#i'm working out how dany & neria feel about each other

[otherpigeon]

thoughts i'm thinking about re: clan lavellan, danyla, and neria (this got long so have a cut)

so the lavellan clan is bloodthirsty, they're super anti-human, they believe in restoring what the elves were. they know the history of the evanuris, but where the beliefs diverge is that the clan thinks their gods did all of these terrible things to others- certainly not the elves. hence, their hatred for anyone who isn't an elf.

and both danyla & neria unlearn what their clan taught, but differently and to different extents.

danyla, away from her clan, is fairly isolated. she works with the inquisition (unwillingly) but keeps to herself, or spends time with solas, not really opening up to anyone else. she's still very distrusting, and even when the inquisition is disbanded, she spends years alone searching for solas with the help of leliana and leliana alone.

neria, away from her clan, finds herself missing the company of others. she wants to be part of something larger, so she joins the veil jumpers. she's leery about them at first because they accept anyone- not just elves. and she's standoffish and slow to trust...until she becomes tainted by darkspawn and a human warden offers to save her.

and it's with the wardens that she realizes "okay, not everyone is bad, not everyone is out to get me"

and the difference, I think, is how they left the clan. they were both forced, but dany was ripped away into this andrastian role she wanted nothing to do with. neria was forced to leave because everyone else was dead or missing.

and the other difference is that dany felt alone and isolated from the get-go, she was the only dalish elf even among the other elves in her inner circle. one was a city elf who hated "elfy" things, the other looked down on her heritage. she was constantly talked down to by the chantry, by the orlesians...she saw the hatred others had for her people.

neria, on the other hand, immediately found others who respected elven history, who reveled in it, who wanted to know more. she was well liked, and was asked to share stories, beliefs, knowledge. she was encouraged to embrace who she was, and what she believed. even in the wardens- sure, she met some resentment there- but for the most part, people were good to her.