#helena mercar

[feykiller]

Portrait of a Magister- artist unknown, circa 9:51

[rambles-on-dragon-age]

character place holder post

Place holder post for my character tags.

Will probably be deleted when I scrounge up photos/gifs/videos I like of everyone.

lotta work ahead is all.

[shewolfofvilnius]

Making Ser Jory's kid Rook is the best OC I've ever made

(If you've seen me post relentlessly about her on bluesky or reddit no you haven't)

If you've EVER played Dragon Age: Origins, one of the most memorable moments takes place early in the game. Your character has just traveled to Ostagar, where you'll formally join the Grey Wardens. You meet two recruits, one is the rogueish cutpurse Daveth, while the other is the former knight Ser Jory, formerly of Redcliffe and now of Highever (remember that bit.)

Jory is responsible for the first major tone shift of the entire franchise, when the previously affable Duncan, billed in all six origins as an at least moderately heroic type, pulls out his blade and kills Ser Jory when the knight refuses to drink Darkspawn blood (seems sensible), having either been misinformed or otherwise woefully naive about what being a Warden means.

The entire thing is grim - and your player character can even tell Alistair and Duncan how fucked up that was after the fact. Most importantly for THIS story, however, is something that Jory mentions twice including right before he dies: He has a wife back in Highever, who is due to have a baby.

Highever. The same Highever that gets raided and sacked during the Human Noble origin by Arl Howe's forces. The same Highever that sees every family member of literally anyone even vaguely connected to Teyrn Cousland either killed or worse.

But presumably, there were at least some survivors, folks who were able to flee. Even in canon world states where they don't join the Wardens, both the younger Cousland sibling and their mother Eleanor cut a pretty wide swathe of damage through the castle before being overwhelmed. The carnage almost assuredly let people flee, we see it in the human noble origin!

Maybe, just maybe, one of those people...was Jory's wife Helena. Who winds up fleeing Highever aboard a cargo ship headed for Tevinter. A cargo ship that winds up getting run aground and attacked near the battlefields Ventus by the Qunari, right as Helena is due to give birth. Worth noting: Thie last part of that is not even fanciful headcanon, it's Shadow Dragon Rook's canonical biography. They mention it to Tarquin before the Act 1 Choice.

and by the time of game events, a certain Legatus Mercar is ready to talk with Maevaris, Dorian, and the Shadow Dragons and has begun expressing equalist sentiments, at least privately? How would they know what Legatus Mercar thinks privately? Well, in a Shadow Dragon run, for one thing because his child is standing right next to them.

Having Rook be Rory and Helena's kid, though, opens up so much storytelling potential. Like the time Rook refuses to go along with the commanding First Warden (also from Rivain like Duncan)'s orders and nearly draws her own weapon on him:

Seem familiar?

Now imagine a bit later, when Morrigan meets her and immediately realizes there's something haunting familiar about this woman leading the attack against the gods. She even reflexively questions Rook's intelligence for a moment.

Later still, at Weisshaupt, when Rook - in this case now already armed with the knowledge that there was a Warden at Ostagar who she looks uncannily like - finds the chalice, finds records from the Fifth Blight while they're escaping to the dragon trap through the library.

drama.

It's been such a fantastic story so far and I'm only at Act 2. There's even an inversion of Flemeth's "sadly irrelevant in the larger scheme of things" line with Morrigan as she reveals the Mythal fragment in the Crossroads. Framed with a shot of a building that has a vague resemblence to the Tower of Ishal in the background with more swamp-like elements in the Crossroads.

At the same time, growing up as a girl in Tevinter has meant multiple stark differences between her and her father. She's a Shadow Dragon, so clearly she's invested in the liberation of slaves and servants. She's interested in equality, and although human, has likely experienced at least two forms of prejudice herself (being a non-Mage in Tevinter, and yes, being a she from a Tevinter military family when we know the Tevinter military has a long history of excluding or diminishing women). While her biological father is noted for having rather...sheltered and inhibited beliefs on the capabilities and stations of elves, dwarves, and yes, women - there's none of that with her.

...to the point that in her world state, she's CLEARLY in love with an elf. And while Jory ran off to chase glory and danger with the Wardens leaving Helena behind, when trouble comes for Bellara, she squares up and stands to protect her - even when that trouble is Bellara's own brother (and the ancient elven wannabe-god manipulating him)

but ultimately, the apple didn't fall entirely away from the tree.

Listen to the thing about Helena that Jory says hooked him in:

and who is Rook smitten with?

You know good and damn well Rook melts into a puddle every single time Bellara looks at her. Her vallaslin is literally designed to accentuate her eyes. Rook might be Mercar's daughter, but in at least one specific way, she is definitely Jory's kid.

Anyway, I just think my OC's neat and felt like yapping about her on here.

[sage-nebula]

the empress and justice for the ask game!

I'm sorry this has taken me so long to answer! I wanted to give it proper answers, and that required being on my PC, and I've been away from my PC for a hot minute. But I'm here now!

The Empress: What does family mean for Rook?

