#valendrian

Dragon Age Fan Cast : City Elf Origin

City Elf Appreciation Week Day 4: Youth (@cityelfweek)

A little peek at a young Novhen Tabris and his many mentors who prepared him to become the celebrated hero he is today

Valendrian and Papa Cyrion: An informal master-apprentice relationship and a pretty indisputable father-son relationship. Both emphasized interpersonal skills such as negotiation and conflict resolution which have served him very well.

Mama Adaia and Nonna Ofra: A smuggler and a retired pirate, both Agents of Fen'Harel. It was their shared responsibility to train Novhen in their family's traditional fighting style and the philosophy and subterfuge that accompanied it. The effects of growing old in an alienage started to wear on Ofra's bones, so she gradually focused more and more on the nonphysical aspects of shaping him into a future agent.

From the (male) City Elf Origin if you speak to Valendrian after making the plan to break into the Arl of Denerim's estate. The lines here vary depending on if you play as a rogue or warrior and presumably also hold true for female Tabrises

The rogue line isn't anything too weird. I've gotten mixed messages on the legality of elves running shops in Ferelden. Alarith tries to keep his store secret from the guard, but that could also just be because he's involved with smuggling. Still, those questions don't change that fact that elven shopkeeps clearly do exist, so it is a plausible career path for a Tabris

The warrior line is what raises some actual questions to me. The town guard might be in need of a good swordhand, but why would you want to put one of your charges in that situation, Valendrian? Besides that being an incredibly dangerous situation for an elf to be in (best case scenario is still a hostile work environment), elves aren't even allowed to wield weapons in Denerim as he ought to know from the innumerable posters declaring as much around the alienage. How are you going to talk your way around that one?

I refuse to accept that line as canon

Anyway, here's the rest of that branch for anyone curious in what he had to say to the original point:

Off to save the women-folk

Though Duncan says he can’t help, he hands over a sword and crossbow to the cause. At least this shem isn’t completely worthless.

Adwen proves handy with a bottle and some information on how to find the female half of the wedding party.

Vaughan, Braden, and Jonaley are about to find justice at the end of a sword and a bolt to the neck. It was rather satisfying watching Vaughan’s head roll.

I’m so glad I actually get to save both Cyrion and Valendrian this time.

I hate how they make you “too late to save Valendrian” if you’re a City Elf. Like I know they want to focus on you saving Papa Tabris, but being too late to save Valendrian when you’ve been locked out of the Alienage for most of the game is just painful.

Oh, yeah, also, weird bonus glitch where Valendrian seems to think we’re in his house:

First up is Shianni. I'll be honest, i thought this was her Bad Idea comment at first because she can be so sarcastic, but it is fun to imagine her saying this approvingly. Most of these i've never heard in the game, and i don't know where i could find the actual audio files

I just love her sass

And here's a cute little parallel between Shianni and Soris's battle cries. I'm picturing the childhood wrestling matches already. Shiannii's probably around 2-4 years younger than him but kicking his ass more often than not

Soris also has a pair of delightful figures of speech for his Good Idea and Bad Idea comments

The existence of a Spell Failed comment for Soris had me 👀 for the half minute before i remembered that every companion has one. I assume it's in case any talent regardless of class gets interrupted, but i did start to think about that AU potential for a hot second. Might have to write a fic about it someday. Apostate Soris AU is just ripe for the presses

This one i just really want to know what his line of thinking was. While he's in the party, his only other party member is the Warden. If the Warden goes down, there's no "we" to help them unless you are in that conditional and very narrow window before f!Tabris finds Nelaros. Even while active, that would still mean running across the map to find him. Maybe it was originally planned to have someone else also join you during the break in or for Nelaros to live? Idk. Could just be a regular oversight since it's such a generic line

Moving on to Cyrion with something that is so simple yet would fill my Tabris with so much shame

Also we've got Valendrian coming in with the fire in his belly! He's so much more vicious than i expected! "Such a pathetic creature you are." Hello??? Does he actually know how to fight? Am i going to have to actually play Darkspawn Chronicles for a chance to maybe hear some of this now? What other possible combat scenario could this be intended for except that the toolset doesn't include anything DLC except Shale? I might go insane about this

(Yes, there's also a note that he'll never be in combat or controlled by the player, but at least his threaten and 5th battle cry don't look to be generic. Idk i have thoughts and questions about this, but Alistair's character sheet says he's 32, so it's not like it'd be the first or biggest retcon from the toolset)

We've also got quite a bit of elven coming from Valendrian! I don't think "Mur ta tanalla" even has a known canon translation but whatever it means clearly works as a battle cry

And to close out, some pickpocket reactions in the order of Shianni, Soris, Cyrion, Valendrian. Why did you attempt to steal from your father? Now, he's confused and disappointed

Soris's is definitely written with the CE Warden in mind, but i'd wager Shianni's is written with a non-CE Warden in mind. It's not that i don't think she'd say it, but (considering the VO note is "threatening") i do think that she'd instead take to it more as a poor joke if it were cousin instead of a near-stranger, especially if this cousin didn't accept Vaughan's bribe

Valendrian's line here also doesn't seem like he's speaking to a Warden Tabris considering he's described as a surrogate uncle to the alienage. But also him threatening anyone seems out of character. What happened to "the world has far more use of those who know how to stay their blades"? I'd expect exasperation, admonishment, maybe a little shaming. Can you imagine him saying this to a Cousland armed to the teeth? Combined with what i've already shown from him, it really makes you wonder how much his character changed over the course of development