🚶 🚶 🚶 (you can do multiple npcs or just one according to what you're feeling; I just wanna hear all about them 👀)
This is my excuse to welcome you to the Nannaverse, aka I have a lot of wardens but not a lot of drive to make all of them worldstates, so i canonized them in Nanna's. Lets'a go—
𝐌𝐘𝐑𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐍 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐀
he/him Battlemage
Myrddin was born a regular elven child in Amaranthine's alienage, often going with his parents to their work on the docks until his magic manifested at nine, and things took a turn for the worst. His father, a devout man, was repulsed by his son's gift and kept his distance until it hit a snapping point and tried to drown the child. It was only by chance that Templars happened to be near, and Myrddin was taken from his father and weeping mother to Kinloch Hold.
In the Circle, Myrddin excelled in his magical studies, and was complimented by his teachers as a driven student—the primary thing that hindered him was his insistent need to prove himself to those around him, making him endearingly clumsy in his attempts to show off and painting himself unintentionally as a bit of a class clown. Nanna and her Circle of friends—being a few years older—often looked at him like a little brother, annoying attention seeking included, and Nanna often helped him get ready for the day when he left things forgotten in lieu of trying to impress someone.
After the scandal that saw Jowan's escape and Nanna disastrously recruited to the Grey Wardens, Myrddin saw his chance to advance—he was suddenly elevated as First Enchanter Irving's apprentice a few scant days after the event. Though not by his choosing, and with how quickly Irving replaced his former pupil, the boy wasn't about to waste his chance. Myrddin, like many apprentices who came to the Circle as bereft children, adored Irving, and relished the chance to learn from him directly. He grew quickly to be a star pupil in his own right, and because of this, was permitted the rare opportunity to train as a Battlemage.
Myrddin is a staunch Aequitarian, and when the Circles fell, he stood with the rest on the principle that the Circles were a necessity and opposed the push to succeed from the Chantry. However, he had the situational awareness to understand that continuing that conversation meant keeping the mages alive and protected. And so he joined the Rebellion under the condition that he act as a protector for those traveling peacefully and not as an active combatant.
𝐆𝐀𝐕𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐀𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐒
they/them Sword & Shield. Berserker Spirit Warrior
Without a Grey Warden to intervene on their behalf, the tragedy that was Gavain's wedding ceremony resulted in them left imprisoned and at the mercy of human justice. Though they didn't regret the retribution they brought down on the Arl of Denerim's house, they lamented in isolation that their life seemed to be over... until the elven riots.
The assault that the arl's son had enacted on their community had been the final straw for many in Denerim's alienage, and the elves had begun to fight back. In the midst of this chaos, Gavain had been given the chance to slip out of the dungeons and back into the protective arms of their family, at least for a little while. But still being considered a criminal in the eyes of the law, they knew harboring them would only put them in further danger with the violence, so when the rest of the Tabris clan would not leave with them, they fled the city on their own.
Gavain spent the next ten years of their life in a mercenary company, flitting across Ferelden's borders for work on various jobs. After the Mage-Templar war began, their company had been hired by a mysterious benefactor under the name of Dark Wolf to act as a guard for mages traveling the Hinterlands seeking shelter from the warfront.
It was there that they met Myrddin.
Set on similar jobs, the two ended up growing close in their work and fell into a surprising but devoted romance. Having less opportunity than they'd wish to engage in their own community, Gavain cherishes Myrddin deeply and hopes for a brighter outcome to this war to give them both space to carve out a life together—something that, the more they learn and understand about the conflict, the more they see as harder to achieve with the Circles in place. Understandably, this also extends to having a particular distaste for Irving and what they see as an emotional manipulation, though they don't voice this often to keep the peace.
So it should not be surprising to those who knew them that they listened when the Wolf sent out a call.
