#da2text

Consider one night on a random weekday, where it's so late it's practically morning. Hawke and a handful of their companions are still there, not even drinking anymore but talking the night away as they kind of sober up. So there's not many people left there, a few passed out drunkards and a group of tired friends.

A group of out-of-town bandits come in, hoping to make their first Kirkwall hit—and who would care about some shady backwater tavern? Certainly it's an easier hit than a fancy establishment in Hightown, so they have high hopes. They take one look at the handful of tired people in the corner, thinking "nah, they're drunkards, they won't even try to stop us," as they demand for all of the coin in Corff's till.

But oh no. They were wrong.

anders who fell in love with karl thekla, who traveled all of thedas to return to him, even becoming a warden if it meant seeing his lover once more

anders who fell in love with nathaniel, which started as a quick and casual tryst, two men releasing stress together in the horrors that is the blight and darkspawn hordes

Consider: one of those soulmate aus where people see color for the first time when they meet their soulmate. The world is black and white until that moment.

Karl and Anders see color when they first meet, but they’re both smart enough to not freak out immediately. It’s a dangerous thing to have a soulmate in the circle. Something easily exploited, something easily torn away.

They keep things down low. Fall in love naturally, despite their circumstances, and knowing they’re meant for each other makes them fall in love with a sense of comfort, not urgency. It still hurts though, having a soulmate but in the worst circumstances possible. Trapped and not free to live out their love, not like how non-mages do.

Eventually they’re found out—seeing color, being too close, being too happy. The circle decides to take Karl away, sending him far to Kirkwall because love is dangerous, and soulmates are even more dangerous. Soulmates would do anything for each other, and it makes non-mages quake in fear to see two mages destined to be together.

Little do the templars know that if they hadn’t taken Karl away, there wouldn’t have been any problems. But just as in the games, Anders fights his way across southern Thedas to get back to his soulmate. He'd join the wardens, fight darkspawn, survive across the continent through his blood, sweat, and tears.

Carver, coming down the hall: "please, PLEASE don't be what it sounds like—"

Hawke in his bedroom: lifting weights to get ripped

dead woman

evil woman who was possessed and is now a dead woman