Katalina Tabris

With a new, rather boylish haircut, Katalina now serves as a warden at Vigil's Keep.

## Biographical Information

### Affiliation(s)

Thieves' Guild of Denerim Alienage (Formerly)Kingdom of Ferelden

Grey Warden of Ferelden

Arling of Amaranthine

## **Overview**

### **Physical Appearance**

Katalina was a slim woman of 4’10” (147cm) height when the Blight began, average for an adult female elf, before she eventually grew to 4'11" (150cm). With her slenderly built body, many people would assume her to be physically weak. Yet any careful examination of compact muscles on her limbs and torso could suggest otherwise, though most of her enemies only realized the truth too late. She was considered as an attractive woman, though more handsome than beautiful, and by no means as dazzling as the Queen of Ferelden. Her cousin Shianni was generally acknowledged as prettier than her, though Katalina herself didn't lack admirers who appreciated her athletic and heorine style.

She inherited the fair skin tone of her father. Unlike her red-haired cousins, she grew a head of auburn hair which she kept in crisp, short styles. Her large, almond shaped eyes had a turquoise color that rare among elves and almost non-existing among other races, something she was secretly proud of.

Due to her more than half year's ordeal in the notorious fortress prison of Fort Drakon as a teenage girl, including a long period of malnutrition, her physique development was negatively affected. While originally she had potential to be even nimbler than Elissa Cousland because of elven racial bonus, eventually her dexterity was reduced to roughly the same level as Elissa.

The only trait on her body that made her a little insecure was the small
 size of her breasts. She had a cup size of "AA", and she blamed her
Fort Drakon months for it, though in reality these two things might had
little to do with each other. It made her feel inferior in front of
Leliana, who had nice, nearly perfect breasts of "C" cup. Leliana spent
much effort to persuade her that every size had its own beauty. After a
while, Katalina came to realize her cup size was a part of her body, a
part of herself, just like her pointed ears. They were not something to
be ashamed of, whatever other people might say.

The harrowing experience of Fort Drakon no doubt contributed her reluctance to wear skirt, too. Her habit of only wearing trousers, breeches or chausses (usually as part of armor) even in the court initially caused much controversy, as one of most popular court gossip put her as Queen Elissa’s lover, in the meantime some malicious nobles claimed that was yet another evidence of elf’s barbarism. Eventually Elissa made a deal with her that required her to wear skirt in a Royal Ball and dance with male nobles who invite her.

### **Personality**

Outwardly, Katalina was a solemn woman who didn’t show much of her feelings to other people. Taciturn, sarcastic when she did speak, not suffering fools gladly, she gave anyone who was unfamiliar with her an impression of a stern and uncompromising character. It was not a coincidence that many human nobles of the kingdom who disliked or feared her nicknamed her as “The Greyhound of Vigil”, though that name undoubtedly also contained some degree of grudging respect. Gruff, almost to the extent of arrogance, she was not someone who could be worshipped like her friend Elissa. Even so, her subordinates generally admired her devotion to the duty and caring for their welfare, and they were willing to go anywhere, fight any enemy under her command.

A few intimate friends of hers instead recognized a woman with great integrity and tender inner sensibility. Under the surface of iceberg, there was a volcano of emotion ruthlessly suppressed by long years of iron self-discipline. They knew that contrary to the supposed common knowledge, Katalina Tabris did care about other people, she loved and hated with an intensity few could match. To those who won her trust and respect, they couldn’t find a more devoting friend, who was willing to accompany them to the edge of the world, to face most dangerous foes, and to guard them with every ounce of her strength and willpower, even sacrificing her own life. To her enemies, however, she was equally loyal.

### **Talents and Skills**

Loghain Mac Tir, under the sanction of Prince Maric Theirin, once organized some city elves into an archer unit called “Night Elves” in their struggles against Orlais. Nevertheless, the “benevolent” regime of Maric soon showed its true color to elves, as the unit was quickly disbanded after eviction of Orlesian rule from Ferelden. One of first laws declared after the kingdom’s newly won independence was to forbid any city elf to carry a bow or crossbow without special permission. Though elves were not explicitly forbidden to carry or own other weapons, guardsmen tended to harass or fine any elf who did so in order to encourage elves to remain unarmed. Under Cailan’s rule the situation deteriorated further, as city guards usually attacked any armed elf on sight, even as it was technically illegal to do so.

Under such circumstance it’s difficult for a young elf like Katalina to be properly trained in martial arts. Her mother Adaia was an accomplished rogue who immigrated to Ferelden from Free Marches, a woman who could fight with her daggers proficiently, and also a passable archer. The fact that Duncan once considered to recruit her into Grey Warden is a testament of her martial prowess, and she was determined to pass her expertise to her daughter. Taking great risk, she also hoarded a dalish hunting bow in their house.

Katalina began her martial training at a very young age, and from 12 years old, Adaia began to train her with daggers. The next year, her mother planned to tutor her archery, but she died several months later before proper instruction could be finished. Her father Cyrion, fearing for the consequence of the bow being discovered, burned it without Katalina's consent. After Adaia’s death, Katalina’s martial training became irregular because she could only rely on self-training and occasional tips from other members of Thieves’ Guide henceforth. Cyrion did everything he could to discourage her. Still, she showed that she was a natural-born killer when she disguised herself as a maid, and, with utmost calmness and precision, killed five of House Kendells’ guards without giving them any chance to retaliate.

