Milliways Dossier: Ysalwen Surana

[herr_bookman]

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History

• Former Circle Mage, Commander of the Grey Wardens of Ferelden in Thedas
  
• Took down the Archdemon
  
• Met while she was going through a prison break

Impressions

• Threat Level: MEDIUM - Ysalwen is a mage with considerable power. I doubt she'd use it on me, but I can't be too careful
  
• Broodmothers - "creatures born of horror that give birth to more horrors" - includes cannibalism
  
• Architect - leader of the darkspawn?
  
• Darkspawn - starting to wake up and be people? feel neither hunger nor heat
  
• Has shields against being burned
  
• "As for the Fade, it's -- it's where we go when we dream, if we aren't dwarves, and where our spirits -- or their echoes -- pass when we die. Demons live there, as well, in amongst the memories of old battlefields, old sorrows, and old triumphs"
  
• Can touch the Fade while awake, which is what makes her a mage - dwarves can't
  
• Demons who live in the Fade constantly call upon the mages and tempt them to become corrupted
  
• Doesn't take well to attempts to control her, naturally!
  
• "Well, Grey Wardens don't retire. We defend people against the darkspawn until we don't come back"
  
• Oath of the Grey Wardens: "In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice"
  
• Vigil's Keep in Amaranthine is her home, as well as the home of the Order in Ferelden
  
• "The Templars aren't only in my Circle Tower, which was Kinloch Hold. They're in every one -- I think their main center is in the Spire in Orlais. Of course it's Orlais. That's where the Divine lives, as well, who is the head of the Chantry"
  
• "The Divine is always a woman, chosen so because the founder of our religion was Andraste, Bride of the Maker. I suppose the Maker is like a god"
  
• The Blight: "Darkspawn digging in the Deep Roads wake an Archdemon -- the corrupted form of one of the Old Gods of Tevinter-- and it rises to the surface"
  
• Darkspawn breed, but don't die naturally; they don't need to eat, but they like to eat the dead or each other or both
  
• Blights are separated by Ages - or centuries
  
• "The story says these Old Gods lured some of their most ardent worshipers into ever-increasing sacrifices and blood magic rituals, with the eventual goal of entering the Golden City at the center of the Fade -- supposedly the seat of the Maker himself -- and taking his power for themselves. When they got there, however, the city turned black, the Maker turned from them, and they were cast down into darkness and shame, becoming the first darkspawn. This is supposedly why darkspawn cannot bear the light, and cannot die unless they are killed -- it's all a punishment"
  
• First Blight - a thousand years ago
  
• No one can control demons
  
• In the Orlesian court it's scandalous to go about without a mask
  
• Doesn't have electricity or computers in Thedas
  
• Tevinter - empire that keeps slaves, powers magic by other people's suffering
  
• Spars with Thor
  
• Rarely says no to food
  
• Rather pretty
  
• Been to Weisshaupt, where people asked her repeated questions while trying to blame her for ending the Blight too early - Wardens of the Anderfels
  
• Weisshaupt - Center of the Wardens, where commands come from
  
• Arcane Warrior - takes memories of a dead elf to use swords
  
• Gave her Kenet
  
• Fought one high dragon - they've recently reemerged as a whole from being sequestered away
  
• Archdemon - was a dragon-god infected by the Blight
  
• Non-corrupted embodied emotions are spirits, corrupted ones are demons
  
• "There are Rage demons, and Despair and Sloth and Terror, and of course Pride"
  
• Changed the subject when talking about demons
  
• Friend who is training her in sword-work is about six years ahead of her, and has many changes in his world
  
• Can rewind time for herself with magic
  
• Would abolish all the Circles if she could, and replace them with schools
  
• Harrowings - sending Circle mages against demons completely unprepared and in the middle of the night
  
• Templars serve the Chantry, which is the church most humans belong to - not necessarily dwarves and elves, though
  
• Believes in Andraste, the Bride of the Maker and founder of the Chantry, but not the Maker himself
  
• Andraste wrote the Chant of life - it's rather long
  
• Andraste: "She led people to freedom from slavery under Tevinter, back when it was a much more expansive Empire than it is today"
  
• Andraste: has a particularly identifiable headpiece, is sometimes depicted burning at the stake because she was betrayed by her husband, Maferath

Weaknesses

• Not many; she's rather well-armed and well-trained, with shields and armor as well as offensive spells

Scabs

• Who are the Chantry? the church

Opportunities

• I could teach her how to dance, I suppose