danaduchy:

Emprise Du Lion

• Mountains. Cold. “Let’s bring Dorian!”

• Treacherous ground here. I’m picturing myself bumping all the way down a mountain.

• At least the walk back will be easier than the walk up.

• Not the most idyllic mountainside, is it?

• Reminds me of the High Reaches, but with more snow.

Fallow Mire

• Let me guess: the locals claim this place is haunted.

• Reminds me of the Donarks, actually. Just much, much colder.

• Fields of mud. Ugh.

• What do they call this? A “bog”? Lovely word.

• The Veil’s thin here, demons seeping into every corpse and tree they can.

Storm Coast

• (Breathes deep.) Finally, some humidity.

• Bloody Waking Sea. Never been more sick than when I crossed that. Of course, it might have been the bottle of grappa I was nursing. The sea and I don’t mix well.

• Footing’s rather slick around here.

• The “Storm Coast”? You southerners think of cheery names for these places, don’t you?

Crestwood

• Is everywhere in Ferelden so… moist?

• There’s a lake like this one near my family’s estates. Fewer demons.

• Quaint area. Fereldans live a bit like barbarians, don’t they?

• (Shudders.) Now I see why they wear so much fur.

• Let’s be watchful. I understand this country’s full of dogs.

Emerald Graves

• What a lovely forest. Kind of makes you want to retch, yes?

• I’m not made for the wilderness. I’m more taverns and big cities.

• Wild animals everywhere. Don’t these people hunt?

• We’re going to get lost and starve to death, aren’t we. A glorious end for the Inquisition.

• Why “Emerald Graves”? What graves? Did they bury people here?

Hinterlands

• The Fereldan heartland. It’s a brave new world, Dorian Pavus.

• Does the cold not bother any of you? Truly?

• Odd that the Fereldans would invite the rebel mages into their country. They had to know it would bring the fighting here.

• The mage rebellion has turned this place upside down, hasn’t it?

• I camped in these hills for two weeks when I got here. Me, camping!

Hissing Wastes

• Lively for a wasteland, I’ll give it that.

• It’s freezing! Why is a desert freezing?

• Dwarven ruins on the surface. That must be a year’s worth of arguments for the scholars.

• I think I’m drying out from the inside.

• At least Corypheus’s followers are suffering with us.

• Does that noise ever stop?
  Cassandra: Please don’t keep mentioning it.
  Blackwall: It didn’t the last nine times you asked.
  “Persistence is its own reward.” That’s a Tevinter proverb.
  Bull: Well, it’s sand blowing on sand in a place full of wind and sand.
  Thank you. That makes so much more sense now.

Forbidden Oasis

• I read somewhere you can sink into sand. Just… whoop! Down you go.

• In Ancient Tevinter, they called this place Vina Hadalus. It means “the downy hairs upon your ass.”
  [That’s an odd name.] Really? Who named it that?
  Someone who liked staring at asses. You know how magisters are.
  [It’s more sandy than downy.] You’d think it would be “the itchy sand down your trousers.”
  I suppose the ancients weren’t all that clever.
  [That’s a lie.] It does not mean that.
  True, but look around. It couldn’t mean something much better.

• Do they have sand worms here? Giant sand worms? No?

Exalted Plains

• It figures that most of the fighting happened here and not in Orlais proper.

• Before the elves were given this land, I understand it was mostly forest. You can hardly tell.

• How many battles have been fought on these plains over the ages?

• I wonder how different this land looked back when the elves had it.

• “Exalted Plains.” Named to honor the “great” victory of Orlais over the elves.

Val Royeaux

• So this is the heart of mighty Orlais?

• At least we’re in a city. I’m tempted to find a tavern. Perhaps all of them.

• So many masks. What a bizarre custom.

• It’s not as austere as Tevinter cities. Not nearly as many dragon statues. Such garish colors. And where are the ruins? Minrathous is full of ruins.

• We need to find some proper wine while we’re here. I’m rather desperate.

Western Approach

• So this is where the Second Blight began. Seven hundred years later, and it still hasn’t recovered.

• They say the Abyssal Rift goes all the way down to the Deep Roads. I’m tempted to throw something down there to test it out.

• (Coughs.) The wind is a bit… sandy, isn’t it?

• They say the Silent Plains are corrupted like this. Never been.

• I thought deserts were supposed to be hot.