That success notwithstanding, Katalina’s martial training was initially greatly lagged behind that of Elissa or Alistair. Elissa as a high-ranking noble could train as much as she liked and her family could afford to hire best instructors for her. Alistair had passed templar training which people generally considered even more demanding than that of a knight. After the Blight, when she had recovered her physical fitness, Katalina was subjected to an intense training program to become an archer. Leliana and the former slaver guard captain, a Tevinter city elf woman named Devera were her tutor. When Elissa had time, she also personally trained Katalina with dagger techniques and swordplay. Even so, Katalina’s martial instruction only lasted three months before the Amaranthine War broke out. As a result, both Elissa and Alistair worried she was not adequately trained to fight as a Grey Warden.

During the Amaranthine War, Katalina was initially kept in a distance from battle line as an archer to provide supporting fire for others. She proved herself in numerous battles, showing that she was highly gifted in archery, and generally was able to keep her composure even under severe duress. In the later part of the war she was allowed to fight in a more advanced position, and by positioning herself in proximity to enemies she was able to fully exploit her lightning reflexes and rain down arrows to darkspawns. Her dueling skills also improved a lot to the extent she could hold her own on several occasions when she needed to fight darkspawns in melee.

After the war she was trained several years further by Elissa, Leliana and Devera. By the time Mage-Templar War broke out she had grown up into such a formidable warrior that Alistair believed she had fulfilled the high hope Duncan once placed on her. She was a much better archer than her friend Elissa, and eventually her skill even surpassed that of Leliana. As a duelist she was competent, able to disarm a physically stronger opponent with quick, incisive strikes, but her swordplay and pacing lacked the uncanny precision that trademarked Elissa’s deadly style.

## **Biography**

### **Childhood**

Katalina’s mother, Adaia, first appeared in
Denerim Alienage in 9:12, two years after The Order of Grey Warden returned to Ferelden. No one know exactly where this young woman came from except that she spoke with a Marche accent. Years later Katalina would send inquires to various Free Marches Alienage, but no one remembered a woman who fitted the description with that name. Except for good at knife fighting, Adaia was also proficient with a sword or a bow, which led some people like Leliana to speculate that she was once a dalish elf but ran away from her clan before her Vallaslin could be applied. Again, no evidence could be found.

Her arrival at Alienage coincided with a
transistent period in King Maric’s rule. Already grieving for his deceased wife, Rowan, he was further distressed by a recent adventure and became colder and remoter every year. His closest friend and advisor, Loghain, was shocked to discover an Orlesian plot to kidnap the king so he was mired even deeper in his xenophobia. For the city elves in the kingdom, these years saw last of them purged from the army and a formal ban to own bow and crossbow applied on them. The ban was directly against the exalted Fereldan tradition that every freeman had the right to carry his own weapon, but elves swallowed it timidly. Adaia, however, continued to possess her bow, though she no longer carried it openly.

It’s known Duncan, then as Constable of the Fereldan Grey Wardens, intended to recruit Adaia into their rank. Adaia, on her part, showed no interest as she now occupied a solid place in Thieves Guide. Perhaps to make her point, she soon married herself to a young artisan and
tinker, Cyrion. In the Alienage, his job was not only profitable, but also respected, so Cyrion didn’t lack admirer, but as he admitted himself, few could resist the charm and vigorous charisma of the young rogue woman. They married a year later. But from what Hahren Valendrian told Elissa and Alistair, Duncan kept his effort for another year, only to give up after Katalina's birth.

The pregnancy and childbirth were difficult enough for Adaia that she didn’t wish to have another child. But when Katalina was five years old, Cyrion adopted his brother’s daughter Shianni, who is one year older than Katalina, into their home after her parents were killed by bandits. From what Katalina could remember, Adaia was not enthusiastic, but, perhaps out of guilty that she wouldn’t give Cyrion another child, she didn’t oppose his decision. Once Shianni arrived, though, Adaia treated her fairly enough. Unfortunately, Shianni was physically more fragilely built and not agile enough, so while Katalina received a proper martial and weapon training from her mother, her younger cousin was taught nothing more than some basic knife fighting techniques.

The city elves’ lot took a turn for the worse in the last years of Maric’s reign when they were further forbidden to do business with humans except through various guilds that all controlled by humans themselves. The restriction hit people like Cyrion hard as he was now unable to earn profit after paying a hefty extra fee to the guild. As a result, he was forced to shut down his workshop and find a job in a Bann Rudolf’s Denerim house. That was perhaps exactly the decree's purpose: to deprive city elves of their freedom to choose a job, so render them poor and less able to launch a rebellion that The Crown must have feared. Adaia was unhappy about her husband’s decision, seeing he degrade himself from a proud artisan to servitude, but Cyrion had little choice. For the first time in her life, young Katalina saw her parents quarrel with each other, and for the first time, the little girl truly knew fear.

To offset their financial loss, Adaia began to take riskier jobs for the guild which increasingly worried her family. With King Cailan’s accession the city guards took an even harder line against elves as they tended to find excuses to attack any armed elves on the spot, yet any offense outside Alienage against elves was more and more likely to be ignored. Cyrion alternatively fought with his wife and begged her, but Adaia refused to give in. In retrospect, her demise was almost predestined, as the family breathed a collective sigh of relief every time she returned home alive.

