Dearest Father,

In the years I have spent with my companions, I have come to realize I know very little about some of their personal lives. Sure, we share blood, sweat, and tears together, and more than a few too many drinks, but it's rare that we share serious conversation about upbringing and family. Well, at least for them, as I seem to have a nasty habit of bringing up my family on perhaps too many occasions.

I know a bit about Sebastian's family, and Aveline's husband I had met, but I know nothing about Isabela's, or Merril's. Fenris' family I am learning about as he does, and Anders doesn't speak of his past that doesn't involved Wardens or Templars. I knew absolutely nothing about Varric's family either, until today.

I had forgotten about the signet ring I found while browsing the Trinkets Emporium in Lowtown until I came across it again while cleaning out some of the trunks in the mansion (which reminds me, it's almost time to deliver all this other stuff I found in my travels...might as well have Bodahn take the entire trunk of miscellaneous finds to Varric's to sort and deliver when we have some time). I went to the Hanged Man to return it to him and found Varric surrounded by his usual crowd of fans as he was retelling the story of the battles in the Bone Pit Mines.

In all honesty Father, I have no idea what he gets out of spinning these wild tales. I asked him about it, curious why he doesn't bolster his own ego, make himself out to be the hero sometimes. Varric insists there's always a loveable dwarf in these stories with a gorgeous crossbow and a heart of gold, but he also says there's power in stories. Take a look back at history, and most of what we know is what's been told to us and not what has been written. True I suppose, maybe Varric should've been a bard instead of whatever it is he calls himself this week.

On second thought, I've heard him sing, so maybe not.

When I offered him the ring I had found, his eyes lit up. Varric doesn't show his emotions on the surface, but the small glint I saw was proof that he cared more than he let on about having lost it. The original owner of the ring was his father, and his brother Bartrand had sold it to the merchant in Lowtown to help gather funds for our expedition a few years back. Varric was surprised to learn it was still in Kirkwall, and went on to say that me finding it was exactly the type of fake story he would've made up about me.

Silly dwarf.

But it got him to open up a little more about his family. I know far more than I care to about Bartrand, but hearing the history of the Tethras family was actually quite fascinating. His father, Andvar Tethras, had fled from Orzammar after being found guilty of fixing Provings, a sort of honor battle that the dwarves hold within the underground city. Varric was born in Kirkwall, which makes sense considering the contacts he has and the way he knows all the secret hideouts and tunnels around here. He was only two when his father died, and his mother Ilsa ended up drowning her sorrows in the very tavern Varric now calls home.

With the absence of both parents, it was left to Bartrand to raise Varric. At the young age of ten, Bartrand had entered into the Dwarven Merchant's Guild as a way to bring in some coin for the family, and a mere five years later he had risen within their ranks and done pretty well for the Tethras brothers. Unfortunately their mother never survived her grief over losing her husband, and she too died while Varric was very young.

After hearing this from Varric, it is clearer to me now why Varric chose to save his brother rather than kill him. For all his faults and what he put us through by leaving us in the Deep Roads, Bartrand was a father to Varric growing up. While Varric quickly became far more intelligent than his older brother, Bartrand stepped up when it mattered, when a two year old sibling had just lost his father, and his mother was never around.

Varric quickly changed topics after revealing all of this, offering to put me on his tab for finding the ring, and then immediately went searching for letters from Orzammar that needed responding to. I think this was the most serious conversation we had ever had, and the most sharing Varric had possibly done with anyone. If it was, I am honored that he chose to share this story with me.