For Eir and Gwen! ♡ ☮ ★ ♒ ♦ :D
OOOH so many, lovely! ^^ Thank you! (Also I had written up half of this once and then accidentally refreshed my asks and BOOM it was all gone. Moral of the story: always save long answers to the drafts while editing xD)
LONG because yes I still can’t say anything without so many words.
Eirien: Eirien is a romantic, but not a saccharine kind - not one for over-the-top romantic gestures. His romance with Dorian is loud and passionate at times, and fun. They have fun, and they share mutual interests, and also pursue them together. Dorian is the first one after Damir to have caught Eirien’s interest in earnest.
Eirien loves long mornings with Dorian in bed, reading and snacking on fruit and cheeses and bread, and a glass or the of fine wine when they can. He loves it when he can get Dorian to brush his hair, and likes to massage Dorian’s neck and scalp when he has a headache, and mussing his hair in the process. He loves studying and reading together, curled up in bed or in a big chair, and so on.
Also: I have this headcanon about Eirien’s feathered shoulder-cape, and how it occasionally loses some feathers, and how one time he lost a few feathers just above his heart, and Dorian found and gathered a few, perhaps of blue and green sheen, and gave them to Eirien to be worn above his heart. Eirien’s poor heart nearly couldn’t handle it.
It was sappy and embarrassingly romantic. ^^
Gwenhwyvar: Gwenhwyvar is an awful romantic, and may (and does) border on saccharine, and enjoys the fuzzy feelings and butterflies in her stomach that such romantic gestures and just romance in general gives her. She may be shy about showing such a side of herself at first, but once she realizes that she can show that side of her without being made fun of, and that she can pursue that kind of things if she wants, she makes them much more freely. She enjoys giving romantic attention as much as giving it.
One time after the threat of Corypheus is/was over Gwen and Josie took some time off and traveled to Antiva, where they went to see plays in prestigious theaters, ate in lovely restaurants, rented a lovely boat and spent a day and a night at sea counting the stars in the sky, and slept late on each other’s arms, and then spend a couple of days deep in the countryside among the trees and the wildlife, and Gwen showed Josephine another kind of romantic atmosphere. It was disgustingly romantic and cute. ^^
Josephine is not Gwen’s first romantic attachment, but it is her first serious one - she had a brief, sweet relationship with an older boy in the clan Lavellan, but the boy’d heart in the end was promised to another, and Gwenhwyvar found herself not missing him as she thought she would.
Eirien: Eirien was always quick to make friends or acquaintances, and can be friendly with almost anyone, and gets along with most people who have a will to get along with him, and act like he gets along with those who don’t - but only ever has more than a few close friends he’d trust with his life and all his secrets. He was familiar with most of his fellow magelets in the Circle, but was mostly inseparable with Damir and a Gwen (not Gwenhwyvar, just a Gwen).
In the Inquisition he got along with all of his Inner Circle, but became closest with Dorian, Josephine, and Sera, and - to an extent - Solas.
Gwenhwyvar: Gwen had a couple of friends in the Alienage - mostly her cousins or the like who she played with, but she was never a social butterfly, and never really acively sought the company of other children. In the clan Lavellan she found it difficult to get included into the groupf of young elves around her age, and spent more time with the adults of the clan, learning cooking, magic, and leatherworking, and legends and stories than playing or spending time with the other children.
In the Inquisition she never expected to make friends (and she expected to find love even less), but she did. She became/becomes closest with Josephine, Leliana (much to her surprise), and enjoys the company of Blackwall and Varric as well (Varric mostly for his stories).
Eirien: I think I’ve talked about both major sad headcanons for Eir (what happened with Damir, and what happened with Elia) BUT I like talking about Damir more because it’s 1) sadder, and 2) there is more to say. And also maybe not everyone who reads these things has seen more that “what happened with Damir” in the middle of a sentence haha. xD And maybe I never put it into so many words, so here goes:
So, during his Circle life after hitting a certain age, Eirien started wanting a romantic relationship, and had a few attachments that eventually (rather quickly) ended in Eirien either compromising something he didn’t want to compromise, or fizzled out when he refures - until Damir. Eirien was probably 17 and Damir a year older when they started realizing that they had more than just platonic “best friend” feelings for each other, and for the first time Eirien was not expected for a second to comprsomise anything in the hopes of finding love and physical closeness, and for the first time Damir has been in love with anyone at all. And they would have been fine, right?
But Damir’s mother had been a Rivaini Seer, and in his childhood he had heard much about her mother’s magic and his own culture, and even lived some years in Rivain before his merchant father took him to live permanently in Ostwick (until Damir’s magic manifested), and Damir did extensive research into the magic of her mother’s magic, and other forbidden and frowned-upon magics (blood magic, among others), and his interest coupled with his loud Separatist ideas was deemed too dangerous for him to be Harrowed, and instead he was made Tranquil at the age of 21 (three years into Eir and Damir’s relationship).
