Lucila Surana

Lucila in 9:31 Dragon

**Lucila Surana**, born 9:11 Dragon, is an elven mage, formerly a Circle Mage, and now a Grey Warden. Taken from the Denerim alienage at a young age, she was raised in Kinloch Hold (more simply known as the Circle Tower), before she was conscripted into the Grey Wardens by Duncan in 9:30 Dragon. Surviving her Joining, she became a key player in stopping the Fifth Blight, subsequently becoming the person known as the Hero of Ferelden.

In 9:31 Dragon, she was named Warden-Commander as well as Arlessa of Amaranthine.

## Overview

### **Physical Appearance**

Lucila is a tiny woman, making her quite unthreatening - at least until she opens her mouth, and until you see her use her staff. Even for an elf, she's smaller than average. Her black hair is most often tied into a bun of intricate braids which are held up by pins with pearls at the top. The styling reveals her ears. She also has straight, orderly bangs. She has pale skin and is pretty thin. Her slightly up-turned nose and her chin are sharp.

She dresses in adorned mage robes, her favourite (and the one she's most easily recognizable in) being a green dress with many golden adornments. She often wears delicate makeup, now that she once again has the time to apply it. She also can never be seen without a golden earring - Zevran's gift.

### **Personality**

Lucila's most easily recognizable trait is her confidence - which can often topple into arrogance. Growing up in the Circle as a mage apprentice, she heard quite often that she was talented or ahead, leading her to believe she could tackle anything without fear. Because of that, she makes no compromise when it comes to saving people, accepting pretty much every request for help no matter the personal risks.

She's a very straightforward person, not hesitating to state her opinions - of which she can have many - or express her anger. She's honest. However, as a result, she's also a terrible liar. Multiple people have expressed that she's terrible at politics, and all the political maneuvers she's successfully undertaken have been thanks to the heroic reputation she carries and thanks to having managed to win the right people over, and no thanks to any kind of finesse.

She could be described as being driven and hard-working, as well as passionate. Additionally, one of her most valuable characteristics is her almost-uncanny ability to convince people. Whether through threats or arguments, people surprisingly find themselves agreeing with her opinions and following her lead. She's someone you can't say no to. She also makes it a point to keep her promises.

She's not immune to pride. She holds herself in high regard and is quite proud of her status as a Grey Warden and, later, as the Hero of Ferelden - though she doesn't make use of her status to harm others and despises those who do. She thinks it's important that she uses the power she's amassed to help others. She believes in justice and retribution for acts she judges deserve it, though she's careful to lay the blame at the right people's feet, and she's willing to twist her morals for the people closest to her.

She's also attentive to the people around her and respectful of the people she loves. She tends to do what she wants and she encourages the people around her to do so as well, just as she encourages them to be whoever they want and wants to protect their freedom. She made one major decision not respecting that and, despite being someone who focuses on the present, not willing to rehash the past indefinitely, she regretted that decision for a long time.

Despite the danger and difficulty of her quest against the Archdemon, she focused on the positive as much as she could. She lingers on the bad as little as she can and seizes happiness where she can get it.

### **Talents and Skills**

First a talented apprentice of the Circle, Lucila was always a natural at controlling her magic, which she sees as a gift despite what some Templars would have her think. Following her departure from the Circle, the circumstances also forced her to develop her magic at a drastic speed so that she'd be able to properly defend herself and defeat her enemies.

When it comes to attacking, Lucila - due to receiving training at the Circle, a few lessons from Morrigan as well as learning from forbidden books found on her travels - has access to a wild range of spells with varying effects. Lucila is a powerful mage in particular because she can skillfully mix spells from various schools of magic in order to combine their effects.

She favours spells of cold and earth that will not only injure her enemies but also immobilize them, encasing them in ice or even turning them to stone. Once they're paralyzed, she can cast more physical spells, like summoning a projectile of stone, sometimes resulting in her enemy getting shattered. Lucila also quite often makes use of spells to drain her enemies' life force and to turn them into a live bomb; the curse can then be transmitted to other close-by enemies, who become bombs as well, quickly getting rid of entire groups.

She can create an earthquake, but she uses that ability sparingly as the earthquake can affect both friends and foes. Additionally, though she keeps it as a trump card, she's also a bear shapeshifter, an ability she learned from Morrigan once all the treaties were utilized and the army was brought together.

Ultimately, however, she specializes in spirit magic. That allows her to use some spells that she almost always keeps cast on - and that she can now cast almost half-mindedly. Two of those spells create opposing auras around her: one drains the mana of the corpses of the deceased, and another greatly quickens the regeneration of her allies. Lucila grew quite a lot as a spirit healer; while she could only cast a mild healing spell at the time that she left the Circle, she grew into an incredibly powerful healer as she kept refining the spells and her mastery over them, until she became able to bring back people on the brink of death, even to do so for multiple people and in the midst of combat.

