No, but really, I think the fact that Audacity, the demon in the cave, is a pride demon is a really key thing. Merrill’s fatal flaw is NOT pride. It really isn’t. It’s DESIRE. All through the game, she is wanting to fix the mirror, to recover knowledge of the Dalish. She isn’t proud of her abilities. She’s desiring to recover what’s been lost. Merrill WANTS.
But Marethari? She’s extremely proud. She’s certain she knows best. She has a blind spot for Merrill, caused by parental pride. She cannot get past the belief that she’s absolutely right, and she gets consumed in that parental pride all through the game.
In fact, there’s a really good argument to be made that Marethari was possessed by Audacity from at least Act 2, if not all game long. Think about it. We see with Anders/Justice that, for a time, being bound to a demon can not impact someone’s everyday life too severely, but eventually, they will be consumed by it. Act 2 is where Marethari asks if Merrill intends to return to the clan, despite the clan being openly disdainful of her and telling stories of her blood magic, the kind that got Pol killed. Then she bends (if not breaks) the rules of the Dalish agreement she and Merrill make to give Hawke, who made no agreement with her, the tool that MERRILL negotiated for.
And then in Act 3, she has kept the clan at Sundermount to be close to Merrill, she goes from ‘the clan still has business here’ to ‘the clan will not leave until MY business is concluded’ in the space of about a minute, and then arrives AFTER Hawke and Merrill in the cave, but already has bound the demon to herself? There is no possible way that she could have done so before Merrill reached the cave. So the demon was already bound to MARETHARI, and well before Hawke and everyone got there, and I fully believe she was bound at least as of Act 2.
And that’s why Audacity is a pride demon. Because he’s feeding on Marethari’s pride, not Merrill’s desires.
[ID: Merrill drawn standing before a functional eluvian. She is wearing a long sleeveless green gown with gold embellishments and some kind of fur or feather accents on the shoulders. She’s raising her skirt as she walks, showing that she is barefoot. Her expression is kind and happy. End ID.]
Sketch commission of the lovely Merrill by the amazing, talented, and always groovy @lady-redhaired ! ♥ I highly recommend checking out her blogs if you have not!
I literally squealed when I got this! Adore her so much! Absolute favorite Dalish Blood Mage EVER! ♥
Urgh. Here’s today’s progress on Merrill’s staff. How do people finish their props so fast? I spend almost 6 hours only cutting out the styrofoam and sanding it until I was satisfied with its basic shape. I will now add some structure and cover the upper part of the staff in Worbla. Afterwards I’ll tackle the more difficult lower part. So far everything went well, but I’m really scared of painting the whole thing… painting is so important. And I’m the worst at it. °A°
1. Make a stencil out of normal paper and copy it onto the styrodur*. Cut out the basic shape with a knife or jigsaw.
2. Grab rough sanding paper and start sanding to get closer to the final shape you would like to create. As you get closer to the final shape use a final sanding paper to smoothen the surface. Be careful with your fingernailsand other sharp items. Styrodur can be damaged quite easily. The good thing about this trait, however, is that you can add details such as the stripes above with nothing but a pencil or tooth pick.
3. Take some left over Worbla’s Finest Art (or other thermoplastic) and cover the styrodur in it. Add small wholes on the inside of the buckle and push a spit in there. Fasten the spit with glue. Shape the pin of the buckle out of a tiny piece of thermoplastic as well and wrap it around the spit. Take care to not wrap around the end of the pin around the spit too closely or you might not be able to move the pin back and forth. Note: The step in which you cover the styrodur with thermoplastic is optional. You can also leave the styrofoam as it is and cover it with various layers of wood glue to keep it from getting damaged easily.
4. Cover the buckle in wood glue and let it dry. Sand the wood glue down to smoothen it. Repeat this step until the surface of the buckle is as smooth as you’d like it to be.
5. Paint the buckle including the pin and spit in one layer of black (acrylic) paint. This will make the golden colour which you’re going to add in the next steps more brilliant. After the black paint is completely dry you can start applying further layers of gold colour. Depending on the opacity of your golden colour it might take up to 10 layers of paint to finish the buckle.
6. To keep the paint from rubbing off onto your costume add another layer of wood glue or coating to the belt buckle. Make sure to leave the buckle to try for another few hours until you attach it to your actual belt.
*) Styrodur is a more finely pored version of styrofoam. It can be purchased in hardware stores and is used for insulating houses.)
THIS COSTUME ISN’T FINISHED YET. IT’S JUST A FITTING SHOT! So… before putting my Merrill costume to the side until Connichi is over, I decided to try on all pieces of the outfit to see what they looked like together. I used my skiing underwear to imitate the suit underneath. Everything looks good so far and keeps in place way better than I expected, but the fitting really showed me how important a well-made and perfectly fitting bodysuit is. If I can’t move in the suit properly I’ll be fed up wearing this costume in no time. I will now take my time to complete everything - including the staff - for MCM Expo in London next month…
All decorations for Merrill’s belt are coated in wood glue and drying. Time to tidy up the worbla-styrofoam-heatgun-dremel mess and to get back to the suit. #cosplay #wip #DragonAge #merrill #DragonAge2 #belt #beltbuckle #worbla
