Fandom Elder. Queer, pro LGBTQA+ Avid fan of - Dragon Age /Dishonored /Deus Ex/ Vampyr/ Thief4/ Assassin's Creed/ Starfield. Fanartist and writer.Cosplays as Metamorphica Cosplay. AO3 under Siluri_Sanguine
Some of my latest work. Click through to see the images larger.
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hi, veilguard peeps, can we take a moment to talk about rook mercar? because rook mercar is possibly one of the most batshit rooks in the game and they deserve to be recognized as such.
but not only that, mercar's backstory shades the shadow dragons and venatori conflicts in very interesting ways so let's talk about them.
so first, the nessus job.
i don't blame you for forgetting (or not knowing, i know the shadow dragons aren't everyone's cup of tea) so here's your quick refresher from the shadow dragon background blurb found in the character creator:
Breaker of Bonds
“Rook risked everything to liberate the enslaved people of Tevinter, even knowing it would anger the ruling elite.
The foundling Rook was adopted into a military family and joined the Shadow Dragons to fight from the shadows for change in Minrathous. While guarding a visiting dignitary who was investigating a slavery ring in the nearby city of Nessus, Rook concluded that the mission would fail without throwing caution to the wind. Alone, s/he(/they) sneaked the dignitary deep into Venatori-controlled zones and brought him back, along with the rescued slaves. These actions brought Rook to the Venatori's attention, and the Shadow Dragons decided to keep Rook out of sight.”
that is the nessus job.
except this doesn't quite square with what the game has to say about it.
the background:
first, here's the viper's letter about the job:
so right away, note how weird it is that the viper's writing mercar's letter. i say this is weird because, with the other factions, the person writing rook's letter is someone they're familiar with, usually in a position of leadership. antoine and evka are the notable leadership exceptions here, having actually been involved in thorne's backstory actions.
here's the rub: mercar doesn't know the viper. they've heard of him, certainly, but when that little popup telling you that you've worked with these faction agents before appears, mercar doesn't have the option to act like they know the viper.
the lines mercar gets are:
it's an honor to stand beside a legend
i know he likes to make an entrance
i know he gets things done
now, i will grant you that some of the responses to mercar's comment indicate tarquin is familiar with both rook and ashur (his response to the honor line is 'well, that'll go straight to his head' while the entrance line earns the viper's comment 'no one watches the rooftops' and tarquin's exasperated 'sure, that's what he says') but the point is, for a character mercar is "supposed" to be very familiar with, neve still tells them about the name ashur. like, seriously, it's the same dialogue tag every rook gets.
which is weird because veilguard is actually pretty good at keeping track of rook's faction and seamlessly changing up the conversation while still getting across the relevant information.
but it doesn't stop there, oh no.
during mercar's unpacking scene, we get these default shadow dragon lines:
now, these right here ping for the following reasons:
varric isn't the "visiting dignitary" that rook was guarding, given that rook had to get to nessus before meeting varric
the fact that rook's backstory happens dao style, where all events are true but only one has duncan varric available to pluck rook out of the immediate consequences
minrathous slaves, specifically, are mentioned as being freed here, even though we're supposed to be in nessus. now i'm not saying that minrathous citizens can't be enslaved and sent elsewhere, i'm just pointing out the phrasing here
the magisters who were financially benefiting from the nessus ring (aka venatori and their backers) knew enough about rook to put a name and a face on them. the structure of the sentence here is that everyone knows who is "too much trouble" to keep around and that is fucking wild kids. no, seriously, that is wild. there is so much wild here, put a pin in it.
no, seriously, this matters and matches the backstory blurb that the job "brought Rook to the Venatori's attention." put a fucking pin in it.
whatever rook's feelings, they always take pride in freeing those slaves- impulsive rook just dislikes that it comes at the cost of putting the shadow dragons in danger (put a pin in it), righteous rook thinks that the shadows should have used the crackdown to start a full out war with the venatori and their magister backers mind you while finally stoic rook just hopes that the shadow dragons weathered the storm safely.
okay, so ready for more batshit mercar?
the next solas conversation is the one where rook tells solas why they're going to stop the gods and here's what mercar has to say about that operation:
i just want y'all to marinate in that little gem of a line for a sec.
