#catch all

So, for a little bit of context, I was planning to play as Adaar for my first playthrough, but I looked at the qunari CC options and... restarted the game with Lavellan, lol. So Shirae was my first inquisitor and the only one I’ve finished the game with but so much of the plot was so alienating for her, like, she was constantly uncomfortable and I didn’t feel like she really had the chance to make the sort of meaningful emotional connections with party members that I’d hoped she would. It was sad and she deserved better! So I rolled up Kataara Adaar to replace her as inquisitor shortly after, but, it felt Real Bad realizing that meant the well of mythal - one of the only aspects of the plot that was really deeply meaningful to Shirae as a keeper’s first - would come down to a choice between two characters completely unconnected to Dalish culture. So! She got  overhauled as a recruitable party member of sorts and thus she’s always been my girl for the well of sorrows.

(I also have an dalish exile warden oc, Ellaran, who I decided was disaster enough to be a good match for Solas - I was tired of all the 20 y/o live laugh lovellans that seemed to predominate amongst the solavellans and I figured an opinionated middle-aged asshole would be more his speed - so I set his path to intersect with the Inquisition as well.)

So there were a lot of nerdy elven mages who were excited to go on the field trip to the temple of mythal, oh, and also morrigan I guess. Kataara consults Shirae and Ellaran when the Inquisition gets involved in Dalish stuff because she, you know, wants to be diplomatic and respectful.

Shirae and Ellaran spend the entire trip through the temple (good-naturedly) arguing with Solas and Morrigan about the finer points of elven history. They’re having a great time.

Well of Sorrows, Kataara hears everyone out, and she’s like, okay, sounds like someone’s going in the well and we have a lot of experts here, so, let’s discuss our options? Solas? And Solas is like “hell no :|” Ellaran? And Ellaran is like “believe me I am so fucking tempted but I’m a warden and don’t want to take the chance the taint in my blood might, you know, ruin this in spectacular fashion somehow, so.” And Morrigan’s like “uhhh, ME, obviously”

Shirae’s been quietly studying the well through most of this talk and this is when she pipes up like, “uh, I am dalish and the first to the keeper, preserving elven  history is like literally my entire calling, that I’ve been training my whole life for, so, no, I’ll be the one to do it” and Kataara’s like “that’s fair”