Life on Thedas has the basic Self Insert Fic setup. Guy plays video game, goes through some unexplained incident and winds up in the world of the video game. In this fic, the narrator wakes up in the middle of the Ostagar battlefield surrounded by mutilated corpses, is nearly killed by two darkspawn and it all goes downhill from there. Enter Elisa Cousland, a Genki Girl with a darker side, who quickly becomes the narrator's Warrior Therapist.There are similarities toMass Vexations, obviously, as the writer is a self-confessed fanboy that often reviews Vexations 2 chapters. Then Herr Wozzeck endorsed the fic on Vexations 2, so that says something. Better Than It Sounds is in full effect here, something that reviewers have already noticed. It does tend to hang out closer to the drama side of the spectrum than Vexations, but still contains many Crowning Moments of Funny. It does tend to be Bloodier and Gorier, though, in its representation of rather realistic sword fighting, so readers beware.Be warned; due to a First Episode Spoiler you should read at least until chapter 6 if you don't want to be spoiled.
The following tropes apply to Life on Thedas, in addition to the tropes found in the source material:
A Day in the Limelight: The narrator strikes out on his own for a couple of chapters, even managing to kill Flemeth.
A Man Is Not a Virgin: The narrator is, and he and Alistair reference this shared quality. When he does lose his virginity to Morrigan, he finds it isn't all it was cracked up to be.
A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: The narrator experiences Elisa's memories of Howe's attack and it nearly kills him. Subverted with Malcolm, as his memories give the narrator the strength to fight off the demon.
As You Know: An odd variation. At first original dialogue was directly transcribed, but further on the author just writes his own by paraphrasing the events of the game. The narrator also tries to avoid slipping up and revealing something he shouldn't know. For example, Morrigan suspects that he knows about the Dark Ritual because he asks if she'd "be willing to die for something really important."
Big Damn Heroes: The party saves the narrator in Lothering when he stops to help Bodhan Feddic.
Malcolm comes out of nowhere to save the narrator after he sets Redcliffe village on fire.
Subverted when the party charges into the carta hideout to save Malcolm to find him saving himself quite nicely.
In short, just take a shot each time Malcolm pulls one and you'll be too drunk to read the rest.
Body Horror: Turning into an abomination isn't fun. Especially when it's happening to the narrator.
Broken Ace: Elisa shows a few shades of this, between her almost-bipolar switches from Genki Girl to Tranquil Fury - especially when Arl Howe is mentioned, and the revelation that she's a Death Seeker.
Cassandra Truth: When asked by Elisa, the narrator explains that he's from another world. She thinks he's just making up an interesting backstory and accepts him into the party.
Character Development: The narrator is noticeably less timid in the latter parts of the story, and of course his fighting skills improve.
Chekhov's Gun: The Desire Demon possessing Connor recognizes the narrator. This is left basically uncommented-on until the Circle Tower, when Uldred apparently awakens a demon inside the narrator.
The fact that the narrator's mind apparently follows Inception rules in the Fade is certainly not going to be forgotten, complete with a good-counterpart for the Mal figure. Maybe.
During their first training session, the narrator works out that the biggest flaw in Elisa's style is that forcing her onto the defensive is the easiest way to beat her. Come chapter 10, the narrator uses this in his fight with Zevran.
The narrator is forming [[Persona3 Social Links]] with the party. This is a HUGE unfired gun.
Christmas Episode: Which included the start of the narrator's involvement with Morrigan.
Cloudcuckoolander: Understated, but visible. For example, in Redcliffe he jumps at the chance to kick down Dwyn's door 300-style. It doesn't work. On the whole his mental train derails when he's agitated or scared, such as during the defense of Redcliffe village where he debates whether to call the attackers zombies or undead.
Colossus Climb: Zevran gets to perform one of these on Flemeth in her dragon form.
Combat Pragmatist: The narrator doesn't have much sword skill, so he makes up for it with this.
Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: The narrator tells the Warden that he was a commoner who ran away from home to join the army at Ostagar, then survived the battle and came to find her. Subverted, as the narrator is actually the City Elf PC, who actually was at Ostagar but lost his memory. Maybe.
Determinator: Despite being cursed by a werewolf Elisa escapes her tent to help the others.
Demonic Possession: The narrator. It leads to struggles and nightmare fuel alike.
Development Gag: Zevran's actor Jon Curry once described him as 'a sexed-up Inigo Montoya'. He and Elisa later reenact the famous duel, complete with dialogue.
Dream Within a Dream: The narrator lands in one after getting pulled into the Fade. The recurring dream of his station of awakening is implied to be the third dream level, or limbo.
Dual Wielding: The Warden's combat style. The drawbacks of the style are addressed, however, and Elisa is shown to be constantly honing the style. The only time she dual-wielded two full-size swords was to curb stomp the Broodmother.
Dudley Do-Right Stops to Help: The narrator pulls this to save Bodhan Feddic and his son from darkspawn outside Lothering. Thankfully the party saves him before he's overwhelmed.
Fish Out of Temporal Water: The first few chapters include some complaints about Ferelden's medieval trappings, but they fade as time goes on.
Filler: The Christmas Episode ends up subverting this. Not only is Sten's personal quest resolved, but Elisa and Alistair receive their Relationship Upgrade. Plus the narrator and Morrigan kiss.
Fire-Forged Friends: The narrator becomes this with the rest of the part over the course of the story.
First Episode Spoiler: The narrator is a mage possessed by a demon. It's only revealed in chapter six, but it's pretty much the central conflict of the story from that point on.
