#Japhra Cadash

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About my OC

I was tagged by @penthesilea1623, and I’ll talk about my canon Inquisitor, Japhra Cadash, a dwarven, dual-wielding rogue from Markham.

I tag @godihatethisfreakingcat, for any of her OCs from Sons of Jerusalem or There and Back Again... and that’s the only other fic writer I can think of at the moment - hi, Seas!

I’ll also tag @vaderslocker if they have any OCs they want to talk about :)

Feel free to retag me if you want to know about any of my other Dragon Age OCs - August Lavellan (son of Fenris), Elakshi Lavellan, Lainie Hawke, Nathaniel Trevelyan, or Wonder Adaar

GENERAL

Name: Japhra Cadash

Alias(es): Honeybee - courtesy of Varric

Gender: Female

Age: 24

Place of birth: Markham

Spoken languages: Common, Dwarven, and the Carta equivalent of Thieves’ Cant (a bastardized version of formal Dwarven, with bits of Antivan, Orlesian, and Common thrown in)

Sexual orientation: demisexual, but no specification as to her partner’s gender or sexuality

Occupation: In canon, she’s the Inquisitor, but I have modern AUs where she’s a guidance counselor, where she’s a member of the Bull’s Chargers, and where she’s a photographer.

Eye color: Chasind yellow

Hair color: Auburn

Height: 4′8″

Scars: She has a very deep gouge through her eyebrow, from an injury she received when she was thirteen. There is another scar running through her lip that she got on her first lyrium run through the Vimmarks. She has other assorted scars on her arms and legs from combat, but they are less notable.

Burns: Nothing significant.

Overweight: No.

Underweight: Not currently, though she was underweight for a while while she lived on the streets for a short period during her childhood.

FAVOURITE

Color: Red

Hair color: Blonde

Eye color: Gold (can you guess what - or rather, who - I’m getting at, here?)

Music genre: Fast-paced reels and things you can dance to. She’s not a huge fan of ballads.

Movie genre: Action

TV show: She would binge Hard in Hightown if it were out on Fantasy Netflix.

Food: She likes fried foods, particularly potatoes.

Drink: Spiced ciders and ales

Book: She doesn’t read much in public - reading and writing not being her strong suit - but she’s been known to swipe a history book or two from Dorian’s “finished” pile in Skyhold. He pretends not to notice.

HAVE THEY

Passed university: No university in canon, but I’ve written a story where she’s finishing up her degree.

Had sex: Yes

Had sex in public: No

Gotten pregnant: No (though I have an AU where she is pregnant at the start of the game, and delivers a month or two before Corypheus attacks Haven)

Kissed a boy: Yes

Kissed a girl: No

Gotten tattoos: No

Gotten piercings: Yes.

Had a broken heart: Yes. She lost her sister, who was addicted to Lyrium, when she (Japhra) was thirteen years old. They had a physical altercation when her sister was hallucinating while under the influence, and after Konna came to her senses, she left on a job, and Japhra never saw her again.

Been in love: not yet

Stayed up for more than 24 hours: yes

ARE THEY

A virgin: No

A cuddler: No - but she becomes one with time.

A kisser: No

Scared easily: Depends on the situation.

Jealous easily: No... but she doesn’t think she deserves very much of anyone’s attention, either.

Trustworthy: If somebody has her loyalty, she’s got their backs one hundred percent. But if she doesn’t trust them, she’s willing to manipulate or keep them out of her way as needed.

Dominant: When she’s angry or worried, this side of her comes out to the forefront.

Submissive: She rarely, if ever, allows herself to be this vulnerable.

In love: Not at the moment. But soon...

Single: At the start of Inquisition, yes. By the end of Inquisition, not so much.

RANDOM QUESTIONS

Have they harmed themselves: No

Thought of suicide: Yes, though I do not plan on going into this deeply in the story.

Attempted suicide: No

Wanted to kill someone: Yes. The Dasher, her boss in the Carta whom she worked for and eventually escaped from. 

Ride a horse: Only once she joins the Inquisition, and even then, she resolutely sticks with ponies.

Have/had a job: Carta enforcer, and later Inquisitor

Have any fears: Becoming the person she used to be before Inquisition, taking on some of the Dasher’s “leadership” tactics, and being betrayed by people she trusts.