Adaia's end (to be edited)

After Adaia’s death Tabris family was in tatters, as Cyrion found his meager salary was barely able to feed three mouths. Either out of pity or guilty, the thieves’ guild allowed Katalina to inherit her mother’s membership, even as she was only 13 years old. Cyrion opposed her daughter to have any further connection with the guild and suggested her to seek a job as maid, but Katalina vehemently opposed the idea, swearing that she would never serve a shem, so that matter was dropped. To discourage Katalina from following her mother’s path and meeting the same tragic end, one day Cyrion secretly destroyed Adaia’s bow, the only weapon she left behind, when Katalina went out to do the guild’s bidding. After the girl found out, she screamed at her father, cursing and hitting him, and had to be dragged away by Shianni. Afterwards the family hugged themselves together and wept. However, even after losing her mother’s bow, Katalina continued to “train” herself with any knife she could find, even there was no one left to instruct her. Knowing that his daughter was restless, Cyrion was determined to marry her off with whatever saving he still had, before she could get herself killed, too.

### **The Wedding day and subsequent events**

In 9:30, when the Fifth Blight already began to rage in Kocari Wilds, Cyrion finally decided to get Tabris cousins married. He found a suitable fiancé for Katalina, a young blacksmith called Nelaros, from Highever Alienage. The match was not an equal one. Nelaros was already an accomplished smith despite his age. Handsome, powerfully built, he didn’t lack admirers. On the contrary, Katalina was officially a jobless girl without any “useful” skill. So, Katalina’s family needed to pay extra money to Nelaros’ family. The proposed marriage cost almost all of Cyrion’s saving, which meant he couldn’t choose a suitable match for Soris and Shianni, so they had to accommodate themselves to whatever spouse Valendrian assigned. While Soris was resigned to his fate, Shianni refused. On Cyrion’s part, he also wanted to wait and see if he could save some more money to find a better match for Shianni, thereby it was decided Katalina and Sorris should marry first. Valendrian even invited Revered Mother Boann, Grand Cleric Elemena’s right hand, one of most influential clerics in Fereldan Chantry, to minister the double wedding. He thought that could guarantee the weddings went without accident, as well as putting Tabris family back in human authority’s good grace after Adaia’s death. Instead, it became cause of subsequent tragedy.

The wedding day was set on 23rd, August, after Arl Urien of Denerim marched away with his soldiers to fight darkspawns. The king had already left, along with bulk of royal army and Teyrn Loghain. According to custom, Urien's only child and heir, Vaughan Kendells, a young man with very questionable characters, was named as provisional governor of capital city. He was supposed to administer and guard the Crown Land, including the capital, until the king and his father returned. In reality, Queen Anora, as Queen Regent in her husband’s absence, was the person who was expected to do the job. That arrangement suited Vaughan well, since he had no intention to do his duty. On the contrary, he regarded this as a perfect opportunity to satisfy his own wanton desire of vandalism. Just three days after his father left, Vaughan got his chance.

On that day, two of Vaughan’s evil companions came to report an Alienage wedding was about to begin, ministered by a revered mother, which immediately piqued his curiosity. The trio intruded the wedding scene uninvited. Upon seeing that, Shianni hit Vaughan with a brick, sending him to a hasty retreat. Before long, however, they returned with a squad of soldiers and forcibly took away all young women present. Katalina tried to assault Vaughan, but Valendrian sternly warned her off. In this moment of hesitation, she was knocked out by a soldier and became a captive herself. To Vaughan, this was an exciting adventure, hunting “knife ear” preys under a high-ranking cleric’s nose, letting him reminisce on one of his childhood hobbies, namely taking away a little girl’s favorite doll, ruining it as much as he can before returning the misshapen wreckage to its original owner, watching her wailing and screaming. That’s exactly what he planned to do with these kidnapped girls and Mother Boann, respectively.

When Katalina waked up in storage room, she found other victims, including her cousin sitting there and discussing what to do. The majority opinion was just letting humans do what they like and forgetting everything afterwards, only Shianni spoke against it. Before she could persuade others, armed soldiers came, taking away her and another girl. Since there were four of them, and all other girls except Shianni were weeping and begging, Katalina knew resistance was futile, the only thing she could do was pretending to be still unconscious. After soldiers left, she slipped out of the room. To her surprise, no one stood guard outside, perhaps because no one believed any victim had the courage to escape. Not without regret, Katalina quickly knocked out a female elven servant, changed into her cloth and escaped from back door. Then she calmly walked out of the main entrance with a basket in hand. The single guard posted there didn’t challenge her, the experience of Cyrion working in a noble’s estate proved useful, after all.

On her way back to Alienage, she met Duncan, Soris and Nelaros and was told they were coming to rescue. She was told that Valendrian called upon Duncan’s help, but what surprised Katalina was Nelaros’ willingness to risk himself, as previously she believed he had little affection for her. Now she knew the young smith was genuinely fond of her. Since Duncan’s only concern was her safety, he suggested the three young elves returning to Alienage and letting him negotiate with Vaughan, but Katalina insisted she and Soris must do the job. Nelaros demanded to come along, too, then Duncan could do nothing but giving his consent.

The Warden Commander proved to not only have a detailed knowledge about Arl of Denerim Estate’s outer wall, but also the building's inner layout, as he led the elves to a spot where a grapple hook could be securely placed above the wall. Then he showed them how to proceed to the living area from there. After watching Katalina and the other two climbing over the wall, he went to the main entrance.

