10369 réponses à ce sujet

[LupusYondergirl]

TanithAeyrs wrote...

Maria13 wrote...

mousestalker wrote...

My poor tired brain is having spasms right now. This whole Oghren does Shakespeare thing is making my neurons fire spasmodically. Given how horribly he butchers that one joke in Origins, the idea of him attempting Hamlet's soliloquy or Portia's plea from Merchant of Venice is frying my cortex from the inside.

All of you are responsible for this.

Yes but he could probably play Falstaff well enough...

But to say I know more harm in him than in myself,
were to say more than I know. That he is old, the
more the pity, his white hairs do witness it; but
that he is, saving your reverence, a who**master,
that I utterly deny. If sack and sugar be a fault,
God help the wicked! if to be old and merry be a
sin, then many an old host that I know is damned: if
to be fat be to be hated, then Archon's lean kine
are to be loved. No, my good lord; banish Sten,
Banish Morrigan, banish Wynne: but for sweet Oghren
Kondrat, kind Oghren Kondrat, true Oghren Kondrat,
valiant Oghren Kondrat, and therefore more valiant,
being, as he is, old Oghren Kondrat, banish not him
thy Warden's company, banish not him thy Warden's
company: banish plump Oghren, and banish all the world.


(I couldn't resist)

Modifié par LupusYondergirl, 31 août 2010 - 09:58 .

[Addai]

Maria13 wrote...

Res ipsa loquitur... I say. Trevinter is Latin...

Greek, I think.  Tevinter is loosely based on the Byzantine Empire and their ruler being called Archon is a signal to the Greek side, IMO.  The game names for the archons look Greek to me as well.

[LupusYondergirl]

The Byzantine empire was never called that at their time, though. When they were in existence they considered themselves (and called themselves) Romans, and were seen as the direct successors to/continuation of the empire based in Rome.



And the Tevinter empire used to cover the continent from one end to the other, until barbarians destroyed them, leaving only their ruins and roads behind. Just like Rome's roads and ruins covered Europe long after the Empire was gone.

[Addai]

LupusYondergirl wrote...

The Byzantine empire was never called that at their time, though. When they were in existence they considered themselves (and called themselves) Romans, and were seen as the direct successors to/continuation of the empire based in Rome.

But didn't speak Latin, and the Romans didn't speak Greek, for the most part- not in the divided kingdom at any rate (i.e. medieval period).  Language-wise it looks to me that Tevinter language is Greek-based.

Modifié par Addai67, 31 août 2010 - 10:42 .

[Sarah1281]

You know what's always fun? Writing something that includes an idea from this board (in this case, suspecting Riordan of trying to sabotage the defense against the Blight) and having other people wonder where you come up with this stuff...

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

re: Language, Zevran also has a banter with Leliana where he uses Antivan (trying to describe 'pure'), and as far as I can tell it has no real-world translation. I think Tevinter's language is mentioned somewhere as Arcanum, but I can't remember offhand if the reference is official.



I do recall the Anderfel people being called the 'Orth' in the timeline. Don't think it's mentioned anyone else.

TanithAeyrs wrote...On that note, a question for discussion. What writing demons do you struggle with?

The one that demands I keep typing even when the clock's ticked past 1am. And if I ignore it, it won't let me sleep. Pesky thing.



I'll...try to come up with a serious answer later. XD

[Dean_the_Young]

Desire Demons.



They're largely pure sex-objects in game, it's hard to take or portray them seriously. Which is a shame, because I've always had this idea for a sort of demon's Haven: a recluse, secretive village out in the boonies which likes to stick to itself.



Only, instead of Dragon cultists, it's actually a demonocracy of sorts, where people follow certain Revian practices and willingly (eagerly) let themselves be possessed by certain demons in a symbiotic relationship.



