the empress and the hermit for whichever rook you'd like!
answered for my main Rook Eva - female, elf, Shadow Dragon rogue
The Empress: What does family mean for Rook?
Family is one of the core things that drives Rook. It’s what she fights for, what she’ll give everything for.
Her first memories are of being with her mother and father in the Denerim Alienage, listening to her mother sing songs that she learned on her travels before she settled down, begging for stories from her father who worked as a shipwright out of docks. They had very little money, but she never doubted how much she was loved.
When that was all torn away from her by Tevinter slavers during the Blight, her family extended beyond blood to a Qunari boy named Magnus, who was a slave in the same household as her in Minrathous. Despite the size difference, he became her little brother, defending him from their master, teaching him the songs her mother taught to her, promising him a home with her family when they managed to escape. And years later, when their opportunity came, after the untimely death of their master, it was ultimately Magnus that saved her, giving himself up to be arrested on suspicion of killing him so that she had a chance to get away and find her parents again.
For a time, family was the Shadow Dragons who took her in when she began to fight back against the chains she had once been held in herself, hiding as a ward of the Mercars, then it was simply Varric; a man who really taught her what kind of person she wanted to be, helped her hone her skills and impulsive nature into someone who could one day maybe be a hero.
And when all is said and done, once she can return home to Denerim, now a woman grown, and find peace in the fact that her parents are truly gone, but she has managed to find her way home after saving the world, the family she now has is more than enough to fill her heart.
Emmrich, the father figure she never expected. Sisters in Harding, Neve and Bellara. A sibling in Taash. A brother in Manfred. And love with her husbands Lucanis and Davrin (and Spite), and the family they build together, with Assan of course.
The Hermit: When Rook is alone with their thoughts, what do they think about? Is solitude a blessing or a curse for them?
If someone were to ask Rook, she would say that she is fine being alone, in fact; she prefers it, either to work or to relax. But that would be a complete lie.
When she is alone with her thoughts, when there is no company to be found and sleep evades her, she finds her thoughts plagued with guilt.
When she was forced from her home as a child and separated from her mother, the last thing her mother did was make her promise to find her way home to Denerim one day. Holding onto that promise kept her alive in the face of everything she went through, drove her to hold hope in her heart that she would find a way out of Minrathous, no matter what it cost and make it home.
But once she was free of her chains, she found that it wasn’t that simple. She had the opportunity to help others like her, to fight back, and even when it became a matter of not just fighting with the Shadow Dragons, but saving the damn world, there is something that eats away in the pit of her stomach, feeling like she has turned her back on her mother’s final wish for her.
When the guilt becomes too much, she’ll find her way to the Lighthouse kitchen and drink whatever she can get her hands on to help her sleep; often interrupted by Lucanis who is also awake, seeking distraction in each other’s company.
Rook Tarot Card Ask Game