#[ i imagine she would've been around 21-22 years old ]

[afraidofchange]

Ilona's time as a Tevinter galley slave...

The last thing she'd said to her mom was in anger; they had been fighting about the training Ilona had been doing, with the intent to do mercenary work rather than taking up a more "civilian" hobby. Ilona had told her mother that she was going back to Tevinter, where Uncle Jar didn't "piss her off" so much.

However, while she barely wrote in advance to let him and his husband know she was on her way, the ship she managed to hideaway on arrived late to the docks. Ilona was a young 20 something, and while she was good with a sword, she didn't bring one with her. And the ship's captain? A slaver. She tried to fight out of it, but only armed with her fists, she was vastly outnumbered, and soon joined the ranks of slaves captured beyond the borders of the Tevinter Imperium.

Her uncle received her letter days later, but with no Ilona, soon wrote to her mother Arinda. They were concerned, but had no way of knowing where she was (kind of wondering maybe if Uncles Jar and Alain would have a) known who Neve was and b) if she was actively available to look into such a thing (espec. since she was a ship slave, and was soon put to work out to sea)).

Forced into slavery, Ilona was not happy about this fate, and resisted at every opportunity. Her da was a firebrand of a man, and she held his spirit close to her heart; she too fought and ended up being beaten many a time. Each time, she came back with an even stronger resolve.

For weeks, she and other slaves would be subjected to rowing for hours on end without reprieve. The ship that she was held to was not a warship, but one for trade. While it avoided conflict at sea, it meant traversing far distances, rowing at constant intervals until people passed out from the exertion. In this time, while she was often deprived of adequate food and water, she still built her strength. (Rowing as a motion works not just the arms but core and legs all the same).

For months, the predicament didn't quell her spirit, but it made her think strategically. She had all this time doing the same motion over and over; it allowed her to plan and devise an exit. After all, some slaves jumped off the side into the sea, only to exhaust themselves trying to swim towards shore, or fall victim to sharks. There were too many armed slavers to incite a full rebellion on board, and she was already made weak from the constant exertion. But she did start to piece together a plan - one that, if she had to, could be enacted alone.

Meanwhile, frantic and worried, her mother Arinda returned to Minrathous to get Uncle Jar's help and try to figure out where she could possibly be. It pained her to leave their home in case Ilona did show up, somehow (she left a letter out on the table). They worked together, trying to ask around and pay off some folks for information. All they managed to get was that there was a female dwarf in a group of slavers on one boat that would come in every couple months. It was a lead, and it was all they had to go off of.

As the better part of a year passed by, it was one night that the ship had docked, and the slaves were kept down below the deck, fed the scraps of the slavers' meal from their night on the town. Set to leave at dawn, many were too drunk and went to sleep, leaving the one on duty to watch twenty others. So went the others' distraction, causing a fight across the way, while Ilona managed to stomp the slowly rotting wood plank out from the bottom deck. The broken piece that was still firm, served as a weapon -- and Maker, did she let the guard have it. First, a blow to the back of his knee knocked him to the ground, and then, to the back of the head, repeatedly. If they were all going to escape, then she made sure they would have one less slaver to deal with.

While the commotion normally would've roused the attention of the other slavers from their cabins above the deck, they managed to take the keys from the fallen guard, and slowly, one by one, tiptoed their way off the boat, scattering into the busy places of Docktown and beyond, hoping to blend in, and never be tracked down.

Ilona herself, however, went right towards her Uncle Jar's medical clinic. At that time of night, only her mother was still awake with worry, and she nearly collapsed when she answered that fateful knock (they'd been planning to check the docks come morning before the ships were set to depart, hoping to pay nearly all their combined coin to get Ilona back). The first thing Ilona did was apologize to her mother, vowing not to part in anger ever again.

However, the trauma of being forced into slavery for what is, relatively a short time, remained strongly within Ilona's mind. Never again did she want to feel so weak and powerless against anyone else; her mother promised never to hold her back from seeking out the right training.

They returned to Rivain as soon as possible, and since then, for years, she avoided Tevinter at all costs unless going with a group.

