clarel de chanson got thrown under the bus by weisshaupt btw if anyone cares
anyway this is wild
after her promotion, she was eager to help the fereldan grey wardens to rebuild, and tried to negotiate with arl teagan of redcliffe on many occasions, but due to fereldan mistrust of the orlesians, and the incident with warden-commander sophia dryden during the storm age, she was again unable to help
so weisshaupt will always send orlesian wardens to staff vigil's keep and if the hof dies will send a orlesian warden to be warden-commander of ferelden, but when the fereldans get their say, they want no fucking part of it. but also why would she approach teagan instead of whoever the monarch is. does she only want to help redcliffe rebuild.
regardless this absolutely tracks w the teagan who is at the exalted council:
during the exalted council, teagan calls out the inquisition's previous actions in ferelden's territory, namely the capture of caer bronach. He draws comparisons to the grey wardens, who had invaded ferelden under the pretext of "restoring order," leading to their exile during the storm age.
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have been thinking abt sophia dryden + arland + historical fereldan opinion of the wardens and went to look at the various codices and tbh this is like. the part of dragon that i wish they'd leaned into more — the side of it that's intentionally vague and leaves a lot of room for in-world historical interpretation.
we never actually meet the real sophia. we meet the demon who possesses her body, so ultimately, i don't rly take anything that the demon says as unalloyed truth. avernus, too, is a p unreliable narrator. we do get some codex entries that are fascinating tho.
the set-up is that in 7:5 storm, the fereldan throne is left without an heir. two ppl had a strong claim to the title: arland theirin and sophia dryden, who were cousins. ultimately arland was chosen as king bc he was young and seemed malleable to the ambitious nobles who wanted to take advantage of him.
but it turns out he wasn't so easily controlled after all. arland is described as a tyrant! avernus says that he pitted the nobles against each other, killed indiscriminately, and had no problem eliminating opposition thru 'fear and poison.'
you can find a letter from bann mathuin wulff that says:
Sophia,
Arl Ruahn and his entire family have been slaughtered, even the children. The Ruahn line is no more and the arling belongs to the crown, for now. Arland believed Ruahn was plotting against him. Ruahn criticized the king's spending on Wintersend--that is all. It was an idle word, spoken out of turn. The king goes too far. His brain is filled with madness and he clings to the crown like a drowning man clutches at a straw.
Sophia, I beg you, help us. If nothing is done, more will suffer.
Your humble servant,
—Wulff.
similarly, several members of the cousland family in the storm age, a family the game wants you to associate with honor and righteousness, formed a conspiracy against arland and allied with the wardens.
Arland also executed many Couslands, including the Teyrn himself, for plotting against him, being allied to Sophia, and to teach the survivors their place.
so you're like okay, case closed, arland was a paranoid and evil ruler who unjustly kicked the wardens out of ferelden bc warden-commander dryden rallied the wardens against a tyrant who killed whole families for the crime of questioning his spending habits — and moreover, she did it explicitly at the behest of the desperate nobility who had to come crawling on their knees to plead for help from the woman they rejected as ruler specifically bc she wasn't biddable enough.
but then you start reading dryden's journals.
21 Eluviesta:
It is done. The nobles have thrown their lot in with Arland--Arland the snot-nosed man-child, Arland who did not walk till he was in his fifth year, Arland who had to be pried off his nursemaid's breast not two years ago. Or so it is whispered. The teyrns and the arls believe him to be a simpleton, and easily led, but I have seen something in the boy's eye, and it terrifies me.
10 Moriolis:
I watched the Summerday processions from a room high in Fort Drakon. The regent has me for treason, when my only guilt is of being true to my country and my heart. My guard's tongue was easily loosened with a gift of a ruby ring, and I am told that the banns are fighting against my sentence. I shall pray, but not hope that it will be anything but the gallows for me.
2 Ferventis:
The draught was like bitter fire, but I survived. Weep for me, for I survived. Would that they had made a clean end for me. I should have died a lady, the greatest of the Drydens, not lived to become this nothing--this monstrous nothing!
19 Matrinalis:
Enough. I shall waste no more time with wretched, womanish lamentation. Death would have been easy, but fate saw fit to spare me and I will seize upon this chance. The Grey Wardens are an army, and the old commander is weak--a wisp of a man. I will inspire the Wardens, and Arland will rue the day he spared my life.
i think it's interesting that sophia frames being sent to the wardens as arland 'spar[ing] her life.'
so now it's not so clear. was sophia deserving but bypassed bc she couldn't be manipulated the way the nobility thought arland could be? or was she kind of ruthless and paranoid herself? a woman who despises weakness who clearly had zero intentions of letting arland's claim to the throne go unchallenged?
her rebellion threw ferelden into chaos. personally i don't think that turning to demonic powers/blood magic is like. The Bombshell the game thinks it is. but the game considers that to be a signifier of a leader willing to feed their subordinates into the machine to get eaten the fuck up. this is in line w everything we know abt the wardens — they're more than accustomed to resorting to things other ppl find distasteful at best.
