"I have gathered the will to return under no name but my own, to champion withered Tevinter and correct this blighted world. Beg that I succeed, for I have seen the throne of the gods, and it was empty!"
— Corypheus
The Canticle of Fate
is a roleplay written in a novelesque style, set in Bioware's Dragon Age universe. The story follows The City of Chains, and serves as a retelling of the events of Dragon Age: Inquisition, albeit one with entirely new characters and an abundance of original subplots and twists on the canon.
This work provides examples of:
- Action Girl: All of the female player characters, and a large chunk of the remaining female characters qualify to some extent.
- Alchemy Is Magic: Series standard. Particularly employed by Romulus and Rilien.
- Alternate Universe Fic: It's basically one of these for DA:I, the "alternate" part mostly being the cast, though significant liberties are taken with plot as well.
- Armor and Magic Don't Mix: Played straight with Asala, who has barriers anyway. Cyrus and Estella avert it, as both are casters who wear armor.
- A Tankard of Dragon's Piss: Cyrus orders one after a rather disastrous set of events, intent on getting very drunk very quickly. It works. Zahra lampshades.
- Badass Crew: The main cast. Sort of necessary, when the goal is world-saving on a rather massive scale.
- Ballroom Blitz: The Irregulars have to stop multiple assassinations from being carried out at the Orlesian Winter Palace in Halamshiral.
- The Big Board: The War Table, of course. Covered in maps and tokens and so forth.
- Blood Magic: A series staple, used to particular effect in the events preceding Adamant Fortress, when Pike binds demons to Grey Wardens in this manner.
- Chain Lightning: Probably Cyrus's favorite spell. Astraia uses it a fair bit, too, with unpredictable results.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Livia, introduced as a very minor NPC servant, later nearly succeeds in assassinating Cyrus and does succeed in taking away his magic and leading some of the Inquisition on quite a chase.
- Clear My Name: Estella has to do this for her friend Julien, who has been accused of treason he did not commit.
- Cool Boat: Riptide, the ship belonging to Captain Zahra Tavish, is pretty cool. She even has a Qunari cannon after they took it from another ship they defeated.
- Deadly Decadent Court: Orlais has a very famed-in-universe one of these.
- Dispel Magic: Appears often, crucially as part of the effort to close the Breach.
- Distinctive Appearances: Well, none of the main cast could be mistaken for average, to say the least.
- The Dragon: Quite literally a dragon (a red lyrium dragon) that acts as Corypheus's most lethal weapon and protector on any given battlefield.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Happens to a few people, notably Khari after the betrayal of her mentor and Cyrus after losing his magic.
- Emotionally Tongue-Tied: A large number of cast members suffer from this at one point or another. The emotions involved vary somewhat, but it's often a romantic issue.
- Evil Gloating: After his plan falls apart, Adan Borja takes the time to rub in the extent of his deception to Romulus, all while beating the daylights out of him.
- Forced Sleep: Makes several appearances, most notably (and sadly) when Nostariel uses it on her husband Ashton so he won't try to stop her Heroic Sacrifice.
- Fruit Cart: One is overturned as part of a foot-chase through the streets of Llomerryn.
- Godzilla Threshold: Played with. The Grey Wardens believe themselves to have reached it in early 9:42, and resort to binding themselves to demons with blood magic. The Inquisition begs to differ.
- Group Hug: Estella, Vesryn, Cyrus, and Zahra have one at the twins' surprise birthday party.
- Human Sacrifice: Corypheus attempts one of these on Divine Justinia V. It's the event that kicks off the plot, though this doesn't become obvious to the cast until considerably later in the story.
- I Know What You Fear: Nightmare's MO.
- Just Between You and Me: In his first appearance in the flesh, Corypheus takes the time to explain a huge amount of background information on himself and his motives to Romulus, whom he is planning to kill shortly afterwards.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Most of the female cast members during the Halamshiral episode.
- Lady and Knight: Played with in two different ways, both of which involve Estella being the Lady half of the duo. Neither Khari nor Vesryn are actual knights in any official sense, but they are both fighters in plate armor, and also care a great deal about Estella's safety specifically. Despite Khari being the platonic version of the trope, she's more miffed about sharing the duty than Vesryn is. Estella lampshades:
- Estella: [Dryly] In the unlikely event I ever find myself locked in any towers, I'll let you both race to see who rescues me first, and we can decide who gets the title that way.Khari: So you're saying I have a chance.
- Mind Rape: Nightmare employs this strategy against Vesryn and Saraya in particular while he and Estella are trying to regroup with their friends in the Fade.
- Misery Builds Character: Pretty operative in most individual character arcs. Romulus and Cyrus make particularly effective use of this in different ways.
- The Mole: The Skyhold servant known as Livia turns out to be Leta, an acquaintance from Cyrus's past who then tries to kill him and steals his notes for her master.
- Mysterious Note: Zahra gets several in the course of her personal plotline. One of them even includes a riddle.
- Nickname Basis: Nicknames tend to be significant here. Compare a character like Khari, who nicknames everyone as part of her informal personality, to Estella, who explicitly asks Vesryn's permission to call him Ves, long after it would have been perfectly fine to do so.
- No One Could Survive That!: Romulus and Khari take a significant fall down a well after both of them were wounded in the battle at Haven, and both survive.
- Original Character: A whole cast full of 'em. And a ton of original minor characters, too.
- Out of the Inferno: Romulus survives being engulfed in a massive blaze of magically created fire as part of a false ritual to identify him as the blood and heir of the prophet Andraste.
- Parental Substitute: More than one, to markedly different results in different cases. Estella was mostly raised by a man she cares for a great deal, and who treated her very well. Cyrus, not so much.
- Power Glows: The Anchors on both Romulus and Estella's hands are glowy and green.
- Secret Test of Character: Asala gets one of these from a spirit of Compassion. Cyrus, Romulus, Leon, and Zahra all play along to help.
- Shipper on Deck: Zahra is this for several people, most notably Rom and Khari.
- Tarot Motifs: Following the source material, each of the major cast members is associated with one of the major arcana: Romulus with the Hanged Man, Estella with the Star, and so on.
- Teleportation: Estella acquires this ability with some practice using her mark, and is able to bring others along for the ride, which proves helpful after the fight with Obsession, when everyone is trying to escape a collapsing cave.
- Thwarted Coup de Grâce: Adan Borja's killing blow on Khari is interrupted by a recovery from Romulus, and the subsequent exploding of Borja's head via Rom's mark.