What happened next was related by Alistair to Elissa in a wildly exaggerated version, perhaps in order to put the arrogant noblewoman in her place. He told her Katalina bravely and single-handedly slaughtered half a dozen armed guardsmen and how she, drenched with their blood from top to toe, went to confront Vaughan. It failed to curb Elissa’s arrogance, but she did wonder for a long time how an Alienage elf managed to do this. The truth was far less heroic and bloody --- unil last minute, anyway --- but no less dramatic.

Inside the estate, the trio found there were less soldiers than they suspected. Only three individual guardsmen were encountered. In each case Soris and Nelaros went to distract the soldier, while Katalina sneaked behind him and knocked him out. The unconscious man was then quickly dragged into some less noticed place and strangled to death. By this way all three luckless guards were sent to The Maker without a fuss and without shedding a single drop of blood. Vaughan was an unpopular master, so if any servant found out what the trio were doing, they pretended seeing nothing.

The real trouble only came in the last possible obsacle. Before Vaughan’s pleasure room there were double guards. Now the elves faced a dilemma, as Katalina couldn’t take out two men simultaneously. Nelaros volunteered to help. Soris stumbled and broke a bottle of wine in front of these two soldiers. As they came forward to beat him, the other two elves struck. It was then the plan went awry. With all his strength, Nelaros was not a natural born killer like Katalina. He wavered at the last moment, giving the guardsman enough time to react. His strike only slightly wounded his target, but the guardsman immediately retaliated by stabbing him in the chest, fatally injuring him. On other side Katalina neutralized her target without error, and before the other human soldier could pull free his dirk, Katalina’s knife was already planted deeply between his eyes.

Inside the door there was a scene of
degradation. Vaughan’s two minions, Braden and Jonaley, each held a naked bridesmaid.
Vaughan himself seemed to notice the noise outside, as he already shoved Soris’
bride Valora away and grasped a dagger. On the floor, they could see Shianni, obviously
also fully naked, lied under a thin blanket, sobbing and whimpering. Then the
other two nobles also pushed their victims away and rushed to their clothes. To
Katalina and Soris’ surprise, these two also carried dagger with them. What
followed was a tense confrontation, as neither side could be sure they were
able to defeat their opponents. Katalina knew most human nobles, at least male
ones, received combat training, though that Vaughan was surprised by Shianni earlier
didn’t say well of his skill. On the other side, she knew Soris probably couldn’t
fight off any of them so it was all left to her. If she lost, not only she and
Soris would die, but also every other elven girl in the room. Vaughan was
afraid, too, yet he refused to capitulate completely. He declined to let those
girls go, but offered paying Katalina and Soris off with forty sovereigns, a
stunning sum by Alienage standard. He also promised to release his victims “unharmed”
once their “party” was over. Soris asked her to accept the deal, Shianni wished
her to fight. At that moment, Duncan and Valendrian’s warning of not hurting
any noble played a decisive role. Katalina decided to accept Vaughan’s deal even
as she was deeply ashamed of herself. She asked one of Vaughan’s friend to go
with them and retrieve the money he promised. To Braden’s horror, Vaughan personally
shoved him toward two armed elves without hesitation. After a final, harsh
warning to Vaughan they would come back to kill him if any girl was hurt, Katalina
and Soris hurriedly left the room, taking Braden with them, even as Shianni
desperately begged them to stay. Only then they found Nelaros already stopped
breathing. Katalina could do nothing but to leave his corpse behind.

Braden led them to Vaughan’s bedroom and retrieved
the money, but Katalina decided he needed to remain a hostage until they left
the estate. When they approached the main gate, they found Duncan was waiting
for them. With his help they managed to leave the estate without problem.
Katalina still wanted to hold Braden hostage until Shianni and other girls were
released, but Duncan ordered her to let the nobleman go immediately. At his
advice, Katalina also stashed the money in two secret places so it would not be
confiscated even if Vaughan sent guards into Alienage later.

Duncan wanted to leave the city with
Katalina immediately, but she decided to notify the Hahren what happened inside
Vaughan’s lair first. Even as they walked back to Alienage, Katalina was
already regretting what she had done. She wanted to go back and kill Vaughan, but
Duncan stopped her. He said by now Vaughan must have summoned a lot of guards
so coming back was suicidal, which was undoubtedly true.

When they were back in Alienage, still arguing
what could be done for Shianni and others, the captain of City Guard arrived
with a full squad of soldiers. Katalina knew she made another mistake. Now it
was too late to leave. Trying to deny her involvement was pointless. Duncan invoked
Right of Conscription, but the captain, who was already angry Duncan snatched
Daveth from his justice just a month before, refused to comply. He insisted to
take Katalina away, claiming that anyone who tried to assassinate the heir of an
arl could only be pardoned by the king himself, though he promised Katalina
would be safe in his custody until Cailan judged her. Soris was also arrested.

After the captain left, Duncan and
Valendrian immediately went to Palace and Grand Cathedral of Denerim respectively,
to petition Queen Anora and Grand Cleric Elemena’s help. Meanwhile Mother Boann
also made a formal complaint to Elemena.

