Merrill meets Sir Pounce-A-Lot 💖

How to Address Royals When Writing Fanfics

Alright, I’m going to address a pet peeve of mine: how to address medieval royalty in fanfiction. Now, I know Dragon Age plays fast and loose with it’s pseudo-medieval background, so in truth this may not apply, but this is a tic of mine borne from those hellish months that I spent pouring over 17th century English parliamentary records for my thesis. I don’t fucking recommend it.

Let’s start with Queen Anora and Prince Warden. Why is f!Cousland a queen but m!Cousland a prince consort? It is because Anora/Alistair is the one who actually holds the throne; the Couslands are consorts. Similar to how Obama is the president - the one actually ruling the country - but Michelle is the First Lady. She’s important but she has no right to the presidential powers. Just because you marry a king/queen, it does not give you automatic access to make decisions for the country. So, f!Cousland is a “queen consort” but Anora is a “queen regnant.” But the title of King is always higher than the title of Queen and since Anora is the ruler, that means her consort cannot have a title higher than hers so he becomes a “prince consort.” See: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

When addressing a King or a Queen, the general accepted styling is “Your Majesty”/”His Majesty”/”Her Majesty.” If you want to be extra formal, you can use “His/Her Most Gracious Majesty”

Prince Consorts and Heirs should be addressed as “Your Royal Highness”, “His/Her Royal Highness.”

Now, Sebastian Vael is different. Ferelden is a kingdom, but Starkhaven is a principality. Prince or Princess is the ruling rank. Prince Sebastian should be styled as “His Serene Highness.”

As Viscount, Varric would only be addressed as “The Right Honourable” in formal occasions. He would usually be styled as “Lord Varric.” Any children he might have would be addressed as “The Honorable ____.”

Empress Celene would be styled “Her Imperial Majesty.” Any children she might have, as her heirs, would be styled as “His/Her Imperial Highness.”

The Archon is a tricky one. It’s possible he would not have a formal style address like the ones above, but he might be addressed similar to a Roman emperor would have been with a simple “Hail Archon!”

Now for Banns/Arls/Teyrns. Banns and Arls seem to be equal to Barons and Earls, respectively. Both of these ranks have the same address, so it would be “The Right Honourable Bann Teagan” and “The Right Honourable Arl Eamon.” Teyrns = Dukes, so for them it would be “His Grace, the Teyrn of Highever” or just “Your Grace” when being a bit more informal.

Although “serah” and “ser” seem very similar, the games use them differently. “Ser” is a gender-neutral title for knights and templars, such as “Ser Thrask.” “Serah” seems to be a vague, gender-neutral form of address for a squire/yeoman/freeholder. It’s a polite why to address someone who looks like they might have a little bit of money at least. Their children should be addressed as “Miss” (for a girl) or “Master” (for a boy). Please note that “Master” or “Mstr.” is the correct form of address for a juvenile male. Even today, boys should not be addressed as “Mister.” “Mister” is for adult men.

This is a very good general guide, and my personal pet peeve is when people use Your Highness/Your Majesty interchangeably when they should be distinct, but Thedas does have some specific rules for honorifics that are distinct, and sourced in the text.

In Masked Empire, for example, Celene is consistently referred to as Your/Her Radiance instead of Your/Her Imperial Majesty - which is interesting considering the Divine is the one who sits on the Sunburst Throne, but the Divine gets the title Most Holy, so I guess it’s ok

Over in Ferelden, it is possible to have a king and queen be co-rulers (which seems to have been the case with Cailan and Anora), in which case it would be fine to call both parties “Your Majesty”. Teyrns aren’t dukes but princes (“teyrn” itself is a Welsh word that means “sovereign”) in the old sense of the title that means an autonomous ruler under the oversight of the monarch, as in the Prince of Wales or the Prince Bishop of Durham. In Ferelden, the form of address is Your/Their Lord(Lady)ship according to the wiki. “Your Grace” is reserved for the Grand Dukes of Orlais.

Also according to the wiki, the form of address for an arl, a bann, and a lord are the same, “My Lord”. It’s possible there was a distinction in the Old Tongue, but since Fereldans now speak exclusively Common thanks to the Orlesian invasion that nuance has been lost. Either way, it means that introducing an arl or bann would go something like “This is my lord Eamon, Arl of Redcliffe” or just “My lord Arl Eamon” in less formal circumstances. A lord would get a similar treatment, either “Lord [name] of [place]” or “[name], Lord of [place]” when being introduced. The children of teyrns, arls, and banns are automatically lords and ladies, as a Cousland can tell Ser Perth in Redcliffe when he asks how best to address you.

