handing u the mic to talk about ms d'alia 🎤 i wanna know what her childhood w d'liveq was like!!
wahhh ty for asking beloved <:
so I knew I wanted to base her backstory on the concept behind mahariel background of DA origins + rayla and runan of the dragon prince, where she’s raised by a close friend of her biological parents, and it really affects how d’liveq treats the situation. he doesn’t want to overstep or replace his friends in her life, but he’s the one who steps up to raise her in a safer environment.
I retconned that they aren’t alive and don’t think I’ve shared the updated lore yet, but d’alia’s birth parents are chimalli (she/her, “nunh” in more of a protector role than a progenitor of the clan) and eleuia (they/them, sort of an oral historian speaker of the clan), and they opted to stick with leading the others elsewhere in mor dhona after silvertear skies, choosing duty (stares directly at d’alia…..), while d’liveq chose d’alia in offering to raise her in revenant’s toll himself. he already was a large part of her upbringing, and as a culinarian and alchemist, he could easily find work in a settlement, which would be safer for both of them with any lingering garlean threat.
anyway, because of all the complicated feelings around all that and being so young (12-13) at the time, d’alia struggles to come around to why they left her, how little contact she has with them up to the calamity with the clan being nomadic, and the loneliness of going from a close communal environment to just d’liveq and her, and taking on eorzean-styled names. she holds fondness for memories with chimalli and eleuia, but in her heart, d’liveq is her parent, even if she’s always referred to him by his name (mihua) instead of parent or dad or anything.
despite the adjustment for both of them, though, d’alia had a really good childhood! d’liveq eventually opened his own cafe and d’alia helped out part-time through her teen years. he taught her more in depth about the plants, herbs, and minerals in the region, exploring a bit outside of the settlement with her and kickstarted her sense of wanderlust and love for learning. he told her stories about chimalli and eleuia and the rest of their clan to keep them in her heart, too. d’alia can be a little bossy and pushy even now because he let her get away with it at times, unsure how far to lean with parental firmness, but d’liveq shaped her curiosity and gave her endless compassion and care as she grew up.
