*asks you all of the dragon age questions* For your favorite warden, if you have one.
ilu. I’ll use Isair Mahariel, since he’s my main canon.
1: Which origin did you first choose?City elf.
2: Which origin is your favourite?My favourite story wise is Aeducan, shortly followed by Tabris and Brosca.
3: Do you have multiple Grey Wardens/playthroughs or just one?I have three, to cover all the classes and elven backgrounds.
4: If you have more multiple Grey Wardens, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one?They inhabit the same universe, although strangely enough my Hawkes do not.
5: Did your Warden want to become a Grey Warden?Pfff no. Isair had no intentions of leaving his clan ever. He did go willingly, having seen the darkspawn and felt the effects of the taint personally. Better to leave his family forever than see them suffer and die when the Blight came.
6: Does your Warden regret becoming a Grey Warden?He’s not happy about it, he never will be and if he ever manages to leave he’ll do so. But he doesn’t regret becoming one, no. He saved his people, gave elven children a little hope, he made the best friends he’s ever had and fell in love and is in a position to help improve the lives of his race, with an luck.
7: What was your Warden’s first impression of Duncan?"I have never seen so much hair on somebody’s face before. Eww, wtf." He was wary of Duncan, as he always is with strange armed humans, but other than that he didn’t really have one.
8: Do they still feel the same about Duncan as they did before the Joining?Still “meh” and “omg humans grow hair out of their face ewww, does that hurt?”
9: What was your Warden’s first impression of Alistair?"Strange babbling shem." The taint had spread quite far at that point, so Isair wasn’t really in much of a mind to care about anything except getting the burning sensation out of his blood and the Archdemon’s whispering out of his head.
10: Do they still feel the same about Alistair?They’re friendly, although they had a falling out when Loghain was made a warden and Alistair left to become king. Both trust each other in the face of danger, and they take joy in trolling each other (although Isair is better at it).
11: What was your Warden’s first impression of Morrigan?"Suspicious human woman wearing rags." *(Although to a Dalish, all humans look suspicious) Again, he was heavily tainted, so he didn’t have the focus to form much of an opinion.
12: What do they think of Morrigan now?Morrigan is Isair’s best friend and the mother of his child, the only person he’s closer to is Zevran. He respects and trusts Morrigan completely, even when some people *cough*Alistair*cough* think that he’s nuts. The Dark Ritual did put a minor strain on their relationship, but the years apart have soothed it out.
13: What was your Warden’s first impression of Leliana?"Strange shemlen priestess. Mildly annoying and a bit racist, but not aggressively so. Seems harmless to us. Can fight, and we need all the help we can get."
14: What do they think of Leliana now?Though they did have their issues with Leliana’s initial racism, and her appropriation of the elven song “uthenera”, Leliana’s willingness to work past her ignorance helped Isair warm up to her. Leliana was the one who helped Isair adjust to human customs, and trained him in bardic arts.
15: What was your Warden’s first impression of Sten?"I don’t even know what he is. Strange giant grey shem?" While massacring an entire farmhold was very alarming, Sten’s remorse and his being a soldier convinced Isair to bring him along. He needed all the help he could get to stop the Blight, and at least it wasn’t an elven family.
16: What are your Warden’s thought on Sten now?He still finds Sten odd, but they respect each other.
17: What was your Warden’s first impression of Wynne?He respected her dedication to keeping her kin safe, and appreciated that she offered an alternative to anulment.
18: What does your Warden think about Wynne now?Wynne became something of a surrogate grandmother, although the butted heads a lot. Isair didn’t care for the way she stuck her nose into his buisness, or that she assumed that she (a shemlen) should have any say in his personal life. He also hated the way she “white-knighted” the grey wardens.
