#lydia ingellvar

[pivlywhip]

Sometimes a cute little idea like “oh what if Lydia was sitting on Emmrich’s desk while he worked” gets out of control and suddenly there perspective and a full background. 😂

I think this takes place after Emmrich confirms Rook is actually interested in him but before they’re together properly.

[pivlywhip]

This is very hilarious and fun but also as someone who enjoys taking jokes to their serious narrative conclusion this idea has such Delicious implications for how Emmrich interacts with a romantic relationship with a Rook he has an age difference with and I’m obsessed with it? Because like it can go a couple of different ways?

Like because Emmrich knows in retrospect that he was perhaps too naive to see the relationship dynamic he was in was transactional does he assume Rook (who he may or may not believe is more worldly than he was at their age) believes their relationship is of a similar vein? Is he fighting between the urge to show them his feelings are in earnest or a fear that if he does so he will lose what he has been allowed to have? Does he resist a relationship with Rook because he wants something deeper and fears he can’t or won’t be viewed with the same commitment? Does Rook have to convince him that they truly love him, that they view this relationship as seriously as he does? That it’s possible for him to be valued and desired solely for himself and not what he can provide materially now that he feels like he’s on the other side of that heartbreaking experience?

Or does he see is own nativity, his own earnest belief in love reflected in Rook? Does he struggle between his desire to shower them in tokens of affection, of tangible reminders of his love, and his fear that he will be misinterpreted? That someone like Johanna will incorrectly assume that he is using Rook to sate a desire that is only physical and that Rook will believe them if this person tells them as much? And even if Rook believes in his sincerity what will the rest of the world see? He aches to adorn his beloved, spoil them with their favorite things, because what value is there in having wealth if he can’t use it to bring joy to his darling heart? But it would gut him to think others might look down on Rook, might snicker behind their back because of Emmrich’s actions.

Or is it even messier than that because it’s both? Does Emmrich flip flop between the two beliefs from day to day, never sure how to interpret Rook’s actions because that’s easier for him than believing that Rook might just love him?

After an intense and highly intellectual discussion, @heylittleriotact and I have reached the conclusion that young, pretty and painfully oblivious Emmrich Volkarin had a sugar daddy/mommy and was too fucking dense to realize it. Just out here accepting expensive gifts, fancy dinners, and probably rent money, thinking, wow, love is generosity :) Until Johanna, tired of this absolute clownery, called him an utter twat and opened his eyes.

Emmrich, of course, sobbed into his pillow because he thought it was true love and they were going to make an honest man out of him.

Anyway, I just think this is deeply hilarious and narratively essential, and someone needs to write pls and ty lol

[sage-nebula]

I spent the entire rest of my night making my other four Rooks, so here they are beside their love interests! Altogether we have:

Thalia Mercar (Mage - Evoker, 28)

Maia Aldwir (Rogue - Veil Ranger, 32)

Emilia de Riva (Rogue - Duelist, 29)

Lydia Ingellvar (Mage - Death Caller, 32,)

Violet Thorne (Warrior - Champion, 30)

Some fun facts about each of them:

Thalia has a huge tortie cat named Lady Meowmers. When she had to leave Minrathous to travel with Varric, Lady Meowmers went into the collective care of the Shadow Dragons. Thalia brings her back to the Lighthouse at the first opportunity. Also, Thalia's hair is dyed; she dyed it purple with magic. This was when she was eighteen and left home for the first time; the spell never wore off, and at this point she doesn't clearly remember her original hair color.

Maia's parents left her their Dalish clan shortly before she was born. She grew up in a city in the Free Marches until she was ten, when her parents' original clan settled in a forest just beyond the city's borders, and Maia — exploring the forest as she often did — met her grandmother. Maia agreed to stay with her grandparents and live as a Dalish; her parents never found out what happened to her.

Emilia was sold to the Crows at age three. Her family was impoverished to the point of starving, and in return for coin and the promise that Emilia would have food in her belly, her parents took the deal and sold her. Despite the sobering way she got there (and the traumas of Crow training, particularly before her transfer to House de Riva), she genuinely enjoys her work and considers herself a killer for hire and for fun.

Lydia has natural heterochromia (one blue eye, one purple one) and never left the Grand Necropolis at all before she had to leave on her journey with Varric. Both her eyes and skin are very sensitive to bright sunlight as a result. She sees Vorgoth as both a best friend and parental figure, and secretly wishes that she, too, could become an abomination, if only there was a spirit that wanted to possess her.

