#iskandar trevelyan

[whipbogard]

Kadans

@ Bioware: I have not forget and forgive you for robbing Iskandar off his dancing scene with Bull at the Winter Palace. They better be together STILL

[v-arbellanaris]

been thinking abt isra and iskandar since u answered that ask game... u said isra is dead in iskandar's solo pt - is he also dead in hers? is there a timeline where theyre both alive during inquisition? would they get to meet then? how do both of them feel/interact with the three mage companions? what do they think about the cure for tranquility reveal? if u wouldn't mind talking about them :>

ARE U KIDDING MEEEE i love talking abt these fucked up siblings so much i can talk abt them FOREVER!!!!

iskandar is alive in isra's playthrough!!! he doesn't show up in her solo run bc it's essential to my portrayal and everyone's understanding of both characters that her story works fine without him but his revolves around her, but he does in my apotheosis verse stuff and they DO meet then, probably under the worst circumstances ever - my current working plot involves him being brought in to deal with her being a rebellious figurehead (since she escapes the inquisition in the hinterlands, so she also has to be recaptured), though this might change in shape of form, again! it's ESSENTIAL that they're brought in on opposite ends - the "villain" isra as the people's herald and the "hero" iskandar as the inquisition's ideal inquisitor.

isra and iskandar separately both know dorian fairly well - their father does business in tevinter, so keeping up to date with their 'vint relatives is sort of a big thing, so isra remembers dorian from even before the circle. iskandar does too, but more reluctantly - there are so many reasons why, as the eldest son, he'd rather join the templars than stay at home and be heir lmao. i think it's hard for dorian to really grapple with what isra went through and experienced in the circle, or why she's so aggressively anti-circle and anti-chantry, because his own experiences are simply not comparable - he thinks of his harrowing fondly, speaks of his experiences fondly, and doesn't quite grasp the idea of the circles in southern thedas. iirc isra and dorian have a huge row about it in haven when he says that giving the mages their freedom is dangerous - "what's next? give the elves halamshiral?" and she's like "why not? it was theirs in the first place" and his entire spiel about the south becoming like the north makes her lose it. comparatively, i think iskandar keeps his distance - in his solo pt, i can't even remember if i recruited dorian or if it made more sense NOT to? but anyway, i think dorian's personal arc was made in a lab just to psychologically torture iskandar who a) has similar issues with his family (being ace/aro as the eldest son expected to carry on the family line) and b) would also have potentially resorted to anything to keep isra from being what she is (a mage) (the allegories are allegory-ing...).

ive talked a bit abt solas and iskandar before, so i guess i'll talk a bit abt isra and solas. i did design them as character mirrors, so i do think he sees a lot of himself in her, but then tends to ascribe his own flaws to her without wanting to admit they're his flaws in the first place, which creates a bit of friction. isra is also human-passing except for the very tips of her ears and her thin tapeta lucidum, so i think solas especially is very distant with her at first, despite her own sort of... like. in the inquisition, solas' values align far more closely to hers, and with the both of them now being apostates (isra's been one since before the events of asunder), she's more comfortable and willing to be around solas than most of the other party members. it's not mutual at all, and i think his distance is quite bewildering to her. but he does grow to like her, i think!!! i've blogged a bit about them before here.

i was talking to harker ages ago about this but genuinely iskandar should be hit with fucking hammers for how he behaves about vivienne. the first enchanter at markham basically quivers whenever iskandar's name is so much as mentioned, and actively avoids being in situations where he might need to talk to iskandar at all. and again, iskandar is... i don't think strict quite covers it. cullen talks a bit about vivienne like asking him to do things or giving suggestions etc and i was literally thinking about how iskandar would respond to that and the answer was: interpersonal violence. canon-typical violence, i might remind, which includes silencing, smiting, and (in the comics iirc) hitting. he is a very canon-typical templar, is dangerous in his zealotry, and has little patience for ambitious mages that may or may not remind him of his sister.

isra and vivienne disagree on how to deal with the circles and the templars and the chantry, and i think isra sort of... idk how to explain it, but i think she sort of feels bad for vivienne for never having any other option. isra was doing something similar because she thought she could change things from inside the system. and they both realise it's a broken system, but because isra had the option to walk away when her circle fell and try something different, they're both on different paths - and vivienne's given too much of herself, her life, her years to this path to go back. so she gets that, but still, ultimately, their final goals are different enough that it matters. isra feels a lot of personal sympathy for her, and appreciates her support, but there's a distance there that isn't really breached until after bastien passes.

