avvar-lore

[avvar-lore]

A-Z Dragon Age: [A] is for Avvar

A courtroom? Unnecessary. You killed my idiot son and I answered as is customary by smacking your holdings with goat blood.

[avvar-lore]

You probably already know this but I just had to get this out: The Avvar's Hold Beast's name, I cannot, I cannot stop laughing. When I first just listened to Svarah talking about the bear and her name I was like "Yeah sure 'Shtore-vakka' is a pretty weird name, but hey, it is made up, right?" And then, when I READ the name, everything fell into place. "STORVACKER". It literally means "Big Beautiful" in Swedish. The voice actors absolutely butchered the name. Holy guacamole...

^For anyone not yet knowing this.

As for the voice actors: In their defense I have to say it is really hard for someone, who grew up with a language that has almost no hard consonants whatsoever to speak many of the Northern European languages, including the Scandinavian languages, or even German. As a German I always find it rather endearing even, when I hear someone, who’s mother tongue is English try to not trip over the mass of hard consonants my language has.

[avvar-lore]

Man i know i havent posted in forever, but I wanna share my replicant that I made for my living room.

DA4 yet?

[avvar-lore]

Got some pictures of my Tyrdda Bright-Axe cosplay edited! I’m a little late for posting these though.

Pictures by Sonoko (IG: malicionna, FB: Sonoko Cosplay)

Edit by starnacho (IG)

[avvar-lore]

It was so hot in this costume I was absolutely wet EpicCon-2018, St.Petersburg, Russia

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Codex entry: Saga of Tyrdda Bright-Axe, Avvar-Mother

First stanza:

Tell the tale of Tyrdda Bright-Axe, mountain maker, spirit’s bride: Free, her people, forged in fastness, made in mountains, hardy hide. Wise in wisdom, calm in counsel, great in gifts her grateful guests, Sacrificed she did to spirits, took their teachings, followed quests. Bright her axe, unbreaking crystal, stirred to flame when temper flies, Gifted from her leaf-eared lover, laughing lady of the skies. Bested blades of all who tried, Maiden, spurning all requests, Tyrdda Bright-Axe, Dreamer’s Eyes. Avvar-Mother, of her making.

Weiterlesen

[avvar-lore]

Avvar divorce

This headcanon is based on a) how seriously they take oath-breaking, and b) how their marriages work, in that they expire and are renewed.

Divorces are uncommon, since usually you can just arrange for shorter marriages and not renew them, but sometimes they happen anyway

Like any broken oaths, there are ways to appease both the wounded parties and the gods through rituals and offerings

It’s not necessarily the one wishing to leave the marriage that is considered the oath-breaker, if there is grounds for it

For example: if the husband has been very unkind or even violent, he is the oath-breaker, for not acting according to how a married man should act, thus the woman is freed from her oath

In some cases the oath-breaker has to pay offerings to the other partner, in some cases it is enough that they end the marriage

To settle these matters, they hold a trial in front of the tribe

[This headcanon was submitted by @theheroheart]

[avvar-lore]

this is a little ridiculous. get down from there.

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Visit the Frostback Basin

We’ve got spiders.

Want to find something? It’s a neck-snapping fall away.

Or it’s at the top of a cliff which you have to run halfway around a mountain to get up.

Or it’s hidden inside a sewer.

Even more spiders!

Daily gurgut verses bogfisher fights. You will have to break them up before making camp and then every time you leave camp.

 Hope you’re not an ice mage, otherwise your best bet to surviving is throwing a rock or something.

Spiders, spiders, spiders!

Locals are somewhat friendly provided you don’t kill their special bear.

Special bear may try to kill you anyway for funsies.

Do not disturb the sleeping dragon.

You disturbed the dragon, didn’t you?

Your mess now.

Oh look, more spiders!

[avvar-lore]

I just found out the Avvars’ perform sky burials, and that sky burials, in real life, are something that Tibetans, Mongolians, and Qinghua do. So then when I look at how the Avvars treat spirits and their way of life, it suddenly makes a lot of sense. 

