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AngelicFlash — Bittersweet
Published: 2011-06-03 05:04:52 +0000 UTC; Views: 3995; Favourites: 132; Downloads: 50
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Warning: spoilers. If you haven't played Dragon Age II all the way through and you just enjoy Anders art, then skip reading the artist's comments on this one."We will fight for a world where our children can be born mages and free. Ten years--a hundred years from now--someone like me will love someone like you, and there will be no Templars to tear them apart."
Yes, I know that Grey Wardens having children is practically impossible because of the Taint...but...what if it DID happen for Anders? It would be a bittersweet sort of thing, because they would be happy to have a child, yet worried because of the chaos in the world around them. Lyra decided they would return to Ferelden to help Alistair deal with the Orlesians, and the Chantry is falling apart, so their child will be born into a very unstable climate indeed. It makes moments like this...very precious. Thank goodness for Alistair's tendency to keep mages out of the Circle when he can.
Dragon Age II and associated content belong to Bioware. Pose referenced from a photo on shutterstock.com.
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Comments: 43
I assumed she probably just never got prego during the game because Justice always persuaded him to... uh... withdraw early. Cause he's Justice. LOL
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I assumed she probably just never got prego during the game because Justice always persuaded him to... uh... withdraw early. Cause he's Justice. LOL
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Ehhhhhhh that method of contraception isn't actually effective. Not really. More likely either she doesn't get pregnant because she's taking contraceptive potions, or Anders is using contraceptive spells. Wynne mentions how there's ways mages manage to avoid getting pregnant, so I assume that means spells yay.
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Well, Morrigan has no problem getting pregnant by the Warden in DAO. There's no reason a healthy human can't have kids with a Warden.
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Morrigan had a spell SPECIFICALLY to have a child with a Warden. It guaranteed conception. But Alistair mentions it isn't impossible for a Warden to have a child, just difficult.
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well i dig this but wardens can have children as long as only one of them is a warden but still sweet
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I know Wardens can have children. I think I had a discussion thread on this about...a year back or so. Certainly several months ago. But if you romance Alistair as Lady Cousland, he comments that it's hard enough/rare enough for a couple to have children when only one of them is a Warden.
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i always tought the single taint that each warden has within them if in a child it were doubled and cancelled out because if we think about it not every wardens taint is the same because who knows what type of darkspawn there taint came from be genlock hurlock or even an emisary or from the vinmark pass from legacy and then the classes go into effect like a warden mage would have ,ore potent power if all there blood came from an emmisary just a thought
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Ah, love this!! 
(And I thought the issues with Gray Wardens having kids were only if both parties were Wardens...hmmm, why doesn't the wiki or something have a straight answer for this! lol)
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Awww, thanks! And the issue about Grey Wardens having kids isn't just with both parents being Wardens. If you talk to Alistair as Lady Cousland and have romanced him, then he'll talk about how it's hard enough to have kids when just one of the parents is a Grey Warden, let alone both people being Wardens, and how all the Grey Wardens he's known who have family had their families before they became Wardens.
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Oh see I interpreted that completely differently. I thought he meant how difficult it was to have kids period. For anyone, Warden or no. xD lol!
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You had a character named Lyra?! I am currently writing a fanfic of a character by that name! Lyra Cousland. So weird! Awesome pic, btw.
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Lyra is a good name. XD I started playing DA2 after watching The Golden Compass, so I went "...LYRA IS A COOL NAME. 8D"
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I adore this picture, and I'm not sure how impossible it is, miracles CAN happen. But isn't the child born with the taint?
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As far as I know, the child won't be born with the taint. In Origins, when Morrigan is pressuring the Warden to sleep with her (or to have Alistair sleep with her) so a child can be conceived to save the Grey Wardens, she mentions that the child will not have the taint.
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Oh, I thought she said it 'would'. That that was what would draw the spirit to the baby. I always saw the ritual would impregnate Morrigan with a soulless baby that would then allow the spirit to go inside and find a new home.
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Hmm, I'm not sure, because if the child had the taint, then the Old God would become tainted too. Morrigan wants just an Old God to raise, as an Old God, not an Archdemon.
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can u imagine the poer this kid would have if it were born a mage
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He could very well have been born a mage. I don't think we know yet.
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well perhaps in requesition we shall find out
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Yeah I checked the child having the Taint is what would draw the Old God's spirit to the baby.