re: tranquility cure reveal. i know they both deal with that badly, for differing reasons, and it puts them BOTH into conflict with cassandra. i think iskandar deals with it badly not because of the mages but specifically the reveal that seekers are just regular people made tranquil. that their abilities are not divine gifts from the maker that somehow proves they're Worthy and Correct and Righteous but something that any templar worth their salt could have tried, with enough training. only, that kind of training takes years. and why invest in that when you can just feed them lyrium and leash them at the same time with it. at this point iskandar is already ~40-44, lyrium withdrawal feels impossible for him bc he's not as young as cullen is. he doesn't think he'll be able to survive it, so he's squared himself with the knowledge he'll likely succumb to it at some point. but to know it was all fucking pointless, that there was another way, that the only reason he ended up this way was because someone, somewhere, thought he was disposable... it doesn't sit well with him, especially when cassandra's whole lament is that they were lied to. like you think YOU were lied to? what negative consequence do YOU have to live with, of that lie? are YOU the one who's going to die of lyrium addiction?

on the other hand, i think isra and cassandra's ideological conflicts really come to a head here and this is the exact point that cements the decision for isra to oppose cassandra's bid for the next divine as much as she can. she can't get concrete answers from cassandra about the cure to tranquility - there's no timeline, not even an inclination to pursue it, all with the excuse that "we still dont know enough". i dont think isra keeps that information to herself, and she's personally invested in the cure a) to return the lives of everyone who had it robbed by the rite and b) to wrest it away as a form of control over the mages from the chantry. and cassandra's insistence on not doing anything with it is the greatest sign to isra that cassandra has no intention of not using the rite against mages. so at the end of the day, cassandra can say whatever pretty things she likes, but for isra, this is such a key moment that means she can never support cassandra as the divine.

[theheartmold]

OC Kiss Week (Day 6) (Forbidden)

short little ficlet for today's prompt, which is Forbidden! Featuring my Jurian Amell (i need to change his name eventually) and @v-arbellanaris's Iskandar Trevelyan <3

"I hate you," Jurian declared through tears, hot and unbidden as they tracked lines down his cheeks. Between him and Iskandar, an overturned chess board; a shattered marble queen. He wished it was blood. Iskandar Trevelyan reaches out. Jurian flinches for the blow, and it comes, but never as anticipated. It is not a harsh strike, but a gentle hand that caresses—gentle as a knife. He whimpers in the back of his throat as Iskandar brushes away his tears. "Let me go," Jurian demands. "Let me go." "I will not," Iskandar says, leaning in until Jurian can feel hot breath against the shell of his ear. Jurian winces his eyes shut as Iskandar moves to kiss him, fresh tears falling as he numbly kisses back, reaching out to grasp at the collar of the Inquisitor's jacket. "Don't you see?" Iskandar murmurs as he pulls away. "The Maker loves you. I do this out of His love for you."

[knightcommanderahteck]

Modern AU where Alsandr is ridiculously ridiculous when it comes to Anders. His Political Secretary, Varric, has to keep an eye on him 24/7 to make sure he doesn’t do anything embarrassing or rash.

Thank god Iskandar, the tattoo artist, doesn’t judge... much X’D

[whipbogard]

I CANT WAIT TO MEET YOU, ROOK!!! 🥹🙌💖

[v-arbellanaris]

no one tagged me btw i just did this myself but. oc kiss from this picrew for my da ocs. im obsessed... more info under the tag

evadne/leliana | evadne/morrigan | faris/tamlen

kal/alistair | kal/zevran | kal/loghain

aedan/morrigan | aedan/leliana | aedan/anora

anders/miranda | rowan/fenris

lysander/anders | amalia/isabela | joan/sebastian

muna/merrill | muna/anders

isra/cullen | isra/mahanon

solas/marya | iskandar/cassandra

iskandar/solas | iskandar/jurian ( @dellamortethelesser's amell oc )

hala/lucanis | roisin/emmrich

roisin/neve | roisin/davrin

[v-arbellanaris]

4+20 for your inquisitors

LMAOOOOOOO u know what i respect this

4. Was there anything in their life they were looking forwards to doing once the Conclave was done?

i don't think isra expected to make it out of the conclave alive - she's a resolutionist who was involved in the kirkwall circle rebellion and the ostwick circle rebellion. she was fully being brought to the conclave to be tried, and likely executed.

realistically, iskandar is likely expecting to return to the markham circle, and was probably making plans for resource allocation etc etc as the divine brought the other circles back under the chantry's thumb, there was going to be an influx of new mages there.

i always imagined that marya and han are both looking forward to the same outing - i had imagined an arlathvhen coming up in the next year, and likely clan lavellan was busy with preparations for that.

