#☼ ��°･⊱ CODEX. ∣ head canon.

[avrorean]

ok fun accent hc time since I saw it around recently, but the way I build Ferelden is very 3-prong uk: british-irish-welsh and the latter two are much stronger towards the north. So Nanna for most of her life spoke in a softer variance of Heightened Received Pronunciation, which tends to be more or less what you grow into in Ferelden's Circle, counting for variance of region a mage is coming from, but in the 10+ years she's spent in Amaranthine has given her a twang of a much stronger Southern Welsh accent.

[avrorean]

Bringing this old hc back around because I realized Velanna's clan also??? doesn't have a name??? So fuck it, for writing purposes, here's what the dalish clans that Nanna interacts with will be referred to on this blog:

Zathrien's clan: Alhannon Velanna's clan: Sulahnanor Grandfather's clan: Irosyl

so, since bioware decided not to name the Dalish clan that has an ENTIRE MISSION ARC in the first game, I have taken it upon myself to name it myself and that’s how it’s going to be referred to when Nanna is talking about her connection to that clan.

So from now on, Nanna’s going to refer to Lanaya and Zathrien’s clan as the ‘Alhannon’ clan.

[avrorean]

𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐀 & 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐑𝐒, 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟑: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐓

Deep in the Brecilian Forest, Nanna discovered the remains of an ancient phylactery within a ruined temple, and within it dwelled The Presence. The Presence was the remnants of an elf of ancient Arlathan, their essence seeking shelter and protection just in the moment the Veil was raised. Nanna never officially meets the presence that gifted her their knowledge face to face, but even as a collection of fractured memories lingers the slightest trace of a remnant that has lent aid to her in the past. 

Their name had been Dirthmala; a knowledge seeker from the same branch as the Archivists that had dedicated themselves to the collection and study of combat, becoming a skilled Arcane Warrior. With these abilities, they were a guardian to the priests in service to Mythal, and were fully devoted to her and her service - even the name they had taken had been in that their knowledge was in service of her rule.

But then she was slain, and for Dirthmala it felt like the world had fallen out from under their feet. She had been their purpose, their god, the best of their glorified Evanuris – How could they have betrayed her? Was she not the calm to Elgar’nan’s endless storm? What were they now without her?

Lost and grieving, it seemed only natural that they would employ themselves to the Dread Wolf’s rebellion, ready to employ their extensive combat knowledge to bring down the murderers of Mythal. And in this, they took a new name: Nanin - they who dwell in vengeance. 

Their skills and knowledge were eagerly applied as a valuable asset, but not in the way Nanin had been hoping. They’d been assigned to remain with the agents in the Crossroads, protecting the freed slaves and training the ones who would take up arms for the cause. They did as they were bid, for a time, but it was clear they were restless with the task they had been given, having lost the patience and will to grant their knowledge they’d once had before. It was quickly becoming apparent that their goal in joining the rebellion was not the liberation of the People, but  their own blind vengeance. Nanin’s devotion to Mythal was proving itself fanatical in their rage, their unwillingness to let go of either their grief or their worship leaving them a chaotic element in the rebellion’s midst, and it was beginning to look as though their presence was no longer as beneficial as it was a liability.

And one day, new orders were given, whispers of a placement of the gods that would allow Solas to act for the benefit of them all. But where the others heard only the next steps in the Wolf’s plan, Nanin saw an opportunity. Their rage had taken on a singular focus against Elgar’nan and his part in Mythal’s betrayal, and in combination had been brewing a single, poisonous thought: if Mythal could be killed, could not they all? Could not…he? 

So when the window presented itself, Nanin abandoned their charges in the Crossroads to seek out Elgar’nan in the southern temple. Time lost meaning as they cleaved through the All-Father’s followers, seeking only to sink their blade into his throat. Whether or not they’d even be able to was irrelevant - it was their only drive. Their one saving grace was that this was the day Solas would raise the Veil; having a head start on seeing the faceless destruction approaching them, Nanin took advantage of the present priesthood’s resources to ritualistically bind their essence to a Life Gem phylactery. But not having the time to complete it properly, it would take an outside aid to return them to their body. 

But then, with the rise of the Veil, there would be no one left to release them. Until a young Circle Mage lost her way in the ruined temple thousands of years later.

