#warden: mathalin surana

[therookandthecrow]

I originally planned for Mathalin to romance Morrigan only, but he has such exquisite chemistry with Loghain. They're truly meant to be with one another, although I sincerely think that Maric was Loghain's first love.

[the-rxven-king]

Your choice of Dragon Age OC! (Or feel free to answer for multiple OCs!) Who does your OC think is the most skilled fighter in their adventuring party? Would your OC challenge them to a fight if someone dared them to?

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uuhhh ive only honestly played the game and gotten to completely pick their party with two of my inquisition ocs so ill just use them, and ill also answer for my hawke and my two wardens (who are in the same canon because i can)

under cut because of length!!!

sabrae lavellan thinks that dorian is the most skilled fighter in his party, and thats not just because he is very gay for the dude. he admires the concentration he knows it takes to be able to control the direction of the magic, and the intensity, and how to channel the fade, as well as the sheer amount of energy it sucks from you to cast large spells at the intensity and frequency dorian does. he actually would take dorian in a fight if dared, because he thinks his speed, cunning, and close range fighting could rival dorians magic and movement of his staff

mathalin fen’an (sabraes older brother) believes that cassandra is the most skilled fighter in the party, and he respects her greatly. he wouldnt take her in a fight if dared, because he wants to keep his distance from her. he thinks cassandra is an amazing person, but as a bloodmage, he wants her to be comfortable and he believes his presence frightens her and hurts her emotionally, so he tries not to be around her as much even though he takes her with him on his adventures because he needs her level of skill and expertise. plus, he knows he would, on impulse, use blood magic against her, and he thinks thats the worst thing he could possibly do to her. he knows she must not trust him, and that saddens him more than anything, so he tries to keep on her good side as much as he can while still practicing his craft and doing what feels natural to him.

austin hawke thinks that fenris is the most skilled fighter in his party, and again, this isnt because hes very in love with him. he thinks fenris holds himself well, carries himself across the battlefield with finesse and care that he could never match, even as a rogue. watching fenris fight is amazing to him, as it seems like second nature to him. he believes fenris’ skills are unmatched, so he would rather not fight him on a dare. hed do whatever they told him to do instead.

maeron mahariel actually believes that his fellow warden, bandon surana, is the most skilled fighter in his party. he remembers him from when they were young children, reckless and unafraid, and bandon was learning to be the first of the clan. he remembers it well, and hes never forgotten it. he knows how horrible it must have been for the first to be taken to a circle, trying to retain who he was and learn what he was supposed to learn only using what was provided from the books in the library, which he can only assume wasnt much. even so, bandon has become one of the most skilled mages hes ever met, and just straight up in general. he thinks bandon controls his dreamer powers well for someone who must have had to hide it from those of the circle, even though it had to have been difficult, and to also be a spirit healer just piled onto that. and when he learned the skills needed to be an arcane warrior and took it in stride even though it obviously frustrated him to no end, he still mastered it with surprising ease. maeron never ceases to be amazed by his darling vhenan and will never stop being surprised by him and his abilities (and neither will he and bandons other vhenan, zevran, who is also quite impressed with him) he would absolutely try and fight bandon on a dare, if only to show that he would at least try

bandon surana thinks that alistair is the most skilled. he thinks that hes very talented, strong, and even if he lacks a certain grace, finesse, and eye for locating traps, he’s still an incredible warrior and has the potential to be an amazing fighter. with more training and more experience, alistair could possible be the best. he was certainly better than some hunters he remembers from both clans he was part of, and most of the templars from the circle (his escape with jowan proved that well enough). he actually wouldnt fight alistair, only for the fact that he really just doesnt want infighting even if its on a dare and just a spar for fun. only for training would he do that. 

[therookandthecrow]

If he wasn't the "Hero" of Ferelden, I think that Mathalin Surana would be considered a villain easily. I think that his campaign as the Warden can be easily called Dragon Age: Villain Origins, as he bids for the chancellorship of Ferelden, a country which he has no love for, as an Orlesian.

Take an elf with a Napoleon complex [technically, he is 5' 9" which was the same height that Napoleon had, and a certain painter from Austria], and have him write about his 'my struggle' while in the prison that is a Mage circle in most of Thedas, and give him the chance to grab power for himself.

The next step is to give him a position in an organization where morality is thrown out the window in the name of having to stop a blight, and you've got a villain origin story. He's an ends justify the means sort of person, just as Anders is.

Mathalin sides with Branka in the Deep Roads, he puts Bhaelen on the throne in Orzammar, he lets Avernus continue his experiments without ethical boundaries just as he was before. Not only that, but he recruits Loghain Mac Tir into the Grey Wardens. Furthermore, he sides with the Architect in Awakening, but at least he is beautiful.

The cherry on top, is that he finds blood magic to be not only a-okay to use, but he believes that it is only feared due to the sensibilities of Chantry folk. His views on necromancy are more or less the same.

[therookandthecrow]

Out of all four of what I consider my canon playthroughs of Dragon Age, there is only one heterosexual romance, and that one is between a repressed bisexual witch of the wilds and a confidently bisexual blood mage who definitely could and should be trusted to end Fifth Blight.

