#warden: vaye brosca

[frankensteined]

31 Days of Dragon Age (Day 2)

missed day 1 so i'll just jam both prompts into this post

Introduce your Hero of Ferelden & Favorite Origins romance

Oct 01 - Introduce your Hero of Ferelden

i don't have any images currently because my origins playthroughs all took place on the ps3 or a PC that i no longer have, but a rundown of my main three HoF incoming: neira mahariel - DW rogue with the ranger spec.

she was actually my second playthrough, after i used my first one to acquaint myself with the game and its lore before i dove into the roleplaying aspect of it. neira started out as your typically distrustful dalish elf, who resisted becoming a grey warden every step of the way. she didn't care if she was tainted and slated to die, she did not want to leave her clan, and she resented duncan for dragging her away from them. ultimately, she fell in love with zevran, though not until well after she'd gotten closure and properly grieved for her first love, tamlen. neira's seriousness mingled well with zev's more playful approach to the horrors of life, and that created a healthy bubble for them to be vulnerable and supportive with one another. ultimately, left anora to rule ferelden on her own, since alistair didn't want to become king and neira didn't want him to have to give up "his clan" (the wardens), but did convince him to undergo the dark ritual with morrigan. has since disappeared with zevran in search of a cure for the calling and according to the experts (my headcanon), they're doing just fine now, thanks.

syrill amell - mage (obviously) with the spirit healer spec.

he was a smartass, irreverent brat at the circle, but in that way that people still liked him, even when he was getting on their nerves. vain and prideful, he was also totally the type of mage that a demon would have loooooved to get ahold of...if not for the fact that syrill was also a gigantic nerd and studied frequently to avoid falling into the pitfalls of becoming an abomination. jowan was his buddy, in a "sidekick" sense, and it definitely annoyed syrill that jowan went and did...All Of That behind his back, but he still did what it took to free him and keep him safe when the opportunity arose. truly hated being in the circle (though not to the 'escapist' degree of anders), and truly, truly hated the templars, so he jumped at the chance to leave when duncan rolled in (ignoring all the blood everywhere and all that). he and alistair did not get along at all, but he fell all over himself to impress morrigan the second that he met her. somehow, his cringefail attempts at charm and his really nice hair won her over, and they fell in love. he spared loghain, not wanting to risk losing someone who knew what they were doing when it came to big battles, and alistair stormed off, never to be seen by syrill again. oops. post-game, he actually grew up quite a bit as the warden commander, but he never let go of his love for morrigan, often wondering about her and the child they supposedly had together. come witch hunt, he went with her without hesitating, and instantly loved their son the second that he met him. lived with his family for years in the crossroads, became a Certified Fun Dad, and only left them to try to cure the calling. as far as i'm concerned, he's currently hovering over kieran's shoulder while morrigan is away, not ready to see his baby boy (read: a 20 year old man) move out on his own.

vaye brosca - DW rogue with the assassin spec.

Hardened Criminal with a heart of gold. we love that trope, right? vaye's another warden who didn't want to leave her home, but her sister's pleading ultimately prompted her to do so. everything that vaye did was for rica's sake anyways, so she left, and was a fish out of water every step of the way since then. her go-to response to most problems was Knife, which her companions needed to break her of that habit really quickly (or, in zevran's case, teach her how to wield it with a little more grace). every single awkward, socially-inept dialogue choice was put to good use with this character, but somehow that ended up making her blisteringly honest and very capable of cutting through the bullshit in order to tell when she was being manipulated. ironically, fell in love with leliana because she was able to see through her layers and they found common ground with their bloodied pasts. quickly became the squishiest of romances, and vaye really loved gifting her the nug (something from her home that leliana didn't yet understand), and the flowers (something from leliana's home, that vaye didn't yet understand). since vaye understood that "king = power = safety", she nudged alistair to marry anora and rule jointly, and when she was named paragon, she was happy to see her sister elevated to nobility so that she could marry king bhelen and also enjoy that much safety. is currently living in a villa on the waking sea, surrounded by nugs, waiting for when leliana can come home.

