My Canon Dragon Age
@sasstielwinchester @the-gr3y
So I figured I’d write this down for anyone interested/my own reference in case I ever get around to writing anything (srsly, screw school and work for taking up all my time/energy). So, without further ado, here is my canon:
(placed under a cut because the Wardens and Inquisitors are long)
Wardens
Kalin and Neria Surana
Their canon can be found attached here
Hawke
Marian Hawke
I don’t have much developed for Marian, as 2 has honestly been the least captivating game for me, and I haven’t even been able to complete one playthrough.
What I do have, however, is that Marian is a two-handed warrior, and very much in love with both Merrill and Isabelle.
Inquisition
Maha’non and El’imiir Lavellan and Elsina Adaar
Maha’non and El’imiir Lavellan are both mages, and twins. They were exiled from the Clan when Maha’non’s affinity for spirit magic and the Fade was discovered, and El’imiir refused to allow her brother to be kicked out alone.
After leaving the Clan at ten years old, they traveled south, eventually running into the Valos-Kas mercenaries. This is where they met Elsina Adaar and her mother, a former Saarebas; mercenaries themselves, they convinced the captain to allow them to take in the two Clanless elves. Elsina, though close to five years older than the elves, quickly grew fond and protective of the two, particularly when the two confessed to Elsina that Maha’non, El’imiir’s twin brother, had been born Mahenan, El’imiir’s twin sister. Already proficient with a one-handed sword and learning to wield a greatsword, the young Qunari made it clear that neither of the elves were to be messed with, or whoever did so would answer to her. The trio grew inseparable after that, becoming family in all but blood.
When the Conclave is called, Maha’non and El’imiir, now twenty-five years old, and Elsina, now thirty, journey with the rest of their band to take on the contract as extra security. Maha’non and Elsina were scouting the area when the explosion that created the Breach happened, and El’imiir had been inside along with a few of the younger mercenaries, securing the inside of the temple. When it’s revealed that El’imiir is the only survivor and that Cassandra has imprisoned her, it’s all Maha’non can do to restrain the furious warrior; the only thing that calms her is the strange elf’s - Solas - insistence that it will not hurt anything for the two to reassure themselves of their companion’s safety. Cassandra eventually agrees, while Maha’non resolves to keep a close eye on the other man; there is something about the man that makes him uneasy.
Elsina and Maha’non, unable and unwilling to sit still with their thumbs up their arses, join the groups helping to contain the rifts that have appeared in the Breach’s wake; Elsina manages to bully their way into the group with Solas and Varric the day that El’imiir wakes up, and when Solas takes El’imiir’s hand, guiding her mark, she can feel the recognition in the magic of the mark upon her hand - and in her own magic. They know this man’s magic, and El’imiir yanks her hand away as quickly as she can, eyeing him suspiciously.
The suspicion is forgotten until El’imiir gets a chance to speak with her brother - only after Cassandra declares the Inquisition reborn, and then introduces her to Commander Cullen, Ambassador Josephine, and Spymaster Leliana. Maha’non tells her of his uneasy feeling, and El’imiir concurs. While they both do not avoid Solas, it’s plain for anyone to see that they don’t quite trust the other elven mage, even as El’imiir finds herself drawn to him.
After meeting with the clerics in Val Royeaux and recruiting Enchanter Vivienne and Sera, El’imiir - tired by now of constantly being referred to as ‘Herald of Andraste’ - agrees with Elsina’s suggestion that they investigate the templars. What they find sickens them all, and El’imiir doesn’t need to ask to know that at least her family will back her up on her decision to disband the Templar Order, absorbing the knights into the Inquisition’s forces.
Maha’non refuses to abandon his sister when Corypheus attacks, and Elsina reluctantly accepts El’imiir’s order to help the other companions, including Warden Blackwall, the Chargers, and the odd spirit, Cole, evacuate the citizens. When they reach safety, all she can do is watch helplessly as her brother and sister are buried under the snow and rubble. As they travel down the valley, she’s not reassured by Solas’s promise to ask the spirits of the valley to help find out what happened. She knows what happened - or so she thinks.