20. What does the Inquisitor think about Hawke?

isra, in every timeline/worldstate, is always close to the hawkes, on account of them having essentially adopted her after she fled ostwick. i'm still hammering out her relationships with rowan and miranda (rowan would be her canon hawke, but both rowan and mira are in my apotheosis stuff so!) since they're both relatively new hawkes, but i've really been chewing on rowan and isra, and rowan and bethany (esp as bethany is taken to the circle), and rowan and miranda relationship (and his feelings abt miranda's resistance as an apostate and being a red!hawke apostate specifically) and how that translates to his relationship with isra... and isra's own complex relationship/feelings about her older brothers...

marya and miranda, meanwhile, are as different as night and day. miranda is my f!mage hawke, pro-mage, anti-chantry and anti-templar, friendship andersmance 100% ride or die, and completely unapologetic/unashamed to be an apostate or let her feelings about any particular topic be known (much to rowan and carver's aggravation, they would both love for her to be more circumspect about things), which is almost in direct opposition to marya's much softer personality. i think they clash quite a lot, though i don't think miranda views it as a clash, but marya definitely harbours some Feelings about being spoken over or spoken to quite harshly. i don't think miranda has a lot of patience for her; that's not personal, but it feels like it is.

iskandar's hawke in his solo worldstate is actually joan. and, on the surface, i think she might seem like someone he should respect, but i don't think he fucking likes her lmao. joan's got a mostly blue personality, which i think he takes as lack of conviction, which he looks down on -- he would respect her more if she was wrong (i.e. had different values/priorities than he does) but at least insistent on what she believes in. i think there's also a small part of him that is... apprehensive? aghast? appalled? some combination of these? at joan having annulled the kirkwall circle knowing her sister was in it. but i don't think you'd be able to ever pry that out of him.

i think i imported default hawke for han's playthrough, but i've been contemplating the idea of having muna in han's solo pt because i think it would be an interesting combination. again, muna is an apostate but her upbringing means she behaves in a way that would be familiar to han, having been in the circle himself. but also heart palpitations at muna asking about dalish things for merrill... augh... im normal abt it [lying]

[v-arbellanaris]

24 and 37 for any (or all if you feel up to it!!) inquisitors?

ty for sending this in!!!

24. What are the Inquisitor's thoughts on Celene, Briala and Gaspard? And who do they pick to rule Orlais?

having lived in the circle, i think han is more aware than marya of how humans see elves, and as first to the clan (as opposed to marya who never really cared about that kind of stuff), he's more deeply conscious of orlais' imperialism -- i think he values briala's approach, ideals and goals, which is why he puts her in control of orlais. celene he lets die for obvious reasons - he doesn't particularly care to preserve political power for orlesian nobles either.

marya more easily fell for the narrative of briala and celene as star-crossed lovers and reunites them, only to get a better handle of what actually happened afterwards, and reels in horror at what she's done/enabled <3

37. What are the Inquisitor's thoughts on Solas before and after his disappearance?

i actually think, in his solo worldstate, iskandar really struggles with solas as a companion - there's some key points that i think are deranged, which is that there's no options to tell solas that he belongs in the circle/will be better off for it, when he expresses concern about what the inquisition will do with him once they've closed the breach, which makes me particularly sick to think about when it comes to iskandar. from there, it wasn't much of a jump - i think getting to see a mage that has never been to the circle, that walks with his head upright and unbowed, really paints such a picture for him for how differently his life - and isra's life (since she's dead in his solo worldstate) - could have gone. he tries in a way, with solas, in a way he never did - never could - before with isra. trying hard to frame his grief and mourning and anger, trying to square with the fact it didn't need to be like this, and i don't think it's easy for him - or either of them. iskandar is quite cold, and holds onto his beliefs tightly, with only the teeniest sliver of doubt that solas wedges his way into with an equal tenacity.

after solas' disappearance, and before the events of trespasser, i think iskandar is almost... disappointed? not in solas, i think, but in himself. in his solo worldstate, despite it all, iskandar doubles down on his problems instead of confronting anything or changing at all, which means he returns the world to the status quo - for solas to not even trust iskandar to keep him out of the circle, rightfully so, is something that disappoints him and shames him a little, i think, deep in the recesses of his mind.

[v-arbellanaris]

I don't know your da ocs very well so I'll ask my fave general oc question: do you have any songs you associate with them?

