#therlia surana

[thenugking]

Hi! Um, odd question to spring on you out of the blue, but if all your Wardens got together in a pub somewhere, how would they all get on?

Griffon, Mahariel and Orlena are Too Autistic for this shit and find a quiet corner to escape to. They end up having a good conversation about the stress of the Blight and of other people’s expectations and Griffon ends up asking Mahariel and Orlena some stuff about Daish and Circle culture they want to know but have been awkward asking about. In return, Mahariel asks Griffon about some noble stuff he doesn’t get. Griffon doesn’t get it either. Neither does Orlena. They complain about nobles.

Meanwhile Lorrel is adopting Everyone, whether they like it or not. Vari likes it a lot because this is essentially her grandmother and she’s really cool, and Seren’s really excited about having a city elf declare that she’s family now. She wants to know Everything about life in an alienage, which Vari and Lorrel kind of agree is “it sucks but also we’re the Greatest, and will fight anyone else who says it sucks.”

Elora tells Lorrel she doesn’t need or want a grandmother, or any family. In between mocking her little brother Thosk for all his shitty life choices. Which Thosk takes, because okay fair he has made some really shitty life choices. But some of the rest of you must have made shitty choices too right??? Isaline agrees that yes, she did. She’s not going to go into it. Mags says she did everything wrong, which Isaline and Lorrel tell her they’re sure isn’t true. Mihren says humans deserve what they get. Lacha isn’t comparing her mistakes to some fucking dwarven noble’s, and would prefer not to speak to Elora or Thosk at all actually. 

Annabeth is…… not going to be doing at all well considering she did a lot of Terrible Things in the pursuit of stopping the Blight Whatever The Cost, at the knowledge that 13 other people were able to stop the Blight without being fucking terrible about it. But if we’re being nice, we can have pre-dead family and Blight Annabeth, who is incredibly down to party and hang out with all this fun new people and hey do any of them want to make out maybe?? Therlia has no objections to that.

Mags is very shy and awkward, and Lacha, who doesn’t want to be here at all and sees no reason to hang out with these people, sighs and starts talking to her. She tells Mags a lot of stuff about her life and her own feelings on leadership and People, and ends up giving Mags some blunt but very helpful advice. Mags isn’t sure whether or not Lacha likes her at all (she does).

Therlia, Isaline and Mihren end up having a very deep discussion about how terrible Circles are and the stuff they suffered there. Seren tells them her girlfriend was made Tranquil but would prefer to go back to talking to her City Elf friends instead of saying more about it. After a while of just talking about her abusive templar ex, Isaline lets slip his name. Therlia and Mihren are very quick to agree that yeah, Cullen Rutherford is the fucking worst. Seren looks back over and vehemently agrees. Orlena approaches the main table for the first time that night to tell everyone that yeah that guy’s a massive creep. No one else likes him either.

So tl;dr there are some disagreements and then everyone bands together to talk about how much they hate cullen rutherford

[thenugking]

listen i don’t care how “overrated" you think Let It Go is it’s a fucking mage rights anthem and you can pry it from my cold dead hands

[thenugking]

What is the biggest similarity and difference between the set of protagonists you created first, versus your newest ones?

So worldstate 1 is Therlia Surana, L. Hawke and Kas Surana, while my most recent Warden, Champion and Inquisitor are Seren Surana (worldstate 14), Millie Hawke (worldstate 6) and Rynessa (worldstate 7).

Therlia and Seren are obviously both Suranas, and I think most of their decisions are similar? They both save Redcliffe and the Circle, side with Caridin, make Bhelen king, and kill the werewolves. I haven’t played that far with Seren yet but I suspect that like Therlia, she’ll let Isolde die to save Connor. They approach those decisions differently though. Therlia regrets killing the werewolves and only did it because she didn’t want to risk hurting the elves by turning on Zathrian. She killed him after discovering Lanaya could also cure them. Seren was maybe not 100% behind Zathrian, but there was still no question on whether she was going to side with him or not. He deserved his vengeance, she felt. She’s also more enthusiastic about Bhelen as king, compared to Therlia’s “uhh, I guess he sounds a bit better?”

Their personalities are also fairly different, Therlia is very cautious, while Seren is very Not. Therlia starts off with Isolationist leanings and while she’s always been angry at the way mages were treated, she only starts Saying things about that after the end of Origins. Seren meanwhile is a Libertarian from the beginning, and after being told Duncan will take on responsibility for her actions, she punches Greagoir before leaving the tower.

I kind of feel like the main difference between Lucy and Millie is just how I’ve changed in building my stories. Back when playing Lucy Hawke I was keeping everything to close as canon to possible with “well, if I’d known in advance I probably wouldn’t have let Carver die in the Deep Roads, but it Happened and now my story needs to build from it”. Millie is the Kid Hawke I mentioned the other day and started playing a few hours after, so with her we have “ There’s nothing new I can Do with the canon Hawke backstory, so let’s give Leandra and Malcolm a younger kid for a new perspective. And then older Hawke sibling - let’s go with fandom’s purple Garret Hawke - can die escaping Lothering so I don’t have to deal with them getting in my protagonist’s way. And actually if he dies, does Bethany really need to? I haven’t had both twins survive before and that creates new interesting possibilities, let’s do it!” Also, back then my Hawke was just called Hawke and didn’t like using her first name, whereas now I have enough Hawkes that it gets confusing.

Lucy Hawke is also the most similar Hawke to Fanon Hawke that I have, whereas Millie isn’t even the person the game thinks is the protagonist because she was born about 14 years after them. As for similarities, uh, they’re both very pro-mage? Although Lucy more actively so, and Millie is a lot more scared of templars. Like Lucy Hawke, Millie is purple at the moment, but she’s going to be red in Act 2 and green in Act 3. They both try desperately to be cool while failing to actually be cool, I guess. Although by the time Millie is Lucy’s age, she’ll likely have learnt how to be.

