My Hawkes

Beliefs

Malcolm and Leandra raised her Andrastian and she's always considered herself thus, although not particularly devout. Over the course of DA2, she shifts from that baseline to struggling with her faith, not seeing how belief in the Maker or Andraste has helped her or her city through all of their crises. Her relationship with Sebastian softens this struggle somewhat, but even his stalwart faith can't fully counter the futility she comes to see in religion.

Viscountess Siobhan turnaround by alienturnipp

relationships

Winter Palace Siobhan turnaround by alienturnipp

Backstory

Siobhan is the oldest of three, born to parents on the run. Her magic manifested almost gently around age 7 when Leandra asked her to light the hearth and she did so with her hands. Although Malcolm was dismayed to have passed his curse to her (and she felt the weight of that disappointment keenly), he trained her on the responsible control, use, and manipulation of both her mana and identity as a mage.Siobhan idolized her father. Malcolm was her hero, her safe space, her solid ground. When he died, he entrusted the family’s safety and well-being to her and that role became a pivotal part of her identity (great post explaining this better here). Because of this, she internalizes massive amounts of guilt about Bethany’s death and Carver’s loss to the Wardens, compounded by Leandra blaming her for both of their fates. When Malcolm dies, Siobhan is at a loss for how to fill his shoes and basically mimics what he’d done for their family in Lothering.When they flee to Kirkwall and she no longer has an example to mimic, Siobhan seizes the city and makes it the foundation she’d lost. She does her best to shed her Fereldan heritage (though the native Marchers are loathe to let her) and pours all effort into anything that benefits the city. Not necessarily in a lawful way, but through choices that she perceives will be best for the overall welfare of Kirkwall and her people.

During Canon | Story Choices

relationships

Love Interest: Lewis BrandtAxel's son and the one who recruits Acacia into Starkhaven's Thieves' Guild. He trained in stealth and combat under an Antivan Crow and is directly in line to take over the Guild once current leadership dies or steps down. When Acacia is attacked by a Guild client on a job, Lewis is the one who finds her, saves her life, and insists that she shift from straight bookkeeper to full member of the Guild. He trains her in dual wielding and general rogue skills, as well as some more assassin-type techniques.Lewis is attracted to Acacia from the start, while she feels an intense gratitude for his bringing her to the first place she's felt safe since running away from home. His interest is the Guild's worst kept secret and many of their peers in the guild think they're an inevitable match, but after a brief sexual affair Acacia breaks things off with him because it means much more to him than it does to her.A few months after Acacia breaks up with him, during which he makes several attempts to get back together, Lewis frames her for the murder of the Guild leaders, forcing her to flee Starkhaven. When this plan to get her to turn to him for support backfires, he follows her South, kidnaps her from the Inquisition, and uses physical and psychological torture in an attempt to brainwash her into loving him back.When Drew and Cullen rescue her from that kidnapping, she kills Lewis before they return to the Inquisition.

Love Interest: CullenShortly after she arrives in Haven, she clocks Cullen's lyrium withdrawal and offers him sex as an alternative means of coping with it. They fall into a casual, mutually beneficial FWB situation. There's early indications that they both have deeper feelings, but Acacia is ignoring them and Cullen interprets that as her not reciprocating, but he's okay with the arrangement as-is for now.After the envy demon kills Cullen in front of her at Therinfall, Acacia can't deny that her feelings are more than FWB, but after everything with Lewis she doesn't want that right now, so she breaks up with Cullen. He has his suspicions, but ultimately assumes she's moved on when he starts seeing her with Barris, which he accepts until she stays behind at Haven and they're both forced to confront that things between them are more serious than they let on.At Skyhold, they resume a tentative relationship with a god-I'm-scared-of-feelings-and-being-hurt-but-I-want-this vibe, dancing around each other like it's their first relationship. The sex is much like it was before, but anything beyond that is sort of like navigating a minefield. Unfortunately, neither of them really have the time or emotional capacity to devote to figuring it out, not while the world is actively ending around them, so they keep avoiding the issues and making them worse.Then, Drew puts Cullen back on lyrium for his own mental well-being and safety - although they both swear he'll try quitting again after Corypheus is defeated, Acacia is so disappointed and angry by the decision that they break up for good.

Love Interest: Delrin BarrisBarris is more of a QPR or platonic love interest for Acacia. After Acacia recruits the Templars at Therinfal they bond over the mutual trauma of being under Envy's influence. When Acacia decides that she needs to break things off with Cullen, she turns to Barris for help convincing him that she's really moved on. She's up front with him about her intentions and he's never under the impression that it's anything it isn't.They're both the second child of noble families and they relate to each other on that matter, as well as escaping nobility into something like autonomy. They bond over sparring practice and discussions of faith. When Acacia decides to try again with Cullen, she does so with Barris' full support and they remain friends.

