#probably going to try to draw my lavellan soon and maybe maraya and solas too

[nevarran-hahren]

only took me 80 hours into DA:I but I've started coming up with a backstory for my Lavellan that I really like :)

at the beginning I wasn't going off much besides "dalish elf, warrior, want to romance Solas" lol but my brain is starting to knit together all the decisions made into a cohesive backstory for my Inquisitor.

basically, we've got Janne (pronounced "yahn-a"), a bisexual dalish elf woman. her mother was the clan's First mage, having been sent from another dalish clan that had too many mages. Janne herself was fascinated by magic but didn't have any magical talent manifest early in life, so she became a warrior/hunter. she wasn't the strongest or bravest or best fighter, but she did a lot of hunting and foraging to support the clan and was a talented leatherworker. Janne is compassionate and loyal to her loved ones nearly to a fault, with a deep openness and willingness to learn, though she can be headstrong and unable to let something go once she sets herself on a certain course.

in Janne's late 20s (she's 34 now) she fell deeply in love with her mother's mage apprentice—the clan's Second—another female elf named Maraya. Maraya was ambitious and erudite and in secret she studied ethical applications of blood magic. Janne eventually learned about this, and she tried to remain open-minded about what she was doing but still she worried about Maraya. still, she helped keep her secret from the clan—until Maraya became possessed by a demon, endangering the entire clan. heartbreakingly, Janne was forced to kill her lover, but always deeply regretted the way things turned out, thinking that there must have been some other way that she could have saved her.

when the clan (and especially her mother) later learned that Janne knew about Maraya's studies prior to the possession and had kept it secret from them, she was disgraced. clan elders had suggested exile, and while she did live away from the clan for a little while, eventually they allowed her to return to the clan on the condition that she prove herself to be trustworthy again, which was going to be a long road.

this is what leads her to unofficially attend the meeting at the Conclave as a spy. she sees it as her best opportunity to start making things right with her clan and get valuable information for them. but we all know how things went at the Conclave...

as for her later relationship with Solas, I think her experiences with her mother and with Maraya make her very open-minded to magic, even despite the tragedy that befell her lost love. his quiet intensity and level-headedness catches her attention from the beginning, and he sees her for her curiosity and openness.