Oct 02 - Favorite Origins romance

Actual Love Of My Life, Zevran Arainai

on my aforementioned tester first playthrough, i made a city elf and romanced alistair and went around flirting with whoever i could, just to get a sense of what sorts of characters i was dealing with. the inevitable "time to choose" conversation with zevran, though, really surprised me and gave me serious enough pause that it decided my first "real playthrough"'s romance for me right away. i was struck by how zevran, who'd been such a flirty, casual guy in this department up until then, was making it very clear that he didn't want to hurt alistair with any continued dalliances, given how much the other guy was clearly falling. he was sincere and respectful, and didn't even lose approval when i opted to have my tester warden break things off between them, and that kind of care and maturity really won me over.

fastforward to my neira playthrough, and that sincerity and deep, terrified love really, really solidified itself as an rpg favourite for me. you really feel the progression from "for fun" and "for life" with this relationship. it has its silly moments ("is there something in your tent that needs...assassinating?" or the dirty antivan poetry that he tells you just to make you laugh), and it has its truly moving moments (the earring scene, especially if you ask him if he's proposing, his farewell scene at the game before the final battle). and in the end, he stays with your warden through everything. yes, his DA2 appearance was fully bugged on import so i never actually saw him acknowledge the romance to isabela, and yes, i'm still bummed that he's the only origins romance that didn't get an appearance in inquisition, but a romanced zevran is still stated to be traveling with the warden in their letter, so he's still with them, after all these years, keeping them safe and helping to save their life. again. all because they spared his at a time when he didn't care if he lost it.

there's something really lovely about your pc being a character's first love, but there's something even lovelier, to me, about them being a character's last love, and the zevran romance is exactly that. it's still my number one of the series, no matter how much more content some of the others have in comparison.

[frankensteined]

everyone’s been playing around with this thing, so being the shameless loser i am i went and made my top 3 DA protags+their LIs from each game thus far. the results are hilariously awful (esp. blackwall l o l)

from left to right: 

neira mahariel + zevran, syrill amell + morrigan, vaye brosca + leliana

aelia hawke + anders, della hawke + merrill, beatrice hawke + isabela (i’d have done judith/sebastian too but i didn’t like how the first body made whoever really small, when they’re both physically about even /pickypicky)

malry cadash + blackwall/thom rainier, heilyn lavellan + cassandra pentaghast (in that silly armor i crafted for her in trespasser), eisla adaar (sans horns bc dollmaker didn’t have any) + sera

[frankensteined]

wherein i lament over the terrible hairstyles and bioware taking away all the old tattoos for the upteenth time

neira mahariel, syrill amell, and vaye brosca: in the new engine. since vaye and neira lost both their signature hairstyles and tattoos, i just worked with what was closest or what they might be rocking ten years after the blight.

part of me thinks that neira would just tie her hair back, as pictured above. the other part of me thinks that she'd have just gone up to zevran one day and said "i can't be bothered with this anymore. just help me chop it off" so that's where pic #2 comes in 

vaye's hair was a mess before she met leliana, since she gave zero fucks about that kinda thing living in dust town. without leliana these days, these are the two options for her hair because some things never change! and all these hair options suck. ass.

syrill's hair is actually a shade lighter than his original shade not because he's going grey shut up shut up shut up but aside from that his hair's stayed the same because like hell will he change it.

[frankensteined]

➹ for Malry Cadash and ☹ for Vaye Brosca.

➹ - Varric’s nickname for them "blue", because of her past with the carta/lyrium smuggling. she actually accepted it immediately because it kept her well aware of what she’d left behind and reminded her that she could do better than that (as before she’d resigned herself to being carta for life)

☹ - something they regret not demanding that leske come with her when she left orzammar

[frankensteined]

Origins: 1, 5, 9. DA2: 2, 7, 15. Inq: 1!

Character names, appearance and respective origins. (Backstory and more elaboration on their personal origin is optional) 

my screencaps aren't on my laptop so I'll skip the appearance part for now~

Neira Mahariel: dalish elf. Having been raised by Ashalle after the death of her parents, Neira grew up feeling the full weight of the clan's love but often felt that there was something...off about how she was treated. Many of the older clan members would look at her with this sort of sadness that she couldn't understand, and wouldn't come to understand until she heard the real story behind what happened to her parents. Regardless, she was a quiet, but fair and generous member of the clan that had a dry sense of humor and got along well with everyone. Very proud of being Dalish, and very aggressive towards humans that threatened her people, but also welcoming and patient with the "flat ears" that found their way to the clan (though she would snicker at them whenever they flubbed some sort of tradition). She was especially close with Fenarel (thinking of him as a brother), Maren, and had a healthy friendly rivalry with Junar. Merrill was someone that Neira was kind to, but didn't really "hang out with" (though Merrill definitely had a Thing for her). Tamlen, of course, was her best friend and she was painfully in love with him. Part of why she was out hunting with him the day that they found the mirror was that she had finally planned on confessing to him. Needless to say...things didn't work out that way.   

Syrill Amell: human mage. Snarky brat with vanity issues out the wazoo. Doesn't have any memory of his parents and thus doesn't feel especially robbed of essentially being raised by the Circle, though he resents anything that tries to dictate what he is and is not allowed to do (ironically). Befriended Jowan initially because he was the exact sort of screw-up tagalong that was sure to always make him look good by comparison, but it didn't take long before he actually came to really care about the dork. Hated a templars and liked to go out of his way to make their lives difficult (especially Cullen's). He found at an early age that he was better with healing magic than destructive magic, and used this natural talent to play up the role of a protector in order to impress girls. 

