MIC!Arya and the Infamous Tarnag Temple Argument in IC Canon (AKA Modern Inheritance’s Take on Trauma, Religion, and Arya F***ing Apologizing)
Everyone gives Canon!Arya shit for the scene in the books where she gives Gannel shit in his own temple for having religion. I agree that it’s a bad moment for her character. I also feel it comes out of left field for Arya’s character up to that point but I’ll get smacked from here to the core mantle boundary for that by some of the fandom. I digress. This is very much not about my feelings on the canon version.
Let’s move on to how it might go for my Modern Inheritance!Arya and my version of events.
A lot of what I write about in MIC is trauma related. Arya’s one of the easiest characters for me to write for in that regard for obvious reasons, and because I’ve shaped my mental picture of her over the years so she’s the one I have the most practice with. Please note that usually when I go to bat for Arya I tend to get my MIC version of her muddled in with canon, so I apologize for any sharp words, brow beating, etc. Anyway...what was I talking about? OH RIGHT, TRAUMA AND THAT WHOLE TARNAG THING.
So just to further stress, this is Modern Inheritance/MIC right now.
Arya’s coming off from a hell of a time. You don’t exactly process deaths of loved ones very well while being tortured, and while she’s juggling all that plus two near death experiences that occurred probably within a week of each other, Eragon nearly dying and his back spasms, the guy that tortured her and killed her best friend and her mate is dead but she didn’t get to have a swing at him, mentally preparing to face her queen/mother, the ‘a whole clan now wants to murder Saphira and Eragon’ situation, civil unrest in the city they’re in, just Brom being Brom, physical stresses from the whole *waves hands at previous paragraph*, she’s suddenly reminded that hey...the dwarves and humans have something that elves don’t.
What’s that? Religion. And what usually comes with a religion?
The concept of an afterlife. The general idea that when someone dies they have not really left. The comfort that if you pray, meditate, visit a grave, do something special to you/your faith then you can make a connection to your lost loved ones and friends. The promise that even though they’ve left this world, they’re still looking out for you. And one day you’ll see them again. The separation is only brief.
And damn. Right then, that hurts for Arya. It’s like being kicked while you’re down.
TMI and on but off topic: My mother died when I was 12. She had a progressive neural disease which pretty much destroyed her mentally and physically over the course of a year or so. During that year, there were a bunch of ‘spiritual’ people coming over. Not mainstream religion types, but still.
I hated them with a passion. I hated them, the stuff they said about any type of afterlife or spirituality, prayer, the idea that the dead were not all gone, I fucking HATED that bumper sticker that says ‘if anything can go well, it will’ because ho BOY did that say something for the shit I was seeing and going through at the time.
I had been agnostic bordering on atheist before but this was the nail in it for me. After mom finally died I was a real sourpuss/snarky little shit whenever religion came up. I insulted every religion any time it came up. I shut down anything having to do with my mom ‘watching over me’ or ‘being with me/us in spirit.’
It took me years to understand it. I was angry because I couldn’t bring myself to believe that after all the shit I saw, the pain my dad went through, that I went through, and the whole year of watching a bright, loving, intelligent woman that was my whole world turn to a fully paralyzed drooling mess with mood swings and no voice besides a pained moan...that there was any sort of god or spiritual energy or other bullshit out there. Because then why would it happen? And why to her? People say that ‘well if there is a god then why does war/famine/assault/torture/disease/etc. happen?’ but when it happens to you, and you were already teetering on the edge of ‘does it or does it not, maybe there is something out there…’ it’s like being smacked in the face with a shovel.
I’ve got nothing against religion now, as long as it isn’t toxic or manipulative, etc. But I can see where Arya would be coming from.
Because deep down, Arya sees what the dwarves have. This comfort in thinking that the dead aren’t all gone, and that all it takes is reaching out to them to share thoughts and feelings, and that you’ll see them again.
And she wants that too. She wants it so badly. She envies their ability to think that way, to simply have faith in what they cannot see. She wants to talk to Fäolin and Glenwing (who is still alive in MIC but at this point she doesn’t know that) again, she wants to tell them that she misses them and that Eragon and Saphira exist and their deaths weren’t for nothing and tell them all the things unsaid...but no matter how much she wants to, she can’t get past everything thats happened in the past 6+ months and her own cultural beliefs.
It hurts. She can’t think of anything else to say past the hurt and so she lashes out like I did. She doesn’t understand why really, but knows that religion and afterlives and all of it just make her...angry. Because what else could that cold rock in her chest be?
In MIC, Arya is not as stubborn when it comes to atheism or other cultures. Before the ambush, she frequently asked questions about the dwarvish religion, not exactly realizing that her questions could be considered more of ‘you dare question the faith’ than ‘so wait what if this happens? Do you still get to go to the afterlife? But what about when you feel a mind die? Where does it go?’ innocent type questions that come from curiosity. She still has the feeling that the money donated to religions could go to better places, but also realizes that sometimes the religions actually send said donations TO those places/the needy, and that structures/art/etc that were built long ago do kinda need upkeep. So instead of being a dick about it, when the dwarves at the temple bluntly tell her ‘would you shut up and leave already we don’t want to answer your questions’ she adds a cheeky ‘sure I’ll go as long as you donate to the Varden’s current fundraiser’ and goes on her way when they agree to donate.