Friends: Josephine, Leliana, Drew (the Inquisitor), Iron BullNeutral: Varric, CassandraRivals: Sera

Shortly after Acacia's sixteenth birthday, she learned that her mother had arranged a marriage with Lord Chancellor Orrick– a man on the upper end of middle-aged. It was a move meant to appease the Chantry; since they'd been deprived Acacia as a Sister, the Trevelyans would bring some of Tantervale's strict religious attitude to Ostwick via marriage.In a rash move that only an entitled teenager would make, Acacia runs away, taking up the alias Casey Darrow and abandoning all connection to her family. She intends to market her skill with numbers as an accountant, but finds every market saturated with proven, trustworthy options. Desperate, she turns to begging and petty crimes to survive.After a year of wandering and hard lessons, she winds up in Wycome and meets a shopkeeper named Axel Brandt. His son had just left for an internship in Starkhaven and he needed someone willing to do his books for cheap. She proved herself working for him and established a network of clients around the city on his referrals. They provided enough work to support her and it was all transient enough that she would be able to flee in the event that the Trevelyans and their guards caught wind of her.After about eighteen months of this, Axel's son, Lewis, returned and revealed that his "internship" was actually a deal with the Starkhaven Thieves' Guild– and they were looking for a bookkeeper. With the promise of more stability and protection from people who wouldn't question her past, Acacia took the job and quickly became a trusted and indispensable part of Guild administration. One night, on a house call, Acacia gets attacked by a disgruntled supplier and left for dead, at which point the Guild gives h.er the ultimatum of either joining them as a full member, or leaving. She joins and Lewis trains her in dual wielding and the assassin specialization.While with the Guild, Acacia learns that her parents have spread word that their daughter died in a riding accident. She spends the next six years in relative safety and freedom and when they learn that the Ostwick Circle has fallen/rebelled, she uses her Guild resources to reconnect with Drew. She's in the process of convincing him that she is who she says she is, and that his sister isn't dead, when the Conclave is called and Drew joins his fellow Aequetarians in Haven.Shortly after Drew leaves, Lewis executes his plan to frame Acacia for the Guild leaders' murders and she wakes up in a puddle of blood, no imemory of what happened. With no choice but to flee, she follows Drew to Haven, intending to claim his body after word of the explosion spreads.

relationships

Love Interest: NeveTBA

Love Interest: Lucanis (poly with Neve)TBA

Friends: Davrin, Bellara, TarquinNeutral: Emmrich, Taash, Lace

relationships

Love Interests: Valya/CaronelAddie and Valya grew up together in Hossberg's alienage, until Valya was taken to the Circle around age ten. They reunite when Valya seeks asylum at Weisshaupt during the mage-templar war and have a casual, friends-to-lovers relationship over the course of the year Valya spends at Weisshaupt before finding the griffons.Caronel gets involved after they bring the griffons back, and though Addie and Caronel are attracted to each other, they both have stronger feelings for Valya, so it's mostly a V polyship. Things between both Valya/Caronel and Addie end when Valya has a falling out with the First Warden over Isseya & the griffons and has to flee Weisshaupt; Caronel goes with her, leaving Addie behind.Valya buys the hair clip that Addie wears in-game from a traveling merchant and gives it to Addie while they're together.

Love Interest: DavrinWhen Davrin joins the team, Addie is both relieved and nervous to have another Warden around. She has a mixed performance record with the Order, and her unconventional way of doing things (which often includes bucking orders), garners mixed reactions from other Wardens. Davrin definitely gives her grief about those things, but in a non-serious, comrades-in-arms type of way - ultimately, he only cares that she acts with integrity and gets the job done.Their relationship starts as casual sex; like a lot of Wardens, Addie has a habit of not getting attached (or at least pretending she's not attached). Especially to other Wardens, since the chance of a partner dying is twice as high, and the odds of them leaving and never coming back is only a matter of time. But the sex is good, and Addie is definitely into the hunter/prey vibes.Despite her intentions, however, she does fall for Davrin's sincerity, humor, and big heart. She's not in denial about that, exactly— she's just choosing not to consciously acknowledge that it's happening. She keeps insisting it's casual/not serious/not that deep, until she's nearly killed helping the Dalish escape Elgar'nan's ritual, at which point Davrin confronts her about almost losing her. While she does admit to deeper feelings, she points out that this exact scenario is why it's a bad idea, and this continues to be a point of contention for them.When Davrin dies at Tearstone, Addie is overcome with grief, guilt, and despair. Not only has she lost her lover, but it's an echo back to her decision with the cities: she split up from Davrin thinking a Warden in each city might save them both, but Treviso was devastated. She sent Davrin away then, and regrets not going with him; she sent Davrin away this time, and she lost him.Her regret, grief, and guilt are so intense that she gets stuck in Davrin's section of the regret prison and can't free herself. Emmrich and Bellara locate her and send Lucanis and Spite in to bring her out. She boxes all of her emotions away until after the final battle, at which point they return in crippling force, leaving her in an endless spiral of grief, regret, and so, so much guilt.Post-canon, Addie & Bellara hold a Dalish funeral for Davrin in Arlathan.

