Splash of Color - DA headcanon celebration
Splash of Color Saturday Prompt: Tell us about important figures in the history of specific regions, and cultures, in Thedas! Past kings, queens, leaders of empires, and leaders of tribes. Perhaps there are infamous rebels, gentle healers, renowned teachers? Or someone else who has extraordinary importance to your narrative from the past? Let us remember them, here!
Thanks for an awesome prompt @thedasincolor!
Tyrdda Bright-Axe, founder of the Avvar, and Hendir, prince of the dwarves, had a child together. This child became the next leader of the tribe when Tyrdda passed away. What was their name? What did they achieve? How did their parents' heritage affect them? Saga of the Avvar-Mother says little on the matter, so let me spin the yarn further.
The Rise of Heidrun the Wise
The Avvar tribe found itself in a precarious situation after breaking away from the Alamarri and leaving the Fertile Valley. They travelled to the south and west of the Lake of Tears (which became known as Lake Calenhad in the Exalted Age) where Mount Belenas once stood. The mountainous land was a harsh environment compared to the plains they had left behind. Nonetheless, the Avvar set out to make it their new homeland.
On their long journey, the Avvar took shelter from snow in a vast cave. However, they found no safety as their entrance enraged a mighty dragon. Tyrdda managed to defeat it with the help of her leaf-eared lover. Venturing deeper into the cave system, they eventually encountered a group of dwarven warriors led by prince Hendir. He was the heir to the king of the Valammar Thaig.
At her lover's behest, Tyrdda approached Hendir with a proposition of peace. The prince agreed, and the tribe began to flourish. A number of Avvar merchants and warriors were chosen to maintain regular contact with the Valammar Thaig. They started learning the Trade Tongue, which was an artificial language invented by some brilliant minds in the Merchant Caste to improve communication between distant thaigs, as the dwarves spoke a dozen of different languages and dialects at the time.
Tyrdda formed a deep friendship with Hendir. Following her lover's advice to extend her bloodline so that the Avvar tribe could remain strong, she asked Hendir to sire a child with her. When their daughter was born, she was bestowed the name Heidrun, from heiðr meaning "bright" and rún meaning "secret" or "rune". Heidrun spent most of her childhood on the surface, but she accompanied Tyrdda whenever the Avvar-Mother visited the Valammar Thaig. She often joined other emissaries as well, as she was always welcome in the dwarven realm. Heidrun learned the Trade Tongue directly from her father. Her command of the language was excellent thanks to the early start she'd gotten. Soon, she conversed in Trade fluently, even better than Tyrdda herself. She also soaked up a lot of the ancient dwarven language spoken in Valammar.
The link between the Avvar and the Valammar dwarves grew stronger each year. The Avvar brought in goods from the surface: furs, wood, mountain crystals, fresh fruit and vegetables, and so on. In return, the dwarves crafted weapons and armor for the mountainfolk to bear. It allowed the Avvar to strengthen their position and succesfully deter the most zealous followers of Thelm Gold-Handed who still carried a grudge against Tyrdda.
Due to the increased contact with the surface, the Trade Tongue began expanding its vocabulary in order to describe items and concepts that did not exist underground. Roots of these new words often originated from the proto-Alamarri language, which was spoken by the Alamarri as well as the recently established Avvar tribes. Proto-Alamarri later evolved into Alamarri, Avvar, and Chasind languages. The Avvar speech changed the least throughout the ages.
True to her name, Heidrun became fascinated by the runes that were used to record Trade Tongue. She often acted as a scribe to her mother, marking down the goods that were being sent to and from underground. When she stayed in Valammar, she perused her father's ledgers, learning about the deals that went on between different dwarven kingdoms. She had a knack numbers and could always spot an error in the calculations. When Hendir was crowned king of Valammar, he allowed Heidrun to study texts in the Shaperate library.
Heidrun did not inherit her mother's magical gift; in fact, she displayed partial resistance to spells and lyrium, a sign of her dwarven heritage. Her sleeping mind seldom wandered in the Land of Dreams. As a result, she was able to participate in the process of enchantment crafting, albeit for a shorter period of time than dwarven smiths, in order to limit the exposure to concentrated lyrium. Despite this setback, she developed a great skill in enchantment making. One of her accomplishments was designing a pattern that could protect items against the damaging effects of frost.
Tyrdda passed away when Heidrun was a young adult. As it had been planned, the Avvar-Mother's daughter became the next tribe leader. As the only remaining blood kin of Tyrdda, Heidrun had the right to decide what should happen to her earthly possessions. She gave away many of them but decided to keep the most powerful artifacts such as the famed axe. She couldn't use the fire-staff herself, of course. Instead, she intended to store them in a well-protected place so that greedy, corrupt people couldn't put their hands on them, while those who prove worthy may borrow the gifts in times of dire need. She requested help from her father to build a vault where her mother's greatest trophies could be hidden. Hendir readily provided workers and materials to construct the vault.
As a teenager, Heidrun got the idea to adapt the runes for the Avvar language. She created several new symbols to account for the sounds that didn't exist in Trade, and she was tweaking the design over the years. Following her mother's departure to the Lady's domain, Heidrun finalized the idea. The first thing she used the runes for was to write down the Saga of Tyrdda Bright-Axe that the skalds were singing. Then, she mapped out the area south of the Lake of Tears and chose eight places, one for each stanza of the Saga. In those locations, she planned to erect stone stelae that'd be inscribed with the verses. Among the letter symbols, a direction marker would be hidden. Once a determined hero would discover all secret markers, they'd be able to locate the vault. It wasn't the only safeguard that Heidrun arranged, suffice to say, Tyrdda's legacy was exceptionally well protected.
During Heidrun's rule, the Avvar forged peace with the Alamarri. Though it was fragile, no major breach of trust occurred for almost five decades. Remnants of Thelm's followers attempted to revive his cursed dream, but they were decidedly crushed by the joined forces from the highlands and the plains. The two tribes engaged in trade of goods and exchange of ideas. The Alamarri established a connection with the dwarves, following example of their Avvar cousins.
Nearing the end of her life, Heidrun suggested building a fortress on an island on the Lake of Tears. Over the years, the Avvar regained their power, now claiming most of the western shoreline. Heidrun thought it'd be sensible to establishing a vantage point on the lake. Moreover, waters of the lake were believed to possess mysterious power. Heidrun wished to study it more closely. She drew the first draft of the fortress. Soon, construction began, with help from the dwarves naturally. Heidrun lay the cornerstone, unfortunately, she didn't live to see the completion of her project. The fortress was finished several years after her death. It was named Kinloch Hold due to being located near the estuary of the lake, however, the Avvar often called it Bright Hold in honour of Heidrun. The fortress survived almost a millenium, until the Imperium invaded and tore down the hold to construct their skyscraping tower on top of its foundation.