done screaming yet? it's cool, take another minute. no one's doing it like mercar.
okay, so finally a fuller picture of mercar's backstory comes into focus, if you ignore the weird bits. like the fact that the shadows made a plan with varric to rescue a friend, which does not appear to be the original nessus job, mind you.
mercar met varric, something went screwy, and mercar and varric decided the only way they had a chance was to start an armed rebellion in the city of nessus. the slavery ring is busted, said rebellion is (apparently) put down, the venatori and the magisters know who to blame for it all, and mercar hightails it out of the country with varric. simple and straightforward, right?
wrong, we have so much to work through.
the fallout:
like why the fuck are ashur, mae, and dorian squatting in dock town, exactly? tarquin lives there but those three surely have a high town shadow dragon cell they can go bug, right? and why is ashur the only one of the three making any cell decisions? i mean, points to mae for being a decent house guest, i guess, but what exactly is going on here? why are the venatori breathing down the shop's neck, to the point that they knew its location well enough to deliberately target it in the save treviso route?
remember those pins? it's time to pull them.
i repeat: this is real fucking bad for the shadow dragons. unlike the rest of the origins, the shadows are a covert operation. they don't want anyone knowing who their members are, who their backers are, any of it. the people in power being able to identify shadow dragons is how you lose shadow dragons: to arrests, targeted killings, beatings, destruction of their livelihoods, etc. ya know, like the viper mentions in his letter.
the fact that the first warden can not only link rook's face and name to the shadow dragons but to very specific crimes, crimes for which rook can absolutely be arrested, should set off all the alarm bells. as dorian says, the man is more politician than warden and as charter's letter from marnas pell states, "Assume every noble Tevinter family not with Shadow Dragons has Venatori pulling strings." this is extremely bad.
after nessus, the venatori had rook's identity as mercar and what did they do? they started looking into every single person mercar had known contact with, every path they took, their home, their family, the bar they stopped in for breakfast that one time. that's how resistance cells die, by the way. including, potentially, mercar's. this is why the shadows were more than happy to see mercar out of the way for a while where they couldn't cause any more trouble; so long as they're not around, they can't compromise more of the various cells' activities and members. it's the safest move for literally everyone involved.
because the damage has been done:
mae's related to varric via marriage, by the way, if the full picture hasn't come into focus yet.
mercar and varric were id'ed in that rebellion, the venatori were pissed at the lost revenue streams and suddenly mae's knocked out of the magisterium?
yeah.
my guess is that there is no high town cell anymore because of the nessus job. for all that mae worked to ensure that dorian was out of the line of fire and squeaky clean, the shadows and their backers couldn't stop the venatori crackdown after nessus, as mentioned by ashur's letter. ashur and mae are here specifically because there is no other cell to go to.
this is why tarquin is snippy, by the by. mercar and the highbloods are drawing attention to him and endangering all of his people just by being there.
hang on, it gets worse.
because the venatori are obsessed with the viper and proving that he's the divine (he is the divine, for the record, there are too many ambient dialogues, codices, and missions pointing in that direction). and to that obsession, i say, what the fuck? how did they come to that conclusion, exactly? what trail did the divine leave behind that first got the venatori on his tail?
well, he's related to and has close ties with mae's family. secondly, the divine is known for being quietly supportive of slave liberation. but the real reason, i think, is the original nessus job.
because again, why were the shadows in nessus originally? why was mercar in nessus to meet varric in the first place? who was the "visiting dignitary" that mercar was guarding?
yeah, i think the dignitary was the divine. and i think he was there in his official capacity. it would handily explain the discrepancy that ashur knows mercar but mercar doesn't know ashur. while the divine might not have a lot of actual power, the power of the press and drawing attention to issues and plights should never be discounted. especially when it's a plausible excuse to get several minrathous shadows in place to shut down the nessus slaver ring.
the divine being guarded by a now known shadow dragon (the viper likely made an appearance, ashur is known to pop up when slave rebellions start) combined with his anti-slavery views and ties to anti-slavery politicians turned the venatori's eye on ashur's night job.
remember, the shadow dragons are officially labeled as insurgents; if the venatori can tie the divine and all his people to them? that would be a death knell for any political support for liberation. the checkmate for the anti-slavery cause for the next age.
tldr: mercar exposed their ties to the shadows (and possibly the divine's) by starting an armed rebellion with varric to free slaves and shut down a slaver hub. in response, the venatori sniped several cells using mercar and varric's likely contacts, which led to ashur, mae, and dorian squatting in the dock town shadow dragon cell instead of some high town cell.