The biggest difference between Kas and Rynessa is that Kas is a sweet cinnamon roll and Rynessa is a monster. Kas is as nice as possible to almost everyone she meets and always tries her best to not kill, if that is a feasible option. Rynessa is a dick who doesn’t give a shit about whether most people live or not because they’re mortal, so it’s not going to make a difference whether they die now or in a few decades.

Similarity-wise, I guess they’re both very dependent on Cole as a moral compass. Although in Kas’ case, that’s because she has far too little faith in herself, while Rynessa has exactly the right amount of faith in her own moral compass and knows she’s the Worst. They’re also the two Inquisitors who, despite making him more spirit, have Cole stay with them after Trespasser, because they need his help too much for him to go to the Fade.

[thenugking]

Worldstate 7 PowerPoint 

[thenugking]

Thought I should do bios for all my Dragon Age OCs so here we go, here are the world state 1 people. Other world state people appearing at some point in future, probably.

Therlia Surana

(Have a dollmaker, since I’m not quite happy with any of my Origins screenshots)

Therlia was my first Warden, from back when I knew very little about this game and how much angst she was in for. (Consequently she romanced Alistair, tried to do the Ultimate Sacrifice, and ended up having him die for her. I cried for like an hour.) She’s in an almost continuous state of despair because Thedas is awful, especially if you’re an elf and a mage.

Origins feels a lot like a prologue for her, after Alistair’s death, she left Ferelden to try to move on accompanied by Zevran. The two of them are best friends who travel round Thedas fighting templars, Crows, slavers, and generally fighting for freedom for their people. And have accidentally adopted five kids while doing so, Kas, Bri, Robin, Veena and Torano. They’re usually wanted by at least six organisations at any one time. While she romanced Alistair in-game, Therlia’s polyamorous and was upset about having to choose between him and Leliana. Post-Origins, she eventually ends up in relationships with Anders and Briala. She’s also had casual sex with various other characters.

I’d quite like to make her my protagonist again in DA4, although who knows if that would actually work yet. I’m theoretically in the process of replaying her in Origins, but got stuck because I don’t know whether to exhaust companion dialogue options in Lothering like in her first playthrough, or play better than that. This playthrough, I’m making her a mostly-primal spells Arcane Warrior. And she’s always learned blood magic in Awakening because fuck the Chantry.

Lucy Hawke (Hawke Amell?)

My first Hawke, who doesn’t like the name Lucy, is only called that so I can differentiate her from my other Hawkes, and would much rather go by Hawke Amell. We’ll see if that happens. She’s a purple mage Hawke who tends to use humour to cover up any actual emotion, such as distress over her sister’s death. Or her brother’s death. Or her mother’s death.

She romances Isabela, although they have a mid-game break up after Night Terrors, due to Hawke taking out her fears of losing everyone she loves on Bela, and Bela sucking at emotions even more than Hawke. They get back together in Act 3, and become pirates together post-game. Lucy Hawke is very pro-mage, wholeheartedly supports Anders blowing up the Chantry, and would high five him for it if that was a thing in Thedas.

Kasiara Lavellan

(Look the only have good quality screenshots of her in Trespasser, and in most of those she either has her mouth open or is wearing the nutcracker outfit. I’ve already posted the one good Trespasser screenshot of her here at least twice.)

Kas started off as one of the baby Crows Therlia and Zevran adopted, and because I liked her and wanted a chance to play her, I ended up making her my Inquisitor in that worldstate. As a Crow, Kas was forced to kill her only friend at the age of eight, and is still really messed up from that. She despises the Crows, although still enjoys using the assassin skill set, and daggers are her special interest.

Kas romances Sera, although her closest relationship is with Cole because wow I may have created Kas before knowing anything about Cole, but I could not have made a more perfect companion for her if I’d tried. They’re both stabby autistic cinnamon rolls who try to do the best for everyone, and believe in each other so much and help each other realise they’re good people, despite having killed innocents in their pasts. Plus Kas is primarily non verbal, and having a best friend who can read your thoughts and speaks the way you think is incredibly helpful. Sera and Cole end up getting on a lot better later in her game, because let them be friends damn it.

I kept her connection to Clan Lavellan by making her biological parents part of it, before they left to live in Antiva City. Kas enjoyed spending time with the clan because it helped her connect to her Dalish heritage. I accidentally got them killed in my Inquisition playthrough, and kept that because it fit with Kas’ story. The death of her clan is the point where she hands all Inquisition decisions over to Cole, on the reasoning that a spirit of compassion is more likely to know what’s best for everyone than she is, since she’s already made too many mistakes.

Veena

(Just pretend that she has elf ears)

Veena was originally a perfectly innocent, if slightly abrasive, mage kid with a Fade obsession, who Therlia and Zev also adopted. After going to Skyhold to help her sister, she becomes best friends with Solas from nerding about the Fade with him. She totally fails to become friends with anyone else (except maybe sometimes Dorian), because she’s an asshole who thinks people who disagree with her are idiots. She believes elves as just better than humans, and mage elves are just better than non-mage elves, and the ancient elves were just better than modern day elves. Because of this last belief, she refuses to fight the Sentinels in What Pride Had Wrought, even when they’re attacking her, because they’re better than she is. And anyway that’s when I realised I’d accidentally created a villain.

Veena spends a lot of time feeling unwanted. She spends a lot of Inquisition wishing she’d been the one to get the anchor (Kas, meanwhile, hates having it) and being jealous of Cole being best friends with her two best friends. After Solas refuses to let her help tear down the Veil , she runs away into the Crossroads because she can’t face her family when she knows they’ll be trying to stop him and really not be okay with her wanting to help.

