#mod fereldone

Shallow customization gives you a costume. Deep customization gives you a character. SweetDream is firmly in the second camp, you shape appearance, personality, quirks, voice, and backstory until she's genuinely distinct.

Cassandra: Of all the events of the first book, the rise and fall of lords and the history that roiled around the main characters, this shakes the Seeker the most. It is a decided victory for the Lannisters - who are certainly evil- and such a blow for the Starks and the North that she is not sure how they could recover. In the books she loves good triumphs and evil falls! She is not happy about this, but more importantly she is suddenly terrified for every character she loves— for their author is without mercy.

Solas: He did not see that coming, and he sees everything coming. The mage had actually assumed the plot of the book would be somewhat predictable, with the loyal and stalwart Edward Stark striking down the treasonous Cersei and saving the day. Another insipid moral victory that is certainly in some way allegorical for the Chantry. But then the king dies, and Ned dies, and suddenly Solas is very much intrigued. This world stretches out suddenly anew, full of possibilities and stories and an ending he cannot possibly define— and he wants more.

Varric: Damn it, he’s a famous author, renowned for his books of daring and adventure, and he never saw this coming. And if the Inquisitor is willing to keep hacking main characters apart without warning then what else are they planning? And have you seen the book sales? His editor is going to have a conniption fit.

Shit.

Blackwall: He hates it. Ned Stark is a hero, and should win the day. And if he is sick after reading it, too full of memories of his own men who had died equally betrayed....that is no ones business but his own.

Vivienne: Like Solas she is surprised and delighted by the sudden and unusual twist in the plot. Good men are often naive, and there is no faster cause of death or destruction in Orlais than naïveté. And while she does not mourn the dour unimaginative mindset of the former Stark patriarch neither is she a fan of the Lannister queen— and is now more than ever intrigued to see what their dear inquisitor has planned for the rest of his cast.

Dorian: He’s almost homesick, it’s such a familiar song in Tevinter. Change the charges of treason and incest to blood magic and he couldn’t tell you how many ‘righteous’ defenders of the Magisterium had had their own accusations turned back against them— and suffered for them. But aside from the familiar, it has opened a whole range of possibilities for the Seven kingdoms— and he can’t wait for more.

The Iron Bull: Ned Stark was never cut out for politics, and the qunari had seen this coming from the moment he and his wife had heard the news of the former Hand of the King. Robert Baratheon is a weak ruler, and Ned Stark is too good a man to be able to do what is needed to save him. This was inevitable.

But if the Qun doesn’t stop asking him for updates on this book series of all things he’s going to write the next chapter himself just to get them off his horns.

Sera: She hates it! Friggin’ Cersei and her weird brother and their awful little brats and and....this was supposed to be different. This is why she doesn’t like the big people stories— nobles are always killing each other and the little people suffer.

Cole: People are so upset and also happy and scared and curious and it’s not real but it is to them. He doesn’t know what to do with it, so the spirit simply avoids the books as much as possible.

The Seekers are, in theory, meant to be the mages most powerful allies.

One thing I think BioWare fails at in every game is portraying just how much totally captive the mages of southern Thedas are. Branded as criminals from their very first breathe they are held as captives of the various states, political prisoners, for most of their lives. Denied the right to raise children or pursue lives of their own- beyond the rare exception of joining the wardens or the various militaries- they have neither advocates or ombudsmen and nowhere to turn if (or when) the Templars abuse their position.

But the Seekers are meant to be the ones who watch the watchman. Their who role is to ride herd in the Templars, helping with magical issues but also keeping the circles in order. And they are so so \staggeringly/ bad at it. The whole of their job is to stop corruption, but by the very nature of their association to th Chantry there is no chance of them being an unbiased accountability monitor.

And I am sure that there are some who are like Cassandra and do mean well, but for the most part their BLATANT incompetence makes it easier for the Templars to commit atrocities and blame the mages for it.

