This will be the first story I have ever written.
Fem/Elf/Mage Origin. I will mostly skip the main plot events in the game, and assume that if anyone else ever reads this, they've already played through the game. I want to explore the backstory living in my imagination when I was playing the game, and the relationships between a mostly optimistic Warden and companions who may or may not be that comfortable around magic.
By way of disclaimer – I may be having a sordid affair with Dragon Age, but it Belongs to Bioware:-)
Chapter 1: Leaving the Circle
Virae Surana gazed back at the Circle Tower, blanketed in the misty grey of pre-dawn. She heard and felt the paddles plunge into the water, the rhythmic movement of the boat taking her away from the life she knew and her home of nearly ten years.
The view hadn't changed much since the last time she had seen it from a boat. It still looked huge and imposing. In many ways she felt oddly similar to the child she had been, leaving behind a disturbing tragedy, looking forward to a new life, and a new adventure.
Three nights ago the event that every apprentice looked forward to with equal measures of anticipation and dread had finally happened to her – her harrowing. What really happened during the harrowing was a big secret, of course, but every apprentice knew they could die. The reality turned out to be far worse than Virae had ever imagined. Blessed Creator, they intentionally put a demon in her! She let the faces of the many apprentices she'd known who'd disappeared in the night, and never returned, float before her eyes.
Virae understood why the Templers did it, and why First Enchanter Irving cooperated with them. The Chantry suspiciously regarded all mages as potential abominations. If mages weren't so useful, she thought, the Chantry would simply kill them all.
The water on the lake was smooth, marred only by the ripples of the boat's passage. She followed the pattern of the wake as far as she could see, and imagined the ripples traveling all the way across the lake to Redcliffe. Her mentor, Aaron, had been fond of analogies involving drops of water on a lake. Virae wondered what he would have said about her actions of the last few days. Leaning over the side of the boat, she caught her diffracted reflection. Large green eyes in an elven face, auburn hair pulled up into a tight bun, her pointed ears that stuck out even when her hair was loose. The face of someone who betrayed her friend, she thought.
And now Templers were hunting that friend. She recalled the look on Jowan's face when she confessed what she'd done, and felt a fresh wave of guilt and regret. How she wished that Aaron was still alive, and that she could have gone to him for advice when Jowan revealed his plan and asked for her help. Virae had believed that Irving would know what was best, and she had gone along with his deception for "the good of the circle". Obviously that had gone terribly wrong. Virae wanted to blame Irving, but she knew it was her own fault. She thought of the two guiding principle Mamae taught her, that she tried to live by: 'What you send returns three times over', and 'harm none'. She had betrayed Jowan, and she was responsible for the consequences, whatever they may be.
The sky above the Tower was getting lighter, and at this distance she could just make out the huge oak tree that stood at the edge of the grassy area set aside for the Circle children to play… her favorite place on the island. It was her habit to watch the sun rise from under that tree, gazing at the beautiful view across Lake Calenhad. When the children woke, their laughter would fill the air, an inspiring affirmation for Virae of the resilience in their souls, and the wonder and joy in the world.
Most mages began showing their powers around the age of seven or eight. So successful was the Chantry in their general and targeted slander of everything magic that even otherwise good parents would abandon such a child at the nearest Chantry immediately. That was the best case scenario. Most children arriving at the Tower, escorted by grim Templers, had been severely mistreated and traumatized by a world that hated and feared them.
At nine, Virae was older than most children brought to the Tower crèche - she and her mother had succeeded in hiding her magic for over two years. After she became an apprentice, Virae dedicated as much free time as possible to helping newly arrived children adjust to their new life. Unlike most older Tower inhabitants, she listened to their stories with rapt attention and compassion, and without judgment. She had a knack for getting the children to open up to her, and an instinct for identifying what they needed to help them recover from whatever ordeals had brought them to the tower. Taking one last look at the tower she realized the oak tree was no longer visible. The children would be getting up soon, and for the first time in years, she wouldn't be there to greet them.
With a sigh she brushed a loose strand of hair out of her face and turned away from the tower to face the Grey Warden commander sitting across the boat from her. The Tower library included many accounts of the last four Blights and of how the legendary Grey Wardens had saved Thedas each time. Duncan seemed like the very epitome of everything a Grey Warden was supposed to be - charismatic, powerful, strong, noble, confident, and with a consuming single mindedness of purpose. Somehow just his presence instilled her with faith that this new Blight would end quickly, with this imposing human leading the Grey Wardens of Ferelden.
Only a week ago she had been a hopeful apprentice, looking forward to her harrowing, and the small increase in freedom, as well as responsibility, that she would possess as a mage of the tower. A life in a gilded cage had been spread out before her. Another decade spent training in the healing arts, convincing the Templers that she could be trusted outside of the Tower, and she might get out on a short leash to take an assignment as a healer at an Arling or Chantry. A small group of senior mages were already at Ostagar, sent to assist King Cailan. And now, here she was, a Grey Warden recruit free of the tower forever.
Well, free from Templers anyway. She would be bound to the Grey Wardens. Duncan had been rather obviously vague on the particulars of becoming a Grey Warden. Ah, at least I don't have to put up with Cullen anymore she thought with a relieved grimace. He had arrived at the tower a few months after she had, a newly ordained Templer. Most Templers simply stared at their charges through a helmet, but Cullen had taken an interest in her, and made a point of asking her about her life before the tower, her studies, her favorite foods even, and in those early years she had thought of him as her friend.
That friendship changed as she got older and her mage training advanced. She started feeling uncomfortable around Cullen, and would catch him staring at her with a mixture of longing and repulsion. He took his Templer duties to extremes, watching her very closely all the time.
While the rest of the older apprentices and junior mages engaged in a variety of… personal encounters, Cullen's close scrutiny had thwarted her every attempt to indulge personally. Eventually the situation became something of a joke among Virae's male peers, who would antagonize Cullen by flirting with her outrageously right in front of him. Usually the result was that Virae was watched even more closely, and whilst she was good naturedly impersonating a decoy, her friends enjoyed themselves without interruption. Especially Alain.
Virae wondered what her friend Alain was doing right now, and what she would say when she heard what happened with Jowan. The three of them were inseparable as children, and together they had shared numerous real and imagined adventures. Alain's harrowing was a year ago, and since then she had been working with a skilled, but elderly, midwife healer. Alain and the old mage had left for Amaranthine two weeks ago to help a noble woman give birth, and weren't expected back for at least another fortnight.
In the last couple years, the threesome had drifted apart. Jowan's interests had tended toward battle magic, whilst Virae and Alain's interests had been in healing magic, so it wasn't surprising. But, since Alain's harrowing, Jowan had been even more distant from them, and now Virae knew why.
As the boat neared the dock the sun rose over the horizon. The sky was a spectacular clear blue, and the air was full of song birds voicing their joy for the beginning of a new day. Virae stepped onto the shore and out of the way as Duncan organized their departure. With an uncertain sigh, she closed her eyes and tipped her face toward the rising sun.
There will be dialogue in the next chapter...
I included a reference to the "three-fold law" and Wiccan Rede.
A note about the name "Virae". There is a character named Virae in the book Legend, by David Gemmell, one of my favorite books ever. I named my in-game PC Virae, and when I started writing this story I intended to use a different name. But then she kind of took on a life of her own, and I decided "Virae" could have an appropriate meaning in the Elvish language of Dragon Age. More about that when she gets to the Brecilian Forest.