replaying my canon rook in preparation for my dreadrook fic, so i am dropping her lore for my own sake to look back at while writing! and yes, she has main character energy idc! she's the main character and greywarden!rook (specifically elf!rook) as a whole has so much creative potential. yes, i am ignoring any dialogue in dav that says she wasn't dalish. too bad! also, even though she has a name, i am just using rook. it makes it easier.
Born into a small Dalish clan in the outskirts of Ferelden, Rook was taught to hone her magic at a young age with the help of her clan's Keeper and First. She was lively, curious, and optimistic to a fault.
When she reached 12 years of age, during 9:34 Dragon, her camp was raided in the dark of the night. Instead of succumbing to the raiders demands, her clan took up arms. Outnumbered 1:4, the clan was slaughtered, almost in entirety. Rook and her clan's First survived only by revealing their magic use; the raiders were on the lookout specifically for Dalish mages, it seemed. They loaded them both into a caravan, unknowingly headed to the Tevinter Imperium.
As they drew closer to Minrathous, Rook's First realized what was happening and where they were going. After pressing her clan amulet to the young Rook's palm, she flung herself from the moving caravan, taking three of their jailors out with her. Rook didn't see, but heard her First's demise.
Once she reached the Imperium, she was near-immediately taken to the central chambers and labs of a prolific Magister. No name was ever given; not one she cared to remember, at least. Due to Rook's skill in magic at such a young ageāthanks to her clan's benevolence in helping her stay safeāthe Magister was quick to ruthlessly train her in the magic of ancient Tevinter.
Despite her insubordination and lack of experience around non-Dalish, the Magister spent 2 years shaping and molding her magic and her mind. Using blood magic to control her most days, she was honed as a weapon and used to eliminate any threats to her Magister's rule; victims ranging from other villainous Magisters, to innocent bystanders in the wrong place at the wrong time, to fellow servants and slaves working in the Magister's labs.
Due to ignorance and hubris, however, the Magister didn't realize the damage his blood magic was causing, nor did he notice when his hold began to slip and gave way to Rook's instability.
After a particularly grueling string of experiments, she snapped; she killed the Magister and every unfortunate soul in the building. Not long after, she was arrested, chained and carted away by another merchant band of raiders, exiled from the Imperium. For the next 2 years, she was on the road as a silent servant, locked in her own mind for survival.
Incidentally, and to her greatest surprise, one fateful night brought the Iron Fist of Nevarran hospitality raining down on the merchant caravan. A group of Watchers were patrolling the inlet to the Necropolis with two unfamiliar-looking soldiers; the likes of which Rook had never seen. The head merchant was quick to disregard any novel tales about the horrors of crossing the Mourn Watch, it seemed, as he was siccing his caravan on the smaller group of soldiers and mages as soon as they stopped to peruse the wares.
The Watchers were taken off-guard, but they were not witless; they made quick work of the merchants, reanimating their corpses to join the fight as soon as they hit the cobbled ground. The other two soldiers, donning similar blue-and-silver armor adorned with tracings of a bird Rook had never seen, were even quicker. One was slicing through them with precision, his shield steady in front of him. The other was cloaking the caravan in darknesss and lightning, her blade pure energy as it crackled.
When the dust had settled, Rook was fully expecting to be taken prisoner as an accomplice to the crime; she stayed rooted to her seat, after all, refusing to jump in and attack with the Watchers. The group of necromancers, however, had other ideas; she was quickly recognized as a slave, and quickly assured that no harm would come to her. Without second thought, Rook confessed her crimes in the Imperium, noting she was with the caravan as punishment.
As soon as she made known what she had been doing for 4 years, the two soldiers appeared in front of her. Warden-Commander Surana and Warden Therin, they introduced themselves as, before informing her they wanted to conscript her to the Warden Order.
Believing the Wardens to have died out completely fighting the Fifth Blight, as told by her clan Keeper, she rejected the offer and stubbornly insisted she would rather be charged for her crimes. Surana and Alistair explained only the Imperium could charge her for crimes committed in their borders, pointing out that her given punishment was exile and servitude. Surana spent the most time convincing her, relating their stories and experiences, before Rook finally relented.
Traveling to Weisshaupt and making formalities with the higher ups in the Order, Rook was soon preparing for her Joining. She and four other recruits were ushered to a secret location before being presented with a chalice full of foul-smelling blood. One by one, she watched her fellow recruits perish, eyes rolling to the backs of their head while their own blood leaked from every orifice as they dropped to the floor.
When her time came, she was quick to begin to panic; she made the mistake of reaching for her staff before Surana was grabbing onto her and begging her not to while Alistair's hands were already unsheathing his sword and shield. After a short struggle and more pleas from the Warden-Commander, a haunted look in her eye, Rook relented.
She survived, miraculously, but not without defects. When she awoke from her post-Joining rest, her sceleras had blackened. As time went on, throughout her training, it was noted she had gained a poor and less-than-amenable healing factor, slowing progress and prolonging pain for every injury she incurred.
After yet another two years in a new environment, Rook finally felt she had a place to call home. Surana and Alistair watched over her closely, offering advice and comfort when asked, and pushing her independence when warranted. Alistair regaled their stories of the Fifth Blight and tales of their unconventional love story, while Surana re-introduced Rook's Dalish history to her, encouraging her to stay faithful by gifting Rook her own valaslin rite. Forehead marred with the the mark of Elgarn'nan, Rook threw herself into her history once more.
Surana soon left on a secret mission, though she wrote whenever possible. When news of a catastrophe spreading through southern Thedas reached Weisshaupt, Alistair was then called away and asked to assist the Inquisitor with the looming threat. He gave her his journal and Surana's clan ring before leaving, promising the pair would return to hear of all of her adventures soon enough once the older Wardens reunited after their respective missions.
Less than a year later, Alistair returned, dejected and closed off and alone. He refused to speak to anyone, even Rook, and left Weisshaupt a month after coming back. He didn't inform Rook where he was off to, and so began her decade of solitude. Only focused on praying to her Creators, killing darkspawn, and pissing off the First Warden, she was able to push the previous decade of her life in Ferelden, Tevinter, and on the road away from her memories.
She made few friends, Antoine and Evka the only other Wardens who made the effort to chip away her hardened exterior. Even so, she grew to adore and trust the couple as much as she had Surana and Alistair, marking the end of her self-inflicted isolation.
In the fated year of 9:51, Rook lead the charge against a hoarde of darkspawn, disobeying orders and saving an entire town in the process. Varric, a dwarf she had noted wandering around the camp a bit aimlessly, took note of her immediately, offering her a spot on his 'team' as soon as the higher ups had finished scolding her in front of the entire village.
Ready for the next adventure in her life, and urged by Antoine and Evka to get away from the First Warden's vengeful ire, Rook agreed, marking the beginning of her newest, and final, chapter.