but this wasn't in service to ending a blight. this was an entirely political gambit. at least one other commander at soldier's peak believed sophia's actions were going to destroy both the fereldan army and the wardens. a lot of wardens felt 'disgraced' by her actions specifically bc they were politically motivated, and those wardens deserted, which feels LOADED for grey wardens.
and then it turns out that we don't actually have the full picture of the aftermath or even what led up to the rebellion (tho wot2 notes that the rebellion was founded by sophia):
Little is known of what followed Arland's rule, as a civil war for the throne occurred soon after his death. The war lasted a decade and wiped away most records of his reign.
does this mean arland was a kid in over his head and sophia was a comically evil snake who saw an opportunity and took it? i don't think that's the answer either tbh i think that the truth is both a) somewhere in a vast and ambiguous middle and b) impossible to know.
but we have a pseudo-idea of how the dryden family's reputation suffered as a result of her rebellion, bc they had to book it out of the country. everyone involved the rebellion was crushed. all lands and holdings that had belonged to the drydens were seized by the crown, and even as late as 9:43 dragon in trespasser, teagan as ambassador of ferelden brings up the rebellion as an example of why ferelden in particular is right to be concerned abt the inquisition's presence in ferelden, citing the inquisition capturing caer bronach and using it as a base specifically.
what he says is:
'invading under pretext of restoring order is exactly what the grey wardens did to us centuries ago and we exiled them!'
his position is the accepted ferelden position amongst its nobility.
i rly like this theory that the guerrins took arland's side during the rebellion, and maybe given that teagan's sister was ferelden's queen until she died, he feels like the guerrin-theirin alliance needs to be emphasized regardless of which way the guerrins went — sophia might have been part of a branch of the theirin family, but she didn't use the name. teagan has a line and he's sticking to it! i prefer to think he's just as politically motivated as anybody else at the exalted council.
but i think it's also worth noting that teagan's opinion is the opinion of ferelden's populace, tho the citation for this being how the ppl of ferelden feel abt the rebellion is teagan's dialogue in trespasser lol
Most modern Fereldans believe that Sophia Dryden's rebellion was a Grey Warden invasion under the pretext of restoring order and that their exile was deserved. The Grey Warden Order retained a villainous reputation in Ferelden for 200 years, until King Maric Theirin permitted the Wardens back into his nation.
but tbh.............................i don't think it's all that weird that regular fereldans would consider the rebellion to have been reason enough to distrust the wardens as an institution. i just don't think that it precludes ppl from thinking that arland was a bad king, too.
for one thing, the succession crisis was essentially a bunch of nobles squabbling over who would rule. the drydens are a branch of the theirin family; arland is presumably part of the main theirin line, bc he uses the name. the theirin family, in spite of all this, remained the ruling family of ferelden from calenhad on w the major exception of when ferelden was occupied by orlais.
for another, sophia dryden never relinquished her claim to the throne even after she was imprisoned and sent to the wardens — her journal entry deciding to take control of the wardens and make arland 'rue the day he spared [her] life' was before, if the reports are true and unexaggerated, arland went full tyrant, certainly long before bann wulff's plea for help.
she then leveraged her noble connections to shore up warden power in ferelden, including 'rapidly increas[ing] their numbers', and then used the warden army NOT to protect ferelden against the blight (which is why soldier's peak was built in the first place) but to pursue her own political goals. teagan bringing up caer bronach as his line in the sand makes sense in this context.
and it doesn't help, i think, that there had been rumors swirling around abt what exactly the wardens were up to in soldier's peak even before arland and sophia go head to head.
a fun tangent is the antiva connection here, which is minimal but deeply meaningful to meeee:
Toben Dryden, Sophia's brother and guardian of her young son, had no choice but to flee Ferelden. Toben bought passage to Antiva on a merchant vessel and traveled under the name Derocher. Once in Antiva, Toben set about building a new, quiet life for himself and his nephew. He started a small business and eventually made a name for himself as a trader.
and of course this also introduces the element of sophia's son, who would have inherited the throne after her had she succeeded in becoming queen.
winding this down by saying that the imminent fereldan succession crisis part 2: electric boogaloo is right around the corner given that by 9:41 there's still no heir to the fereldan throne as far as i can tell and tbh wouldn't someone have mentioned it in trespasser if somebody had either had a baby or named their successor?? maybe the drydens have successfully played the long game and levi and his brother mikhael and whatever potential children they might have had between awakening and trespasser as living descendants of the theirin line are abt to get v v important.
conclusion: is arland theirin dragon age's richard iii, guy who sucked but maybe didn't suck As Much as the propaganda said? much to think abt.
imagining a world where cat gets so pissed that she goes FUCK IT and shows up in vivid highever weave at some state function. just to make anora's eye twitch.
Pineapple, Dandelion and Buttercup for the character ask? Feel free to pick and choose if it's for Del or for Cat (or both!!)