But Arya still blatantly crosses a line by confronting Gannel rather sharply about her newfound feelings on religion while Eragon is there. She’s been following them as Eragon’s bodyguard (why the HELL did canon!Arya leave Eragon alone, even in a temple full of warrior monks, wheN A WHOLE CLAN WAS TRYING TO KILL HIM?!) and she doesn’t even realize that she’s said anything until Eragon looks back at her like ‘ooooh nooooooOO ARYA WHAT THE HELL?! WAS THAT?!’ and she sees that the back of Gannel’s head is turning purple with rage.
Eragon manages to extricate himself from it all and meet up with Saphira, and after a rather...heated...uh…”discussion,” Gannel finally flames that while Arya’s questions before pushed the limit, this was beyond unacceptable and asks what the fuck is wrong with her. Arya just storms out.
Arya comes back to the temple later that night, asks for Gannel, and pretty much kneels down and puts her forehead on the floor in front of him (MIC elves do this only when they realize they REALLY fucked up and use this stance as an open way of saying that they fucked up, apologize, and will accept the consequences) with a sincere apology for her earlier conduct. Honestly, her ear is still red from where Brom had twisted it when he caught wind of what she had done, but she’s not apologizing just because of that.
She wants to learn how to pray.
Not to a god or spirit, but how to talk to the ones she’s lost. The idea of religion giving a false sense of hope still hurts and angers her...but she’s realized that maybe there’s a reason why it can bring comfort.
Gannel awkwardly explains that a way to get started is to simply speak aloud, as if talking to someone that isn’t there. When he realizes Arya isn’t pulling his leg or going to go off on him again, he decides to give her the ‘how to talk to dead people’ primer course over some mead and does his best to keep the more hard religion stuff out of it. As a priest/monk, he’s used to consoling people who have lost family and loved ones. He can pick up the signs easily enough...when the person isn’t ready to punch a hole in his fancy history wall.
As she leaves, Arya apologizes again.
And prods Gannel to donate to the Varden’s current fundraiser.
Used a shutterstock image as reference
Originally posted on my DeviantArt Account!
Arya's been fighting in the Rider War for over seventy years now. Even though she's supposed to be there as an 'ambassador' for the elves it was quickly apparent to the Varden that her skills as a fighter on the battlefield made her more valuable than at any tedious negotiating table. She became the first, and for a long time the only, member of the Elvin Special Ops unit. Covert infiltration, target protection, scouting and full blown war were soon her near constant companion. When tasked with guarding and transporting the only known free dragon egg, the elf accepted the mission with the knowlage that the outcome could end the war altogether.
With Saphira now hatched and a young Rider to protect alongside his grouchy old mentor, Arya has become a temporary bodyguard. But that doesn't mean she will, or even can, stop being a Soldier.
~~~
Modern Inheritance drawing, based off "This is War" by Thirty Seconds to Mars because it's a terrific song.
Mentioned very briefly in 'Night Terrors,' Modern Inheritance elvish armor is made from spidersilk. When woven correctly and layered properly it becomes a nearly impenetrable barrier that can stop blade and bullets with the flexibility of cloth and a fraction of the weight of kevlar.
Here we get to see Arya's full tactical armor made of spidersilk plate. That shutterstock image is a godsend it's the perfect model with so many variations and aaaggh I love it.
Like many of the Varden's fighters Arya has added her own customizations to her armor. The ESO's motto of "Edoc'sil"(Unconquerable) has been sealed on the back, and to add some welcome black humor to the battlefield the phrase "Talk shit, get hit" is painted on the back of each of her gloves.
I’m hoping the scarring looks more natural after shading. I’ve been drawing these as like...pre-leaving-for-Ellesmera at the latest. Even with the MIC timeline alterations and the travel time and Eragon healing most of the deepest open wounds up to the surface, Arya’s torture injuries still have several months of healing to go from that semi-raw looking scar stage to smoothing out. I’ll make a ‘where did this one come from/when did this one happen?’ thing in a little bit.
ALSO. After I finished going over the pencil drawing digitally I remembered I was going to do another one of these with Arya’s spidersilk armored jacket that she usually has on when it’s cloudy with a chance of bullets, which is nearly all the time. Some people might whine (internally I’m guessing since Books and Lords are the only ones commenting lmao) about ‘heeeyy why isn’t MIC!Arya wearing black?’ and I respond with 1. The jacket is black. 2. The pants are special and can be black, which I’ll word vomit about when I post the finished versions of the MIC character concepts, and 3. “I’m not Murtagh. I keep my angst internal. And all black clothing is hot as fuck, I don’t need to be sweating buckets all day.”