The whole village is led by a abomination of Pride, who may or may not be benign (or at least not malevolent). Pride's pride, in this case, is the arrogance and intellect invested in joining the real world to the fade. The Pride Demon's whole thing is about wanting to learn and be exposed more to the living, and letting his(her?) demonic bretheren do the same. Pride's demon heirarchy in the fade is exceptional: many demons bind themselves to him in exchange for the chance to enter into the world with a human, and part of the ritual that does it mitigates the demonic extremes and forces a more equitable union between the two identities, as opposed to outright demonic possession. Whether this is a benign move or selfish on the part of Pride is up to debate, but it does allow Pride to keep unquestioned control over the emerged Abominations.



But because no one goes around trying to kill everyone, the human/elf populace is more willing to make such deals: the guards/warriors bond with rage demons and effectively become berserkers in battle. Sloth demons are reveared for the either the intellectuals, or a sort of euthenasia to provide a gentle death for the dying and elderly. Desire demons are sought by those unhappy in life, or wanting some sort of companion in general.



There is only one other pride demon: a subordinate of Pride's who conspires to trick the player into helping him overthrow Pride.



Naturally, of course, this all has to be super hush-hush. There's a chantry, but no real Chantry-going support. The village always pays its taxes and never breaks an important law, and escapes the notice of the Templars by having a more permanent solution to the question of any mage who tries running to there. It's a pretty plain village, and besides the general unwelcoming attitude and odd things, and perhaps a few clothed women who look suspiciously Desirable, the Warden could never see anything of note.



The main hook, however, is Pride's subordinate. Let's call him Ambition. He stands out as the one welcoming, helpful face in the town, and to listen to him this is all a recent change of attitude. He pretty much leads the Warden by the nose to imply that Pride is a recently possessed abomination, and the quest line takes that if you kill Pride, Ambition can 'save' the Villagers. Ambition wants to continue Pride's work, but wants to loosen the influencing wards (so that Demons get more experience/exposure), expand it to a village requirement, and even possibly export their knowledge elsewhere.



Of course, the truth does come out before the climax, and both sides will resort to offering anything they think the Warden wants. Favors from Desire Demons, a Pax Demonica in which the winning demon offers to use it's expertise in controlling the access of other Fade Demons into Ferelden (basically a demonic ghost-busters squad), even an offer for Abominations for use against the Blight.



Or, of course, you can kill them all, or betray your backed party and kill the survivors. You have to wipe out the village, but the threat of a demon buildup and invasion...

[FutileSine]

@Dean - What a creative idea! I love it!

[mousestalker]

I've had two ideas of 'evil' PC fanfic. The first concerns a warden of mine that made the ultimate sacrifice. She was involved with Alistair, spared Loghain, Alistair does what he always does in that circumstance, she refused Morrigan and killed Archie by herself (My second playthrough. My first one Alistair killed Archie despite everything I tried. I wasn't taking chances this go around) out of depression, despair and despondency. She isn't really evil, but she is vengeance incarnate at certain points, which isn't very healthy. The story would be about a request she made of Loghain before she left for Fort Drakon. Very Angsty.



The second comes out of a nightmare of mine and the squick factor is very high. I really don't want to give anything away, except I found it more disturbing than Laryn's fate.



Just how much tolerance is there over at fanfiction.net for nightmare fuel? I can keep the smutty bits toned down quite a lot, but as I said this scenario comes out of an exceptionally bad dream. How much horror is allowed?

[mousestalker]

@Dean. I second FutileSine. Please do write it.

[Maria13]

I think its fair to say that what we know of the language of Trevinter is a mixture of Latin and Greek, obviously the capital Minrathous sounds Greek but the high month names and many of the proper names Valarian Fields, Justinia, Genitivi, Petrine, etc sound Roman.

[LupusYondergirl]

mousestalker wrote...

Just how much tolerance is there over at fanfiction.net for nightmare fuel? I can keep the smutty bits toned down quite a lot, but as I said this scenario comes out of an exceptionally bad dream. How much horror is allowed?