FAMILY

Sibling(s): Konna (older by nine years, deceased)

Parents: Aaloka Ghosan (mother, who left soon after Japhra was born), Sandar Cadash (father, deceased)

Children: none

Pets: Astyth Cadash, a silver-haired mabari that is literally the size of a cart-horse. Astyth is named after a personal hero of Japhra’s, the paragon Astyth the Grey.

[lumateranlibrarian]

I was tagged by @penthesilea1623

Rules: post the first line of a WIP and tag as many people as there are words in the quote.

Satina, the blue-tinged ‘younger’ moon of Thedas, seemed to take up half the horizon. If it weren’t for the chill in the air and the languid, sleepy chirp of the crickets, one could easily think it midday. Night had fallen over the Hinterlands, and the war-torn region seemed to be taking a collective, exhausted breath.

I tag anyone who wants to share a WIP! All fandoms welcome :)

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Rating: General Audiences Archive Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Fandoms: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types Characters: Female Cadash, Varric Tethras, Cassandra Pentaghast, Solas Words: 4829

Here’s the deal.

Japhra Cadash was minding her own business: trying to maneuver the dwarf mafia, dealing with several traumatizing events from her past, trying to leave one very unsavory lifestyle for a slightly less unsavory lifestyle—just doing her thing—when suddenly she gets the chance to take a job that, if successful, could change everything.

It doesn’t go well. The building blows up, she loses several hours’ worth of very important memories, and now there’s magical glowing rocks growing out of her hand.

So begins our story.

Side note: The humans are pissed.

The Wrath of Heaven, told from a dwarf’s-eye view. Featuring the snappish and much-annoyed Japhra Cadash. Mind the title (that’ll be important, later), and mind the Author’s Notes (which will also be important later).

This fic was beta’d in part by @deustiel, who is fabulous.

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tfw you want to write a dream sequence but it’s Dragon Age and the POV character is a dwarf

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A, I, O, S, U?

Hey, anon, many thanks

I’m going to go with my various Dragon Age OCs… Dragon Age is pretty much the only fandom in which I have OCs, so that works out, strangely enough…

A: makes the most dramatic [arrivals].

Elakshi Lavellan, hands down. Now, she’d get really insulted if anyone dared to mention it, but it’s still true. She has no time to waste for fools, and is probably the most cunning of all my Inquisitors. She’s also one of the most cutthroat. Elakshi doesn’t usually take time for breaks, and secretly feels like being dramatic every now and again is one of the few luxuries she really values. It also helps keep the humans of Skyhold on their toes.

I: is the most [infamous] in-universe.

Assuming infamous means famous for negative reasons, I’d have to go with Japhra Cadash. She was a member of the Carta before the events of Inquisition, somewhere in between prisoner and indentured servant to the Carta boss known as the Dasher. The Dasher used her as his own personal thug, and until she escaped to the Conclave under the favor of a different Carta boss, she was well-known for being the one person you absolutely didn’t want to know your name on the dwarven underground.

O: is [ordinary] compared to the others.

Nathaniel Trevelyan, hands down. A human noble, warrior class, Champion specialty. He doesn’t have any special powers or particular talents, at least compared to his parallel Inquisitors (Elakshi, Japhra, and Wonder). Compared to the others, though, he’s definitely the most open to learning new things. He went to the Chantry because he knew he didn’t understand magic and mages. He felt like he had a responsibility to help, given the death of his mother only a few months prior when she was revealed to be possessed by a demon.

S: can [sleep] just about anywhere, any time.

WONDER ADAAR IS A GROWING BOY. At the start of Inquisition, he’s nineteen and skinny as a beanpole. He also has magnificent shoulders, but that comes from the longbow he carries around wherever he goes. His magical abilities he practices in secret, and honestly, keeping those under wraps from Leliana and Solas in particular is just as exhausting as the archery practice.

U: is [underestimated] the most often.

Lainie Hawke, Champion of Kirkwall. She’s a hedge mage by trade, but seeing as that’s not exactly combat magic, she uses a bow instead. With her slight frame and unspectacular appearance, most people do triple-takes when they hear she took down the Arishok. Her brother is protective of her, almost smotheringly so. Her mother blames her for Bethany’s death. “If you were a better mage, you could have done something.” It takes years for them to reconcile.

