#andraste trevelyan

[apostacism]

Day 5: Friends

Written for @14dayscirclemages. Prompt list can be found here, if anyone wants to get in on the fun.

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The door slammed open, startling Andraste out of her book, which jumped from her hands and fell to the floor. "Guess who has returned to you!"

The figure framed in the doorway wore light armor with a hard ridge of plate over her chest, her curling red hair spilling out of a full, slitted helm.

“It's impossible." Andraste smiled. "You'll have to- oof!"

Not waiting for Andraste to finish, the newcomer had already crossed the room with a long stride, sweeping Andraste up in an embrace that crushed the peak of her armor directly into Andraste's unprotected and much softer chest.

“Kveta, that hurts," Andraste protested. "Why are you still wearing that?"

Kveta pulled back but left her gauntleted hands on Andraste's shoulders. At this distance, Andraste could see her beaming through the slit in her helm. “If I took off my armor, I would have to wait longer to see you.”

Behind her, a Templar hovered, his visor pushed back to reveal his face. “You do need to return the armor,” he hedged. “Sooner rather than later.”

He’d trained with Kveta, Andraste was sure of it. He had that look about him, the one that said he’d been assigned the duty of getting Kveta out of her armor as soon as she entered the tower and, having failed that first crucial step, was not going to be enforcing any rules at all. This made it her job to strip Kveta down so the poor man could go about his day.

“Come on,” Andraste coaxed, peeling one hand from her shoulder and beginning on the gauntlet buckles. “Armor first, catching up after. I’ll put away your things.”

“Don’t bother.” Kveta waved her other hand dismissively. “They are all filthy. Instead of washing, I may burn them.”

“Please don’t-“ the Templar tried.

“In the grand fireplace, of course.” Kveta slapped her gauntlets down into his waiting hand, then knelt down to begin removing her boots. “I burn only wood in my room.”

And unwanted gifts, Andraste thought. Incriminating items, various herbs, a truly wasteful volume of paper... It would not surprise her in the least if Kveta rendered their room uninhabitable by throwing her muddy underthings into the fire, as if handing them off to the Tranquil to be cleaned wasn't just as easy - easier, even!

The Templar looked a little lost. “That’s not-“

“Better?” Kveta grinned, her bright mane falling free from her helmet, which she tossed into the Templar's arms as well. “I promise you I will throw in some incense so the smell puts no one off their dinner.”

He groaned. “Kveta…”

“Andraste, come and help me with these buckles. I cannot wait to breathe without a ton of metal weighing me down.”

“You slept in your armor as well?” Andraste asked wryly, grabbing Kveta by the waist and turning her until the leather straps that held her armor in place were more easily accessible. “Your commitment to your training shames me.”

“When was I meant to sleep?” Kveta laughed. “Maleficar are worse in the dark.”

Lifting the chest plate over her friend’s head, Andraste turned to the Templar and found his arms full already. “Will you be able to carry all this, ser knight?”

“Yes, my lady.” He rearranged his bundle, tying together the inner lacings of the boots so they could be slung over his shoulder, gauntlets tucked inside and helm beneath his arm, the other extended to take the chest piece from Andraste.

Skeptical, she handed it over. The Templar already wore full plate, which could only add to the difficulty of managing a full second set of armor.

“There.” Kveta dumped the last of her armor unceremoniously atop the pile in the Templars arms, then immediately set about stripping off the next layers of her clothing. Her quilted shirt was thrown across the back of a chair, leaving her in only her thin sleeves, graying with dirt and sweat. The front lacing dangled free, exposing a dangerous crevasse of colorless skin down her front. “I have returned my armor, unless you need to pat me down to be sure.”

For the first time, he cracked a hint of a smile. “I trust you.”

“Excellent!” Kveta had already begun to close the door, herding him out ahead of her. “Now, as I have not seen Andraste for a month, and I have seen you all month…”

He shook his head indulgently. “I’ll see you at dinner, Kveta. My lady.”

Kveta snapped the heavy wooden door shut, and Andraste rounded on her instantly.

“Tell me you didn't let him get over you.”

“Of course I did! The Marches are not so interesting that I didn’t need to make my own entertainment.” Two layers of leggings followed Kveta's outer shirt onto the chair, revealing pale, freckled legs banded with muscle. Her socks, no longer supported, slouched down towards her ankles.

“The Anderfels are a wasteland!”

“Where do you think I learned to entertain myself?” Kveta thumped down on top of her bed, arms and legs spread indulgently off the edges. Andraste winced on behalf of her bedding. “Maker, I missed sleeping indoors. And eliminating! I will be so grateful to shit without fear of bears.”