Hoo boy. The subject of "family" is a loaded topic for Thalia. She was raised as an only child by her adoptive parents, Charon and Helena Mercar. Both Charon and Helena are human, while Thalia is an elf; Charon found her abandoned as a baby on a battlefield where he was stationed near Ventus, and when he saw the magical barriers she had subconsciously raised to keep herself safe, he took her in. Yes, she was an elf, but she was a mage. Being a mage canceled out being an elf, in their eyes.

But it didn't cancel it out in the eyes of the Tevinter Imperium. Thalia wasn't permitted to attend academies meant for other mages, because she was an elf, but rather had to be homeschooled. When she went out with her parents, other Tevene mistook her for the family slave, and her parents never saw fit to correct because "we know they're wrong" and they didn't want to cause a scene. As she grew older, this meant her parents kept her home more and more—because Thalia was hurt by the way they wouldn't stand up for her, and her parents grew tired of having the fight.

Thalia's parents did love her. And she did (does) love them. But the growing hurt over how they would keep her out of the public eye and not correct those who called her slave festered like an infected wound. The fact that Charon was a Legatus, yet was doing nothing to publicly stand against the institution of slavery, hurt Thalia even more. She ran away when she was eighteen, for though it made her as homeless as she was friendless, she figured that if no one else was going to make a stand, then she had to. And she couldn't do it while living in that house.

She was found shortly after when she inadvertently crashed a Shadow Dragon operation to free slaves—slaves that she was also trying to free, with no plan other than "get in, open slave cages, lead slaves out." The Shadow Dragons who found her had two decades on her, but saw this spirited young teenager as a worthy potential member of their ranks and brought her onboard. Thalia was only too eager to join.

She was a Shadow Dragon, then, for nine years before she met Varric. And in that time, she came to consider her fellow Shadows her family, because of the sense of belonging and acceptance (and in that, love) that they brought her. She hasn't spoken to her parents at all since she left, feeling they probably wouldn't want to speak to her anyway; she thinks she disowned herself from that family, even if she still bears the last name. The Shadow Dragons are her family, now — and later, the Lighthouse crew becomes her immediate family, her best friends.

But if asked about her parents, she'll get tense before making jokes to distract and change the subject. It is an extremely touchy subject, and one she really doesn't like talking about.

Justice: How does Rook feel about the circumstances that led to them leaving their faction? What does returning feel like?

Much like her family feelings, it's complicated!

On a couple of fingers, she does understand; she took a huge risk, and Wanted posters went up all over the city for her. She has a distinctive look (she used magic to dye her hair purple when she was eighteen, but the spell went a bit awry and she's never been able to change her hair color again no matter what she tried), so it's not as if hiding would be particularly easy for her. The Shadow Dragons are Shadow Dragons for a reason, and drawing that much attention to them could put everyone in danger. It was best not only for her, but for the organization as a whole if she stayed away for awhile.

But on all the rest of her fingers, she feels immensely frustrated by it. Yes, there was a target on her back — but there has always been, because she is a Shadow Dragon and because she won't stop being a blade in the side of every Venatori for as long as she draws breath. Her risk worked, by the way, the slaves ended up going free, which might not have happened had she not taken the risk she did. And the fact that the Viper—who, she would like to add, has just as much of a target on his distinctive outfit as she does on her distinctive hair—sends her away instead of standing up for her to those who would come after her . . . it brings up old bitter feelings that were formerly reserved for her parents. Even if she gets why, in this case, it still rankles.

With that said, though, the Shadow Dragons are still those she considers family, and Minrathous is still her home. (Even though she was raised in Midtown, rather than Dock Town.) And by the time she returns, a lot of the hurt and anger has simmered away. She forgives the Viper, especially since she understand why, and she's able to give Tarquin's shit talk right back to him with no hard feelings.

"You know I didn't want to send you away," the Viper says quietly, when they have a moment alone together in the Shop.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Thalia says, and she throws him a cheeky wink as she picks up her bottle of Tevene lager. "You can't keep me away, anyway. You're stuck with me."

"For that," the Viper says, as Thalia takes a swig, "we are all grateful."

(Feel free to send more in!)

[seigephoenix]

Original Character Compliation

Figured it was about time to condense and consolidate all my OCs into one post. Each has their own page dedicated to them. I'll also be making a ship post for all my fandoms too.

Dragon Age

Finn Aldwir Senna Thorn Odette Ingellvar Cal Mercar

Alissa Trevelyan Bronwen Lavellan Adelaide Trevelyan Nirya Cadash Roisin Lavellan Roscar Bonebreaker

Garrett Hawke Marian Hawke

Serena Tabris Elaina Cousland Briar Amell Maximillian Amell

Mass Effect

Cerise Ryder Colin Ryder

Marlowe Shepard Rhys Shepard

Baldur's Gate 3

Jareth Elaina Elfie Dawnstone Thalia Lysette

Cyberpunk

Evie "V" Veronique "V"

Demon Slayer

Ayane Mochizuki

Destiny 1 & 2

Siobhan Jareth Annalise Yvette Tevriks

Skyrim

Aurelia Tullius Roscar Bone-breaker Helena Nightshade Nyx Sylvana Valenwood

Fallout 4

Georgia Alyssa

[feykiller]

4 and 6 for get to know rook! 🥰

Based on this questionnaire

Thank you Skip!! ❤️🩵❤️🩵❤️

Now this is all heavily headcanoned (since I planned Helena back when DAI was released) but I think it plays out quite well

4. Where were they born? Where did they grow up?

Helena was born in a Sorporati family in Minrathous, so she's lived there her whole life. There are a few members of her family that serve as templars, but majority are of average class and work in tradecrafts.

