Kitchen And Craft Wix Corner (Exciteable Bird, Enter At Own Risk)

In which Ivy thinks a tiny bit too long about certain implications
Basically something occured to me. There just... are only very few entirely non-magical specializations, especially not ones that re-occur frequently. And I don't meant that in a 'haha videogame moves are basically impossible' way, I mean that in 'there's three explicitly magical warrior specs, at least one rogue spec and several suspicious cases that aren't as easy to nail down."
Note that I will not be able to say much about the ones in DA2 since there's only like 2 short bits of flavor text and you don't have to jump through enlightening hoops to unlock them, nor are there companions with the exact same specs you can ask holes into. But specifically the two other "evil" specializations in dragon age: origins attract attention for boldly queering the mage - non-mage binary.
quick note that bc of the similarities I'll treat Fenris' spec as Basically A Spirit Warrior With Added Lyrium Bullshit, when I do mention them, though there's not much interesting to say about it bc again, Awakening specs you unlock by buying books, the most interesting things to find about spirit warrior are in the description and in the fact that Justice is one, you find out about fenris' abilities and where they come from, it's not a secret it's magic bullshit. I'm more interested in the other ones and the implications there, though I will come back to this one in a bit. I'll also not go deeply into lyrium effects and templar nonsense and seeker shit, pls efer back to these posts for me yelling at length about those things: 1 2 3 4

Now, I mentioned "evil" specializations up there. That's perhaps... misleading, though there definitely are three specializations more in the darker corner of morally gray than their two sibling specs. They are this specifically grouped together because there is a single NPC in the Broken Circle main quest of Dragon Age: Origins, a female blood mage who after a quick scuffle will surrender, leaving the party to either kill her, let her flee, or in very specific circumstances, actually recruit her to the war effort, though this has no actual visible effect on gameplay, beyond this one quest where you can find the girl back down on the first floor waiting with the other apprentices. The circumstances require specific dialogue options being taken and the Warden having one of three specializations that suggest to her you understand dabbling in forbidden arts under duress: Blood Mage, obviously, Reaver and Assassin. Only if you have these you even get the option to try and talk her around that you'll keep her secret. And there's no big explanation, it's as if she can just tell.

First, the obvious: Becoming a Reaver is basically Blood Magic. That's why unlike the other spec i'll mention in a second, There's no native Actual Reaver companions. Bull doesn't count as he "just stumbled upon a similar style". But yes it is straight up blood magic, no getting around it. Breaker Thram says as much when you speak about it to her:

Spoiler: reaver lore, cw: body horror, drug seeking behavior (?), murder, violence

It should be noted that the first time we come across reavers in the series is in the old village of Haven on the HoF's quest to retrieve the Prophetess' ashes, where they stumble across the single most concise yet inoffensive and genre-tailored loveletter to H.P. Lovecraft's writing I have ever seen. Creepy human sacrifice/blood magic cult, children playing with human fingerbones, learning all manner of things about your companions, fighting people who worship a high dragon who may or may not be possessed by a demon as the reincarnation of Andraste in a very... Avvar manner... You know, fun stuff. The physical mutations being mentioned in Inquisition by Breaker Thram just fit so nicely into this, I love it.
Looking at this, of course, specifically the repeated mentions of how the infusions are taken regularly, how taking too much will cause a break down of the physical form and the mental capacities, and how prolongued exposure leads to insanity and potentially very sudden death is... kind of like the templar's lot. The only standout difference is that dragon blood seemingly enhances vitality and doesn't cause horrifying deadly withdrawal symptoms, but then Dragons are a different semi-eldritch entity from Titans, so that makes sense.
Interesting to note is also the reference to flirtations with demons, which makes the Reaver sound not unlike a Spirit Warrior, though they generally enter mutually agreeable partnerships with spirits of Valor or Justice, making the two specializations basically opposite ends of the 'magically empowered warrior' scale. Or a triangle maybe, given Templars, which of course makes Cassandra Pentaghast, a Nevarran Seeker of Truth, thereby possessed by a spirit of Faith and the representation of the Templar specialization amongst your companions, the true middle of the triangle, as it should be.
It should also be noted that some flavor texts speak of the Dragon blood infusion, and the Templars' philter made infusions in very similar terms. But mentioning templars are just blood magic practitioners who don't know their incredible luck with drinking Eldritch Horror Juice is hardly ground breaking.

So what about the other one? Well. It's suspicious that it's grouped with two such obvious blood powered disciplines. So what do we learn about Assassins from our dear beloved specialization tutor, Zevran Arainai?

