#neris lavellan

“Mamae, mamae!”

“Careful, Neris! I just finished that one, we don’t want to smudge it right away,” Vallera said, pushing the freshly painted mask to the side as she shifted to accommodate her daughter on her lap.

“Mamae, hahren said that I could be at the dance!”

“Did he, now? Then you need a mask, da’len.” She planted a quick kiss on the top of Neris’s head. “Do you remember hahren’s lessons about the gods?”

“Why?” Neris asked tentatively.

“Well, because for the wolf dance in the new year, the children wear masks of vallaslin. Which of the gods do you favor, hmm?” Vallera waited as Neris pouted and looked away from her eyes for a moment. “I’ll give you a hint. Do you favor like me, the flames of S…?”

“Sylaise!”

“Yes! Good girl,” she said with a smile, “Or maybe the wings of D…?”

“Daa…”

“Dirth—”

“—amen!”

“Dirthamen, yes, like your…” Vallera looked over to the edge of the camp, where Neris’s father conversed with one of the lead hunters. “Your papae?”

“No.” Neris shook her head to the sides and Vallera laughed.

“So… what do we do?”

“I want to be a hunter!”

“A hunter?”

“Yes, I want to track down the Dread Wolf and defeat him like Sulanin!”

“Oh, to find Fen’Harel you’ll need the guidance of Ghilan’nain, but to defeat him you’ll need the blessing of Andruil,” Vallera paused, “So whose will it be, da’len?”

“Both.”

“Both?”

“Yes.” Neris smiled.

Vallera laughed at her child. “Alright, my love. Do you want to paint yourself?”

Neris nodded, amber eyes fixed on her own.

“Very well, let’s see what you come up with,” Vallera said, kissing her daughter’s cheek three times in quick succession, and handed Neris her painting brush.

Tagged by @hansaera-art, thanks for thinking of me! x) 

I’m gonna do for Neris. 

1. What would you prefer: a diplomatic dinner with Josephine and a few nobles; a quick snack with Leliana; or a chess-match or a sword training with Cullen before breakfast?  Josephine knows already never to ask me if I’d like to dine with her with some nobles and foreign dignitaries unless it’s absolutely crucial that I make an appearance. It’s not that I don’t like Josie, but I’d rather go take a bath on the bogs of Fallow Mire than deal with pompous shems. 

Leliana scares me a bit, with how she can get serious to chirpy so fast, but a quick snack doesn’t sound so bad, if she’s in a good mood. 

It’s hard for me to get cerebral if I’m still fasting, so a chess match is a no go, but I’m always in a mood to give the Commander some bruises at the strike of day!

2. Do you bring small (or big) souvenirs from your trips? For example, a silver spoon from the Winter Palace or a bottle with sand from the Hissing Wastes?  If I can, I try to collect a smooth and shiny pebble, which then I write in ink where I got it from. 

3. If you could organize a sport tournament at Skyhold, what kind of sport would you choose?  Blackwall spoke of the famous Marcher joust, which sounds pretty ridiculous. I’d love to see it! 

4.  What future would you prefer for your Inquisition without the Exalted Council problem?  I’m tied to it now, whether or not it has Chantry support. Nor do I care if it does. This responsibility has been thrusted onto me and I’m done skirting or delaying what needs to be done. Should anyone have a problem with it, what I do or believe doesn’t need to have to have a name for me to keep believing in it. 

Gonna do these both for Neris ^^

31. Would your character be the kind capable of killing? Would they enjoy killing or only use it when necessary or, perhaps, refuse to kill no matter what? Before joining the Inquisition, Neris had barely even killed animals during a hunt, but was ecstatic for the chance to kill shems. Whether she could do it without any reservations is up in the air. 

Flash-forward a bit, maturity and actual experience in killing and the weight on her conscience that comes with it, Neris doesn’t kill without provocation, need and the most information possible on the situation. She dislikes doing executions, given that the sentenced person is in no position to fight back, but understands that it is a duty that must be done.

