#pps he's still scrungly tho.. maybe )

[tobebrutal]

since i live here now, a little sauce for these samson nuggets.

at the end of inquisition , he's taken prisoner and given the choice to rot , die , or repent. dying sounds wonderful but samson is still a coward about it. he'll go through the process of weaning off the lyrium , but it's a tiresome battle that comes with many , many setbacks. what damage has been done to his body is irreversible. his eyes stay stained with a reminder of what he was ( and fears he still is , at heart ). his vision suffers from it and , most days , if given a choice , he'd rather keep inside , out of sunlight , where their sensitivity is made worse. there are countless scars from where the lyrium eroded his skin , either forthright or from where he'd picked the sores. all this to say he's relatively pretty compared to the mess he's made out of his insides. probably should've died from organ failure but who is he if not the maker's favorite play thing.

aside from being thedas' next top model , samson.. tries to be a good person. tries to remember what it was like not to find a target in every face. he'd have joined cullen for some time in helping other wayward templars overcome their addiction but there's only so long he can sit around the stuff before he's itching again.

tries his hand at being a sellsword but.. well..... OH SAMSON KNIGHT IN RED is a catchy tune. he's pretty sure you can still find wanted posters of him in some of the southern taverns. not a legacy to write home about.

what's funny though , in overcoming his call for the dust.. he can feel the remnants of the red lyrium's blight in his body. isn't sure if its tied to darkspawn. isn't sure if he wants to know how far down the GHOUL spectrum he is now. few other red templars managed to survive their cleansing and those who did were often driven mad come the end of it. it was the armor that kept him intact , mostly. makes him itchy to think about that too.

and then the sky is opening up again and the blight is bubbling up from the ground again and samson stands at a curious crossroads. less of a companion and more a strange informant if rook plays their cards right. someone who knows the underbelly of the world with intimacy , can feel the blight through the lyrium veins faaaar under the dirt.. and , maybe , samson knows he owes the world an apology for helping it get to this point.

tldr ; local crusty ex ( red ) templar is willing to help ( most ) rook's for the price of a single corn chip and maybe a place to sleep for the night.