Veena drank from the Well of Sorrows and will probably eventually be able to persuade Solas to let her help, so I’m looking forward a lot to seeing what I can do with her in DA4. I’m hoping that she, Solas, Kas and Cole get a dramatic face-off where they all have to try not to hug each other because Friends. I’m worrying that I’m going to have to kill her.

Robin Surana

Robin is another of Therlia and Zevran’s kids, and the only human of the group. Despite never having been a Circle mage, he joined the rebel mages because he’s a massive fan of Fiona. He’s a lot more easy going than the rest of his siblings, but is still happy to enthusiastically cheer on Fiona in fights with Vivienne. Robin occasionally accompanies Kas in the field, but generally stays at Skyhold with the rest of the rebel mages.

Bri Surana

(Elf ears. Totally.)

Bri was adopted at the same time as Kas, and from the same cell of Crows. Xie later develops magic, and really enjoys being able to distract enemies with flashy spells, before sneaking round behind to backstab them. Bri’s incredibly cheerful and friendly and loves juggling dangerous objects, like fireballs or daggers or grenades of bees. Xie and Torano leave Thedas to look for a cure to the Calling, along with Therlia, Zevran and Shale.

Torano Arainai

(I rly need  to make a better Torano sim, but until then, here’s a dollmaker.)

Torano’s the youngest of Therlia and Zev’s kids. (He’s only 18 in Trespasser he’s a BABY and I can’t deal with it.) He was a House Arainai Crow and idolises Zevran for how he managed to escape and is now working to bring them the Crows. Torano spends his time perfecting his Sexy Hair Toss and Brooding. He is definitely just Aloof and Mysterious and not just very shy, shut up.

[thenugking]

YFIP: isaline amell, therlia surana, rem brosca

Isaline Amell

Is ridiculously overpowered

Actual best mage in Thedas and makes everyone else look bad by comparison

Has to give an incredibly long speech to Noodle before killing him in the final DA2 battle so that Hawke actually gets to fight Meredith and Isaline can’t single handedly save the day

Starts blizzards and then laughs about it

Therlia Surana

Has a ridiculously fancy and impractical aesthetic even though she’s on the run from like six organisations at any one time

Is on the run from like six organisations at any one time

Said she wasn’t going to be in love with Anders but then was accidentally in love with Anders

Keeps adopting stray children by mistake

Rem Brosca

Ignores her responsibilities as Queen of Orzammar to have an adventure with the Inquisition

Wouldn’t actually be here if she hadn’t wanted a break and is quite grateful to Corypheus

Gets drunk and talks about how she wishes she could kill dragons all the time

Isn’t telling Noodlehair he’s fired, just that he should really resign from the Inquisition immediately because no one actually wants to kill him, but, well

[thenugking]

oh gosh i spent a really long time trying to come up with a good scenario to ask you about....i dunno, i think the one scene for me that always kinda DEFINED my wardens was their first impression of duncan so like???? you could talk about that if you want! :3

Huh, I never really felt that defined my Wardens for me. But ye, is still nice question!

Therlia was mostly just interested in having a person from outside the tower around, and asking him about life outside the tower. She liked that he didn’t look down on her for being a mage.

Vari disliked him quite a lot, because he’s a dick at the start of the Tabris origin and she feels he could have done a lot more to help rescue Shianni and the others.

Elora is quite impressed by him, and thinks Grey Wardens sound great. (Not that she’d want to join, she’s just been given her first military command.)

Isaline sees him as a Proper Person, because he’s not a mage, and therefore treats him with respect. She’s a little confused and nervous about the fact that he’s treating her like a person too.

Mahariel hates him because he blames Duncan for Tamlen being gone. And unlike Vari, he doesn’t mind being a dick about Duncan in front of Alistair, too.

Lacha doesn’t really care who he is when she sees him at the Provings, and ignores him because she has a job to do and Beraht won’t be happy if she gets distracted talking to a a human. After their actual first conversation, she quite likes him because he treats her with respect and lets her bring Rica with her, but she’s also suspicious of the fact that he’s treating her with respect.

Annabeth thought he was hot, and that it would be fun to fuck him on her first day in charge of Castle Cousland.

Lorrel I’m not sure about, because I know they’ve met before the origin story. So when he turns up at that point her impression is “hello friend it’s good to see you, please don’t recruit any of my grandchildren into your cult”, but idk how their actual first meeting went.

[thenugking]

therlia surana and "nature of the beast" (specifically meeting the dalish) and isaline amell and morrigan's personal quest (if she did it)

Therlia was very excited about meeting the Dalish, and a little upset and disappointed when they didn’t like or trust her, because she was a Circle elf. She also felt like she had to prove she was as good an elf as them (luckily she has now grown out of that and realised she is already as good an elf as the Dalish, just not as arrogant as them). She really liked their camp though, and found the forest peaceful (which kind of says a lot about all the shit she’d been through so far in the game). And she got on well with Lanaya!! She likes Lanaya a lot. (Especially now that she’s not in the Origins thing of “dating Alistair and got to be monogamous”.) But ye she was excited/overwhelmed/slightly intimidated and went round with Zevran trying to find out more about their history and culture.

Isaline did Morrigan’s quest near the end of the game, since she did Broken Circle last, so luckily by that point she and Morrigan had grown to understand and actually like each other. Isaline was worried about Flemeth possessing Morrigan, and wanted to help her friend, although she was also a little apprehensive about killing Flemeth, firstly because Flemeth is incredibly powerful, and secondly, because she’s worried about some of Flemeth’s knowledge being lost if she does. But she’s honest and good and isn’t going to just take the grimoire from Flemeth and lie Morrigan. And then Flemeth turns into a fucking dragon and that’s!!!!! Really fucking impressive!!!!!! Also oh right, shit, that’s scary. And then afterwards Isaline and Morrigan talk about their shitty childhoods some more and are Friends.

