Ansgara Aeducan

"***Partha par Kallak*"** is the personal motto of **Lady Ansgara Aeducan**.

She keeps up appearances with her assigned role of dutiful, noble maiden, supposedly ready for marriage and mothering service in some other, necessarily somewhat lesser, noble house. But she takes every opportunity to train for combat and fight in the Deep Roads and Provings alike, to the point that she was commissioned a Commander at only twenty-two.

Her central goals are to determine her future for herself, carry on with her military career, and to inspire Orzammar to rally around an active, visionary effort to prevail against the darkspawn. To have the stomach for unwanted alliances, setting aside pride and sacrificing for the war. She thinks Orzammar has lost belief in success and so is unprepared to act on opportunities, let alone develop a strategy that aims to *win.*

Ansgara is ruthless, entitled to her noble role, determined, ambitious, reactionary, militaristic, and is absolutely dedicated to the caste system, strength and honor of her House, military rank, Provings, the Stone, and the will of the Ancestors. She is concerned popular zeal for "traditional Dwarven culture" needs shoring up and that the casteless should all be sent directly to the Legion of the Dead.

She is **not** meant to be a wholly, or even largely, relatable or "good" character, but rather an inherently aristocratically fascistic Warden whose background did *not* prepare her to work with others as equals or to negotiate tactfully, rather than cleaving to a heavy-handed, lofty position. If playing as Ansgara, you are able to kill just about everyone it is possible to kill in the Dwarf Noble origin and stay in-character. You can also take the Pickpocket ability and steal from *everyone* to gain wealth quickly, as befits a noble. Though I imagine she is actually talented at Pickpocketing, it is more likely she also manipulates and intimidates subordinates into giving her "gifts" in shows of fealty, or just takes things from people. She expects everything in Orzammar, ultimately, is hers to have.

Ansgara Aeducan is who she is because of the nature of the ideology of power and caste she was raised with and her failure to see beyond it. She also reacts against the aimlessness and decay that *are* real threats to the Dwarven people, just not ones that necessarily require a response like hers. But many *are* attracted to "strong leadership" that quickly achieves unified and drastic action (through the death of dissenters and dictatorial control) in a broken world of never-ending war. She is highly charismatic to some, confident and domineering, putting on a good show of military formality, respect for the troops, and utter conviction they will be victorious. At the same time, these very traits make her insufferable. Particularly to her brothers who see the self-dealing (and at times, outright stealing) in her motives and deeds. Of course, her brothers' actual grudge isn't her hypocrisy, or cruelty - it's that it is Ansgara, not either of them, who is the current favorite of their father and peers.

### Info-Box Content Because I have no idea how to make the template work for it:

Sex: **Female**, Race: **Dwarven**, Caste: **Noble; later, exile** Class: **Rogue**, Age: **22** at start of Dragon Age: Origins.

Specialization in Origins: **Assassin** (no 2nd one), and then in Awakening DLC, **Legionnaire Scout**.

Religion: **Improvement of and through the Stone; Ancestor worship; Orzammari honor and caste system**

Family: **King Endrin Aeducan, father. Queen-consort Isanvi Helmi, mother. Lord Trian Aeducan, elder brother. Lord Bhelen Aeducan, younger brother. Lord Piotin Aeducan, first cousin**

Titles: **Princess of Orzammar (former), Commander (Orzammari military rank; former), Provings Champion, Warden, Warden-Commander**

### Physical Appearance

Ansgara's hair is termed 'light ruby-gold' by dwarves, near the same shade Endrin had in his youth. She would wear the long plaits up, often in buns made of braided twists. Her entire demeanor appears at ease, and yet she is perpetually tense. Narrow-set dark grey eyes kept steady as the Stone, posture military, her serenely judgemental high-born expression perpetual.

It fits well on her face, which with its broad brow, proud jaw, and wide, near-rectangular nose has very much the classic look of a Paragon's statue. She is muscular from years of training and service at her father's side in the military guard. Like all the best of Orzammar's warriors, Ansgara eats well to keep her weight up. This supports her growing strength and gives her a better chance of survival should she become trapped in the Deep Roads.

The first time she had to deal with her own hair, following exile, she almost decided to hack it off. Only a forced calm, born of rage, stayed her hand. There would be no more fine braids or elaborate styles, not for a long time. But she would be back on top, someday, and will not change a damn thing she about herself that does not absolutely need to be changed. She will not give Bhelen the satisfaction of seeing her further altered by his hand on her return.

So she keeps it in a simple bun, something she could reliably work up herself, or lets Leliana aid her in approximating something like she used to wear. Until the day she returns to Orzammar. On that day, she arranged to meet one of her old serving ladies in the Hall of Heroes, and had it plaited and put into double whorled buns right then and there. She would look just as she had the day she left, only tougher. She hopes it scares the shit out of Bhelen, and all who helped him.

### Dress and Weaponry

Even when not in full armor, she still always managed to stay (and look) ready for a fight. Significant portions of each of her noble lady's outfits were made of exotic leathers, chain-mail, metal plating, or even include a full breastplate despite still being a gown with fine cloth and gems.

By having her wardrobe stocked with detachable, easily interchangeable pieces, Ansgara effortlessly seemed to never wear the same dress twice, while in reality needing to spend very little each year on materials and alterations. In doing this, she fashioned a trap from fashion itself for competitive ladies who did not work out the same trick and so continually wasted much coin.

Of course, in the end, none of that mattered. Exile came, and it took with it all her possessions but a very few: the rags they imprisoned her in, the fine sword and wooden shield they gave her to fight until death with, her signet ring, which she covertly swallowed to prevent losing, And whatever she then found in the Deep Roads outskirts. Armor off corpses, already rusting or molding in the damp.