OOOOH thank you for this!!! i only have about 500 playlists so hehehe:

evadne amell -> as they bloom; unlike pluto

what makes you miserable? it'll creep up and destroy you if you breathe it in like a fume in the toxic night in field with the beauty and the poison don't let it seduce you don't let it sting you oh, it wants to fool you it stabs you when you touch

kalyani tabris -> blood upon the snow; hozier & bear mcreary

i've walked the earth and there are so few here that know how dark the night and just how cold the wind can blow i've no more hunger now to see where the road will go i've no more kept my warmth than blood upon the snow

rowan & miranda hawke -> heavy is the crown; linkin park

turned to run, now look what it's become outnumbered ten to one back then should've bit your tongue 'cause there's no turning back this path once it's begun you're already on that list say you don't want what you can't resist waving that sword when the pen won't miss watch it all fallin' apart like this

isra trevelyan -> machine; neoni

life manufactured so we stay in line guess our comfort, it comes at a price i'd rather risk it than stay inside this prison why is it easier just to comply cross your t's and go x out your eyes just to make us a little more dead inside oh, i'm coming for you i can't wait to break the machine

marya lavellan -> nostalgia; suki waterhouse

i talk about the past like i talk about you i leave out every little thing that i don't like remembering i miss you more than i say i do you had to follow all your dreams, move to new york away from me you were so easy to forgive, but not so easy to forget why can't i keep you right where i want you?

iskandar trevelyan -> bleed it out; linkin park

filthy mouth, no excuse find a new place to hang this noose string me up from atop these roofs knot it tight so i won't get loose truth is, you can stop and stare bled myself out and no one cares dug a trench out, laid down there with a shovel up out of reach somewhere

mahanon lavellan -> in dreams; ben howard

always a riddle in the world she said always a riddle inside my head always a thing of wonder the way we come to be oh it's a big old place for me yeah it's a big old world indeed everyone is killing me and everything conspires

[v-arbellanaris]

i think tumblr has scrunched the fucking image quality. AGAIN. but waughhh. them...

[v-arbellanaris]

1 + 4 for inquisitor ✋🏼👁️👄👁️🤚🏼

i love you sending this in not knowing anything ASKLDFJ you are so cute

1. Why were they at the Conclave? Were they trying to achieve something there? Did they go alone or were they accompanied?

isra got arrested for her involvement in kirkwall with the resolutionists, she was brought over to haven with varric (under much different conditions. considering she was a criminal lmao). both han and marya were sent by keeper deshanna to the conclave - han, with his experience with the chantry and the circle would be best to interpret the negotiations and potential fallout. they both went with a small group, who all died at the conclave - i imagine han died in marya's playthrough and that marya dies in han's. iskandar is brought in with a few other of the few loyal templars left from markham and hasmal as the divine's guard during the mage/templar negotiation - he's the only survivor.

4. Was there anything in their life they were looking forwards to doing once the Conclave was done?

answered over here!

[v-arbellanaris]

on that note iskandar would hateeeee the multiclassing potential stuff in da4 lmao. i need him to get magic so so bad, so i can cause him more psychological problems

[v-arbellanaris]

iskandar & isra

[v-arbellanaris]

psychic damage thinking abt this post in relation to iskandar and isra....

[v-arbellanaris]

the specific tragedy of isra and iskandar is that isra is capable of a staggering amount of forgiveness. she's so extremely forgiving because she has - contrary to people's expectations - a deep well of love and empathy in her. her forgiveness is not unconditional or blind, but it's there - she can forgive so much. but iskandar can't ever bring himself to ask for it, or try for it, because he can't live with what he did and what he's done. he can't live with who he is and the pain of feeling the weight of that remorse, unhampered and in full, is so terrifying and sickening that it's somehow better for him to have lived with the lie.

[v-arbellanaris]

idk if i'm conveying this right, but like. iskandar loved isra, before the magic and the circle. she was his favourite of all his siblings, but the order has no room for any hurt or concern he might have for her, for any feelings of betrayal he might have (as if she chose to be a mage lmao). there's no one who can tell him where all that love should go when she's essentially become Evil (because remember, andrastianism doesn't have a devil figure, it has mages). so he spent a month dodging his six year old sister in the tower until his transfer request was approved, and from then, it wasn't like he had a sister anymore (until inaya, but inaya and isra are... worlds apart as people). there's almost a relief, sometimes, that he can't recognise the person she's become; it makes his holy duties easier to not have to see that little girl he loved. she's just a stranger now.