Andraste bent to rescue her book from the floor, marking her page with a pressed flower and returning it to her nightstand before settling atop her own bedding. “That’s what you missed?"

Kveta propped herself up on an elbow, expression emphatic. "Have you ever been caught by a bear with your trousers down? Skirts up," she corrected herself immediately, "it is all the same to a bear."

Andraste grimaced. "I'm choosing to believe this is a joke at my expense, and I will not be asking anyone about bears at dinner."

"As is your right." Kveta nodded firmly. "The bears will not stop being real because you do not believe."

With a fatalistic feeling, Andraste opened her mouth to clarify: "I believe in bears. I do not believe they are much seen along the Waking Sea."

"No," Kveta agreed. "Though sea lions are much like bears. As we were hunting in the mountains this month past, the bears found us easily."

"The Vimmarks?" Adraste was taken aback. "But it's Wintermarch."

"Yes?"

"There's snow."

Even the tower got a light dusting of it in the weeks of transition from Haring to Wintermarch, bursts of frost etching themselves onto the window glass, hidden by thick tapestry hangings that kept out the cold. Further inland, without the protection of the sea, it piled up in suffocating drifts that Andraste tried not to remember - a carriage ride, an early storm, wheels resistant behind exhausted horses, the heat of close-packed bodies leached slowly away, the sudden darkness and the indeterminate stretch of road without sign of human habitation. The surge of heat and light which came only when all the rest had gone, when she could not sit still for shivering even in her thickest traveling cloak, unable to feel any residual warmth from the press of her brother's thigh against her own. The realization that it came from her.

She had spent one night in that featureless whiteness, sheltered in a carriage with her family all sleepless and unspeaking: wishing for the magic to leave and terrified that it would go. She could not imagine anyone's spending a month out in the mountains in the snow without so much as the flimsiest walls for protection, and the effort made her stomach clench.

Kveta laughed. "Maleficar are very inconsiderate about the weather."

"You might as well just let them freeze out there."

Kveta's expression turned serious. "Look at me. I am not frozen. If we wait until the thaw, a maleficar is already in Starkhaven."

Andraste pursed her lips. "And so you spend a month hunting in the snow."

"It is not so bad." Kveta shrugged, tilting her head to let her tangled curls spill across her shoulder. "No baths, lest the water freeze against your skin. Bears. Poor game. But the danger warms the blood."

"No baths?" Andraste wrinkled her nose in horror. "You let one of your squad on top of you and you haven't bathed in a month?"

"'One'... more..." Kveta wobbled a hand in the air ambivalently. "Now you see why I wished to burn my underthings."

"You'll have to burn your bed now! I can't believe you're touching it. I can't believe you touched me."

"I missed you." Kveta rolled over to pillow her head on her hand, looking at Andraste with a clear and direct gaze. "And it has been so long since I was clean, what difference does an hour or so make?"

"It makes a difference to me! I have to live with you!" Andraste rose, brushing off the skirts of her robes as if to clear away imaginary dirt from Kveta's proximity. "Get dressed. We are ordering water and you are taking a bath immediately."

Kveta groaned. "I do not want to be dressed anymore! My clothing is stiff and it stinks."

Andraste crossed her arms. "You cannot walk through the tower naked." Before Kveta's open mouth could turn into a protest, she cut her off, pointing at her bare legs. "That is naked. I won't wash your hair if you're going to be difficult about it."

Kveta brightened. "You will wash my hair? You should have said so sooner." She hopped off the bed and began to re-dress, grimacing as she pulled on the masculine layers she had so recently discarded. Normally, Andraste would encourage her to wear her robes, but in this case she had rather Kveta not touch anything unnecessarily.

"Normally one only has to bribe children."

Unrepentant, Kveta grinned. "I have had a long month. Maybe I am a little childish today."

"Maybe is putting it generously." Andraste held the door open, a draft from the hall rushing past her and into the room. "If you don't hurry, your men will use up all the water and you will have to melt ice for your bath."

Ignoring the wide berth Andraste had purposefully afforded her, Kveta passed close enough that they nearly touched. "But you will help me, won't you?"

Andraste shook her head. "I've said I'll wash your hair. There's no need to push it."

The door closed on Kveta's laughter.

[valentineveils]

making it so that andraste had the most one-sided love with her senior enchanter [lydia] 🫡 as one does

[crowwowo]

what if we both struggled with our faith and we got really toxic about it

[buriedknight]

another dragon age protagonist of ours (with @starrythroat), the inquisitor this time

[alenseress]

Thinking about my Dragon Age art tonight

[nvaderxim]

Cassandra and Armand

[rhaegar--targaryen]

Me: trying to fall asleep

My brain: hey, remember when you did that thing 15 years ago that still makes you cringe and embarrassed and wakes you up in the middle of night

[tiafrye]

[abyssal-ilk]

thinking about an inquisitor who looks like andraste,, thinking ab her so bad

[apostacism]

15 & 42 for your inquisitors!