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Ahhh, well. *shrug* We shall see what we shall see. There may be a way to keep the taint from reaching the child. To be honest, I haven't gotten to the point of thinking that out. I'm still writing up to the child being conceived, this is simply an image that wouldn't leave my head.
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Just a random butt in here but the mother and child's blood never mixes. It goes through the placenta that acts like a filter. That's why if the mother has a disease of some kind that is transmitted through bodily fluids (like the taint) the child is normally safe. Sometimes complications do occur resulting in a break down of the filter but they are rare. Thats how a mother with HIV wouldn't necessarily give her child HIV.
That's what I remember from high school anyway.
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I've noticed that only half of actual biology gets into the Dragon Age universe. Otherwise, there would be a recessive gene involved with the child of an Elf and a Human always being Human, so if two Humans who each had an Elf parent were to have children, there should be a 1:4 chance of an Elf child being born. However, there isn't. All children of Elves and Humans are Human, and THEIR children are Human, etc. Feynriel wasn't supposed to look remotely Elvhen, but the game artists decided that he should, so there was a clause written in about how if there are several Elves in the direct line of descent on the Human's side, the child could have Elvhen features. But I digress.
The placenta isn't as effective a filter as you might think. Alcoholic or drug-using mothers pass these things on to their babies, leading to a special section of the Maternity Ward where babies going through addictive substance withdrawal are cared for. Also, there are a fair number of babies born with HIV from HIV mothers.
Furthermore, the mother here does not have the Taint. It is the father who has it. Anders is the Grey Warden, not Lyra Hawke. There is currently some dispute as to whether the child of a Grey Warden would be born with the Taint, considering very rarely do Wardens have children after they get the Taint. I would prefer to believe that Lyra and Anders' child(ren) wouldn't be born with the Taint, considering Alistair's birth mother was a Warden, yet he was not born with the Taint.
It's all moot anyways. I haven't gotten to that part of the story. Heck, I haven't even written up to anywhere NEAR this part of the story! I've had time to think a bit more since I wrote the comment you responded to, but I'm currently paused in my writing until I play through the two DLCs.
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what about feynriel he had an elf face but with ahumans hieght
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The lore is that the child of a human and an Elf will be human. If there are enough Elves in the lineage of the human, then some Elven traits will come through in the child of that human and an Elf. I think there has to be at least seven generations of Elf-human couples in the lineage before a child is produced with more Elven traits. That's why Feynriel comments that when he was with humans, he thought everyone could tell by his face that he had an Elf parent, and when he was with the Dalish he could tell how human he was.
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did u ever let feynriel become possesed if u do he is like freedy krugar if not a boble mans daughter falls for him in her dreams
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No, I always saved him, and sent him off to Tevinter. I'm a sucker for the mages, even when playing characters not horribly interested in what happens to mages.
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ive ony killed him once i sided with the templars to keep fenris because he was like my characters bestfriend and i couldnt make them fight but i didint know that i could make him fight with the mages if my friendship or romance was all the way
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I already said that bad things sometimes get through the placenta but that's besides the point. Alcohol and like is different from most diseases as it is piggy backed into the babies blood stream through proteins and stuff. Basically confused as nutritional. I'm not going to wiki I'll leave that to you but baby and mothers blood does not under normal circumstances mix and the placenta acts as enough of a filter to firewall a lot of diseases and such with HIV as an example but complications do happen.
With the father being the taint carrier the taint cannot come through the blood to infect the baby and logically speaking if it was in his sperm then he'd be infecting everyone he has sex with. Seeing as I've never heard of it being transmitted through sexual contact the chance of the father infecting the baby via conception is extremely low. It would have to be very unusual to have the taint in the sperm but not effecting sexual partners as absorbing occurs. Perhaps a mutation within the sperms DNA with a dorment version of the taint? That would most likely make the children immune to the taint though.
To be honest though, DA and ME lore tends to just bend over and shake it's ass at modern science anyway so really anything goes I guess. You could have all grey warden children become psychic's and pans-dimensional beings because of a weird mutation of the taint when they eat honey and I'm sure it'd sound plausible.
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Your last paragraph sums up my entire point, and renders everything else null and void. However, let me clarify a few things. Because this is sadly entertaining me, how a fantasy game with magic (already throws science out the window right there) is the subject of a debate about science and medicine.
