you going soft on me, Kadan?

My lady Lavellan having so much unique magic user gear was my way of making the mage class interesting for me bc I find it really boring and I felt like a "classic" mage wouldn't match her personality anyway so she's the type of mage that's more like an alchemist than a wizard. She weilds mainly storm/elemental magic and during her time in the Grand Necropolis, as she learned about anatomy and spirits in deeper detail, she developed means to protect her body and strengthen her spirt by using the new knowledge and the dalish training she grew up with, since her clan teaches all their kids to defend and take care of themselves as soon as they start WALKING already

I mentioned this before when I talked about her parents but as I played around with different aesthetics for her clan I enjoyed the idea of them being more tropical/seaside focused because my love for this lady grew enough to make me think of her as brazillian just like me (that's rare but it happens lol), so I headcanon that they'd raise their kids teaching them how to swim, how to fish, how to recognise medicinal plants, how to use environment/seasons to their advantage, they'd have capoeira and dancing among their communal activities, etc. She grew up learning that her body was part of nature as much as a body of water or a tree, and she applied that mindset to her use of magic. That being said, she studies and experiments with it under very scientific adjancet standards!! "Hey what the fuck does that mean?" you may ask, and I'll tell ya don't worry 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

For her, channeling magic everytime she wants to use it just because she has the ability to do it naturally is a waste of energy and focus, so she perfected her rune work over the years to apply it on gear, research tools and even on musical instruments and accessories for her convenience and as some discreet, passive protection. That's something she picked up on her clan and explored in her travels. She can't manipulate lyrium herself of course, so even if the runes couldn't be enchanted at conception she still could save time and mana by activating them as they're needed. Aside from that, she experimented on channeling magic through different materials to see which worked better to hold each type of energy at varying intensities. That's where all the unique gear gets into play, because she only uses her staff on bigger battles in which she needs to pretty much summon storms and manipulate gravity so there's no way she'd be able to manipulate that much energy without a strong enough focal point to keep it stable 🫢

Sooooo, among her usual rune enhanced light armour and her staff, she has three other main unique gears to aid her in battle, stealthier quests and her ✨art✨ which are:

Nail extensions made of light but strong metal infused with lyrium - it prevents her from harming herself whenever she needs to channel magic through her hands and it helps her whenever she needs runes with fast/instant activation, since she channels the magic as she carves them. It's better for targeted spells and she learned that the hard way

Long gloves with hidden rune work - this one has different uses depending on the material. She developed those after an injury caused by casting area spells without a staff. The nail extensions worked to direct it, but they weren't enough to stabilise the amount of energy needed for the spell so it backfired on her, which was very painful and annoying, so back at her lab (after an earful from the Keeper and her parents) she studied rune combinations to make them work as "extra paths" for directing bigger amounts of energy and applied on different fabrics/leathers/metals to see what worked best, so she has a few sets of them that she picks depending on where she's going and what she'll do there. The sturdier ones are usually for her lab work, not for battle lol

Enchanted jewellery - "But those already exist in the game what are you talking about-" yes they exist as tools with passive and constant function, but her accessories are more focused on activated, controlled function. She came up with them along with her dad because they're both musicians and they wanted to test out something to amplify their vocals for bigger crowds in open spaces (microphones. they wanted microphones lmao), but she found other uses and applications for them as she worked in the Inquisition and later on as she hunted the Dread Wolf (or worked in the mage rebellion, in her non-Inquisitor backstory 😌). She has crystal recording rings with rune activation, she has voice amplifier necklaces/chokers, she has mana stored bracelets in case of emergencies with no potions available, and many other "high tech" stuff lol She even has Dreamer detector ear piercings she never takes off because after the Fade Kiss with Solas she was like "well that was cute but also wtf how the fuck did he infiltrate my dream so easily and without me noticing it, can anyone do that??? I thought only spirits were able to pull stuff like that man wtf I need some PROTECTION-" so yeah, from that point on she worked both on her mind barriers and on enchanted gear to aid her in case of invasion lmao

Unfortunately I don't have any finished pieces with all her tech applied but I have something close to it on this photocard, just to show I'm not pulling all of it out of thin air lol

Most of her outfits feature long gloves and the piercings/nail extensions are a common element in most of her drawings. I wanted to work on a full body vallaslin that would also have magic applications but I'm really not great with coming up with patterns like that, I'll get there eventually. The excuse to draw her fully naked to map them out is a great motivation also- I'll shut up I'm so sorry