With that being said, I headcanon that Morrigan gave him permission to sleep with Loghain as well, so long as he sleeps with no other women than her. With that said, he told Morrigan just as well that he wouldn't hold her back from other women so long as he was her only man.

While Morrigan and Mathalin spent some years together raising their son after the Blight, when Morrigan got her position in the court of Empress Celene and when Mathalin went on a search for a cure for the Calling. He admired Avernus and thus spared him, and let him continue his research without ethical boundaries.

Loghain turned into an awkward godfather figure of sorts who'd visit their family occasionally, and actually they were far more functional than one would have thought them to be. I personally like to think that they had one more child together after Inquisition.

However, he left that choice entirely Morrigan's because like her, he was happy with them just having Kieran. His relationship with Alistair never got any better, and the resentment that the King of Ferelden held for his shadow chancellor and one time fellow Warden never mellowed.

[therookandthecrow]

My Warden Surana looks as cunty in the DD2 character-creator as headcanon him to supposed to look in Origins. Just to think, he is an Orlesian born blood mage who managed to snake his way into becoming the chancellor of Ferelden through a series of Machiavellian maneuvers after making Alistair Theirin's life a veritable hell during the duration of the Fifth Blight, and made it even worse by marrying him off to Loghain Mac Tir's daughter, Anora and then got into a relationship with said Loghain Mac Tir himself.

[therookandthecrow]

Regardless if the Hero of Ferelden is said to be dead by the time that Veilguard happens or not, I headcanon that my canon Hero of Ferelden Mathalin Surana had become Avernus' apprentice and eventual successor and that he's used the same method that Avernus uses to postpone the Calling. His name in Elven means 'the blood that quenches', and he is also a blood mage, aside from being a necromancer and being the shadow chancellor of Ferelden. He's a real stand-up guy. He was also good friends with Loghain Mac Tir, who is not confirmed to be still alive or not, as he had spared him during the Fifth Blight.

[therookandthecrow]

Loghain, developing feelings for my Warden: Dear Maker, did it have to be another blonde man?

[therookandthecrow]

Mathalin Surana still has a light Orlesian accent, in spite of having lived in Ferleden for sixteen years by the time he was recruited into the Grey Wardens. Despite most of the elves having American accents in Origins, he primarily speaks with an RP ("Queen's English") accent.

I like to headcanon that he picked up on an accent that he liked from another Mage in the tower, and he adopted it as his own. Clan Surana in this case was one of the Dalish clans who worship the Forgotten Ones and those whom which wear brilliant crimson Vallaslins.

[therookandthecrow]

Mathalin's bid for chancellorship of Ferelden stems primarily from the feeling of powerlessness that he had from years as a circle mage. It was all that he was allowed to know for fourteen years of his life, from when he was eight years old until he "graduated" thanks to the event of the Fifth Blight when he was twenty-four.

The disenfranchisement and marginalization he felt as an elf living in a chantry run circle, surrounded by the tin-tyrants of the Templar order, and being forced into Andrastian rites while being born Dalish, and devout to the pantheon of elven gods.

That created a level of resentment that wasn't going to go away when he was recruited into the Grey Wardens, although it allowed him unprecedented freedom that the circle would never allow. There was a great feeling of hurt that drove this bid for chancellorship as well, wounded pride, if you will.

Mathalin was robbed of his birthright to be the Keeper of Clan Surana, so he was going to forge a new birthright, regardless of if the Grey Wardens were supposed to meddle in politics or not.

[therookandthecrow]

My Warden Surana's first thought at seeing Loghain at the war table in Ostagar is that he wanted to bend him over the table and 😏😗👉💋😋. Duncan disapproves -20, Alistair disapproves -20

[therookandthecrow]

I was thinking up Mathalin's Zodiac chart, and I've concluded that he was born under the sign of Solis (or Solium), which is associated with both Fen'harel and with Elgar'nan according to the Dalish. He was born with a massive ego, to say the least.

Structurally, his astrological chart is not too dissimilar from what of Napoleon Bonaparte's, at least so far as to where he is according to our solar system's Zodiac, a Leo Sun / Capricorn Moon / Scorpio Rising.

Knight-Commander Greagoir's reaction to him showing up at the Circle as a resentful eight-year-old was probably a lot like this:

[therookandthecrow]

Of course, my canon Rook will be a long-haired male elven mage with silver/white hair and either lavender, golden, silver or red eyes, high cheekbones, an aquiline nose, a sharp chin and if we can be blood mages he is definitely going to be one.

Hopefully the RP lets my Rook be a grim, sardonic, edgelord kind of a character so he can irritate his more chipper, bouyant companions and develop tension between him and Lucanis who is apparently a mage-killer.

He will still flirt with everyone else for the lolz before picking out Lucanis as his romance partner since it's a tradition for me to make my player character flirt with everyone before picking out my canon romance.

I will be transfering my world state where my Dorian romanced mage Lavellan Aedanthir is the Inquisitor, along with those where my chaotic, blood-mage Red Hawke Serenity who rival-romanced Anders was the Champion of Kirkwall, and the one where my megalomaniac, blood mage Warden Surana Mathalin who became the chancellor of Ferelden and romanced Morrigan was the Hero of Ferelden.

Later on I'd make other Rooks to romance everyone else. Although I am not a huge fan of Bioware as it is, I am still going to buy the game, because it's Dragon Age.