The Once and Future Champion (Baldur's Gate 3/Dragon Age) (Complete)

[cliffc999]

Oh God, their kids are gonna be little terrors...

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Well, maybe not little...

And as for the author's mad demented omake mental shipping chart, there are two faint possibilities for Gale. One of them is the Inquisitor herself (this one romanced Solas, she'd entirely deserve a chance to rebound with 'I could have been a god myself but I was wise enough to listen to my friends when they explained how STUPID that would be'), but the one I actually learn towards more is Merrill. She's going to show up later when Gale starts his whole 'new magic system from another world!' education, he's going to talk to her based on Hawke's recommend and the fact that she's herself an innovative genius of a magical scholar who reverse-engineered eluvian tech, something entirely awesome to Torilians, and the bro code would not forbid because Hawke would be overjoyed if Merrill found a way to be happy again. Especially since she'd be even happier to eventually go back to Waterdeep with him, Merrill's life on Thedas has been really shit.

This is not necessarily canon, however. As I mentioned, I 'ship a lot in mental omake for my own amusement.

 

[Lucid Lunacy]

Well, maybe not little...

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Well they'd start that way! And be energetic little hellions who grow up to be BIG hellions.

this one romanced Solas, she'd entirely deserve a chance to rebound with 'I could have been a god myself but I was wise enough to listen to my friends when they explained how STUPID that would be'

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*blinks* BWAHAHAHAHA! It's perfect!

she'd be even happier to eventually go back to Waterdeep with him, Merrill's life on Thedas has been really shit

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Oof. Yeah. Merrill would jump at the chance to GTFO, nevermind to a place with new magic.

It's kinda hilarious with Hawke/Shadowheart, and Gale/Merrill basically swapping out. Which just means that they can rig up a mail system of some kind to keep in touch on either end.

...Because there's always another idiot out to destroy the world, and their eventual kids have to grow up first before they can officially retire.

 

[cliffc999]

*blinks* BWAHAHAHAHA! It's perfect!

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I admit I would like to imagine that in this timeline Solas is eventually brought around to see what a false path his life is on and he finally gives it all up and him and Lavellan reunite, older and wiser. I mean, Gale is one of the very few people who actually can shut him down with 'Power beyond my imagining? I had a clear shot at godhood. I've studied the lore of a man whose wizardry was so epic he killed the original goddess of magic. I've helped fight an elder brain with my mind and watched it die. I can imagine quite a bit.'

Not least because the Inquisitor in this fic is based on my first Inquisition playthrough, where I had an intense Solasmance going on then that got the most epically romantic tragedy ending of Trespasser DLC and left me so hyped for the eventual sequel - y'know, the one that disappointed us all so epically we didn't even buy the fecking thing.

But, hey... var lath vir suledin(*) and all that.


(*) 'Our love will persevere' in Dalish. The very last words Lavellan says to Solas in the Trespasser ending, if you chose the tragic romance option. Which I did.

Honestly, I am STILL pissed about that most of all. We ended on this (this is not my playthrough but someone else's, but those are most of my dialogue choices), and then we got THAT shit with Veilguard. One of the biggest buildups to a letdown I've ever been through alongside Game of Thrones. Yes I am still bitter.



As an aside, I also find it amusing that Gale could tell the Inquisitor 'Magical orb of vast ancient epic artifactness got stuck in you and gave you terrible powers beyond your ken but is also slowly killing you and eroding the magical fabric of the world? Ah yes, that one is always fun. Fortunately I ran into a little problem like that myself once, and this is how they fixed it...'

 

[Carrnage]

begin her more formal studies of the Selunite liturgy, and finish reuniting with her family.

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Maybe pen a memoir as to Sharr being a salty hypocrite that actively sabotages her followers, if shadowheart is up to it.

 

[cliffc999]

Maybe pen a memoir as to Sharr being a salty hypocrite that actively sabotages her followers, if shadowheart is up to it.

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Note that another person who knows Shadowheart's childhood story very well is not only still back in Baldur's Gate but is currently Isobel's new acolyte. As well as Nocturne being able to tell her own more humble story of 'I grew up in the church of Shar too and let me tell you folks, it realllly sucks.'