Maha’non is the one to feel the presences first; as he and El’imiir limp down the valley, following abandoned fires and fading footsteps, he can feel eyes upon them. When they stop, El’imiir rekindling one of the fires, he allows himself to fall into a light trance; it’s enough to speak with the spirits, who tell him who sent them and where he is now. It’s hard to miss the small smile on El’imiir’s face when he tells her that Solas sent spirits to find them, and Maha’non begins to think that maybe he was wrong to distrust the other mage.
When they reach Skyhold, El’imiir is declared Inquisitor, and she immediately declares that the Inquisition is, first and foremost, for Thedas, not the Chantry, and not any one race. This Inquisition will watch and guard Thedas as a whole.
After speaking with Hawke but before leaving for Crestwood, the foundations for romance are laid for the three companions - Elsina with Josephine, Maha’non with the newcomer Dorian, and El’imiir with the mage who’d saved her life - Solas.
After retrieving Alistair from Crestwood and saving the town from bandits and undead, El’imiir, Maha’non, and Elsina return to Skyhold to find specialists waiting for them. El’imiir chooses Rift magic, making use of her mark, and Maha’non chooses Knight Enchanter, the better to protect his companions. And Elsina chooses Reaver - because if there’s one thing she loves almost as much as she loves Josephine, it’s a good fight (She and Bull bond over battles and scars. Krem facepalms often when the two start boasting after a few rounds of drink at the tavern.). It’s shortly after that that the Inquistion heads for Halamshiral to determine the fate of a country.
In the end, Celene and Briala are reunited, Gaspard executed for treason. Maha’non and Elsina take their partners out to the dance floor after comforting El’imiir, who’d had to make the final decision, and when Solas seeks her out, all El’imiir wants is company.
In the Fade, after retrieving her memories of the explosion at the Temple of Sacred Ashes, there’s a brief but furious debate that ends with Maha’non standing with Neria and Zevran to the very last moment, trying to buy the couple time - but when Zevran shoves him through a rift, it is all over. When the time comes to render judgement on the irresponsible Wardens, El’imiir chooses to pardon them, citing the fact that they had been tricked into thinking that they would all die, and that there would be no other way to defend Thedas from the next Blight.
When Maha’non finds out that Solas and El’imiir have become serious in their relationship, he corners the mage in the secluded library one day, sealing the door magically so that no one can overhear them. “If you harm her, there won’t be a place for you to hide on this world or the next that I won’t find you.”
Solas watches him carefully as he says, “I have no intention of hurting her.”
“Do you have any intention of continuing the relationship once you have your orb back?” At Solas’s startled look, Maha’non’s expression turns grim. “So it is yours. I don’t care who you are, or how you got that orb, if you hurt my sister, I will find you, and I will kill you. Not even the Dread Wolf himself could hide you.”
(Later, Maha’non will wish he’d put the pieces together just a little bit quicker, when Solas leaves the Inquisition.)
When the Inquisition heads for the Arbor Wilds, Elsina takes comfort in the fact that her beloved Josephine, who she nearly killed a man for(she’d had the weakling lord at the point of her sword when Josephine interrupted; honestly, did the man think that just because she was Reaver who favored a greatsword she was unfamilar with longswords and rapiers?), and who she’d come to cherish just as much as her family, would be staying behind in the camp; Dorian and Solas had insisted on joining their lovers as they journeyed towards the Temple of Mythal.
Once inside, when Morrigan speaks about ancient elven lore as those the others were stupid, she’s met with the pointy ends of three staves, and identical glares. “I’d shut up if I were you,” El’imiir growls. Solas doesn’t say anything, but Maha’non adds, “There are people here who have traveled further in the Fade than you have - and that are actual elves.”
Morrigan shuts up, even when they find a statue of Fen’Harel on one side of the courtyard
Maha’non gives Solas an appraising look; since he cornered the other elf, he’s been trying to piece together exactly who he is.
