Amaris Lavellan and her daughter, Suledin
(Note: I feel like I should specify that this is NOT from canon lore. It is headcanons based on interpretation of unanswered questions left in canon.)
During What Pride Had Wrought, Abelas warns: “You shall be bound forever to the will of Mythal. Bound, as we are bound.” Or alternatively: “Those who drank from the vir'abelasan paid a great price, bound to the service of Mythal for eternity.” Both cases go out of the way to specify that it is a forever-lasting effect, and that whoever drinks will become like the sentinels. Thusly, I chose to think that when Amaris drank from the well, so long as a fragment of Mythal exists out there, she does too. She effectively gained old elven immortality.
There is another curious aspect to the well, though: that being, Samson or Calpernia believed it would make them into “a vessel.” At the time, everyone assumed this started and ended with the sentinel knowledge of the well. Amaris thought nothing of it. But ten years later, it would come back to haunt her…
When Rook defeated Elgar’nan, his spirit fractured just like it is explained happened to Mythal so long ago, when she was slain. Similar to how Urthemiel wound up in Morrigan, even without a ritual involved, what remained of Elgar’nan’s spirit found a home inside Amaris; of those present, the vir'abelasan left her an especially strong open receptacle. In that moment, she unknowingly became pregnant through magic parthenogenesis.
The early signs of pregnancy were never even considered by either Amaris or Solas. After all, Amaris has never had sex (she is sex-repulsed). They assumed her sickness was just her struggling to acclimate to living in the Fade. It wasn’t until the end of her first trimester when her belly started showing that it became, as impossible as it was to understand, apparent that she was pregnant.
At first, Amaris wanted to get rid of the fetus as soon as possible. But despite all studies and magical tests between her and Solas, nothing worked that would not also but Amaris herself at high risk. This period was extremely terrifying, and that only worsened when they met with Morrigan, who was the one to first theorize the fetus carrying Elgar’nan’s spirit. Because they failed to find a way to separate the fetus from Amaris, Solas assured her that he would bear the burden of killing the infant upon its birth, with the intention of containing Elgar’nan’s spirit this time.
However, as the pregnancy continued, the horror Amaris felt started to disappear. It was replaced with thoughts of what being a mother might actually be like; this both excited and scared her. She had a complicated relationship with her own parents growing up, but felt confident that she could do a better job. And after giving birth and seeing the newborn baby, she begged Solas not to kill it, declaring her love for her new child. This drove a huge wedge between her and Solas though, because while he said he would help Amaris keep her baby, he vowed he could never love something from Elgar’nan.
But here’s the thing: there are at least two sides to every spirit, and Elgar’nan was not always a spirit of Tyranny. He was also a spirit of Command, I think – like the one the Inquisitor can meet in the Crestwood quest, Burdens of Command. Amaris advocated that her baby was innocent, and there was no certainty that it would bring harm to anyone like Elgar’nan did. She named the baby Suledin, “Endure” in Elvhen, in honour of her belief that her love for the baby would endure anything, as it had for Solas.
As Suledin grew, the early years were the hardest on Amaris. Any normal temper tantrum had Solas in a fit, believing that it proved he was right the kid would become a tyrant. Amaris held faith and tried to patiently as possible explain that it was normal child behaviour, but sometimes their bickering grew very heated. Despite Solas promising to help raise the child, she often felt alone in the task. But her bond with Suledin grew stronger every day.
Suledin came into her magic very early, to no one’s surprise. She befriended Fade spirits as her playmates. Amaris loved taking her on visits to her friends in the mortal world, as she was usually so well behaved. While she could be very bossy, and held knowledge beyond her years, Suledin otherwise was an entirely normal little girl… one who was never told of her birth’s unique circumstances. As far as she (and anyone else except for Morrigan) was aware, Solas was her father. But that made it hard to understand why he was always so distant from her.
When Suledin reaches age nineteen, she grows restless having no one but spirits and her parents as steady company. She expresses a desire to leave the Fade and venture out into the mortal world on her own. Her parents are against the idea, though for two different reasons: Amaris fears for her safety, and Solas fears for the safety of the world. Suledin witnesses her parents fighting over her request, and subsequently it is revealed to her that her soul is the spirit of Elgar’nan. Feeling confused, hurt, and betrayed, Suledin runs away and seeks escape from the Fade herself.
Eventually, Suledin finds Kieran. Kieran tells his story about how he was born much like her, but that his destiny was stolen from him when Flemeth extracted Urthemiel’s spirit. Suledin is at first interested in replicating this, but Kieran warns her that doing so would leave her soulless like himself. (At least, this is what he strongly believes). Kieran instead encourages Suledin to find out what her own destiny is, and not let anyone else determine it for her.
So, Suledin’s adventure of self-discovery begins.
Miscellaneous Notes:
Solas does, despite his best efforts, come to love Suledin as his own child. He just refuses to admit it for a very long time, because he’s Solas and he still hates being wrong. But when their paths cross again, and he finally sees Suledin for her own person and not Elgar’nan, they have a nice father-daughter reconciliation.
Suledin calls Amaris’s friends “Aunt” and “Uncle”, i.e. “Uncle Dorian”.
I haven’t yet decided if Suledin herself is mortal or not… On one hand, forcing Amaris to eventually watch her daughter outgrow her and die would be such juicy angst to inflict on her… But on the other hand, I could inflict juicy angst on Suledin instead by making her feel like she’s doomed to forever be alone in the world, while at least her parents have each other. Choices…