 

[Daemascus]

An excellent read, i look forward to your next work

 

[Domino]

I admit I would like to imagine that in this timeline Solas is eventually brought around to see what a false path his life is on and he finally gives it all up and him and Lavellan reunite, older and wiser. I mean, Gale is one of the very few people who actually can shut him down with 'Power beyond my imagining? I had a clear shot at godhood. I've studied the lore of a man whose wizardry was so epic he killed the original goddess of magic. I've helped fight an elder brain with my mind and watched it die. I can imagine quite a bit.'

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Canon Solas would 100% fixate on the fact that the Elven Gods were all just very powerful mages with delusions of godhood who's origins were collectively the fact that they were spirits who clothed themselves in flesh and dismiss the Faerunian Gods as, at best, upjumped spirits with delusions of godhood.

Dude is 100% not a dude who steps back and reevaluates his positions when confronted with evidence that he is not 100% correct

 

[LeonT]

This has been one of my favourite stories. I'm going to miss it.

Shadowheart stepping out into Dragon Age as what is basically a goddess-blessed elf Disney princess gives me amusing thoughts.

Still would have killed to see Solas get stomped for being dumb.

 

[StarFoxpaws]

Thanks for writing this I loved it!

 

[Kencord]

Gale: Dispel Magic!

Solas: ......the FUCK?!

Gale: Oh, yeah. Could always do that. Just couldn't chance it setting off some artifacts or ending some effects during my last adventure. Now? We just stuff all that bullshit.

Solas: .... it's fine, it's fine, it's fine

Shadowheart: Good News everyone! Even Lesser Restoration works on the Blight. We spread my religion and paladinship, we will have it beaten in a generation.

Solas: It's Fine, It's Fine, No Problems

 

[cliffc999]

Gale: Thanks to several applications of alchemical science Toril had that Thedas missed, I've just made a breakthrough on the Joining formula! Darkspawn blood can now be used to cure those suffering from the Taint without the usual side effects!

Solas: It's.... FINE. It's... JUST... FINE...

 

[Matrix Dragon]

Solas: It's.... FINE. It's... JUST... FINE...

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Shar: First time?

 

[Valthorix]

This was very good, thank you for sticking with it until the end. It's been so long since I've seen that [Completed] tag show up like that that I'm a bit shellshocked honestly.

 

[Balorak146]

Shadowheart: Good News everyone! Even Lesser Restoration works on the Blight. We spread my religion and paladinship, we will have it beaten in a generation.

Solas: It's Fine, It's Fine, No Problems

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Solas: Wait, no, that one actually IS fine. I mean, what the fuck, but that's fine! Fuck you, Ghilan'nain!

 

[Kencord]

Solas: Wait, no, that one actually IS fine. I mean, what the fuck, but that's fine! Fuck you, Ghilan'nain!

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Kinda hard fucks his 'only a god-elf can beat a god-elf' martyr complex. People don't take paradigm shifts well.

 

[cliffc999]

Kinda hard fucks his 'only a god-elf can beat a god-elf' martyr complex. People don't take paradigm shifts well.

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Now that you remind me, he's not even a god-elf yet - Solas does not regain his full power until Flemeth/Mythal sort-of sacrifices herself to do that, and that's only in the post-credits scene of Inquisition. Since the Epilogue occurs shortly before 'The Final Piece' (the Inquisition main quest stage in which the Inquisition goes tothe Well of Myrhal to finalize prep for killing Corypheus' red lyrium dragon and thus disrupts his 1-up supply), Solas isn't remotely there yet. I will tweak the Epilogue text to clarify.... looking back, the reference that was clear to me was not necessarily clear to everyone.

Plus, Hawke and party might well be able to help them kill the fucking thing without taking Flemeth's deal. (Particularly since their tadpoles are gone, and thus their BG3 in-game level scaling nerfs are gone... and on top of all the badassery and level-upping they just went through some of the canon origin party were very high level even pre-game before the tadpole temporarily knocked them back down. Gale in particular was canonically Wizard 18+).

(add) Ahahahaa, I just realized that it's even better. Because assuming Hawke did the relevant sidequest chain (which my Hawke did), then Hawke is one of the only (correction) three people in that entire generation of Thedasian history to fight and kill a High Dragon before. (DA2, the act 3 mine pit quest chain finisher).

