Disclaimer: I own absolutely and completely nothing. Bioware has that particular pleasure.
Summary: A City-Elf/Bann Teagan collection of drabbles and one-shots based on a prompt table from an LJ-community. These will be more or less in chronological order with the faintest traces of added plot here and there. Will vary from drabble length to one-shot.
Author's note: In the end, please.
In this chapter: They all remember, from the highest born to the lowest. And what they remember, they wrote.
050.
People say Wardens are heroes. People are also commonly accepted as stupid.
Shayle of Cadash, Warrior Caste
Ferelden works like a clock. Each piece seems against each other, each part struggles and fights for a sole purpose that might make no sense. But, in that one moment in which we need them all, they will stand up and do the right thing. It is why I serve it. At the end of the day, it will do no wrong.
Ser Cauthrien, second to the Teryna of Gwaren
I left to the Tower to find a new world. I found my old one under a whole different layer. You see, as much as everyone says otherwise, as much as they complain, dwarves and humans are exactly the same. As prejudiced and stupidly blind. With one difference. Dwarves wouldn't place mages away! No! They would definitely find a way to exploit them. I am not sure if this should make me proud or not.
Paragon Dagna, formerly Smith Caste
Someone once asked me how it was to become a Warden. I was grateful it involved Order secrecy. Answering that it felt like drinking liquid fire while being juggled by a bronto and trampled by a dragon would destroy any credibility I wished to hold.
Tasha Tabris, Warden-Commander of the Grey of Ferelden
When I heard about the Dalish, I dreamt of meeting them, of becoming one, maybe. Of being stronger, faster, someone with magic in their veins and every story known to our people at their disposal. Then I grew up. I became a woman, I understood how every legend was mortal first and no legend ever lives up to its expectation. Neither did they, prejudiced that they are. Today, I see the Alienage, the changes we have done and feel proud of who and what we are. If our brethren cannot understand this, then I pity their blindness.
Shianni Tabris, Bann of the Alienage of Denerim
Any place can be better than home. You just need to make sure home doesn't mean a shit anymore. The rest will seem better by comparison.
Oghren, Grey Warden, Warrior Caste
Becoming a Warden was one of the best things that happened to me, all things considered. It is easy to fight. It is easy to trample through the country like a madmen because, well, there's little to take into consideration. To be a King is to think for too many. Had I had the choice? To be a Warden would have been enough.
Alistair Theirin, King of Ferelden
They tell us the Maker made us all, from the highest king, to the lowest peasant. They tell us we are his children, blessed beyond anything because He is our Maker, He is our guide in the Darkness. And then they kick us, bash us against the ground, demean just because we are what he made us into. Magic is a gift, not a curse. Have you felt the rain cry in your veins, the storm within their fingers? Have they seen the blessing which is to help someone in need? Have they seen a child healed by our hands? Cursed, they call us. Idiots. Let the more ignorant fear then, the Circle will go on.
Connor Guerrin, Senior Enchanter of the Circle of Ferelden
She was not a great hero. She was neither a deadly beauty nor a woman with amazing compassion. She was not unstoppable. She was not ready for everything at any given moment. She was just someone dragged into something larger than herself, someone who bled, someone who shouted and complained, someone with prejudices but that understood the value of duty if nothing else. She loved the sun. She liked water and the fog in the morning, cold winter mornings which made most hide away. She adored anything roasted but hated preparing it. Metal instead of wool, meaningful objects instead of valuable, Soldier's Peak above most places, Andraste's Grace on every surface. This is how remember her.
Teagan Guerrin, Arl of Recliffe
The fifth Blight ended in Ferelden territory. A witness referred its killer as an elven woman. Invasion was delayed until this rumor can be confirmed as to avoid numeric disadvantage.
Arishok of the Qunari
The Dales were reformed after the fifth Blight. I believe the king had little to no chance, considering just who had ended it. It was hard to deny a favor to someone who had fought his battle, his war, while he stood in the sidelines and watched only. Commercial contact with Ferelden was obvious. Religious and racial tolerance not so much. Again, we heard of rumors of possible Exalted Marches and threats and treated them with the caution they deserved. All of it. It is best to be aware than to repeat the mistakes of the past. Our relations with humans, however, are not nearly as problematic as in the past. Human mages in particular find their way through our borders quite easily.
Fellicia Surana, hahren, Halamshiral
The walls were rebuild, the streets were cleaned, the blood taken away and not to return. And still, all we hear is of the Blight, all we dream of is of those days. I lost two hundred good men on the assault. Noble families, poor samples of warriors, those who couldn't flee fast enough. Afterwards, I lost twenty more to their injuries, visible, invisible, doesn't matter. Now, the new boys ask me about the war and call me a hero. I have no heart to do anything bar laugh.
Kylon, Captain of the Royal Guard
She showed me the Light, the Sun and I thanked her. I showed her the Darkness, the End and she thanked me. I don't know why but, at times, I know my gift was just as great as hers. Grey Wardens. Poor bastards end like the sodding Archdemon.
Kardol, Legion of the Dead
The Theirin line became ridiculous, weak and focused on petty problems and twisted dreams. Nevertheless, Ferelden will always choose them over any other alternative. Blind and foolishly.
Anora Mac Tir, Teyrna of Gwaren
I never managed to write a song about those days. I know songs are to remember, I know that they show how things went to pass, how people survived, how so many things that could be forgotten are kept for the ones who come after us. Still, it seemed that, every time I sat with my pen and tried, I was reducing a rich experience into something shallow, useless, a pale reflection of what it was. I could not do that to our memories.
Leliana, councilor of King Alistair Theirin of Ferelden
There are great doubts related with the fifth Blight. One of them being the fact that every Grey Warden involved in the Battle of Denerim survived except for our brother, Riordan of Jaden. Someone whose death cause was far too obvious to be related to the Archdemon. Reports from this group are inconclusive.
First Warden Gareth
All in all, Ferelden remains far more amusing than Antiva, even. Murders happen without needed prompt. It is a Crow's dream.
Zevran Airanai
Watching them battle was akin to watching someone breathing underwater. Marvelous. Amazing beyond words, beyond expectations, beyond fear. A man could happily follow such warriors to its bitter end and feel satisfied for its fate.
Legend, anonymous
They call us troublemakers. They watch us fight, see us stepping into the light while they look through their windows and fear. They applaud us after when everything is over and done with and when memory dies, when everything is over, we are again the troublemakers, those who should remain silent and away from everyone's sights. There are times in which my own people make me despair. I wonder if that is why fighters leave and desist to return.
Alarith, hahren, Highever
I believe we may have found our newest ally. I trust you will do the needed preparations for her arrival. Worry not, Urtha, this will be the last time any blood will be shed. I will wait for you in the woods, hopefully with better news.
Architect
Author's note: And this is it, the final "chapter", the end of this story~ I want to thank everyone who has reviewed, who has kept through this story for this whole time. I also want to thank each and every person who favored it, who added it to alerts, who basically read it at one point in time. Thank you. This is officially the end of this story. Hopefully, I shall see some of you on its future sequel ;D eh eh~ Until then.