Other things Iolis expresses bewildered indignation over:
sleeping on the ground (’how is the ground LESS comfortable than apprentice beds?’ he wails to no one in particular)
Alistair’s cooking (at one point Iolis asks Morrigan if she can teach him how to cook and she tells him she won’t teach him because that will just encourage Alistair to continue to be awful at it, but his utterly crestfallen look causes her to relent)
having to relieve himself in a bush
having to bathe in STREAMS and PONDS (he’s sure he’ll never be warm again)
how fast Cinnamon (the mabari who adopts him) gets smelly and has to be bathed in some horrible, awful, too cold stream
money and trying to remember which size and color of coin is worth how much
of course they don’t let mages in the Circle have money, Alistair! They don’t have anything to spend it on!
having to explain the requisition process to Alistair and Alistair’s increasing look of horror
finding out that Templars and Templar recruits are allowed to have money
how most humans start talking to Alistair or Morrigan or Leliana even when Iolis was the one to address them first
Things Iolis hasn’t expressed bewildered indignation over, because it’s way too embarrassing:
his increasingly intense crush on Alistair, which everyone in the group notices except the man himself, who couldn’t be more oblivious if he’d been enchanted to be that way
I haven’t been playing Origins much lately, so Iolis hasn’t gotten much past Lothering. He’s already doing nicely at growing an actual personality, however - something of a wide-eyed, serious kid who believes strongly in good manners, his own abilities, and the powers of authority and order.
That last has obviously been sorely tested.
He’s currently operating in a state of bewildered indignation. He’s a Grey Warden! That’s supposed to mean something! But Loghain abandoned them, and then in Lothering he finds out he and Alistair are wanted men just because they’re Grey Wardens, even though he was one for about three hours before Loghain fucked off and left them to die, and then some drunken jerks - ostensibly king’s men - try to kill them!
This isn’t supposed to be how the world works!
Alistair is kind of helplessly wondering what he’s gotten himself into, following this wide-eyed naif into danger after danger (even though he still can’t bear to take the lead himself because his self-worth has been smashed down so far, thanks a lot, Eamon). A wide-eyed naif who seems to have a talent for picking up strays left and right, at that. What are they going to do with a crazy Chantry sister and a Qunari, anyway?
Morrigan is by turns amused and despairing - if Alistair is wondering what he’s gotten himself into, she’s wondering if her mother didn’t do something to her mind to make her think this was at all a tenable idea. Iolis has only slightly more idea about how the outside world works than she does, and he isn’t nearly hard-headed enough to survive undamaged. It’s a good thing she’s around, because Alistair is clearly useless, having left everything to a Circle mage.
They’ve currently headed off to Honneleath after getting Shale’s control rod, an idea everyone thinks Iolis is pretty ridiculous for going for - and (thanks to mods) have gotten attacked by assassins along the way, because his luck is just like that. And of course - through his increased indignation that Loghain sent assasins after them!!! - he recruits the assassin. Because of course he does.
He’s really not going to like Zevran’s suggestion that maybe it’d be a good idea if he and Alistair changed out of their Warden armor so they don’t look quite so conspicuous...
He’s all smiles and snark and cutting words and never, ever forgets an insult, much less an injury. Sometimes he lashes out in the moment, too angry and impulsive to stop himself, but he prefers poetic justice or, failing that, taking their life apart piece by piece until they do something that makes it all fall down around them, and they think they did it to themselves.
The prime example is how he blackmailed Celene, Briala, and Gaspard all to work together because they deserved each other, murderers and traitors and the faces of a country full of people who would call him ‘rabbit’ without blinking. He doesn’t care if they burn Orlais to the ground in their infighting, not anymore - he’ll come back to laugh at the ashes, and they will have done it to themselves.
Iolis - Best Friend
It was Jowan at first, of course. He was a slightly older child who took the tiny, pale elven boy with a ragged cut across his cheek under his wing. For quite some time they were close as brothers, Jowan protecting Iolis from the human kids who would pick on him, Iolis helping Jowan with their schoolwork.
As they got into adolescence, it became more one-sided. Jowan spent most of his time daydreaming, thinking about girls, and looking for excuses and shortcuts, leaving Iolis to cover for him. He did, though, uncomplainingly, because Jowan was like a brother to him.
When Jowan got involved with Lily, he gave Jowan increasingly desperate hints that this was veering into territory he couldn’t help him with. Jowan refused to hear them, and kept going to Iolis for help. When Jowan asked for help escaping, Iolis turned in desperation to the First Enchanter, who was only interested in his politics.
It made him sick to betray his stupid, foolish brother, but it made him even sicker still when Jowan betrayed him. Worst of all, though, was how Iolis wasn’t even particularly surprised that it turned out that way.
actually that's a good point- how did either of them react to Sten's everything?
Iolis was continually flustered and confused by Sten. Eventually the Qunari would annoy Iolis into standing up to him and being firm, which pleased him, which baffled Iolis to no end for quite a while. Eventually they warmed up to one another, even if they never quite understood each other, and Iolis was sad to see him go.
Viorica takes no shit from anyone, however, and is blunt to a fault. She found Sten puzzling at first, but her straightforward nature got through to him. As she got to know him she came to realize that in a lot of ways, he was just as lost and lonely as she was. He was her first friend among the ragtag group she assembled, and even though Alistair was her lover and she considered Morrigan her sister, Sten was the closest to her of all.
Iolis found himself unnerved and amused by turns. Shale represented a lot of things that made him nervous, but her snark and cheerful, casual threats represented something he'd been secretly wishing for during his entire existence in the tower - to be something other than a painfully rule-abiding goody-two-shoes. Some of his first successful forays into being rude on purpose were made at Shale, and her sarcastic approval of getting back some of what she dished out increased his confidence considerably.