[thenugking]

What were your various Wardens' decisions when it came to softening/hardening their companions?

I’m never really sure what to do with softening/hardening because like in theory, it’s good, it’s getting Alistair to stand up for himself more and telling Leliana she shouldn’t hate who she is but in game it’s just the warden picking a kind of mean line and then bam they are Harder now. For all my problems with Inquisition, I do prefer the softening/hardening mechanic for Leliana a lot there.

So for the most part in the game I tend to end up ignoring getting into softening/hardening and just harden Alistair if I want him to be king, and don’t harden Leliana because she ends up hardened anyway so there’s not much point in just picking a mean sounding dialogue option.

With a lot of Wardens I do kind of headcanon that they tell Alistair something like “I’m sorry, but look you have other people who care about you” immediately after meeting Goldanna and then in various other situations sit him down and encourage him to stand up for himself more and reassuring him that he’d be better at stuff than he thinks.

With Leliana, I kind of feel it’s harder to have separate conversations to harden her and you do kind of have to have the “it’s okay that you enjoy fighting and killing people” conversation which most of my Wardens don’t really think to do. Leliana is a good person, so they tell her so, and will continue to reassure her of that if she needs and that’s it.

I think it’s actually only Lacha who hardens Leliana. Mihren probably would have if she hadn’t like, poisoned the Sacred Ashes and then had to kill Leliana. But Lacha has Issues with “if you do bad stuff you’re a Terrible Person Forever” having spent years working for the Carta so that she and her sister wouldn’t die. She also kind of believes you sometimes need to be Hard to survive. She also hardens Alistair, because she’s very cynical and hey, everyone is out for themselves Alistair. People suck, don’t let them take advantage of you.

Most of my Wardens do the later encouraging Alistair to stand up for himself hardening. I think the only ones who don’t are Isaline, Griffon, Mags, Mihren and possibly Therlia. Mags and Isaline are very bad at standing up for themselves and kind of need to learn to do it themselves before they can encourage Alistair to, but they’re also both very unhappy with the idea of forcing him to be king when he’s always said being king wasn’t his idea and he’d rather stay a Warden.

Mihren and Alistair don’t get along until almost the very end of the game so he doesn’t actually meet Goldanna until the point when Mihren is being asked to choose a ruler and why would she make this guy king when he keeps saying what a bad ruler he’d be? I think it’s actually Wynne who visits Goldanna with him, he and Mihren may be getting along better but she’s still a bit of a dick. Wynne might harden him a bit, but again, this is right at the end of the game.

Griffon doesn’t harden him because a big plot of their game is Eamon trying to force Griffon and Alistair into being rulers when they don’t want to be. So they just tell Alistair that yeah they’re both going to be shitty rulers and it would be way better to stay Grey Wardens but they should try and trust Eamon. Until Alistair wrecks Eamon’s plans by like. doing the Ultimate Sacrifice.

Therlia was my first Warden and basically just hardened Alistair because I was told “hey this dialogue option may sound mean but if you’re romancing Alistair, things will go better later if you pick it, you should do that”. And then I ended up with Alistair doing the Ultimate Sacrifice anyway so I’ve been wavering a bit about whether to keep it, since whoever Therlia decides should rule at the Landsmeet and whether or not Alistair dumps her isn’t actually going to Matter for very long. I think she probably still would harden him?? But I should replay her sometime and see how I feel then.

[thenugking]

I can’t sleep so have some pretty pictures of all my DA OCs, part 1

[thenugking]

zevran as a dad, zevran and surana adopting 15 elf kids, discuss

Zevran as a dad melts my heart into a puddle of feels okay like?? He has banters with Shale that imply he wants kids but also I just. He’s an orphan and had an awful childhood himself and has been trained to be a killer and told killing is all he’s good at and can you imagine him raising a child and making sure they’re happy and safe and always, always loved. And he’s so caring and sweet and funny and would just be such a good parent. And also so happy as a parent!!

My Surana, Therlia, and Zev adopted four elf kids and one human kid (they are not a couple though, just best friends who raise a family together because yee). I’d give them more kids but then OC building would just get out of control. But like, Kas, Bri and Torana are Crow babies they rescued and Veena and Robin are mage babies they rescued and originally they’re just meant to have kids tagging along until they find somewhere Better for them, but Zev is like, “we could just look after them ourselves?? Because I care about them a Lot and want to help them be okay” and they do and they are the best family and love their kids so much. And Zev helping these kids who’ve been hurt and abused and giving them a better life is just so important and good and I love him.

(And now one of their kids is trying to help elf satan destroy the world I have a sneaking suspicion that DA4 will be very painful for them.)

[thenugking]

I'll take therlia, estella and veena for however many you want to do?

Therlia

When did your mage’s magic first manifest? When she was six

Did they try to keep it a secret from their family/close friends? The first time she did magic, she decided it was just an accident and didn’t mention it. The second time, she accidentally set something on fire and went to her parents to explain and apologise for it. (They only told the templars because they were struggling to take care of four kids as it was, and hopes Therlia would be better provided for at the Circle.)

Has their magic ever hurt anyone by mistake? Her first few years at the Circle when she’s being encouraged to see what she can do, it’s a little explodey, but nothing serious.

Which spells came naturally and which were more difficult to learn? Therlia doesn’t really learn any spells easily, but primal spells are the most natural for her.

What is their favourite spell? All the blood magic spells. She also likes stonefist a lot.

Do they put a lot of time into studying magic? She did at the Tower, because she wanted to remain a Good mage and not be made Tranquil. She doesn’t really have the time during the Blight and only starts really studying a lot again when she has mage kids and needs to train them.