For Want of a Nail: The narrator's presence does change a few things, such as another Chasind Grey Warden by the name of Malcolm surviving Ostagar, but a multitude of other things happen that seemingly have nothing to do with him. The Warden having a much more affecting personality, for starters. More importantly, the narrator was apparently an abomination the whole time. Then again, the narrator is the City Elf PC, so that complicates things.
From a Certain Point of View: The narrator never actually lied to the party. He's just talking about memories of his past life in the Alienage that he lost.
Heroic BSOD: The narrator goes through one in the Fade at the Circle Tower where he admits he knew it was a dream the whole time, but wanted to stay because it's two years ago and his parents aren't divorced. It takes Elisa's Patrick Stewart Speech to get him out of it.
Elisa goes through a couple herself - first a minor one when her family sword breaks, the second when she and Alistair get a Relationship Upgrade, but finds herself agreeing with Wynne's sentiments.
The narrator has another one when he loses control to the demon, running away from the party. He needs a Cool Down Hug from Wynne to get better.
Hot Amazon: Elisa. The fic makes no bones about how fit she needs to be to fight like she does, yet she still pulls Alistair rather quickly.
I Am Not Left-Handed: Pulled off by Zevran and Elisa during the Princess Bride re-enactment, though anyone that saw the scene could guess the spoiler.
I Warned You: Malcolm pulls this on the narrator when he betrays him.
Katanas Are Just Better: The narrator's signature weapon is the Green Blade, a katana-like elf sword. Though he gets a regular bastard sword later, regulating the Green Blade to a backup monster-killer.
Meaningful Name: Ventus, which is Latin for wind. When Uldred awakens his powers, wind is a prominent part of the ensuing Power Incontinence. He also uses it to help kill the Pride demon.
It's also pretty much the Station of Awakening from Kingdom Hearts, but then again the narrator is a gamer.
Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: The narrator burns down Redcliffe village and blows the top off the mage's tower, both by accident.
Mind Screw: The fic seems to be taking the Life on Mars bent. Is he in a coma dream? Is he simply a resident of Ferelden gone mad? Or has he really been transported to another world? Evidence for all three of these is starting to pile up. Not to mention his Fade dream, which goes all Inception-y.
Nice job using that plate on your armour, narrator. It's only making the seal keeping the demon at bay break down.
No Name Given: The narrator adopts the name Ventus, but through The All Concealing I, completely avoids mentioning his real name. Then his pregame memories vanish, so even he doesn't know it.
On the Kingdom Hearts front, the narrator calls himself Ven(tus), and has a dream that plays out very similarly to an 'awakening' from KH.
Elisa quotes Zaeed in reference to what Arl Howe did.
The narrator quotes Jolee in one conversation with Morrigan.
During the defence of Redcliffe the narrator mentions the amount of zombie kills it took to get a particular achievement in Dead Rising, then comments that in Dead Rising he wouldn't have anyone in MY STOOOOOOOOOOORE!
When Elisa breaks her sword at the mage's tower, she uses two short swords afterwards. This is referenced as going Highlander: The Source.
After Zevran's ambush is defeated, Elisa offers a fair duel in exchange for a chance at living. Their dialogue and actions will seem fairly familiar to many people.
One to the game of The Witcher in chapter 12, with 'I hear Grey Wardens can parry an arrow in flight'. It almost has the same outcome too.
"I'm a Witcher," I growled in a Batman-esque voice. "Once I give you twenty Dire Bear asses I wish to sex up your village's entire female population. Then I want dirty playing cards of them. No, don't ask why."
Foreshadowed, but in chapter 12 the Persona 3 reference comes right out. There are at least three party members the narrator has started a Social Link with.
Take a Third Option: Due to not being limited by the gameplay, rather than Bhelen or Harrowmont, the Warden ends up choosing Duran Aeducan, the Dwarf Noble PC to be king.
Take That: An affectionate one to Mass Vexations when Zevran is recruited, as the narrator wonders if he'll act wildly out of character because he doesn't like him.
Later, through a set of circumstances the narrator ends up with an equipment set a lot like Geralt's. He then talks about Twenty Bear Asses and all the gratuitous sex to himself.
Tarot Motifs: Goes hand-in-hand with the Persona 3 reference. So far we have Leliana as the Moon, Elisa as Justice, Wynne as the High Priestess and Malcolm as the Tower.
Tempting Fate: The narrator internally snarks after burning down Redcliffe village that he'll probably end up blowing up the mage's tower. Well, not all of it. Just the Harrowing chamber.
Wham Episode: Both Redcliffe and the Circle tower, though the latter moreso because not only does it throw the narrator's reliability into question it reveals that he's been an abomination the whole time.
has the basic Self Insert Fic setup. Guy plays video game, goes through some unexplained incident and winds up in the world of the video game. In this fic, the narrator wakes up in the middle of the Ostagar battlefield surrounded by mutilated corpses, is nearly killed by two darkspawn and it all goes downhill from there. Enter Elisa Cousland, a Genki Girl with a darker side, who quickly becomes the narrator's Warrior Therapist.There are similarities to Mass Vexations, obviously, as the writer is a self-confessed fanboy that often reviews Vexations 2 chapters. Then Herr Wozzeck endorsed the fic on Vexations 2, so that says something. Better Than It Sounds is in full effect here, something that reviewers have already noticed. It does tend to hang out closer to the drama side of the spectrum than Vexations, but still contains many Crowning Moments of Funny. It does tend to be Bloodier and Gorier, though, in its representation of rather realistic sword fighting, so readers beware.Be warned; due to a First Episode Spoiler you should read at least until chapter 6 if you don't want to be spoiled.
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