... Ah.

of course, part of his banter is surely mostly to flirt with and make fun of alistair and Leliana, though part of how he says these things does seem quite... sincere if that makes sense? There's no pretense or set up for a joke at the bloodstained altar, and zevran quite enjoys fucking with people while saying not a single falsehood, and despite some inconsistant writing in the banter (Leliana not having seen any but Zev's facial tattoos, but Alistair noting his entire back is inked up, for example) it seems he doesn't generally straight out lie about the crows. Certainly exaggerates for comedic effect or dramatic flair, but I'd think the tattoos are both actually sacred, and probably involve some ritual preparation beforehand. A summary from a now sadly defunct link to the bioware owned wiki also states that the Crows were once an arm of the Chantry, monks from the hills north of Treviso who turned to the abbey-garden's herbs to work their way out from under despotic rule. Notably there is at least one confirmed blood mage apostate who is identified as a Crow active during the Fourth Blight named as such in The Last Flight. Hm, Andrastean belief turned sour and sinister? blood magic? Tattoos with secret meanings possibly invovled in such rituals? I wonder what that might be reminding me of. HMMM.
Additionally, Cole who literally has unnatural powers due to his nature as a spirit, is the associated companion to share the Assassin spec, albeit without offering comment on it.

Another interesting part of this is that this spec specifically is very associated with elves, the manual is sold in the denerim alienage after the landsmeet begins, Tallis shares parts of it, Heir, the trainer for the specialization in Inquisition is dalish, wearing Andruil's vallaslin in the simplified variant which is... well fitting, to say the least. Given the description of a unique armor, she likely took on the Vir Banal'ras, the Way of Shadow, additionally explaining why she looks down upon the Crows and Bards. She does notably not reference any blood practice and the crafted tool of the trait is a symbolic dagger, but then again, Heir does not teach the Crow specific practice. And Thram claims there's no long lasting ill effects for the Reaver either which is uh, blatantly in conflict with Cassandra's account.

One may draw two conclusions from this:
One, that between the mentioned four outright spirit and/or blood magic enhanced non-mage specs, whatever the fuck Champion and Bard do that somehow pumps people up enough to become projectile barfing and sword eating murder machines, The somewhat odd status of Berserker and Ash Warriors and their status vis a vis chasind legend, avvar legend and Flemeth's bullshit, and whatever the hell Tempest of all things does, there's... a good chance that despite the Veil, the artificial nature of the Fade being seperated from the mortal realm is still accutely tangible in the sheer reliance on magic for advanced combat no matter one's magic abilities.
and Two, that damn the dalish have a lot of very angry and very deadly women, and frankly the only thing I'm surprised by is that we haven't seen Thram and Heir explicitly defect to Solas. No wait, I'm also surprised that Thram is wearing the normal complex vallaslin of Elgar'nan, and a crimson vallaslin.

 

*Slides in with insufficient knowledge*

Does that mean that theoretically you can stop being a reaver by just not having any more dragon blood, or could take it as a obe-time powerup?

 

clearly this just means Ali has been sneaking peeks at Zev in the bath :p

tbh given Thram's Everything I wouldn't be surprised if she counted "uncontrollable rage fits" a positive effect, and the physical changes neutral unless they interfere with mobility

I'm p sure it can be done as a one-time powerup but the implication is that reavers keep wanting More Power as they drink more and more of it, fuelling desire to... keep drinking....
Also, Reaver as with all Inquisition specs is brought in specifically to help the Inquisitor become more powerful, so imo Cass' warning to not go too far too fast is warranted

 

Oh i mean clearly. Ali is a very horny boy :P

y...yeah...

Yes what loq said, though thram specifically likens it to Templars and Wardens on the 'permanency' level.

Though like. How the fuck does Thram know enough about wardens to know that? Let's play another game of were the dialogue writers sloppy or is this a hint at something

 

Me:
apple trees: u need to do some homesteading and dry and make into applebutter what you have harvested
Me:

 

I cannot stress the soulhealing and spoonrestorative qualities of homesteading and preserving enough it's just... so good to know i'm not reliant on other people for everything and can reduce foodwaste and honor what nature has blessed us with by making it last.
also our apples and pears make real great tea so there is that.

 

mental spoons, that is, my joints and back are not magically healed by standing at the stove. Kind of the opposite, but that's why i have a barstool in the kitchen

 

shrieks loudly at the concept of regional licensing
crunchyroll is2g give me my idiotic dumb little boys show I want the punchy punchy and the crying over children getting in reckless danger for dramatic reasons
at least dr. stone and given simulcasts are available but i want.................... heroaka, and also demon slayer...........................

 

also today..... gräpé jèllîe tiem

 

fanfic word game: wine

 

-stares at Marisela fic-
-stares at Tevinter fic-
-SIGHS LOULY-
I'm just gonna do my favoite one for each bc there's 17 mentions of wine in the sela fic alone :P

 

horn

 

technically that bit isn't a wip anymore but i consider the entire ocument still first draft so yeet

 

“breath”

 

today we find out which words i overuse to the point of parody :P Or rather I find out bc I'm not subjecting y'all to that mess

 

flower

 

how is there only one mention of flower in the sela fic????? i am disappointed in my purple prose

and none anywhere else whaaaaat

 

Stones

 

gold