Love Interest: ViagoTheir relationship starts off platonic during canon. On Lucanis' recommendation, Addie goes to Viago for help refining the tempest elements of her combat style, particularly how to cause less physical damage to herself when she's using elemental bombs in close quarters.Post-canon, their non-platonic involvement begins when Addie attempts to use blighted Treviso as a means of punishing herself. Viago takes issue with that and fucks jars her out of her continued downward spiral. Although he definitely has some anger about her choice to go to Minrathous, she did send Davrin to them, and the scope of the damage to Treviso is such that he knows a single person, even a Grey Warden, wouldn't have prevented it (game mechanics aside).

if you haven't sacrificed Treviso with a Warden Rook, during the post-fight cutscene with the Crows Viago begs Thorne to send them help against the blight (similar to the banter between Davrin and Lucanis) and the desperation is so much stronger in his voice than with the other origins, so that's the jumping off point for this.

The strength of Viago's conviction that she's better than losing herself to grief (tinted with assholery as it is) is what finally has Addie pulling herself back up off rock bottom and she's... miffed? Confused? Annoyed? All of the above? But it works, so she keeps going back to him whenever she starts to slip and he keeps pulling her back from the edge.Eventually she becomes known as the Fifth Talon's lover and gets tangled up in post-canon Crow politics. Viago gets both protective and possessive; sometimes she lets that happen and sometimes she bites back about it, or instigates a reaction for her own satisfaction/benefit.Ship dynamic: "I refuse to give up on you because you remind me of myself, and if I declare you a lost cause, I'd have to accept that I'm one as well". Lots of grinding their sharp edges against each other and pissing each other off (but no one else is allowed to do that or they get defensive/protective. That's my person to drive crazy, back off).Threesomes with Teia (or another Rook) are on the table for them, but there's no long-term polycule in their canon.

Best Friend: LucanisAddie spends a lot of time with Lucanis immediately after his recruitment, scoping out the danger of a Crow and a demon hanging around under the guise of training with him. She doesn't share Davrin's outright contempt for the Crows; she's more aware and accepting of the Wardens' own criminal element. This friendship cracks somewhat when Treviso gets Blighted (Lucanis holds Addie more personally responsible than Viago does, because he asked her to come and she chose not to.)After Lucanis comes back to the Lighthouse, he's essentially a permanent fixture in Addie's party, in part because she feels a desperate, guilty need to make it up to him and in part because she's afraid of what he and Spite will do with his grief if left idle (yeah, she's a hypocrite).Their friendship does eventually recover, although her choice is always There like a scar. Lucanis is never sure exactly how much she regrets it (she's not a Crow, Treviso isn't hers) until he sees blighted Treviso in the regret prison when he goes in to get her out. There's a parallel between how he as a Crow feels seeing his home destroyed, and how Addie as a Warden feels knowing (thinking) she let the Blight take over a major city. How many people are dying, how much is devastated because of the thing she's meant to destroy.They get a very brief window of understanding after that and share a platonic version of Lucanis' romance scene, grieving together since both Davrin and Neve (nevecanis worldstate) are lost on Tearstone.In choosing final battle assignments, Addie is determined to keep Lucanis safe and unblighted, because she's they've lost too much already, so she sends him with the one faction that she 100% trusts to keep him safe: the Wardens. And of course he dies fighting the construct and she loses him, too.

Lucanis will always die if you send him with the Wardens, regardless of Hero of the Veilguard or Crow faction strength (: but Addie doesn't know that (:

Lucanis' death stacks on Addie's grief and guilt post-canon. It also sends the Crows into organizational turmoil— Illario is unforgiven & imprisoned and Caterina is murdered right at the start of the post-canon political chaos, leaving House Dellamorte in shambles and the Crows without a First Talon.

Main party: Davrin & LucanisFriends: Lace, Neve, Varric, BellaraNeutral: Taash, Emmrich

Backstory

Addie was born and raised in the Hossberg alienage. Like many in the Anderfels, she grew up revering Grey Wardens, with a very healthy fear/respect/understanding of the Blight and the devastation it brings. Her parents run a bakery and her life is relatively free of Major Events, but there's a constant stream of anti-elven discrimination and racism that wears her down. She dreams of joining the Wardens and the tales of race/origin/history not mattering for those who do; she reveres Garahel and Tabris as heroes and elven icons. Around age 16 she latches on to a Warden contingent traveling through Hossberg and leaves home to join the WardensShe spends about a year as a Warden-Recruit before she takes and passes the Joining. Her independent streak and big heart are popular amongst her peers, but less appealing to her superiors ,particularly when her opinion of the Right thing to do differs from her orders. Though she saves lives and gets results, she has a bit of a reputation as a Bad Warden because she does it her way, always bucking the chain of command and prone to snarking and sassing. She doesn't love that reputation, but enough of the rank-and-file know her intentions/the truth that she's able to weather the implications of it.Eventually this culminates in the operation that gets her sent off with Varric and Harding, where she leads her squad in to save villagers from attacking darkspawn, against orders to wait for reinforcements. Addie goes reluctantly; Weisshaupt has been home to her more than anywhere else and she's proud to be part of the Wardens' legacy, so being sent away stings.