This is an excellent breakdown!!! A wonderful aid in piecing together the puzzle that is Mercar’s backstory. Will definitely be referring to this in the future for writing purposes. 😌🙂↕️😏
found myself with some fun inspo for my girl Nahla Mercar for this SD Week!! Many thanks to @shadow-dragon-week for hosting!!!
She struck a match with one smooth motion, glancing away briefly as it seared to life, before leaning to guide flame from matchstick to the wick of a waiting oil lantern. It sputtered once, twice, then finally took, blooming to light and bringing the features of the room into warm relief. She did not take the time to admire the light, as much as she might have liked to bask in it. No, she moved to the next waiting oil lantern, then the next. Altogether, twelve waited to be brought to life, and she had to strike a second match to light them all. There was work to be done, even at this late hour, and her fellow Shadow Dragons would need these lanterns for patrols throughout Dock Town.
Once all of the lanterns carried their own little flames, she dunked the matches into a waiting bucket of water. The accumulation of smothered matches was building up to the point of rendering the water useless—she would come back and empty it later. Once she was satisfied the matches were still sufficiently drenched, she picked up four of the lanterns and elbowed open the door to return to the hideout.
"Nahla."
The sound of her name carried a note of both resignation and surprise. She would know Ashur's voice anywhere and, more to it, she would know that he had little room to make comments on her early presence at the hideout. The hour was early, what might be painfully early for some, and neither of them managed their time with respect to space away from the work that needed to be done. She had been staying at the hideout for several days; he hadn't been away from it for more than a handful of hours at a time. At least she knew she was getting some sleep.
Rather than engaging with the silent commentary, Nahla offered Ashur one of the lanterns in her hands and, alongside it, a wry smile.
"Ashur," she said to him, and he huffed a laugh behind the heavy fabric of his face veil. His clawed gauntlet made the softest sound, metal-on-metal made delicate, as he took a lantern from her. "You know what we say—"
"I do, but—"
"I think you might have even said it first—"
"Nahla—"
"Bring the light, Ashur," she said, her voice chipper over the exhaustion, teasing brightening her spirits as she lifted her hands a little higher. "But perhaps literally? I have eight more of these to distribute to the watch teams. Do me a favor?"
Ashur glanced at the lanterns, then up at her. They were nearly eye-to-eye in height, giving neither of them anyplace to retreat to. Their eyes glittered with the light, and the light warmed in Ashur's eyes when he smiled. She knew, even if she couldn't see the whole of his face. She wiggled the lanterns at him, and he tutted at her before taking them with all of the solemnity of a man approaching a Chantry confessional.
Nahla gave him a playful nudge, amused by the surprise he always exuded whenever a fellow Shadow touched him. What a strange man, their Viper was; maybe one day, she might learn why.
"Go on, Viper. Plenty to be done. The sun won't be up for hours, and there are many shadows for the dragons to keep at bay."
ppl on ao3 should use the "this work was inspired by" option more. so many fics out there that put links to other fics in the a/n but theres a better option.....
important addition i forgot that not everyone might know. similar to how ao3 bookmarks work, you can also link to non-ao3 fanworks using this format. so, for instance, if theres some fanart on tumblr that inspired you to write the fic? you can link that fanart to your fic!
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"The culmination of love is grief and yet we love despite the inevitable. We open our hearts to it... To grieve deeply is to have loved fully. Open your heart to the world as you have opened it to me and you will find every reason to keep living in it."
The FBI cut the phone lines during the 1977 disability rights sit-in. Then they turned off the hot water.
They locked the doors from the outside. One hundred and fifty people were trapped on the fourth floor. Half of them used wheelchairs. The government assumed they would leave.