6. What was their childhood like?

Lol buckle in. Helena was discovered to have magic at a young age of 6. She had hurt herself and in the fear of getting caught, she heard a whisper instructing her to use her blood to heal her skin. It tingled and cured, but her feat was witnessed by a few people and she was promptly noted by the Circle of magi and assigned her to a magister for training.

Her mentor was good to hear, albeit very tough, and trained her in many aspects of magi (definitelygonna have to choose a specialization here, but if based on previous games, shes definitely an entropy and spirit girlie).

A large part of her childhood was hanging around with the servants' children. As she was from a lower rank she didnt get along well with most of the other apprentices. It was how she got strongly into rebellion and in time grew to be at conflict with her mentor because of this. An alteration lead to the death of her mentor and Helena went in hiding, eventually discovered and joined with the Shadow Dragons to continue their rebellion.

[feykiller]

Hiiiii Faye :) 23 and 28 for get to know Rook, mayhap? 🥰

Based on this questionnaire

Hiii Bee!!!!! 💕

23. What excites them?

Oh my WELL, she has researched a lot on the Fade,articularly trying to learn more about the Fear demon that plagues her, so anything involving the Fade excites her in a way that’s more.. determined? If can say so. It’s an opportunity for her to gain more insight and hopefully eliminate that demon from tormenting her.

Also pissing off authority. The surefire way to get her involved in something.

28. Are they religious?

Helena is ambivalent with the Imperial Chantry that she grew up with, fundamentally she does agree with the “magic exists to serve man, not rule over him” but doesn’t agree with the tyranny that inevitably comes with this thought process.

This belief of hers gets challeneged when she begins to deal directly with the magisters once joining the Shadow Dragons. Seeing the tyranny firsthand again after her childhood experiences, Helena began to believe that sometimes turanny can only be answered with a similar force. She began to be more ruthless to her opponents, believing that she is in the right and thus true to the Chant, and greatly opposes the Orlesian version of the Chantry herself because of all the mage-hate that comes along with it.

[shewolfofvilnius]

honestly i think i enjoy making Rooks more than I actually enjoy playing Dragon Age Veilguard.

So far I've made three actual Rooks (well, mostly) plus puttered around in character creation to toy with a 4th.

The top is Isseya Thorne, Grey Warden, elven mage, my first Rook and the only one I've beaten the game with. She's based on a little girl that Warden Tabris (see #4) meets in both the City Elf Origin AND in the Broken Circle quest in the Ferelden Circle.

Second is my current I'm actually playing with, Jordana Mercar, a human with the Shadow Dragons. If there's something vaguely familiar looking about her: She's the biological daughter of Ser Jory, the cowardly recruit from Ostagar. His pregnant wife, Helena, lived in Highever, which is where the Couslands are deposed in the human noble origin. I decided that Helena fled on the last ship out, for Tevinter, but died giving birth to Jordana.

Third is Hawke. Literally just the default female Hawke, Marian (the one I used the first time I played DA2, my favorite game).

Lastly, I was noodling around in the creator and decided to make an aged-to-present version of the Hero of Ferelden, Warden Elissa Tabris. I half-assed her a special title card in Photoshop, but deliberately tried to make her 'Hero of Ferelden 23 years later. If you zoom in close, you'll see noticeable greys plus dark scarring that's the sign she's nearing her Calling.

Since I already have Rooks, Hawke, AND a Hero of Ferelden, I'm also including my Inquisitor from Rook #1's run, my canon Inquisitor Vilkė.

[rambles-on-dragon-age]

hihi ! i'm batty. i tend to ramble a lot and i like to doodle things.

if you see likes, comments, or follows as @illia-ast that would be my main account. it is a retired rp account and won't have new content any time soon. (though if you'd like to see the xiv character roster, they will appear in a longfic set in dai times where they all slipped through during the chaos of the breach and are rounded up and helping the inquisition.)

this blog is heavily under construction ;;

i am an old head and have audhd. dragon age is one of my main special interests. i am always happy to chatter incessantly about it if you want to shoot a message or an ask.

here's the invite to a little dragon age server if you wanna come chatter with me and others without the overly critical sorts

you can also find my expression meme master post here. i'm always happy to take npc requests or requests involving my own characters. or you can skip the expression meme sheets and just hit me with ideas.

i don't mind some trades but i don't really do free art. i do like to do fun stuff of my ocs with your ocs! both art or writing/plotting.

this blog is slowly being rebuilt from being moved from an old account to this account. i will slowly be adding my old characters here. as such the tag tree will grow with time.

Vir'era Lavellan ‧ ❀ ‧ Esha Mercar ‧ ❀ ‧ Helena Ingellvar