During Canon | Story Choices

She spends a lot of timing hiding exactly how bad her grief was from Lucanis, once she gets him back. She considers it a shameful thing, to have been so utterly wrecked by a single death, and she bears the weight of Viago's disappointment on top of that. She doesn't want Lucanis to think less of her for it, and she doesn't want him to take on any guilt about it, which he would definitely do.As part of Lucanis' torture in the Ossuary, I imagine him going through something similar to Cullen's ordeal during Broken Circle in DAO, namely the part where they use Amell/Surana to fuck with his mind. Zara and the Venatori use all of Lucanis' family and Arlow in this fashion; unlike Cullen, Lucanis wants to spend more time with Arlow once he escapes, to overcome those torture memories and as reassurance. But it does occasionally cause issues and rifts between them.Both Arlow and Lucanis are demisexual as fuck, so it takes a hot minute for their heads to crack together and figure out that this friendship is more than it used to be. There are a lot of crisis talks with Neve (both of them, but separately) and Emmrich (for Arlow) involved.The almost-kiss still happens, but with a lot of Guilt flavor, since it happens after Weisshaupt and Arlow has so much regret about their "just don't miss" "don't jinx it" exchange. After the swiped kiss, Arlow feels like she somehow inadvertently pressured Lucanis (which explains why he suddenly had rizz; she knows that's an act) and then he starts pushing her away, so she has a bit of a spiral about it.Lucanis is pushing her away because of Spite, largely, and because he thinks that if she is falling in love with him, she must be falling in love with the Lucanis she knew before the Ossuary, and he's convinced he's an entirely different (worse) person.They have tandem crises about whether it's actually love or if they're just really, really good friends. Or if it's only love to them, and the other just wants to be really good friends. Even though Arlow has had relationships before, they were relatively lowkey flings. Meanwhile Lucanis is doubly confused because Spite definitely has some kind of affection for Arlow (not love, not yet, he has some spirit evolution to go through) and so on top of figuring out what he's feeling, he has to wonder if Spite is somehow influencing him, and why, and is it going to hurt her, etc etc.This all first comes to a head during Inner Demons, when one of the locks Arlow encounters is the version of herself from before Lucanis "died". They hash out Lucanis' fear that Arlow is in love with the "him from before" and that they're both interested in something more at that point, and then properly hash out what it means for them going forward after Murder of Crows.

Love Interest: Lucanis - post-VeilguardDetail TBA
- rebuilding/resettling the Crows
- reinforcing House Dellamorte
- married
- kids: Ramon (boy, oldest, stays with Crows), fraternal twins Anashe (girl, leaves Crows to live with Neve/work in Neve & Rana's detective agency) and Teo (boy, leaves Crows to join the Mourn Watch)
- Caterina assasination + zevbrosca blackmail arc

Arlow reference sheet by exalted-dawn

ViagoShort answer: that's her dad.They meet when Arlow is about 6 years old and Viago has just been promoted to Grandmaster, about 5 years before he becomes Fifth Talon. He has a low opinion of the existing head of House de Riva and is rising into a position to take over, but also paranoid AF about which of the existing members he can trust, so he doesn't trust any of them, and they don't particularly trust him either, because he's surly and standoffish. When Arlow trips across him, he recruits her with an eye toward training her as someone guaranteed loyal to him, someone that he knows he can trust while he works to take over as Fifth Talon.Arlow was orphaned when Viago picked her up, and he and the Crows saved her from what would have certainly been a worse fate, so she quickly forms strong loyalty and attachment to them both. One of the first thing he does is start using her as a living test subject for his poisons. Oddly enough, this earns him her trust, because he always has the antidote and he always gives it to her as soon as he learns what he needs— he never withholds it and the experiments are not malicious, they're academic.Unlike some houses, Viago is never unnecessarily abusive to his fledglings. He would probably argue that he's not abusive at all— what he does, what he demands they go through, is nothing more or less than what they need to survive as Crows. They're already here, they're already fledglings; they need the skills and the spine to make it through. What he puts them through might edge into torture, objectively, but he is not malicious and he's not trying to break them. He's just trying to get them to the threshold of surviving, and then pushing them to be the best.Arlow is always seeking Viago's approval, even though he seldom expresses it, and when he's disappointed in her, it is crippling. Viago has an unwavering trust in her skills, which means that he sees failures/accidents as intentional and reacts (berates her) accordingly. The two of them can NOT communicate emotionally to save their lives. When Teia comes into the picture, she soothes some of the edges where miscommunication makes them Worse.cw: mentioned suicidal ideation Viago sending Arlow away with Lucanis is the first thing that jolts her out of her grief over Lucanis— that things got so bad, even Viago couldn't deny how much she was hurting? That's the start of the shame, but also of her picking the pieces back up. She feels a lot of guilt for making them watch her spiral like that, and for thinking that her life wouldn't be worth living when Viago and Teia were still in it.Caterina basically orders Viago to deal with his mess before the other Talonsdo it for him, so he sends Arlow away to save her life; with Varric, so he can be notified if anything drastic happens to her. He's pissed that she forced things to this point and essentially strips her of her status as a Crow (takes her leathers, symbolically) until she gets her shit together. But he misses her while she's gone and is glad when she comes back, if entirely miffed that she just writes a letter and then shows up.

