#songofamazon

[the Felassan Files]

hello! ◕‿◕ thank you for the lovely and fun ask messages!!

lavendervoids asked: "i’ve been dying to know what ur reaction was to seeing felassan in the game was???? the moment i saw him i was yelling and hollering and my first thought was “omg what does tumblr user felassan think of this” LMAO and thank you for all the documenting you’ve been doing up until and past the release of the game, i ended up blocking every dragon age tag a couple months back to avoid any sort of spoilers but i still came to your blog everyday cause i knew you wouldn’t spoil me haha"

hhhh ( ´ ▽ ` ) tysm for thinking of me at that time!! and for the nice comment about this blog and visiting it. I'm really glad to know that my approach to spoiler tagging etc has been okay for you.

littlerune asked: "i don't even know you but you and dragon age felassan are so intrinsically linked in my brain that when he appeared in veilguard all i thought was "ohhhh i wonder how tumblr user felassan feels about this"

hhhh :D 🥺 thankyou so much for thinking of me!! ♡ some say that his ghost operates this tumblr blog, or that he lives still

songofamazon asked: "I'm still on my first play of the game, but whenever I got to the memories in the Crossroads, I thought to myself, "I hope Tumblr Felassan is having a great time. Did you?"

I had a great time playing the game and when playing the Crossroads memories sections, I loved them a lot, they were very cool and a highlight of the game. thankyou sm and for thinking of me, and I hope that you did too!!

phantabula-interactive asked: "im so glad you're enjoying the game!! I had to ask; how did you feel about seeing Felassan in game?? I was so excited to see the notes from him, I wasn't expecting a boss fight MUCH LESS. FULL CAMEO!!! They made him a lot prettier than I was expecting too (/pos)"

thankyou!! I hope that you've been enjoying it too!

so: I was sooo excited and shook to see Felassan in the game!!! I was like

(I yelped/hooted out loud like a clown) and then

and then it was suddenly like too much (pos) and my soul left my body and i astral projected into space/paradise/the Astral Plane/the Void or something etc

and then it took me some time to process or gather my thoughts about it.

obviously I was super hoping that we would see him in the game. I was sure that there would at least be some references to him in codexes/notes etc or allusions made in passing dialogue like Cole and Solas' lines about him in Trespasser. then when the marketing mentioned that we would see flashbacks from Solas' past in the Crossroads, I was like aaa omg, wouldn't that be the perfect time to actually show Felassan??, as a Fade memory or flashback or spirit echo or something. so then I was hoping like 🕯️🕯️🕯️ and yea. but even so, still when I saw him in game for the first time it was still a huge shocked Pikachu moment for me.

I was already feeling psyched from the first Felassan codex/note that I found, then I couldn't believe (pos) just how many codexes/notes scattered around written by him that there was?? I was already feeling spoiled (not spoiled by spoilers but like spoiled from eating good) from that (a bunch of codexes/notes might not seem like a lot but when your fav is a side character that has only appeared in one [1] tie-in novel..) and then he goes and actually APPEARS, AAAA. I feel like I ate so good. with the Betrayal fight and the rune at the end as well, it felt like he was threaded throughout the game and was really haunting the narrative. some assorted thoughts:

first of all everything about his DA:TV appearances/DA:TV references continues to underscore that he is the greatest of all time

it also continues to underscore the pain of his death/story and of his friendship with Solas

may I please go and start a new life living in Solas' memories of Felassan on repeat. i simply do not care that my body would waste away in the waking world from lack of sustenance

in the endgame I was trying to concentrate and punch Elgar'nan in the face and save the world but I like couldn't see straight through the tears after having been given Felassan's Magical Boyfriend Super Rune (morrigan pls.. what a way to twist the KNIFE at an extremely critical moment for thedas hhhh..)

expansion pack where we relive Solas' memories of him and Felassan dating (he didn't deserve Felassan tho fr. but then, does anyone..?)