They complete the rituals inside the temple, and align with the elves. When the time comes, El’imiir gives Calpernia the scroll containing the truth of Corpheus’s promises, and Calpernia leaves peacefully. In the end, Maha’non drinks from the Well, taking the choice from the arguing women.
8 years later, I finally add:
Descent DLC: The trio ventures beneath the earth along with Solas, Dorian, and Cole. Maha'non and El'imiir both note Solas' increasing discomfort, his carefully worded 'observations' as they, along with Shpaer Valta, discover the truth of Titans and their existence.
In the Frostback Basin, they chase down the last Inquisitor, and El'imiir vows that she will not let history repeat itself, nor hide the truth any longer: Ameridan's tale will be told, truthfully, for the first time in generations. And, when the time inevitably comes, she will disband the new inquisition before she'll hand it over to the Chantry or any other organization.
Corypheus falls, as he was always going to - and Solas leaves, as he was always going to. Maha'non and elsina comfort El'imiir that night after the celebration, and then the hardest work begins: cleaning up the last of the rifts, and ensuring Thedas is *truly* safe
El'imiir sees Solas in the Fade, in dreams that feel too real - but he never speaks, never comes close enough to touch, and she never tells her siblings about the dreams. (They know, every time: she wakes in the morning with red-rimmed eyes every night Solas appears)
Two years after corypheus' defeat, the Exalted Council is called, and a Qunari plot nearly disrupts it. El'imiir's Anchor starts to malfunction, to threaten her very life even as she, Maha'non, and Elsina finally gather the evidence to support their suspicions about Solas.
In the end, El'imiir finds Solas alone, calls him vhenan and Fen'Harel in the same breath, and even as he takes her hand and saves her life, leaves her with a kiss salty with both their tears, she vows to save him from himself
El'imiir storms the exalted council and announces the disbanding of the Inquisition with no remorse; the Inquisition has grown too large to be sure its safe, and she vowed to never let it fall into another organization's control
After, she, her family, and her advisors begin plotting to stop Solas, to try to save him from himself
Veilguard
In the years since the Inquisition was disbanded, El'imiir has not given up her search
With Dagna's help, she has a prosthetic - made of the same artifacts Solas claimed would measure the Veil and strengthen wards protecting it, and her own Rift magic, El'imiir once again has an Anchor of her own design. It's not as powerful as a god's, but it works well enough to let her continue to use her specialization skills
Josephine and Elsina have gotten married, to the Montilyet's mixed reactions; while her family is happy that Josephine is happy, there's no denying they never thought a Qunari would be their in-law. And elsina is frequently away from her wife, fighting at her siblings' side
Maha'non and Dorian have remained as close as ever; they are content without a marriage for now, with Maha'non supporting his sister and Dorian focused on reforming Tevinter, but they make use of the eluvians to meet as frequently as they can
El'imiir and Varric end up on the front lines of the search for Solas; El'imiir and Maha'non form one team while Varric and Harding follow different leads
Their search finally draws to a close in Minrathous; several months before, Varric had recruited a young mage named Quyrich de Riva - a Qunari Crow who used their magic to stage 'accidents' for their victims. An impulsive decision that compromised a larger Crow operation had resulted in their temporary ousting from the organization, which is where Varric met them. He gives them the nickname 'Rook', like the chess piece - straightforward, surprisingly versatile, and gets the job done.
In Minrathous, El'imiir meets with Varric and Rook at a bar to track down Neve Gallus, a detective who has information on where Solas is planning his ritual to tear down the Veil
Rook beats down an entire bar, and El'imiir approves; Rook is young, but skilled, and already El'imiir can see the makings of a fine leader in them.
In tracking down Neve, the team learns that Solas has used an eluvian to travel to a ritual site in Arlathan forest
There, El'imiir insists on being the one to confront Solas, directing varric and Rook to the backup plan of destroying nearby statues which seem to be linked to the ritual, while Harding and Neve keep the demons at bay
Then, for the first time in eight years, El'imiir talks to Solas, and prays that he listens