19: What was your Warden’s first impression of Zevran?Ooooh boy. Isair did not like Zevran when they first met. Luring somebody into an ambush and “trying” to kill them does not make the best first impression.He was especially pissed about the fact that Zevran was an elf who was willing to kill another elf, and thought that he was a bandit - neither of which warmed him towards Zevran, considering what happened to his parents.If Zevran hadn’t mentioned the whole “sold into slavery, never actually had a choice about my career” bit, he’d probably never have made it away from that site alive. It took a long while for them to get friendly.
20: What does your Warden think of Zevran now?Zevran was Isair’s LI, which was surprising to everybody. Zevran sometimes exhasperates him, but he’s completely dedicated to him, will readily kill anybody who harms or has harmed him in any way and would do anything for him. Zevran has a rather unique ability to make him smile, even if he’s in a bad mood - something nobody has managed except for Merrill.
21: What was your Warden’s first impression of Oghren?Pity mostly.
22: What are your Warden’s thoughts on Oghren now?While Oghren does drive him up the wall at times, there are few people he’d rather have at his side in battle. Now if only he could get him to give up drinking…
23: What was your Warden’s first impression of Shale?"Damn."
24: What does your Warden think of Shale now?Shale and Isair get along great, partly because she convinced him to shoot pidgeons with his bow by threatening to crush his head like a grape. They’re pretty fond of snarking at each other.
25: What was your Warden’s first impression of Loghain?Again, taint. No focus.
26: What are your Warden’s thoughts on Loghain now?Although Loghain was misguided in places, and Isair is still pissed about the “slavery in the alienage” thing, Isair has high regard for Loghain - a man who would give anthing and everything for his people. He hates Orlais, but it’s similar to the Dalish hatred for humans, so Isair understands it to a degree.
27: What does your Warden think about the Mabari war dog? How did your Warden name the Mabari that joins you when you head for Lothering?He called his dog Falon’fen. Isair wasn’t terribly imaginitve in that respect. Nonetheless he’s a big animal lover, so if there’s an argument he’s always taking Falon’s side.
28: What does your Warden think of Flemeth?She’s Asha’bellanar; He respects her and is wary of her. She has a flashing sign above her head reading: “Do not fuck with” (until Morrigan asks you otherwise, anyway.)
29: What is your Warden’s favourite color?Gold. For silly sentimental reasons that would kill him of embarassment if Zevran ever found out. Also the Dalish don’t have much in the way of precious metal, and he’s quite fond of it.
30: What is your Warden’s favourite food?Apples. He loves them, and can usually be seen eating them.
31: How old is your Warden?21 at the start of Origins.
32: What is your Warden’s gender identity (this does not have to match gender chosen in the character creator, of course!)He doesn’t really think about it, he’d respond to either male or gender-neutral pronouns.
33: What is your Warden’s romantic/sexual orientation?Demisexual, grey-homoromantic and solely interested in his own race. He never expected to fall in love, so actually finding himself being attracted to somebody was a shock.
34. Does your Warden end up with one of the companions in any way?Zevran, like I said. It was slow going. Isair was aesthetically attracted to Zevran, but mistrusted him. He didn’t start letting his guard down until they’d gotten through Orzammar at which point he conceded that Zevran probably wasn’t going to kill him. That was the point where Isair started talking to himSeeing Zevran’s nightmare in the fade completely altered his perspective, and Isair went out of his way to try befriending him - even flirting playfully, though he didn’t expect anything to come from it. They grew close to each other pretty quickly, but the first time they actually made an emotional connection was when Isair gave Zevran the dalish gloves, which is the moment I headcanon as the moment Zevran started to develop true romantic feelings for the warden.Shortly after that was the shriek ambush with Tamlen, Isair’s ensuing depression sparked an attempt from Zevran to make him smile which was the point where Isair started viewing Zevran less as a friend he messed aroun with and more like a potential romantic partner.Aaaaand I think people are mostly bored of this topic now (if they even read this far in the first place) so I’m moving on. If anybody actually cares about this, they can ask me.
