J'avais des astres dans les yeux

The world. The lore and the politics and tensions drew me in so hard. I didn't even like fantasy or the medieval aesthetic before I got into Dragon Age.

The horror. There's so much fucked up stuff that I just love. Fucked up people, fucked up creatures, fucked up implications. What a playground.

The characters. Did not know you could romance people in this game. I was into Otome games, but they were so hard to get a hold of and here was one easily available (lol), needless to say I was stoked at the prospect. Beyond that, they're written so well. I loved that every Origins character had multiple facets to them that you had to pry into their little lives to discover. And then Dragon Age II just pulled me in forever.

Fenris. I love him. I love him. I love him.

Honestly, I just want more fucked up stuff about the Wardens. I was hoping the First Warden was actually a ghoul, but it's fine! I especially hope we get to pick Davrin's brain about the Wardens, he doesn't seem too enthusiastic about all their secretiveness. It'll be refreshing after Blackwall annoying the crap out of me in Inquisition.

I try not to have any high expectations as a rule.

I decided around the end of "Dragon Age Summer" to use one of my side character OCs as my first Rook. I was looking at all the details coming out to see if he was even a viable option to make in the game because of course he already has something of a backstory that grew when he ended up with his own spin-off story because I already liked him so much lol. It looks like I can work with what they're giving me with minimal need to head cannon/imagine different so that's great! Otherwise I would have abandoned this idea especially because:

I think it's a huge mistake to plan a character before even touching the character creator, but whoops. I haven't decided on his looks yet though. I do have a vague idea of hair/eye color, build, style from already having written for him, but I'm going to let the character creator help cement him rather than trying to create a specific look.

With using him as the PC for Veilguard I think he's become my specialist little boy of all. We'll find out if his story actually sticks once I finish the game with him. Otherwise it's back to non-PC status for him.

I've played Dragon Age II tons of times, but I only ever really clicked with two Hawkes. Pretty much the male and female default versions of mage Hawke. The one in my main world state is Aviel Hawke.

He's a straight to the point, pull no punches, slut. He was more reserved in Ferelden in all aspects, but Kirkwall is a city and Lothering was a town. There's tons more people to interact with, have sex with, and who get on his nerves that he can't quite get away from. Working with the Red Iron also made him more brazen about using his magic, despite the Kirkwall Gallows being the worst Circle on the face of Thedas.

Since he didn't always fight using his magic he's good at actually using his staff as a pole axe. Doing work on the farms in Lothering also gave him plenty of muscle and stamina. (I never dress him in mage robes other than the champion armor thus he has a ridiculous strength stat for a mage.)

Force Magic comes naturally to him as it did his father and sister. He's also efficient with Elemental Magic, but it's not as subtle for use in Kirkwall proper. Unfortunately, he's useless with Creation Magic, so he won't be healing anyone any time soon. (You can select two specializations in DA2, but I only ever choose Force Mage for him.)

Even though he's a curmudgeon he has a ridiculous sense of responsibility stemming from having to take care of his family after his father's death. As his family dwindles he becomes ever more concerned with the state of Kirkwall. it's his city, it's his home.

Fenris. No question. Hands down.

The first time I played I was flirting with everyone I met, and then I saw him. I immediately knew he was the one. (But also I still totally slept with Isabela. Who wouldn't, she's hot. Fenris gets with her too if you don't romance either of them.) And I'm pretty sure my first romance with him was a friendmance.

Obviously over the course of playing the game a zillion more times I ended up liking the Fenris rivalmance more than his friendmance.

It's because I really love Fenris when he's at his bitchiest.

Also Fenris. But I really like Carver and Isabela, and Merril too.

Ignoring Fenris. Carver is also really good because of his bitchiness. I love working on getting his rivalry into friendship, it adds a lot to his character when he lives past the deep roads.

Isabela is so fun. I only recently found out that she interacts with NPCs walking around the docks! It's a neat little thing.

Merrill is a dear. I love the dichotomy of her naivety and her truccing with demons. She obviously knows what she's doing as a mage, but she has no clue outside of that. She is one of the characters that I absolutely see no point in rivalling. I have done it in a playthrough to see it, but in my opinion she's in the right and there's no reason to treat her like a child as Marethari does.

The cave. No, not that cave, the other one. No, just kidding. It's Hightown. I love the squareness. The white, the red. The mansion area. The hallways, the floor. My other favorite places like Fenris' mansion, the Chantry, the Keep, and the Rose are there too. I love walking around there day or night. I also like the Storm Coast, I like being near the water and looking at it. It's so nice.

