Fen'virna Mahariel

Fen'virna in 9:30 Dragon

> "*You think I chose this life? Nothing about this life is my choice!*"
>
>
>

**Fen'virna Arainai** (née Mahariel) (born 9:11 Dragon), also known as "The Hero of Ferelden" and the Warden Commander of Ferelden, is a Dalish elf of clan Sabrae. Raised by the clan after her parents' deaths, Fen'virna grew accustomed to hunting and fighting before an accident led to her recruitment in the Grey Wardens. Reluctantly, she fought her way through Ferelden and defeated the Archdemon Urthemiel. She later helped restore the Warden order in Fereldan and defeated an intelligent darkspawn known as The Architect.

## Overview

### **Physical Appearance**

Fen'virna stands about five feet, one inch tall, with an athletic build. She has albinism, which accounts for her fair appearance and unusually pale skin. Fen'virna keeps her silver blonde hair long, and has pale blue eyes often compared to icicles. She wears the vallaslin of Mythal, and often stains her lips with berries to bring a little color to her face.

### **Personality**

Fen'virna is guarded, deflecting anyone and everyone from asking about her life or past. She refuses to let others in, especially anyone who happens to be human, as she is resentful of them due to her beliefs and attitude growing up Dalish. She has no patience for immaturity and is known to be vindictive for any small transgression. However, she gives credit where it's due, and those close enough to call her friend see the lighthearted young woman that was taken away the day she became a Warden.

### **Talents and Skills**

Fen'virna trained her whole life to become the best archer possible. It took hard work, due to her poor eyesight, but no other weapon would do, and she became a reliable and skilled shot. Aside from archery, Fen'virna is an excellent long distance runner and would often be sent to scout for her quick timing.

After she was conscripted into the Wardens, Fen'virna learned how to fight with animals at her side, preferring the wolf for which she shared her name with. She also learned useful skills as an Assassin from her partner, Zevran, most of which she used whenever enemies got too close for her bow. During her time as Warden-Commander, she also expanded her skills in stealth, using shadows to maximize her damage potential.

## Biography

### **History**

After her parents died, Fen'virna was raised by a family friend named Ashalle who loved her as if she were her own daughter. Fen'virna was a happy child, seemingly unstoppable despite her physical limitations. She kept up with and befriended many children in the clan, developing an especially close bond with a boy named Tamlen. Due to her long name, her friends took to calling her "Virna", partly in order to distinguish her from Fenarel and party because she rejected "Fenny". Although not especially studious, she enjoyed the stories told by the Hahren, and would ask Merrill, the clan's newly declared First, for any secrets she could share from her studies.

When she became old enough to start training with a weapon, Fen'virna immediately chose the bow and arrow despite advice from both Ashalle and Keeper Deshanna telling her she would do better with a pair of daggers. Fen'virna was always up for a challenge, and worked especially hard to become one of the better archers in her clan. As she grew older, her relationship with Tamlen turned romantic, and at 17 summers old, they received their vallaslin together - choosing Mythal to look after them and guide them through life.

Not much of note happened between the ages of 17 and 19. The Sabrae clan was prosperous and Fen'virna spent her time between hunting, assisting the Hahren, and hanging out with Tamlen.

 It was during one of these outings that her life would change forever, as she hesitantly explored the hidden ruins with Tamlen, she became infected with the Blight sickness, and was in a coma for two days before waking up to a distressed clan and a missing Tamlen. Despite searching for him, Tamlen was still missing and a Grey Warden named Duncan was forced to conscript Fen'virna, nearly dragging her away from her home.