Vaughan had no intention to keep his
promise. After summoning additional guards, he and his minions returned to
their orgy. Increasingly drunken, they began to abuse their victims with even
more cruelty. When one of bridesmaid, Nola, tried to resist, Vaughan violently pushed
her down. She fell on the floor, broke her head and died. Only then the three
noblemen awakened a little. Before they could summon servants to depose the
corpse, a guard came. He carried Anora’s message that demanded Vaughan to release
his victims immediately and warned the consequence of an elven riot when almost
all Denerim’s soldiers had marched away. Soon, the Grand Cleric also sent a
message with similar request. Despite Vaughan’s reluctance, he had no choice
but to release Shianni and other two girls. So, in the end, it was Anora and
Grand Cleric’s intervention rather than Katalina’s threat that saved Shianni’s
life. But Katalina herself didn’t know that. For a long time, she blamed the
Chantry for doing nothing to help on that day.

Shianni returned to Alienage mentally and
physically broken. That Katalina might be urged by Hahren Valendrian and Warden
Commander Duncan to spare Vaughan was not a sufficiently good excuse for her.
She remembered her cousin’s promise to always protect her. Valendrian, Duncan,
or any other people didn’t make such a promise. Katalina did. And broke it. To Shianni,
her cousin’s betrayal was unforgivable.

### **Inside Fort Drakon**

Katalina was incarcerated into Fort Drakon on
the same night. She expected to be sent to some underground dark hole, but
instead, she found herself in a nice room high above the ground. The room, though
only modestly decorated by nobility’s standard, was already more luxurious than
any accommodation she had ever lived, even with its own privy. The bed was not
of bunk type, but with its own posts and curtain! It turned out that’s not an
ordinary prison cell, but somewhere to hold a noble hostage. Since a hostage
was not formally regarded as a criminal, a certain degree of living standard
was still maintained. She could see a noble’s life, even as a hostage, was
still more comfortable than elf like her could ever hope for.

If Katalina wished she could have some quiet
days before the shemlen king decided her fate, such hope was already shattered on
next morning. Vaughan was by no means finished with her. After receiving the report
that the meddling warden commander had left the city, he immediately dropped
everything on hand and went to Drakon. He demanded the commandant of that
fortress prison to transfer Katalina’s custody to him, but the commandant refused
to cooperate. Cailan’s obsession with Grey Warden was well-known, so the
commandant dreaded the consequence for himself if the king learned a precious warden
recruit was tortured and abused to death because of his decision. Unfortunate
for Vaughan, his own father also knew his limitation. To prevent him from
causing too much mischief, before leaving the city, Arl Urien explicitly
excluded the strategically vital Fort Drakon from his son’s authority. Vaughan
couldn’t simply issue a command, at least not before he became the arl.

Frustrated by the commandant, Vaughan still
refused to give up. He came outside Katalina’s room, making all kinds of insult
and threatening her with every nasty way he would apply on her once she fell
into his hands. The guards didn’t dare to open the door for him, but they didn’t
dare to chase him away, either. He only left after he exhausted himself with a
torrent of verbal abuse and curse. Next day, he came again. As every day after
that. Eventually the commandant agreed to give him Soris, hoping to appease
him, but he still came every day, brining headache to everyone around.

However, acquirement of Soris led Vaughan
to decide another approach. If for the time he couldn’t lay his hands on
Katalina, he would take his revenge on other three girls. Shianni and another
bridesmaid had good sense to hide, but Soris’ fiancée Valora naively believed the
worst had passed so she was quickly kidnapped by Vaughan’s henchmen. Henceforth
began many days’ horrible nightmare for her and Soris.

Every evening, Vaughan would bring Soris
and Valora out of their dungeon cells and tortured them for hours. Then he
would rape Valora while his henchmen forced Soris to watch. Every time after
forcing himself upon her, he would cut a deep, fresh wound on Valora’s cheek to
celebrate his conquest. Soris was forced to watch that, too. Both elves screamed,
howled, wept, begged, while Vaughan himself laughed ecstatically and his
minions duly cheered. The next morning, he would come to visit Katalian once
again and described what happened on last night with vivid details, in the mean
time promising he would inflict ten times more pain and humiliation on her later.
That became a routine. In the end, Soris and Valora’s mind were almost completely
broken, while Katalina lived in unending remorse, forced to relive the moment
she stopped her hand again and again, wishing she could be bold enough to kill
him or die trying.

Ironically, that kind of depredation only ended
with arrival of Rendon Howe, who would later be dubbed as ‘Butcher of Denerim’
for his massacre of that city’s Alienage. But for now, he was the savior of Tabris
cousins and Valora, for he toppled Vaughan. The cruel predator himself finally became
the prey of someone who was every bit as sadistic, but much more calculating.
This was the first life-threatening crisis Katalina managed to evade, since
only one day or two later, the news of Arl Urien’s death arrived, which would
put Vaughan on the position of arl and gave him the authority to command Katalina’s
transfer.

After usurping Vaughan’s place, Arl Howe soon
marched his entire force to Alienage, and a great massacre began. Unlike
Loghain, he was not a racist that believed elves posed a serious security risk
to Ferelden, but he wanted to show other nobles, most of all Loghain and Anora,
that he meant business, and the unfortunate Alienage served as a cheap mean to
this end. Howe had three hundred soldiers under his command, plus some city
guardsmen. While there were many more rioters from Alienage, most were armed
nothing more than kitchen knives or clubs, many were completely unarmed. Several
score members of Thieves’ Guild constituted as core of this short-lived
rebellion, but even they mostly only possessed shabby leather armors, or no
armor at all, which made them easy victims of professional human soldiers. It’s
an unequal struggle that ended within a single day, hundreds of elves died in
the fighting, many more in subsequent slaughter. Even the Alienage Orphanage
was burnt down with death of nearly everyone inside except a few lucky souls. In
the meantime, Katalina sat helplessly in her cell, listening the guards talk
about the very massacre she trying so desperately to avoid, even at the price
of her own conscience and other girls’ dignity.