I don't think there's really any rules about it.  Technically it shouldn't go beyond M, which to me is like "R rated movie" territory.  But really, it's all dependent on if anyone reports you.  (since Maker knows my stuff tends to push that M rating's limits smut-wise).

I suppose it depends on how graphic you get.  I've seen plenty of stories with implied (or not so implied) rape, and to me that's really high on the nightmare fuel list.  Also quite a few with graphic depiction of torture and so on.  Some of the DA lore is nightmare fuel in and of itself, anyways- broodmothers, anyone? So it's not like we can always avoid it.


I have a super-ugly chapter coming up soon in Apostates, so I know what you mean about nightmare fuel.  Well, I might.  It's... bad.  Like, I winced writing it and felt vaguely ill after.  Easily the worst, meanest, cruelest thing I've ever done to any of my characters.  I don't know if I'll include it, since part of me feels like it's just TOO dark for my fic, but fits in with the plot and where I'm going.  And I can't deny things have been gradually shifting from a 'life is awesome' to a 'laughing as the world burns since it's better than crying' vibe.  I've got a few transitional chapters before so I guess I can think about it for a bit longer.

[Raonar]

This thing about nightmare fuel may pose some issues for me later on, but It'll take a while to get there so I'm not worried THAT much.



In other news, I found that instantly switching POVs from a chapter to another and slamming the readers with some intense emotions (rage in this case) can cause a mixed reader response. Still, I think it's a feat that it only happened as late as chapter 15, no?

[LupusYondergirl]

Maria13 wrote...

I think its fair to say that what we know of the language of Trevinter is a mixture of Latin and Greek, obviously the capital Minrathous sounds Greek but the high month names and many of the proper names Valarian Fields, Justinia, Genitivi, Petrine, etc sound Roman.

Agreed, and the one sentence in the tevinter language on the wiki just screams latin to me. 
Technically there's nothing in the name Minrathous to make it a latin impossibility.  min was a common prefix, us a common nominative masculine ending, and it doesn't contain any letters not found in the latin alphabet (like K).

(and I really want it to be latin because damnit, I can speak that.  The only greek I know is food names!  Which is the same reason I decided Ferelden's language is based off Irish Gaelic.  Because I know that one.  Continuity be damned, I'm putting my language classes to use!)

[Maria13]

LupusYondergirl wrote...

Maria13 wrote...

I think its fair to say that what we know of the language of Trevinter is a mixture of Latin and Greek, obviously the capital Minrathous sounds Greek but the high month names and many of the proper names Valarian Fields, Justinia, Genitivi, Petrine, etc sound Roman.

Agreed, and the one sentence in the tevinter language on the wiki just screams latin to me. 
Technically there's nothing in the name Minrathous to make it a latin impossibility.  min was a common prefix, us a common nominative masculine ending, and it doesn't contain any letters not found in the latin alphabet (like K).

(and I really want it to be latin because damnit, I can speak that.  The only greek I know is food names!  Which is the same reason I decided Ferelden's language is based off Irish Gaelic.  Because I know that one.  Continuity be damned, I'm putting my language classes to use!)

Oh same here, six years of Latin, Spanish and only one of classical Greek that I'd rather forget (the teacher was a dick...).  Fereldan sounds to me like German/Gaelic/Anglosaxon and I always look up Gaelic names for my Fereldan characters...

[jackkel dragon]

<----- Dragon Age Fanboy

I have the Dragon Age RPG Set 1 (from Green Ronin.) In the player's guide, each background for player characters has a list of languages and whether a character can read or write it.

In this section, circle mages are able to read "Ancient Tevene." It's apparently a dead language, so no help there. Still, the obvious Rome analogies and classical architecture of the Tevinter implies Latin or Greek similarities.

I can't say anything about modern "Tevene," is what I'm trying to say.

[Addai]

Maria13 wrote...