Favorite bonding activity with Shale: Installing new crystals and complimenting her on how nice she looked with them. He meant every word.
Viorica, however, felt unnerved for an entirely different reason - after living in a stifling tower all her life, with Shale, Viorica had found not one, but two siblings-in-spirit (the other being Morrigan). That made Viorica seriously consider the existence of the Maker more than any amount of sitting through the Chant ever would. Delivering cutting quips and making monsters and miscreants go squish while laughing merrily was their favorite bonding activity. Viorica did get a tiny bit jealous when she noticed that Shale also had a bit of a thing for Sten.
Name: Iolis Surana
Age: 19 at the start of Origins
Background: Circle mage (elf)
Appearance: Pale, with pale platinum blond hair, light amber eyes, and a rather beaky nose. He keeps his hair tied back in a braid, for the most part, but when it's loose it's wavy and past his shoulders. He has the typical slender build most elves have, but he is a little taller than average, as well as a bit more frail looking.
Religion: Agnostic. He paid lip service to the Chantry's teachings to get by, but he never forgot how little the elves are considered under the Chantry's eye, how seldom the elves in the alienage he spent his childhood in recieved their charity. He knows of the elven lore other elves cling to, but he regards it little more than myth. Whatever forces are at work have left them all to make the best of things and could not be relied upon.
Iolis' family were city elves in a Free Marches city, and he was taken to the Kinloch Hold when he started manifesting magic at age 10. He can no longer remember which city he came from, but he still remembers his mother. She did not cry when she learned the templars were coming for her son; she wore the bravest face she could as she told Iolis he'd need to be brave and learn everything he could, and that if he ever felt in doubt of what his head or heart told him, he could trust in being kind and doing his best to understand.
He wailed and wept when the templars came, but he was fortunate in that the commander of these, at least, had not let himself become jaded and cruel, and did not try to shame or hurry him as he said one last goodbye to his mother and grandparents. Iolis left with little more than the clothes on his back and the memory of his mother's lips brushing his forehead.
Fortunately for Iolis, life as a scholar suited him. He was eager to learn and to train, and although he got a reputation for being something of an apple polisher, he mitigated that by being willing to help the other apprentices. He was meek enough (or lucky enough) to escape the templar's eyes. For the most part, this was a positive thing... until Jowan. Poor, stupid, doomed Jowan.
Jowan wasn't inherently stupid - he could be quite bright, when he bothered to stop and think. That, unfortunately, was the problem - Jowan was impatient, envious, ruled by his emotions over his sense, too willing to take dangerous shortcuts. At first, Iolis wanted to help Jowan with what he seemed to struggle with, and he stayed friends because sometimes it was thrilling to help Jowan with his dangerous ideas and shortcuts.
Jowan came to Iolis more and more often to help him solve problems he only had himself to blame for, problems that got a little worse each time. His studies suffered in favor of his schemes, despite Iolis's best efforts to help him focus - and how strange it was that Jowan's emergencies always coincided with Iolis' successes?
As Iolis reached the time of his Harrowing - the ritual that would make him a fully fledged Circle mage and not just an apprentice - he realized he needed to put the breaks on their friendship. He'd scarcely recovered from the ritual, however, when Jowan came to him with his biggest emergency yet: a Chantry sister he'd fallen in love with and a rumor that Jowan was to be made Tranquil - magically lobotomized.
Iolis had had enough. He went to First Enchanter Irving, a man he'd looked up to all these years, who'd become a father figure to him, whose praise he'd thrived on. He went to Irving, and trusted him when he told Iolis to play along with Jowan's plan.
Iolis did so, feeling worse and worse about what was about to happen, about how obliviously trusting the Chantry sister was of Jowan and how thoughtlessly confident Jowan had become when Iolis had agreed to help them. It was almost a relief to emerge from the storehouse where they'd smashed Jowan's phylactery to see a throng of templars gathered to catch them - but then Jowan, the stupid, doomed, duplicitous bastard, slashed open his hand and used the power of his own blood - forbidden magic he swore he'd never used - to attack them and flee, leaving the Chantry sister and Iolis behind to take his punishment for him.
If it weren't for the visiting Grey Warden, Duncan, Iolis may well have been made an example of, for Irving was unwilling to defend him. But step in Duncan did, and whisked him away to a fate that could have lead to death just as easily - but it would be a swifter, more dignified death, at least.
Instead of death, his Joining propelled him into a far stranger fate than he could have imagined.
And of his kindness, his goodwill, his willingness to help? Jowan had used up nearly all of it, to be sure, but traveling to Ostagar and talking with Duncan restored some of Iolis's faith in kindness. Even after Logain's betrayal, that faith remained; Alistair was there for him, and Iolis for Alistair. And then, more friends--
The mabari who found them reminded Iolis of the power of loyalty, and the responsibility of having that loyalty. Alistair reminded Iolis of the power of humor, and how important it is to have a friend at your side. Leliana taught Iolis the importance of faith - not necessarily in religion, but in yourself and your friends. Sten taught Iolis the power of being strong in your convictions. Zevran taught Iolis what devotion feels like. Shale... mostly taught Iolis the power of a big, stone fist, but she never failed to make him laugh when things were grim.
And Morrigan, the person he struggled to understand the most, taught him how cold life can really be even as she taught him the true power of his kindness and his persistence in trying to understand someone on their own terms.
When they found Jowan again, Iolis didn't hesitate to release him from where he'd been locked up, even after everything he'd done - but when Redcliffe and the Arl were safe again, he did not plea on Jowan's behalf, because he also learned how it felt to have his kindness and friendship truly returned to him. "His fate is for the Arl to decide", he told Teagan. As Jowan slumped in despair, Iolis shut that chapter of his life for good.