15: Since religion is a major component of DAI, is your Inquisitor religious? What do they believe in?

Isri: yes! She has never had a reason to doubt in the existence of the creators and fucked the dread wolf feels strongly about their role in the world and in her life. Part of her training to be a Keeper was to be able to help other people work through religious questions and concerns, to be someone who could hold faith for others while also giving their faith space to grow and take its own paths. She is not interested in opening her heart to the maker, yes, regardless of the number of gods in her pantheon. Thanks for asking.

Joaquin: Not really. He shows respect to small, natural gods - if you tell him there's a god of that river he'll go ahead and make the correct offerings - but that's not really out of faith as much as it is culture. Joaquin is pretty scientifically minded. Before the circles rebelled he was doing some very esoteric fade research, and he tends to believe that everything has a tangible explanation. Now, that explanation might be spirits, or extremely powerful mages, but that's not the same thing as a "maker". What makes a god a god? How do we define divinity? He would love to debate this with you. He will bring the wine.

Andraste: very much so. She's Andrastian as hell. Yes this is embarrassing for her. Yes it's complicated. Yes she's compensating for something. She's still going to be following the Chant of Light and the words of the Divine with likely destructive rigidity. This does indeed pose a problem when the Divine gets blown up and everyone starts looking to her instead.

42: How does life continue for the Inquisitor once the game is over? How do they adapt to losing their arm?

Isri: losing the arm? she adapts just fine. Losing the vallaslin? much, much worse. As a mage, it's pretty easy for her to adapt as a fighter: she was always more long-range than close combat even among mages, and in the rest of her life she just figures out how to compensate and adjust. Which she needs to do, because her ex boyfriend is trying to end the world?, she feels utterly alone, and she has to rebuild her life from absolutely nothing. There's no going home for Isri. There's no comfort or rest. She's too ashamed by her failures to even reach out to her Keeper and seek guidance. Life is fucking hard and Isri makes up for it by throwing herself into work. If she's focusing on whatever Solas is doing she doesn't have to deal with her own wreckage!

Joaquin: again, losing the arm is just... sort of a secondary concern. Like yeah it's a huge change to his body but nothing is "over" and he's still going, so honestly who cares. There's an adjustment period, but Joaquin knows how to weaponize performative complaining to mask actual discomfort, and he's got other stuff going on. Is he disbanding the Inquisition? Hell no. If Orlais wants to get rid of the Inquisition they can come take it from him. Joaquin always saw the Inquisition as a stepping stone to something greater, and his something greater was a project towards permanent mage freedom and if he's being really optimistic, a fatal destabilization of the southern Chantry, but he would settle for dealing it a severe blow. While not having the ability to deal with rifts is sort of a pain because that was a great way of rallying people to his cause, he put a lot of time and energy and thought into the engine of the Inquisition, and he's not ready to give up the reins even a little bit.

Andraste: Losing the arm is much harder for Andraste than the others. Her sense of self is much weaker, and having a "damaged" physical body makes her feel undesirable and incapable. It basically ends her as a knight-enchanter, which didn't come naturally to her to begin with. She feels weird and ashamed and broken and lost: she wasn't chosen by the Maker, she lost the thing that made her Inquisitor, and she's afraid that everyone who cared for her only did so because she was special, and now she's just nothing. The Inquisition shattered a lot of her self-delusions about her life in the Circle and the years she spent as the Inquisitor make her desperately want the life that she "should" have had as a noble woman, so the arm is an easy tangible thing to latch onto that symbolizes the things she feels have been taken from her: family, domestic life, comfort, social status, etc. No one's actually going to force her back into a Circle, but the feeling that they should dogs her: is she allowed to marry? Is she allowed to have children? Would she be a fit mother? She relies upon Cassandra a lot for guidance in the time after the dissolution of the Inquisition.