[avrorean]

𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐀 & 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐑𝐒, 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟐: 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐖𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐑

‘Spellweaver’ – the name of the uncanny blade Nanna took from the spellcasters of Andraste’s cult, the former inhabitants of Haven, veiled from prying eyes from deep within the hidden peaks of the Frostback Mountains. Though she learned fairly quickly of its elvhen origin in the aftermath of the Gauntlet, no one that Nanna had consulted could tell her what it was exactly that the sword was made of - only that it was very, very old.

It is a curved blade, misalas’niral  in the time of Arlathan. The blade itself is almost like a crystal, pale and somewhat translucent like opalescent glass (example: one & two), and alive with light and magic dancing within it when channeled through. It appears so ornate and fragile, that Nanna feared to test it in battle at all lest it shatter at the first wrong swing. Or so she thought before she was finally pressed to use it to defend herself, proving itself just as hard as modern steel, if not harder. She keeps the sword bound at her waist, sheathed by an ironbark scabbard shaped to resemble a halla horn; a gift to her by Lanaya and Varathorn as a sign of her friendship with Clan Alhannon.

As it was made for the hands of a magical race, the blade is almost hostile to those who try to hold it without any magic to speak of; it vibrates on its own, soft at first, but the feeling grows increasingly more uncomfortable until the wielder began to feel the tremor down to their bones, making the handling of such a blade distressing and uncomfortable. But as was demonstrated in the hands of the cultist, it will still in the hand of any mage without much particularity. As a foci, it is a simple matter to double this blade to channel magic as one would a staff, but its use for them is little more than what a staff would otherwise offer them.

Its true purpose, however, only comes to light in the hands of one with the abilities of an Arcane Warrior. The magic of the blade could almost be considered alive, and it binds itself to its wielder as their blade, never fully accepting another until said wielder dies or relinquishes it themselves. So Spellweaver does, in this way, belong to Nanna. When channeled properly with a developed connection, the blade’s subtle shifts of opal blue give way to lights of gold and green, becoming a solid personification of magic itself, crackling against the Veil with every swing.

It was in connecting with the sword this way that Nanna found out the blade’s true name: Misyl.

[avrorean]

𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑 𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐓

𝟏. 𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐄𝐘𝐄. won from the battle with the Archdemon; when facing it directly, a powerful blow from its claw broke through her magic barrier to strike, its presence likely being the only reason the blow did not kill her. After the battle, Wynne spent several hours and far too much lyrium to knit the skin together and successfully save her eye. However, as she gets older and the taint in her blood spreads, the eye will cease to function.

𝟐. 𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐄. (matching spot on her back) left from the arrow that struck her down at Ostagar. Flemeth healed all of her wounds from the overwhelming of the Tower of Ishal, but left this intentionally to scar as a reminder to Nanna, who was much more timid and reluctant at the time, that her duty is not one that can be outrun even if she were to try.

𝟑. 𝐋𝐄𝐅𝐓 𝐇𝐈𝐏. (matching spot on her back) Received quite early in her adventure, and was the first time Nanna had an experience with being stabbed, much less at the hands of a rogue Genlock. As it wasn't in any vital area, Morrigan knew enough healing magics to repair the damage, but not enough to prevent scarring.

𝟒. 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊. received at the hands of a Shriek at the very beginning of the Darkspawn ambush on their camp. With the hive mind of the Darkspawn connected to the Archdemon, and thus their intelligence and information, the ambushees immediately clocked her as the group's leader and they focused - successfully - on taking her out first. It was several days before she regained consciousness.

[avrorean]

𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂 & 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆

      When Nanna drank Avernus’s concoction to unlock the Power of Blood, it had been out of desperation. Even with the blood mage’s aid in the battle, the demon within Sophia Dryden had proven more powerful than they had been expecting, and she had threatened to overwhelm them with the demons from the torn Veil, until Nanna remembered what she had at their disposal and what Avernus’s research had said on it. Both a demon and blighted body - Sophia was more than vulnerable to its power. 

      They had won when she drank the concoction, but to Nanna it had been a pyhrric victory. Something that left a bad taste in her mouth. It took time, a long time, before she was willing to touch on the subject again, much less draw on its power. It drew too close to blood magic and the lingering pain from the fall of the Circle to even think on it without feeling ill; worse still, she could feel what it truly was, the thing it was drawing on as it shifted within her. Not blood. Blight magic. For a long time, even the thought of it still made her feel dirty. It was better forgotten… or so she had thought in the moment. 