Vaye Brosca: dwarf commoner. Rough around the edges, with a reluctant heart of gold. It was hard for her to come by it, though, having to live in Dust Town and work under a crime lord that she'd rather have shanked than bowed to. Vaye and Rica were extremely close, despite not sharing fathers, and looking out for one another was a priority for the both of them that everyone knew that they could exploit if they wanted. Fortunately (?) Beraht's reputation kept anyone but him from using it against them. Vaye had a very love/hate relationship with her mother, and often looked for excuses to stay away from the house when she was drinking. Thankfully, there was always something for her and Leske to get into so those excuses came by fairly frequently. Vaye was never attracted to Leske romantically, but they did attempt to enter into a no-strings physical relationship that went absolutely no where once they'd gotten their clothes off. So they just kicked back, naked, and finished off the bottle they'd managed to sneak away from Vaye's mother.

 How do they feel about becoming a warden?

Neira: Initially, she hates it. Neira hated Duncan and made no secret of it. She didn't want to give up the search for Tamlen, no matter how sick she was, and if she was going to die then she wanted to die surrounded by her clan. So she resented being taken from them, and was incredibly hurt that Marethari insisted that she go. Eventually, she grew into the role but it took a few missions and a bunch of objections from Alistair before she stopped thinking like a Dalish elf and started thinking like a Warden.

Syrill: He gets to leave the Tower and go on an adventure to save the world, while looking beautiful in those Warden robes in the process? Yeah, Syrill was pretty much all for it. (Consequently, he was literally just in the right place at the right time in terms of who got credit for everything. His was the least authoritative leadership ever until right towards endgame)

Vaye: Given the fact that Vaye was 100% right when she'd told Leske that she'd be able to manage the Carta, once she actually got used to the surface and to people taller than her actually...listening to what she had to say, she took to being a Warden quite naturally. In fact, she loved it because she'd finally managed to become an actual person in the eyes of others. Duncan had always treated her with respect, and she wanted to honor his faith in her by being worthy of it. Kinda like Han Solo becoming a hero over the course of Star Wars. 

Who in the group was their best friend? Enemy? How did they feel about the others?

Neira: Her best friend becomes Morrigan because they found a common ground in coming from backgrounds where they were forced to move often through wilderness to avoid detection (and they both enjoyed rolling their eyes at Alistair). Her enemy? She didn't really have one, though she did butt heads with Wynne and Leliana at times. Honestly, by the end of the game Neira had managed to come to look at the group she'd assembled as her "new clan", even Alistair. In a way. And after receiving The Earring, Zevran and her became engaged and she was able to put Tamlen to rest at last. In terms of Awakening crew, she naturally gravitated towards Velanna but by then her temper had been tempered enough that she was able to help Velanna's opinion on humans change too. She also got along well with Anders "because he's chatty like Alistair but can heal me so he's also marginally more useful" (said good naturedly). 

Syrill: His best friend was also Morrigan, though she was also his beloved so if you were to ask him he'd tell you that his best friend was his dog. He was also a huge momma's boy to Wynne, as he adopted the only other Circle mage nearby to be his maternal figure. Also got along smashingly with Zevran and Oghren, and was a headache for Sten and Shale but they secretly liked him. Had an awkward Thing with Leliana as well but the way that played out in the game was the result of romance bugs in the game so it was just plain Complicated. His enemy was undeniably Alistair. Mostly because Loghain was a part of the crew and Syrill got along well with him too. Stuck with Oghren in Awakening and, oddly enough, Velanna became a very good friend of his too. Somehow. Justice freaked him the hell out but he was also fascinated by him. Nathaniel and Sigrun were exhausted by him all the time. And he and Anders were two peas in a pod and so they annoyed everyone when they joined forces. 

Vaye: Her best friend was Alistair, especially following Leske's betrayal. Beyond that, Sten and Oghren were the others that she really connected well with. The only thing that made her hesitant to stick with Oghren the first time they met was that his drunkenness reminded her of her mother, but eventually they managed to connect and by the time of Awakening, Vaye has requested that the Assembly recognize Oghren as a member of House Brosca. (she doesn't tell him about this until he finds out from Felsi, who received some money for their child from an "Aunt Rica"). Vaye had a friends-with-benefits relationship with Zevran that fizzled once she fell in love with Leliana, but by the time that happened they'd forged an obnoxiously solid friendship. Enemies-wise, she clashed with Wynne often b/c mage, and Morrigan grew impatient with her attempting to "do good" while on the surface, since she'd done so much bad in Orzammar, but by the end of their journey together Vaye had grown to love both of them too. And Shale. Just. Vaye loved Shale so much. The Awakening crew benefited the most from Vaye's character growth because she was a confident leader by then (and good friends with Queen Anora!), and she earned their loyalty fairly easily. Unsurprisingly, she and Sigrun bonded quickly and fiercely.

omg NOW DA2 STUFF!!!