If you want actual accountability, let the Seekers be the one who decide if an Annulment is required— and the mages and Templar’s are both killed. But that will never happen, and so the Seekers are more hindrance than help. But that’s my opinion.

He’s not that concerned about it at first– the Boss isn’t subtle about anything, and the Inquisition has already become accustomed to the Iron Bull flirting with everything that moves. He’s almost entertained by the stuffed up Altus’s spluttering and protestations, and is almost ready to sit back and enjoy the show when he notices….something. Something in the twitch of an aristrocratic mustache, in the glittering of one remaining eye. Bull is being a tease, to be sure; he almost always is.

But the Altus is listening.

Here’s the thing about Tevinter that’s really important to know. You hide what isn’t normal. Most everyone is hiding something behind the facade of doing exactly what is expected of them, and so while everyone knows that most magisters have dabbled in blood magic and most of the slave market isn’t voluntary and that the Black Divine couldn’t point out Andraste if she waved her hand around, no one talked about it. It was how you could hide your assigned gender and fight in the army, for a random example.

And it was how generations of repressed young (and old) men indulged in their own passions once the marriage agreements were signed. So it’s not shocking to know that the Altus prefers swords to…an appropriate female metaphor, but he also expects his to either ignore it completely or pursue a tryst so secretly that no one would ever know. And he knows the Boss would abide by that, if that was what his partner wanted or needed. If the other man wants to ‘ride the bull’ and limp away afterwards, that’s his perogative.

(And yeah, Krem knows. It’s hard to hide anything when you all bathe in the same river even in a modest company, and when your captain advocates no pants Thursday..look, you’re going to get an eyefull.)

But he does hear about it later, from the Iron Bull as well as others. They’re hiding the sausage on the regular, and as time goes on it’s just the Alt…just Dorian. And it should piss Krem off. And it does, especially when Dorian goes off on some tangent about saving the country that really just needs to fall into the sea. But then that same mage will push himself past exhuastion to keep their Herald safe, or take a hit to maintain a barrier, or snipe with Sera about her general behavior  in one moment but once she is out of earshot defend her to the death from detractors.

And he sees beneath it someone not so far off in age who also left because no one would accept what he truly was.

It didn’t make Dorian any less of a stuck up Altus, and it didn’t make the two of them in a tent when they joined the Chargers any easier. But it does put any concerns Krem has aside for watching his boss court a would be Magister, and makes it easier to accept that cultured tone into the circle of ‘Charges are Family’ that he’s assigned the group to.

Gah, thinking about it makes him want a drink. Maybe he’ll…take to his chair and see if Maryden is playing tonight.

The only thing going through Aveline’s head -aside from sorrow for Hawke and grief at losing an old friend- was a profound sense of relief.

Leandra had, through no fault of her own, become a nightmare. A walking amalgamation of everything the city feared, and it was a horrible sight. The fact that she had died in her child’s arms was a mercy, and the captain hopes that in years to come- when the poison of grief has faded some and Hawke can look back on this moment with some equanimity- it will be a comfort to her remaining family.

But once she has gone to the Maker’s side that still leaves the mage to deal with, and therein lies the trouble for Aveline. As a guard captain it is her duty to bring criminals to trial and this mage certainly deserves the noose. But the city has only just settled into a wary peace with the fall of the Qunari invasion, and tension between the crown and the Templars is still fraught. Bringing in the blood mage who had murdered and mutilated multiple women culminating the the mother of the Champion now?

It would be a spark on dry tinder that would turn Kirkwall’s smoldering resentment into a conflagration. 

And so when Hawke turns with murder in their eyes she stands beside them. Her duty to this city is no less unwavering for it, nor her friendship with a family so familiar with loss. Hawke needs vengeance, and Kirkwall needs peace. This unjust and yet no less righteous execution will bring both.

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Hey Guys. Guess who ruined her car and is feeling like shit?

It’s me.