Jan 14
Another fav minor character - Lirene. The only person in Kirkwall with her shit truly together. Willing to throw hands to protect Anders. Doesn’t have time for your bullshit.
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Another fav minor character - Lirene. The only person in Kirkwall with her shit truly together. Willing to throw hands to protect Anders. Doesn’t have time for your bullshit.
@lyrium-ring asked me what drew me to Lirene, woman who shows up for one scene in Act 1 who the game then forgets about. But I think because the game forgets about her, I am like... eye... eye remember 👁
idk, for a game whose whole thing is 'say one of these fascist or communist things or fuck off', I feel like they really don't let us spend enough time hanging out with the fascists or the communists. and Anders is this stereotypical annoying white leftist dude, but we don't get to see much about the actual people around him or how he is logistically involved in the Mage Underground or Fereldan community organising, let alone involve ourselves in those spheres except in these really limited and opaque ways. And Act 1 does a lot of the heavy lifting in this game for establishing the setting and different competing interests in this city, before Act 2 shoves you through a rapidly advancing set of plot points and Act 3 is as bare bones as possible.
So Lirene is this really fascinating little dip into what's happening with the Fereldan refugees and !! she works with Anders. She's collecting coin to fund his clinic!! She knows him personally and know he's a mage and has opinions about him!! And it's never expanded on again, but I just love thinking about the practical reality of Anders running this clinic in Kirkwall for six or seven years. And presumably he needs things like cots and blankets and herbs and laundering and courier services and presumably Lirene is the one arranging that when we first meet Anders. And I have so many other questions: Is she involved in the Mage Underground, and if so how much? Does she arrange so he can perform house visits for Fereldans in her care that are too sick to trek into Darktown to his clinic? Has she had a falling out with him by the time Act 3 rolls and his mental health is worsening? In Act 3, she'll tell any Hawke that walks into her shop that she's honoured to sell anything to the Champion who's given Fereldans a good name in this city, and what's going through her head at that point if Hawke is abusing the workers at the Bone Pit or trying to get Anders turned over to the Templars, you know?
And there's also this tendency to portray anyone even slightly left-of-centre with progressive politics in media as a bit of a naive, illogical, emotional bleeding-heart lib (Leliana and Anders both get this to varying degrees, even though they are more complicated than that alone) but Lirene is just not like that AT ALL. She's stern! She's tough! You walk into her shop and she's laying down the law about how priority will be given to Fereldans that haven't yet found work or shelter - take your sob stories and come back tomorrow if you've already got those things. She's so obviously been working here in the trenches for a while, and she refuses to be pushed around about it!! And even if Hawke gets aggressive and threatening with her, she refuses to let on that she's intimidated.
And you know, also she tells Hawke that Anders has beautiful eyes.
So I just love her so much and wish we'd gotten more of her in the game because I really just want to know everything about her.
Round #1 — Match 52 of 104
Lirene
“A refugee who was able to make it on her own and then used that foothold to help others. She's tough, protective, and compassionate.”
“i love lirene because hawke rolls up like “hi i need information” and lirene’s energy is instantly “why should i trust you with anything.” as she should!! she’s protecting people, she’s protecting connections, she’s not handing out names to just anyone. kirkwall could use 500 more lirenes and maybe it would stop exploding for five minutes.”
vs. Vaea
“she's the first elven knight, she's robin hood and a master thief, she befriended multiple broody edgelords, and she saved the world”
Who should advance?
Lirene
Vaea
Lirene is like That’s My Son Now and Anders is helpless to stop her.
Ferelden Imports, part 2/2
Set just after the Tranquillity quest. Anders has just lost Karl and he's not handling it very well. Lucky he has a bit of a support system looking out for him.
Chapter word count: 2576
Total word count: 5119
~ * ~
He’d lost track of how much he had drunk. All he knew was that it wasn’t enough. The pain was still there. This had been the chance to regain on of the only good things he’d ever had in his life and now it was gone. Karl was gone.
He curled in on himself, wanting to cry tears that wouldn't come, the aching hole in his chest threatening to tear him apart.