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WIP Word Memes

Rules: Find the assigned words in your current WIP, then pick 4 new words and tag some peeps to find them.

I was tagged by the delightful @penthesilea1623 to find snippets of my current WIPs with the following words: laugh, fingers, frown, and breath.

Laugh

This WIP is a Cop/Firefighter AU with Cop!Cullen and my canon inquisitor Firefighter!Japhra Cadash, where they broke up months ago, but someone forgot to change his emergency contacts. Lo and behold, there is an emergency. This is an old one, but I always did like it...

Oh, god. Partners. Where is she?

Frantically, Japhra scanned the waiting area, a small, alcove-like room just off the lobby main. When she saw the dark, close-cropped hair matched with the long-since healed scar running down the woman’s cheek, she called out, quiet but sharp.

“Cass!”

Cassandra Pentaghast’s head snapped up. She looked furious, but when she saw Japhra, her expression morphed into one of defensiveness and confusion.

“What are you doing here, Japhra?”

Japhra let out a strangled laugh, and dropped down into the seat next to the woman. “I… I think he forgot to take me off his emergency contact.”

Cass’ eyes went wide, and she stiffened. Japhra bit the inside of her cheek to keep from reacting. “Have you called Mia or anybody?” she asked quickly, changing the subject.

“I have not,” Cass admitted. She frowned. “I do not have their information.”

Japhra sighed and slumped back into the chair. Cullen, you idiot. “I do.”

Fingers

Taken from an Overwatch Jesse McCree/Fareeha Amari WIP I have sitting around because this pairing intrigues the HECK out of me. 

“Jesse?”

“Huh?”

Her fingers clench in the grass, like she doesn’t know what to do with her hands. She leans a little closer to him, her face open and more than a little worried.

“I know everything’s classified, but if you weren’t okay, you’d tell me, right?”

He holds her gaze for a second that seems to stretch out into an age. She’s beautiful and brave, and she’s gonna change the world one day. He’s a black ops agent planning to drop off the face of the Earth sooner rather than later. He doesn’t know if he’s ever gonna see her again.

Never let it be said Jesse has a lick of good sense anywhere in his entire body, because he closes the gap between them and matches his lips to hers.

Frown

I guess it’s just a Cullen/Cadash day today, because here we have a canon timeline interaction between my two disaster children trying to make it work and figuring out how to bring the rebel mages into Haven.

Cullen snorted and shook his head. “Even assuming they agree, if we let them into Haven, they put the village at tremendous risk. Grand Enchanter Fiona has hundreds of mages with her. That’s enough to match the population of Haven and then some. We’ll be profoundly outnumbered. I haven’t the men to match that threat if they begin to turn on us.”

“Why are you so ready to assume they will?” she pushed.

“I lived in Kirkwall for nearly a decade,” he declared grimly. “I cannot count the number of blood mages and abominations my men had to put down during those years, within the Gallows and without.”

She frowned and bit at her lower lip, thinking carefully. “It’s my understanding that Kirkwall was the worst of all the Circles,” she said slowly.

Markham had never had a Circle, though it did have a standing force of Templars stationed within the Chantry. In the rare case a mage was discovered in Markham, the Templars would escort the child to the nearest Circle, the one located in Ostwick… well. They said the magelet was escorted to Ostwick. She had never looked into the worst of the rumors, nor had anyone she’d known. Dwarves had enough troubles of their own, particularly the ones that ran with the Carta.

Guilt tightened her throat.

Fire and Blight. Why didn’t I care?

Breath

How about some fluff? As much as I can write, anyways. It is definitely Cullen/Cadash day, which I should probably take as a sign that I need to get to writing them again. This is the obligatory “Cullen brought a baby to Haven” AU.

“I’ve never seen a human baby before,” Japhra burst out, and wanted to clap a hand over her mouth. Of all the stupid things she could have told him. She should have just turned right around and walked out.

“Really? You haven’t?” he said disbelievingly.

“Ah…” Japhra began, and bit her lip. She felt her face flush. “... no?”

“But surely you must have…” Cullen began, and trailed off even before Japhra began to shake her head.