PINEAPPLE - What is their weirdest habit, and why do they have it?
i am making this up on the spot for del. spinning a wheel in my brain. okay. kirkwall is the city of chains but it's also the city of stairs. i think she counts the stairs she's taking in her head in increments of 12 and just does it over and over again until she's through with the stairs. doesn't matter if it's up or down. she does this bc she's bored, and one time she makes the mistake of mentioning this out loud and fenris goes okay............. and merrill is like is it bc it makes you tired to go up and down all the time and varric asks her if she does it for every set of stairs or just the big ones kind of like he's asking so he can file it away for later. prime friend group 'judgmental/weirded out for no reason' interaction.
DAFFODIL - What would they gift their parents on their birthday?
man it's sad either way w this one, huh. cat embroidered a sampler for her mother that was sort of like this but w mabaris. and i thought abt this for too long and am for real choked up. it's like the embroidery version of a little kid drawing. eleanor puts it on the fridge (hangs it on the wall in her bedroom).
with aldous' help, she translated one of her father's favorite poems from nevarra abt the nature of death completely unaware that it mattered to bryce bc he came across it while grieving his father.
both of these gifts she does when she's in the eight to eleven age range.
BUMBLEBEE - How do they dress?
del hates dresses and skirts. even when in finery, she's dressing kind of like this but what's most important is that she's wearing hose with this so she can show off her well-turned calves courtesy of going one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve. prob a little more colorful, but she prefers a sedate palette with maybe a pop of smth bright — the point is the fabric and its texture, not necessarily the color. pls note the tasteful pinky ring.
cat is always in one of three modes: warden-commander, arlessa, or woman who has light in her eyes again. this means she's used to being in ceremonial armor so smth like this w griffon insignia. as arlessa, she does a kind of dowager thing. i rly, rly like the idea of her never deviating from blues at vigil's keep and soldier's peak, but when she's in arlessa mode, it's a darker blue, almost like she's in mourning, and so the vibe is in between those two paintings: solemn and no collarbone. smth that says 'my family was murdered and i don't ever have to get over it.' NO FUN! casual clothing is prob belted, fur-lined tunic, cap, hose, and boots, and that doesn't change whether she's on the clock or off it.
but bc i enjoy a little decadence, when she's w zev in antiva esp: more vivid colors! big sleeves! a daring amount of chemise showing! she's prob not quite as showy as these examples, but that kind of vibe.
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lime & pickle for cat whenever you feel up to it! no rush. condolences on the flu situation. truly no hell like being too sick to do anything. wishing you a speedy recovery!
Lime - Do they want children?
it was an expectation for her life up until the events of origins. she enjoyed hanging out w oren and the younger kids you can interact w in the cousland library. not smth she was giving a ton of thought to tho mainly bc fergus was on it. just sort of a vague future thing.
then origins happens, and she accepts fairly quickly that kids are not in the picture. it's not a life conducive to raising children, anyway, and similarly zevran is like yeah i've never rly thought abt it, never rly had the room to do so, guess that decision's been made for us so we don't have to dwell on it. and for the next decade they don't!
Pickle - What is the meanest thing they have ever done?
this does say meanest and not cruelest, so that is the framework i'm using. the meanest thing she's ever done is consistently and willfully and remorselessly make mistress woolsey's life hell. she resents DEEPLY that woolsey is just hanging out, that weisshaupt sent this woman essentially to spy on her, that she's weird abt the arling, that she's weird abt the deep roads entrance in the basement. she quite frankly doesn't like lieutenant gable either, but at least varel and garevel are locals who care abt the ppl who were here before weisshaupt bothered to do..................anything.
over the course of awakening, cat goes from 'she's annoying but necessary, i'll just have to learn to work w her' to 'i will answer queries in the most brusque manner possible, i will make decisions without bothering to include her, i will withhold all professional affection from her, i will WIN this passive aggressive off.' this is like. all the anxiety abt secrecy and privacy is projected onto woolsey who like, maybe could suck less, but at the end of the day, cat is her boss. can't be fun being stuck between weisshaupt and commander cousland.
actually maybe cat and teagan have an okay professional relationship and that's why he goes all the way back to sophia and the storm age to make his point. what cat's doing is tenable + she did save his brother, sister-in-law with whom he is (to me) having an affair, and his nephew. they can get into it on fereldan territory but he's not airing ferelden's dirty laundry at the fucking winter palace. fuck celene.
tbh one thing i'd love to explore w cat in particular that she can actually do bc she's an arlessa who travels is Going on a Pilgrimage. where to have sex is a big question for ppl who aren't afforded a ton of privacy, particularly sex you're not supposed to be having, and i love this video bc dr. eleanor janega is v cool and also bc it's rewarding for me to learn abt things like 'fucking woods,' the woods where everybody goes to fuck.
but re: pilgrimages, love to imagine cat being like yeah sorry i have to go to the chantry at ville montevelan. let's call it notre dame de la flamme sacrée to be extra sanctimonious. gotta go there on a pilgrimage to see the ashes of sister amity. and she does! but she's taking the scenic route and she's accidentally running into zevran, and all her ladies and guards are having trysts amongst each other bc she chose the horniest possible ppl to accompany her so they'd be way more focused on that than her being 500x happier than she normally is. and she's rly passive aggressively making a point of visiting pont agur. and maybe visiting the fort across the river. and leaving behind the warden korenic vintage u can find in dai.
