Aeducan - Tumblr Posts
zevran: don’t worry, i have a few knives up my sleeve.
warden: ... you mean cards?
zevran, pulling knives out of his sleeves: no, i do not.
alistair: i’m king maric’s bastard son.
aeducan: and i’m an aeducan princess, second child of king endrin, heir to the throne of orzammar.
alistair: you’re WHAT-
aeducan: oh sorry, thought we were playing at who has it bigger.
Having seen Andraste's ashes gives too much power to the HoF, which is funny if they actively don't believe in the Maker like a Dalish or a Dwarf.
Like yeah the Chantry doesn't sees me worthy of respect but you know who does?
YOUR MAKER
My Mahariel would be over here bustin’ out that Dalish crazy straw with 8+ loops and an umbrella
it’s a secret ritual
Decided to get more invested in the dwarf lore and get rid of annoying elf/mage bias by playing origins as Aeducan. And now I am no longer normal about dwarves.
I like how Aeducan origin explores the themes of tradition, conservatism and identity. You can also add religious trauma and even comphet, if you want to explore it past the surface level (pun unintended). I role-played my character Gwidelor in a way similar to the 4 sights of Siddhartha Gautama story - as a young sheltered prince who grew up surrounded with earthly pleasures and knew nothing of earthly suffering until he stepped out of his palace. Before leaving his palace, Siddhartha had never seen sickness, aging or death. Gwidelor may had seen death but he had no idea what life outside the royal palace really is. There are much more than 4 sights in his story. The first one, of course, was betrayal. He tried to please his family so hard. To respect the ways of ancestors, to maintain his honor and fullfil his duty to Orzammar, to represent the perfect image of his caste. All to know that there was no family in the first place. And no honor. That the traditions he respected didn't stop the Assembly from sentencing him for the crime he did not commit.
It gets even worse when Aeducan returns to Orzammar as a grey warden. The city is not what he remembers. He no longer sees gold, gems and silks. He sees a starving woman disowned by her family for refusing to kill her child. And a once respected warrior reduced to nothing but a mockery. He wonders. Has Orzammar always been so cruel?
He butchers the Carta. Gwidelor is grossed out by the Dust Town because that's what he had been taught. He was supposed to look down on the casteless. But why where is shame now? And not simply disgust with an air of superiority. Because the casteless are more real than they were in the royal palace. And Gwidelor is not so different from them now. Ah, shame, an Aeducan can fit so many of it. The kinslayer is always a disgrace to the house and the ancestors, it doesn't even matter if you kill Trian or not. Aeducan is a disrace either because their assassination of Trian was sloppy and pathetic or because they're too weak and soft hearted to be an Aeducan.
And the comphet part! Internalized homophobia must be wild in dwarves from Orzammar. Their kingdom is dying, the more children they have, the better. Men are encouraged to have as many concubines as they can afford. And well, gay sex produces children kinda rarely. Gwidelor had a kid with Mardy despite being gay because that's...That's what everybody expected him to do? Because he didn't want to be shamed by the entire nation of Orzammar and force all the ancestors to roll in their graves?
There is no more such pressure on the surface, at least among the grey wardens. He can do whatever he wants and the traditions can rot. But Gwidelor cannot denounce them, he is what traditions made him. He will forever be a son of Orzammar, even if the city itself is not as welcoming as he would like it to be. Gwidelor still has Orzammar's best interests in his heart. He still cares for his dying kingdom, even if it's no longer his. Even if the ancestors aren't supposed to answer his prayers, he still prays to them. The ideas of what traditions mean and what they really are will always conflict with each other. Gwindelor will hate Orzammar. But he will always love it. He is grateful for being made a grey warden. But his grief for leaving Orzammar will never end.