“Believe it or not, most human smugglers don’t bring their children on lyrium runs,” she smirked. “If they’re even the family type. Which you are, I guess?” She snuck another glance at the tiny, squirming form in the cradle.

The Commander stared at her for a moment, then let out a tiny huff of laughter. “Maker’s breath. You’re quite curious, aren’t you?”

Japhra took a step back. “If you’re going to make fun of me, Commander, don’t.”

Cullen blinked. “No! That… that wasn’t my intent. I apologize. I only meant, you’re always asking questions. It’s not a bad thing. It’s good.”

“Oh,” Japhra managed. “I, uh… Thank you.”

And that’s all she wrote, folks!

The words I choose are: light, space, time, and breath

Because I may have been keeping relatively quiet about it but yeah, I binge-read that webcomic, and may I just say? Holy shit, I get it now.

If anyone has any WIPs they’d like to share, consider yourself tagged! But, just because, I’ll also tag @fishfingersandscarves @godihatethisfreakingcat and @eponymous-rose... 

[lumateranlibrarian]

Rating: General Audiences Archive Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Fandoms: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age (Video Games) Relationships: Female Cadash/Cullen Rutherford Characters: Female Cadash, Cullen Rutherford, Iron Bull, Dorian Pavus, Lace Harding Words: 3876

Finals week: a miscellany of coffee mugs, blanket capes, and a visitor from your local Chantry, here to invite you and your friends to this year’s Wintersend celebration!

In which Japhra Cadash is a stressed-out student at the University of Haven, and guess what? It’s that time of year again...

Shoutout to my Betas, in reverse chronological order, because this has been sitting (finished) in my drafts folder for months now: @deustiel, @ladykatana4544, @omegashift-has-a-blog. Thank you!!

Warnings for panic attacks. Be safe!

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I was tagged by @thievinghippo to post the first line of my last ten fics. I decided to round it out at an even five, because there are only seven and my first two are... well, put it this way: I’ll look back on them and laugh eventually, and they’re good for nostalgia, at any rate!

Blue, Red, Green (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

Her thoughts were slow to form, and her head pounded. Her field of vision flickered in and out of blackness. Ancestors. It felt like she’d been thrown by raging bronto.

What… what happened?

Filling a Quota (Dragon Age: Inquisition)

Knock-knock-knock.

Japhra doesn’t move. It’s too damn early in the morning, and she’s only had two sips of the blackest coffee she can brew.

Now Panic and Freak Out (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Black Emporium Fic Exchange, 2016)

Malika Cadash was not unfamiliar with the ideals of romance, nor was she inexperienced in the art of seduction.

The Pursuit of Science and the Surprising Results it Brings (The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings)

Belladonna was high-footing it past Bag End on an early spring morning when she heard it floating through an open window on the hill.

“... you warg -licking, down trodden, tree-humping, washout, ill-kempt excuse…”

She froze in her silent tracks. That sounded like Bungo Baggins’ voice.

On Surviving the Apocalypse (The Hobbit)

Thorin was not expecting a person to fly through his open dormitory window on the second floor, land on his dirty laundry pile, and crash sideways into a desk.

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Wonder Adaar, 1 and 28. Japhra Cadash 15 and 25

@kamiwontshutup​, thank you for asking about my child Wonder Adaar. He is a smol cinnamon roll who seduces Cassandra and its the best thing ever.

But as that is not the topic of this ask, I digress.1. What’s their full name? Why was that chosen? Does it mean anything?

Like it says on the tin, his full name is Wonder Adaar, but as you might imagine, he prefers to go by his last name. His mother and father left the Qun and the fighting in Par Vollen, and as such are Tal-Vashoth now. They named him Wonder because to them, when he was born, that was what he meant to them. In the Qun, there was surety. There were rules and roles, and everything moved together like dwarven clockwork. In the Free Marches, each day was filled with possibility and the unknown, and Wonder’s parents wanted to reflect that freedom in their child’s name.