And basically one night Eirien woke up in the middle of night, found Damir’s bunk empty, and thought maybe he had gone to the lavatory, but in the morning the bed remained empty. He finally learned what had become of Damir after almost two weeks.
Damir’s Tranquility broke Eirien’s spirit for a long while and he became more serious, submissive and less vocal about any ideas that could mark him as nothing more than a good and proper and obedient little Circle Mage, which eventually led into him being chosen to join those sent to the Conclave at the age of 25.
Gwenhwyvar: Weeeee-ell there’s her clan’s death, and his mother’s death, and his father’s death thanks to an illness (but she was too young to remember him well), but I’ve spoken of the clan’s death and don’t want to talk about it now, so maybe I’ll speak more of the time she walked into the bandit ambush/trap.
When Gwenhwyvar was roughly 20 years old, she was searching the forest around her clan’s camp for herbs for both seasoning and medicine, and accidentally followed a trail of a rarer herb out of the safe parameter, wandering out of her “hunting” partner’s sight, and ended up setting off a trap set by some human bandits. Her scream alerted her partner to her disappearance, and he followed the sound into an ambush. Both were heavily hurt and taunted, and bound - but managed to make it out alive thanks to Gwen’s magic. It was a close thing, because she was panicking, and had difficulty gathering her focus to lash out.
The ordeal made her afraid of being completely alone in forests in particular, and she has had and continues to have anxiety/panic attacks when it happens, and hates it. It also broke the trust between her and her usual hunting partner, who was hurt worse than she was, and lost the mobility in one of his hands in part, and she blames herself for his injury, and hates that, too.
The clan had to move from that place soon after the ordeal because the tension between them and the humans started to quickly rise when the men were found dead - the humans knew them not for bandits. It had been a good place to live, and Gwen hated that her carelessness had led to this, too.
To this date, that event haunts her, and she is afraid that his carelessness could cost her and the people around her such losses, or worse.
♒ - cooking/food headcanon
Eirien: Eirien never had a reason to learn to cook before he left the Circle at Ostwick for the Conclave. He still can’t cook much, but is an enthusiastic student when someone has the mind to show him how to cook new dishes beyond the most basic porridges and soups and boiled whatever. xD His companions are not exactly impressed, but at least they don’t make faces.
Eiriendoesn’t have an adventurous palate, but is also used to eating whatever is put onto his plate, and WILL try anything at least once if not for any other reason, then to at least be polite. His favorites include blueberry pies, minty things, game, sweet (honeyed) meaty dishes, and onions and carrots (he’d happily eat raw onions, probably). There isn’t anything he particularly hates, except very very chewy textures (like that stuff that you just keep chewing, and never can swallow). He likes food and eating, and some years after the threat of Corypheus is over and he travels and fights less, he probably gains a bit of weight because of this. :) He’s the kind of person who somehow manages to avoid weight-gain no matter what he does - until a certain age, when it just starts happening.
Gwenhwyvar: Gwenhwyvar absolutely knows how to cook - in the Alienage she would help her mother, and cook for herself if she had to be elsewhere during mealtimes. With the clan Lavellan, her skills improved infinitely, and she became quite an adventurous cook AND eater. She has a knack for seasoning, and using unusual (in human standards) ingredients such as flowers to her advantage. Cooking is no passion of hers, but I imagine she cooks quite often for her companions on their journeys (which garners mixed reactions, especially when she gets more creative & strange ingredients are readily available).
Gwen’s favorite foods include barley porridge, and any hot dish with fruit in it, bonus points if it’s also spicy (she would love to get more acquainted with spicy Antivan dishes), and flowery salads when available, aaand she likes berries and nuts, and chocolate, and all manner of fancy sweets she gets her hands on as an Inquisitor who travels around and visits foreign dignitaries. She detests beets.
♦ - quirks/hobbies headcanon
Eirien: Eirien’s work is also his pleasure, so he is more than likely to be found in the library or in his rooms reading in his spare time. Being out of the Circle for such a long time has made him realize how quickly you can fall off the wagon in a way - how much easier it was to stay updated on the latest research in his areas of interest within the Circle system. :) But also being out of the Circle has made him appreciate more mundane activities, and he really likes digging into the soil in the Skyhold Gardens and growing things. He develops quite a green thumb, eventually, and is really proud of his herbs and vegetables.
Gwenhwyvar: Gwen took up leathercrafting with the Dalish elves, and can skin animals, treat their hides, and make stuff out of the leathers and furs. Her favorite thing is to braid long strips of leather - it’s her Calming Thing. She isn’t squamish, and actually enjoys the whole process of making leather or furs. She doesn’t do it as much after she becomes Inquisitor, but probably will take it up again once the threat is over. :) I could see her picking up embroidery as well. :)
