A Fusion Fic between Sherlock Holmes and Dragon Age, re-imagining Holmes and Watson into Thedas.
Shortly after the Battle of Denerim, Enchanter John Watson finds himself unable to return to the Circle due to an injury while his Templar escort must leave him. With few options, he is introduced to the elf Sherlock Holmes, whose strange profession leads him to invite the mage into investigating the death of a Templar.
Can be read here
. Was intended to be the start of a series and has a sequel, but the sequel, The Sign of the Dragon
, was abandoned after two chapters.
Tropes
- Adaptational Badass: Instead of a medical doctor, Watson is a mage skilled in healing magic. Moriarty is now a demon, making him significantly more powerful.
- Adaptational Context Change:
- In the book and most versions, Holmes and Watson first meet in a mortuary of some sort, with Holmes attempting to figure out how long after death bruises appear on a body when beaten. In this fanfic, Watson is introduced to Holmes at his home in Baker Street while he's attempting to find a way to test whether a fire was caused using magic or through natural means. Though Holmes beating a dead body for this exact purpose does happen after Watson moves in.
- A minor example, but Holmes' lack of knowledge that the Earth revolves around the sun is replaced with him being unaware that the moon causes tides.
- Instead of cocaine, Holmes injects himself with diluted poison in the second story.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Like most modern versions, Holmes isn't afraid to insult people to their faces and is a bit macabre in his enjoyment of crimes and murders.
- Adaptational Job Change: Holmes is now a detective instead of a consulting detective, since in real life detectives didn't exist until the 1800s while Thedas is based on The Middle Ages. Meanwhile Watson is an enchanter with the Circle of Maji and Sebastian Moran is also a mage instead of a colonel.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Moran isn't a willing ally to Moriarty, instead being a mage being coerced by two corrupt Templars into helping mages escape so they can kill them and cleanse the world of magic. However he ends up being possessed by Moriarty, who is a demon imprisoned in the Circle.
- Adaptational Personality Change:
- Since Holmes exists in a world full of actual magic and demons, he naturally believes they exist. However he still operates under the same deductive logic he does in the original books.
- Watson's a little less assertive than most depictions, since he grew up in a Circle and learned from a young age to obey the rules in fear of being killed. Despite this he feels it was a necessary method in order to keep the peace.
- Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
- Stamford is now a Templar assigned to watch over Watson, though he still has a pretty civil relationship with Watson despite this and even suggests that Watson write down his thoughts with the implication being that Stamford thought it would help Watson. His relationship with Holmes is much less friendly, since they've only met on a few occasions when the Templars needed his expertise.
- Unlike in other versions, Watson and Holmes aren't flatmates. Instead Stamford asked Holmes, who is reasonably trusted by the Templars, to keep an eye on Watson. He later blackmails the Circle into letting Watson join him at Baker Street in return for his help in finding Moriarty.
- While they didn't know each other well, Watson did know Sebastian Moran since they both grew up in the Circle.
- Adaptational Species Change: Holmes and Mrs. Hudson are now elves instead of humans. Moriarty meanwhile is now a demon.
- Adaptational Wealth: Holmes traditionally comes from a wealthy family, but being an elf he now grew up in an Alienage.
- Ascended Extra: Mrs Hudson is more of a supporting character, having far more lines and personality.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Thedas is mostly a fantasy version of The Middle Ages, with some inspiration from later eras. As a result Holmes' approach to solving crimes is centuries ahead of everyone else, where he accurately points out that the city guard essentially arrests the first person they think is responsible or just does nothing.
- Cutting Off the Branches: While the Hero of Ferelden doesn't appear, certain comments and moments reveal details about them and the choices they made:
- The tranquil Hope refers to the Warden being man. He also wasn't a City Elf, since an encounter with Shianni reveals that her uncle was forced into slavery and shipped off to the Tevinter Imperium.
- The Warden sided with the mages in the "Broken Circle" quest and argued against using the Right of Annulment.
- Alistair was made king and married Anora.
- In the final chapter Holmes references Ferdinand Genitivi, meaning he survived "The Urn of Sacred Ashes" quest.
- Dark and Troubled Past: The events of "Broken Circle" were this for Watson.
- Fantastic Racism: Since he's an elf, Holmes experiences this from several human characters.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Holmes isn't liked by anyone, including the other elves since he treats them the same as he treats any humans and doesn't give them special treatment. Meanwhile he gets no respect for the guard, who generally don't like him for showing them up and for being an elf.
- Inspector Lestrade: Instead of the actual character, there is a Sergeant Kylon.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Holmes is incredibly rude and at times cold with his logic, but he does genuinely care and will admit when he's wrong about things or acknowledge the flaws in things he personally likes, such as the Qun.
- Left Hanging: With the series being abandoned, what Moriarty has planned will never be explained and the second story will not have an ending.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Holmes often expresses annoyance by the "with us or against us" mentality of elves in the Alienage and how many elves despise humans.
- Noodle Incident: Holmes' violin was a gift from an Antivan prince and at one point he had visited Seheron.
- Odd Friendship:
- Holmes and Watson have always had an unlikely friendship, but now Holmes is an elf while Watson is a human Circle mage which makes them even more unlikely to have become friends.
- Despite their overall personality differences, their shared passion to investigate and learn more about the world in ways others don't means that Holmes develops quick respect for Dagna when they meet.
- Stealth Mentor: It's implied at certain points in the story that Holmes is testing and encouraging Watson's observational skills and deductive reasoning.
- Traveling at the Speed of Plot: Averted, it's made clear that the journey to the Circle took some times even with taking few breaks, and Watson's mentions how a bandits attacked twice.
