#apollodoros.

i don't think apollodoros experienced much self-conflict about his identity as a gay man in his life but he does deviate from the standards coded as the norm for mlm relationships, at least in his canon/historical verses—he's an older, fairly masculine man who is attracted to and mostly pursues age-appropriate, masculine men which inevitably reframes his romantic and sexual desires as womanly and, as a greek born in roman sicily, as embodying some degree of eastern degeneracy

i love apollodoros because he's so messy underneath the collected exterior that makes him look like he's always in control despite not being in control of pretty much anything outside of the business/professional context which is exactly where he invests all of his managing skills—he's bad at tempering his feelings, swaying between heights of love and hope and confidence and lows of apathy, cynicism and self-doubt, his morality fluctuates, he's eternally charmed by goodness but fundamentally believes himself incapable of it... literally the laws of trade and diplomacy he navigates with linear clarity, when it comes to everything else in his personal life he puts his entire focus on appearing

apollodoros is a cynical man—he has no faith in any gods no matter the verse, no religion beyond a shallow perfomance of occasional tradition, and will bend backwards to convince you he believes in nothing but trade, property, economy, and the power dynamics that are inherent to them. which is why he is hopelessly doomed to be charmed by goodness and heroism and romanticism

apollodoros is a powerful ally of the crows but his life has arguably never been safer than under occupation because as a foreign diplomat he's able to sit at the same table with them, the antaam, the venatori and the royals alike—he plays a dangerous game, but his influence is respected and his wealth largely acknowledged (by which i mean everyone either wants a piece of it or finds him an adequate business partner by virtue of his resources), and at least until the blighted dragons' attack he's able to maintain the balance between all these forces by making his allegiance ambiguous. after the dragons, he makes the crows a formal request of protection; if treviso is blighted, he opens the gates of his estate and let the crow use it as another hospital/camp for the displaced citizens, otherwise he just allows them to conduct certain operations from there, as thanks

there are two wolves in me, one wants to give apollodoros the most disgustingly tragic love story known to man and the other wants him to have a husband he can spoil with expensive gifts and hand-feed him grapes without even so much as knowing the world is ending

in da apollodoros is from tevinter but he is not a mage nor is he a particularly skilled warrior he just defeated the social hierarchy with capitalism