#perrin threnhold

[volkoss]

Fic: Dissonance (Ch. 6 - Enemies)

CHAPTER 6: ENEMIES | MEREDITH & GUYLIAN | WORDS: 531 | RATED: M

A series of non-linear vignettes exploring the life of Meredith Stannard. Written for @14dayscirclemages. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 (AO3 LINK)

On rare occasions, Meredith will dream about what had happened when her knight-commander had been hanged. Mercenaries acting on behalf of the tyrant, or so the official story claimed, but Meredith knows better. In the first two weeks after Threnhold’s arrest she’d spent most of her waking hours standing guard outside his cell. Even back then she could recognise a man being tortured when she heard it. The pleas, the wails. The crunching of cartilage, the breaking of bone.     

The sobs, the silence.

The sounds of a man realising he was all alone in the world. No allies, no friends. Not a single living soul would ever care that he had all but disappeared and nobody would be coming to save him.

By all accounts, Threnhold had been a despot deposed by his own hubris. The former viscount had risked igniting an Orlesian invasion and the Order had provided a ready response to the threat to Kirkwall’s sovereignty. It would be an impressive tale, if one did not understand the basic tenets of the templars; or, to be more precise, one did not understand the functioning of the Kirkwall Order under Knight-Commander Guylian’s leadership. Guylian had been the kind of knight-commander depicted in children’s storybooks: steadfast in his duty and apolitical to a fault. He’d confided in Meredith that the Chantry had requested the templars pressure the viscount into reopening the harbour. But most importantly: he’d told her how he’d refused them.

And now, he was dead. Hanged in his own stronghold, no less!

Meredith had once aspired to the same neutrality she had been taught by Knight-Commander Guylian and Ser Wentworth before him, but she was no idiot. That dream was dead now. Dead, like her mentor. Dead, like the knight-commander.

Dead, like she would be if she did not comply. She could already feel the noose around her neck, rough rope threatening to choke her.

The long arm of the Chantry, ready to pull the lever.

It was tempting to let them. It would be a small price to pay for freedom: fall, fall, fall, snap. But she had seen executions go wrong too many times before. Besides, if she were dead, she could not perform her duty: she had sworn to save the people of Kirkwall, just as she had once promised to protect her sister. She might have failed Amelia, but Meredith would not, could not, fail this city.

Why else would the Maker have rescued her that night if not for this purpose? If He truly had no plan for her, would it not have been better, kinder, to have left her there to die?

Instead, she had suffered, but the suffering had strengthened her. And it would continue to strengthen her, empowering her to do what needed to be done.

She could endure a thinly-veiled threat. She had endured so much already.

When Elthina finally dismissed Meredith from her post, the post outside the cell of a man whose worst crimes had been a terrible temper and refusing to bend the knee to Orlais, it had been with little more than a soft, steely smile and the words I’ll see you soon, Knight-Commander. Meredith had known better than to question the new title, relieved to finally be released back to the relative safety of the Gallows.

The Gallows, where her knight-commander had been hanged.

[stonesense]

Do you understand how Kirkwall politics work? Ik theres a viscount but like…is it just viscount and Templar’s? Three people?

i don't know a lot off the top of my head but let's take a look!

kirkwall is ruled by a viscount. it does seem to be a hereditary position, but if the viscount has no heirs or the line is otherwise removed from power, kirkwall's nobility have the right to elect a new viscount. so there's definitely an established noble class who have a powerful say in what happens. world of thedas lists the amells, the threnholds, and the reinhardts as the most powerful hightown houses at the start of the dragon age, but both the amells and threnholds collapsed before da2. (prior to their collapse, the amells were one of the foremost noble families in the whole free marches, with four centuries of history to their bloodline.) we interact with families like the harrimanns and de launcets in da2 and leandra mentions the reinhardts still being around.

viscounts' lines don't seem particularly long-lasting; marlowe dumar is the first in his. his predecessor perrin threnhold inherited the role from his father, but the father was also first in his short-lived line and "took power through a campaign of intimidation" rather than just, like, inheriting it. (this is confirmed by a codex stating the threnholds only came to power less than a week after maric retook the fereldan throne.) the implication is that saemus dumar would have been a potential heir to marlowe had he lived, but i don't remember anyone taking this possibility seriously in the game and given his politics i'm sure the nobility and templars alike would never remotely consider allowing it

the title of viscount was introduced by the orlesians, who ruled kirkwall from 7:60 storm to 8:05 blessed after liberating it from a four-year qunari occupation. they also introduced the kirkwall city guard, a force answerable to the viscount. the people of kirkwall threw out the orlesians but kept the title and the associated guard.

the templars have no official control of the city. however, the viscount's office is effectively so weak by the time of da2 that it is impossible to hold without templar support. this is because of what happened under viscount dumar's predecessor, viscount perrin threnhold. brother genitivi refers to perrin as "even worse" than his "vicious thug" father. perrin used those ancient chains in kirkwall's harbour to block orlesian ships and charge exorbitantly heavy taxes on them. this was naturally a poorly received move in orlais but also in kirkwall, as it limited trade, the lifeblood of the city. divine beatrix iii, who the codex claims was acting "as a friend to the emperor", ordered the templars to pressure the viscount into stopping, despite knight-commander guylian having refused similar requests from kirkwall's nobles and insisting even to the divine that their place was to protect the city from magic not from itself. perrin responded by hiring a mercenary army—odd that it wasn't the city guard, possibly implying they turned against him in favour of the nobles?—that ultimately stormed the gallows and executed guylian, with the intention of expelling the templars entirely from the city. in the end perrin was arrested, and presumably executed, if his successor being gifted his blood-encrusted signet ring as a threat is anything to go by. this seems to have been well received in kirkwall; the templars "were hailed as heroes". guylian was replaced with meredith, who personally directly appointed marlowe dumar