And one of the other two was the Warden-Commander, in DA1. And the third was the Inquisitor.

So when Hawke steps up and says 'Dragon hunt? I got point. Watch me smoke this chump', the Inquisition has every reason to let him try. He's not only got high rep (as dismal as the Kirkwall situation ended, remember that Hawke's generally believed by all to be a world-class badass from his prominence in it) but he's literally the only proven great dragon slayer they have except for Lavellan, who's got to be in rotation to take Corypheus.

(add) Correction. Cassandra's also fought one... but she was riding another dragon at the time, and it was one of those lucky fluke things. Only the Warden-Commander, the Inquisitor, and Hawke have straight-up gone at a High Dragon on foot and walked out with new dragonskin boots.

And Hawke is wearing BG3 legendary gear and combines DA2 warrior talents with 5e paladin powers. He's got the Adamantine Armor (immunity to critical hits, damage reduction, and stagger opponents who melee you), the Giantslayer sword (double damage and even more +damage on huge opponents), and the Helm of Balduran. (Constant regen and immunity to stun and critical hits). And all his templar-paladin powers for doing even more damage to a corrupted creature... which the Red Lyrium Dragon is! He could almost SOLO the damn thing, and he's got his party along with him... plus the entire DA3 crew!

*snerk*

Hawke might only be coming in at the very end of the DA3 main quest, but he's definitely not going to be an afterthought. He'll be like the Final Battle NPC that gives the hero a pass right through a beef gate that was keeping the hero from even trying the end boss fight until all the prior quest stages were cleared. (Ironically, such an NPC is canon to Inqusiition - Morrigan is what they throw at the Red Lyrium Dragon in the actual game. However, given the deal she has to make with Flemeth to get the power to do that, even Morrigan will likely be glad to just let Hawke facetank this shit.)

(add) There's also that Shadowheart is carrying Selune's Spear of Night... and while in-game mechanics it's just a boosted weapon, remember that the lore version was originally forged by Shar to kill an unkillable celestial before Selune recovered it and flipped it from evil weapon to blessed weapon. Corypheus probably REALLY don't wanna get poked with that thing.

 

[Balorak146]

Kinda hard fucks his 'only a god-elf can beat a god-elf' martyr complex. People don't take paradigm shifts well.

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Oh absolutely, but ultimately I feel like Shadowheart being Half-Elf and an Actual Goddess' personal champion will help a lot once he has time to process, and his spite toward that mad cauldron brewer with the head tentacles will outweigh his ego taking a hit.

Solas doesn't want to kill millions of people by bringing down the Veil to 'fix' the Elves, he even actively encourages the Inquisitor to either find another way or beat him to preserve their existing world as is their right, so the discovery of New Options(TM) before he regains his full powers and restarts his quest in earnest would definitely get him to sit up and pay attention regardless of how much it fucks with his world view because, in the end, he's not an evil bastard like Corypheus, Meredith or Howe.

 

[Velk]

That was a hell of an ending and appropriately cheesy because it was not running on a game engine! I know a bit about DA: Inquisition so that epilogue was a nice treat and ultimately a good bit of closure that the World of Dragon Age needed.

 

[2 Hot Crown Subdues the Sinful]

What Solas is sensing is of course the fact that Gale is from another world and that his wizardly powers don't use the Thedasian magic system, eevn if Gale can obviously adapt his casting to local conditions, and thus starting to be just a wee bit spooked by the fact that multiple Outside Context Problems from entirely beyond Thedasian conception have just landed right in the middle of his scheme and are all too likely to blow it the hell up. But hey, that's his problem.

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Wolf pupy having to deal with an Actual Moon Goddess showing up thanks to Shart.

LMAO.

 

[Simonbob]

Minsc had made himself a self-appointed 'liason' of some type to the Guild to keep them on the relatively straighter and narrower,

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There's a part of me that simply boggles at Minsc, Minsc, being the guy who gets out of attention by this kinda twisty setup.

On the other hand, he is the kinda guy who'd blow off parades to smack Evil.


It's still hilarious.

 

[carterhall]

Man, excellent writing and story, cliffc999!
Really enjoyed it.