The difference between messere and serah is one of class but also place. Messere is a Marcher term, and from context it’s reserved for someone of genteel class without an official title, while serah is a more general polite form of address for someone who is lower class. Since Fereldan society is generally more equitable than other parts of southern Thedas, if you’re not someone with a title the default term of address is serah.

There’s no real evidence in the canon for how to address children, noble or otherwise, because there just aren’t that many child characters, but considering that in Ferelden at least there is a strong guild system, it’s possible that Master is a title within a hierarchy of craftspeople (see the levels of rune available in Origins), rather than one given to children.

emokid of the Wilds

Morrigan, the Witch of the Wilds

OGHREN KONDRAT • DRAGON AGE: AWAKENING

Where’s the essay op

For some he was a hard character to love, or even like.

For me I would die for this man. I absolutely adore every rough jagged drunken edge just like I love Morrigan's frigid, bitter, self preservation attempts to keep me away from her heart. These were such amazing distinct characters that my warden and myself would never be the same without 😤

The way I cried so absolutely devastatingly happy seeing this fucker again and the stop mid killing JUST TO WAVE made me so happy and are one of the moments that lives rent free in my heart.

DAOctober day 16, another favorite Inquisition companion

So I watched DA: Absolution today

the day i finally get an excuse to post all my da oc banters its over for u bitches

Seriously though Merrill is a literal blood mage who is called "bright" by a literal Elven God and who has a secret possibly evil magic mirror which she recreated from scratch AND shes involved in all Hawkes various shinanigans AND THEN she's just like... "I'm so boring compared to my friends :/ I'm the normal one" like girl WHAT

I'm foaming at the mouth - I can't sleep anymore. What in the actual fuck happened to Merrill in the events of Origins to give us Kirkwall Merrill?!

Did she get possessed? Did she touch the mirror after Tam and Dalish warden perished or poofed out of existence? Did the writers forget her character and decided to make her the quirky bottled up rage demon in bubbly personality wrap? Did they look at the characters and just throw a dart and see who should be batshit insane but sunflower baby at the same time?

Did she have a midlife crisis?

I cannot stand you I cannot live without you.

Fuck you. But lovingly and gently. But also jump off a fucking bridge. Into my awaiting embrace after pulling the parachute cord. You are a dick and have heavily influenced my personality and romance choices. I want stupid and/or cheese obsessed men and mean women, there is no in-between and you know what you have done. The sins you inflicted on my soul.

(You as in Dragon Age, just for clarification.)

Merrill can be such a little freak like she sniffs some templars blood and is like "no demon in there" in her cheery little voice and she watches her little shard of mirror like she's a cat catching the light and she puts marbles in Isabelas shoes for seemingly no reason and she walks barefoot through Kirkwall at night picking flowers from locked gardens and then she's just like 😊😊😊 before she plunges her staff into her chest and full on stabs herself 'cos magic. How am I supposed to not be in love with her? She's my freaky little blood mage and I WOULD die for her

Painted my first inquisitor Agis for Dragon Age Day!!

Had an urge to draw something quick after watching DA: Absolution (๑>ᴗ<๑)

Anybody who is complaining about how gay "Dragon Age: Absolution" is has clearly never played the games. Even if you play the main characters as straight, there's absolutely no way to avoid LGBT content.

Just to name a few examples:

And that's all from the top of my head. If you have more to add, then please do so.

Sketched two ideas for Dragon Age fanart…

Fenris (for if I can get my hands on gold leaf in time) or my Lavellan … and the gold foil just arrived, so I guess Fenris will be my holiday vacation project. Can’t wait to use acrylics again, it’s been weeks!

Warden: fuck I gotta save Ferelden

Inquisitor: fuck I gotta save the whole damn world

Hawke: fuck I gotta beat up some thugs so I can afford to pay my bar tab

Varric Tethras as a character is wild. He calls everyone by a nickname. He writes trashy romance novels. He’s a prolific liar. His family got them kicked out of the dwarf kingdom for rigging dwarven Wrestlemania matches. He has fingers in literally every crime ring in Kirkwall. He lives in a pub. He named his weapon after his absent girlfriend with whom he has a restraining order. He denies his involvement in keeping the wizard police away from his friend’s illegal magic Urgent Care. He’s the mom of the friend group. And he does this all while being four feet tall