After the defeat of the Archdemon, she learned a new type of magic; dalish spells in relation to nature, giving her an unprecedented link to her people. A quick learner, Lucila made the magic her own over the span of a few months, and became able to use roots and plants around her to injure and kill the enemies who would dare get too close. She is also able to draw energy from their life force once they are slain.

## Biography

### **History**

Lucila was brought to Kinloch Hold from the Denerim alienage very young, so young that she doesn't remember at all the family she must've had. She knows her family name and birthday only because they were kept in the Circle's archives and told to her.

### **In-game**

 Brecilian forest
 Alliance
 Connor
 Anvil of the Void
 King of Orzammar
 Coronation
 Loghain's fate
 Location defended
 State of the Architect

### **Post-game**

A month or two after the battle of Amaranthine, Lucila made her way to Antiva to join Zevran. She also felt that the Wardens were strong enough to go on growing and rebuilding their reputation further without her leadership.

She eventually started to look for a cure for the Calling, unwilling to let it take her nor her many loved ones who went through the Joining.

## **Relationships**

### **Fifth Blight**

* **Zevran**: Lucila was immediately charmed by Zevran. He made his case, and she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, as they really needed allies at the time. They got gradually closer as their trust in each other grew and they liked spending time together. They discovered they had similar traits, that they were both easy-going and ready to seize happiness where they found it. Being comfortable with loose boundaries and an open relationship, Lucila let Zevran set the pace and never expected more of him than he was willing to give, even after they fell into bed together. Once it was time to fight the Archdemon however, it was obvious to both of them that the way they felt for each other was far from casual. They had to be apart while Lucila rebuilt the order as Warden-Commander and Zevran dealt with the Crows, but they eloped before they separated, and after a few months they reunited to adventure together again. They now remain by each other's side most of the time, though they do sometimes go on missions on their own. Though their primary commitment is to each other, they have an open relationship, occasionally bedding or dating other partners.
* **Alistair**: He quickly became Lucila's closest friend, due to the fact that he was the only one who understood what it was to be a Grey Warden. This shared experience, as well as their shared survival of the battle at Ostagar, formed the basis of their friendship, which strengthened over time. Additionally to enjoying his company and trusting his fighting abilities, Lucila also admires Alistair's lack of cockiness and she appreciates that he gave her the lead. While they were the best of friends for most of their mission, something broke when Lucila made Alistair become king and marry Anora. Alistair couldn't believe she had went so directly against what he wanted, and it felt like a betrayal. She still eagerly stayed by his side in Denerim to help for a few weeks after the Archdemon's defeat and his crowning, when he asked her to. Thanks to that and with the passing of months and years - as Alistair got used to his role as king and started getting along better with Anora - their relationship was, in parts, mended.
* **Leliana**: It could be said that Lucila adores Leliana. The woman is one of her best friends, someone precious to her whom she enjoys the company of. Lucila thinks Leliana is sweet, and enjoys that she's just as kind as she's deadly. Leliana was also someone with whom she could explore her girlishness as well as someone with whom she could freely discuss her feelings. Leliana is her confidant.
* **Bird**, her mabari: Lucila had never expected to have a dog, but when the mabari she'd helped cure came back to her, the decision to take him with her was easy. He was useful, of course, and above all he was cute. She loves her mabari. She gave him that name because she thought it was amusing, and later realized that it was also symbolic of the beginning of her journey; out of the Circle, she was free to go anywhere as a bird is free to fly anywhere.
* **Morrigan**: Lucila's relationship to Morrigan is complicated. Though she respects the woman and her magical abilities, the two often disagree on who should be saved, Lucila stubbornly disapproving of Morrigan's ruthless approach. Despite that, the two managed to form a friendship, close enough that Morrigan taught her shapeshifting. Lucila also doesn't fear Morrigan's dark magic and trusts her. When she promised her she'd let her go, she meant it.
* **Wynne**: Lucila doesn't like how tight-laced Wynne is, especially when it results in the older woman scolding her for her attitude or choices. She nonetheless likes Wynne's good intentions and her presence is occasionnally comforting, as her origins at the Circle make her feel familiar even though Lucila never got close to her at Kinloch Hold. Wynne was also able to teach her a lot about spirit healing, for which Lucila is grateful.