I know that Felassan would treat Lavellan sooooo right. so well. so respectfully. felassan would pull their chair out for them at restaurants and open car doors and whatever

Betrayal of Felassan refers to Solas' betrayal of Felassan, not Felassan's betrayal of Solas

also i love how they made him DEVASTATINGLY handsome?? in the game (they didnt need to go that hard), but also how, at the same time - even before the TME Deluxe edition illustrations, we all just inherently knew deep in our bones that he was, you could simply just tell from his energy and vibes and dialogue even in only the written word. cool rolls off this guy in waves, and always has done

did his model have smoky winged eye makeup? love that. love that for him

I liked his sense of style. the hair his model has happened to be one of the ones I was debating using for my Rook. it's one of my fav ones from the CC

I appreciated the attention they paid to detail when making his model. Mythal vallaslin, violet/purple eyes, an undercut - as he was previously described or shown in TME, dev social media comments and the TME deluxe illustrations

I liked the actor they chose for him, his voice was cool

I felt like his codexes and notes that he wrote captured his voice and his character. you can see the depth of his loyalty and devotion to his friend, his concerns, and he retains his 'voice' in terms of some snark, wit etc

it's fun thinking about whether Felassan originally manifested from the Fade (and if so, what was he a spirit of) or whether he was born the usual way of other elves. (it could be either one)

Betrayal of Felassan as a manifested embodied regret and its lines like "his back, turned".. very raw. that fight was hard enough mechanically for me as it was, then the lines were like being hamstrung LOL. how could they??? (pos/lh)

I always thought that, a long time ago, Solas was essentially the player character in a different game, the main character of another story. the leader of his own group of companions and friends on their own quest (to stop the Evanuris), and that Felassan was one of those companions. Alistair to his Hero of Ferelden if you will. in DA:TV we learn that not only was he one of his companions, he was basically the second-in-command of his rebellion, a General, his closest friend aside from Mythal and his right-hand man.

he was so cool back in his heyday

pain. paaaaain. but like in a good way (I unironically love to be hurt by stories pls continue 💀...)

there are a few further posts containing more bits of my reaction and thoughts scattered through my Felassan tag. ^^

There were also a few other asks about this in my inbox, but Tumblr appears to have eaten them?? :< so if you've asked me about Felassan and my reaction since launch but the message isn't in this post, thankyou sm and I'm very sorry. 😔 pls feel free to re-send it. :)

DeathOfClanLavellan Lucanis/Rook boat scenes Vivienne_preWEWH

I'd love to know a little bit about one or all of them!

(And thanks for the tag to pass it along to me. It looks like I have some WIPs to herd!)

thank you!!

DeathOfClanLavellan: this was another k!meme prompt I never finished--but basically looking for more of a reaction to the fact that your entire clan can get wiped out and there's pretty much no in-game comment on it. At the time I was debating if I wanted my canon Inquisitor's clan to survive or not (they did on my first run but i do love an angst moment), and while I ultimately decided not to go that route, I wrote just a little bit of thoughts on what it might look like.

She wasn’t supposed to find out, not like this. Standing at the stairwell, listening for echoed snatches of conversation, she’d only supposed she’d pick up trivial court rumors or gossip. She hadn’t realized it was a pair of Leliana’s agents, hovering at the edges of the ball in case they were needed.             “…the rebellion at Wycome,” one had said to the other. “So many died. Did any of the elves make it out?”             “Some managed to flee the Alienage before it fell,” the other replied. “It was the Dalish who were blamed. They didn’t find any, afterwards. Poor fools.”             They say more, after that, but none of the words matter. Lavellan stands frozen, rooted to the fancy plush carpet as the words echo around and around the inside of her head. It cannot be possible; cannot be true.

Lucanis/Rook boat scenes: A lot of my unpublished writing is just unconnected scenes/interactions between my protagonists and other characters so I can solidify my sense of their dynamic, and this is basically that for Juniper Aldwir & Lucanis. Scenes sort of centered on time spent in the Lighthouse/Crossroads, aka Juniper getting the Caretaker to ferry her around to try to make some sense of what the Crossroads actually are.

