bakerstreet | Walk in starlight

𝔬𝔫𝔠𝔢, further back in years than anyone alive could remember, there is a land that even time has forgotten, filled to the brim with magic and mystery both good and ill. This is where you make your home. Who you are in this kingdom - or many kingdoms - is as varied as the blades of grass that spread over this lush terrain. You could be a petulant princess, a delving dwarf, a highway man with more than a few secrets, a devoted knight, a mage of ancient spellcraft, or even an ageless elf. No matter your station, though, one thing is for certain: whatever life you lead, it's about to get a great deal more exciting. There is a war brewing, somehow, somewhere, and the peace of your homelands is at stake. You are the only one who can set things right and go on a quest to save everyone.

Still, what is an adventure without an adventure of the heart? You are not alone, and you'll find that trying times can forge ironclad emotions. Of course, you'll find that the path of love is no easier here than anywhere else, be the person you admire an arranged fiancé you're not too fond of at first, a forbidden object of desire, a traveling companion, an enemy, a lifelong friend, an ally...or another species from you entirely. Yet, in any case, this is no time for romance, is it? Only moments can be stolen, and you must set aside your feelings for the greater good.

In this time, in this place, will you get your happy ending, or will this story prove to be a much darker fantasy?

Comment with your character, information, preferences, and any AU you might want to do with your character if they're not from an applicable setting.
Reply to others.
Thread with them.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( ooc: my pref rundown to avoid tl;dr. )

Blasted off the roof of Fort Drakon by the magical explosion, Arawn somehow lived through that and the Blight and the simultaneous civil war because the leadership couldn't understand that monsters welling up from the ground were a genuine threat. It took days for him to wake, weeks to have the stamina to walk the length of the great hall, and months before King Alistair and Queen Anora allowed him to leave Denerim. He had heard the term 'peopled out' before and that state had been achieved within a single day. It was with no sense of great relief that he rode out to the former Arl Howe's seat, a castle called Vigil's Keep, one of the most ancient fortresses in the whole of Ferelden.

Correction, he thought. Habitable ancient fortress.

He had explored plenty that reportedly not liveable, at least in the loudly expressed opinion of those dogging his heels as they bedded down for the night. That said, having wandered the length and breadth of the entire country in the rain, snow, and heat of summer, in armour, while dragging around a company of misfits and corralling nobility, elves, and dwarves like a herd of cats, Arawn's standards as to what he could and could not live in were remarkably low. What wasn't livable was being sent to some stone castle that belonged to a shemlen [human] traitor.

The only thing that took the edge off his snarls of being stuck with the title of Hero of Ferelden and Warden Commander of Ferelden, was that he A) left the stinking shemlen city, B) Finally scraped Alistair off his shoulders and onto someone else's and C) Rendon Howe reportedly had a library. What he had yet to find out was that Howe had absconded with the books from his sworn lord's library at Castle Cousland before - and this he was aware of - slaughtering Teyrn Cousland, his wife, and youngest son, and burning the place to the ground. True, Queen Anora said that she had arranged for a scholar to take an inventory as books were a rarity in this backward nation, but he couldn't fathom why he would want one. She had assured him that it was to ensure that duplicates of all scrolls and books were made, given that the civil war had not left many houses of learning standing. Did have to give her that.

Imagine his surprise when he arrived at the gates of the Vigil and was greeted with an invasion by darkspawn. Hadn't he just killed the archdemon-exploding-dragon and ended the Blight? One by one he rescued what inhabitants managed to hide or survive long enough with a sword or wooden spoon (in the cook's case) in hand for him to get to them.

That night, fires were put out, dead monsters with their rotting black blood were drug outside to be burned - would never get the taste of burning flesh out of his nostrils - and the wounded were attended to. Arawn went to each pallet set up in the Grand Hall, which was a rather cozy size compared to the King's, checked for contamination and infection that was a very real risk when dealing with the monsters, and worked Dalish healing rituals over each of the injured.

Walk in starlight

belle ❀ beauty and the beast (2017) → ota

no subject

Alfred ( Vikings )

Peregrin Took | Lord of the Rings | OTA