### **Vigil's Keep**

* **Anders**: The two of them grew up in the same Circle, but Anders was a few years older than her and she didn't get to see him that much. When she met Anders again after the Blight, Lucila had no idea exactly what was going on - it was obvious he'd killed the Templars, but had they attacked first? Had Anders been the assailant or had he been protecting himself? Then he helped her - quite skillfully - defend the keep and she no longer cared about his past. She conscripted him, refusing to give him away to the Templars, and never regretted it. Through her developing friendship with him and the memories he shared with her, she realized how hellish the Circle could be for some mages. Because his freedom was so hardwon, she questioned her own lack of feeling about her own childhood in the Circle and realized how many things she'd wrongfully normalized about it. He gave her a new perspective, for which she's thankful.
* **Nathaniel**: Lucila firmly believes that people should get punished if they deserve it - but only if they're the right culprit. Nathaniel wasn't his father, so when asked to decide his fate, Lucila let him go. She was pleasantly surprised when he came back, and perfectly fine with conscripting him into the Wardens. He turned out to be a trustworthy ally, and a good friend she sees a bit like an older brother.
* **Sigrun**: Lucila is kind of admirative of the woman, respecting her combat abilities as well as her willpower. She also doesn't understand how Sigrun can be so cute. Lucila quite appreciates Sigrun's optimistic nature, which felt like a breath of fresh air when she first started enjoying her company. Lucila courted her with gifts from the surface that Sigrun is fascinated by and the two women became lovers for a time, with Sigrun aware that Lucila was also in a relationship with someone currently far away. After the battle of Amaranthine, Lucila left to join Zevran in Antiva, but she keeps occasional contact with Sigrun, who dutifully continues her work as a Grey Warden.
* **Velanna**: It's thanks to her acquantaince that Lucila discovered the existence of the dalish nature spells. Some she learned by imitating Velanna's spells, others by finding the right literature about it. Velanna's company was a bit dry for her, but she didn't dislike the woman and she valued her as an ally.

### **Circle of Magi**

* First Enchanter **Irving**: He's pretty much the only father figure she had growing up, because she didn't remember her family. She liked making him proud through her magical prowess, and she was happy to be able to save him from Uldred.
* **Jowan**: When Jowan revealed he'd heard he'd be made Tranquil, Lucila immediately vowed to help him. It was unjust that Jowan would be submitted to that fate when he hadn't done anything wrong! She didn't believe the rumour he was a blood mage. Not thinking about the consequences, she helped him find and destroy his phylactery. She felt betrayed, however, when he revealed he truly was a blood mage, and she was conflicted about him thereafter. He'd been a good friend, but he'd lied to her. Then she discovered he allied with Loghain as well... In the end, she left his fate in the hands of the man he'd poisoned.
* **Cullen**: He was just another face in the crowd for her, an umpteenth Templar, which was why she was quite surprised to hear he'd had feelings for her. The emotions he evokes in her, however, are mostly pity and wariness; he didn't gain any favour with her when he argued to execute the mages.

## **Miscellaneous**

### **Tastes**

After spending a year essentially on the run, sleeping in haphazard tents or on the cold hard ground, she likes comfortable beds. She's also a big fan of baths. Additionally, she likes luxurious objects like silk sheets, fine clothes, or jewelry, which is why her main clothing is adorned with golden thread.

She dislikes blood magic, as she only has bad memories associated with it: Jowan lying to her; Uldred bringing chaos upon the Circle; blood mages on the run attacking her... She'd never use it, and she's quite judgemental of anyone who does, though she wouldn't necessarily attack them on sight for it and can recognize that the magic, in itself, is not evil, only its misuse is. That does not erase, however, her personal distaste of it.

### **Fears**

She hates spiders - and she's very embarassed of it. The Archdemon didn't make her flinch, but the gigantic spiders she encountered on her travels do.

She likes material things, but doesn't keep many because she's afraid of losing them. When she grew up in the Circle, her things had an unfortunate tendency of getting lost (taken) over and over again, until she learned it was better not to keep precious things at all. Because of that, she's wary of keeping belongings that are not utilitarian (like rations or potions).

## **Notes**

1. ↑ The decision in question is putting Alistair - her best friend - on the throne with Anora despite him being so vocal that he didn't want the position. At the time, she rationalized that as a Grey Warden, Alistair had made a vow to protect the land, and becoming king - and keeping Anora in check - was part of that.
2. ↑ Winter's Grasp, Cone of Cold
3. ↑ Petrify
4. ↑ Stonefist
5. ↑ Drain Life
6. ↑ Virulent Walking Bomb
7. ↑ Earthquake
8. ↑ Death Syphon
9. ↑ Cleansing Aura
10. ↑ Heal
11. ↑ Revival
12. ↑ One With Nature, Thornblades, Nature's Vengeance
13. ↑ Replenishment