Kitty Cone was thirty-three. She had muscular dystrophy. Her muscles were failing, but her logistics were flawless. She knew how to organize people.
The federal government had promised to sign regulations protecting disabled Americans from discrimination. The policy was known as Section 504. They printed the promise on paper. Then they stalled. Without a signature, it was just typography.
The protesters entered the regional Health, Education, and Welfare building in San Francisco on a Tuesday morning. They took the elevators to the director's office. They brought sleeping bags and catheters. They informed the staff they were not leaving until the law was signed.
By sunset, the police surrounded the exits. Kitty sat near the windows. She organized the floor plan. She assigned committees for security and sanitation. She kept her medication in a small cooler.
According to federal memorandums released decades later, the strategy to end the occupation relied on medical attrition. The building was not equipped for long-term habitation. The FBI calculated that a population requiring ventilators, specialized diets, and daily medical aides would voluntarily evacuate if the environment became sufficiently hostile. They instituted a blockade.
The blockade went into effect immediately. No food deliveries allowed. No medical supplies permitted through the lobby. Guards stood at the main doors checking identification.
Kitty's muscles deteriorated faster under the physical strain. She couldn't walk. When the phone lines went dead, the fourth floor lost contact with the press. The government waited for the quiet.
Kitty dropped to the floor. She realized the barricades were designed for standing adults. The police had blocked the hallways at waist height. They hadn't blocked the linoleum.
The floors were covered in cigarette ash and spilled coffee. She dragged her body through it. She crawled under the barricades to reach the restricted elevator shafts and unguarded offices.
She carried notes in her pockets. She found a single working payphone the FBI missed. She called the local news desks. She called the mayor's office.
She crawled back. When her arms failed, someone pulled her by her ankles. The Black Panthers heard the news reports. They crossed the police lines with hot meals. The FBI could not stop them without a riot.
They shut off the elevators, so she crawled.
The occupation lasted twenty-five days. It remains the longest non-violent occupation of a federal building in American history. On April 28, the Secretary of HEW signed the regulations without a single alteration.
The protesters left the building the next morning. They went back to their apartments. The Rehabilitation Act regulations laid the groundwork for every accessibility law that followed. The HEW building still stands on United Nations Plaza. The elevators run on a schedule. The doors are heavy glass.
Kitty Cone: the woman who crawled under the barricades.
every person i’ve ever been with has had brown eyes and every time i say their eyes are pretty they say “huh, really? i’ve never heard that before. i think they’re kinda boring” are you FUCKING kidding me i could stare into your eyes forever and not be bored for a second
of all the posts i’ve ever had breach containment this is the one that made me genuinely excited I hope this gets notes fr i hope it lands on the dash of my brown eyed boyfriend and reminds him how beautiful he is
You can have any animal for a pet. Any complications such as “keeping the animal healthy and happy” and “the time and effort it would take to keep happy and healthy pet” and “keeping yourself uneaten” and “the pet I want is kind of extinct” have all been solved perfectly. You don’t have to think of that.
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Join us for a week celebrating the brave Shadow Dragons who defend the people of Minrathous and fight against the Venatori, corrupt magisters, and oppression! Whether it's Rook Mercar, the Shadow Dragon leadership of Dorian, Maevaris, and the Viper, or the rank-and-file like Tarquin, Lorelei, and Bren, all are welcome.
Bring the light.
Mod(s): @kogarashi-art, @sketchytea
Dates: July 5–11, 2026
Tags: when the event is live, use tag #ShadowDragonWeek2026 or mention @shadow-dragon-week to share your works
Themed Graphics: divider bars posted to this blog, tagged with #Shadow Dragon resources (clickable link)
Want to meet your fellow Shadow Dragons? You can find filled-out character sheets and other intro posts under the tag #Shadow Dragon Rooks.
Current Activities
It's posting time!
Shadow Dragon Week is here! We'll be keeping tabs on the event tag (listed above) and any blog mentions so we can reblog your contributions. Remember to give us time to see it, but if we don't reblog it within 48 hours of you posting, send us a candlehop with a link so we can find it.
Our prompt lists are below, or you can also find them with ALT text on this post here.
Shadow Dragon Week Bingo!
