#somewhere along the north coast where it's all wind and brine and green - she could use the fresh air

[shadowglens]

some dragon age au thoughts for rhian:

she grew up in tevinter to a non-magical family. her father was a merchant, her mother a tailor, and while they didn’t live in good conditions it was better than the slaves being hustled along the streets, and so rhian could never complain.

her parents were both devoted to the imperium despite their low lot in life, but rhian wanted better for herself, and so she took up being a merchent like her father in the hopes of using it as a way to travel away from the imperium when she was older.

dmitri’s a mage, his family involved in the magisterium. they see each other in secret, his parents not approving of rhian being lower class and especially not that she has no magical ability, but when dmitri’s older brother maxim finds them kissing in the servant’s quarters of the family estate, rhian’s forced to flee to save herself and her parents from the wrath of dmitri’s parents.

she travels with a merchant caravan for some time around southern tevinter and the anderfels, and while it’s hard work to be on the road it teaches her a lot about the world and herself. she learns how to wield a sword, how to defend herself, how to haggle. the merchant caravan eventually makes it to orlais, where rhian splits off from them and decides to try and make a name for herself as a solo merchant in val royeaux - even if the fashion makes her want to puke rip

i’m not sure if she’d be a rogue or warrior, cause she’d probably only wield one sword but not, like, a greatsword or anything. she’s not that strong. but i don’t like the idea of her using a shield? idk.

probably deals with a lot of shit for being from tevinter, and has definitely been attacked on the road for her accent, even though she hates everything about the imperium except for her parents and dmitri.

(i imagine dmitri’s assassinated by competitors in the magisterium just as rhian first makes it to orlais with the caravan, maybe in retaliation when maxim tests his luck? either way rhian gets a letter about it months after the fact and spends a few weeks camping in the desert of western orlais alone before slowly making her way to val royeaux to start her future away from tevinter)