#brosca escapes the tragic narrative (twice) worldstate

[vigilskept]

okay I'm curious about ppls answer to this one, which canon character hates your Inquisitor in dai?

OOOOH thats a good one.

i’ll answer for sander & sindri since their beef with other characters is a bit more personal whereas my other inquisitors mostly clash with others over differences of opinion (lifelong apostate semra adaar does NOT do well with the pro templar/chantry crowd)

sander trevelyan: leliana

immediately clocks that he’s a fraud

he plays up the humble servant of andraste thing constantly and it makes her eye start twitching

the reality isn’t any better btw: he's a typical layabout youngest son with all the usual blind spots and then some

the trevelyan family ‘tragedy’ of having their eldest son and only daughter turn out to be mages... did not help things in that household

anyway, all this is made MUCH worse by the fact that josie initially likes him

seeing him flirting with her probably makes leliana wish she could get away with quietly assassinating him on more than one occasion

fortunately for everyone he fumbles josie big time 👍

this lowers the risk of stabbing, but that’s about as much as their relationship improves

it’s not for a while, not until things are properly settled but she does leave the inquisition once it’s clear he’s staying on as the head of it

this inquisition is worse off without her, but she is definitely better off without it!

sindri (brosca) cadash: rica, kalah, vivienne

some context: this is an alternate worldstate where they manage to escape to the surface with leske

the bad news: harrowmont gets crowned… and things have been much worse for the broscas ever since

this au basically came out of a 'is there a way for sindri brosca to see themself as a person' thought experiment

bc in da:o they fundamentally see themselves as a thing

a tool, in a best case scenario

they volunteer to go under branka's hammer on the anvil of the void to become be a better tool, for both orzammar and for the wardens

ANYWAY. the result of this thought experiment was yes, it can get better. but only if it first gets worse

in this case that means disappearing deeper into their work for the carta for a decade...

... then getting got by the fen’harel orb and forced into an entirely different identity even more detached from who they are

it does help to break them out of the cycle of depersonalisation, but in the meantime....

their family relationships have been made incredibly fraught by their escape to the surface

it was always bad with their mother, but their relationship with rica also begins to fray over time

financial dependence/cultural issues around being a surfacer (or have surface ties)/feelings of abandonment/etc...

it's just Not possible to untangle any of that when communication is going in the form of short letters accompanying one way deliveries of money

which go without reply…. until more money is needed

its Not Good. but it won't stay this way forever

the hate from vivienne though is entirely warranted. sindri just constantly assumes the worst of her in a way that's fueled by their own baggage

woman trapped by her circumstances seeks the patronage of a nobleman to find security by leveraging his position... hmm. why might this particular dynamic be setting them off?

why might they wish this relative stranger ill when they see this all pay off for her?

who knows. definitely not sindri who is by now an expert at NOT engaging in any self reflection

this does start to change!!

being inquisitor forces sindri to deal with a lot of the issues they’ve been actively repressing for a decade & with that comes changes in perspective too

it may just be too little too late for them & vivienne though

they will reach a point where they're no longer openly antagonistic, but i don't know if it ever improves further than that