[valentineveils]

i think for this run andraste is gonna go to the templars complete that quest and disband them . she's still very sheltered , and tries her best to trust templars bcus it was drilled into her to trust them . but she learns Very Quickly -- what she was lead to believe was mostly wrong

[vultures-and-scavengers]

i think josie's personal quest missed a trick given that we're playing as the herald of andraste, orlesians believe in a divinely mandated right to rule and are the only country to do so, and we're trying to bring back a lost noble house. (source for below)

like minister bellise is just. generically haughty.

but given that we're told orlais believes in this divine right to rule, she COULD have been written as like genuinely believing keeping others from joining the nobility is a way to honor the maker-- after all, surely if they were meant to be noble, they would have been born so? or if she makes it more and more difficult, then only the ones the maker smiles upon get past her?

and i guess the game then 'tests' the nobility? if you fail, then you didnt have the maker's favor, and if you succeed, then he smiles on you? is playing the game and playing it well a form of worship to some orlesians?

and how does our position as the supposed 'herald of andraste' play into this? if we're chosen by andraste, allegedly, and then choosing to uplift a noble house, how does that intersect with divine right to rule? surely someone has some feelings on that! and if we can uplift one house, what about others?

its just. we have a very clear intersection between religion and nobility and we should have been able to interact with that! so was this codex entry nothing more than the overblown complaint of a ferelden bann or was it an actual commentary on how the empire views its nobility?

[midmorninggrey]

I don't know if our Inquisitors will show up at the Lighthouse, but I would really like the chance for Cece to ruin improve Lucanis' coffee.

[okeydokeylackey]

haha guys this is Romeo Trevelyan and totally not me inserting Acacius into yet another fandom that I'm starting to get into,,,

in all seriousness, been playing Dragon Age: Inquisition the past couple days and have been itching to draw my inky. I'm not completely satisfied with his face and everything but if/when I draw him again I hopefully won't be battling harsh ass art block 💀

[midorisudachi]

“The Inquisitor And Her Commander”

As some of you may have noticed, I am a huge fan of the Dragon Age games, especially Dragon Age Inquisition. Last year, I had planned on drawing all the main [playable] characters up until Dragon Age Day (which took place on December 4th), but I just didn’t have time to draw more than three characters (the Inquisitor, Solas, & Varric…please check them out in my gallery) due to being busy with work and other things. I’ll eventually draw the other characters when I gather more motivation to do so.

For now, please enjoy this piece. I hope everybody likes this. I worked very hard on this artwork. It took longer than usual to create, due to all the small details, the poses, & the armour. (Armour is not easy to draw for me!) For those of you who are DAI fans, you may recognize the flowers: Crystal Grace on the bottom and Andraste’s Grace on the top. I know Andraste’s Grace is not in DAI, but I thought it would be pretty to add to the artwork (since it technically exists in the Thedas world).

 My OC Inquisitor is named Bryony Trevelyan. She is actually my 2nd Inquisitor character, the first one having been an elf (which I may draw someday). I had been playing DAI for the 3rd time, a few months ago, as a male character (since I wanted him to be in a romance with Dorian, so yes, my male Inquisitor is gay), but I stopped for a bit since I am playing Skyrim at the moment (with updates & mods). Anyway, back on the main subject: I drew Inquisitor Bryony Trevelyan in the Armor of the Dragon Hunter outfit (from the Jaws of Hakkon DLC), which I had altered the colours by tinting it with Veil Quartz. I based her crown from concept art for DAI. So much armour in the game! Which I love, especially since the DA games don’t give female characters the stereotypical skimpy outfits…I love that I get to make my female characters wear bad-ass armour.

Cullen Rutherford is such an adorable and slightly awkward character around my Inquisitor. I knew I had to romance him right away, because his looks are the type of man I am attracted to in real life. (I’m not going to lie…in the game, he’s hot for a video game character. Ha ha!) I’ve always enjoyed the flirting in the DA games when it comes to the relationships. The best scene was right before their first kiss, when Cullen got interrupted by a member of the Inquisition, and then got mad about it. Ha ha. I liked when my Inquisitor asked Cullen, “The day you kissed me on the battlements…how long had you wanted to do that?” And Cullen replied (with a laugh), “Longer that I should admit.” Awwwww.

I also liked the part in the Winter Palace, when all these people were flirting with Cullen, and one asked him, “Are you married, Commander?” And Cullen replied, “Not yet, but I am…already taken.” Double awwww, because a loyal man is so dreamy. :3 I actually had Bryony & Cullen get married in the last DLC. :3 They adopt a Mabari (dog), too!

I love DAI too much. :D It’s such a fun game with the most gorgeous graphics (especially on the Xbox Series X).

Drawn with Sakura Pigma Micron pens, then coloured in with a mixture of Copic Markers & Ohuhu Markers. I used Koi Watercolours for the background. White accents done with both a gel pen and white watercolour. Gold acrylic was used for the Inquisition Symbol & the lines, which the scanner absolutely murders...the gold is such a pretty, shimmery metallic in real life. The light green around my art was done in Photoshop Elements.

Dragon Age Inquisition © Bioware & Electronic Arts

Fan artwork © Jacqueline E. McNeese