#isolde guerrin

[anneapocalypse]

Isolde Guerrin owns actually. She fed information to the Fereldan resistance during the Orlesian occupation. She tried to save her son from being taken by the Circle, and so far as we know the only reason her plan failed is Loghain planted an assassin in her home. She volunteers to give her life for her kid without a moment's hesitation, she doesn't give a fuck that it's blood magic, she just wants to save him. If you insist Connor has to die, she pleads for his life in a voice performance that deserves awards, and if she's convinced that there's no hope for Connor, she insists on doing the deed herself.

[baelonthebrave]

reading the stolen throne and trying to like maric is tough when you know in like 10 years he’s going to father a bastard and promptly ignore existence of said bastard, allowing him to be bullied and forced into servitude and used as a political pawn bc eamon and isolde are fucking awful. like maybe there’s more context I’m missing and will learn from reading the books but I’m finding it difficult to get past that so far! you dishonoured your wife already bro that ship has sailed! can we maybe make sure the child isn’t so traumatised it will later have a circle mage and a literal child slave saying uhhhh you good buddy?? anything you wanna talk about?

[sapphim]

Isolde and Teagan Guerrin, on Connor (and Alistair) at the Duke's estate in Mark of the Assassin. All variations. This dialogue only plays if MotA is played in Act 1, so 9:31, less than a year after the end of the Blight.

[Connor died, Isolde lived]

Perrin: How is your husband, Arlessa? I imagine the news of your son must have been terrible.

Isolde: We are at a party, Bann Perrin! This is no place for such dourness.

[Connor lived, Isolde lived (the ritual to enter the fade was performed by First-Enchanter Irving)]

Perrin: How is your son, Arlessa? Does Circle life suit him?

Isolde: He is well, thank you. He is glad to have proper tutors, and they say he is a very good student.

[Connor lived, Isolde died (the blood magic ritual to enter the fade was performed by Jowan)]

Perrin: How is your nephew, Bann Teagan? [if: Alistair dead]

Tegan: Connor is… a teenager now, Maker save us all. My poor brother is tearing his hair out dealing with the boy.

Teagan: He'll grow out of it. Or Eamon will kill him. Either one. [if: Alistair alive]

Teagan: Which one? Connor is well enough. He's almost through the most trying years.

Teagan: [Alistair king] Alistair, on the other hand, seems to be just entering them. Again.

Teagan: [Alistair exiled] While Alistair… that boy is going to make me old before my time.

Teagan: [Alistair warden] I haven't heard from Alistair in some time. But he's a Grey Warden. He should be able to look after himself.

[vigilskeep]

these bad boys are the kind of dress i imagine arlessa isolde wearing, personally

[greypetrel]

Alyra and Isolde maybe?

Hello! 💫 Uh, thanks for asking, I admit I never really put much thought to Isolde before, in relation to Alyra! it was interesting to ponder about...

Ask game (send me others if you'd like)

I don't think they'd get along at all.

She may understand her reasons and even agree with her wanting to hide Connor's magic and hiring a private tutor just to teach him to control his magic to be safe and not be sent to a Circle. On that, no issue. But hiring the first runaway mage without checking his credentials? Just like that? The one apostate that conveniently arrives the minute you need him? MMMMMMH.

Also, Alyra would strongly disagree in how she dealt with the situation in Redcliffe. One thing is wanting to protect your child, the other is letting him go ruckus, possessed by a demon, kill the people you should protect as the one figure in charge, and wait for the first two idiots arriving there to solve your problems and considering "Killing Connor" as an option just then, not before… Alyra went to the Circle Tower to find help, but the very discourse that she was ready to kill her son NOW, after how many casualties really made her catalogue Isolde as "terrible politician". (she often pondered, later on, on how kind it was in the long run to let Connor live with his guilt and a trauma that would eclipse both moons. Alistair may have thanked her for freeing him, but she never fully agreed it was the right choice, particularly after seeing him years later, still plagued but what he had done.)

Add the fact that she learnt that Alistair ended up in Templar training against his will because Isolde insisted? No. Like, no. That she can't understand, won't understand, won't forgive.

In summary: aristocratic scum, both her and her husband, they totally deserve each other. Isolde may be a good mother for her own son, but if you ask Alyra, she'd say she should not hold a crumble of power over anyone. And she may also add that she shouldn't be left unsupervised with children either.

[inquisitorgaywarden]

I wish I could play DA:O for the first time again, just to experience what I felt when this happened

[ansburg]

DRAGON AGE ORIGINS REPLAY: 6/?

✨ bann teagan's new groove ✨

[elfcollector]

All mages are beacons that attract the attention of Fade spirits. Because of this, they are trained and tested by the Circle to ensure that they can withstand attacks from malevolent Fade creatures that seek entry into the waking world. Untrained Connor drew the attention of a powerful demon that tore the Veil asunder. He was freed from the demon's power at a terrible price: the cost of his mother's life.