[avvar-lore]

*record scratch*

That’s me. You’re probably wondering, “how did I get myself into this situation?” Well, it’s funny you should ask…

[avvar-lore]

reminders abt the avvar

they have good relations with dwarves and trade frequently

one of their legendary chieftans, tyrdda bright-axe, was a female mage-warrior, had a female elven lover, and bore the child of a dwarven prince to continue her lineage

skywatcher/amund in the multiplayer offers one of the characters (i couldn’t tell who because it was voices only so idk if the character was human or not) to come join the avvar, which means outsiders are welcome to join

basically the avvar, while very human dominated, are still open to outsiders and people of other races AND sexuality doesn’t seem to be an issue unless a person still needs to have a child. even further, it doesn’t matter if the other parent is human, dwarf, elf, or what.

they train their mages as warriors so you get characters like amund/skywatcher who are technically “mages” but are almost seven foot tall and turn you into bloody mush with a rock on a stick

[avvar-lore]

Name: Riedar ‘Lyre Weaver’ of Raven Hold

Race: Avvar/Qunari

Age: 26

Gender: Male

Class: Spirit-talker/Warrior

Height: 7'3

Body Type: Athletic

Hair Color: Dark red

Eye Color: Sky blue

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Weapon: (Enchanted with Ice) Double headed war ax

Languages: Avvarian, Broken Trade

Background—–

Riedar was born in 9:10 Dragon

A Tal-Vashoth woman was fleeing from a group of rogue darkspawn in the Frostback Mountains and stumbled into an Avvar hunting party, the hunters killed the darkspawn but the woman had already been tainted with the blight. The hunting party decided to take her back with them to their hold only because she was obviously pregnant. 

She gave birth to Riedar 2 months later but died a few days afterwards from her illness, The healer that had been caring for the sick woman decided to adopt the child she left behind and when he was old enough The healer told Riedar everything she knew of his mother but since the Qunari woman had known little common and no Avvarian they couldn’t learn much of her before her death.

He plays the lyre as a hobby.

[avvar-lore]

Avvar OC: Curstaidh Annisdotten

So I saw ya’ll were accepting Avvar OCs and I figured it was my baby’s time to SHINE! I spent hours and hours scanning over the DA Wiki pages about Avvar holds and culture to cobble Curstaidh together, and she’s honestly one of my favorites. I hope you guys like her too!

TW/CWs: child abuse, poison

Name: Curstaidh Annisdotten Age: 20 Race: Human Class/Occupation: Apothecary Gender: Female Sexuality: Pansexual

Background: Curstaidh’s mother, Annis, was stolen from a neighboring tribe, as is custom among the Avvar people. Annis, had been in the running to become the Augur of her old hold, and so she became extremely bitter towards her new husband and child (Curstaidh) because of this. Curstaidh’s Father died on a great bear hunt. Annis (a mage) had learned much from the spirit she was possessed by in her old hold, in the Avvar tradition of apprentice mages being possessed by spirits, including both healing techniques and potions and poultices—and poisons. Annis was determined to become the next Augur of Clan Stone-Bear, her husband’s hold, instead. Tricky and deceitful, she was able to obscure her intentions and machinations by distracting everyone with her young child, Curstaidh. She created poisons to keep Curstaidh sick, which she fed to the young child every day under the guise of studiously caring for her. Annis made Curstaidh afraid of everyone else in the hold by fabricating wild stories about cannibalism, murder, and beatings that each of the other tribesmen and women committed, and made Curstaidh promise never to speak when someone else from the Hold was present so that none of them would attack her. Seeing the child fearful and silent all the time, Stone-Bear Hold began to suspect the child had done something to anger the gods which caused her never-ending sickness. Curstaidh would sneak out at night to study the stars, tend to the flowers around the hold, and study her mother’s books on healing herbs by the moonlight. She tried to help others in the hold when she was able—harvesting mushrooms for the hungry families of injured hunters, and writing happy little poems and fairy stories for children who had trouble sleeping. Curstaidh was almost caught when she tried to heal another sick child she had heard the parents tell her mother about, by mixing one of the concoctions her mother had made her drink for a similar problem (at least so her mother had said) and ending up killing the girl by mistake, since the concoction was actually poison. Annis found out when she was called to investigate the next morning and found the mixing bowl with the same ingredients she used to poison Curstaidh. Annis knew her child was onto her, or would be soon, and concocted a way to have her exiled from the Hold while also cementing her role as the caring healer the Hold needed. Annis executed a string of robberies around the hold, then planted the stolen items beneath her child’s bed, after mentioning to a few people around the hold that Curstaidh seemed to be sneaking out at night after slipping something in Annis’ food to make her sleep soundly, and how concerning this was. To further incriminate her child, Annis hid vials of the same poison that Curstaidh had used to try to help the sick child in all of her belongings, then summoned the Augur to investigate after hitting herself in the head with sickly Curstaidh’s walking stick, and giving her child a sleeping draught. By this point Curstaidh was terrified, and so she refused to imbibe it, so Annis attacked her and forced her to drink. The hold kicked Curstaidh out, finding her guilty of all charges Annis had brought against her. Curstaidh had to leave Stone-Bear Hold, and she wound up finding shelter at the Denerim Chantry while she regained her strength from her sickly childhood, and studied healing potions and poultices with the Chantry sisters. After she had worn out her welcome in the Ferelden city, Curstaidh moved on to Haven, where she apprenticed under Adan, and finally, to Skyhold, where she remains to this day, helping heal soldiers and others who fear magic in an attempt to atone for her mistake, and the life she took. 