I think its fair to say that what we know of the language of Trevinter is a mixture of Latin and Greek, obviously the capital Minrathous sounds Greek but the high month names and many of the proper names Valarian Fields, Justinia, Genitivi, Petrine, etc sound Roman.

That's quite possible, especially since the cultural stuff looks like a hybrid too.

The first time I realized Tevinter= Byzantium was talking to Hessarian and his wife (Vasilia? Basilea?) in the Gauntlet and thinking "hey, you Greek."

[jackkel dragon]

Dean_the_Young wrote...

Desire Demons.

*awesome idea snip* 

Do it. Do it now. I want that as a mod.

NOW!!

[Dean_the_Young]

jackkel dragon wrote...

Dean_the_Young wrote...

Desire Demons.

*awesome idea snip* 

Do it. Do it now. I want that as a mod.

NOW!!

Sure.

Just get me a job at Bioware, a team of engineers, a decent project staff, and a good paycheck, and I'll be right on it.

Now, if you don't/won't provide all of that, I might be persuaded just to do a full-spectrum outline of sorts, an expansion of the idea without a practical or narrative implementation...

[LupusYondergirl]

I have to share this since I'm so excited...

Galagraphia did a fantastic drawing of Anders and Maggie Amell from my fic.







I've been making high pitched squealing noises every time I look at it. Since, you know, I'm mature like that.

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

Congratulations!

[jackkel dragon]

Dean_the_Young wrote...

jackkel dragon wrote...

Dean_the_Young wrote...

Desire Demons.

*awesome idea snip* 

Do it. Do it now. I want that as a mod.

NOW!!

Sure.

Just get me a job at Bioware, a team of engineers, a decent project staff, and a good paycheck, and I'll be right on it.

Now, if you don't/won't provide all of that, I might be persuaded just to do a full-spectrum outline of sorts, an expansion of the idea without a practical or narrative implementation...

I'd do it myself if I didn't already have a project going. I'll save your post for future inspiration.

[Dean_the_Young]

Well, I won't deny that it's flattering... but wouldn't you prefer something a bit more innovative?



A companion, a mercenary crossbow captain from the Free Marches who's approval is based not on dialogue or gifts as much as the big decisions? Whether he's a fanatically loyal follower or turns on you to defend that last, best chance for saving the nation...



Or the War of the Urn, a reinterpretation of the events of the Ashes of Andraste, giving real power and consequence to the choices on the holy mountaintop? Chantry or Cultists battle to win the Ashes, fight the Blight, and steer the soul of the nation forevermore.



Or, perhaps, reinterpretations of various origins, such that you could recruit them from another?



Take Mog the Gnome, the dwarf commoner best known as an eccentric, broadsword-wielding rogue who's often been derided as having worn too soft a cap, if you know what the dwarves mean. But for all his lyrium-addled mind, a genius of dwarven alchemy and a youth who could have become a paragon in his own right. (An atypical rogue build: wielding a two-handed weapon and no talents besides the generic rogue talents, this one specializes in combat support and items: grenades, poisons, coatings, traps, lockpicking. A crafting and item-usage expert.)

[jackkel dragon]

@Dean: I'm creating a file of your ideas. I'll put it next to the quotes text file I made last year.



I've come up with some crazy ideas for mods, both for Origins and standalone, but I always thought inside the box! You have some great ideas.



Um... where are your stories? I want to read what you've released, see what you did.

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

re: Writing demons (of the non DA:O variety)



The worst one for me is producing something that seems like it's taking *forever* to get out, realising it's not good enough purely because I'm not enjoying writing it, but having spent *so* *much* *time* on it that I simply don't want to cut it and start again. I can do dialogue, I can do descriptions, I can do action scenes, but if I'm not 'in the zone' then it all feels like some massive, unpleasant chore and I end up procrastinating.



A workaround that seems to have been working for me is cut/pasting all these scenes into an outtake file. Sometimes I find a use for what's been written that slots nicely into a later scene, and it just feels better than straight-out deleting a whole chunk of text.