Elanna Lavellan Character Sheet
Some of you might notice a bit of a shift in my art style. As I’ve mentioned before, consistency with character design has always been something I struggle with. This has been a journey of discovery for me, one where I’ve grown alongside these characters, especially Solas. And while I’m proud of the work I’ve created with him, I still don't feel truly fulfilled.
So over the last few weeks, I’ve been asking myself: What is it that I actually want to accomplish with my art?
For me, the most fulfilling thing is being able to understand who a character is from a single frame. Not perfect anatomy or hyperrealism, but emotion: what a character can communicate through expression, exaggeration, shape, and movement.
The more realistic a style becomes, the harder that is to achieve. Simplifying designs lets me put my energy into what matters most to me, which is what you’re seeing here. Just a few lines, but enough to give you a sense of who the character is, not just what they looks like.
Raised within the Free Marches among the sheltered confines of Clan Lavellan, Elanna grew into a gifted linguist and diplomat. Through the clan’s relatively open trade and rare willingness to engage peacefully with outsiders, Clan Lavellan managed to gather enough books and scholarly texts to provide her with an unusually strong education (at least by Dalish standards). From a young age, Elanna excelled academically, developing a false confidence in her own understanding of the world.
But for all her intelligence, Elanna was severely sheltered. The reality of Thedas slaps her across the face the moment she leaves for Ferelden. Beyond the safety of her clan, people are cleverer, harsher, and far more willing to abandon morality if it serves their ambitions. Knowledge alone is not enough to navigate the dangerous wolrd of Thedas.
Elanna’s greatest flaw is her hubris. She mistakes intellect for wisdom, and wisdom for sincerity. She believes the world can be mastered through study alone; that every problem has a solution if one is simply intelligent enough to find it. Her confidence borders on arrogance, and beneath it lies a desperate need to believe she is exceptional.
This is what makes her relationship with Solas so dangerous for them both. They feed one another’s egos in deeply destructive ways. Solas validates Elanna’s intellect and reinforces her belief that she is uniquely gifted, uniquely capable of understanding truths others cannot. In return, Elanna elevates Solas: honorable, brilliant, wise beyond comprehension; the smartest man in every room. Around him, she feels fully seen for the first time. In her eyes, he is the only person who truly understands her, and that understanding allows her to become bolder, brighter, and more self-assured.
But while Elanna sees Solas as an equal, Solas views Elanna as something closer to a protégé. A brilliant but naive young woman he can shape and guide. She becomes an outlet for his own pride and self-importance. Together, they exist within the illusion of an exclusive intellectual world inhabited only by the two of them.
The rest of the Inquisition notices immediately that something about Solas is wrong. Unlike Elanna, her companions possess real-world experience, and his inconsistencies are obvious from the start. They recognize his evasions, his half-truths, and his careful omissions. Yet whenever concerns are raised, Elanna dismisses them outright. She chooses blindness over the discomfort of admitting that she be wrong. To question Solas would mean questioning her own intelligence and her own self-worth. Solas embodies everything she wishes she could become, and so she clings to him even as the warning signs grow impossible to ignore.
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