[avvar-lore]

Avvarian Marriage

Disclaimer: All of this is completely canonical knowledge. Nothing headcanoned, there are sources for it and I’ve gathered from every source that I could. This includes: Codices (A Good Marriage), Dragon AGE: Blood in Ferelden (Where Eagles Lair) P.78, Dragon Age Core Rulebook, In-Game Dialogue (Jaws of Hakkon). Nothing is headcanon and nothing is taken from an unreliable sources (i.e. Wikipedia).

I did promise it for all those interested. If you haven’t, you might want to also check out my Burials post. It includes Avvarian burial practices, as well as that of other races in Thedas. Also just for reference:

*Clan in this post means (family unit)

Basic Information

The first thing to be said about Avvarian Marriages is that they are not long or permanent. It is up to the couple to retain the marriage if they so wish, by completing the untying of knots at the end of their marriage cycle.

Because of these relatively brief unions and naming conventions, Avvar do not take or change last names like other human cultures.

Avvar do not often marry within their Holds, as Avvarian Holds are often made up of the Thane’s family and the clans of extended family members. In order to avoid this, they are more likely to marry Avvar from other, neighboring Holds.

Although it should be mentioned, that Avvarian Brides who are taken to a new Hold are expected to give up their ties to their old Hold for loyalty to their new home. This is due to the fact that even allied Holds can go to war with one another at any time, given a good reason. Because of this, most brides are met with scrutiny by their old Holds.

The Ceremonies

The First Ceremony: A Kidnapping

Courting starts with the kidnapping of a bride, though it never without the Hold’s or bride’s consent. The kidnapping is always partially arranged in advance by at least the elders of the target Hold and clan, and the one announcing intentions.

A groom who kidnaps a bride without first announcing intent or trying to wrongfully kidnap a bride without permission will be put to death and a blood feud started with the intruder’s Clan or Hold.

Before the kidnapping, the kidnapper may approach their bride-to-be directly and secure her help on the success of the kidnapping. On occasion, a bride-in-waiting may approach a man she wishes to be her husband, if she finds one she desires before another comes to her.

With permission given and a plan laid out, a warrior will prove himself by slipping into the Hold and securing his bride without detection. A warrior caught on his first try is beaten severely, but never to death. However, on his second try, if he is caught he is sentenced to death, usually by Hold Beast.

The Second Ceremony: A (Un)Tying of Knots

“Sounds like a good deal to me. See if you like living with your handsome new husband or wife once the bloom’s worn off.” ~A Good Marriage 

Once a bride has been kidnapped and taken to her husband’s Hold, they then participate in an Untying of Knots. The bride will tie knots in a piece of rope, she will then sing the hymn of a selected God while her husband unties the rope. For every knot he is able to untie, before the Bride finishes her song they will be married another year.

Once the number of years of marriage are up, the Avvar can perform the knot ritual once more or they can separate, there is no requirement for them to stay together if they do not wish it. Both bride and groom can be remarried to each other or to others at any time after the years allotted are up.

The Bride’s Influence

Despite the kidnapping of the Bride, the Bride has many times and chances to reject the union, giving her the most power when it comes to completing a Marriage Ceremony.

She is given a choice at the beginning, to give the groom permission to kidnap her. Should, for some reason, the kidnapper not heed her wishes, she can then do whatever she can to undermine his kidnapping. If he is caught, and was never given permission, he is immediately executed (see above).

Should the kidnapping succeed, either unrightfully or if she has second thoughts/wants a shorter marriage. The Bride is then able to influence and sabotage the Knot ritual. She can chose a shorter hymn, chant it at whatever speed she wishes, and tie the knots as tight a possible to make it harder on her husband-to-be. Though her husband-to-be can also choose to only untie as many knots (or untie none at all) as he wishes.

[avvar-lore]

The Avvar requested by @valorcorrupt and @thesxmmersword 

The Avvar deem spirits as their gods, treating them as patrons to be lulled and wooed. The Avvar deliberately invoke spirits for strength in battle or solicit them for advice. Such spirits have lived with in their holds for many generations, and sometimes took the form of an animal or departed relatives when they pass on their wisdom. In the event a god is destroyed, the Avvar begin a year-long time of offerings and prayers and rituals. At the end of this period, a new spirit takes on the name and role of the old one. 

credits: . . . . . . . . . . . .

[avvar-lore]

for the color palette thing maybe Thane Sun-Hair in 'existence' ?

Because she originally had ginger hair okay