Everything will be ordered correctly in the series itself, but will likely be posted all out of order, my apologies! I do not write chronologically.
I'll also update this notes section with some things to expect and directions the story is heading in! It follows major Canon beats but with some very notable deviations and liberties taken.
Notable series features and tags. Fic series and game spoilers below:
- Major Character Death (kinda)—Anders. Graphic depictions of violence. Careful eplorations on various mental illnesses. References to self harm.
- smut/explicit rating
- overall pro-mage, pro-elven, pro-spirit, trans-inclusive, anti-opression and slavery, anti-chantry, wardens critical (disclaimer: characters views are not authors views, and changes will be made to avoid things that I feel are harmful/unnecessary to include. I love these games but Bioware made some choices.)
- Anders/Cullen/Carver endgame ft slow-burn, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, lovers to enemies. so much pining, like an aggressive amount. Explorations of power dynamics including age difference, rank difference, mage/templar dynamics and overcoming interpersonal conflict spread out over years.
- Justice Positive (always)
- Templar!Carver
- Inquisitor!Anders
- more actively aware/involved/defiant Knight-Captain Cullen (while still having him be complicit in the atrocities of the Gallows and the fallout of that)
- Cullen critical, but very much beloved.
- Anders critical, but very much beloved.
- Carver is best boy (but man he goes through it.)
- all of them do really
- Hawke critical. Purple/Red Hawke with Carver rivalry to the point of estrangement. (Hawke's kinda a villian in this one)
- fully independent, canon non-compliant arcs for characters (including them leaving Kirkwall altogether after key events/acts, though this is still going to be canon initiated!)
- a whole slew of minor and major OCs (including children)
- other ships: individual pairings for all 4 main POVs (including Nate/Anders, Culllen/Dorian, all the boys/OCs), kirkwall polycule, Hawke/Varric queer-platonic soulmates
- gender and sexuality explorations for multiple characters including changing their presentations from canon
- a lot of creative liberties and expansions on the magic system in Thedas (while trying to remain within the constraints already laid out)
- veilguard compliance tbd (Provided I even get to that point, writing everything will take long enough as is. Buuuuut I'm debating some of TVGs lore introductions, especially involving the blight and how it functions and Mythal.)
This series has been a work in progress for years, ever since I played Inquisition and thought "wait a second, inquisitor Anders!!" Only for it to grow wildly out of scope. I finally got the confidence to start chipping away at it last year and plan to roll out a bunch more in the coming months. Special shout out to the DA writing discord I'm a part of for all your support and feedback, as well as the wonderful Anders/Cullen/Carver rarepair shippers for keeping me fed while I chip away at my own contributions! ❤️
And thank you so much for checking this out! I hope you enjoy even bits of it! 🌻❤️