35: Is your Warden a warrior/rogue/mage?Isair has magic, but lacks the power to even cast a spell let alone be a mage. The most he can do is direct a small amount of mana to light a candle, ease the pain of a wound or push things around a bit. Instead he learnt to hunt and scout, which combined with his love of mischief lead to him becoming a rogue.
36: What is your Warden’s weapon of choice?Preferably the bow and arrow. Otherwise he has Vigilance and Starfang.
37: What are your Warden’s specializations?Ranger - his first. Isair has always found animals preferable to people, and shows a lot of skill handling htem.Bard - he learnt from Leliana in order to help him adjust to the human world and better read people’s intentions.Assassin - his skill as a hunter translated pretty well into an assassin’s skillset, so he got training from Zevran.
38: What are some of your Warden’s strengths?He’s unflinchingly loyal - to his loved ones and his people. He’s intelligent, observant and excelent at reading body-language.
39: What are some of your Warden’s weaknesses?To begin with, he represses his emotions. Rage, grief, sorrow or anything akin to those emotions gets squashed down and hidden behind a blank expression. Nobody’s allowed to see his pain. Nobody. It can’t be fixed, so he simply has to live with it and make sure it doesn’t bother anybody else.And he’s insecure as hell. He never felt any connection to ancient elven lore, or elven religion, and it left his heavily alienated from his own people, especially when they tried to pressure him into being a “good” Dalish. The one most often starting these arguments was Tamlen, who was a little too prone of throwing the slur “flat-ear” into the argument. Then there was the whole “repopulating our dying race” bit, which he wanted no part in. As a result Isair sometimes feels like a failure as an elf.Low self esteem has led to a tendancy to martyrdom that is life-threatenin, he would literally die for his loved ones or his people (which in Isair’s eyes means any elf) and on several occassions nearly has died simply to feel that he is worth something.
40: Your favourite companion?Zevran, Shale, Morrigan
41: Your Warden’s favourite companion?Morrigan, Zevran, Loghain and the dog.
42: What is your Warden’s biggest secret?His mother.
43: What is your Warden’s biggest regret?Leaving his clan.
44: Can your Warden read very well? Do they like reading?Isair is dyslexic, so no.
45: What does your Warden do in their spare time/off-duty?Steal things, play small pranks on his friends, play with the dog, spar, hunt…
46: Are your Warden’s parents still alive?I have no idea if his mother is still alive, but I doubt it.
47: Did your Warden have a good relationship with their parents?Isair has deep seated resentment towards his mother and refuses to speak about her. He knows little about his father and doesn’t really think about him. He considers Ashalle to be the only parental-figure he’s ever needed.
48: Does your Warden have any siblings (in canon or headcanon, it’s all ok!)No he’s an only child.
49: Is your Warden religious? (Chantry/Dalish belief/Tevinter belief/something else)He believes the Creators existed, but feels no compulsion to worship gods he considers to be gone forever. He has no opinion on other faiths, so long as they keep it to themselves. While he doesn’t mind Andrastianism in essence he has nothing but loathing for the Chantry itself.
50: What does your Warden like most about themselves?…nothing. Isair’s self-worth is entirely defined by what he can do for others.
51: What is something other people like about your Warden?Apparently his willingness to help everybody with their life-problems, and the fact that so long as he likes you as a person, he won’t judge your shitty pasts.
52: Is your Warden introverted or extroverted? (or somewhere in between?)Introverted usually, but when he’s in the mood he can be extremely extroverted.
53: Does your Warden enjoy nature?Loves it, though he doesn’t mind cities too much.
54: What did your Warden think of Lothering?"Holy fuck I’ve never seen a shemlen city before. it’s so BIG! …what do you mean, "this isn’t a city"?"He was a little overwhelmed by it, and confused and annoyed about the fact that so many people were so wrapped up in their own problems they didn’t care about their neighbours.
