The Gryphon and the Dragon

by sqbr

Summary:

An allegorical interpretation of the first meeting between Alistair and his son, inspired by the art of Ivan Bilibin.

Notes:

For owlmoose.

Inspired by Bedtime Story by owlmoose.

This is actually based on several of owlmoose's works, especially those in the "Pieces of Thedas" series, but "Bedtime Story" is the one that gave me the initial spark of an idea.

In the Kocari wilds, a gryphon version of Alistair stares in surprise at a small smiling red dragon. In the border of the picture, roses twine around Morrigan, Anora, and Sereda Aeducan, while beneath them darkspawn claw at the golden city. The dragon symbol of Kirkwall is scrawled in the corners.

Notes:

When I was first assigned Owlmoose I was intimidated by how many interesting sounding stories she'd written, but I ended up reading through pretty much all of them in one sitting (and was annoyed that leaving too many kudos might give me away). She's explored a lot of the themes I find really interesting in Dragon Age, I've always found the relationships between Alistair, Anora and the Warden fascinating, as well as that between Alistair, Morrigan, and their child. But it was the idea of Alistair (and the Warden) as gryphons that really grabbed me, it's a lovely play on the fairytale aspects of the game. As well as fun to draw :)

About the border: Interpreting "Bedtime Story" as part of the Sereda Aeducan story, the women in the top border fill different roles in Alistair's life: wife, lover and the mother of his child. And central to all their lives is Alistair and Morrigan's son, the Archdemon Urthemiel, who as an Old God taught humans magic thus leading to the creation of darkspawn and the Blight.

Owlmoose: you didn't give a very detailed description of Sereda, if you give me a screenshot I can make her more accurate if you like. She's a great character, I hope I did her justice!

This picture draws very heavily on the works of Ivan Bilibin, and I also copied and traced some of the details from Dragon Age screenshots.