What attracted them to their specialization? Her two specialisations are arcane warrior and blood magic. She’s intrigued by arcane warrior as it’s something New, and because it’s elven magic. Being a Circle mage, Therlia spends a lot of time trying to reconnect with her heritage and this is a good way to do it. She’s attracted to blood magic because she’s really done with the Chantry and fuck them they can’t tell her what to do any more she’s gonna become a blood mage to spite them.

How does your mage get along with other mages? Eh, generally as much as she gets on with any other people. She feels a connection to most mages though.

Does your mage have any sympathy for Templars? She feels a little sorry for the ones who were forced into it, but honestly. She has a lot more important things to care about.

Do they consider magic a blessing or a curse? I mean she’s agnostic so I don’t know about blessing, but she thinks it’s a good thing, yeah.

Estella

When did your mage’s magic first manifest? When she was four.

Did they try to keep it a secret from their family/close friends? Yes, because she’s already had her older sister sent off to a Circle and not come back so it’s scary. A servant sees her doing magic pretty quickly though and runs off to tell her parents.

Has their magic ever hurt anyone by mistake? She can’t really control it much after she gets cured of Tranquility but she doesn’t really regret the people it hurts.

Which spells came naturally and which were more difficult to learn? Lightning spells come naturally! Fire too. Spirit and entropy spells she sucks at.

What is their favourite spell? Energy barrage!

Do they put a lot of time into studying magic? A bit. She prefers practicing practically though.

What attracted them to their specialization? Her specialisation is Knight Enchanter and she was attracted to it for two reasons. First, it allows her to Hit Things. Secondly, she can piss Vivienne off with it by not taking it seriously.

How does your mage get along with other mages? Mostly, yes, very much. She struggles a lot to get along with pro-Circle mages though.

Does your mage have any sympathy for Templars? Hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahhahahahahhaahahahhahahhahahaahahahahahahahhahahaha

Do they consider magic a blessing or a curse? Neither. It’s a Thing, and mages shouldn’t suffer for it.

Veena

When did your mage’s magic first manifest? *checks my timeline* When she was nine!

Did they try to keep it a secret from their family/close friends? She tries, but then she gets into an argument with someone in public and goes “okay well you know what, I can zap you with lightning so I Win”

Has their magic ever hurt anyone by mistake? I don’t think so actually.

Which spells came naturally and which were more difficult to learn? She’s best at entropy. She struggles with healing spells.

What is their favourite spell? Probably veilstrike? She likes paralyse a lot too, it’s useful if she’s annoyed by a person and just wants them to Stop.

Do they put a lot of time into studying magic? Definitely.

What attracted them to their specialization? OKAY so as a kid, she really wanted to learn blood magic, because it’s cool and rare and powerful and fuck the chantry, and she eventually convinced Therlia to teach her a bit of it, and then discovered that it was cutting her off from the Fade a bit and then she sulked for like a week and then Therlia teaches her arcane warrior instead to make her feel better. She was a little unsure of Arcane Warrior to start with because it feels less magey, but she does like rare magic and especially elven magic, and it turns out she enjoys stabbing things.

Her second specialisation is rift magic, which she is attracted to because it’s basically Super Fade magic, and the Fade is her special interest. She sees Solas doing it once and then spends an entire fight going “!!!!!!!! teach me!!!!!!!” while Solas is going “okay but can we like kill these Darkspawn who are attacking us first maybe??”

How does your mage get along with other mages? Well I mean she generally thinks mages are better than non mages, but hardly gets along with anyone, so, eh.

Does your mage have any sympathy for Templars? Noooooope.

Do they consider magic a blessing or a curse? It’s a thing that makes mages superior to everyone else. (Except elves, who are superior to everyone by being elves, but elves naturally have more of a connection to magic than humans, so they connect.)

[thenugking]

NOW TELL ME ABT UR SURANA

HERE IT IS FINALLY, I NEARLY CRIED SEVERAL TIMES WRITING IT, THERLIA SURANA IS MY TRAGIC ANGST CHILD.

Okay look Therlia hurts me like she just wants to be happy but the universe keeps throwing shit at her and she is like the Normal Person who got caught up in this mess and had to save the world and people do not really understand how she feels and it hurts her. Like on the one hand you’ve got people going “Oh wow look at this great infallible hero who can do ANYTHING!” and that hurts because they’re depersonising her and acting like it was all just a glorious adventure when it was actually just trauma trauma trauma trauma. And on the other hand she never really gets the respect she deserves because elf mage, and she’s just so tired and pessimistic and done with everything, she saved the fucking world but she’s still not seen as equal to humans and non mages and she’s going to fight as hard as she can for her people to get equality, but she isn’t sure it’ll ever happen and knows it definitely won’t in her lifetime. But she never thinks of herself as a hero. She did what she had to do, she had no other choice but to stop the Blight. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So, Origins feels a lot like Therlia’s backstory, her story feels like it should start at the end of the game. But right let’s start with baby Surana in the Circle. She is a very average mage, and shy and scared of templars. Leorah, not Irving, is her mentor and they get on reasonably well. She’s good at some common primal spells, but not much else. She and Jowan are only friends with each other because they have no other friends. To her annoyance, she’s never been part of the whole “everyone kissing everyone” thing in Kinnloch Hold, partly because she’s shy, partly because most people think she’s dating either Joan or the Noodle. (She and one other apprentice had a mutual crush on each other for a while, the other apprentice finally acted on it because she knew her Harrowing was coming up and was worried about how that would end. The two of them spent a week dating before the Harrowing. Therlia’s girlfriend never came back.)

Therlia has always been a Libertarian at heart, but before Origins, would claim to support the Fraternity of Aequitarians if anyone asked, since she didn’t want to be branded a troublemaker. The first time she ever speaks up is defending Lily and Jowan at the end of the mage Origin, because she may be scared, but most of all she is kind, and they don’t deserve to suffer. And then she gets recruited into the Grey Wardens.