Timeline

Backstory

Arlow's biological mother (Antivan) and father (Rivaini) worked on a merchant trading vessel that sailed in and out of Treviso. When Arlow was six, the ship was badly damaged in a storm; when attempting to reach port, everyone except Arlow drowned. She survives at the cost of her mother's life, who pushes her free of the wreckage.Treviso's dockmaster attempts to enslave her under the premise of paying off her parents' debts, but she steals a dagger and runs away, accidentally breaking in to Viago's rented apartment. He recruits her into House de Riva as a tool in his takeover plans and she quickly develops an intense loyalty to both him and the Crows. In a sense, they replace the family she lost. They also teach her a sense of agency, which steels her against the helplessness brought on by the accident.The drowning accident leaves her with an intense fear of the water; she doesn't like to be submerged, and is especially terrified of dark/murky water, no matter how shallow it is. Initially, she hides this fear from Viago, but he eventually finds out and forces her to learn how to swim, because it is an easily manipulated weakness. This is one of those borderline-torture moments, because she's essentially reliving the trauma in order to get over it just enough. Because of that, she retains her fear of the water but is physically capable of swimming.Her magic shows up about a year after Viago recruits her and she gets unceremoniously handed over for the Crows' version of a Harrowing. Unlike the Southern Circles, this process is designed to give Crow mages the confidence that they are stronger than any demon, so that they not only have the skill to resist, but a belief about why they should do so. It also teaches them to see their magic as a tool, the same as any other Crow's dagger, or sword, etc. etc.

relationships

Love Interest: SpiteVanthi is closer with Spite from the start. As a Mourn Watcher, she doesn't treat Spite like a demon or an extension of Lucanis; she recognizes him as an independent entity, equally affected by the Ossuary and the binding.They spend time together when Lucanis sleeps, as well as in the Fade when Vanthi sleeps but Lucanis is awake. Mostly they talk about anything and everything - he rubber ducks when Vanthi is working out particularly complicated problems, she explains part of the non-Fade world that confuse him, they discuss differences in spirit and mage magic, etc.Eventually, independent of but in tandem with Lucanis, Spite evolves to have some flavor of romantic feelings (non-traditional and heavily impacted by his being a spirit) and Vanthi has enough of an understanding to navigate that dynamic between him, herself, and Lucanis.When Vanthi breaks up with Lucanis (see below), she's still very much in love with Spite. But she breaks up with him as well, because as long as he's bound to Lucanis, it wouldn't be fair to any of them to try and maintain a relationship, particularly from a distance. They leave things on a sour, regretful note because Spite doesn't wholly understand why she's doing it and blames Lucanis.After Vanthi returns to Treviso, as part of her assignment helping Lucanis, she determines the only way for him and Spite to find peace is to separate. In the midst of the Crows' civil war, she dives into research and esoteric magical theory in an attempt to safely remove Spite from Lucanis' body/spirit. Once they've accomplished that, the two pick up their relationship again.(details re: how this plays with Teia/Vanthi TBA)

Love Interest: LucanisVanthi is initially drawn to Lucanis out of curiosity about Spite, both the spirit himself and the oddity of his being bound to a non-mage. Beyond that, Vanthi's specialization in the Mourn Watch is grief processing and she quickly devotes herself to helping one (1) very emotionally repressed Crow grieve the loss of Caterina, an entire year of his life, and everything that has changed in that time and because of Spite.Between that care and the adrenaline of saving the world, they fall in love despite often butting heads. Vanthi is far more liberal in her acceptance of spirits and her allowance/application of blood magic does not align with Lucanis' flat out hatred. She also hates the rigidity of the Crows and how Lucanis locked in by his duty and Caterina's expectations. Although she relates, in a sense, because she is held to her duty as a Watcher, she enjoys that expectation. She's frustrated that Lucanis just... accepts that he'll be miserable because it's expected of him.Lucanis asks Vanthi to marry him immediately after the Battle of Minrathous and Vanthi says yes, but it's an acceptance & a romance borne of adrenaline, proximity, and abnormal circumstances. Post-canon she moves to Treviso with him and it doesn't take long before the cracks begin to show. He's not really trying to change the Crows, he's just accepting them as-is, even though she keeps trying to show him that doing that is killing him. But he just keeps denying that and being stubborn/avoidant about it.After approximately nine months of this, Vanthi realizes that she rushed into this relationship, and though she does care deeply about Lucanis and Spite, she can't keep fighting the lifestyle Lucanis is clinging to. She also knows that he is absolutely in love with her and she feels like staying is equivalent to leading him on. Particularly as what is Spite, and what is Lucanis, and which of her feelings are for which of them, are all muddled up. Vanthi breaks off their engagement, breaks up with both of them, and returns to the Necropolis.Vanthi returns to Treviso after the Crows request a Watcher, no longer in love with Lucanis, but still suffering guilt over how she ended things and the hurt she caused Lucanis. He's still pining over her, but angry/bitter/hurt at the way she left. Eventually the Crows split into two factions, one darker/crueler/more traditional, led by Viago and supported by Lucanis; the other more optimistic/brighter/hopeful/reformist led by Teia and supported by Vanthi. This pits Vanthi and Lucanis on opposite sides of hte conflict, while he's still in love with her and she's falling in love with Teia.