[princehendir]

One thing that must be said about da:o is that it is an excellent "meeting your friend's parents and finding out that they are not actually generally good people who made some damaging but well meant mistakes during the child rearing process and are in fact just kind of really evil and mean and your friend is in a truly insane amount of denial and oh god how are you ever possibly going to fucking navigate this" simulator

[niofo]

really overthinking the arl of redcliffe quest.

on one hand i like the idea of the quest. i don't hate isolde (at least for this situation, she was horrible to alistair as a kid), bcos what she did only illustrates how horrible circles are as an idea. she's by far not the first nor the last person who preferred to hide family member away from templars exactly bcos of how bad the circles are. the chantry has another "proof" that the mages are dangerous, as if they weren't the ones who created this situation themselves. if circles weren't kidnapping children never to see their parents, if they were just schools of magic focused on community and learning the whole situation would be entirely avoided.

but the solution of this quest is weird. there is an obvious best solution that saves both connor and isolde, it's not particularly hidden behind complex dialogue choices or anything. but also metagaming aside, just leaving redcliffe for gods know how long to get the mages is really immersion breaking for me. there should be some consequences of just, yk, leaving. i would much prefer the player to be forced to choose between two bad options, like we do with orzammar quests.

but now considering the two remaining options: killing connor or letting islode sacrifice herself, and knowing what i know about the circles, esp with kinloch hold currently raging about abominations everywhere, both i as a player, and my warden (tabris) would be really hesitant to just turn connor to them. lbr, they have a documented history of turning children into tranquils for the crime of having nightmares and being scared, you're telling me they wouldn't immediately jump to this conclusion seeing a former abomination and one that was saved by blood magic on top? like we obviously know that it didn't happen in canon, but that's what i would fully expect this of the circle by what they showed up so far, and so would my warden. (and even when we meet circle mage connor in dai he's depressed and eaten with guilt for something that happen when he was a child and wasn't his fault, i can bet that chantry was feeding those feelings for the last 10 years).

all i'm saying that i have a lot of doubts about sending connor to the circle. fuck the circle. my tabris would never just let this happen, especially knowing that connor's safety is something isolde died for. and then there's jowan. yes, he messed up before, but i would still consider him a preferable option as connor's teacher than a damn circle. we know that if let go, jowan actually helps some refugees and creates community on his own, away from the circle.

apostate connor is what i'm trying to say. apostate connor option would be so cool and better for him than the circle bs. let him be a hedge wizard, using his magic to help people instead and that would maybe help him with the guilt over everything that happened.

[perenians]

sometimes i think about how @wrdn-tabris and i have constructed this elaborate world where eamon and isolde's kids are mages because isolde has a lyrium snorting habit and may or may not be cheating on eamon with teagan and/or multiple templars (?). and then i wonder how the fuck we got here

[anneapocalypse]

Something I did not pick up on before is that World of Thedas implies Alistair was sent to the monastery during Isolde's pregnancy--before Connor was born. Which means we actually can pretty closely pin down Connor's age, as he was born soon after Alistair was sent away--so in either 9:20 Dragon or early 9:21.

[minaakaajaa]

The ninth episode in my Let's Play: Dragon Age Origins is now posted! In this episode we are heading to the Village of Redcliffe.

Let's Play Dragon Age: Origins Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi8aTtsE5XhmKny0uU959wQXnITYq4vLu&si=xfho0bFb_DhB5AI5

[varricscrossbowbianca]

inquisitor: what is the hero of ferelden like? alistair: they sacrificed isolde guerrin to save connor. it was fine though because they gave me 24 sugar cakes to keep my mouth shut. wynne: they called knight-commander greagoir a 'fucking idiot' right in the middle of abominations attacking the circle. I wasn't even mad because they suddenly had The Rose of Orlais and gifted it to me. zevran: they didn't even hesitate punching caladrius, he was finished before we could even join in. they gave me beautiful dalish gloves. leliana: they called the revered mother in the lothering chantry a 'greedy old hag'. she got me my favourite flower, andraste's grace, immediately after, how strange :) oghren: you all got gifts???

[immawraffle]

The funniest take I’m seeing for this is furubatsu’s “Isolde is one of those essential oils/healing crystal moms”

how did jowan even poison eamon btw. like what did he poison him with that they had to resort to the holy grail. in what time frame did isolde resort to the holy grail

[nobroth]

Isolde is also a victim of Eamon.

Isolde, a very young noble woman, falls in love with Eamon and betrays her own family to help return ownership of Redcliffe to the Guerrins. After the Rebellion, they marry. But Isolde is in a precarious position - the rest of the Fereldan nobility hates her because she's Orlesian, Maric himself "frowning" on their marriage, and she could never go home if Eamon gives into the pressure of that disapproval and discards her because she betrayed her family and her country for love. If things don't work out with Eamon, her life is pretty much over. (one of the many reasons I don't see her and Teagan having an affair as a reality also).

Isolde then has to deal with Eamon bringing in this child who everyone thinks is his bastard. Now, Eamon could have at any time told his young wife - who literally only has her attachment to him guarding her life - that it's Maric's child and that she doesn't need to worry. But nope! He doesn't do that! And he doesn't intervene when Isolde is cruel and lashes out at the child either, just sends him off to an abbey to "make peace". Very Catelynn Stark and Jon Snow.

Then, Isolde gets to listen to Eamon tell Cailan all about how if Anora can't provide a suitable heir then he should discard her. Marry someone else. And their son starts showing signs of magic. Connor's birth was very hard for Isolde, she doesn't know if she can have another child. (And as it turns out, she can't. She dies in childbirth the second time.) So she panics, and hides Connor's magic.

Eamon knows. Loghain says he has proof that Eamon knows that Isolde is doing this and doesn't do anything about it.

If Isolde gives her life for her child, Eamon throws him away anyway and puts him in the Circle. If Connor dies, Isolde dies in childbirth. Either way, Eamon does not seem to give a fuck. Because he's a bad person.