The end of Act II. Running through the city and Meredith finally making an appearance. And in such a badass way too. Then there's the Arishok fight at the end of it too which is challenging and fun.

Going into the Fade to help Feynriel is another quest I really like. Chasing that stupid ass book around the pillars and the fucking barrel puzzles, lmao so stupid. Of course I love when the companions turn on Hawke and you have to fight them. Fenris often 1HKOs me lmao. The best part though is actually the quests after the fade mission when the companions attempt to apologize for selling Hawke out for one corn chip.

Meredith. The Arishok.

It's unbelievably sexy to get the Arishok to respect you. And while Meridith will never respect you, I'll play her little lap dog, woof woof.

There are more interesting facets to them, but eh you get the gist of it.

Oh I have so many. They are mostly related to Fenris. The one I probably think about the most is A Bitter Pill; when Fenris kills Hadriana and the conversation in the immediate aftermath of that. I don't pick the flirt option here because mage Hawke has a much better dialogue option that is so fucking good. "Watch what you say about mages."

It's like the Hamlet nunnery scene to me idk lmao.

There's also the iconic "What has magic touched that it doesn't spoil?" line in this scene. Emery does such good voice acting in this scene too. I also really like it in French. Honestly, I can pick this scene apart more, but I'll move on.

The Enigma of Kirkwall is a good one of course. All the crazy Kirkwall blood magic, thin veil shit is super interesting. But there's a couple more innocuous ones I like.

I've had a few HoFs, which over the years I narrowed down into three world states, that over the years narrowed even further into my favorite single world state.

So, my main HoF is Lachlan Surana.

He's a silver-tongued devil who uses his charm and competence to manipulate people. It's ironic that his magical talents are best served as a healer and through other forms of Creation magic. He realizes this is where his power lies and learns the ways of the Spirit Healer. Being needed is more secure than being liked, after all.

Even though he's drawn to power he is adamant against the use of blood magic—to him it's a sign of weakness. And it's not as if he wasn't indoctrinated against in by the Chantry in the Circle he grew up in. However, he has a penchant for interacting with strange vials, first with the Arcane Warrior's phylactery then later gaining the Power of Blood (though he only uses this on Darkspawn and... other Wardens).

His perniciousness began to lessen only after 70% of the story. He was unconcerned with the plights of others and flippant about making choices that would affect them, until they snowballed into his biggest fuck up. There was no other choice besides the worst one because his own choices made the world a worse place. It was a moment of realization that he should consider his actions more seriously. But did it really make him a better person? Or did it just add to his arsenal of manipulation by making him realize that he can also make use of pieces he dislikes in his games of 4D chess?

When he learns that a Warden must die to defeat the Archdemon he realized that he would not let Alistair die for him nor did he desire to die. Morrigan presented him with the way out and he selfishly took it.

After the events of the Fifth Blight and Awakening he is ordered to make a statement at Weisshaupt. Though the Wardens there do not particularly care one way or another about him after settling the record they let him retain his status as the Warden-Commander of Ferelden. Of course the Ferelden born recruited into his command embrace him as their hero, but those transferred from Orlais are more wary of this newcomer.

Shortly after this he very nearly abandons his post anyway to pursue Morrigan and her child and later to retrieve his phylactery.

While Alistair is my Warden's cannon romance, I actually prefer Morrigan's romance in DA:O.

Alistair is sweet and all, and he has a super cute romance arc. But it's so much more fun to get someone prickly to like you. Seeing Morrigan let down her guard somewhat is exhilarating. I also love that she gives you a ring as a memento.

In Awakening when you're captured by the Architect and stripped of your belongings they took Morrigan's ring and my Warden was extremely pissed about this. It was the one thing I cared about retrieving (and worried IRL that it would be a victim the equipment bug! Luckily I only lost Sigrun's shoes forever.)

Morrigan also has the Witch Hunt DLC which makes a perfect book end to her romance!

Honestly, gonna throw somewhat of a curveball in here. Alistair or Morrigan is the obvious choice for me, but I also really really love Shale.

I played plenty of time without Shale and boy I was missing out. The first time I got her I absolutely loved everything about her and she immediately became a staple in my party. I sometimes even suffer through that abysmal puzzle to get her for my more good-hearted characters too.

