Tag Archives: Morrigan

My Dark Haired Fereldan Beauty: Orzammar

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Now this chapter has some basis in gameplay… when Zevran said that stuff I got mad at him irl. XD I know this chapter is the longest yet (hey it’s the longest part of the game, I never like how much time it takes), and I’ve been losing momentum on this story… but I will persevere! I really need to get through my project list, omg. It’s just ridiculous. -_- This one’s at 100,000 words and I still have 7 more chapters to write. : P I’m thinking of really skimming through Awakening… I should play through it again first, though. : )

Next chapter should be a bit shorter, an interlude before tackling Haven’s massive dramafeelz. Also a time to slow down a touch and catch up with a few of these people.

This is also the first chapter to officially use an SnK track as inspiration. It’s for when they’re exploring the Deep Roads… and then the second half, when the music is more ominous, is the part with Hespith and the ogres and all that.

AND IN OTHER MUSICAL NEWS, ZEVRAN DID GANK THE KENSHIN MOVIE SONG FOR HIS PERSONAL USE. What a selfish brat.
Zev: deal with it lady : D

I’m also investigating One OK Rock as listening outside of Kenshinland, as I’ve listened to all my current Japanese music dozens of times and I want something new. It’s not like there’s any shortage of it. Oh, and I started watching a bunch of anime… I definitely recommend Classroom Crisis for a techno-highschool drama with cuuuute people. : D

A better synopsis of Classroom Crisis: A power struggle between the president of Mars-based Kirishina Corp, Kiryu Kazuhisa, and his genius younger brother, Kiryu Nagisa. A brilliant but hapless engineering teacher, Sera Kaito, and his ten doctoral-level high-school students are caught in the middle, struggling to keep their division, A-TEC, alive so they can keep building cool rocket space race ships.

EDIT: I FORGOT THE DOG

 

Previous chapter: The Brecilian Forest, next chapter: Soldier’s Peak

 

Orzammar

Elizabeth went to Varathorn the next morning, and the craftsmaster smiled upon seeing her. “Andaran atish’an, Warden Elizabeth. I have completed your armour.”

Elizabeth smiled too, in relief. “I am glad. My own is not fit to wear anymore. It served me well enough in battle against men and darkspawn, but against trees and werewolves… less so.”

“The ironbark mail will protect you from all of the above,” Varathorn said, and drew out a suit of armour from a storage chest beside him. “It will even withstand fire, to a degree, though I don’t recommend standing in a mage’s fireball anyway.” Continue reading →

My Dark Haired Fereldan Beauty: The Brecilian Forest

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Oh look, another stupidly long chapter. Man, that took a while. I forgot I put the “you should not” bit in this chapter. But anyway. Don’t pick that in the game if you want sekushii taimu.

I have also somehow managed to turn Zevran momentarily into an awkward dork and I can’t help loving it.

The inspiration song for this chapter is this song from the first live-action Kenshin movie. It doesn’t really have that much to do lyrically with what’s going on in the chapter (Zevran isn’t THAT attached to Liz yet, although I guess one can make a connection between Liz and her family…) but it’s very exciting and passionate. : D

Apologies to my super-DA-elf-nerd friend; this is probably not a very satisfying chapter for him what with inaccuracies and artistic liberties and glossing over pretty much everything that he would find interesting. Sorry Miles!

I’ve eliminated the Honnleath chapter; everything important that happens there I can cover in about two paragraphs so it isn’t really worth giving it a whole chapter to itself.

P.S. Cowboy Bebop is fabulous. <3 BUT THE ENDING *THROWS THINGS*

 

Previous chapter: Ostagar; next chapter: Orzammar

 

The Brecilian Forest

 

“I killed about eleven of her guards personally before I was knocked out a window. I landed in the river and nearly drowned, but then I was fished out by some urchins – who robbed me blind, right down to my boots. And that was my part in history.”

“I will say it again,” Elizabeth said. “The Maker clearly does not want you home yet.”

Zevran smirked wickedly. “And I thank Him for it every chance I get. For instance, how should I have expected to be defeated by a beautiful Grey Warden, one who then spares my life?”

“You… you keep calling me beautiful,” she objected.

“I say you are beautiful because it is true,” he said, as if any fool should have realized that. “Should I not?” Continue reading →

My Dark Haired Fereldan Beauty: Ostagar

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Okay so it’s actually Camp plus Redcliffe2 PLUS Ostagar2 mashed together, but otherwise it would really be short. : P It was surprisingly difficult to actually write some of these parts; they just don’t need overly long indulgence. Next chapter should be long juicy though.