55: What did your Warden think of the problem in the Brecilian Forest? How did they solve it?He was extremely pissed at Zathrian for allowing his clan to suffer for his vengeance, but on the other hand he also despised the werewolves for being just as bad as Zathrian and harming the Dalish, who were innocent of Zathrian’s crimes. He had Zathrian remove the curse for the sake of the Lady of the Forest, and also because he believed Zathrian unfit to be Keeper.He thinks that in generations to come, the humans will forget this and continue to be racist, and sometimes wonders if he should have killed them after the curse was removed.
56: What did your Warden think of the problem at the Circle of Magi? How did they solve it?He bears absolutely no love for the Chantry whatsoever, a feeling that’s doubled in regards to templars - who pose a threat to his clanmates and culture (he dislikes a lot of it, but it’s still his culture), not to mention himself. He found the whole mess somewhere between hilarious and pathetic. Of course the shemlen Circles are a mess, they’re fools for ever thinking such a system could work in the first place!He has no intentions of siding with the templars, so mages it was!
57: What did your Warden think of the problem at Redcliffe? How did they solve it?He didn’t know what to make of it. He did however gain a healthy respect for Bann Teagan - the first of the few human nobles to gain his trust. He was uncomfortable leaving so many people to die, and besides they already had all their allies so he decided that they might as well save Arl Eamon to get his support against Lohgain.
58: What did your Warden think of the problem in Orzammar? How did they solve it?Isair just wanted his troops, he didn’t care who got the throne. Zevran mentioned that Harrowmont would make a weak king, so Isair let him make the decision for them, and off we went to support Bhelen. He found what Branka did disgusting, and sided with Caradin.
59: What did your Warden think of the Landsmeet? How did they solve it?"Hate shems. Hate shem politics." Nontheless he played the game just fine, and got pretty much everybody’s support. Alistair and Anora became monarchs and Loghain joined the wardens. Although Isair was pissed at Alistair walking out, since he considered their current duty to take presidence over personal problems.
60: Who does your Warden put on the throne?I just said.
61: Your favourite NPC?Slim Couldry or Sergeant Kylon.
62: Your favourite main quest?Unrest in the Alienage.
63: Your favourite side quest?Crime Wave. I am secretly the most infamous thief in Ferelden, and nobody knows except for me and Slim. Mwahahaha.
64: Your favourite DLC quest?Uhhh… Golems of Amgarrak?
65: Have you installed any mods?A lot of cosmetic mods (hair, presets, skin texture, pinapple’s vibrant colours, etc,). Elven ear mod to make them stick out properly. Elven and dwarven proportion fixes to look more like they would in DA:II and Inquisition. Armour mods; Kirkwall exports and sibling mods, Grey Wardens of Ferelden, the Phoenix Armoury.Skip the Fade and a mod to allow items to be added through console commands. the universal dye kit.A mod to get Zevran straight after we leave Lothering, Dialogue tweaks and Zevran’s Dialogue Fix to restore cut banter and ensure I actually get my earing.The DLC import fix for Awakening, and a patch to stop vigilance looking like starfang.I think that’s it.
66: Did your Warden make use of Morrigan’s offer right before the battle against the Archdemon/the Blight?Yes. Because Morrigan wanted it, and Zevran and the dog would be upset if he died. It was not fun for anybody involved.
67: If your Warden could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change?Nothing, he accepts things as they are. Sure he could go back in time, save Tamlen, keep his family… but then Alistair would have faced the Blight as the last of his order, he’d never have made his new family… Things are fine as they are for him.
68: Can your Warden sing and/or dance?He can. He’s particularly good at singing, but he’d be mortified to be caught doing either of those things unless drunk.
69: Do you have any headcanons about your Warden that are not/go against canon?The magic part I think. Also the part in DA:II where Merrill says she’s never been given a gift for purely sentimental value before, he would definitely get her a present or two at some point in his life.
70: On a scale from 1-10, with 10 being the highest score possible, how much of a Dragon Age fan are you?10!? I can’t express myself properly with such a low number as 10! I defy your limitations! Now what number comes just short of infinity? Because I love this series to death, but it has issues so I can’t love it entirely…
