Aggressive Dragon Aging

Lydia is my baby. 27 years old, Lydia is a Grey Warden and lightning mage hailing from Crestwood in Ferelden. Lydia was sent to Kinloch Hold at age five, after her magic manifested during a temper tantrum that caused it to rain inside her family's cottage. Bullied relentlessly for struggling to control her magic, Lydia dedicated herself to learning lightning to prove herself.

Lydia was rescued by the Hero of Ferelden herself, Eva Surana, during the abomination attack in Kinloch Hold. From that moment, Lydia developed a deep infatuation for the Grey Wardens, and a lifelong dream to one day join them.

When the Circle tower fell in 9:40 Dragon, Lydia, age 15, made her way home to Crestwood all alone, relying on only the label on her phylactery to guide her steps. She was reunited with her parents, who she'd long forgotten, and lived happily with them until the age of 23.

At 23, Lydia met a Warden who had also been saved by Eva Surana. Not having let go of her obsession with the Wardens, Lydia decided to leave with him to join the Order. A talk-turned-argument with her mother and father about the matter caused her to reveal the resentment she'd harbored against them for years, for not protecting her well enough from the Templars when her magic manifested. Filled with anger, Lydia ran away from home in the dead of night and finally, finally took the Joining.

Alas, Warden life was not what she dreamt, and Lydia quickly grew angry and remorseful about leaving her parents. Though she hates her lot in life, Lydia will never hesitate to throw herself into danger, if it means protecting others.

Lydia's Relationships with the Veilguard:

Lydia is always going to start off as distrustful of other people. It's just in her nature-- Lydia is used to hostile environments (minus when she was living at home) and having to face them alone. While she's more likely than say, Susanna, to put herself out there and try to get to know who she's around, she's still going to be wary.

Bellara

Bellara and Lydia are study buddies. Bellara liked Lydia off the bat and, while Lydia was of course distrustful of Bel, she liked that they were both lightning mages.

You can often find Lydia and Bellara hanging out together and studying. Though Bellara has, on more than one occasion, mistaken read time for yap time (and if you know Lydia, you know she hates having her reading interrupted). Otherwise, they're great pals.

Bellara also helps Lydia out with magic. While Lydia is a master at lightning, there are some things she missed out on, having run away from the Circle so young (and then proceeding to live with two non-mages haha). Bellara is a kind and encouraging teacher, and Lydia is so so so thankful for her help.

Davrin

Davrin and Lydia end up being like brother and sister, though their journey to get there is a lil more detailed. Davrin and Lydia have met, of course. They took their Joinings a few months apart from each other (with Davrin being first). They never fought together before Veilguard, though.

There's a brief mutual distrust between them (just both in their nature). They get over it quickly enough and become true siblings in arms. Davrin and Lydia have a sibling dynamic. This includes pissing each other off on purpose and trying to goad each other into a fight.

They both consider it a great opportunity to sharpen their skills. If there was a "who can rile Lydia up the quickest" competition, Davrin would win. He knows all the buttons.

Perhaps playful competition was briefly interpreted as flirting. Davrin found himself seated with a crush on Lydia for a short while, but when he saw how she acted around Neve, he shook it off.

Lydia trusted Davrin as a fellow Warden to protect the other half of the team during the Tearstone Island mission. It would become one of her greatest regrets. She misses him every day.

Emmrich

Lydia loves Emmrich, and Emmrich loves Lydia. She has great respect for him, as an older mage. Emmrich, likewise, finds that Lydia reminds him of himself when he was her age.

Like Lydia and Bellara, Lydia and Emmrich are study buddies. Emmrich is especially encouraging when it comes to Lydia's research (both magical and historical). He is the only person who can coax Lydia out of a long reading session.

Emmrich is also the first person who gets Lydia to talk about her parents, as someone who can relate to her. She trusts him greatly and values his friendship.

Harding

Harding is Lydia's first real friend in her entire life. Seriously! Lydia would admit to not being the most liked in Kinloch as a child… she would also admit that, while she had acquaintances in Crestwood, and comrades in the Wardens, that none of them were truly her friends. Then came Lace Harding <3.