She makes reasonable decisions in origins. She sides with the mages, and with Caridin, helps Redcliffe, lets Isolde sacrifice herself in the ritual, makes Bhelen king because he sounds like he’ll be best for the Casteless, kills the werewolves while hating herself for it because she doesn’t know what else to do, she can’t risk them hurting the elves, kills Zathrian afterwards because she’s tired and angry and he was wrong and all of this is his fault. She helps people as much as she can and guilt presses down on her because it’s not enough and she has nightmares from the Darkspawn and nightmares of the Darkspawn because she’s seeing so much death and destruction and she doesn’t know how to deal with any of it. She wishes she could fit into the communities the Dalish and City elves have, feels so out of place in the alienage now after her life at the Circle, becomes an Arcane warrior to feel more like an elf (and is really good at it.)

She romances Alistair. And tries to romance Leliana too, and flirts with Zevran a bit, and wishes Morrigan wasn’t straight. She loves both Alistair and Leliana, but she’s forced to choose and when she tells Leliana she can’t, Leliana says she’ll choose for her and leaves her. Therlia still can’t help falling for people all over the place. Sometimes she wonders if Alistair only “won” because he was the first person her age she met outside the confines of the Circle (and she was the first girl Alistair ever really knew). But they work, they support each other and laugh together and would give everything to each other, even while they doubt it will last because Eamon wants Alistair to be king and the king could never be with an elven mage. They argue a bit about mage things after Broken Circle, because Alistair doesn’t understand how terrible it is to be a Circle mage. Therlia explains it to him.

She’s good friends with all her companions, (except Sten because no this guy killed a family why would she let him out what the fuck??) particularly Wynne and Zev who understand her best. Wynne knows what the Circle was like, and becomes a mother figure to Therlia. Zev and she have a bond over being elves, and neither of them feeling that connected to their people, and being sad about that.

And then there’s the end of the game!! She arranges a marriage between Anora and Alistair and finds herself utterly miserable over that. And look, she’s polyamarous, she’s fine with Alistair marrying someone else, whether or not he loves them. What she’s not fine with is the fact that despite everything she’s been through, despite saving the world, she’s not going to be allowed to marry the man she loves and has to keep their relationship hidden like a dirty secret, just because she was born an elf and a mage. (She talks to Zev about her feelings over that, he takes her to the brothel to flirt with strangers and relax a bit, she enjoys it a lot more than she expected to.) But then she lets Alistair kill Loghain, because she knows how much he wants to, and makes him sole ruler instead of Anora, again because it’s what he wants. (Although this may change a bit? I’m slightly considering having Therlia not harden Alistair.) She refuses Morrigan’s ritual because she’s not pressuring Alistair into sex, that’s icky, why is the Ritual a thing? She cries when Morrigan leaves. She runs into Denerim with Alistair and prepares herself for death, she is the expendable one here, she is the elven mage and he is the king. And then it’s time to make the killing blow, and Alistair says he’ll do it, and tells her he’s not giving her a choice, and he does it and she can’t stop him and he dies and the world is saved but it’s all wrong and it’s like she’s lost everything. (Also this was my first playthrough and I had no idea that would happen and was so upset over having to sacrifice my Warden but damn it of course she’s going to die for Alistair, and then the game has Alistair go “nope, I will die for my love” and I cried for like an hour.)

Therlia feels numb at the end of the game, the Blight is suddenly over, it’s all over, it’s a shock to not be fighting anymore, it’s a shock to still be alive and it feels wrong to be and she’s still having nightmares, and Alistair is gone, and Morrigan is gone, and everyone is happy and celebrating and it’s like they’re living in a different world. She tells Anora that she’s leaving Ferelden to travel for a while, because she can’t be here anymore, she has to get away from everything that reminds her of the Blight, everyone she knows, she has to go somewhere new and perhaps then she’ll get away from the pain. She talks to her companions, after hiding by herself for several days, because she really needs a friend now. Oghren’s found a place here in Ferelden. Wynne and Shale are going to go off travelling together and Therlia would like to go with them, but they don’t seem to need her, have planned this all without her. Leliana says she’s going to find Marjolaine, and Therlia offers to come along too, because didn’t they say they’d travel together when all this was over, and she needs a friend so much. Leliana tells her she has to do this alone. And then she goes to Zevran, who tells her he’d like to leave too, and would like to leave in her company, and out of everyone Zevran understands best how she’s feeling, and tells her that he’s here for her, and she’ll be okay, and one day she’ll want to be alive again. Therlia goes out to see crowds cheering her and it’s overwhelming and painful, but then after that she finds Zevran and her dog Barkspawn, and they leave together, and set off for new adventures far away from here, and that is how Therlia’s Origins game ends.

Therlia’s confidence grew during the Blight, and even more afterwards, and by now she’s more sarcastic and bitter, but still so full of love and eager to help people. She and Zevran travel round Thedas and go and find injustices against mages and elves and try to help, and then they go to taverns and parties and Therlia can enjoy losing herself in the moment, and forgetting all the pain for a while. They compete to see who can have the most sex. And then sometimes they have sex with each other. And sometimes Isabela is there too. (There is never any romance or even much sexual attraction between Therlia and Zev though, they are BFFs who love each other platonically a lot, and since they both enjoy sex, they do it with each other sometimes, because why not?)

And then Therlia and Zev go to Antiva and start taking down the Crows and destroying one Cell leaves them with a large group of Crow babies. They find people to care for most of them, but are left with two smol elves, Kas and Bri. Kas is suffering trauma after killing her only friend to save her own life, and has so much guilt she feels like she doesn’t deserve a home or parents anymore, and tags around after Zev and Therlia because they at least understand a bit. Bri refuses to leave them because xie wants to go on fun adventures too, and cheerfully tells them xie doesn’t get the big fuss about parents or a home anyway (xie’s lived on the streets xir whole life and has been an orphan most of that). Aaaaaand despite Therlia saying they’ll find a place for Kas and Bri eventually, she and Zev end up adopting two kids and giving them all the love. (Also fuck knows how the four of them communicate to start with, because Therlia barely speaks Antivan and Bri barely speaks Common and Kas plain just barely speaks. It’s a disaster and i love them.)