28. What is their biggest fear? What in general scares them? How do they act when they’re scared?

Wonder’s father was Saarebas, a rare Qunari mage. Wonder inherited his father’s abilities, but didn’t learn about the Qun’s view of mages until he was in his teens. After teaching him the basics, just enough to defend himself from demons in the Fade, Wonder’s father told him the truth about life for magic-users under the Qun. Wonder’s biggest fear is getting captured and re-educated by the Ben-Hassrath. Both his parents still bear signs of living under the Qun, from the scars dotting his father’s mouth, to the propaganda that sometimes slips through his mother’s lips before she even realizes what she’s saying.

And now for Japhra, or as I like to say: Japh, no.

15. Are they good at cooking? Do they enjoy it? What do others think of their cooking?

Japhra’s pretty mediocre at cooking. She can make herself a sandwich, and cook a passable stew. But one should never, ever let her hunt. Sure, it’s basically the same thing as a stakeout, but with shrubbery instead of buildings, and animals instead of people. Sera tried to improve her shooting skills once, and only once. Leliana claims there’s now a line in the Inquisition handbook that forbids Japhra from ever using a bow. Leliana’s lying, but only because Cassandra would never let anyone write in that book.

25. What do they find funny? Do they have a good sense of humour? Are they funny themselves?

“Leliana doesn’t sleep, she waits.”

“Hmmmm.”

“Fear of spiders is called arachnophobia. Fear of dragons is called dracophobia. Fear of Vivienne is called Logic.”

“Quite, my dear.”

“The Iron Bull likes his meat so rare, he only eats unicorns.”

“Look, Boss, I know you’re trying to be funny, and I respect that, but… we don’t joke about unicorns. Ever.”

“Bull? Oh, Ancestors, I am so sorry. Please don’t cry…”

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38, 43, and 48 for your Cadash? :D

@meridok, thanks for the ask!! I love all my Inquisitors equally, but Japhra is my first. She holds a special place in my heart

38. What do they admire in others? What talents do they wish they had?

When it comes down to it, Japhra admires people who survive, no matter what fate throws at them. She admires the people who stubbornly exist despite the odds, despite plagues and famines and Blights. She admires the people who keep getting up, even after they’ve been knocked down.

Corypheus does not count. She hates him and he can go right to the Void.

As for talents she wishes she had, Japhra can’t sketch. At all. She’s great at reading maps, but drawing? Not so much. The Inquisition Gang discovered this early in their first campaign through the Hinterlands.

“All right. Cass, you come at them from the front. Varric, you take out their archers from here—”

“Hold on. Am I the wobbly circle or the confused snake?”

“You’re you. Right there. Look, that’s Bianca.”

“That is not Bianca. That is an insult.”

“…”

43. Are they religious? What do they think of religion? What do they think of religious people? What do they think of non religious people?

The answer to this question can be found here!

48. Do they enjoy any parties? If so what kind? Do they organise the party or just turn up? How do they act? What if they didn’t want to go but were dragged along by a friend?

Until the events of Inquisition, Japhra’s idea of celebrating was usually a quiet drink with Lantos in the back corner of a pub, or taking a rare moment to look at the stars while out on a lyrium run through the Vimmarks. The one time he did drag her out to a party thrown in her name, it was after the Hercinian job, the one that made her infamous on the criminal underground for one of the wildest and closest shaves with a particularly well-known mercenary group in recent history.

These days, Japhra has the Inquisition. She definitely prefers tavern crawls over Orlesian masquerades, and would rather be an anonymous face in the crowds than the one running the celebrations. But if Josephine does manage to wrangle her into being a hostess for an evening (there are usually foreign nobles involved), she’ll put on a brave face.

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Japhra: General 2 and 3, and Cullen 2

2. How did the Inquisitor’s title as “Herald of Andraste” affect their relationship with their partner? Was there any conflict between them due to it?

When Cullen and Japhra first met, right after she awoke in Haven wearing cushy Chantry pajamas (where did they even get those in dwarf sizes?), Cullen was willing to believe. The Maker’s plan wasn’t a straightforward one, and far be it from Cullen to think he had all the answers; the disaster in Kirkwall was evidence enough. When Cullen saw the red-haired, yellow-eyed Marcher dwarf in Haven’s Chantry arguing hotly with Sister Leliana, he thought she truly had been sent by the maker, for her sheer bravery if nothing else.

Then they caught her trying to sneak out of Haven.

