#isera

I realized a while back that I didn’t really have a “canon” warden, so I decided to playthrough DA:O again to make one.

And the incomparable @singuminklarity agreed to take a commission for my Warden, Isera, and her beau, Alistair. And I could not be more pleased!

Look how handsome they are! And how cute, all holding hands and shit. I’m giddy!

 “I told you that was just the perfect color.”

Isera circled Shimra with an approving, if somewhat calculating air. She leaned down, light as dandelion fluff in the air, to straighten one long hanging sleeve of Shimra’s dove grey chemise. Silks and satins lay in neat rolls beside the best selection of lace and expensive trim in the whole city.

The shop was closed, as was usually the case when Isera decided to come for a visit. For all her oddness, the elf princess made herself wildly popular among the common folk, both for her sweet, if odd, way, and for her way of spending gold like it barely mattered to her.

Maybe it didn’t matter to her. She was a princess after all.

“Your Royal Highness…” Shimra stammered, entirely out of her depth, and entirely at the whim of one very insistent Elvish princess. “This is far too grand for the likes of me.”

“Nonsense,” Isera waved her concerns away and began draping her with different embroidered trims. There was a reason she liked this seamstress so much. Gvyn knew her needles and silks better than even Isera’s seamstresses back home. “Every young lady needs a fine dress or two.”

“Your Highness, I’m an innkeeper’s daughter.”

“And you need a very fine dress. Gvyn, blue is lovely on her, but not this shade. Maybe something softer?”

Gvyn considered Shimra carefully and circled her with purpose before vanishing into the back room.

“I think I have just the thing,” the red-haired seamstress called, clearly completely unawed by her royal customer by this point and confident in her ability to provide. “She’s got such lovely dark hair, she can carry the darker tones.”

When she emerged, it was with a roll of silk in her arms that was exactly the shade of the sky just after the sun dropped behind the mountains. It glowed in the soft warm light that poured through the windows, and Shimra couldn’t hide her gasp of awe.

Isera sighed in appreciation and came over to admire the almost-transparent silk when Gvyn unrolled it for her.

“Oh my,” she breathed, and traced one delicate finger over the silk. “Oh yes. Gvyn me dear one, this is perfect. You truly are a sorceress and a goddess of your craft.”

“Now don’t go heaping praise on me, Isera, Gvyn said, radiating smugness. “I haven’t made the dress yet.”

“Ah but I know you will do wonderfully. Now Shimra, Gvyn has your measurements, and we do have elsewhere to be.”

“You still haven’t told me what all of this is about!” Shimra managed to rally even as Gvyn began draping her in the exquisite silk. “I’m an innkeeper’s daughter!”

“And you make wonderful pies,” Isera assured her and kissed her cheek fondly even as she rummaged through Gvyn’s beads and came up with a whole jar of tiny silver pearls. “Ah, perfect. These ones, Gvyn. Shimra darling, you will make a marvelous duchess, but you do need something appropriate to wear when Intevar presents you at court.”

“What?”

“Well, you are to be a duchess after all. It will take a bit longer to find lands for you, but I don’t expect that will be a problem before long.”

“What do you mean a duchess?!”

Shimra was starting to look a bit faint. Isera helped her to a chair and took her hands.

“You impressed me with your good sense,” she told the young woman kindly. “And then, when I got to know you better, you impressed me more with your kindness to my Beloved and your knowledge of human nature. The Nobility could use a great deal of all those three things.”

“Duchess?”

Shimra was still looking a bit faint, but now slightly more aware. Still, it was a bit much to drop on anyone.

Perhaps Halva had been right about easing th young lady into the matter, but Isera was never one to take things slow.

“Yes, Duchess,” Isera assured her, and braided Shimra’s dark hair out of her eyes.  “I am Isera Jysletae, Crown Princess of Syiell Forest. My brother is Intevar, King of Syiell Forest and the Below Lands. If I say that you are worthy to be a duchess, he is quite in the position to make sure you are accorded the honors for which you deserve.”

“I’m an innkeeper’s daughter!” Shimra protested, although she did let Gvyn take careful measurements of her arms and wrists, and then her feet. “I make pies!”

“Most excellent pies.”

“I don’t have a drop of noble blood! Not one!”

“Which makes you all the better really. You wouldn’t believe the way those idiots wed cousin to cousin. Up you get, darling. Gvyn needs to measure your hips, and then we’re off to the jeweler. This gown needs more pearls.”

“WHAT?!”

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Spider-Eating Elves:

Elves are beautiful, icy, and untouchable. Unfortunately, they always thought the same of humans. Worse yet, they also live in a forest full of giant insects, think tiny spiders are a delicacy, and have a strong-willed princess who is nothing but trouble. 

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Introductory Trouble

Lady of Grace

Lady of Stone, and her Girlfriend

Lady Retrieved

Monsters on the Wing

Spiderwebs and Cookies

Royal Match

Lines in the Sand

From One King to Another

Duchess of Pies

Twilight Silk

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Sometime I draw stuff.

This is my Isera, in an Elvhenan AU.

figured it was a good time to make a little post about all my DA OCs~

Arinni Tabris: A feral cat in her viciousness and in the great love she shows to those she allows into her heart. A young woman of immense inner strength and tough love, ready to shoulder all burdens with a fuck you, I'm strong enough to carry it for you. Rogue x rogue, the feral cat and the Antivan Crow 🐈🗡️. Best friends with Alistair, the first human to care, to show her they ain't all shems. Gets married in Denerim Castle to stick it to the haters and losers, has two little rogues 🧡

Amr Cousland: The purehearted, selfless human noble and the swamp witch who never intended to let a man who cries at puppies nestle into her softened heart. Lost nearly his entire household to murder, and yet never stopped showing Morrigan there is so much more to this world than the cruelty she knows. It breaks his heart when she leaves, but he never gives up on their love, on someday being a family. They have a little girl in addition to Kieran 💜. Considers Alistair his own brother 💕

Isera Mahariel: Carefree and sweet, a fresh breeze through the forest leaves. A sweet girl who is terrified by her fate, but pushes through, for love of her clan and her new friends. Shares the first of everything with Alistair 💚 They visit her clan when Warden work allows them to, and live with them permanently when she becomes pregnant. Nothing bad ever happens to either of them 🥰 inquisition who? (seriously, not MY canon state lol)

Amell Hawke: Feminine beauty and cruel gauntlets, a barbarian's tattoo across her nose in between gray eyes glittering with mischievous wit. A lover of both silk dresses and The Hanged Man; of noble parties and her greatsword splashed in blood; of the handsome, elegant prince and what that demon stirred within him. Princess of Starkhaven, beloved for her charm, wit, beauty, and for blessing the city with little princes and princesses 💖. Best friends with Varric (ofc) and Fenris, and big sis Aveline. Anders, too, was her best friend once, in a time so long ago.

Isenam Lavellan: the vengeful, hungry blade: voracious in her hunger for knowledge, possessing a pride near equal to Solas'. Nights spent together in Skyhold's library: discovery, debate, ego, passion. Vows to kill him because nobody makes a fool out of Isenam Lavellan and gets away with it. A hard woman with a hard heart that will never break, only harden into impenetrable diamond. Besties with Vivienne and Bull. Grateful to the entire Inquisition for showing her how ignorant she was: the Dalish are not alone, and there is strength and camaraderie to be found in all the races of Thedas.

It was made years ago for a mermaid AU in a group rp that Isera used to be part of :D art is mine.