#rook rexus

Falx Verus Mercar, aka Rexus Leventis

My beloved boy, just trying to finally do the right thing and make up for his mistakes.

I will leave Minrathous no doubt who is fighting for them.

Thank you!! :) These were both so HARD but really fun to think about!

2.) An entry from Rook's journal

Arlathan, I think, is growing on me. Which feels strange, but what isn't anymore? I thought I was well-traveled enough before all this, but so many of the new places I've been and have to be are really just places I can't wait to leave. Some of them are really quite nice to look at, yes, but the problem is that to look at them, you have to be there. And being there is damp and wet and sticky, smells of some rotting thing or another, and full of snakes or some other thing trying to kill me.

And this place...don't even get me started on this place. As much as I wish I could see the faces of anyone who ever sneered and belched a smug little 'erratus'* in my direction when they find out I sleep on a little green couch in front of a giant fishbowl in a secret little part of their precious Fade they'll never be able to see, I...don't care. They're not missing anything. I hate it here. I hate it more than the damned corpse warehouse. What's the time, ever? Who knows. It's never night. There's no weather. Bloody floating everything everywhere. Just being here has a way of making my teeth feel like they're going to blow out of their sockets.

Everyone else seems to have found a way to feel at home here, but I can't. Minrathous is damp and wet and sticky and smells and has floaty things and is certainly more than full of snakes, but it's my damp and my wet and my sticky and so on and so forth. That's home. That's where I belong. That's where I want to be. And yet, whenever it's time to go take a walk in a big fuck-off forest full of weird, unstable magic so a baby griffon can dig truffles out of piles of nug shit, I find myself thinking that maybe I'm not in such a hurry to leave anymore. Maybe this is, for the moment, where I want to be.

Or maybe he is.

'*' - a pejorative term used by members of the Altus class to describe a non-mage born to an Altus family; loosely, 'error' or 'mistake'.

12.) Rook's daily schedule

[Written hastily in Magister Sisenna's hand on a smaller paper attached to an impossibly neat, organized letter, dated around 9:50 Dragon]

R:

Milo brought me another list last night. I don't want Milo to bring me lists. I am tired of Milo bringing me lists. If Milo brings me another list, ever, I am going to sew seaweed into all of your shoes.

-S

---

Humbly submitted for review and consideration to Madame Steward Sandrine Bettencourt and Magister Adrian Sisenna by Iosephus Milo Petrellis, Captain of the Magister’s Night Guard:

A few matters of concern observed over the last three consecutive nights, again pertaining to the timeliness and professionalism of principal guard Falx Verus Mercar:

Mercar reported for duty at eight and twenty four minutes, nine and six minutes, and seven and forty nine minutes, respectively. He is scheduled to report by seven in the morning.

When questioned as to the reason for his continued tardiness, he responded with a number of questionably relevant circumstances: first, that he'd thought he'd lost his shoes but he had in fact been wearing them the entire time; second, that he was particularly enjoying his breakfast that morning; third, he suggested I just get into bed with him next time if I wanted him out of it so badly. This is inappropriate and poor management of time and equipment.

Mercar remains to fraternize with the Magister after his duty ends at nineteen hours. I am aware of previous advisement that Mercar and the Magister are quite good friends, but it seems redundant for him to be present while I am on duty.

Mercar has been observed leaving the apartments nearing twenty three hours, and not returning until after six the following morning. This is not adequate time for sleep before he is scheduled to report at seven in the morning.

I have detailed a strict daily routine on the next page that I believe would do wonders towards mitigating the majority of these concerns. Should you agree, I would be happy to implement its use as soon as possible. I thank you for your time and consideration of these matters.

---

[Written on the back of the page in the steward's hand]

Milo, you have known Adrian as long as I have and I am certain he and I have both already reminded you several times that this...formality is simply not necessary. If you wish him to address your concerns, you may simply go and speak to him.

That said, you are well aware that he entrusts responsibilities to Mercar which extend beyond his scheduled guard duty hours and often require him to be away from the residence, thus affording him a bit of leniency as far as timeliness is concerned. You are always well compensated for your extra time. We can discuss adjusting the principal guard duty again to twelve hours from eight in the morning, but I can assure you trying to force Falx Verus Mercar to stick to any sort of routine is the quickest way to guarantee he will not.

The Empress: What does family mean for Rook?