### **In-game**

#### **JOINING THE GREY WARDENS**

Once in Ostagar, Fen'virna was left to her own devices. Walking around, she took in the large towers of the ruins, and watched the humans closely, although she stayed out of any conversations. Once her curiosity had been satisfied, she searched and found Alistair, another Warden, and decided almost immediately upon interacting with him that she didn't like him. Nevertheless, she followed him around Ostagar as he picked up the other Warden recruits, and kept mostly silent throughout their trip in the Korcari Wilds. Upon meeting Morrigan, Fen'virna was miffed at the others' childish reactions and took it upon herself to negotiate for the Warden treaties they had been tasked to recover. With both Darkspawn blood and Warden treaties in hand, Fen'virna returned with Alistair and the others to Ostagar where the Joining ritual was prepared for them. The Joining was a major shock for Fen'virna. She drank the blood offered to her solely out of fear after witnessing Duncan murder one of the other recruits for wanting to back out, and filed the experience as one more reason to resent the man.

After surviving the ritual, Fen'virna was tasked along with Alistair to climb the Tower of Ishal and light a signal fire for the army below. The tower itself was infested with Darkspawn, and left with no other choice, fought her way up the tower to light the fire, although she passed out soon after.

She, along with Alistair, was rescued from the tower by Flemeth, Morrigan's mother, and nursed back to health. Not sure what else to do, Fen'virna took Morrigan's advice and travelled to the nearby town of Lothering to gather information. Along the way, she ran into a Mabari that survived the events of Ostagar. Since no one else would volunteer to help care for it, Fen'virna did not take in the dog and left it to fend for itself.

Fen'virna set about gathering more information in the nearby town of Lothering, where she learned of trouble in Redcliff as well as the the country's mage circle tower. She briefly explored the town, finding a chantry sister in the tavern who requested to join them. Although Fen'virna thought her to be a bit touched in the head, she allowed the woman to join as she needed more manpower for the darkspawn war. She also found a qunari man imprisoned in a cage, and thought it better that he join her, rather than waste away in a cell. With both Leliana and Sten in tow, Fen'virna stocked up on health poultices, fought a few angry farmers and bandits, and made to leave town. Before she could, she encountered a group of darkspawn attacking a dwarven merchant and intervened solely to exterminate the darkspawn. While the merchant was grateful, Fen'virna warned him away from following her and made to leave Lothering, setting up camp several miles away at sunset. There, she had her first Archdemon nightmare, and quickly shook the experience away as she made preparations to travel tp Kinloch Hold, the closer of the two immediate problems.

#### **BROKEN CIRCLE**

Kinloch Hold turned out to be more of a problem than initially thought, as Fen'virna was told the entire tower was to be purged due to uncontrolled blood mages. While she had learned little of magic growing up, one thing Fen'virna did know was that blood magic was bad, and a bunch of blood mages running loose wasn't a good sign; so she offered her assistance in purging the circle in exchange for the Templars' future help against the Blight. Knight Commander Greagoir was hesitant to agree, but nevertheless locked Fen'virna, Morrigan, Alistair, and Sten in the tower with the promise to purge it or come back with First Enchanter Irving. A few rooms ahead, the group came into contact with a group of young mages and an elder mage. The elder one introduced herself as Wynne, and mentioned also being at Ostagar, although Fen'virna could not recall the woman. She offered to lead the group through the tower, and Fen'virna accepted, hiding her intentions from the woman. Sten was left to look after the young mages and guard them while Wynne joined the group, although Morrigan did not like this decision.

Going through the tower level by level, Fen'virna and her companions worked to kill any and all blood mages they came across, along with demons and possessed Templars. Halfway up the tower, the group encountered a sloth demon that put them to sleep, separating the group and sending their minds into the Fade. Fen'virna instantly recognized the illusion: not because she was versed in magic, but because she could never be happy in the Grey Wardens, and especially with Duncan there. She fought him and traversed through the Fade looking for her companions. As she rescued them one by one, she also learned more of the demon that sent them there, and acquired new abilities in order to help defeat it. With her companions aiding her in the battle, Fen'virna was able to defeat the demon and returned to the waking world with her mind intact. Upon reaching the floor above, Fen'virna found a lone Templar raving in a cage. He said little other than that the tower was beyond help. This only added to what she had seen climbing the tower, although she wished to see for herself just how bad the top floor was. Upon entering the Harrowing Chamber, she found a mage gone mad, and several other mages turned into abominations. Their leader, Uldred, immediately fought the party, using blood magic to turn several of the remaining mages into abominations as well. Although the fight was difficult, Fen'virna was able to kill Uldred and the remaining mages, leaving Wynne dismayed but still willing to travel with them.

