The idea for this piece has been simmering in the back of my head and in some sketchbooks for YEARS, so I finally bit the bullet and actually painted it. It's also influenced by Paramore's song Misguided Ghosts, which has always been one of the main songs I associate with Mahariel. It fits the Dalish Warden Origin so well. 💙
[Prompt by @dragonagekissweek be sure to check them out!]
Okay! So there's more of a story to this one.
First of all - this is my Mahariel, who (at this time) went by the name Lenssonlie. Or Len, for short. But we will be calling him Thy, as that's the name I most often refer to him by (if you want to know why, check out the lore).
His character blog is @first-warden
So, Thy is my problem child Warden. He hated becoming one, felt betrayed by his clan and isolated amongst his peers. He frequently makes terrible decisions and choices to get the job done and frequently faces the criticism from the party because of this, even though they were the ones that threw him into a command he didn't want in the first place.
The only people in his whole party to ever truly have his back were Zevran and Sten (and later Loghain). While everyone else turned on him? They stayed true—but not without conflict!
This is one such situation: The aftermath of Sten's challenge at the gates of Haven. Sten lost, of course, but it was the aftermath were I like to think he really felt the regret of confronting his Kadan.
After all, the kid barely had anyone at his back—and though Sten's attempt to strong arm his way into leadership likely came from a good place (taking off the weight that was clearly crushing him) he knew it must have looked more like a betrayal in the beginning for someone who was so used to having everyone telling him he was wrong.
So he dresses Thy's wounds. A silent apology for his mistake. His Kadan's methods may not be the most conventional, but they always seem to give them the edge they need. And at the end of the day? His Kadan was still strong enough to take down Sten, that had to be enough, right?
I love the idea of my (Female) warden calling Kieran her son if she ever got to meet him.
"Out of the way, Alistair. I have to see my son and his beautiful mother."
And Alistair just sitting there like.. "YOUR son? I don't remember you being the one in bed with a witch"
"You slept with Morrigan, Morrigan did the magic, I killed the archdemon. It was a group effort, I claim a third of the child, and now I get to teach it dalish swear words."
