#that pisses me off so much wrt inquisition's intent on justifying the march on the dales

[bumblewarden]

Hellooooo!! Some time ago you reblogged a Dragon Age Origins specific ask game and I was wondering if I could maybe ask a few questions? Even though it was some time ago? If yes, I'd like to ask Novhen:

5. Did he stop to talk with the children playing? If so, how did he handle the children saying they didn’t know any elven heroes?

And Pavle:

3. How prepared was he for his Harrowing?

5. Did he believe in “Mouse?” What did he think of his story?

If you'd rather not, however, no worries ^^ Have a lovely day!

No issue at all! I love receiving asks about my guys, and any ask games i reblog can be assumed to be free game until deleted! And even if i actually went through the work of doing that for whatever reason, you would never even find them to ask

5. Did he stop to talk with the children playing? If so, how did he handle the children saying they didn’t know any elven heroes?

I do have to start with a mini-rant for this one

The game states that city elves all know the legends of Garahel and Wenna di Ladia but "BioWare Keep Your Own Lore Straight Challenge (Impossible Edition)". This dialogue (and later when Tabris can ask Duncan if there have ever been any elven Warden heroes) serves the Doylist purpose of reinforcing the city elves' low status and destroyed cultures, yes, but it's also inconsistent with the lore. Or is the Denerim Alienage just particularly bad at maintaining their history? Their vhenadahl is still standing, so i doubt it

Anyway

The game doesn't let you tell the kids about them, so Novhen makes up a hero. They've been failed to go this long without knowing any stories of elven heroes, so he has to give the children something

He tells them about the "totally real" notorious elven thief Tathas who is "definitely not" based on his childhood perceptions of Adaia's exploits

She stole from tyrannical humans and redistributed her plunder to the alienages. The happiest plausible ending he can think to give the story is that Tathas simply disappeared one day, and that nobody knows where she went. He doesn't want to give the kids just another dead elf story, and he doesn't want to bring give the fantasy of his mother to another tragic ending

(Also, because the names of the three heroes you can make up to tell the children about are Tathas, Korin, and... Blargha. I headcanon that Tathas and Korin are actually very popular elven names, even if i don't think we ever actually meet anyone by those names. They're just the first names that came to his head, and it's a similar energy to "There are some who call me... Tim" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

The way i excuse him not telling them about an actual hero (which normally he would have done, he loves history and finds pride in keeping their heritage alive) is that he's hungover and disoriented from the sudden move up of his wedding (massive massive breach of expectations!!) and even the most cunning of us slips sometimes. His head isn't in order enough to remember the actual historical heroes until halfway through, but by then, he's already made his bed. Best he can do at that point is at the end give them a nudge that "I've gotta go, but hey, next time, I can tell you about the elf who rallied Thedas to get off their [asses] to combat the Third Blight and saved the world," but little does he know he'll be the next elven hero for everyone to tell their children about and gets a happy ending! Which is bringing his main story to a full circle, surely

But speaking of circles--

3. How prepared was he for his Harrowing?

Pavle survived his Harrowing so evidently prepared enough!

Did he feel prepared? No. But he was never going to. This isn't something you ever really feel prepared for

I don't remember how much canon information there is on it, but i imagine it was the sort of thing that they pulled him aside after dinner with no explanation or forewarning, and he just had to [Mission Objective: Survive]

5. Did he believe in “Mouse?” What did he think of his story?

Pavle catches on to Mouse lying about something pretty quickly on account of his wearing senior enchanter robe while claiming to be a dead apprentice. Instant alarms

But while he's silently commenting r/thathappened on every word out of this demon's mouth, it can't help but fill him with dread. He still doesn't know exactly what he needs to be doing, and that demon probably got his story from somewhere. It's unnerving if nothing else

[Dragon Age Origin Character Prompts]