Violet looked up to the Grey Wardens since childhood, when a pair of Wardens saved her and her siblings from darkspawn. She sought them out to join them when she was 22, after suffering ten months in an arranged marriage to a fellow noble. (Her husband was not cruel, but being a Lady of the House was like torture to Violet, who felt it was a waste of her life.) Apple tarts are her favorite food, and her ritewine bottle reads: "A thorn by any other name will make you bleed the same."

[lasandra]

I finished my first playthrough of Veilguard. Not going to get into spoilers but here are more of my Rooks that I plan on playing.

Lydia Thorne: She is the daughter of my favorite warden, Aurora Amell, and Alistair. I headcanon that Thorne is a name she uses to hide who her family is. Once people find out she's the daughter of the Hero of Ferelden, people just don't treat her the same.

Rucara (her nicknames are either Rook or Cara) Ingellvar: She is the sweetest, purest being in Thedas lol. She's supposed to be the reincarnation of Ciara, my Warden Surana who made the Ultimate Sacrifice back in DA:O

Tamrin Aldwir: Tamrin is headcannoned to be if Lyna Mahariel and Tamlen had gotten together and had a daughter. (Can you tell I am obsessed with my wardens?). She has her father's reckless curiosity and her mother's kind nature.

And for funsies, I am throwing in another couple pictures of Carwyn de Riva because I love her so much. I genuinely love her more than the Inquisitor which is somewhat surprising to me. Girl can't take anything seriously.

[bugbittenflowers]

My Rook and Emmrich 💀 💗 + Inky!!

[sun-marie]

i am not immune to the ingellvar

[pivlywhip]

Finally got Emmrich’s face figured out enough to start making the Emmrook content I’ve been itching to. Did I draw them sleeping because slicked backed hair is my drawing nemesis? Yes. No, of course not. Lydia just needs to sleep more and Emmrich cares about her well being.

[pivlywhip]

For WIP Wednesday please enjoy these sketches I’ll hopefully finish turning into a comic at some point about Bellara figuring out Lydia has a crush on Emmrich. They were talking about the Mourn Watch and necromancy and the topic drifted to Emmrich’s research. And like many with a crush Lydia jumped on the chance to have a legitimate reason to talk about him and how talented and smart he is. Bellara manages to clock what’s going on pretty quickly, the serials have prepared her for this 😂

[pivlywhip]

Lydia’s pregame look. I imagine she did an Emotionally Significant Haircut when she was told she had to leave the Necropolis so I wanted to figure out how she wore it prior to the French (Orlesian??) bob. In the process I also realized that while she likely had some light freckles, being absolutely covered in them is something that came about after joining Varric and Harding and regularly seeing the sun for the first time in years. Luckily the eluvians and having friends all over Thedas means her freckles mostly endure post game once she and Emmrich return to the Necropolis.

[pivlywhip]

I got the line about Mourn Watch!Rook missing parties in Nevarra & IMMEDIATELY had to churn out a spooky gown for Lydia post game. I’m gonna take another pass at this at some point when the brain gremlins allow for more design research, but the skeleton hands chocker is 100% making it into the final version.

I’ll probably design an outfit for Emmerich as well which will inform some choices for Lydia. There’s no way Emmerich isn’t making sure their outfits are coordinated.

[pivlywhip]

An ongoing collection of notes on my Mourn Watch Rook, Lydia:

She’s neurodivergent and spends a lot of time masking in the beginning of the game

Shes quiet at first with Varric and Harding because she’s still hurting over being all but kicked out of the Necropolis.

Varric is good at pulling her out of her shell, used to making friends with people who are sort of weird little guys (‘Get her going and she’s like if you merged Hawke and Daisy’ he writes to Isabella once)

Varric helps her navigate interacting with people outside the Necropolis, outside Nevarra, (‘You don’t have to not be weird kid, but it’ll be easier if you know how to say shit to get what you want when you need it.’ It only sort of works. She finds action suits her better than words, but she learns how to make jokes, Chanel her idea of what an adventuring hero is supposed to be. She doesn’t realize her picture is Varric, that it’s his stories of Hawke too.)

She really likes mushrooms. (‘It’s decay as an extant form of life!’ She chirps happily, most people find that phrasing unsettling, Emmerich gets stary eyed when she says it.)

She doesn’t just avoid necromancy talk at first because she’s trying to make herself palatable to the rest of Thedas, it hurts at first, to talk about home when it’s been ripped out from under her. It’s why she latches on to Rook so quickly. It’s easier being Rook than Lydia in the beginning. (She still wears her lipstick like Myrna though, twists the gold cuff she received when she was made a full Watcher when she’s nervous, they’re things she almost forgets she’s doing until Myrna and Vorgoth are in the Lighthouse, the former reminding her to straighten her posture.)