When the advisors confronted Japhra, Cullen was disheartened and disappointed, and most of all he was angry. How dare this dwarf be so selfish, when so many had placed their hopes on her path? How dare she speak to them all as if they’d never known loss or fear or pain? How dare she not be exactly who they needed? When he realized what he was thinking, he was deeply frustrated with himself, too. It took months for Cullen and Japhra to reach an understanding, in between campaigns through the Hinterlands, the Storm Coast, and the Fallow Mire. Cullen learned to accept Japhra’s unconventional approach to everything, and Japhra grew more comfortable—or rather, less uncomfortable—with her role in the Inquisition, using her title to help and inspire people.

3. When did your Inquisitor develop feelings for their partner? When did they realize they had feelings for them?

Oh, these nerds. Sit down, kids, and let me tell you a little story.

Once upon a time, there was a young dwarf who wanted to escape. Instead of dealing Lyrium, she wanted to be a spy. Lies came to her lips as naturally as breathing, but combat did not. She searched for, found, and trained under an exiled member of the Silent Sisters for three years. In between Carta jobs, the dwarf learned the secrets of weaponless combat as few surface dwarves ever did.

Fast-forward a few years, and the dwarf was nearly ready. Just one last job under the Dasher, and she would have proved herself capable enough to join the spies and undercover agents of the Carta. If she could manage to go undetected in the Divine’s peace talks between the rebel mages and the Chantry templars, then she would be able to leave Markham for good.

Except thanks to a certain darkspawn magister and (if we want to get technical here) certain bald-headed elf with dreams of godhood, literally none of that happened. One explosion later, Japhra Cadash meets Cullen Rutherford, and is distinctly unimpressed.

On her first campaign through the Hinterlands, Japhra finds herself in possession of a massive grey Mabari. It’s huge, I cannot stress that enough—even on all fours, it’s as tall as she is! She brings the Mabari with her back to Haven and names it after the paragon Astyth, the founder of the Silent Sisters and a personal hero of Japhra’s. Japhra asks Cullen somewhat grudgingly for help in training Astyth to be battle-ready. In return, she offers to teach him the basics of hand-to-hand combat. This partnership is where it starts. But they’re both distracted and neither one of them is thinking about even the possibility of romance when there’s an actual war going on.

But then. Then!

Corypheus brings his army to the mountains. The villagers are in a panic. Japhra deploys the Chargers to protect the people and herd them inside the walls. And suddenly, there’s Cullen, standing bold against the firelight. He is tense, and every movement he makes is corded tight with fear and fury, but he is still counting heads and guiding the others into the safer confines of the Chantry. His armor glints, his voice carries firm and strong and sure, and Japhra thinks—

—without meaning to, the fervent words escape her lips—

“Oh, you’ve got to be shitting me!” she hisses. “Now? Right now? Really?”

2. Did the Inquisitor and Cullen get married during Trespasser? Why or why not?

At the end of Trespasser, Japhra chooses to disband the Inquisition. But that doesn’t mean she’s without a plan to find and stop Solas! Dorian will return to Tevinter, Lady Vivienne to Orlais. Cassandra will rebuild the Seekers, and Thom Ranier will rejoin the Wardens and become who he should have been since the beginning. All of them have their tasks to carry on, to rebuild, and most importantly, to listen for whispers of the Elvhen uprising.

But there are people coming for Japhra. The Dwarves of Kal-Sharok and of Orzammar, once allies of the Inquisition, are now clamoring for her head. During the events of Inquisition, Japhra had deliberately destroyed the Hero of Ferelden’s notes on the true reason for the fall of the Cad’halash Thaig. But those notes weren’t the only source of information, and someone has told both the Carta and the Kal-Sharok exactly what happened so many centuries ago. With both factions out for blood or worse, Japhra must find out who leaked the information and to what end.

But wait, this question was about Cullen and Japhra getting married, wasn’t it?

They do get married at the end of Trespasser. It is a bittersweet ceremony, because they know what’s coming for them now. Japhra will travel to Kirkwall, the center of all surface Carta activity, while Cullen’s path will lead him to Denerim and an old friend, a Warden turned King. At the advice of a companion or two (a certain dwarven Viscount and a rather romantic Seeker of Truth, if anyone was curious), Japhra and Cullen decide to wed before they part ways. Each will need something good to hold onto during the tumultuous months, if not years, to come.

