Marian Hawke

**Marian Hawke** (just Hawke to most people) is the regular art teacher at Skyhold Academy. During the first story, she is away on sabbatical, but she returns and is present for the rest of the series.

### In The Stories

As the first story begins, Hawke is nowhere to be found; her colleagues at the school miss her deeply. She is said to be hiking in the Anderfels, and the school has had just one applicant to fill the position in her absence. Evangeline Trevelyan arrives at the academy and attempts to fill Hawke's shoes as a teacher. Only later does it finally come to light that Hawke isn't in the Anderfels at all - she's actually at home in Kirkwall, where her sister Bethany is fighting a life-threatening illness. Hawke and her husband Fenris have both taken a year off from their respective work to care for Bethany and oversee her treatment. Only Varric Tethras, Hawke's best friend (who is secretly in love with Bethany), knows her real location.

When Bethany takes a slight turn for the worse, however, Hawke (who is perfectly well aware of the real situation between Varric and her sister) begs him to come home for a weekend, and allows him to finally tell the others the truth. Later, when tragedy strikes the school, Hawke and Fenris leave Bethany in the capable hands of their friends Aveline and Donnic, and come back to Skyhold to lend a hand. By the end of the first story, she has reclaimed her post as art teacher, and remains present for the rest of the series.

Apart from periodically tormenting her best friend and eventual brother-in-law, Hawke predominantly contributes to the stories through smart remarks and humor. She is recognized by her friends as a certified badass for her past heroics, and as a complete troll for her utter refusal to take life any more seriously than necessary. In *Disorienuptials*, she's the one who takes Varric for his wisdom tooth surgery and then laughs herself sick when showing them the footage of him being totally incoherent afterward. After Skye Rutherford begins talking and gives the staff members names she can pronounce, Hawke celebrates two of them in particular by writing the tongue-in-cheek fairy tale *The Adventures of Dodo and Ick.*

### In-Universe Trivia

* 99% of people are instructed to just call her Hawke, or Ms. Hawke if they're a student. Among her colleagues, only Cassandra Pentaghast and Cullen Rutherford are allowed to use her first name, because they've known her for so long. (Presumably Varric *could* also use it, but he never does.)
* Like the rest of her friends, she enjoys participating in Varric's tabletop gaming sessions. Her character is named Eric Bathras and he is, effectively, Varric himself. She describes him as being a mouthy storytelling dwarf who lives in a bar, loves pastries to an unhealthy degree, and has a crush on his best friend's sister. Varric finds this *hilarious*.
* She loves avocados, and has a friendly argument about them with Cullen during one of Varric's gaming sessions.
* She is somewhat overprotective of her younger sister, mostly due to the fact that they've already lost their parents and brother.
* She and Fenris never had children, but they never really minded it because of the demands of their careers.
* Apart from Varric, she is the only member of the Skyhold staff who has ever killed someone. In her case, the killing took place before the events of the series, but is discussed in the chapter "Pas de Deux" of *Where the Sky is Held*.

### Meta Trivia

* The whole reason for her sabbatical in the first story was to create an opening for Evvy to be brought into the school on a temporary basis. When the first story was in progress, the authors had no idea when or if she was going to be coming back; the actual reason for her sabbatical wasn't even determined until about halfway through the story. Originally, she really *was* supposed to be hiking in the Anderfels.