[pivlywhip]

Playing dress up with my Ingellvar Rook, Lydia. Gotta practice drawing her a bit before I get to the Emmrook content I wanna make 👀👀

[pivlywhip]

Trying to get back in the habit of working in my sketchbook so here’s my Mourn Watch Rook, Lydia, circa Veilguard present and when she was first found in the Necropolis as a baby (until canon directly contradicts me I’m headcanoning that bb!Lydia liked being held by Vorgoth) and First Enchanter AU!Amira.

[pivlywhip]

Been thinking a lot about a number of very good fics and meta posts I’ve read about Emmrich and they way he goes so hard for the people in his life always that he’s probably ended up scaring off more than few romantic partners who considered him “too much” or he had relationships where he was all in because he has the kind of heart that yearns to fall in love while the person he was with was just looking for something casual. And that was sort of percolating in the back of my mind while I was considering some backstory characters for my Ingellvar, Lydia.

I imagine Lydia doesn’t really have many close friends but does have some people from her academy days in the Necropolis that she’s still friendly with and meets up with. I won’t get too much into that cause I rambled on it on my Bluesky for a bit, but I imagine one of them is a professor who knows Emmrich in passing. After she finds out he and Lydia are together I think she flags Emmrich down at some point when he’s visiting the Necropolis by himself to chat about it. She’s happy for them and since it seems like he makes Lydia happy there’s something she wants him to know about Lydia: she never seems to realize people like her as much as they do. That it was something she and Lydia’s dormmates watched happen over and over again, Lydia unintentionally giving people the impression she wasn’t into them or didn’t want to be their friend because she didn’t seem to notice their interest was more than polite. She isn’t saying it, she emphasizes, to be cruel, but because she doesn’t want to see it happen again. Because when it did it wasn’t just the other people who ended up hurting but Lydia too.

And Emmerich thinks about it all the way back to the Lighthouse, thinks about it enough to bring it up to her after a few days of rumination and I might make this a proper fic at some point IDK but essentially

Lydia admits that shes not good at gauging relationship cues most of the time. That when she was younger she used to invest herself in relationships that always meant more to her than to the other person. So she learned to assume people were just being polite, because it hurt less than realizing someone she considered a close friend only saw her as a friendly acquaintance. Learned to hold her affection tight inside like a coiled little ball, to keep the outpouring of it contained to an acceptable level. It’s a halting a self deprecating smile he gets as she confesses that she worries about being “too much”

And I think Emmrich only half hears her admit that Varric and the Veilguard and him, specifically, have helped her slowly started to open up, over the sound of his own heartbeat in his ears because oh. Oh. He knows that feeling only too well. He tunes back in though when Lydia shyly confesses that it’s easier, being with him than any partner she’s had before because he is so infusive with his affection, so vocal with it. That she wasn’t sure she’d have ever worked up the nerve to do more than flirt if he hadn’t asked her outright if her words went beyond charming flattery, that every dearest and darling eases the knot in her chest that wonders is she’s really wanted.

And oh the way I think that would hit Emmrich, to hear that his inability to do anything by halves, his inability to reel in his affection is not only allowed but valued. And of course she has no idea the euphoric tailspin she’s just sent him into, instead worrying aloud that she hopes Emmrich hasn’t doubted her affections because of that. He makes it easier for her to be open with her feelings to him but it’s still hard sometimes to not worry if she lets go she won’t scare him off. And if I were to write this as a fic this would probably be around the point it devolves into smut, with an eventually circle back around to pillow talk where Emmrich admits that he is much the same as she is, only he’s never managed to reign himself in, so much as he let himself give up on finding the kind of love he always dreamed of before meeting Rook, and turned his energy and passion to his work and caring for Manfred. Which does more to help Lydia be open with her feelings than anything else ever has, because the look on Emmrich’s face when he says that guts her, and she never wants him to feel the kind of doubt she’s all too familiar with because of her.

This doesn’t fix everything immediately of course because this Definitely takes place pre tearstone island eve fight, but it does mean Lydia finds her own ways to make sure Emmrich feels as loved and wanted as he makes her feel. Considering everyone else clocked they were together immediately when they were actually trying to be covert? They’re shaking their heads at how ridiculous the pair is now, but are happy they’re happy.

Basically all that is to say I 1000% subscribe to the matching each other’s freak Emmrook dynamic. These two absolutely are the type that whoever ends up proposing it turns out the other one also has a ring with them because they were planning to propose and the other just beat them to it.

[bugbittenflowers]

Finished DA:TV the other day with my lovely Lydia Ingellvar... so... new Rook alert ⚠️

+ his boyfriend