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Japhra, 41, 43, and 29

@kamikamiya, thank you so much for your ask! I’m going through a really rocky time right now juggling so many different things, I really appreciate you asking me about Japhra. It was a lot of fun to answer these!

41. What’s their sexuality? What do they find attractive? Physically and mentally? What do they like/need in a relationship?

Japhra is asexual, and varies fluidly between sex-neutral and sex-favorable. She finds intelligence and a strong sense of right and wrong attractive in a potential romantic partner. Physically, she’s not picky, although she does seem to have a type for tall, taciturn authority figures (I’m pointing my finger at Cullen, but honorable mention goes to crushes on Cassandra and in the far, far future, Aveline Vallen-Hendyr). In a relationship, Japhra needs both space and intimacy. The two aren’t necessarily incompatible, but not everyone understands that. Cullen is one such man who does.

And between you, me, and these two nerds… Cullen? Gives the best hugs.

43. Are they religious? What do they think of religion? What do they think of religious people? What do they think of nonreligious people?

Japhra is not religious, although her choice swears tend to have a distinctly dwarven flavor. In general, she is scornful of religion, but to be fair, her experiences with the Chantry up until the events of Inquisition have only ever been negative.

Japhra grew up on the city streets of Markham, and ran more with alienage elves and the human children of traveling merchants than those who actually benefitted from the Chantry’s services. It isn’t until Japhra is exposed to the Dalish and to the Avaar that she begins to see how fluid and complex religion is. She comes to understand that the Chantry’s problems are not unique. Japhra had originally thought nonreligious people to be the more sensible ones, but the events of Inquisition give her a lot to question. Is there a Maker? What were the Evanurius? And how much does she buy into any of it?

29. What do they do when they find out someone else’s fear? Do they tease them? Or get very overprotective?

Japhra has survived on being able to read people. It’s an essential skill for a Carta spy. If the fear is serious and deep, then no matter how trivial, Japhra will accept it as fact. But if it’s merely something uncomfortable, or if it’s casual and in a casual setting? Yeah, she’ll take a jab or two if she thinks it’s funny.

But this leads to an interesting scenario in the Fade. Japhra would never, ever mock someone for the fear that eats at their very center. But while her usual response to someone threatening her friends is “fuck off or fight me, your choice”, she’s being attacked by the Nightmare too, and has her own demons to deal with.

[lumateranlibrarian]

Japhra Cadash, 19, 26, and 27

19. What was their first impression about their partner/person they are courting?

Japhra chose to take the mountain route during Wrath of Heaven. Thus, she first meets Cullen after she awakens in Haven. Her first impression of him was something along the lines of:

“… great. Another soldier. Someone else I need to avoid.”

To be fair, at the time, she was looking for ways to give Leliana the slip so she could escape the Inquisition and go back to the Marches. She wasn’t exactly feeling charitable at the time. 

26. What do they love most about their significant other?

Cullen has made Japhra question a lot about who she is and how her upbringing shaped her. What she genuinely loves about Cullen more than anything is that when she is around him, she becomes a better person. Cullen has always drawn out the best in her, though she didn’t always see it at first. Funnily enough, Cullen would say the exact same thing about her effect on him.

27. Have they had dreams about their significant other?

Oh boy.

Short answer? Yes.

Long answer? Dwarves don’t dream, and without the Anchor, it would have been an impossibility for Japhra. When her mind and her body initially began adjusting to this new connection with the Fade, her dreams were… weird for a while.

“Cullen? Where are your nugs?”

“My what?”

“Your… your nugs? You had them, with the basket and the… the melon?” 

“What are you talking about? Japhra, are you all right?”

“I hate nugs, Cullen. I hate them.”

“… All right?”

[lumateranlibrarian]

My light heart is also sincere, My weakness, is my strength, My life, is not a game

I DIDN’T FORGET ABOUT THIS ASK, I PROMISE. LIFE. Life is a thing that happens, and hoo boy, is it a super. Fun. Thing. That happens.