Backstory

After being found in the Necropolis as a baby, Vanthi is sent topside in Nevarra, but always drawn back to the Necropolis. Even as a toddler, before her magic manifests, she attracts the attention of benign spirits who help her slip away from the orphanage and back underground.Around age eight, Vanthi's magic manifests and she's taken in by the Mortalitasi. She's reunited with Rosamund and formally accepted into the Mourn Watch as an apprentice at age twelve. She thrives as an apprentice Watcher— she loves the Fade and spirits, is naturally curious, and admittedly a bit of a nerd.Vanthi never knows her biological family or how she ends up in the Ingellvar crypt, but the Mourn Watch and the spirits in the Necropolis are such a family to her that (other than being curious, as is her nature) it doesn't bother her not to know.

During Canon | Story Choices

relationships

Childhood Best Friend: SophieSophie is Marisol's roommate in the Circle. A redhead with freckles and tan skin, she's constantly smiling and has shades of fantasy ADHD. She's distantly related to one of the merchant princes and is the curious/rule-breaking counterpart to Marisol's obedience when they're young.When they're about eleven years old, Sophie makes an attempt to escape the Circle, but is caught and made Tranquil as a result. The changes in her are devastating to Marisol and finally break her ambivalence/compliance about her own imprisonment in the Circle, inspiring her own (successful) escape about a year later.Marisol never finds Sophie again after her escape and she doesn't know what happens to her when the Circles rebel. This is somewhat intentional, as she hears bad rumors about the fate of the Tranquil. Marisol finds Sophie's phylactery when breaking into the Circle and considers using it to find her, but ultimately decides against it and destroys it with the others. Because of that, she never learns that Sophie is one of the Tranquil killed by the Venatori to create the Oculara in DAI.

Sibling: Lou (de Riva)Lou is Marisol's sibling, younger by about six years. They're only a few months old when Marisol is taken to the Circle, so they don't have any memories of her, but she remembers them.Lou survives the alienage fire that kills Marisol's parents, but the damage is such that none of the other families can afford to take them in. Since there is no orphanage in the Antiva City alienage, the hahren takes baby Lou to the orphanage in Salle. Assuming that not knowing is kinder than the truth (dead parents, sister locked away forever), the hahren leaves them there with no information about where they came from or who their family is.Lou spends approximately seven years in the orphanage before they're recruited to the Crows during one of House de Riva's sweeps of the orphanage. The last year that they spend in the orphanage overlaps with the first year that Marisol spends on the streets in Salle, but they don't know she exists and she thinks they're dead. When Marisol eventually finds out about the overlap, she blames herself for not getting them out, and the fact that they end up in the Crows.They fledge in House de Riva as a rogue and excel at lockpicking, sneaking, and other cloak-and-dagger skills. Like Marisol, Lou has curly black hair and freckles. They also have very similar profiles (nose/brow/chin shape), but Lou's demeanor overall is much more stoic/serious than Marisol's.Lou's always wondered about their family and how they ended up at the Salle orphanage. A few years after they're initially recruited, they have enough skill, resources, and standing in House de Riva to look into their past. They trace their life back to Antiva City and learn the truth about their parents from the old hahren. He also tells them about the existence of their sister and what happened to her, although he can't remember her name and has no way of knowing that she escaped the Circle.Marisol is nineteen and Lou thirteen when she does her first job for Viago. He doesn't let her near his fledglings, but she catches sight of Lou training with other rogues and has a fleeting suspicion that they might be her sibling. After watching/observing them on subsequent jobs, her suspicion grows and she goes back to the Antiva City alienage to investigate. This time she talks to the hahren, rather than the neighbor who mistakenly told her the baby died in the fire, and learns the truth about Lou.Initially, Marisol isn't sure whether she should tell Lou that they're related, or if they even know she exists/would believe her. Viago, having recognized the physical similarities between the two and knowing what Lou found out about themself, puts the pieces together and tells Marisol that they know of her. After that, Marisol reconnects with Lou and they get to know each other and grow close.Lou is close friends with the de Riva fledgling who messes up the operation against the Antaam; that friendship, and the fact that together they are visually similar to Marisol and Sophie, contribute to Marisol's decision to take the fall for them.

Love Interest: TeiaThey meet when Marisol is fifteen, about two years after she comes to Salle. Teia is working a contract at an estate that Marisol is robbing. Teia's contract specifies no witnesses, so when she catches Marisol hiding in the closet after her assassination, she offers her a choice: join the Crows, or die. Although reluctant, Marisol goes with her rather than fighting because she offers a choice, something no one ever has to her before. That becomes a foundational tenet of their relationship.They are mirrors in a lot of ways— both elves, both thieves before joining the Crows. Part of why Teia recruits Marisol instead of killing her is because she recognizes herself in her.At her recruitment, Marisol is full of anger and rage— about the Circles, about her family's death, about Sophie, about the lack of control and choice she's had in her life. She also has an extreme flight reflex and is ready to run at the barest hint of anything that might tie her down— including relationships. Teia spends three years slowly earning Marisol's trust in spite of that trauma, recognizing early that harsh demands and punishment are only going to further Marisol's resentment at being stuck in the Crows and lead her to attempt escape.Instead, when Marisol struggles with negative habits/responses learned in the Circle or on the street, Teia offers leniency and trust without demanding anything in return. Crucially, Teia never mandates that Marisol do things a certain way— she will tell Marisol what needs to be done and offer one option, or give Marisol the freedom to find her own means to the end.