meredith's choice is an interesting one. the dumars were noble, but considerably modest compared to other noble families, with some of their income from trade that the dumars personally oversaw (traditional noble income tending to come from landowning, with actually having a job being looked down upon). marlowe's wife wasn't noble or an arranged match, only the daughter of a prosperous cartographer. meredith told marlowe that he chose him because he was "humble" as opposed to the "entitled degenerates" she considered the rest of the nobility, but it's obvious this wasn't merely her respecting the value of hard work. she openly threatened him on instalment to the office she had chosen him for. instead of appointing a strong viscount who could restore the office, allowing the templars to step back, meredith had none of guylian's scruples, and appointed a weak one the templars would continue to control. "the knight-commander's influence was evident in almost every one of marlowe's decisions."

this turned into more of an essay on recent kirkwall history than an explanation, but hopefully some of it's helpful in fleshing out the landscape. as a further note as well as the nobility i would expect merchants, guilds, etc. to hold massive influence in a city built on trade. there's a reason for example that the dwarven merchants' guild is visibly extremely well-established in kirkwall with its own large area in hightown; not the most trustworthy source but varric also claims they have "fingers in all these pies" in the lowtown market and own every tavern in hightown. i very much doubt human merchants are letting the dwarves have all the fun so it can be reasonably assumed they hold similar influence

[msbarrows]

More Timeline! Also, bonus headcanon.

All right, decided that the most sensible thing would be to shift the Perrin/Dumar events to take place in relation to the elopement, and still figure Perrin as having ruled for seven years. That would place him as having become Viscount of Kirkwall in 8:97, and might provide the interesting explanation that one of the reasons he thought he could get away with sassing Orlais and charging high tolls to their ships was the problems they were currently dealing with in Ferelden, where the rebellion was running pretty hot.

Then in around 9:2 or 9:3 (or earlier if you want an older warden) Revka had her bouncy baby Amell; assuming there was no easy way to tell at birth that a child was a mage or not, that leaves them to make the embarrassing discovery some time in the next year or two.

In 9:4 Perrin tries to kick the templars out and fails. Aristide Amell almost become the Viscount in his place except, whoops, that baby is now discovered to be a mage and even though it's hushed up and the baby sent off to Ferelden to be tower-raised, too bad, so sad, no high office for you!  Meredith names Marlowe Dumar as Viscount instead, and begins her puppet-rule of Kirkwall.

And then in 9:5 or thereabouts Leandra sneaks off with Malcolm, already pregnant with Hawke.

*Whacks on the canon facts a few times with a very large hammer, and forces them to fit into a vaguely sensible timeline*

Also, while I'm fiddling around with my timeline again, does anyone have any questions/suggestions/additional characters they'd like shown?

[msbarrows]

Dammit, Timeline...

So a confession that crossed my dash had me going off to double check something on the Wiki.

From the entry on the Amells (key bits of bolding mine):

Lord Aristide Amell was one of the most wealthy and influential men in Kirkwall, known for the opulent balls he would host at his mansion. Following the arrest of Lord Viscount Perrin Threnhold by the city's Templar Order, it was universally agreed that Lord Amell would succeed Threnhold as Viscount. Even the Templars agreed that the Amells were worthy successors; however, misfortune struck when Aristide's niece, Revka, gave birth to a mage child. The child was given to the Circle Tower in Ferelden to be raised, but the ascension of a family "tainted" by magical blood would have been a scandal, and Marlowe Dumar was appointed Viscount instead.

After that incident, the fortunes of the Amells soured. Damion was accused of smuggling, and Fausten nearly bankrupted the family paying to get charges dropped, while Aristide's treasured daughter Leandra shamed her parents by eloping with the apostate Malcolm Hawke and running away to Ferelden.

Seems fine so far, until I also go to look up some stuff about Perrin and Dumar:

Viscount Perrin Threnhold became the Viscount of Kirkwallin 9:14 Dragon. He used the chains extending from "the Twins" at Kirkwall's harbour to block the Waking sea passage and charge large fees from Orlesian ships. Orlais threatened invasion, and the Divine Beatrix III as a friend to the Orlesian emperor used the templars to pressure Perrin. In response, in 9:21 Dragon he attempted to expel the templars from Kirkwall. His army stormed the Gallows, and Knight-Commander Guylian was arrested and executed. Templars led by Meredith retaliated by storming the Viscount's Keep. Perrin was tried and imprisoned by Grand Cleric Elthina and died from poisoning two years later.

(Note: the above seems to be a summary events and dates from "History of Kirkwall: Chapter 4")

That would have Revka giving birth to the Amell warden somewhere in 9:21 or 9:22 - only eight or nine years before Ostagar!

Moreover, the first reference has Leandra's elopement with Malcom happening after the above, yet based on ages it's clear she actually must have eloped all the way back in more-or-less 9:5 for Hawke and Hawke's siblings to be the ages they are.

Dammit, BioWare writers... learn to timeline properly!

*Grumbles and tries to figure out how to work this into her timeline spreadsheet*

The dates would work out right for the Amell warden at least if it was pushed back a decade, making the warden a more believable (and actually canon, iirc) 18-19 at the time of their harrowing. But it still works out wrong for the Hawkes, as the twins are 18 as of Ostagar and Marian/Garrett is even older. So... either the order of events is wrong, and Leandra eloped before Revka had her own little indiscretion pop up, or the Amell warden is actually rather older, in early to mid 20s.