Anyways…

My light heart is also sincere: Nathaniel Trevelyan

Nate was always closer to his mother–at least, until his father found out about her hidden magic and apostate upbringing and locked her away from the rest of the world. Nate always sees the best in people, though whether that’s a coping mechanism or not, he couldn’t say. Either way, he pushes people to be the best version of themselves, and doesn’t believe that anyone should have to hide for being what they are.

My weakness is my strength: Elakshi Lavellan

Elakshi fears being given up or discarded without reason. This fear comes from early in her childhood, from when both she and her twin brother manifested their magic within minutes of each other. No one knows for certain why Elakshi was chosen to go to Clan Lavellan to train instead of her brother. As she trained with other magic-using elves under Keeper Deshanna, Elakshi studied the hardest and the most thoroughly, shaping her mind and her skills to make herself the most valuable (and dangerous) she could possibly be. 

My life is not a game: Japhra Cadash

Many a time, Japhra has been accused of not taking things seriously and not picking a side. Having grown up in the Carta, she has a different idea of what can and can’t be left to chance, and how to treat and trust people, than most of her companions do. Eventually, they come to accept and understand her reasons for acting the way that she does. She has to work up the courage to tell them about her past first, though!

And in conclusion, I’m working on building an Adaar, a Vashoth whose parents who thought “Wonder” was a perfectly acceptable name for a child.

[lumateranlibrarian]

Japhra, 7,8, and 20

Japhra Cadash is my child. My brave dwarven Inquisitor. I would sings songs about her. I would wear her face on t-shirts. I love her… I love her so much.

*sniffles*

7. Who is your character’s best friend?

If you were to ask Japhra before the explosion of the Divine Conclave, she would have said without hesitation that her best friend was her cousin, Lantos Cadash. They grew up together and trained side-by-side, he a warrior and she a dual-wielding rogue. But when things went wrong at the Conclave, and Japhra emerged with green crystals that looked horrifyingly like lyrium growing out of her palm… distance grew between them, and not just the literal distance as she traveled around Ferelden and Orlais. Sometimes, when big, crazy things happen to you, you change as a person. That’s what happened to Japhra, and that’s what will take Lantos a while to come to terms with. Until he does, their relationship is going to be under some of strain. Eventually, Lantos will decide that enough is enough, and he gets his cute dwarven butt to Skyhold. Once Japhra introduces him to the gorgeous and deadly Scout Lace Harding… yeah, he decides that the Inquisition isn’t totally awful so bad.

8. Who is your character’s worst enemy?

Japhra’s worst enemy is not, as one might have expected, Corypheus. The person she hates, the person she wants dead by her own hands more than anyone else, is the Dasher. And if that name sounds familiar, it’s probably because it’s the name of the dwarf who put a hit out on her during her early days at Haven. The Dasher was a cruel and petty man who only obtained his position in the Carta through intimidation and luck. He kept Japhra, and by extension, Lantos, under his thumb for years. He used them as his own personal assassins and thugs whenever he could. Japhra has done a lot of things she isn’t proud of, and most of them happened while she was trapped working for the Dasher. Had another, more-powerful member of the Carta taken Japhra to spy for them at the Divine Conclave—an opportunity Japhra had barely dared to dream about—she would have ended up in Valammar with the rest of the Dasher’s crew, and would have been killed accordingly when the Inquisitor showed up there some months later.

20. Is your character currently in love? Is there anyone in love with your character?

Japhra is currently trying very hard to not fall in love with a certain blonde-haired, honey-eyed, scarred-lipped ex-templar whose name is not Cullen Stanton Rutherford. Japhra knows unfortunately intimately what a lyrium addiction can do to a person. She’s utterly terrified to commit herself to someone addicted to lyrium, who could very well die whether he chooses to stop taking the crystal or not. However, we can all agree that Cullen is a very unique sort of stubborn…

… and if a certain, Chantry-fed, Ferelden-born Commander is wondering why he wants to wrap a proud ex-Carta spy in the warmest blanket he has and then maybe wrap himself around her to keep her from her nightmares, nevermind his own, well. That’s hardly anyone’s business, isn’t it?

[lumateranlibrarian]

tfw your Rogue Inquisitor’s attack style is “jump-stab-poison-explode” and it basically just shows that they’re a hot mess and hot damn do they make it work