#he embraces it BECAUSE dorian eases some of the guilt and pain

[attractthecrows]

What is Revallen's second least problem?

SECOND LEAST.... what a specific one 🤔 i like it

In terms of heirarchy I think the Biggest problem he has to deal with is corypheus, followed by the inquisition, followed by his guilt over leaving his daughter in Lavellan. Then it gets into personal issues like guilt over the death of his wife, and guilt over not being able to give his daughter the peaceful life he knew as a child...

the least of these various issues in terms of what weighs on his mind would be the guilt he feels at not being able to live up to the reputation that his father set. His father was an extremely gifted tree mage, an adahl'elaran, who could make even the strongest hardwoods walk and move to his whim - in contrast, Revallen is a pyromancer, and if he tries to control the trees like his father did, they burn. He will always have that distance from his father's teachings; but his father also taught him to embrace his own power for what it is, so it's not so much a pressing guilt as a fact of life.

Just above that, and below the other guilts, so "second least" as you put it, is his guilt over leaving behind his birth clan. He left them with his daughter after his wife was killed; typical grief response of trying to get a new start. BUT, crucially, he was their Keeper. He was the heart of his clan, and though he is imperfect as anyone else, he had a duty to them that he could not fulfill. He wasn't thinking clearly when he left, so he had no First, and had no one prepared to step up in his place. They would have been thrown into chaos. But his daughter has been his priority since his wife's death, so it didn't occur to him until the damage was done.

If he were still in Lavellan, it would weigh quite heavily on him, and he might even have gone back to try to repair the damage. But now, as Inquisitor? He has too big of a target on his back to return to his daughter, let alone the clan they left behind; it'd be too dangerous, too unfair to put them in harm's way like that.