I actually did throw one two and three of these scenes on tumblr at the time since I was traveling around then/didn't have my whole disaster file system on hand, though I think there's also sections I never posted. The whole thing is kind of meandering/rough/doesn't have a clear goal, because it's just some exploration!

Vivienne_preWEWH: this one is a just a little bonding moment between my Jacinth Lavellan and Vivienne before The Winter Palace. Lavellan goes to her for extra etiquette lessons/advice for navigating the Game. I shared a snippet once before about this scene also being when my Inquisitor's eyebrows get a makeover haha.

“Vivienne, do you have a moment?” Lavellan asks, pausing a few feet from the sette the older mage reclines on. She does not look up from the book in her hand as she replies. “Of course, darling.” “We’re going to the Winter Place in two weeks, for the Masquerade.” “I am well aware.” “Well, Josephine has been giving me waltz lessons, to prepare. She says I will be expected to dance, at least a few times.” A heartbeat of silence. “She says I’ve learned it very well.” “And why exactly are you here now then, Inquisitor?” Vivienne finally closes her book, and sweeps her gaze up and down Lavellan. “Because I think if you were the one teaching me to waltz, you’d tell me I’m awful, and how to do it better.” Vivienne does not laugh at that, not the way another would, but she does smile and let out a brief hum of amusement that is essentially the same thing, Lavellan hopes.

Unfortunatelyyyyyy the next sections of this were one of the casualties of my hard drive failure in May, and I never got around to rewriting them 😔

Hi, songofamazon! Thanks for asking!

Multiple places! For sure! But I think like… why is best conveyed in very specific memories/emotions I have from them? I’ll share! Might be a little long!

- In Alaska, we flew to a glacier and walked on it; in the crevasses of the ice, streams ran, like veins. The water in them was the sharpest, coldest blue I have ever seen.

- In Greece, in Nafplion, when the sun was setting, I stood on the cliffs above the city, and the groves of olive trees converged with the sea, and melted into them, as though the land and water were one.

- In Italy, in Assisi, the Church of St. Francis’ bells rang through silent, winding streets. We climbed up to the building— though there are a thousand churches in Italy more grand, this one felt as though love was built into every inch. As we excited, a man crawled across the stone courtyard, on hands and knees, in supplication.

The interesting thing about 帰る is that it specifically refers to returning *home* while もどる can be used more generally. Even though I had lived in Japan before, when I moved back I could only say 日本にもどりました。not 帰りました。On the other hand, going back to the US in general, I can use 帰る, even if I am not going back to my hometown, because it refers to my home country. It makes things interesting for foreign residents in Japan; the language doesn't consider this our "home."

kaniuszka said: "I played the demo on Friday! It was the beginning of Davrin's recruitment mission, just about 15-20 minuts of it. You could pick from one of the 3 pre-set Rooks that we saw in other trailers. The combat is so much fun guys"

songofamazon said: "I just got to play this in Tokyo today, but I can't promise that's the final loading screen. The demo was Davrin's recruitment quest, and the menu options were the class you wanted to play, plus Settings. It took you to a roughly 20-min demo starting with Davrin's intro conversation. That said it was a very pretty loading screen, in whatever language."

And for all your tidbits. Those are always my breakfast reading in the morning here in Japan. 🐺💜

hello! ◕‿◕ no problem, I'm happy they were helpful!! and thanku so much for the nice message, that is a lovely thought 💜

Thank you for the ask! ^_^

Solavellan is the ship that really got me into writing fanfiction. Before that, I wrote only original fiction, but when I became a mom, I suddenly had less time for myself, and I needed a way to write that plugged me into some sort of community, and which allowed me to like, instantly connect with others. I played Inquisition when my first kid was a baby, and I got completely lost in the epic scope of Solavellan, and all of its huge thematic potential, how it's like writing mythology, but from the ground floor. I love that sort of thing, and Solas provided so much potential for worldbuilding, complex characterization, and legendary romance. I love it!!

I did something like this for my Seasons fanfic a while back too, just to give teen me some closure. <3