Happy Friday! For DADWC, How About "Sing For Me?" From The Dragon Age Inspired Prompts For Warden/Leliana?

my boyfriend (he’s a violent killer)

happy father's day to cyrion tabris and cyrion tabris only

Day 1: Vhenadahl

Written for @cityelfweek day 1! One of my favourite parts of DA lore is how many of our Elvhen companions cannot be neatly categorised into one of two boxes human society designates for them. I wanted to start the week writing about that overlap with Merrill and the city elves she lives among for, at this point, most of her adult life.

“Ir abelas,” Merrill mutters as she makes the first cut. The sapling branch surrenders easilyl to her shears, falling to the earth with little more hurry than a feather from a bird’s wing. She pats the trunk fondly. “I promise we’re almost through.”

When the wind stirs, it’s almost like it’s answering. She smiles, satisfied, and moves onto the next branch. Though she had promised to be done soon, she does not rush the task before her. From the rare traveller that passes through, she has come to learn the vhenadahl is the beating heart of the Alienage, and unique as the community it represents. Some exist only as stumps, sitting places for elves to gather and chatter, others grow in impossible ways, defying the desert sun to offer shade to the People on hopelessly hot days. As she understands it, the one in Hossburg is just a cutting, the old tree felled in a mighty storm.

Merrill, for her part, has become quite proud of Kirkwall’s. Mighty it grows, and tall. The paint they had decorated it with on Summerday has begun to fade in the fierce sunshine of August, pigment clinging brightest where the boughs gather the darkest shadow. Soon, the elven new year will be upon them, and they will hang ribbons in her branches and paint patterns in her bark once again.

She reaches for the next branch, snipping deftly. The slice of the blades are so sharp, she doesn’t hear the quiet gasp behind her.

“Why are you hurting the tree, hahren?” A small voice asks. Merrill pauses her pruning to look down, met by the sweet face of Libi, Elara’s daughter. Her wild blonde hair is freshly tamed and combed into two thick plaits. She’d broken from a pack of nearby children to accost Merrill with her question, dolly held limply by her side.

“Oh.” Merrill’s teeth drive into her lower lip, impressing a faint line. The Alienage’s children don’t often address her, content to let her be an oddity. The strange, Dalish lady they could imagine all sorts of things about, as children are like to do with things they do not understand. It doesn’t trouble her, she had been no less strange to her clan, and no better with their children. “I’m not hurting it, da’len. I’m helping.”

She lifts her hand, rubbing the trunk of the tree like she strokes the side of some great, friendly beast. “You prune the branches to help it grow. Think of it like… if you had an arm-” Merrill sticks her thumb against her forehead, fingers splaying out like leaves on a branch- “growing out of your forehead! Or… a leg in your ear.” She tilts her head, like the imaginary appendage weighs it to one side.

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Libi remarks, perhaps considering the extra toys she could tote around with her if she had an extra arm.

Merrill laughs. “You might be alright,” she says, “but trees will tip over.”

Libi nods with a stoic understanding. She steps over to the pile of sticks Merrill has gathered through her morning’s work. “What will these be for?”

The shoots are still green, flush with water, and will make for poor kindling. Among the Dalish, it had made them the ideal spit to roast their dinners on, but there is no shortage to their use. “They may dry clean laundry, or make for a little slingshot.” She strays in her task to pluck one that diverges like a fork in a river, separate ends just far apart enough to tie something between them. “Maybe a little loom?”

“A sword,” Libbi declares, leaving no room for argument. With her free hand, she reaches out, but thinks twice before snatching it. Merrill can almost hear mamae’s voice reprimanding her for her lack of manners. “May I have one?”

“Uh, of course! But choose wisely, da’len.”

Libi takes her words to heart, deliberating until she finds the narrowest stick in the pile. She brandishes it like a rapier, then, apparently satisfied with her decisions, bounds back to her friends as though no time has passed. A little ‘thank you’ follows her retreat, manners not entirely abandoned now that she had what she came for.

Merrill smiles, taking heart in the fact that they had parted as friends. The parents had taken to calling her hahren for her knowledge, but without children to teach, it often felt an empty title. It’s only when she hears the whip of a twig against bare flesh that she realises her mistake. That afternoon, the shade of the vhenadahl nurses many a skinned knee as a little war plays out beneath its boughs.

City Elf Appreciation Week

~ 5th of August - 11th of August ~

Here are some optional prompts for next week! Please feel free to do whatever you like with them. Remember to tag @cityelfweek or use the tag #cityelfweek24!