Red, Blue, Purple? Mix?

Aelia: purple-turned-blue

Della: blue-turned-red

Judith: red red red

Beatrice: purple 4 lyf

 What was your Hawke’s relationship with the group?

Aelia:

Friendship with: Anders (romance), Isabela, Carver (MIRACLE OF MIRACLES), Varric, Sebastian, Merrill, Avaline

Rivalry with: Fenris (given that she's an outspoken pro-mage mage...yeah)

Della: 

Friendship with: Avaline, Varric, Bethany, Fenris, Isabela

Rivalry with: Merrill (despite romancing her), Anders, Sebastian

Judith: 

Friendship with: Fenris, Avaline, Bethany, Sebastian (romance)

Rivalry with: Varric (this hurts), Anders, Merrill, Isabela

Beatrice: 

Friendship with: EVERYONE

Describe how Hawke feels about being dragged into all this chaos

Aelia: She's an apostate tired of having to hide. Honestly, though she wasn't itching for violence her desire for change might have been enough for her to have wanted to help Anders without him tricking her. She gets pretty radical by Act 3 (thankfully Carver's a Warden so she doesn't worry about having to face him in the future like she might have if he'd become a templar)

Della: Fuck this so much. She was a kindhearted person that the years hardened and saw her lose her brother to an Ogre, her sister to the Wardens and her mother to a madman. Rather than being broken by it, Della just steeled herself harder and harder. 

Judith: Jude's a brash protector by nature, but she has a very real connection to her faith and so she views it as a destiny/duty to get involved in everything that's going on.

Beatrice: Her outlook can be summarized with "Is anyone going to do anything about this mess? ...No? Anyone? Up to me, then? *sigh* Alright, but I don't want to hear any of you saying anything when I save the day and make you all wear "Hawke's My Hero" shirts for the next month."

INQUISITION

 Character names and respective race

Malry Cadash, Hal Trevelyan, Heilyn Lavellan, Esila Adaar

[frankensteined]

Well, it's finally done for Vaye Brosca. I'm done Witch Hunt and am ready to import this data into DA2, so all that's left now is to decide what sort of Hawke I'll make with it. Male or female, warrior/rogue/mage, etc etc. I'm gonna miss this dorf though. Hopefully nothing bugs while importing this data, because I'm looking forward to all the little nods to the Thedas she helped to shape. :')

[frankensteined]

yes, I totally did run around aimlessly solely so that I could trigger all the "hey, you could possess a living body if they're cool with it" Nate/Justice banters with Anders in the party before heading off to endgame stuff. |: there are just some things I can't not do in Awakening, knowing what happens in DA2 (I'm gonna skip the Golems of Amgarrak dlc because it has no impact on DA2 whatsoever, but that means that I just have til the end of Witch Hunt to spend with Vaye Brosca. I'm really gonna miss this duster ;-; )

[frankensteined]

"This change cannot be forced." "Then it will never come." Casually having my warden argue with Wynne about how the mages should break free from the Chantry so that I can headcanon that the last line there hovered about in Anders' head for ages after he protested that the mages couldn't leave and that leads into DA2~

[frankensteined]

weeping tears a joy because now that Vaye’s become a Paragon and a noble house resulted from that, Rica will be able to marry Bhelen and their son will be legitimized and my Warden’s sister will live happily ever after which is all she ever wanted for her ;-;

…but on the other hand, I am cackling because Vaye agreed to go travel with Sten, but what Sten doesn’t know is that Vaye will also be accompanied by Leliana, Mutt the Dog, Zevran, …and Schmooples.

Sten is gonna throw us all overboard, kadan or not. He is already 100% done and he doesn’t even know it yet.

[frankensteined]

i was on my way to fort drakon, AND THEN...

My Warden was a near sliver of a life away from being knocked out when this dragon overwhelmed her, but at the last possible second the army of elves that I called upon showed up

...And the dragon headed over to them instead of finishing her off, so I was able to heal up and keep going.

My dwarven Warden was saved. By elves.

This is so humiliating.��

[frankensteined]

"You are my Grey Warden, and our savior. Win this war for us, my love, and…come home."

God damnit Leliana, I said wasn’t gonna cry ;~;