#my worldstate lore gets more convoluted by the second

[crows-of-buckets]

Great news, figured out a way for Ena to learn about Aviae!!!

Anyways, his older sibling is Revari (other rook, but in my canon worldstate they never become Rook. Ena just fit as the main character more which sucks bc I love Revari... Sigh anyways)

Revari has the same origin that they did as Rook: free some slaves, piss off some magisters. However, Varric isn't there to take them away to keep them from getting in trouble, so the Shadow Dragons decide to move them down to Dock Town. They basically get assigned Tarquin as a babysitter (that does not go well those two have a. Dynamic. Definitely one of the dynamics ever I've talked about it on here before, but when Revari isn't Rook those two figure out their shit SOOO much sooner. Actually have time to talk about their relationship and come to the realization that they are definitely just friends). Anyways during this time, they end up meeting Neve and the two become friends pretty quickly. Revari is a bit more hands on with the way they go about shadow dragoning (I've considered them working with Fenris in the past, which I kind of want to explore more eventually but know in my heart they've done at least one job together.) And by that I mean they have never thought twice about anything they have ever done. Both Revari and Ena have the worst impulse control known to man it's crazy.

Anyways, while Neve and Revari are friendly before the game, they don't actually become close friends until Minrathous falls and Neve stays in the city to help them recover. Revari has had to rein in their "quick thinking" (by that I mean charging head first into any and every fight) and has to stay more on the shadowy side of things. They're only alive because Tarquin had the good sense to talk them out of immediately picking a fight with all the venatori they saw (they aren't a complete idiot most of the time, but it seems my Surana family tree is extremely prone to getting very pissed off very quickly)

During this time Revari and Neve become very close, and by the time Neve returns to the Veilguard it's solidly crossed into mutual crushing. But they both have much bigger things to worry about, so nothing really comes of it until the blights are over.

Post Veilguard, they eventually start dating; I think their romance is still pretty close to how neverook goes in game, and both of them are fucking TERRIFIED of fucking it up. Neve still calls them "Trouble", all of that. Anyways it's probably a few months before Neve brings up like "hey maybe I should introduce you to the veilguard. You'd probably get along well you're definitely their brand of crazy"

Revari agrees, and NOW I'm getting back to the point I was initially planning for this post 💀. This is where Revari and Ena meet, and while they don't have instant recognition, it goes something like this.

Revari: So you're Rook. Is that your real name or...?

Ena: Nickname, my actual name is Ena. And yours?

Revari: Revari. Huh that's so weird I had a younger sister named Ena.

Ena: that's also weird bc I had an older sister named Revari.

Revari: ...

Ena:...

Revari: Are you from-

Ena: Denerim? Yeah. Oh my fucking god

The two of them get along pretty well (eventually I think they DO fight about the whole Minrathous/Treviso thing but tbh I think the joy of reuniting with the younger sibling you thought was dead makes Revari willing to ignore it. For now) Long story short Ena learns that he is in fact the cousin of The Hero of Fereldan (he had a suspicion bc he does remember his last name being Surana before he joined the crows, but he kinda convinced himself that he had made it up as a way of coping when he was a child or something)

Aviae and Ena do eventually meet, but Ena procrastinates it for months he is TERRIFIED of that woman. She has successfully survived TWO different crow contracts on her life, AND SHES CLOSE FRIENDS WITH ZEVRAN ARIANAI. He's slightly convinced that this is some elaborate plot to take him and Lucanis out or something. Aviae finds this hilarious when she learns about it

I think I've decided that I want Ena to be one of the elves taken during the "plague" in denerim during the first blight. Assuming DAV takes place in 9:49, he would have been 8 or 9 I think I need to check my timeline. He's my Surana's cousin, and the younger brother of one of my other Rook's (Revari isn't rook in my canon worldstate, but they are still a Mercar. They left for Tevinter at around 13 when their magic developed). Anyways him being my Surana's cousin is probably something he himself never actually learns (sadly). He doesn't even really talk about being from Fereldan at all, and I can't really say for certain that he would even remember his last name before he became a crow. Plus, he transitioned (kept his name tho) and so did his only sibling, so the likelihood of them recognizing each other is so painfully low.

Anyways, one of the Tevinter mages in the alienage claimed Ena had the plague, he gets shipped off. I haven't decided whether he was bought by the crows or scouted after somehow escaping (this one is becoming far less likely the more I think on it); either way, he ends up in the crows by the time he's 9. He gets his face scar like right before joining, so the first few months are even worse.

His magic developed not long after, and tbh this is the only reason I think he even survived. He was never really good at fighting in regular combat, but he was pretty good at getting the fuck out of the way when someone was trying to kill him. I think the Crows take better care of their mages (I can't remember if this is canon or a head canon but whatever) because they're a better investment. (Even when they become abominations, as crows are known to do occasionally, I do think generally they receive "kinder" treatment)

He meets Viago somewhere around age 10 (they have around a 8-10 year age gap, so Viago would be 18-20. At least going off of Viago being 34 to 36 in Veilguard. Everyday I pray that bioware will release and actual timeline bc god I am tired of figuring this shit out ��), and immediately decides that he is going to be loyal to this guy in particular. I don't know why he decides this, but he's like 10 so it was probably some stupid reasoning.

At first Viago is annoyed, but I think after a certain point his brain kicked in and he went "wait having another crow (even one so young) who is insanely loyal to me is an AMAZING investment on my end". Teia isn't around to be his moral compass, so at this time in his life at least 9/10 of his decisions are made to further his own goals. This is around when he starts actually taking an interest in Ena, and keeping him around as an investment. He starts teaching him poisons, and building up Ena's poison resistance. Ena is notoriously loyal as hell and twice as stubborn so Viago 100% plans on using that to his advantage. I think Ena's magic developed not too long after this so he immediately becomes more useful lmao

Depending on when Viago became Talon, I do think it may be possible that Ena was one of the first to become a full crow under his leadership. If Viago is ~30 in Eight Little Talons, he had to have been a Talon for a few years, so he was probably made one in his late 20s I think? Teia is mentioned being one of the younger talons, and she's ~28 in eight little talons I think, and I'm pretty sure she's been a Talon for a few years at this point. Anyways, assuming Viago became a talon between 26-28, Ena could have been one of the first full crows under his command, being made a crow between 16-18. However, timelines like this make my head hurt so this may be completely inaccurate lmao

Somewhere between Viago realizing Ena is a good investment and Ena becoming a full crow, Viago becomes annoyingly fond of his little protege. He ends up bailing him out of trouble FAR more often than he would like. Ena is painfully good at becoming the annoying younger brother figure in anyone's life, and Viago is NOT exempt from that.