Katalina struggled to keep back her tears
until night, when she believed no shemlen was outside, ready to savor her
grief. But there was one, a female guard called Judith. This woman already had sympathy
for Katalina back to the days Vaughan still came for his daily clamor, threatening
her with those tortures solely reserved for female that could make any woman
terrified or furious. Judith heard her sob and came to investigate. To her own surprise,
Katalina found herself tell everything to that shemlen woman. Her guilty, her agony,
her regret. Perhaps because she desperately needed to talk to someone after spending
weeks in solitary imprisonment. After hearing her stories, Judith agreed to help
her. For a price.

The bargaining process was a long one,
since neither side trusted the other very much, so at first it seemed both
women were not eager to reach an agreement soon. Judith wanted as much reward
as she could get for this risky work. Katalina, on the other side, wanted to
use the money she got from Vaughan to compensate Shianni and other girls,
seeing this as only chance she could be forgiven.

While she and Judith argued about the
guardswoman’s reward, Judith utilized the chaos created by Rendon Howe’s ‘reorganization’
of Fort Drakon (i.e. sack of many guards and replacing them with thugs hired by
him) to strike off Katalina’s name from the prisoner’s list. From now on, ‘Warden
Recruit Katalina Tabris’ officially ceased to exist. Instead, she was moved to
a dungeon cell recently vacated by its previous occupier, an elven thief who
was deceased after several years’ confinement and assumed that prisoner’s
identity. But Judith wouldn’t set her free before a price could be agreed.

They bargained for nearly three weeks, on
and off. Finally, an agreement was reached: Katalina had buried her treasure in
two stashes, following Duncan’s advice. Now she agreed to give Judith the
location of one stash and twenty sovereigns within it. The price was steep, but
Katalina realized if she didn’t get out of prison alive, Shianni and other
girls wouldn’y receive a single copper.

Unfortunately, the long negotiation proved
to be Katalina’s undoing. When the deal was finally struck, it was already the
second week of Havestmere. Rendon Howe had already taken a few nobles hostage. After
Loghain returned and proclaimed himself ‘Regent’ he arrested more nobles for
daring to speak against him. Fearing they might escape in disguise, Loghain gave
order that anyone who left Drakon must remove his headgear. This was a death blow
to the escape plan for there was no way Katalina could conceal her pointed ears
now. It took a while for Judith to find a suitable set of guard uniform for
Katalina, since she as an underage elf was extremely short by human standard.
Now it all came to nothing.

For Judith, the danger was also
approaching. She had already heard plan to recheck and rebuild a credible prisoner
list which would expose her doctoring. The plan, just like many similar bureaucratic
plans, never came beyond that, but to Judith that’s the last straw. Worrying
her own safety, one night she came to Katalina’s cell. She apologized for
unable to keep her promise. Then, after leaving her belt knife and suggesting the
young elf to take her own life with it if worst came to worst, she hastily fled,
Katalina’s desperate plea unheeded. At that moment, watching Judith’s departing
silhouette, as the crushing numbness engulfed her entire body, Katalina, with a
sinking heart, realized she must be feeling exactly what Shianni felt when her
cousin was left behind by the one person she trusted most.

Now hopelessly marooned in her cell,
Katalina could do nothing but endure. Because the cell was totally separated from
outside world, after a few days she completely lost sense of time. In the
dungeon it was always darkness that only barely challenged by a faint oil lamp
here and there. The meager food was not given on a very regular basis. The water
was given once in two or three days. The only thing that enable her to keep
track of time was scream. Fort Drakon was located on a low mountain that lied
adjacent to Denerim. Its particular structure enabled the high-pitched sound to
be heard from long distance. Of all such sounds, it seems nothing transmitted
better than scream. Everyday, two or three hours before the midday, the grim
work of torturing prisoners began, which soon became a popular entertainment among
guards after Rendon Howe took over. It reached daily climax around supper time,
obviously because such work helped appetite for not a few guards. The torture
work didn’t stop until well after midnight. For a prisoner in dungeon cell,
which meant in the bowels of the mountain, the screams came from nowhere and
everywhere, genderless and ageless, without any clear identity but a very clear
indication: agony. When they stopped, Katalina knew another day of torment had
passed.

This part of dungeon which held long-term
inmates was kind of leper colony. The guards didn’t want to enter it too
frequently. To avoid being violated by them, Katalina used Judith’s knife to
cut her hair short frequently and disguised herself as a boy by all means possible.
But the guards’ fear of being contaminated by disease might well be the biggest
reason why she escaped their attention. Especially after many young elves were captured
after Alienage riot was put down, the guards naturally were unwillingly to risk
themselves while so much fresh meat was available.