32. If your character’s lover offered to take them out on a dream date, what would they want to do?Her dream date would be to ride into the middle of nowhere to a secluded lake or river, preferably with a little waterfall, and swim and play in the water until night fell :)

Any? hehehe…

3. Brothers, sisters? Who do they like? Why? What do they despise about their siblings? (Lalaine Amell)

Lalaine has four siblings: one older sister, and two older brothers, and one younger brother. She never met her sister, who is the eldest (born 8:96 Blessed), nor did she ever know her name because she was taken by the Templars in 9:7 Dragon, 5 years before Lalaine was born. 

She has fuzzy recollections of her oldest brother, Daylen (born 9:5 Dragon), but he too was taken to a Circle when she was just 3 years old in 9:15 Dragon. Lalaine (born 9:12 Dragon) was closest with her older brother René (born 9:10 Dragon) and her younger brother Louis (born 9:13 Dragon), who were just 2 and 1 year apart from her, respectively. 

René and Lalaine were both discovered to have magical talent in 9:20 Dragon, and were taken away to different Circles that year. It was also then that her father abandoned 7 year old Louis in a Chantry orphanage and requested that his children were registered to his missing wife’s surname, Amell, and stripped from his so they would never be connected to his family again.

After that, she never knew what happened to any of her siblings.

(This ended up being nothing like what was asked >_>)

29. What is your character’s weaknesses? Hubris? Pride? Controlling? (Neris Lavellan)

Neris biggest weakness has got to be her lack of confidence in herself and that she relies on other things, be it people, ideals or fears, to guide her decision making.

43. Does your character have any secrets? If so, are they holding them back?

Most of the secrets Neris keeps are to her Clan. She keeps her more interpretive view of the Creators, especially Falon’Din’s role in life and death, from her more literal and conservative Keeper, she keeps the fact that the Creators were not as benevolent as previously thought from her fellow Dalish, she keeps the removal of her vallaslin from her Clan. 

If Neris keeps anything a secret from someone, it’s from someone she cares. Either it is because she cares about what they think of her or it is to protect them.

47. Do they want to project an image of a younger, older, more important person? Do they want to be visible or invisible?

When Neris was apprenticing she always tried to prove herself the best and most suited for the position of future Keeper. She presented herself as more mature and knowledgeable than her fellow apprentice, Tannen, who is older than she is. When she was nominated First, Tannen told her that she was only chosen because Neris and Deshanna shared blood, for her father was Deshanna’s favorite nephew and practically raised as her son when her own one died. This, coupled by the fact that Tannen was objectively a better mage than Neris made her doubt that she was ever suited for leadership and it was simply a childish desire for power and attention, and so tried to make herself look more capable and important than she thought she was, as well as not try to draw too much attention to her lest her ruse was discovered.

The randomness of the Conclave and the Anchor and her being put into a position of power due to something that was not her doing only increased her impostor syndrome in the beginning of Inquisition, and kept her on her toes trying to balance an air of competence and authority with not attracting unwanted attention to the fact that she did not believe she could ever be a leader.

Neris’s hands are small, but her fingers are long. They are dotted with small burn scars from her fire spells that didn’t heal completely.

Usually fire mages don’t burn themselves, even with little training because untrained fire spells aren’t all that powerful, but when Neris got the Anchor the power of her spells increased exponentially without adequate training due to the sudden mana increase, so in those first weeks of adaptation, she burned herself a lot. Because of that, her skin is soft and sensitive, and it’s difficult for her to form calluses, so when battles are especially long, she can get blisters from using her staff too much.

Neris takes care of her nails whenever she can. She dislikes them too long or pointy, nor can she keep them that way because they aren’t very hard and chip easily. When she has time for herself, Neris paints her nails with polish of a rare indigo pigment that Josephine makes sure to have in stock.

Definitely doodle your ocs! They need to be doodled!!

@rayduuu replied to your post “So weird man. I did 39 portraits in 5,5 days, feels strange to not do...”

I second what Calyah said. Doodle some of your own OCs!

@calyah replied to your post “So weird man. I did 39 portraits in 5,5 days, feels strange to not do...”

*hugs* what about some Neris? You could just do some fun doodles.