#and im so vehemently opposed to the 'not like other elves' shit that's ever-present in inquisition

[venvellan]

i routinely think about the horrible torturous waking nightmare it would be for lavellan to find inquisitor ameridan. you've spent weeks chasing after his trail under the assumption that he's human and only just discovered that telana was elven after historians/the chantry tried to erase her existence entirely. it's only by breaking his spell over hakkon and un-freezing him out of time that you realize he's– dalish? "andaran atish'an. i am glad drakon's friendship with our people has remained strong." oh, god, no.

you can tell the world he was dalish. you can try to correct history and give him the rest he deserves, but would they even believe you? the dalish inquisitor lavellan finds the only other inquisitor in chantry history and he was also dalish? you have to try, and some will believe you, but the human lords don't care. you'll find the most resistance in "educated" circles of historians, where they'll likely be whispering that you made it all up.

you may have spent your entire career as the inquisitor questioning how you'll be remembered, and the answer lies in finding ameridan. one day you'll be lost to time, and the few who remember you will do it incorrectly. public perception of you now is that you're a tool and servant of the chantry, despite not being andrastian, despite direct opposition from the chantry, but hundreds of years from now? some of the dalish may remember who you really were, but in a future under the chantry, they'd be fighting an uphill battle trying to keep that version of you alive. your only chance is to catalog your life, your identity, as dutifully as possible. write journals and letters reminding the world of who you are. leave little pieces of you behind, in hopes that it'll make a trail through time straight to you. the real you.

that's what my lavellan does, anyway. finding ameridan awakens such dread in him that he starts recording as much of himself as possible. the weeks after have him holed up filling journals with who he is, where he's from, his beliefs, his family tree. the choices he's made and exactly why, the people he wants to fight for. he keeps up that habit in the months and years afterward, writing as much as he can fit on the page about any relevant topic. varric could write about the inquisition, and he'd do his best, but a good story — a story that sells — is about fighting the templars and the demons and defeating corypheus. being elven would take up a paragraph at most in varric's story, and it's just not enough. people could forget him regardless, no matter how hard he tries, but he'll fight it as long as he lives.

and if all else fails, mythal forbid, hopefully the name 'lavellan' sounds elven enough.