AND FINALLY THE MALE LEAD OF OUR STORY DEIGNS TO SHOW UP *sets off fireworks* IT’S ONLY BEEN SIX CHAPTERS

I am just stupidly happy he’s finally here though. I can hardly stop smiling about it. XD I’ll try not to let the story devolve into “Zevran Zevran zevran ZEVRAN zevranzevranzevran OMG ZEVRAN” but it might be tricky. Liz is oddly tsundere, isn’t she? More than I expected. I guess because she hasn’t realised she’s attracted to this guy yet. Also don’t ever pick the “You should not” option in-game when he flirts with you if you want him to keep flirting with you, because Zevran will take you completely seriously and abide by your wishes. The game can’t tell your intentions with the roleplaying, and so that option ENDS all possibility of romance. I’m pretty sure of it. I had to restart my game when I found that out, because I am stubborn. But I can put it in here because it’s my story now. :3

FYI, it takes about 6 hours for a human body to burn. I looked it up on Wikipedia. : P

I revamped the chapter divisions slightly so my estimation is down to 16 chapters. Which means I’m over 1/3 done instead of over 1/4 done. Nice, eh? We’ll see how I feel about that in a couple weeks.

Previous chapter: The Circle Tower; next chapter: The Brecilian Forest

 

Ostagar

The small group marched wearily but steadily southwest along the road to Redcliffe. They’d eaten, and it was growing dark, but they wanted to go on a bit farther before stopping for the night. It was still late autumn.

And that was well not only for them, but for others they met on the road, Elizabeth thought, as a frantic-looking woman burst into view, screaming something about bandits.

“Help! Help me!” she cried, running up to them before coming to a halt and bending over to lean on her knees and pant. “You look… like a reputable lot.”

“We do?” Morrigan said, amused. Continue reading →

My Dark Haired Fereldan Beauty: The Circle Tower

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WHY DID THIS CHAPTER END UP BEING 22 PAGES I DIDN’T INTEND THAT

Warning: this chapter contains some NSFW-type touching. Clothes remain on but there is still touching.

It seems I’m sort of out of the rut I got into with the last chapter, which is great, because you’re still going to have to wait for the next chapter for Our Romantic Hero. Except that the first half of this chapter went really fast, and then the second half was a slog and seriously I don’t know how it ended up being so long, it was just supposed to be a “and this happened next” chapter. Ugh. Also no Cullen (I haven’t played the mage origin yet) because he doesn’t register on my consciousness as significant. I know he’s a party member in DAI. That doesn’t make an appearance here terribly significant, especially since I’m not planning to do a DAI fic. I’m not even going to do a DA2 fic. If it has a dialogue wheel? Forget it. Characters who use a dialogue wheel aren’t *my* characters. That doesn’t mean they’re not great fun to play (Roy Hawke! Roy Hawke! Roy Hawke!) but it’s less interesting to write about them.

I’ve received a couple comments how how much Liz looks like me. I have to say, it’s kind of true, now that I think about it.. She is a much more attractive version of me with blue-grey eyes, shaped eyebrows, a smaller nose, and a face more heart-shaped than round. Also, because I draw on personal experiences to give her more realistic mannerisms in some ways, she acts a lot like an idealized version of me as well. : P I guess it’s true what they say, artists can only recreate themselves…

I’d like to finish this story before September. Probably won’t happen but I’ll at least get a good chunk of it done. When I am done, I’ll be able to cross a big project off my list! …And then I can write the Noir version. : P Which will hopefully be shorter, but knowing me, it won’t be… This one’s already over 58,000 words and I’m only a quarter of the way through.

Some music I found through a Youtube video that was of assistance in writing (the music, not the video… the video was of assistance in procrastinating : P ). And some other music. And some other other music. Any music to do with dead people was used with the desire demon/Templar fight. Also damn the Uldred fight took me an hour to write.

Previous chapter: Redcliffe; next chapter: Ostagar

 

The Circle Tower

It took them two days travel to make it to the Circle Tower from Redcliffe. They were slowed by Alistair’s leg; less so by Sten’s arm, but still Leliana fussed over it – it was a deep wound, and while Bann Teagan gave them good poultices, there was no healing magic to be found and so the giant had to bear with it. He did so in silence.

Elizabeth led them on as fast as she dared, however. She was afraid of what might happen at Redcliffe in their absence and her stomach was constantly nervous about it. It seemed forever before the impossibly tall spire of Kinloch Hold – also known as the Circle Tower – rose over the hills before them, on the morning of the second day. Continue reading →

My Dark Haired Fereldan Beauty: Redcliffe

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I’ve had this ridiculously long chapter 95% complete for months… and then today I was like “it’s 3am, I can’t sleep, I haven’t done hardly anything useful today… FINISH IT”. So I did. Now I can do the Circle Tower chapter, which has some interesting bits that I’m looking forward to! In fact, despite the length of this chapter, it’s mostly exposition and other stuff that I can’t skip but am not quite as interested in. But next chapter… I know everyone hates the Fade portion of the game, but I think it’s gonna be pretty great this time.