But the danger was not entirely absent. The
prisoners were ordered to do chores like bringing food or cleaning. When Katalina
came to some cells, she could see their occupiers, usually males, watching her
with eyes that as lecherous as Vaughan’s but with so much more madness. They
knew what she was and they didn’t mind contamination or void. Fortunately for
her, after being imprisoned much longer than her, they were simply too weak to implement
whatever their designs for her. But the feeling of repulsion was built into this
unending nightmare. There were also a few times every single elf prisoner was
summoned to gather in the great hall and was forced to watch some of their own
race tortured and abused publicly. Katalina knew a few of them. There were even
her friends from Thieves’ Guild. Their resistance crushed, their rage spent,
now all remained for them was suffer in their captor’s hands, like those
Arlathan elves, and Dalish elves after them. On one or two occasions she could
swear someone she knew recognized her, too, but she couldn’t read their eyes.
Maybe it’s plea, maybe accusation. She couldn’t help them in any meaningful
way. Instead, she had to shrink back even further into the crowd, lest she be identified
and suffer the same fate. Increasingly shamed and disgusted with herself, Katalina
felt she was betraying her friends again and again. Gradually her mind began to
break down and her health deteriorated. She had a feeling her end was coming.

It was. By now it was already late winter
of 9:31. ‘Regent’ Loghain, mired in a civil war he was unable to win decisively
and desperately needing more money, struck a deal with a Tevinter Magister,
Caladrius, to sell elves into slavery. But a Landsmeet was quickly approaching,
which Loghain was powerless to stop. It would be a great embarrassment for
him if the slavery business was being conducted somewhere just a few city blocks
from the Landsmeet Hall. So Caladrius decided to terminate the entire business in
early Drakonis. On the final day, every elf prisoner in Fort Drakon would be
offered to him at on-sale price. Whoever he refused to buy would be summarily
executed, as continuing to feed those useless ‘knife ear’ mouths was obviously judged
as unpatriotic by Loghain. Unknown to Katalina, she was already deemed unfit
for sale due to her illness. Though this final solution was supposed to be a
closely guarded secret, a week before that fateful day, the guards decided to
announce it to all its intended victims, because they enjoyed to see the elves’
reaction. So, when Katalina was resigned to her fate and waited to be sold as
slave, she was actually waiting for her death.

In the end, the death did pay a visit to
Fort Drakon, in a rather generous way, but not exactly as the guards expected. Three
days before the final deadline, on an early morning as desolate as many such
before it, Katalina was awakened by screams that much more audible than before,
then the door to her cell was kicked wide open. Beyond it Katalina could see a
terrified guard held by several armed people. Their leader was a blonde human girl
who looked every bit as heroinely as Andraste in Chantry’s stories.

Her nightmare at Fort Drakon finally came
to an end.

### **As Elissa Cousland's Handmaiden**

Elissa brought three of her closest companions with her. All human. The dark-haired woman called Morrigan held herself aloof. She didn’t bother to speak, but Elissa introduced her with a very adoring tone. The other woman, the red haired Leliana, was amiable, but Katalina was not elated to hear that she was a Chantry sister. The only male present, a young man called Alistair, was presented by Elissa as ‘our new king’ with some sarcasm. Despite that, she didn’t seem to be against such an idea. It was Alistair himself who appeared quite uneasy about that. He looked more than a little awkward, lacking self confidence. Thus, at this point he didn’t leave a very positive impression upon Katalina.

Being led out of the dungeon, Katalina met others from Elissa’s team in the Great Hall. She couldn’t help but marveling Shale, the first golem she ever saw. Sten’s equally imposing figure, on the other hand, brought a very different reaction. As her gaze met the Qunari’s emotionless eyes, she felt an instant sense of danger. The first encounter with Qunari people was definitely negative experience for her, and that first impression never really changed. Unlike many elves who chose to embrace the Qun, Katalina quickly obtained a distrust for everything about Qunari. The dwarven warrior, Oghren, held even less appeal. Even as Katalina just met him for the first time, he already was making lewd, mocking comment about her body shape. A sharp reproach from Elissa immediately shut him up, but that’s not the last time he tried to harass her. There was also an old woman there, who introduced herself as Wynne, a Circle mage. Like everyone, Katalina also heard bad things about mage, but Wynne was all kindness, looking genuinely concerned about Katalina’s poor health.

The last of the group, Astraea Amell, had strange silver hair that didn’t befit her age, as Katalina realized the girl must be just a few years older than herself. Like Morrigan and Wynne, Astraea was also unarmed, or it looked so. Yet, while Morrigan and Wynne showed an aura of authority, Astraea, whom Elissa affectionately called ‘Tracy’, appeared to be a bookish young woman, even a bit timid. Unlike Alistair, her bearing was not awkward, but seemed to be somewhat deliberate. Katalina mistakenly took her as Elissa's scribe. Only much later did she realize Astraea could be almost as deadly as Morrigan.

Katalina was a little disappointed there was no elf among Elissa’s companions. But that’s hardly surprising. Humans and
dwarves were supposed to do all the heroic work. As for elf, the dalish had a
fierce reputation, equally hated and feared by humans, but only the ‘hated’
part was extended to city elves. If Elissa didn’t respect elves, then she was
just like practically every other human Katalina knew, not something particularly
bad for a human. Elissa did promise that she would personally look after
Katalina, but what that meant, the young elf couldn’t be sure. It could well be
a twisted ‘care’ just like Vaughan’s. Even so, Katalina knew she barely had any
strength left to resist. She was just grateful that she could live to see the
sun again.