Despite being a 'rogue' in DA:O class, Ansgara generally prefers heavier armors, and accepts only dwarven-make with rare exception. She prefers to fight with a mace, sword, shield, and dagger. She extensively makes use assassinations, lies, poisons, traps, and Dirty Fighting, but not in a Proving.

### Personality

Though when needed she can put out a polite facade, and falls easily into a *nearly* friendly attitude of command among her troops, Ansgara could be better described as blunt, outspoken, decisive, assertive, and blisteringly vexed by all forms of incompetence, mismanagement, weakness, sloth, and lack of vision.

Somewhat similar to Trian, but she is not really interested in enforcing rules and customs *for their own sake*, but only in strategic moments she believes their enforcement clearly strengthens her position. She also just a *little* better at putting ego aside for the sake of implementing her long-term vision for Orzammar society and meeting people where they are to make them useful. But not by much. She spends a lot of energy ensuring her ego, power, and prestige is always enhanced with every move. She is remote from everyone, even her closest intimates, be they (secret) sexual partners or the closest thing she has to friends - Gorim Saelac her Second, other loyal subordinates, and Noble caste allies like Lady Helmi and her daughter.

If you want her personality typology "stats" they are: 8w9 - 3w4 - 5w6 (835 tritype) sp/so/sx ENTJ Te-Ni-Se-Fi.

These systems have helped me try and write a character very different from myself. For example, Ansgara does not enjoy 'nonsense humor' or rambling chatter. She does not reflect much on her memories in detail or with sentimentality. With decision making, her approach is much more of an immediate gut check then straight to action. Calculating, fast but only 'good enough' and **not** concerned with the exact truth, or at all trying to be fair and self-critical.

She doesn't feel the pressure of other people's emotions all that strongly, and same goes for her own feelings, even rage. She habitually tunes them out at will, to both strength and weakness. She does have an emotional connection to a guiding belief system - her interpretation of Stone-sense, Dwarven honor, the caste system, etc., but is reactive and easily accepts contradiction in this, and can easily become a hypocrite applying her beliefs unevenly. I think that is what inferior Fi (Introverted Feeling last) should look like, anyway.

Thinking I could get even more fictional and speculative, I was going to put her 'Thedas Astrology' star and moon(s) signs on here, but then I had to wonder. Would it apply to dwarves, assuming its celestial magical influence works through the Fade? What would Orzammar dwarves even have for an astrology equivalent? Nothing, probably. They can't see the stars, and don't practice seasonal agriculture, so why should they care about them? Or there is 1 sign, and yeah, you guessed it, it's the Stone. I suppose I could imagine the odd 'Flying Beetle', or, if you are very unlucky, the 'Falling Stalactite'.

### Starting Attributes

The dwarven racial bonuses are: +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +10% resistance to hostile magic.

Stats after selection are:

Strength (11+3) = **15**, Dexterity **15**, Willpower **12**, Magic **10**, Cunning (14+2) = **16**, Constitution **12**

So, she is strong enough to swap out her shitty wooden shield for a nice metal one like Gorim has in the beginning, and within striking distance to get to wear that Proving Helm at least a bit after leveling up in the Deep Roads, before getting framed and exiled. It needs 18 Strength, so you can guess where all 3 of the first leveling up points went.

Worst event of her life, in the end, but also Ansgara got **jacked** fighting out there. 3 whole strength points gained in two days. Her guns were looking *amazing* as she desperately demanded a trial and shouted LIAR over and over.

### Talents and Skills

She fights with sword and shield on the approach, then switches to dual weapons once well-positioned. She had basic dual-weapons training well before setting out on her fateful first mission as Commander. She was also already capable of briefly stunning her opponent with a nasty jab or handful of dirt to the eyes, making toxic coatings for weapons, deploying simple traps, and picking easy locks.

As she fought through waves of darkspawn, mercenaries, and deepstalkers, Ansgara learned that swinging her mace and dagger wide was a very effective move to damage many enemies at once if they swarmed her. With more experience, she becomes more and more comfortable using her dual weapons simultaneously, focusing entirely on that martial specialization. She enjoys switching out which two weapons she uses, even if she most favors the mace and dagger combination.

Though perhaps you would (wrongly) not suspect it of a child of privilege, ex-Lady Aeducan is also quite skilled in picking the pockets of the unwary. This was an art she first practised out of boredom as a child, honed for use in political intrigues, and has now redeveloped for survival as an exile. She typically strikes when she is certain not to be caught, is motivated by a particular prize, or believes she is owed. Between the entitlement of nobility, and the traditional grudges held toward surfacers by Orzammari dwarves, Ansgara frequently believes she is owed.

## Biography

### History

The middle child and only daughter of King Endrin Aeducan and his wife, Queen-consort Isanvi, Ansgara was named to honor her paternal grandfather, the late King Ansgar.

### Relationships

She is intimate with Gorim Saelac sometimes, Adal Helmi sometimes, and a few assorted others. She is not "in love" with any of them. She is not yet capable of the trust, care, or sentimentality necessary for love at the moment, though it is possible for her to change. But she does have a genuine respect for Gorim and Adal at least.

### Miscellaneous

Ansgara is a fan of spicy food, importing dried hot peppers from all over north Thedas along with cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and horseradish for her table. She prefers Tevene white wines but Antivan reds and brandies. But she enjoys above all else fine Dwarven-made Valenta's Red ale (Noble reserve) and a hard liquor distilled from deep mushroom mash called Tisanatez.