Day 1 - Vhenadahl - A pillar of many alienage communities. Firewood in others.

Day 2 - Folklore - Show the folklore that city elves have created over time. Superstitions, stories, heroes, villains... anything!

Day 3 - Community - Close-knit family, or claustrophobic little box?

Day 4 - Customs and Tradition - Andrastian? Dalish? Somewhere in between, or something all new?

Day 5 - Alienage - The only home many city elves ever know.

Day 6 - OC - A day to celebrate original city elf characters!

Day 7 - Free Day - All things city elf!

[original post][divider credit]

Redcliffe Conversations

Lysas

The Hinterlands Masterpost Related Quest: In Hushed Whispers

The PC approaches the elf outside of the Gull and Lantern

Lysas: You’re from the Inquisition. I didn’t think you’d still be here. Were you really looking to ally with us?

Dialogue options:

General: Yes. Mages should be free. [1] - Sera disapproves - Cassandra slightly disapproves - Vivienne slightly disapproves

General: You sound doubtful. [2]

General: No. Mages should be contained. [3] + Sera slightly approves + Cassandra slightly approves + Vivienne approves

1 - General: Yes. Mages should be free. PC: I want this war to end without sending you back to the circle. Lysas: There has to be a way, right? We’re not what they think: all blood mages and abominations. We just want to be normal. Have families. Use our magic to… help grow crops or something. We never wanted war. [4]

2 - General: You sound doubtful. PC: Is that so hard to believe? Lysas: Everyone blames us. The templars left the Chantry, too. That’s worse, isn’t it? They took an oath. Yes everyone calls it the “mage rebellion.” We’re the ones they hate. [4]

3 - General: No. Mages should be contained. PC: This rebellion is doomed. I offered your leaders a way to end it peacefully. Lysas: There was no other way! Do you think any of us wanted this? On the run, everyone hating us… What choice did we have? Stay and be slaves? [4]

4 - Scene continues:

Vivienne: There are better ways than war to affect change.

Solas: Sometimes to achieve the world one desires, one must take regrettable measures.

Lysas: I… I hope you can do something. Tying ourselves to Tevinter…? That can’t be the right way to end this.

5 - Dialogue options:

Investigate: Tell me about yourself. [6]

Investigate: You don’t like Tevinter? [7]

Investigate: When did the magister come? [8]

General: Be careful. [9]

6 - Investigate: Tell me about yourself. PC: You seem young to be part of this. Lysas: I’m Lysas. I came into my magic when I was nine years old. Templars came into the alienage and took me to the Circle. They didn’t even let me say goodbye. It’s not right. I studied hard, I passed my Harrowing, I sing the chant. But I’ll be locked up the rest of my life. [Back to 5]

7 - Investigate: You don’t like Tevinter? PC: You don’t approve of the Grand Enchanter’s decision? Lysas: I was there when we voted to leave the Circle. She really seemed to care what we wanted. She was ready to rebel, but she wasn’t going to unless it was the will of all mages. It’s hard to believe she’d go behind our backs and sell us to the magisters. [Back to 5]

8 - Investigate: When did the magister come? PC: How long has the magister been here? Lysas: A day or two after… after the Conclave, he arrived. Come to save us from the wrath of the templars, he said. But this doesn’t feel like safety. [Back to 5]

9 - General: Be careful. PC: Take care of yourself. There’s something strange going on. Lysas: I never thought the Grand Enchanter would swear to a magister.

thinking about surana. her poorly contained rage

City Elf Appreciation Week - Last Day!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated this week! Today is a free day - anything that's focused on city elves is welcome, new and old! Please remember to tag @cityelfweek or use the tag #cityelfweek24 so your works can be reblogged!

City Elf Appreciation Week

~ 5th of August - 11th of August ~

Here are some optional prompts for next week! Please feel free to do whatever you like with them. Remember to tag @cityelfweek or use the tag #cityelfweek24!

Day 1 - Vhenadahl - A pillar of many alienage communities. Firewood in others.

Day 2 - Folklore - Show the folklore that city elves have created over time. Superstitions, stories, heroes, villains... anything!

Day 3 - Community - Close-knit family, or claustrophobic little box?

Day 4 - Customs and Tradition - Andrastian? Dalish? Somewhere in between, or something all new?

Day 5 - Alienage - The only home many city elves ever know.

Day 6 - OC - A day to celebrate original city elf characters!

Day 7 - Free Day - All things city elf!

[original post][divider credit]

“In Hushed Whispers” (aka the quest who broke my heart twice - once with Sera and Bull and then with Cass and Varric)