Teia and Marisol by larkinna

Marisol is falcon-coded in her relationship with Teia, as per this post. She does not trust easily, but once her trust is earned it is unwavering and fierce. With Teia, that trust frequently tips into devotion— Marisol will often base her opinions and judgments on Teia's, even without any other information or context, and she is loathe to acknowledge any perceived faults or errors on Teia's part. This devotion is limited to Teia as a person and does not extend beyond her to the Crows as an organization.Teia and Marisol first get romantically involved after Mari completes her contract to become a full Crow, a bit more than three years after her recruitment. Initially, the relationship is casual and open— they both see other people during this time, with Teia seeing Dante and Marisol seeing Natale (another Cantori Crow). Even as the relationship grows more serious, Marisol continues to label it as casual (in her mind and when talking to others) because she needs to mentally keep the door open that she can leave at any time.Teia recognizes the emotional shift but doesn't push, until the pieces are in place for House Cantori to take over Seventh Talon. At that point she asks Marisol to be her Spellblade.

Spellblade Headcanon: In this verse, Spellblade is not just a specializaiton, but a formal position that each Talon appoints. They're part bodyguard, part attack dog, part confidante and advisor. Typically the position is considered both an honor and an obligation and only offered to a Crow the Talon trusts with their life.

Marisol struggles with the offer, because becoming a Spellblade would mean that she can no longer pretend that she's a Crow by duress; she will have chosen to stay in that capacity. A Spellblade is also by definition very visible and involved in a Talon's work. Being one puts a limit on Marisol's ability to run, which scares her, and it would be detrimental to Teia's reputation if she did end up running.In the end Marisol does accept the offer as Spellblade and her relationship with Teia continues to become less and less casual. They both stop seeing anyone else, until they become involved with Viago in the aftermath of Eight Little Talons. When Marisol takes the exile contract and breaks up with Viago, she does not break up with Teia; she writes her frequently while traveling with Varric and Harding and their relationship remains solid.

Love Interest: ViagoMarisol's relationship with Viago starts off somewhat antagonistic. Not out of hatred, but based on differing perspectives/approaches to life. Viago prefers absolute control over everything, while Marisol prefers flexibility to adapt and improve as situations change. Since she is not a Crow from his House, Viago cannot force her to comply to his demands, which creates tension between them. At the same time, Marisol is blatantly flippant about Crow hierarcy and standards, which grates on Viago's nerves, particularly when it's his authority she's disregarding.Marisol and Viago meet when Viago comes to Teia in search of a mage who can assist one of his Crows with disarming wards on a contract. Teia loans Marisol to him and, as much as she immediately aggravates him, she also poses something of a curiosity. Viago wonders how Teia can handle her with a light touch and practically zero oversight, but also trust her so implicitly. He's also somewhat miffed that a mage with Marisol's skills, which are not so common in the Crows, just fell into Teia's lap— particularly since it happened in Salle. At the same time, he recognizes that he would not have been able to shape Marisol the way Teia has; if he had been the one to find her, she would not be the same.Marisol works jobs for Viago on and off for two years, during which time they develop a push-pull closeness: Viago, trying to tease apart what makes Marisol work as a Crow so he can use it in training; Marisol, pushing at all of Viago's buttons and boundaries to figure out the exact limit of his patience and temper. She often bucks his orders, not in a way that changes the outcome, but in a way that changes the method. She does this largely because they are orders— if Viago asked, or explained, rather than demanding, she would be much more agreeable with him. Of course, Viago never asks.When Teia takes her solo contract to finalize her takeover as Seventh Talon, she suspects Marisol is up to something (she is) and sends Viago to look after her. Marisol's plan is to use Teia's absence to break into the Circle and steal her phylactery; a reluctant Viago gets roped into that venture to avoid Teia's ire. After they fight their way out, he makes Marisol an arm cuff casing in which to carry her phylactery without risking it breaking. It is silver and abstractly shaped; it could be a snake or an arrow, depending on how the light hits it.Mari recognizes Teia's attraction to Viago and it causes her to consider him in that light. She does find him physically attractive and enjoys his company, but she assumes that his interest in her is only insomuch as she is an extension of Teia. In truth, Viago does find Marisol compelling and interesting in her own right, particularly in the moments when he can break through the nonchalance she wears like a shield.When Teia and Viago return to Antiva City post-Eight Little Talons, Marisol can see that things have progressed between the two of them, and she assumes that this will be like the other relationships she and Teia have had with other people: Teia and Viago will do their thing, and Marisol and Teia will continue as they always have. But Teia has recognized that Viago's interest in Marisol goes beyond passing curiosity and doesn't let her leave. This marks the start of the three of them being involved; at this point, both Teia and Marisol stop seeing others outside of this throuple, although they do not define that change in their relationship.After Lou's friend interferes with the Talons' plan against the Antaam, Marisol learns that Viago plans to exile a child with a contract that reads like a death sentence. Harm to children is one of the few things that will always set Marisol off, impulsive and unhinged, even from people that she doesn't know/have a personal relationship with. Given that she has been involved with Viago for a while now, she takes even more personal offense to his doing this— even though she knows what he's like, and that he doesn't care in the same way that Teia does, she still, on some level, expected better of him than this.As a result, Marisol voluntarily takes the child's place in the contract, claiming that the incident with the Antaam was actually her doing. She doesn't speak to Viago before doing this, but she does break into his office, burn the drafted contract, and scatter the ashes of it all over his desk— leaving a very clear message of her anger and effectively breaking up with him before she goes.[during/post-canon details TBA]