      But as time marched on, and she had the opportunity at last to recover from the attack on Amaranthine, the incident with the Architect, even after his ‘death’, had stuck with her. The fact that he had been researching the blight, the calling, kept prodding at her, until the itch in her mind eventually became so bothersome, that she went alone back into the labyrinth beneath the Wending Wood to collect the research that the emissary had left behind. And in pushing back her own unease, something at last occurred to her: If the Architect had such an in-depth understanding on how to spread the taint on such a grand scale… could it be reverse engineered?

      And this is when Nanna formally began her research into curing the Blight.

      It had begun tentatively, secret projects behind locked doors on small, blighted plants or contaminated objects. Over time the size of her subjects grew: patches of earth, ruins in the Blackmarsh, and as a result she began actively contacting Avernus again at Soldier’s Peak, the two working together to expand on one another’s research. The first real, monumental breakthrough had been when she successfully dissipated the taint from tilled dirt, and was able to grow something from it. She had immediately taken this discovery south, and it’s for this reason that southern Ferelden has been able to farm safely again.

      Though she’s made significant progress, Nanna has yet to unlock how to remove Blight or disconnect it fully from biological beings. The best she’s been able to reach currently is preventative measures for those who have yet to contract it through the flowers of the Korcari Wilds. What it has allowed her to do, however, is have some degree of control of the taint in other beings. After the era of Inquisition, she's thrown herself fully back into her work to see how this might be put towards severing that connection to the Blight.

But that does not mean using this has been without consequence, small though it seems to be only at the moment. The more Nanna has used blight magic, the more she’s noticed an uneasy discoloration snaking up her arms, as though stained with ink. As mentioned here, Nanna always wears gloves to cover the uncomfortable sight unless she is well and truly alone or with someone who has her deepest trust. If there are further consequences, they have yet to be seen. But as far as Nanna is concerned, if she is the only one facing the consequences for an experiment that could mean freedom from the taint and the Calling for not only all Grey Wardens, but for anyone threatened by the Blight, she sees no reason why she shouldn’t charge forward.

[avrorean]

Nanna really struggles with her identity outside of being a mage. She knows, logically, that she's human, and people have mentioned to her their theories of being elf-blooded, but it's hard for her to connect with things like that. It's like a dispassionate footnote in a history book, something that's instinctively glossed over as an acknowledgement but less important in the grand scheme of things. She's Fereldan by technicality, but she wasn't raised with any of its customs and doesn't have any connection to her Nevarran roots. Nanna considers herself a Circle mage who lives in Ferelden. And it isn't for lack of wanting that connection - she's put her heart and soul into Amaranthine and its maintenance, in taking care of its people. She just struggles in feeling that sense of connection with them in the sense of these being her people.

I'd say the feeling is similar to Solas in his post-Halamshiral conversation surrounding Briala with a non-elven Inquisitor. When you suggest that Briala would be helping his people when she's in power, his first response is "how does that help mages?" Nanna sees mages, at least those outside of Tevinter, as her people. That's who she feels that connection to, the ones she was raised with. And there's a particular reason for that outside of the obvious.

Wynne mentions in her personal quest about her first apprentice, how her insistence in his education was that he " get over" being an elf from an alienage with an understandable distrust of humans because "he was a mage now" and needed to act like it. And while she acknowledges that this mindset was wrong and harmful to Aneirin, it's notable that no one stopped or corrected her before he ran away.

So I do think there's an element of disconnection that the Circle engages in for mages who grow up within it. You're not a human, you're not an elf, you're not Fereldan or anything else -- you are a Mage. It removes any sense of allegiance outside of it, and discourages the notion that they'd be accepted anywhere beyond it. Obviously it's less effective when a mage comes in who's older, but it's a deliberate severance of ties to keep them bound to the Chantry's structure of dependence. One tactic among many to keep them from wanting to escape or rebel, by removing the idea that they'd find any acceptance beyond each other.

The problem for them comes in when something like the mage rebellion happens, and suddenly the dependence on only each other becomes solidarity in escaping its grasp.

[avrorean]

actually that prior darkspawn post made me realize I've never talked about this: Nanna really doesn't like people coming up behind her with no warning. She won't necessarily startle, but it makes her tense when she doesn't already know you're there. Being cut up by a Shriek from behind will do that.