I love that she's so pissed about birds, it's hilarious. However she also has her deep side to her like the other party members. They didn't skimp on her characterization just because she came in a DLC package.

Her personal quest is one of my favorite environments in the Deep Roads and I love the little revelation she has when we meet Caridin.

I love to take story relevant characters with me on quests. So one time I went into the Deep Roads with my Warden (mage), Shale (warrior), Oghren (warrior), and my LI Alistair (warrior). LMAO. It was really fun combat too actually. And I never had to go back up to Orzammar because I couldn't open many of the chests, lol.

I already mentioned that I love the look of the Deep Roads section where some of Shale's personal quest takes place, it's pretty.

I also really like the area right outside of Orzammar where part of Sten's quest takes place. It's just so bleak, lol.

Ooh, I also really like Kinloch Hold's repository. That Tevinter statue and the other artifacts down there are so cool. I don't even use that staff for long, but I whenever I play as Lachlan I make sure his coercion is already high so I can get away with stealing it, lol.

Soldier's Peak is really neat too. The snow, bleakness, spookiness, the magical barriers, and the purpleness of it all.

And speaking of spooky, the haunted house. Omg love it.

I could keep going! I don't have one specific favorite.

Honestly, it's the origins. They're the most unique and fun part of Origins. They were so good and we'll never have them back, but we can replay them over and over.

I'd say that the most boring origin is the Mage one. It's mostly running around the tower and of course, I still get lost in there to this day.... It's fine, but compared to the others it has the least tension and action.

Yet, this is the one I've played the most, as I've replayed Lachlan's story plenty of times. I'd say the most compelling thing about it (besides being the only way to play as a mage) is that it gives you an RP reason to not understand anything about the world, lol. I think it could have done a better job focusing on more characters in the tower and even your PCs relationship with Jowan.

The best origin. Oof, that I can't decide. I enjoy the way Dalish Elf opens up with that tense confrontation in the forest. And City Elf, do I even need to extoll its air of tension? And both of the Dwarven origins are incredibly fucked up. It immediately shows us the terrible class tensions in Orzammar. And the Human Noble origin takes a bit to pick up, but my the time Howe is raiding your castle you are fully invested in your family and the stakes.

They are all really well crafted and it's such a treat to be able to start RPing your character before the main story begins. Even though the origins don't change the character you make has plenty of ways to interact with the world and start cementing their unique personality.

This encompasses so many characters. I'll have to say Anora though.

She gets a lot of hate, I too once despised her. But after playing the game a few more times I realized that she's exactly the kind of character I like. Competent, clever, makes power plays. Her really pissing me off in my first playthrough began to actually make me smile the more I reflected on her character.

She fucking got me. It wasn't even the thing where she tells Ser Cauthrien (whomst is another NPC I really like) that you're kidnapping her. That didn't happen to me on my first playthrough (I straight up just fought Ser Cauthrian). It was the conversation you have with her in Eamon's Estate. She didn't like what I said, lol.

I foolishly did not think anything would come of this. I vividly remember standing in the middle of the Landsmeet and being fucking shook. (And then I got her back, by making my warden queen, because I'm petty.) The Landsmeet is such a good quest.

I wish we got more of her in Origins. There's that one cutscene where she asks her father if he murdered Cailan, and even though she's shrugged off you can see it in her. The wheels are turning. Then she's able to orchestrate her escape from Howe and show up to the Landsmeet flush with regal power and sway.

Only a real idiot would entertain the notion of divorcing this woman. I actually have yet to play the male Cousland route where you can marry her, but c'mon why wouldn't you. I always have her stay queen, whether or not I have Alistair marry her. She deserves that throne.

For cutscenes you just gotta love the opening with Duncan. It's visually interesting, the voice acting is great and the story it presents is interesting. Mages tried to usurp heaven and ended up bringing a horrible disease back to earth with them? Wow!

I also love the scene where the horde of Darkspawn descends on Ostagar. It still looks good after all these years!

My favorite dialogue is a lot simpler. It's when you find Howe's spy in the tavern outside Redcliffe and he claims that he has nothing to do with the reanimated corpses attacking the town. I love choosing "I do believe you (Kill him)". I think about it all the time. Sorry Berwick.

I suppose it's actually from a DLC, but I have to say it's The History if the Drydens. I love everything going on with Sophia Dryden. I love that King Arland was so scared by her presence. And I love that the Drydens who returned to Ferelden are proud of her. It's just, great. She was a real one.