Katalina didn’t wait long to see the dalish
for the first time of her life. Oghren was still reeling from Elissa’s
admonishment and grumbled unhappily, but no one bothered to pay him any
attention, for suddenly there arose a crescendo of shouting and cursing. Soon a
group of terrified, disheveled humans ran down the stairs that led to second
level of Drakon. Now Katalina could see these people were all guards, but none
of them was armed and only one or two were in their armors. The last one of that
group abruptly stumbled, then collapsed to the floor, the feathered tail of an
arrow protruded from his back. Then, as if royals were making their grand
entrance, two elves, with strangely looking tattoo, emerged from stairway and
unhurriedly walked into the hall. The bows carried by them were familiar,
though. It’s the same shape and design of the one that once carried by her
mother, the one that intended to be passed to Katalina herself, and the one
destroyed by Cyrion. Katalina once believed she had no tear to shed anymore, but seeing that, her tears streamed down uncontrollably. In the
meantime, the fugitives ran to Elissa’s side, threw themselves to the ground
and begged for mercy. Only then, with a thin smile, she bade the dalish to stop
their hands. Leliana and others were sent to stop the slaughter elsewhere. Before
long there gathered two groups of people nearby. One small group of disarmed
guards, sitting on the floor with undisguised apprehension. The second, much
larger group comprised former prisoners, all jubilant and relieved. Katalina
noticed the first group were all human, while the second group were all elf. The
human authority didn’t trust a single elf to guard their most secure prison, and
the dalish didn’t bother to release a single human prisoner.

The former guards were then herded to a big cell
and forced to have a firsthand taste of prisoner’s life. After giving the dalish
huntress that led the elven contingent necessary instructions, perhaps to
entrust them to guard the fortress for a while before Elissa’s human allies
arrived, the young teyrna led her group, now with Katalina in tow, out of the fortress.

Outside, Katalina found her hope of feeling
sunlight for the first time in many months dashed. the sky was heavily
overcast, with the color that belonged to a typical Fereldan winter, a grim and
unforgiving grey. The only thing that broke the universal grey was the crimson pools
that gathered under several mangled corpses. From their uniforms she could tell
these fellows were all guardsmen. A few bodies missed a limb or two, others
almost cut into half. These were the bloody work of someone full of anger and
spite. A dozen yards away, a middle-aged woman’s severed head unceremoniously lay
on the ground. The fact there was no headless body around meant it was carried
from elsewhere and then tossed away. The facial features were still recognizable.
In fact, Katalina had seen that woman several times while in prison. It was a
stern face one wouldn’t forget too soon. This was Ser Cauthrien, ‘Regent’
Loghain’s right hand and commandant of the Fort Drakon. She was one of most
renown knights of the realm. Any people who slew such a formidable enemy would
certain gain great fame. Yet the way it was so casually discarded showed her
assailant had but utter contempt for everything that associated with House Mac
Tir.

It was now almost ten o’clock. The city had
been wide awake long before, but no one came to investigate this carnage. City
guards, who were always very brave in front of unarmed elves, all but
disappeared. No one told Katalina where they were going to. But she could no
longer suppress the desire to return home. Katalina remembered that Vaughan only
boasted how he tortured Soris and Valora, that perhaps meant Shianni and other
girls were safely out of his reach, though they could still die in the massacre
committed by Arl Howe. Katalina realized if her father and Shianni were still
alive, they must be very angry with her, but she felt she had no choice but to
face them and consequences of her decision. Knowing she was in no position to
demand anything, she tentatively asked Elissa to take her back to Alienage. That
produced a brief argument between the teyrna and her friends. Alistair seemed
to have some reservation about this, but Leliana finally convinced Elissa to
agree. From the side glances they casted at her, Katalina got the sinking
feeling these humans knew what she had done. She wondered why they didn’t show their
disgust toward her yet.

The main entrance to the Alienage was unsealed.
The guards usually posted there disappeared, too. The Alienage was even more dilapidated
than she remembered. Some houses were burnt down and not rebuilt. Others were crumbling,
and their inhabitants didn’t make much effort to repair, either. The few residents
that showed up on the dirty street gave Elissa and her friends a wide berth. When
they approached the center of Alieange, however, it became clear a large crowd
were gathering near the vhenadahl, and they could hear two women angrily shouting
at each other. One of the voices was only too familiar to Katalina. It’s
Shianni. Her cousin. Katalina breathed a secret sigh of relief that the worst

she feared didn’t happen. Yet in the meantime, the nauseating trepidation of what Shianni would say to her threatened to overwhelm her.

## **Relationships**

#### **Anders**:

This jovial and seemingly harmless young healer joined the Grey Warden on the same day as Katalina, at the very first Joining Ritual presided by Elissa Theirin. As the fellow founding member of new Fereldan Grey Warden, he and Katalina should enjoy a friendly relation,
but they didn’t. Katalina was a victim of a previous sexual assault. Though the
assault didn’t succeed, it left mental scar on her, which was only exacerbated
by her experience in the prison. Thus, Anders’ attempts to flirt with her brought
very negative reaction from her. Their relation was strained from the beginning.
Anders, after his flirtation was rebuffed, thought Katalina was nervous, childish,
and overindulged by Elissa, while Katalina regarded him as corruption among
ranks. After Anders merged with Justice, the relation between them quickly deteriorated
to open hostility, with Anders’ attack on templars and Katalina’s subsequent
attempt to arrest him providing the last straw. Katalina maintained her hardline
stance against Anders in subsequent years and dissuaded Elissa from bringing
him back. It eventually damaged her relationship with Leliana, as Leliana
believed Katalina’s obstinate animosity toward Anders was partly responsible
for his self-destruction and the catastrophe caused by it, but she never regretted.
Just like Velanna and Nathaniel couldn’t find a more caring friend than
Katalina, Anders couldn’t find a more stubborn enemy.