💬 0 🔁 6 ❤️ 13 · Reblog for some clarification: yes, this is tailored for individual Rooks (mod confusion, don't mind us), so by all means,
And you can still show us your Shadow Dragons!
💬 0 🔁 46 ❤️ 110 · Shadow Dragon Week 2026 Character Sheet - Google Drive · Hey, have a Shadow Dragon OC (Rook or otherwise) you want us to
Pick up the template and fill it out, then tag us to show us your Shadow Dragons, and we'll reblog them for the rest of the faction to see.
I thought I'd do something simple for this and write some shorts in the form of journal entries of my newest Rook Valla Mercar, detailing aspects of her story.
Day 1 Shadows are created from the Light.
Read here on Ao3.
Snippet below -
My pater had a meeting with a magister the other day. I was concerned but he told me this one was different. Part of a group of people who wanted to abolish slavery.
I told him other people had tried that before that he'd quietly tried to support where he could. The Lucerni.
High ideals, lofty intentions and absolutely no idea what some magisters were capable of.
I knew the magisterium as my master was a magister. It was only because he had a fancy to me that I am still here and not some forgotten elven corpse weighed down with rocks and thrown into the Nocen to be devoured by fish that people eat the next day. …. I still cant eat seafood because of that.
But my pater told me to meet him. Wanted my opinion due to my…history.
When I walked in to his office, I was met by a man with his face partly covered to hide his identity. Called himself the Viper. Said if people knew who he was it would be dangerous for him and everyone else.
I understood that. I’d been hiding who I was for years in Ventus. Covering my ears and hair to avoid attention directed to me.
Turns out this magister knew the Lucerni and knew why it failed. He along with some others have started a more underground movement based in Minrathous. One dedicated to freeing slaves and fighting corruption in Tevinter by any means necessary.
Big talk. But I actually believe him.
Send your prompt suggestions for Antivan Crows Week! I'll also accept any ideas or other suggestions for this event. I'll keep this survey up for a month so there's plenty of time to make suggestions.
how long and how many days a week do you think ER doctors work. i think they're right to want to just fucking chill. i want a well rested doctor treating me and not one who just pulled a 24 hour shift and then a 12 and another 12 before another 24, with only a few hours of legally mandated breaks inbetween.
Yeah some of us want a 30-hour work week because we've read the experimental research trials. People aren't any less productive and they are happier and less stressed and feel less leisure time pressure.
It turns out that working 40 hours a week is just too much. Full stop, no ifs ands or buts. The tiredness and loss of focus it induces is enough that you're about 25% less productive per hour when you're on a 40-hour work week, and so the extra 10 hours a week cancels out. This effect is a little bit more pronounced for white collar work and a little bit less pronounced for blue collar work, but there's functionally not enough of a difference to care. And people who are working more than that actually become less productive in total.
The thing is that you don't immediately gain the benefits of being fully rested and focused by working less on just one day, or even one week. It can even take months to settle into the pattern of higher productivity per working hour, and that's frankly miraculously quick given that full burnout can take years to recover from. And during that transition you will be less immediately productive. Particularly for people who pride themselves on being hard workers and how much overtime they put in, the notion that working less can get just as much done can feel absurd and even insulting. Because it seems so painfully obvious that you get less done when you do less, and any experiences of being invited to do so feel like they back that up.
But it's true. We are all simply working more than we need to, pointlessly, to no benefit at all. It is an appallingly pointless waste of human life.
The results of several workplace surveys may defy expectations, but the data is clear: shortened work weeks can work for businesses and empl
Also, I don’t actually care if someone is less productive working 30 hours a week or 20 hours a week. We do not need endless productivity and it’s bad for the earth and bad for people. We would be completely fine if everyone was half as productive. Literally we would be better off. It does not matter that a 30 hour work week is as productive as a 40 hour work week. Reject that framing!
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Hey, we’re in line for some absurd temperatures here in the southwest this week. This is very important to know and keep in mind. Be safe, stay hydrated, stay out of the sun as much as you can.
Additional you can also put them on your palms, also, make sure to always use a light towel or kitchen paper and don’t put the ice bags directly onto your skin!
