#consider it your debt repaid [ARIA ; WISHLIST]

[lightlorn]

aria talks a good game about wanting to go home and settle down once thedas can stay saved for longer than ten minutes, but her choice of love interests has never lent themselves towards this cause. her ship-based endgames run from ‘heading north to the imperium to take direct action against elvhen slavery’ to ‘leading a commune of mages who prefer keeping a wide berth from the society that isolated them to begin with’ to ‘we’re old friends who keep clashing in battle but like in a sexy philosophical soulmates kind of way.’ 

so frankly i think it’s going to be hilarious if aria ever does net a love interest who is going to lead her into a peaceful retirement on some patch of land somewhere with the mabari and a few kids underfoot. i would honestly love to develop a ship that ends with ‘and aria retired to the countryside and never got dragged into other people’s bullshit again. she was happy and at peace and taught her kids to hunt and to always tell wardens to kiss your ass. she was desperately in love with her spouse to the day she died of natural causes unrelated to her service in the blight. historians still love to discourse about her in the ages since.’

[dirthera-blog]

No but one potential dialogue branch in the epilogue for Origins leaves open the possibility of Aria as the Chancellor of Alistair’s court. Leave me here to consider an Elf, from Dalish origins, being left in charge of dispensing justice and interpreting laws across her homeland, regardless of the race or status of those who stand accused. Aria being able to pass judgment on all those who once outranked her, people who made life for her kind a living Hell. And there is not a damn thing they can do about it.

Aria having the authority to truly begin to shift public perception, to punish or pardon with precious few powerful enough to stop her, to finally begin to make changes to benefit all of the country rather than the Human majority and the Noble minority. She probably wouldn’t be popular -- because giving Elves rights means you have to take away Human rights, right??? -- but damned if she would not get shit done. Honeyed words and a spine of iron can get a Chancellor far in the world. She’s both the worst thing early in Alistair’s early reign and one of the most influential just because she wants such sweeping reform and is in a position to see these desires achieved. 

The fact it would take years to see many of her goals accomplished just makes it all the more striking. That she would work for so long amidst opposition, cutting deals and using force and maybe relying on the odd assassination just to see her dreams come to fruition. A fairer world is possible so long as people fight for it, and Aria is more than happy to champion such a cause.

Chancellor Aria, guys. Chancellor Aria.

[lightlorn]

tag dump o1: aria mahariel // character.