Despite the casual remark to Taash - who needed the guidance in the moment - Ilona does not like to talk about those 10 months of her life. She is initially suspicious of Tevinter mages (sorry Neve), and never feels at ease when visiting places in Minrathous (even in Docktown). She chooses to bury her trauma, and prefer to help others, but she never feels like she's competent enough to make decisions for others (how can she, when her own stupid decision put her right on a slaver's ship as a stowaway?). Even as she ages, she still feels this way -- and it is compounded and made worse when she is put in the position of "Rook" at the beginning of the Veilguard.

Because of how often she refused to fall in line, Ilona has suffered a number of broken bones and other injuries from being beaten and whipped (there are a few scars on her back that are left from the time she was once lashed into submission). She's lost a few molars (and has had them replaced with gold teeth), she's had her fingers broken in fights and beatings (and thus, has prominent boxer's fractures on both hands where the pinky knuckles are no longer 'visible' when she makes a fist. While she is still relatively young and doesn't suffer too many aches yet, she will as she ages, notably with arthritis in her hands and numerous chronic pain in previous breaks/strains. She actually does have worse vision in her left eye compared to the right after taking a bad blow there in this time. It doesn't affect her coordination too much, but it is noticeable if she closes her good eye and tries to do a task that requires good vision.

Most people do not know about Ilona's history as a galley slave. She's maybe only mentioned it to Varric but not Harding; in the Chess Club, only Taash knows because she encouraged them to take up Rivaini culture, and Ilona asks them not to mention it otherwise.

*** If Neve did help get leads for the Laidir family, I don't think they would've met face to face back then, BUT, Neve likely would've remembered the story. It's why if not romanced, Ilona will bring it up and be thankful for her help, but won't delve too much into what she experienced. She will, only if they're in an established romanced relationship.

[bbygirl-aemond]

Wanted to ask this question a long time ago: how old is everyone exactly? If Aemond in your fic is around 20, that makes Aegon and Helaena older too. And the children, Daemyra's children especially, all seven of them, what are the ages you go by? If I remember correctly, you moved Daemyra's marriage years according to the books rather than series, which also makes everything a little complicated. Can you clarify on the ages please, because I'm a little bit confused.

ooh yes i've been wanting to talk about this actually! i did fudge several of the ages a bit. inspiration came from the show ages (which are a bit nebulous at times), the book ages, and the actor's ages. i'll put a list of all of the main characters' ages below, but first i wanted to explain the justification for some of the larger changes:

aemond: i wanted him to be an actual adult, and to be irish twins with helaena (to strengthen the parallels between them and also for secret valyrian purposes); i didn't want to put a teenager or especially a minor in the mature poltiical and sexual situations i have planned for this work

daeron: i wanted him to be much younger than his other siblings, who are all only a year apart, to emphasize how distant he feels from them. also, aemond was canonically premature and it's not unreasonable that alicent would take a break from having kids after a difficult pregnancy. it also makes viserys more of an asshole for conceiving daeron in the first place since it risked another difficult birth

alicent: i wanted her a little younger, more like fourteen when she was married, to emphasize how awful viserys really was and how helpless she was in that entire situation

rhaenyra: i wanted her a little younger to make her baby daddy decision a little more sympathetic due to immaturity, and to leave more time for future children

daemon: i wanted a more sympathetic reason for his immaturity at the beginning of the series (his youth), to give him and criston more in common to emphasize the parallels drawn between them, and to avoid making myself sad by thinking about him dying 2+ decades before his family because he's old

baela: it's not mentioned that she and rhaena are twins in the show, and they're not played by the same actor the way the lannister twins were, so by the time i realized they were meant to be twins it would've affected the plot. baela has major big sister energy tho so i'm not mad about it

okay so all that being said, here are the (rough) ages that i imagine everyone to be as i write. you'll see that all members of the main triad have been moved closer to their irl actors' ages:

maelor: 2

viserys: 5-6

jaehaera and jaehaerys: 6

aegon the younger: 9

joffrey and alyn: 11-12

rhaena, lucerys, and addam: 14-15

jacaerys, baela, and daeron: 16-17

aemond: 21

helaena: 21 (she and aemond are irish twins)

aegon: 22

rhaenyra: 31-32

alicent: 36

criston and daemon: 41-42

i'm also trying to avoid explicit mentions of people's age for the most part, to leave everything a little squidgy. also if this conflicts horribly with either canon please do not tell me eye do not wish to know <3