• Zevran: I am hardly the person to lecture on the worthier points of human nature, but surely this is a fine time to display the oft-lauded virtue known as mercy?
• Zevran: I deserved to die, and you spared me. Why are you so quick to condemn these mages?
• Warden: You’re a lot better-looking than most of the mages.
• Zevran: Why, thank you. Flattery would normally distract me, but not today. Inconvenient, no?
• Warden: You’re saying I made a mistake sparing you?
• Zevran: (Nervous laughter) Perhaps. But you did it nevertheless, no?
• Warden: Magic and knives are different.
• Zevran: Magic can kill. Knives can kill. Even small children launched at great speed could kill.
• Zevran: Why single out the wielders of one and not the others?
• Warden: Mages can do more damage with one spell than you ever could.
• Zevran: Mm. Touché.
• Zevran: I’ve taken the lives of many throughout my career, but this is no measured act. There is no chase, no hunt, no dignity in this… there is only slaughter.
• Warden: What about the people they might slaughter?
• Zevran: Might, not will. Committing genocide just because something might happen is more than the mark of a weak mind. It is insanity.
• Warden: Zevran, you’re a hypocrite.
• Zevran: Perhaps I am at that, and a thief and a murderer as well. But I looked my victims in the face.

#i could not believe how long and detailed zevran’s argument is during broken circle#there are so many dialogue branches#and the note specifically describing his laughter as nervous#the script actually just reads ‘chuckles’ but the VO comments say ‘nervous laughter’#the warden kinda just threatened him there! and this is a warden who’s willing to slaughter a bunch of mages so it’s a very real threat!#and zevran’s clearly very aware of that! and he keeps pleading for the mages anyway!#he is so ready to go to bat for this - no one else in the party argues the point in anywhere near this detail (via carabas)

Zevran fights the most for the little people, the downtrodden, the ones forgotten and shunned by society. Because Zevran knows all too well (more than most of the other companions) how it feels to be trapped in a role that you cannot choose to opt out of, only because of an accident of birth. 

Poverty in his case, magic in theirs, but it is hard to not see the parallels. 

This is why my OC Tyrling Aeducan fell in love with Zevran. Tyrling was supposed to be a blood thirsty warrior. It’s literally in his name - Tyr, from the Norse god of war, and -ling, an old Germanic suffix meaning “child of” or “little”. His concept was as a man who didn’t want to be King, and instead wanted to seek his glory in battle.

But something happened in his Origin I didn’t expect. He watched his brother be murdered and himself get framed for it, he fought his way through Darkspawn after Darkspawn, and he realized - there was no glory in war, no honor to be won in blood spilled in battle. By the time he made it to Ostagar, he was already weary and jaded; he saw through the lies of his upbringing and knew there had to be more.

And though he didn’t want want to lead, he was forced into it, and decided he would be a different sort of leader. He spared everyone the storyline allowed him to (except slavers; seriously, fuck those guys), and Zevran, his lover, supported him every step of the way.

Until he found himself in Orzammar, listening to Harrowmount’s man, and Zevran spoke up, saying Harrowmount would be a weak king and horrible for the people. Tyrling’s world crashed down around him. The idea his lover would support his brother, who framed him for murder and ruined his life, devastated him. He packed up and left Orzammar, camping in the woods outside of the gate for a week, while his friends debated if he’d finally cracked, and he struggled with the existential crisis of a lifetime.

Zevran, the man he was slowly coming to accept he loved, who had never steered him wrong, who had quietly supported him for nearly a year as he spared all sorts of people who probably shouldn’t be spared, giving people second chances, and fighting for the little people, thought his brother would be a better king. The betrayal felt immense.

But ultimately, he realized, Zevran was right. So he pulled up his big boy breeches, marched back in Orzammar, and supported Bhelen, even though revenge was tantalizingly close.

And that’s the story of how Tyrling Aeducan, a man who didn’t want to be King, became a Paragon of his people - by following love and not glory.

hey

I got a fancy new set of fineliners and I need to Practice(TM) with them, so! Reblog this post with a picture of your Dragon Age OC, and I’ll pick a few characters to draw.

Xavier Trevelyan

Tyrling Aeducan

Anaan Adaar

Aravas Lavellan (who had Mythal’s vallaslin before her BF took it)

Taashathi Adaar

Amelia Hawke

And if none of those strike your fancy, take a look here. I can get you more references of most of them if needed.

I have too many OCs.

Last Lines/Snippet Sunday

TAGGED BY: @dirthenera

TAGGING: @plisuu @lathboraxviran @pure-pazaak

Have a snippet from my thus far unpublished collection of drabbles/scenes about my recent Origins run with Tyrling Aeducan.

They had been walking in silence for longer than was comfortable, Duncan leading his horse rather than riding it. Tyrling was grateful for that. He’d have to get on a beast once they make it to the next human settlement and Duncan purchased one for him, but he wasn’t ready for that when his head was spinning like he’d drunk too much ale at Tapsters; Duncan was also saving him the humiliation of riding behind the other man.

He had been trying not to think about the massive expanse of sky above him, but he wasn’t sure what else there was to talk about given that nothing from before he walked onto the surface felt safe enough to talk about.

He cleared his throat. “Always heard tale the sky was blue,” he commented casually.

“It is,” Duncan replied.

Tyrling wondered if maybe in the weird light colors looked different, or if maybe one of the hits to the head he’d taken from a hurlock had done more damage than he’d thought. “Huh. Looks more… gray, to me.”

“Those are clouds,” the human responded with a chuckle. “It’s an overcast day.”

“Clouds. Right. Heard about those. There's… what is it… a sun, too? And a moon?”

“Two moons,” Duncan corrected, “but we rarely see them both at the same time. There’s also stars. Hopefully tomorrow the clouds will clear, and you can witness your first sunset.”

“Are those special?” he asked.

“Every single one you witness is special,” Duncan replied clasping his shoulder, “because to witness one means you have survived yet another day.”