They're both from Ferelden. They're both farm girls. They both left their homes to serve for the greater good, and neither of them know if they'll ever make it back. They became very close during their time traveling with Varric, and that bond only got stronger in Veilguard.

There was a time that they crushed on each other. They'd flirt, make comments. They'd tease each other and rile each other up. But over time, they realized that their love for each other was platonic, not romantic (and you bet your ass they're highfiving each other about Neve and Taash lol).

Lydia can most often be found in Harding's room. She likes the natural light and, like Harding, finds being amongst plants comforting and familiar.

Like with Emmrich, Lydia is more likely to open up to Harding about sensitive matters. Besides Neve, Harding knows the most about Lydia's past.

Lucanis

Lydia and Lucanis have a… complicated relationship. They respect each other. They like each other. They trust each other. They even care about each other. But boy, was it a bumpy road.

In true Lydia fashion, she distrusted Lucanis when she first met him (and hearing from Neve that he's a mage killer shook her more than she'd like to admit). Lucanis also distrusted her so… it was mutual.

They became friends, though Lydia was always a bit wary about Lucanis being an abomination (one of the moments where Lydia's Circle upbringing peeped through haha).

Things came to a halt, though, when Lydia decided to go to Minrathous first, to stop the dragon. Lucanis became resentful of her- not so much because she went to one city over the other (because genuinely, how was she supposed to be prepared for two dragons), but because she was a Grey Warden, and she couldn't do anything to at least slow the spread of the Blight in Treviso.

After Lucanis came back from Treviso, Lydia struggled to connect with him. Her style of reaching out, of trying to be his friend, did not match what he needed in that moment.

It took a long time for her to learn him, what he needed, and how to be his friend. Over time, however, Lydia regained Lucanis' trust. She showed up for him, supported him, and he did the same thing for her.

They finally became friends after a while, and had a newfound understanding and respect for each other.

Neve

I went off about these two like 2 hours ago, which you can read about right here!

Lydia and Neve distrusting each other at first cracks me up, because of course they would 😂. There's mutual respect there, of course, but you know how it is! Lydia grew up hearing about the Tevinter Imperium. Neve just plain old doesn't trust anyone she doesn't know. They shake it off quickly. Lydia realizes that Neve is a sweetheart. Neve learns that Lydia is dedicated and kind.

They respect each other quickly. However, they stick to talking shop for a while. Keep it professional, get the job done, you know? But talking shop became talking in general. Talking in general became seeking each other out. Seeking each other out became flirting chicken, and so on and so forth.

Speaking of flirting chicken? GOSH, these two were so oblivious. They started crushing around the same time. Lydia was first, I would say-- though when she started feeling all those fuzzy things for Neve, she was thinking more along the lines of "this will probably be like with Harding, and nothing will come of it." Besides, there was no way that Neve Gallus would like her back, right? Neve had a similar issue. Anyone she gets close to might die, right? It's better just to work alone, right? Besides, there's no way that a Grey Warden would peel themselves away from their duties for long enough to help her support Dock Town, right? WRONG.

It takes a while for Neve and Lydia to come to terms with the fact that they have feelings for each other. They flirt a LOT. They pass said flirting off as jokes a LOT. What would happen if the other person realized they were flirting? Would they be rejected? Or, worse…. would they feel the same way?? Oh, the horror.

Ah, but while having two avoidants flirting with each other brings its own interesting situations, their little denial bubble eventually popped, and before they knew it, they were smoochin'.

And the rest is history! Lydia and Neve struggle to open up to each other- they're used to doing things alone, you know? They're slow. They're careful. But they always show up for each other.

And, of course, having a Grey Warden and a Detective dating each other brings about its own complications…

Taash

Lydia and Taash get off to a rough start. Taash thinks that Lydia is too uptight and too focused on doing things "so perfectly" that she doesn't take action. They can't understand why Lydia would be so hesitant. And, sometimes, Lydia is just a buzzkill 😒

As for Lydia, well… Taash reminds Lydia of herself, and people don't always take kindly to being shown what they're like. At the same time, Lydia is uncomfortable with Taash's tension with their mother. This is mostly because Lydia herself has a lot of tension with her parents, and just doesn't know what to do when there's a conflict between someone and their parent(s) 😅

Nevertheless, Lydia and Taash quickly grow to respect each other, and that respect grows into friendship! Lydia and Taash show up for each other. They have a great back and forth. They support each other through thick and thin. And, honestly, they're a SUPER sick battle duo!!