They will pay for this, Justice told him but Anders shut him out. It was too late. The Templars had already taken everything that mattered from him, time and time again. His family. His safety and security. His freedom. And now, Karl, once again, but this time they had also taken all hope they could ever be reunited.
He had held himself together for a while, locking his feelings away. If he didn’t think about it, he could pretend it hadn’t happened.
The day after, he had pretended life was normal. Kept himself busy, unable to dwell, pushing himself harder than he probably should. The man - Hawke - and his friends had stopped by and he’d had to be honest about the relationship he had with Justice. It had gone well, all things considered. Hawke hadn’t turned him in at least, and had indicated he may still want Anders’ help in the future, despite everything.
He’d even managed to calm the rage Justice had sent coursing through their body, amplifying his own feelings. Justice had wanted revenge, vengeance, but once the initial anger had eased, he had accepted they needed a plan.
And then night had come again and the feelings would not be ignored.
[read more on Ao3] [read chapter 1]
Round #2 — Match 26 of 52
Lirene
“A refugee who was able to make it on her own and then used that foothold to help others. She's tough, protective, and compassionate.”
“i love lirene because hawke rolls up like “hi i need information” and lirene’s energy is instantly “why should i trust you with anything.” as she should!! she’s protecting people, she’s protecting connections, she’s not handing out names to just anyone. kirkwall could use 500 more lirenes and maybe it would stop exploding for five minutes.”
vs. Duncan
“Duncan, my beloved! He dies in the first three hours of the game and we are STILL talking about him. Introduces players to the central conflict and lore. Absolute madlad with his conscriptions. Big mentor energy. The original Grey Warden badass. What more could you ask for?”
“he’s kind of terrifying if you think about him for more than five seconds. he’s calm, he’s gentle, he’s got this “i believe in you” tone, and then you realize he is recruiting teenagers into a job that kills most people. and you still miss him when he’s gone because he was the only adult in the room who knew what was coming.”
“he’s pragmatic. he’s secretive. he’s willing to do morally grey things because the blight is worse, and the game never fully lets you resolve how you feel about that. depending on your origin, he can feel like salvation or like a thief who stole your future, and that tension is so good. and then ostagar happens and suddenly you’re the one carrying the weight he was holding.”
"he is SUCH a rascal ok like getting to read his younger pov in dragon age: the calling is so interesting. he was a thief and was forcibly conscripted into the wardens after accidentally killing the warden-commander's fiancé - who hoped he would die in the joining. except he DIDN'T and he made the most of being a grey warden because he HAD to. he put his life on the line during the battle of ostagar despite his frustration that no one was taking him or the blight seriously. he would have been a fantastic mentor to alistair and the warden had he survived!"
Who should advance?
Lirene
Duncan
The tears started to fall freely and she held him as he sobbed, one hand stroking his hair. She murmured comforting words to him, knowing that nothing she could say would be able to take away the pain he must be in. The combination of everything, the loss of the hope he must have been holding onto, the shock, the grief that came with losing a friend and the responsibility of being the one that ended his life. It was a lot and she didn’t blame him for drinking.
Anders and Lirene of Lirene’s Ferelden Imports, based on this chapter I wrote about Anders after Karl and the events of Tranquility! He’s not friends with Hawke and co. yet but my boy needed somebody for support. And Anders, Lirene and Justice are totally buddies, all three of them 💕
I’m still working on expressions and getting anatomy right but I’m pretty happy with how this turned out 😊
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Here’s a fic featuring Anders and Lirene drinking and having a fun night as friends, and Lirene meeting the other side of her new friend :) Set slightly before Tranquility - Anders hasn’t met Hawke yet!
This is actually me reposting what I originally posted as chapter 4 of Darktown Days! Because Lirene is a specific character in canon, no matter how minor, and not completely invented by me, because there’s a part 1 and part 2 which link while the others stand alone, and because I liked writing the three of them specifically so much, I decided I wanted them to share them apart from the other Darktown Days stuff ^_^