#i would say her skills are on par with the average npc but i think she's probably ever so slightly. worse.

[screenviolense]

yes marya is good at ballet and has a variety of skills but the one thing she's really bad at is her job

[bornpariah-a]

                                     SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE

A thought ran through my mind recently: we know some of Dorian’s backstory, but what about the SPECIFICS? He had no actual friends apart from Felix for the bulk of his life, but there really must be some significant people who had had an impact on his life. Naturally, I already have plenty of thoughts regarding these people and who they could be and the effect that they have on Dorian’s life, and I suppose you could call them NPCs. For the most part these are based on people that have been mentioned in-game who I have decided to expand upon, simply just to give further insight on Dorian’s life pre-game. Do note that, apart from names and basic information, none of the information in this post should be considered canon. This is all entirely based on MY OWN HEADCANONS, and bear in mind that the pictures shown above are just representations for these characters. That being said, below the cut is some more information!!

RILIENUS TALVAS. ( quiet, academic, rational, hopeless romantic. ) So, anyone who plays the game with Dorian and Cole in your party a great majority of the time know some about Rilienus. Rilienus, skin tan like fine whiskey, cheekbones shaded, lips curl when he smiles. —— He would have said yes. In my headcanons, Rilienus is a Laetan who attended the Vyrantium Circle whilst Dorian attended when he was around the age of fifteen/sixteen. When they met they hit if off, in some ways, mostly by way of the fact that they were both scholarly and enjoyed academic pursuits. They would often spend time with each other in the circle library, combing over various books. There were a great many times that Dorian tutored him when Rilienus was lagging in one aspect of magic or another. They spent a great amount of time together and became something like friends, though Dorian doesn’t really CONSIDER IT friendship in hindsight. At that point in time, Dorian was still determined to make his father proud ( this pursuit was strengthened by the fact that he had moved through many of the circles in tevinter, already ) and he did not personally view Rilienus as a friend. He was motivated by Rilienus’s beauty to show him kindness and Dorian fostered something of a HOPELESS CRUSH ON HIM, not that he acknowledged it at the time. Rilienus likely also fostered something of a crush on Dorian, in return, Something tender intermingled with a brand of hero worship, due to Dorian’s talents. Shortly before Dorian had been EXPELLED from the Vyrantium Circle for getting into yet another fight, the sudden question of “may i kiss you?” popped into his mind unbidden when he had been spending an afternoon with Rilienus in the library. Shortly thereafter, Dorian had a minor breakdown and fled the library and they were never alone again before he was expelled. In present time, insofar as canon goes, he has married and has a small family and is an Enchanter of the Vyrantium Circle and is generally happy.

LIVIA HERATHINOS. ( cut-throat, intelligent, stubborn, cunning ) Dorian mentions to Varric that his parents very much wanted him to marry a woman named Livia Herathinos. Obviously, their parents wanted them to be betrothed to be married and imagined the two of them having a very, very powerful mage baby. To elaborate: in my mind, Livia is an Altus whose father is a Magister, and she has magical skill which is essentially on par with Dorian’s. Given their respective magical abilities and the fact that they stood out from their peers as a result, the Pavus and Herathinos family were VERY INTERESTED in the child that they would breed together. Livia and Dorian spent some time together when they were children, wherein they got into an excessive amount of trouble together. Blowing things up for the sake of blowing things up sort of trouble. They both attended the Carastes Circle when they were children and, at the time, somewhat tolerated each other. For the most part they argued and competed against each other. Livia stayed in the Carastes Circle throughout all of her studies, whilst Dorian was, naturally, transported through pretty much all the Circles in Tevinter. Their parents often tried to push them together at just about any and every party that they attended, to which they were consistently horrible to each other, which got worse as they got older. Livia tried to have Dorian killed multiple times, though clearly no attempts succeeded. He did the same to her, quite frankly. Honestly, they made an attempt to get along when they were younger, albeit a weak one, but it just failed as they got older. They actually admired each other, deep down, for their respective magical abilities and for their personalities, and likely would have made TERRIFYINGLY GOOD FRIENDS if things had worked out differently. The type of friends that no one ever wanted to see together, because nothing good would come of it. Their last point of contact was at a party whilst Dorian was Alexius’s apprentice, wherein they exchanged barbs. Not even thinly veiled. Nonetheless, these days Livia is already married and has given birth to a daughter, who is definitely a mage, whom she loves deeply. She doesn’t care much for her husband.