Anyway, thank you for reading my novel 😂

I will have a (shorter) novel on Susanna coming soon!

Taggies:

Nydia

The more I yap about these two, the more I realize how similar they are! They're both lone wolves, both of them worried about being close to someone and then that someone getting hurt... and, of course, both of them are screaming, crying, and throwing up about the thought of having feelings for + being in a relationship with each other😂

Lydia and Neve have a seven year age gap and a one inch height difference. I always crack up when I see how they scale Rook to be taller than Neve in their romance scenes. Like, Lydia's tiny! There's NO way she's suddenly half a head taller than Neve, pfft. Sure Neve's shrimpy, but Lydia is shrimpier!

Lydia and Neve definitely fell in love unintentionally, and it's a slow burn for sure. Partially because I'm a sucker for a slow burn, but mostly because, eh? Neve works alone, yadda yadda. She's worried that if she gets close to someone, she'll lose them. Lydia just, never really felt that romance was for her? To her, relationships were either platonic or sexual. And if a relationship was sexual, the sex was transactional. Falling in love with Neve came as quite the shock (heh) to her, for sure.

Lydia and Neve are aligned on most things! Analytical, silly, stubborn... they're both punctual and both dramatic (I have to assume that Neve was surprised to learn just how stubborn and dramatic Lydia really is, especially since Lydia tends to present herself as quiet and mild mannered lmao).

Also, my gosh... they don't argue too often, but when they do, it's a whole event. @/rooks-dagger and I have joked that they both struggle to be the first one to apologize after an argument. Instead, their annoyance manifests in their magic, which will radiate off of them. I can just imagine a post-argument Nydia needing to go on a mission together, and Neve's anger is causing her to chill the room around her. Lydia, shivering from the cold, is likely having her emotions manifest through magic that has Neve's CAREFULLY enchanted hairstyle frizzing up beyond belief.

Overall, I think they're a great pair and that they grow together 💙🩵. They learn how to trust other people, they learn how to open up, and they learn how to live in the moment- enjoy what they have now instead of worrying about tomorrow.

Bellanna

Bellanna as a ship absolutely cracks me up. It's genuinely "mad scientist falls in love with mad scientist."

I chose "bad influence + worse influence" as one of their tropes, but honestly I don't know which of them is which 😂. Look, they both have good heads on their shoulders! But they will BOTH enable each other whenever one of them gets a wacky idea. Neve and Lydia have had to save their asses from some sort of explosion, or trap, or expedition gone awry on too many occasions (Neve is thinking about charging).

Unlike Lydia, Susanna's does not experience her first love in Veilguard. Susanna has dated much more and has been in love before. But Bellara is the first person that Susanna has both been in love with and been dedicated to, if that makes sense? Susanna was head over heels for Bellara almost immediately (so much so that Neve caught on and absolutely grilled Susanna to make sure that she didn't toy with Bellara's feelings).

Bellara, on the other hand, took more time to fall for Susanna. Regardless, Susanna put in the work to show Bellara that she was serious about her!

Susanna and Bellara are a much less mushy couple than Neve and Lydia are. The latter couple might get up to some PDA or just be overall mushy. Susanna and Bellara prioritize getting up to as many crazy adventures together as possible. Sure, they're mushy! Sure, they're touchy feely! But def in a different way from Nydia.

Susanna and Bellara are aligned on most things, though Susanna is much more likely to ride the wave, while Bellara will dig her heels in if she finds something important enough. They're both also rather creative, though in different ways! While Bellara might get creative with a new invention or with some tinkering, Susanna is a musician at heart. You'd best believe that she's spent plenty of time in the music room at the lighthouse, whether with Bellara or alone, fiddling around and makin' music!

Thank you for reading!!!