#of course Aisling is an Unicorn she looks too good with her Pride Unicorn onesie to be anything else

[greypetrel]

I might have asked @heniareth the same question but I'm really curious with your crew - what mythological creature would your characters be? Why?

This is a very interesting question and it was a difficult one, so thank you!! Gave me a lot of food for thoughts, and I have to say that Raina was the most difficult one to find. I may change my mind in a week time, but for now...

Aisling Lavellan: Unicorn.

It had to be some sort of horse, right? Well, the Unicorn is solitary and shy, extremely difficult to capture and even more to tame… But it has many medicinal properties: if you drink from its horn will be protected from poison and various other ailments. When alive, the unicorn can use its magical horn to purify poisoned water for other animals to drink. It's also fierce enough to fend off every hunters and fight and win against elephants, according to Medieval bestiaries, and can be tamed only by young girls. At the same time, alongside this older and more wild interpretation, today it has come to mean something peculiar, something fluffy and peaceful and pretty. And for Aisling this is the main dichotomy: You won't give a dime to her at a first glance, she'll seem naive and innocent and too air-headed… It's quite the contrary, actually, watch her as she'll take down single-handedly enemies thrice her size and comment the fact as Elle Woods. "What, like it's hard?"

Alyra Mahariel: Kitsune.

Kitsune are fox spirits in Japanese folklore, they're very powerful and a protective creature, whose main power is metamorphosis. The more they grow, the more they become powerful, gaining many tails to show their power. You can have good kitsune, serving the goddess Inari and guarding her shrines and bringing messages between the earth and the goddess, and bringing prosperity to the worshippers (Inari is the deity of rice cultivation), or they can be terrible tricksters called Nogitsune. They turn into humans, with some fox-like features, and possess women to prey on them and trick men they dislike. Alyra is like that. A fox, unpredictable, will totally trick you at need, you should not, by any means, belittle her, will pass as most of anything and convince you that she's a noblewoman, sure. Keep in her good graces and she'll bring prosperity to the land, otherwise you gained an enemy that will make you spit blood, metaphorically and not.

Raina Hawke: Hippogriff.

A creature considered an epytome of something impossible, it's the offspring of a mare and a male griffin: It has the front half of an eagle and the hind one of a horse, it's impossibly fast and can fly around the earth and even reach the moon. It was invented in the poem Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto, and he says that the hippogriff can only be ridden by magicians… But it's a vital steed for the wandering knight Ruggiero to free Angelica, and Bradamante lends it to Astolfo to fly over the moon and get back Orlando's wit (… Orlando = Roland, same hero). Beside me fangirling over that poem which is not as popular as it should: the Hippogriff is considered something impossible, in a treaty over heraldry it's defined as "ugly, inartistic, and unnecessary"… Except for the fact that in the poem, it is very necessary for the plot, as dangerous as it is. So yeah, something that shouldn't exist, but it does, you may think it's ugly or unconvenient or pointless… But take it away, and the princess stays in the villain's grasp, and you can say farewell to your hero's mind.