[avrorean]

little quick thought here but Nanna has a very Circle Mage weakness of not being as effective with magic in combat if she's disarmed. Having a foci, particularly a staff, is fundamental in a Circle mage's training, and there's the unfortunate drawback of becoming dependent on it without being urged to explore without it. And granted, she's twofold here - if you get through her staff, you've got to get through Spellweaver next, and that's just phase 2 of the boss fight. But if you manage to get through both of those, suddenly Nanna's at a disadvantage.

[avrorean]

Even though she’s been out of the tower for years by Inquisition, Nanna still does not have the most robust immune system, considering she spent that much longer never exposed to the elements. Typically she’ll just get saddled with a persistent cough if she stays on top of prevention, and tends to drink a lot of herbal tea in the later fall and winter months.

[avrorean]

bringing around an old as fuck hc, I feel like it's important for everyone to be reminded how stupidly flexible nanna is

[avrorean]

Nanna got a lot of use during the blight out of the herbalism knowledge she learned in the circle. But I need it to be understood. She did not learn herbalism as an altruistic alternative. It BECAME altruistic when she actually had a use for it out in the real world, but Nanna learned it at all purely because she's a horrible obnoxious overachiever and was so mad that she was specifically not good at healing spells that she had to fill up the gap with something she'd overanalyze into being an acceptable alternative

[avrorean]

ok ok quick Dark Wolf bullet point breakdown

Nanna completed the Crime Wave series of quests for Slim Couldry, hindering some of Loghain's efforts locally and earning her the moniker the Dark Wolf among the commoners of Denerim. .

Having more or less forgotten about the events in the wake of the Archdemon, it came as a surprise that someone else showed up in Amaranthine offering her help against her conspirators - with her given moniker. She took the name back, but wasn't able to make use of him or his information before Esmerelle sprang her coup. .

During the reconstruction of Amaranthine in the wake of The Mother's attack, Nanna discovered an excellent timeframe to start creating her own information system using the old connections as a foundation. Recruiting the 'prior' Dark Wolf as one of her "faces", one of many tasks she set out to do with this new network is uniting the arling and quashing talk of any further possible uprisings. .

She reconnects with the Mages' Collective, now in a position of offering greater aid to the people putting out requests for help and giving them a degree of access to information from her network, which ends up expanding it. Eventually, with talk of the Gallows coming from overseas, she lends her aid in the Collective's connection to Kirkwall's Mage Underground to help in evacuations as needed. .

When it comes to the war, Nanna takes on a more active role where she can. Her position as an arl/warden commander makes her role tricky especially while working in parallel to Fiona's faction, so she pushes for structured independence from those following her, but she puts her all into making sure they're trained both in combat and in strategy, giving them the methods of both shapeshifting and battlemagic to protect themselves between orders. .

Nanna actually takes a lot of inspiration from the Lady of the Forest/Witherfang in using the wolven guise she's been settled with to hide her identity. For this reason, she never shapeshifts into a wolf anymore unless it's specifically within the context of being the Dark Wolf.

[avrorean]

𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐀 & 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐑, 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟏: 𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 & 𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒

In the hidden corners of Ferelden, deep in the heart of the Brecilian Forest, ruins abound as deep and long-reaching as the roots that surround them. Elvhen history touches every corner of Ferelden’s cursed woodland, and the creatures born of and touched by magic are its native denizens and protected charges both. Strangers bring harm at their own peril - something Nanna and her party learned quickly in their hunt for the Werewolves.

Even with the blessing of a branch from the Grand Oak, the Forest still used its magics to protect the werewolves in the heart of their sanctum, and as a result the already winding tunnels and once grand halls became a winding maze that seemed to shift and alter to confuse Nanna’s group, inevitably separating all four of them to different segments to escape the further down they traveled.

Yet it was alone in the dilapidated and root-eaten corridors, that Nanna felt something calling to her. Something old and lonely. Unsure of where else to go, she followed the feeling lower and into a passage walled off with books and ritualistic pillars. And among the remnants… a phylactery. A gem filled with blood, and the essence of something - or someone - whose time had long since passed and struggled to maintain their sense of self. 