SERAPHUS ABREXIS. ( resentful, insecure, focused, resourceful ) Son of Ulio Abrexis, whose estate Dorian was abducted from in canon due to a scandalous affair between himself and his son, who I named Seraphus. Dorian and he studied together at the smaller Circle in Minrathous, ran by the Order of Argent. The two of them had very little contact when they were younger, but Seraphus deeply envied Dorian for his magical talents, as he had slightly below average talent when it came to magic. In general, he hated the circle that he had to attend due to its strict adherence to the Chantry and often found himself frustrated because of his status. He was the first person who tried to kill Dorian, a decision that he made purely due to his irritation, and because he had his assassin mention his name when trying to kill Dorian, by the time that he arrived at the Circle at the age of seventeen/eighteen he had already hyper-focused on Seraphus. Their relationship was one of INTENSE RIVALRY, at least on Seraphus’s part. On Dorian’s part he was mostly just amused by Seraphus. Which served to anger Seraphus even more. Just before Dorian fled the Circle, Seraphus demanded that they meet and have a duel, to which Dorian showed up to. And soundly beat Seraphus. They ended up fucking that night, and Seraphus was the first man that Dorian ever fully slept with. They had no contact for several years thereafter. The next time that they met, Dorian was about twenty-five and in the midst of grieving over the Alexius family, and was generally drunk at the time. All the time. Seraphus was to be married soon, yet he and Dorian began an illicit affair that went on ( and went probably too far ) until Dorian was abducted by his family’s men and put under house arrest. The scandal reflected badly on Seraphus, as well, and nearly jeopardized his eventual marriage. The relationship between Seraphus and Dorian wasn’t particularly simple nor healthy, considering the premise and the fact that Seraphus CONTINUED TO RESENT DORIAN in spite of being attracted to him. In return, Dorian just didn’t think very much of Seraphus, apart from him being attractive and a good lay. To say they hate each other is a stretch, honestly. Nowadays Seraphus is unhappily married and to whom his father’s seat in the Magisterium is going to is unknown, to his despair.

SORREL. ( realistic, determined, sly, enigmatic ) This is a character of my own creation with no technical basis in canon. A male elven prostitute with whom Dorian spent a significant amount of time with, and not purely just to sleep with him. Though that definitely happened. In the time after he ran away from the Order of Argent’s Circle, Dorian spent a majority of his time with Sorrel, because they were —— SOMETHING LIKE FRIENDS. Not quite, given the nature of their relationship, but they got along well enough. Being incredibly attractive, Dorian enjoyed sleeping with the man, but Sorrel also offered a great source of conversation, and they talked often nearly as much as they fucked. Sorrel is charismatic and intelligent and Dorian would often default to spending the night with him whenever possible, paying him handsomely. They never properly breached any PERSONAL TOPICS, but Dorian supposes that he came to care for Sorrel and for the place that he worked. Enough so that he defended it multiple times against people who wanted to take advantage of any of the employees. Dorian became affectionately known as their resident mage and Sorrel was just about as fond of Dorian as Dorian was of him. Their relationship was not anything beyond platonic with rather frequent sexual trysts, as they had no romantic interest in each other. Dorian had been with Sorrel the night that Gereon Alexius came across him, and returned to visit him on a more or less low key basis after he had been taken into the Alexius family’s fold. After his fall out with Alexius, Dorian returned to Sorrel, though they did not sleep together. The last time they slept together was some time during Dorian’s time as Alexius’s apprentice. When he was fleeing Tevinter, Dorian considered seeing Sorrel one last time, but he dismissed the idea rather quickly. He has WRITTEN HIM, a few times, but does not consider them friends, by and large because of their power imbalance. These days, Sorrel is still a sex worker, but after Dorian returns to Tevinter he gets a mysterious benefactor who never sees him nor visits the house, any longer.