Viago, Marisol, and Teia by sun-marie

Love Interest: Lucanis + endgame CrowlyculeLucanis and Marisol are friends pre-canon, a relationship borne of the time that Teia spends with Caterina.[more details TBA]

Friends: Neve, Davrin, LaceNeutral: Emmrich, Bellara, Taash

Backstory

Marisol is born in the Antiva City alienage and lives there with her parents, who are laborers in the city's leatherworking district, and eventually a baby sibling. When she is about six, her magic manifests in fire and the hahren calls the Templars to take her to the Circle. A few months later, unbeknownst to her, a fire decimates the alienage killing her parents and resulting in the baby being taken to the orphanage in Salle.In the Circle, Marisol adopts a "head down, don't get noticed" mentality— as long as she doesn't react too strongly in any one way, the Templars and the Chantry both leave her alone, and she is Fine™️. This perspective is often challenged by Sophie, who remembers her life before the Circle fondly, and yearns to live free again. After Sophie's failed escape attempt and subsequent Tranquility, Marisol starts to question her ambivalence and finds herself incredibly angry about what was done to both Sophie and herself. She vows to escape and live the life that Sophie wanted, but now cannot have. Toward that end, she spends a year honing her fire magic; this results in the accident that leaves burn scars up her arm.When she's about twelve, she's honed her fire magic powerful enough that she's able to burn through the metal bars on the windows. But at a cost— building up the ability to hold a fire spell for that long leaves her with heavily blistered/calloused palms and permanently dulled nerves in her hands.She moves down the coast away from Antiva City, not staying anywhere too long while she learns the rules and way of surviving on the streets. Eventually she settles in with a group of street ruffians in Rialto— they teach her thieving and roguish skills, and she figures out how to both use and hide her magic in conjunction with those skills.After a year in Rialto, there is an incident where some human sailors assault one of the younger elven thieves in the group. Marisol reacts violently in their defense, setting the sailors' ship on fire. This forces her to abandon the group and run, both to protect herself from being recaptured to the Circle, and to draw the sailors' ire away from her friends.She winds up in Salle and resolves not to form anything more than surface level attachments or resourceful alliances, to avoid another situation like in Rialto. Despite appearing succesful at that, she takes note of the other thieves on the streets and helps them indirectly, such as leaving some of her picking in their money plates or buying/stealing food and leaving it where they can get it easier than stealing it themselves.About two years after arriving in Salle, this habit leads her to notice some of the youngest thieves disappearing from the streets. She traces the disappearances to a local noble and makes a plan to rob him blind and return his wealth to the people he's hurting. (Un)fortunately, the night she picks to do this is the same night that Teia is executing a contract on this noble's life— a contract that specifically asks for no witnesses. When Teia catches Marisol in the closet, having witnessed the assassination, she offers her the choice: join the Crows, or die. After some convincing, Marisol reluctantly agrees to join her House.At that point, House Cantori is relatively new/young and Marisol is the first mage that Teia recruits. Her anger has calcified in the years since she escaped the Circle and she is quick to rage and violence. Likewise, she is wary and slow to trust. Teia earns her trust over the course of three years by offering truth, trust, and space before asking anything of Marisol, and even when she does ask, by never demanding. The fact that this is how Teia earns Marisol's trust contributes to the fact that Marisol's loyalty is to Teia alone, not the Crows overall.Also during this time, Marisol's mage trainers temper the parts of her anger that stem from the Circle. They correct a lot of misconceptions the Templars and enchanters taught her that were designed to cripple/limit mages at the Chantry's direction, including the idea that casting without a staff has to be painful. They also resolve some of the internalized guilt/resentment that Marisol couldn't help but absorb after spending six years being told that mages were impure, cursed by the Maker, etc— mainly by reframing her magic as a tool, the same as any Crow's dagger, bow, etc, rather than an intrinsically good or bad part of her.Antiva City's Circle formally rebels shortly after Marisol is recruited into House Cantori and although they are not involved in the actual rebellion, Teia does scoop in and takes as many apprenticed mages as she can find in as fledglings, to save them from the machinations of the Chantry or manipulation at the hands of the enchanters' agenda. Marisol becomes one of their trainers, easily the most loved and readily affectionate/close with the new fledglings.

Marisol and Teia by Melody Loka for Rara Avis Zine

During Canon | Story Choices