If we’re going by just the traditional definition of ‘people related to him by blood’, it means ‘people who exist solely to make his life worse/harder and also his mother’. Nowadays, it’s come to mean ‘people who feel like home’. Silver comes to mind first, of course, as he’s been Rexus’s soft place to land for pretty much as long as they’ve known each other, but it kind of extended to the entire Ivory Oasis staff while he was living and working as a guard there. The place was founded by former courtesans with a penchant for taking in strays on the ideal that it be an oasis for its patrons and courtesans/staff alike. Everyone there supported, took care of, and looked out for each other, there was a lot of love in that place and it was…nice. That was how family was supposed to be. The Lighthouse crew would all eventually get there, but Harding was the first since she was there from the beginning and frankly made that year away from Minrathous with Varric (they got along but Rexus could never quite shake the feeling that Varric really, really wanted him to be Hawke, or at least a more idealized and heroic version of Hawke) more bearable.

The Hierophant: Is Rook religious? How do they feel about the religious organizations that impact their life the most?

He’s religious in the way a kid who was raised Catholic but abandoned the church as soon as no one was forcing them to go anymore is religious. He knows what to do and what to say and when to do and say them, but it’s all muscle memory and conditioned responses. He’s pretty irreverent and disrespectful towards the Chantry and its followers but in the way someone with the knowledge to twist around and pick apart what they preach and believe is irreverent and disrespectful. He does believe in the Maker, but mostly as someone to blame for his shitty life growing up or anything else he doesn’t want to admit is his fault and can’t blame on anyone else, and because it doesn’t really mean anything if you blaspheme nothing.

Yay! Thanks! :)

1. How old is Rook?

He was born in Umbralis of 9:06 Dragon, so he’s 45-46 now. He’s the same age as Nicky Hawke, a fun fact of which Varric was quite fond of reminding him. Constantly. Rexus just rolled his eyes and reminded Varric right back that he and Hawke are still younger than he is, and Varric is the only one who looks his age.

6. What was the reason that brought Rook to Minrathous?

It’s home. He was born and raised there, in one of the wealthiest districts until his father kicked him out, lived on the streets and in an attic storeroom by the harbor in Dock Town for a decade, had his own favorite street vendors and dive bars and brothels and informants, knows all the secret ways into, out of, and around the city, neighborhoods rich and poor alike. He loves talking shit about Minrathous but hates having to live anywhere else. He’s had to leave twice, first in his late 20s after being framed by his brother for a mass assassination, and then after The Incident with the Shadow Dragons when he ended up hunting Solas with Varric. He’s had to keep a lower profile since he came back the first time so it isn’t that much of an “oh no not this asshole” situation when he walks into a room anymore - and believe me he is nostalgic for the days when it was - but it’s still home, and even though he still loves talking shit it’s a place he genuinely loves enough to do what he can to make it better.

42. Something Rook regrets:

A shorter list would be things he doesn’t regret. He was incredibly bitter and spiteful through his youth and said and did a lot of hurtful things to a lot of people in the name of trying to feel powerful. I think his biggest regret, though, is how he treated his brother. The kid was literally only born because their father couldn’t stomach the embarrassment of having a non-mage son, and their mother never made any effort to hide that she didn’t want to have him at all. Rexus tormented him as a child; he’d break his toys in front of him and pinch his toes when he was a baby to make him cry, and later he would do anything in his power to embarrass or discredit him, or give his brother’s name as his own while being a jerk or skipping out on a bill so he gets the blame later. He realized way too late that he should’ve been protecting his brother instead, been somewhere safe for him to escape their parents, the pressure to be perfect and the constant reminders of being unwanted. The kind of person his brother could have become if Rexus hadn’t been so bitter and spiteful about his own situation haunts him, as does the knowledge that it’s too late now to do anything about it.

49. What will always make them laugh?

Someone getting their comeuppance, like being a jerk about people getting in their way while walking and then they run straight into a pole or trip or something. Or, similarly, someone being overly confident they can do something and then failing miserably. People getting annoyed with him and giving him a certain kind of glare makes him giggle like a little girl.

3. What was Rook’s life before their faction?

Rook’s story is, of course, that he was adopted as a baby by an Imperial Legion commander who found him on a battlefield near Ventus, moved around a lot, trained to fight and bothered everyone while doing it, worked as a bodyguard for Minrathous’s most elite courtesans in a high end pleasure house, then for a magister when one of the courtesans he protected inherited a Senate seat from an estranged uncle, and later joined the Shadow Dragons to make a difference. 

Which is, of course, complete and utter bullshit. Except for the bothering people, there's no version of this story where he isn't bothering people.