They had been an ancient elf, imprisoned since the fall of Elvhenan and one of the few to escape the forming of the Veil from the old world. And so very, very alone. They had clung to her presence, desperate for contact, and begged Nanna for release with a ritual that would destroy the Life Gem and let their spirit finally free into death. And in setting it up as per their instruction, their last act was bestowing Nanna with their memories of the Arcane Warriors and whatever was left of them to give.

In their desperation, it had been all of the memories they had remaining in tact which has made parsing through them a slow and tedious process. So it took time before the memories truly started to manifest, and much training with the help of Zevran, Leliana and whoever else she could find before they could be effectively utilized. Though she’s expanded her arsenal through the years, these are the primary abilities you’ll find her in use of:

𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐁𝐀𝐓 𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂 While this mode is active, the arcane warrior channels magic inward, trading increased fatigue for an attack bonus and the ability to use Spellpower to determine combat damage. Aura of Might and Fade Shroud improve the effects. Additionally, regardless of whether the mode is active, an arcane warrior who has learned this spell may use the magic attribute to satisfy the strength requirement to equip higher-level weapons or armor. 

One of the most commonly known attributes of the Arcane Warriors is their ability to turn their magic inward, to channel their magic through their bodies with as much ease as mages of old would weave the Fade. With this, the strength of Nanna’s magic channels itself into her body and makes her physically much stronger and enhances her endurance. It’s harder to cast normal spells in this state, but it makes her close combat that much more dangerous.

𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐃 The arcane warrior is surrounded by a shimmering shield of energy that blocks most damage and grants large bonuses to armor and all resistances. When active, however, the Shimmering Shield consumes mana rapidly. 

Like it says on the tin, this is essentially a temporary semi-invincibility shield. Raw magic is pushed out and maintained defensively around her body, but in terms of how long she could maintain this depends entirely on the extent and purpose for which she uses it - if she’s only protecting herself, it’s workable for strategy, if she’s using it to protect others as well, the time limit runs much shorter, and the cost on her mana is exorbitantly high. Unless she has lyrium on hand, allowing it to run its course for its entirety would deplete her on the same level as a high level spell like Storm Of The Century and put her at risk in combat. 

𝐅𝐀𝐃𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐃 The arcane warrior now only partly exists in the physical realm while Combat Magic is active. Spanning the gap between the real world and the Fade grants a bonus to mana regeneration and a chance to avoid attacks. 

The prime example that these abilities were not made for a world with a Veil; Nanna in this form exists part way in each world, giving her a ghostly, incorporeal presence. This isn’t the most stable form of hers, because its creation was made for a world with unhindered access to the Fade; as such the results can be unpredictable if she’s not putting her entire focus into channeling it, but Nanna works with what she’s able to get out of it.

[avrorean]

so I've talked about Nanna's magic and how it tends to gear towards the nature and creation trees when it comes to offensive magics, but I want to point to some of the spells she actually uses most often: hexes and glyphs.

even though she has plenty skill to use offensively, Nanna's methods tend to gear strategic and reflect her noncombative preference. She wants a fight over as quickly as she can, whether or not the enemy has to die(and typically they do), so she uses glyphs and hexes rather liberally to incapacitate or weaken her foe as efficiently as possible for a quick kill, or setting up for someone else to.

[avrorean]

In working on that Halamshiral thread, I was thinking about how Nanna handles The Game and I think that Leliana's old methods as a bard(re: origins era) would genuinely fit and work best in her favor.

Even back in Orlais, I would often try to use nonviolent means to achieve my ends. [...] You will be surprised how easily a person will open up to you, even if all you offer is a listening ear. People respond eagerly to others who they believe understand them. They seek approval, friendship, sometimes love-- this can be exploited. I took what I wanted from them, leaving them none-the-wiser and unharmed. It is a game, one that can be won with little bloodshed if one plays well. Everyone can be seduced by the right woman. The trick is predicting who she is and becoming her. [,,,] Sometimes all I had to do was toss a glance and a smile. Men read promises into such things, and will go to great lengths to see that promise fulfilled.

And she's not incapable of playing, nor necessarily unwilling. She might even say she has some fun with it... in small bursts. By the time of WEWH, Nanna's already been in the political sphere for ten years with her own machinations and her fingers in different pots. She's not unarmed, but Orlais' Game is just on a different level than what she's used to from internal Ferelden politics, which has its own underhand dealings but tends to be a lot more straightforward. I think she actually has a good time learning.

But also-