless to dwell on what could not be changed. They could only look forward or stumble over the future that would not stop for their regret.

❝But, you have been a true champion at heart. When others hesitated, you charged forward. I have heard accounts of what happened in Kirkwall,❞ including Varric's, that serpent-tongue, ❝and I find it difficult to judge your actions. It doubtless would have been worse had you done nothing as so many others seemed content to do.❞

Then they stumbled on the girls kissing in the garden, and that was that.

Anyway, I don't think it was quite love exactly, but it was definitely a big fat crush. And, a "oh Andraste I like girls" moment. Mind you, Cassandra was like? Nineteen? Twenty? Something to that effect. Hitherto she'd thought she was simply uninterested like some sign from the Maker that she was destined for the life of a Seeker. She wasn't made to be some man's wife. True! But also turns out she was made to be some woman's wife. Funny how these things work out.