 

[Kencord]

Karlach: You sure you lot aren't reading this wrong?

Lelianna: *In conversion mode* What do you mean?

Karlach: Just this bit. 'Magic serves man, not rules him'. Seems clear, but you lot are real confusing about it.

Lelianna: How so? *Ready to have Circle of Mages fight*

Karlach: Well it clearly means Mages need to have something other than magic in their lives. A mage who is a baker using magic to make bread is fine. A wizard for the sake of being a wizard is the problem. If all they have is magic, they do stupid demons and blood magic shit.

Lelianna: *Silence*

Karlach: See? It means 'Don't let magic rule your life'. Which makes sense given the demons and shit. Don't know why you lot got ' lock up the Mages with only magic to do'. .... seems counterproductive.

Lelianna: *Inventing Blue Screening*

Cassandra and Solas: It's Fine. It's FINE

 

[cliffc999]

More than almost any other man in Thedas, Loghain mac Tir could fairly be called a perennial screw-up and human disaster area who'd brought ruin to practically everything he touched, and who would entirely deserve to die even just to partially make up for his sins.

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And in the category of 'things my subconscious did and I did not even remotely figure out that it did that until I was rereading my own shit weeks later', I only just realized that this part of the sequence is actually Hawke projecting his own self-loathing over how HIS life crashed and burned and all his family died all out onto Loghain... which given that Hawke is an Ostagar survivor and has a lot of legitimate reasons to not like Loghain is a very natural thing for him to be doing.

So it's actually significant when he rejects the impulse to let Loghain stay behind and die and decides to step up to that plate himself. Because it's both highlighting that Hawke is punishing himself and legitimately doing the right thing, which accurately mirrors that at the start of the story he's a man who is still struggling to process a lot of regrets. And, of course, in this AU it's his decision to make the sacrifice that makes the entire story happen in the first place.

All of the good that Hawke did, all of the people he inspired, the two worlds he helped save... all of it starts with his deciding to not indulge his spite and instead bite the bullet himself. Which of course jibes entirely with the whole story about how choosing to do the right thing is supposed to pay karmic dividends both to you and to others, and in this story at least it actually did.

Folks, it is so weird to read your own story and find foreshadowing of story themes that you didn't realize you were putting there.

 

[egooo]

Hey, thanks for all the work.

Genuinely didn't expect to find myself as engaged with reading this when I saw it pop up on sb and learned is actually finished on qq already.
(What the fuck, is that even legal?!).
Ain't that many BG3 stories, nor are most of them particularly readable let alone enjoyable.

Story reads pretty fine. You got descriptive language, you don't fuck up phrasing in any way that'd make my brain stop and try to go "wait, this would sound better like this...", and if any grammer issues are present my eye just skips over them I don't even notice.

I enjoyed Hawk's rendition.
I feel like early chapters had a bit too much expostition- and that he dropped his background like maybe a couple chapters too quick - but I can appreciate the fact is used as part of the whole "people actually talk, yo".
And the talking actually getting plot beats off the canon rails, whenever possible.

And you captured character vocies pretty well too. I definitely caught myself reading lines in their vocies a few times.

However, imo, it is the little bits like you paving over all the tiny "ok, hut why tho"s of canon with your own dnd nerdery, that make this read as standalone work and not just game novelization. Plenty fanfics repeating things beat for beat after all.
As reader, I can but appreciate you delegating sidequests in-narrative in ways that make sense.

All that combined with the sheer size?
Damn good work. Thank you for the reading.

The whole "Hawk and BG3 Co" epilogue in Thedas fills my head with a lot of plot bunnies, too.
"Character visits another setting and then returns to their own" Is always a neat set up for crossover, and here he's neither alone nor unchanged.
A lot of potential for fun clash of perspectives especially with how colorful DA:I cast are themselves.
Noe plz write

 

[carbon1923]

Folks, it is so weird to read your own story and find foreshadowing of story themes that you didn't realize you were putting there.

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That's just the sign of a great writer. Thinking ahead without even realising it.

I would love to see a sequel to this, even if it's just short vignettes of important or fun scenes.
Otherwise I'll be at work constantly thinking what if?
Damn you, you've cursed me with post-story depression.