Now, Falx Verus Mercar was a guard at the Ivory Oasis for several years, and their most prominent courtesan, Silver, did through some inheritance fuckery from his maternal uncle become a magister around the time of the Exalted Council, and he did bring his dear and trusted friend Mercar with him as his personal bodyguard. But Falx Verus Mercar himself is a fiction, and didn’t exist at all until about a decade ago, when he needed a new name and cover story for what this snarky long-haired beardy guy was doing in Minrathous when noted scoundrel and infamous frumentarius - a spy, saboteur, fixer, thug, slave hunter, general doer of dirty work for the magister who employed him, basically his job was to make his boss's problems disappear and be a problem to everyone else - Rexus Leventis had long since been presumed dead. Coming back gave him a chance to start over, and the new name and new story let him do the real work he came back to do - use the skills and knowledge gained in his youth to help Silver help people escape slavery, and grow into a better person himself - unbothered. Mostly.

11. Does Rook keep up with current events? (How aware of the situation are they at the start of the game?)

He has a local ear to the ground, as one might expect, and is quite familiar with the Antaam invasions in the east since Silver's - sorry, Magister Sisenna's - holdings are near Carastes and he actually bothers taking care of the people he represents. Traveling with Varric got him up to speed on a lot of things going on outside Tevinter, but he usually has a pretty good idea of what's going on at any given time. He just likes to seem like he's completely oblivious because it annoys people.

12. Does Rook have any family? Do they keep in touch?

He's the firstborn son of a prominent Altus family, but his father disowned him when he failed to manifest magic. His mother hated his father, so she doted on him as best and as publicly as she could - it was at her suggestion that another magister (Rexus's father's best friend and his mother's longtime lover) agreed to employ Rexus as one of his frumentarii. He also has a golden child younger brother who everyone knows was born solely to replace him, and they've never liked each other. His father was among those assassinated when Rexus's last job went bad and ended with a lot of dead magisters, including his boss, and his mother went into hiding after that. He's not sure she's even still alive. His brother masterminded the whole thing to seize power in the Magisterium and remains there to this day. He's not Venatori, and does actively oppose them, but he's definitely not one of the good ones and would have Rexus killed on sight if he knew he'd survived.

So, yeah. They don't keep in touch.

24. Does Rook have any nightly rituals before bed?

He’s very much a "fall into bed face down, arms and legs out, stay there until morning" kind of guy. He’s at least let Silver prevail upon him to use a silk pillowcase for the sake of his hair. The one hygiene thing he's always been really fastidious about is taking care of his teeth, though, so he'll do that before bed if nothing else to have an excuse to see how long he can gargle something. And how long it will take before someone tells him to stop.

YES. THANKS!!

5. A conversation overheard between Rook and a companion

“Lace.”

“Ugh, dooon’t.”

“Feeling better?”

“Ha, ha. I feel like something crawled into my belly and ripped it apart and ate it. Then I puked it out and ate that.”

“Sounds delicious. Remind me to get the recipe from you later.”

“Shut up. Ughhh, I can’t even remember the last time I was so sick.”

“Last night.”

“…Rook.”

[high pitched giggling] “Won’t be making any more midnight mystery meat sandwiches, then, I take it?”

“I thought it was one of those fancy Antivan hams!! The ones that are just…fine sitting out on the table like that!! How was I supposed to know it was a regular ham that was just old and Lucanis was throwing it away?!”

“No, no, no, not judging. Tasted fine to me, too.”

“Right?!? …wait, you ate some too? How come you’re not sick?”

“Eh, I used to eat scraps off old chicken bones I found on my floor all the time. At least I think they were chicken bones, anyway. Stuff the inn down the street was throwing out, mostly. Might have even been cooked.”

“…you’re making that up.”

“Lace! My dear, dear Lace, in all the time we’ve known each other, have I ever, ever lied to you?”

“You mean besides, you know, your name and where you’re from and pretty much everything else about yourself until recently?”

“…All right, fine, but the chicken bones thing is true. Just…a long time ago. That and your field cooking for the last year and I’m pretty sure my insides can handle anything.”

“Well, I’ll be sure to remember that, next time you’re hungry.”

7. Something written by a character from a previous game about Rook

I thought the name sounded familiar, so I checked on a few things. Seems back while we were fighting Corypheus, your Rook was part of a different outfit that was smuggling people out of slavery and into the Inquisition, like they’d just always been there. We took nearly a dozen more people home from the ball at the Winter Palace than we brought with us because of them, and didn’t even realize it until months later. I can’t say I liked knowing we were that easily infiltrated then, even by escaped former slaves, but it seems like just what you need now. You are hunting a trickster, after all. Having one of your own couldn’t hurt.

[Excerpt from a letter to Varric Tethras from Inquisitor Tasalin Lavellan]

10. Note found in Rook’s pocket

[A small piece of paper with a sketch of a snake, which Rook is deathly afraid of, and a note from Davrin]

So you always know you’re stronger than your fear.