#valo-kas

Kaaras could hear birds peeping and cawing, could hear the tumble of the stream he'd just finished bathing in, could hear the shifting of foliage in the breeze. But what he couldn't hear were the sounds of his fellow Valo-Kas mercenaries as he approached their campsite, and that made him pause in his tracks.

This is my take on the Valo-Kas mercenaries character design based on what i read on the dragon age wiki !  I only drew the ones i think were important in my Adaar's life and i LOVE THEM

The Valo-kas

New hobby: designing Valo-Kas characters

So I’m going to be completely honest and say I never ever even thought of the Valo-Kas before @tuffypelly steamrolled into my life with her love of the Qunari. So, here we go! Valo-Kas Headcanons: 

We don’t know much about Adaar and the Valo-Kas. What we do know is that 1) Adaar joined as a young adult and 2) there are lots of people with Qunari names in the organization. The Valo-Kas itself takes their name from the Qunlat word for “great sword.” 

We can assume the Qunari in company are Tal-Vashoth because 99% of the mercenaries we see who are Qunari are Tal-Vashoth (the sole exception being Iron Bull who seems to have been a very special exception to rules.) 

We also know that they were well respected enough as a company to be hired by the chantry, a powerful institution at the time, to help guard the peace talks that were very important. In addition, their leader (Shokrakar) is a badass lady who writes you some of the funniest letters in the game.

Adaar,

I heard you were dead, and then a prisoner, and then maybe you fell out of the Fade and landed on your head and forgot who you were. Seriously, stop that. We still haven't been paid.

Some of our kith made it out of that giant shit hole full of demons after the explosion. The rest are dead or missing. I don't know how many were rounded up by angry humans. If you're not dead and you remember who you are, help me find our brothers and sisters.

Shokrakar

P.S. If you forgot who you are, I'll remind you: Your name is Adaar. You're Vashoth. You didn't get paid for being blown up.

P.P.S. If you are dead, disregard this message.

I stan her.

Shokrakar headcanons: She escaped the Qun - maybe she spent her whole life rebelling against the roles they shoved her into. I like to think she craved a family, a real family, so the second she got out she made herself one. The Valo-Kas are her family and she loves them, but she’s not gonna tell them that. Also she loves babies and small animals. When they get hired to guard Kirkwall, she 100% gets along great with Aveline despite getting off to a rocky start. 

Kaariss: The Valo-Kas bard! They write poetry and apparently it’s terrible. They join Varric’s court as the court bard in retirement. 

I also love Tuffy’s idea of the Valo-Kas bringing in talented others as part of their found family, non-Qunari warriors, rogues, and mages they pick up and just can’t get rid of. A former Carta dwarf made good, a freed Elvhen slave, a runaway human noble. I feel like they all come in under Shok’s wings and she says they need to get rid of them but they never do.

Shokrakar and my Adaar ! :3

The Adaar Siblings:

- Herah Adaar as Gal Gadot