You have to keep in mind, this is in a whole other world or universe, on a world called Thedas. Not Earth. Thedas. With dragons. Not dinosaurs, dragons (though I still hope they find proof of dragons here on Earth). And with magic. Not tricks and science that less advanced societies might deem magic. Magic in and of itself, with science that is very different from our own. Genetics in Dragon Age do not act as they do in real life, or else (as I said before) there would be a lot more children of Elves and Humans who are Elvhen, or even half Elvhen.
As for the issue of the father being the Taint carrier: it may not necessarily be that the father is the one passing the Taint on to the child. The Taint may simply be a recessive trait, something that adheres only to certain chromosomes in certain eggs or sperm. But that becomes null in the face of the fact that honestly, Dragon Age has its own screwed up system of delivering genetic traits. Also, the Taint is not passed on to the partner because the Taint does not act as an STD does. It is transferred by direct transfer into a person's blood via Darkspawn attack or by consumption of Darkspawn blood (see the corruption of Aveline's husband Wesley and one of the Hawke siblings, and the Grey Warden ceremony). Therefore the transfer of the Taint to Lyra is not possible unless she is Corrupted in a Darkspawn attack or she undergoes the Grey Warden Ceremony, but there is the possibility of her child having the Taint due to the possibility of some of Anders' sperm having Corrupted chromosomes.
I am not arguing in favour of their child having the Taint. However, Hawke and Anders don't know what will happen with this pregnancy, and this would be one of their concerns. The concern will alleviate when they get to Kirkwall and discover that the King and Queen have had two healthy baby boys, so the chances are good that Lyra and Anders' own child won't have the Taint.
May I once again point out that science and medicine go out the window when you have such things as the Taint, magic, and genetics that make no sense? I try to go by what is plausible in the real world, but I nod my head in concession to the differences between Dragon Age and real life. I am not about to say that all the children will be Tainted, become Grey Wardens at age 2, become psychics and pan-dimensional beings who die at age 20 or 30 due to their Corruption because they mutated when they ate honey. That falls under "what were you smoking when you wrote that?" in my mind. But neither am I going to say that there is no way Anders' child will have the taint, because my Hawke is simply a walking, talking, breathing filter and gestation unit for his child. By that token, neither am I saying that all their children will become Tainted and die before their mother.
To sum it up: screw science and modern medicine, they don't apply, but take a pinch of common sense as well. There will be no m-preg, immaculate conception, children of an Elf and a Human being born as the spitting images of Legolas, Haldir, Elrond, Glorfindel, Celebrian,or Arwen, or Sten spontaneously falling in love with Oghren in my headcanon.
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Ah ok, it's interesting to think about...
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I-I'm glad you do. o3o I now kind of want to re-do it...since I'm better at colouring and lighting a bit now...
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Heehee well I think the image you have already is gorgeous...but I would be interested to see an updated version too
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Well, it's improbable - not impossible - for a Grey Warden to have a child. It's even less possible for two Grey Wardens to have children...but that scant possibility is still there. I like this concept, though. Your depiction of Papa-to-be with baby-belly Mama is very tender.
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XD;; I'm not saying it's impossible. It's PRACTICALLY impossible, and Hawke wasn't sure they'd be able to have kids. I'm glad you like this though~
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I read the first comment and that's how I see it too ^^
Whomever it was said it was quite difficult and unlikely, but no one ever said it was impossible ^^
This is beautiful by the way ;D
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Mhm, which makes Anders having a kid that much more precious than he'd probably already consider it...which would probably be a lot. Good lord, I just realised that he's the WORST father to go up against...XD;; Better hope their kid isn't a girl...
Thank you, and thanks for the fave~
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It's not that it's impossible, just highly unlikely. Moreso if it's two Wardens. And Anders having a kid(s) to dote on would be amusing. Might even keep Justice tempered for a bit...
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Mhm. I like the idea of the slim chance actually happening, and it's more likely to happen with Hawke than with another Grey Warden. It also just seems...fitting for Anders to have a kid, like it would make him happy and he might act more like he did before Justice. At the very least, I think it would stabilise him more, temper Justice like you said.
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Would be even neater to have said child be a mage, to carry on not only the fight for freedom, but being a healer. Hawke would only care that her child be safe.
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I haven't gotten that far in planning their child, or if they'll have more than one child in my story. But yeah, Hawke wouldn't care if her child were a mage or no, she would just love her child. That's why instead of just going on the run, she and Anders are heading for Ferelden. Alistair's comment about how she would be welcome is a life-saver for them, and it's likely he and the Grey Warden aren't going to turn Anders away.
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