The Darkspawn are refusing to go away though so after several months of travelling, Therlia grudgingly goes back to Ferelden to do her duty as a Grey Warden and hope to not get any more nightmares out of it. (spoiler alert: she gets nightmares out of it.) She loves all her Awakening companions though and look she doesn’t do long term romantic relationships any more because out of her three prior romantic partners, two died and the other dumped her because she wanted a monogamous relationship buuuut Anders and Velanna are both really awesome and really hot. So she dates them both. Also she learns blood magic because she’s really, really pissed off at the Chantry by this point, fuck them, she’s going to be a blood mage to spite them (it turns out to help against nightmares too, bc it blocks ur connection to the Fade a bit). And then the templars tell her to hand Anders over to them and she looks right at them and blood magics them to death. She spares the Architect because he’s fighting for freedom for his people, and how can she kill him for doing the same as her? And then she leaves again because she really does not like being a Grey Warden.

Therlia and Zev end up adopting three more kids; Robin, Veena and Torano. Robin’s a human mage kid from a village in the Free Marches who was basically being made to work for the whole village because, you know, mages aren’t people. Therlia and Zev rescued him and fought his whole village. Veena’s an elf from Cumberland who had just magic and was running away to Minrathous where she planned to become a magister. Being eight years old, she wasn’t doing well at getting from Cumberland to Minrathous by herself, so Therlia and Zev took her in. Torano was another elf Crow, from House Arainai, who was totally in awe of Zevran and was basically desperate to get to go with him. Therlia never really wanted any kids, but she finds herself loving and supporting these five smols with everything in her. She teaches magic to Robin, Veena and Bri (who turns out to be a mage a year or so after they adopt xir) and doesn’t let templars near her family. They often all pretend to be a normal biological elf family which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t and always goes hilariously. (Robin hides his ears, if someone realises he’s human and questions why he’s with them, Therlia claims he’s a half elf, Zev pretends to have only just realised Robin’s not his biological son, and they start a massive argument to distract everyone.)

Therlia also ends up going to visit her biological family, after a lot of hesitation. They like each other and stays in contact with them, but she never quite feels like she belongs with them any more. (And she’s still in contact with Wynne, of course, who feels more like a parent to her than her biological ones.)

They end up in Kirkwall for mage rights reasons, and go there quite often, since they’re already friends with Anders and Justice and Isabela, and become friends with the others. And Anders and Therlia are so good for each other, they’re both suffering so much, but they help each other through that and support each other so much and look, I only ever meant for Therlia and Anders to be a casual relationship that didn’t continue past Awakening, but sometimes they just both need cuddles and kisses, and sometimes they stay up all night debating mage rights because they both have anxiety around sleeping and basically a few years on from Awakening they both kind of realise that they’re in a committed relationship and very much in love.

And some of Anders’ romance lines work so well with Therlia!! Like while Therlia tries not to do long term commitment any more, she falls for people and gets small crushes so easily, and Anders is just “no mage I know has ever dared fall in love, how do you do it, doesn’t it hurt too much?” Therlia tells him it does, but it’s worth it, that she’s so filled with hate for templars, but she can’t let them take away her love. And fuck Therlia and Anders are both so aware they’re fighting a losing battle against the world, and “One day, ten years, a hundred years from now, someone like me will love someone like you, and there’ll be no templars to tear them apart.” They both hope for the future, even if they’re past hoping for themselves.

(Anders also ends up dating Fenris, because I am terrible Fenders trash, after Therlia tells Anders to shut up and listen, because she has actually been to Tevinter, and Fenris damn well has a point. Anders does start listening to Fenris a bit more after that, and then Therlia’s talking about how pretty Fenris is, and teasing Anders for blushing and scowling about it and Anders you should totally ask him out!!)

Therlia turns up shortly after Zevran in Act 3, and demands a foursome after discovering Zevran, Isabela and Hawke had a threesome without her. The four of them are very good friends it’s great. She is also in on at least some of Anders’ plan and blood magics the Noodle at one point, after Veena temporarily ends up in the Gallows, threatening him and telling him not to let anyone harm her daughter. She cheers when the Chantry is blown up and kisses Anders.

Also, there’s Witch Hunt!! Therlia begs Morrigan not to leave again, because she’s missed her every day for years, because Alistair wasn’t all she lost at the end. They hug and Morrigan relents to stay for the evening and she and Therlia talk about what they’ve been doing (as much as Morrigan will tell) and Morrigan meets Therlia’s kids before she goes through the Eluvian. Before, she leaves, Morrigan tells her that she may find a cure for the Wardens outside of Thedas, Therlia thanks her but has more pressing things to focus on, like mage and elf rights, for now.

Therlia and her family continue travelling round Thedas up until Asunder. And then Wynne dies and it hits Therlia incredibly hard, and she doesn’t understand why Wynne died when she didn’t have to, why she’d give her life for a templar of all people, when no one could ever be worth Wynne. And you know how after Alistair’s death Therlia ran away from Ferelden to try to avoid feelings?? Well now it’s time to run away from Thedas!! She needs to find the cure for the Calling anyway, and maybe she can take a break from working for mage rights, with the vote of independence. She takes Zevran and Bri and Torano and Shale, who’s also feeling lonely and lost after Wynne’s death. The older three kids stay behind, and Barkspawn stays with them, because they’re all adults now and there’s things they want to do in Thedas. Robin joins up with the mage rebels while Veena drags Kas off to Tevinter to study cool magic there. Therlia sends messages to all her friends asking them to look after her kids, if they ever come across them.

