The People Have Spoken...

City Elf Appreciation Week - Last Day!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated this week! Today is a free day - anything that's focused on city elves is welcome, new and old! Please remember to tag @cityelfweek or use the tag #cityelfweek24 so your works can be reblogged!

I hope everyone's feeling inspired 👀

Who's your favourite canon city elf??

City Elf Appreciation Week

Day 5: Alienage

As the eldest Tabris cousin, it is Novhen's familial duty to show his younger cousin Shianni the ropes around Denerim, and in his rogueish mind, this obviously includes how to scam the city's human population. 2666 words.

and a thank you to @cityelfweek for putting all this together (and giving me the motivation to finish this fic) ^.^

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Including you.

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Below is a list of all Dragon Age fan-run events we can find. The links should bring you to the most recent iteration of the event. Where possible, the time period the event covers is listed next to the event.

Want to get an event listed? Check out the link and submit. Look here for multi-fandom events, or more events in general.

Event Masterlist - #compendium

Bangs

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Rebel Hearts Handers Zine (Zine)

to be happy (FenHawke Zine)

bird in a broken cage

Friendship, 6:93 Steel

I had intended to write something new for today's @cityelfweek theme, but ran out of time! Here's an old Stories of Thedas entry instead, from my Tabris ancestry project on AO3. 441 words. Adlan is Kallian's great x6 grandmother, and Rishan is Nelaros's great x6 grandfather! [divider credit]

Rishan was from Highever.

It was some silly scheme their hahrens set up, wanting to build connections between the two alienages. They were hoping to expand it, to foster some sort of community between all the city elves of Ferelden and perhaps even further. Adlan wasn't sure the humans would let it slip unnoticed for long enough, but it was a nice thought. There were rumours that Elgarath had even tried writing to a Dalish clan, though no one was sure how that would have worked.

Her first letter came close to All Soul's Day.

Hello stranger,

My name is Rishan Halva, and I am from Highever. 

What is Denerim like? I hear it is nice, and that your vhenadahl looks like a mighty beech tree! Ours is more of a sweet chestnut. I have drawn it for you.

Do you have any plans for the upcoming annum? My family and I will go to the bonfire that is set up just outside of the alienage. The food stalls are very nice. My favourite is the spiced hot chocolate.

I hope to hear from you soon. I apologise for my awkwardness.

Rishan.

Surprisingly, it brought a smile to her face.

She wrote him back to be polite, asking some of her own questions, and telling him about her life. It ended up far longer than she had intended. But Rishan seemed so happy in his next letter, already far less stilted, and there were pages of it in return, so it couldn't have been a bad thing.

They continued swapping letters until inevitably they had to share more and more personal things, to keep the conversation alive if not for anything else. Rishan kept sending her drawings; of himself, his family's forge, the alienage, his friends, and sometimes even things Adlan had mentioned in previous letters. In turn, she wrote him stories often inspired by him and the people he mentioned, or of heroes just subtly elven enough that no prying human eyes could call them up on it. 

They shared their secrets, woes, hopes and dreams… and as the months turned into years, and the years melted into decades, it never seemed too strange to them that their best friend was someone they had never met. 

The pen pal scheme largely failed. Few people cared enough to return even the first letter, let alone the fifth or sixth. Adlan knew that Elgarath would have been overjoyed when their children began to send their own letters – it certainly always warmed her heart.

And so, Adlan and Rishan ensured that their lives were always entwined; one way or another.

“I… I am sorry if I am disturbing you, my lord.”

Day 3: Community

Mi amor,

By the time this letter reaches you, if it reaches you at all, I will be far away.

I tire of shadows, yet I am more weary of danger, or to be more precise, the danger my presence puts others in. My time among the Dalish was short, and were it not for the intervention of another, may have ended with blood. Innocent blood, that is. There was no shortage of Crow blood to be had. Pray my time in Ansburg is peaceful.

The city’s elves have made me feel quite at home. The elder herself has given me shelter under her roof. Each morning I find children at my doorstep, coveting my attention like I am a hero worthy of their aspirations. I do not tell them what I truly am, though I suspect their elders know.

They live humbly here, but I think you would enjoy yourself— the Minanter flows more freely than your beloved Drakon, and we are far enough north that all manner of fruits and vegetables come through the city’s markets. True, I have not the coin to buy them, but what is the harm in relieving a merchant of a peach here and there?

I will beg the Maker for forgiveness later.

I once told you I considered myself lucky for an orphan, and in many ways that still holds true. I often wonder, however, what would have happened if I was trusted not to the brothel, but my people. I do not remember the Alienage in Antiva City, or, indeed, in Rialto. Would they have guarded me so closely there, as they do here? Would I have been safe? Would I have been happy?

Ah, but what use is there in wondering? You know poverty’s sting as well as I, mi amor. I might have been happy, yes, but I am happy now, knowing your warm embrace awaits me in cold Amaranthine.

Con cariño, Zevran

Written for @cityelfweek day 3!

threw some colour at a merrill doodle i did a while ago! ;m;