It May Take Me A Month To Put Out A Chapter But At Least Im Not Using Ai To Write It.

Among The Multitudes

(Read on AO3)

Written for the Dragon Age Big Bang 2025. Illustrated by @the-font-bandit

M. 41,111 words.

Summary:

The first word Emmrich learnt to read was Johanna.

His eyes followed the sharp edges of each letter, cutting across his right wrist, staking some wordless claim, the ink as dark as blood. Each edge was distinct from the other, downward strokes hard and impressive, straightforward. Emmrich traced each letter — wrote it out, charcoal on paper, on leaves, fingers in the dirt, until they were identical to his skin, until he knew Johanna by heart.

Then a second name came after, months later, much more surprising than the first.

On his left wrist, all curving swirls, rounded letters, and sweeping lines, much more difficult for his young eyes to follow. The H molded into the A, pressed even closer to the N, as if written in a hurry, ink so light, the word untethered to its writer. Mummy had to help him decipher it, holding him close, her long dark hair plaited, the tips of it tickling his nose. She laughed, bright and tinkling — “Your soulmate has terrible handwriting, my love,” — before settling on Thana. Death.

—

Or, one Emmrich Volkarin, bearer of two soul marks, and a lifetime's exploration of the different faces of love and heartbreak.

Preview under the cut

Emmrich wondered — not for the first time in the last few years — what his soulmates were like.

His thoughts often strayed to them when he accompanied his mother to one of the manors she worked at. Early mornings kneading dough, late evenings cooking for some noble's party, sweat on her brow from the heat of the kitchens. Or when he would stay with his father at the shop, the scent of meat in the air, the rhythmic sound of a knife slicing through flesh, through bone, on a wooden block, the occasional greeting to a customer.

Were their parents like his? Did they go to market days together — spices and fruits and vegetables at every stall? Were there quiet smiles, lingering touches when passing by, eyes that lit up whenever they saw each other? Days off and summer picnics, shaky legs skating on the Minanter in the winter?

(Would there be with him when they grow up? Hands in his, laughter that rang through streets and love that woke with the sun and reminded him of his parents. He imagined Johanna with a grin as sharp as their name on his wrist, and Thana with soft, light hands, fingers making swirling patterns in the air.)

Did they like to read as much as he did?

The Chantry near his home was a tiny, modest thing — very different from the one closer to the heart of Nevarra City, with its tall towers and gleaming windows, always smelling like incense and myrrh — and Mother Dellah said he was turning into quite a studious learner, mind expanding in leaps and bounds. The Chantry opened their doors to the neighborhood children on Sundays, providing lessons on arithmetic, history, religion, and all sorts of other things. Emmrich soaked it all in like a sponge.

(Would they sit and read with him? He hoped they would, pointing to their favorite passages, legs knocking together. Perhaps in the Chantry library, right where he was now, whispering and giggling until Mother Dellah scolded them and kicked them out. He wouldn’t mind it that much as long as they were with him — the three of them would find something else to do together — together — always together.)

(Read on AO3)

old guard

oh noooo🥵

Rook Story Time DLC: de Riva

An add-on for the Rook story time prompts, just for Crow Rook! Tell a story or draw something based on the prompt you are sent/choose. You can try writing in character, as Rook, if you want! Have fun!

Rook encountering Teia for the first time

Rook being assigned a target they don't want

Rook attending a function as a representative of their house

Rook helping Viago with his poison/antidote collection

Rook fighting against a Crow from a rival house

Rook taking out a contract on someone they hate

Rook is invited to dine with the family Dellamorte

Rook going on a mission where they need to serve as bait in some capacity

Rook encountering one of the Crows (or ex-Crows) from the previous games or other DA media

Rook helping clean up Treviso after the Antaam are gone

Rook escaping from a job that has gone completely wrong

Rook completing a contract with one or more of the following people: Teia, Viago, Illario, Caterina, Jacobus

Rook encountering an assassin from one of the other guilds around Thedas

Rook's most unusual contract

Rook being captured by an enemy

Rook rescuing one of the Talons

Rook's first solo contract

Rook killing someone who does not have a contract on their life

Rook meeting the new members of house Egrativi

Rook going on a contract to assassinate a Thedosian ruler

BONUS: AU where Rook is the Talon of another house

BONUS: AU where Rook is the one imprisoned in the Ossuary

all you really need to make a good first impression on the ceo's grandson is for him to have suffered a year of solitary confinement

*emerges from the other room covered in blood* you should see the word document

what do you think viago's reaction was when he heard about crow!rook accidentally getting high off their asses drinking gingerwort tea?

my man's been building immunity toward various kinds of poison for years and you mean to tell him that his fucking protégé got taken down by a fucking mushroom tea.

Evening doodle

Chat, i miss him sm

happy thedas weekend!!!! "i am not a fool entire, no, i know what's coming" is a lyric from bitter water by the oh hellos-- it was giving me some angsty warden vibes ?

I'm right there with you @veilguardiumleviosa. I'm feeling a dramatic sort of monologue so here you go, I hope you like it!

For @thedasweekend

Words: 360

Characters: Dwarf Warden (Garnet Aeducan)

Warnings: Ruminations on death

~~~~~

I am not a fool. First and last, no longer. Blood was the price of of a moment's foolishness, dearly paid. It bought me this future, such that it is, dark and ever-racing, waiting to meet me with eager arms.

To think that I had thought my exile in the Deep Roads to be my final walk to death. Inevitable and present always, waiting only for me to lay down and sleep. The Joining has shown me the truth of it, washed my eyes clear with its tainted blood.

I feel that touch of death always on the wind. In the Stone under my feet, forever lost to me, and in the water I drink that turns to dust in my mouth.

Am I still my father's daughter? I hardly feel myself some days. How completely they took you from me. My stone and bones. Brother and mother. And left me the blood-price or death.

If only I'd known it had hardly been a choice. Death was always part of it. But now it hides in the shadows, no waiting to embrace me and lay me on the Stone's breast. Like a scavenger, it simply waits for me to fall, to take my skin and bones and twist them into everything I have fought against.

Was it worth it, this temporary escape from the Roads, only to know that I will, in time, have to walk them again?

Yes, always yes.

If I was taught anything, it was to fight with all my resources until the bitter end. The Darkspawn do not despair, they do not bargain, do not quail. My blood, my body, my life, have bought me a more distant end. More time to fight. More time to spill the blood that every day becomes more a part of me.

I know what is coming. Whispers and darkness and something that sounds like a wordless promise. Not of glory, nor riches, nor power. Purpose? It calls, always distant, always present. I know what it will make me, in time.

I only hope I will have spilled enough blood to make it all worth it, when the time comes.