Stuff has happened, including the end of the school year (and finally some time to relax, in fact so much time that I get afflicted with ennui and then days like today end up happening : P ), the national organist convention (still need to do a write-up over on my professional(…ish) blog), and a visit to BC (didn’t want to leave, it’s so much more humid over here : P ). I’ve been playing SWTOR steadily, and finished watching Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig, and I’m hoping to get back into the art/writing side of things over the next month or so. Hopefully I can finish this particular story by the end of the summer perhaps? *fingers crossed*

I promised to tell you how Zevran did some impossible things, so let’s see if I can get those thoughts back in order after 4 months and at 4am. Hmmm… How did Zevran 1) learn about Howe’s Grey Warden assassination job in time to 2) volunteer for it back in Antiva, and then 3) sail over to Ferelden, where he 4) met with Howe and Loghain before 5) figuring out exactly where the Warden was to set an ambush?? Now, in some tellings of the tale, this could work – for instance, if you go to visit the dwarves first. But in this telling, which is the most logical telling (imo), that just plain requires game-breaking logic. So when we meet Zevran in this story, his recounting of what events brought him to Liz’s side will be slightly different.

Another thing that is a little bit odd is the secret passage into Redcliffe Castle… The windmill is on a cliff, overlooking the village, so the passage goes… down the cliff, under the village, under the lake, and then up into the castle… That’s REALLY impressive medieval engineering. : D

EDIT: added some Sten lines that were too good to pass up.

Previous chapter: Lothering, next chapter: The Circle Tower

 

Redcliffe

 

Leliana saw them first. “Two dwarves against… I count ten darkspawn!”

“Let’s even those odds,” Alistair growled.

Elizabeth was out in front, charging to the rescue as fast as she could. Huan was already there, getting between one dwarf and his darkspawn attackers, barking furiously. The dwarves were backed against their cart, and their ox was lowing unhappily. She knocked a darkspawn to the ground with her shield and blocked the attack of another with her sword.

Sten had charged into battle as well, despite only having his armour, but he had seen there were weapons on the cart, and, seizing a two-handed maul, swung a powerful blow towards their enemies.

Elizabeth felt anger fill her again. It was easy to hate the darkspawn, easy to strike more strongly against them. She did not forget her training, which stood her in good stead against their brutal assailants, but as she killed one she felt a sense of satisfaction that she had never felt fighting against anything else. Continue reading →

My Dark Haired Fereldan Beauty: Lothering

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For some reason I kept listening to Gaur Plains while writing this one… not because it fits, but because I felt like it : P

We have two new party members, and no one’s really happy about it, but hey, when is this group happy about anything, am I right?

I adjusted a bunch of scenes to suit my own purposes. I’ve been going over logistics pretty carefully, and there’s a bunch of things that don’t make sense. But the most egregious of these is in the next two chapters, in which someone says that Redcliffe is only a day’s journey away from the Circle Tower. *coughs* Elsewhere, they say that Orzammar is a two-week journey from the Circle Tower, even though Orzammar doesn’t look THAT far away from the Circle Tower. In fact, if you compare the map from the novel The Stolen Throne, Orzammar is CLOSER than Redcliffe! I am so confused. (also on the official game map, Redcliffe is in a completely different spot, but there’s no ‘location’ dot there… however, there is one in the location that Redcliffe is marked at in the novel map. : P )

Next chapter, I will rant about how it is impossible for Zevran to have done what he said he did prior to meeting the Grey Warden(s). But I won’t tell you what I did to fix it. Zevran will tell you that himself. Eventually.

Previous chapter: Ostagar, next chapter: Redcliffe

 

Lothering

 

Elizabeth sniffed and frowned before she had even opened her eyes. There was the scent of woodsmoke in her nostrils, and food, and wood, and greenery.

“M-mother…” she began. “Nan…?”

Her eyes popped open. She had the distinct memory of seeing arrows in her arm and her gut, but neither of those places hurt. Had it all been a dream?

Weakly, she stirred, dragging her left arm from under the covers to inspect it. There was a bandage, but it was a remarkably small one, and there was nothing bleeding through. She felt her stomach, where she encountered the same – and then she gave a little stifled shriek of outrage as she realized that she was in her underthings. Continue reading →

My Dark Haired Fereldan Beauty: Ostagar

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Hmm… chapter 2. Liz is not happy about any of the things, and there’s nothing she can do about it. Oh well, it looks like everyone’s going to die. That was a short story, wasn’t it? Thanks for reading!

…Just kidding, we got lots more to go. : P

I’ll probably be tweaking this several times over the next week. Little thing, just details to make things better, more immersive maybe. Not totally happy with the boss fight, either.

This was an incredibly long chapter, maybe the longest single chapter I’ve ever written, because of my gimmick to have each location be a different chapter, so… hope you’re comfortable before you start reading. : P MAJOR spoilers, obviously. (the location/chapter thing is maybe not such a good idea for pacing, but whatever, it’s a thing I’m trying : P It’ll just mean some days you get multiple supershort chapters! Maybe.)

Previous chapter: Highever, next chapter: Lothering

 

Ostagar

 

It had been a week since Elizabeth and Duncan had left Highever, and great stone towers were rising into her view over vast hilly expanses of tall black pines. She could see the smoke of controlled fires, and distantly could hear the voices of men and even dogs. Continue reading →