Before Therlia leaves, she talks to Fiona, a friend of hers. Therlia asks about how Fiona got cured of being a Grey Warden, and tells her she’s planning to leave, and they discuss what the mages should do next. Fiona comforts Therlia and tells her how sorry is about Wynne’s death, and Alistair’s, and then!! She tells Therlia she’s Alistair’s mother, and Therlia tells her what Alistair was like and how wonderful he was and they both cry and hug a lot I am so emotional.

But then Therlia and the others go to find the cure and after a few years of idk, exciting adventures, please tell us what happened here bioware I have a big hole in several of my character’s lives, they return to Thedas. They then discover that Kas has a scary magic attached to her hand, that Leliana brought back the Inquisition and put Kas in charge against her will, and that she then saved the world from an ancient magister. Veena, meanwhile, has gained all the knowledge of the ancient elves, accidentally become a servant to Morrigan’s asshole mum and, in Therlia and Zevran’s absence, adopted the devil as a parental figure. It’s all a bit of a shock to them.

So! Therlia marches into Skyhold going “what the FUCK”, has a massive argument with the new Divine because look Leliana, she was sure she said “look after my kids” not “make my kid the fucking Inquisitor”. She also kills Noodlehair because are you fucking kidding me her asshole stalker should not be in charge of anyone. (Zev then volunteers to be Commander in Noodle’s place. It’s awesome.) But then the family is all together again and they’re all so pleased about that, and Kas and Robin both now have girlfriends, who Therlia adores. (Also you know that time Sera talks about the Hero of Ferelden and reveals she doesn’t give a shit about them? Therlia is fucking thrilled when she discovers this she’s having to restrain herself from yelling “MARRY HER” at Kas right then.) In less great news, Therlia and Leliana’s argument leads to the end of their friendship, which tbh had been coming for some time, as they grew further and further apart and changed more and more after the Blight. Therlia reminds them both what Leliana told her about Marjolaine, years ago. They had good times too, and however things ended, no one could take those times from her. And she’d loved her, once.

I don’t have a great deal about Therlia post-Trespasser, because I can’t go running ahead of canon, but I know she’s currently living in Serault, which is currently very openly pro-mage (long story short, Marquis Arnauld is an apostate, people found out, there was a small unofficial Exalted March on Serault, Serault won and went “fuck all of you we’re doing our own thing now”, Leliana doesn’t want to send a proper exalted march) and is using the Eluvian research Serault’s doing to try to track down Veena, who, at the end of Trespasser, realised she wanted to destroy the world, angsted about feeling unloved and ran away through an Eluvian.

But also you know who else is in Serault?? Briala is in Serault, because Celene exiled her from Orlais and Serault is great for building Eluvians and doesn’t count as proper Orlais, fuck you Celene. Merrill in fact is also in Serault for Eluvian reasons but Briala is important here because!! She is an awesome lesbian lady who fights tirelessly for elf rights,and makes a difference, despite the fact that her life has been so hard and she’s been pushed down so many times and she knows she can only ever do so much. And look the whole time I was reading the Masked Empire I was going “oh she would be perfect for Therlia”. They are so in awe of each other when they meet and both go “no I’m not that great” and then spend hours discussing their problems with each other and opening up so much and becoming super good friends and then they are girlfriends and it’s the best and they kiss a lot.

I would quite like to play Therlia again in DA4 if possible, because she’s developed a lot since Origins, and she’s probably going to end up suffering more in DA4 anyway, why not let her do it as protagonist? I’m just really hoping Veena doesn’t have to be killed. Therlia doesn’t feel like she’s ever going to get a Happy Ending though. She’s never going to get to stop and relax and she’s always going to be suffering from PTSD and there’ll always be more bad shit arriving. She’s not sure she actually wants to take the cure for the Calling herself, because she still thinks she should have died on Fort Drakon and while she’s so grateful for all these extra years, and for getting her children and Anders and Briala and all the time she’s spent with the people she loves, it feels like she’s on borrowed time already. She refuses to die in the Deep Roads surrounded by Darkspawn though. She’ll go out battling templars or slavers one day, she hopes. But until then, she’s happy enough.

[thenugking]

Anyway now I have all seven of the Origins Wardens (plus an Orlesian Warden) here they all are. Look at my beautiful children. I love them all.

[thenugking]

my tabris romanced alistair and i hc she got the rose made into a necklav=ce bc it's preserved in a bulb of clear reisin or smthn

Oooh, that works! I headcanon therlia as usually wearing the rose in her hair, but she could still preserve it like that :D

[thenugking]

Lets say elfroot, deathroot and arbor blessing for therlia (as the only one of your OCs I know anything about at all)

Elfroot : What is a small, mundane thing that brings your character great comfort?

The rose that Alistair gave her. How does she still have this rose ten years on, without it having died or fallen apart? idk, magic probably

Deathroot :: What is the most horrifying thing the Nightmare can cause your character to see?

Idk, like what shit can it show her that she hasn’t already been through? I guess Darkspawn. In the Deep Roads if it can manage that. Which is quite sad considering how often she has to deal with the real thing.

Arbor Blessing :: What is the happiest ending you can think of for your character?

Well. I’m pretty sure Therlia can’t actually get a happy ending. And it kind of goes against her whole character arc. Her happiest ending involves finding a way for her daughter Veena to not die without the world being destroyed and I have to tell you, I’m struggling to see how that will work. Also, the Circles are destroyed forever, and mages and elves actually get rights. But that doesn’t seem like something bioware’s going to give her. Other than all that, she settles down in Serault and kisses Anders and Briala a lot and her four non-evil children are all happy and keep in contact with her. And she gets to keep in contact with Kit and the Fool, but without the three of them being dragged off to random universes against their will, and then being stuck in human bodies.