At the base of the tower, with all the mages dead, Knight Commander Greagoir promised a retinue of Templars at her disposal to combat the Blight. With the promise, Fen'virna picked up Sten and returned with the party to the camp set up several miles away. After a night of sleep and replenishing supplies, Fen'virna headed towards Redcliff once again alongside Alistair, Morrigan, and Sten.

#### **THE ARL OF REDCLIFF**

Along the way to Redcliff, the group was led into a trap by assassins posing as travelers. Although outnumbered, they were able to defeat, if not outright kill, most of the assassins. One man was left alive after the dust settled, and Fen'virna chose to tie him up and interrogate him. The man introduced himself as Zevran, and explained that he was hired by Loghain to find and kill any surviving Grey Wardens. With the failure, he offered instead to join the Warden's group in exchange for his life. Fen'virna believed him to be stupid, but thought that having the assassin with her would be marginally more useful than just killing him, so she let him join, and turned the group around to return to camp and restock supplies once again.
Wanting to test the group's newest member, Fen'virna brought Zevran along with Alistair and Sten - leaving Morrigan behind just in case the city did not take to unsanctioned mages well. Once the group finally arrived at Redcliff, they were greeted with grim news: undead terrorized the city at night, while the Arl lay sick and dying in the castle. She considered going back for Wynne, as her healing magic would have been useful, but Alistair argued the city would be more likely to help combat the Blight if they helped them survive the undead. So she stayed, going around town looking for ways to assist. She found several individuals who could help the militia, and threatened them into serving. She also stumbled upon a kid hiding in one of the homes, as well as a sword he was guarding. Fen'virna persuaded the boy to hand over the sword and go to his sister in the local Chantry. She also persuaded a woman in the local tavern to leave the city, and had the Revered Mother give "holy amulets" the the knights for protection.

 As night approached, Fen'virna was able to find barrels of oil to light on fire as a defense line, and persuaded the local blacksmith to make armor and weapons for the militia just in time for the first of the undead to arrive. Fen'virna helped fight, not trusting the capabilities of the militia, and when dawn broke the next day, the group's efforts had prevented all but two casualties.

After the battle, Fen'virna followed Teagan up to the town's windmill to talk strategy for dealing with the problems at the castle. The conversation barely started when a woman, Arlessa Isolde, came running down from the direction of the castle. She insisted on Teagan returning to the castle with her, giving no explanation and quite a few dirty looks. Teagan obliged but not before telling Fen'virna of a secret passage and giving her his signet ring as a key to get inside. Once inside, she found herself in what Alistair told her was the Castle dungeon. For the most part, it was empty, however, undead clamored at one of the cells. Killing them, she saw a man cowering inside who explained himself as Jowan, a mage from the Circle who had been sent to tutor the Arl's son, Connor, as he had shown magical talents. With further prying she also found that he had been sent to poison the Arl by Teryn Loghain because he was a blood mage. Upon hearing "blood mage", Fen'virna already knew she wanted nothing to do with him. When he asked what she would do with him, she executed him and moved on from the dungeon.

The group killed countless undead making their way through the castle, eventually stumbling upon Valena, the blacksmith's daughter. Fen'virna told her to run and turned the group towards the main corridor, finding Teagan, Isolde, and Connor inside. After a brief fight, Connor ran upstairs, and the adults were left to discuss the situation. Connor was possessed, and most solutions were impossible, as the Circle had been annulled and Jowan was dead. The only option was to kill Connor. While Isolde was in tears, Fen'virna headed upstairs looking for the boy. She found him in a room by himself, however, when she made her intentions clear, the desire demon came forward and she was forced to fight it into submission. The resulting fight knocked out Connor, and before she could do anything, Isolde was running into the room, sobbing and pleading for her son's life. As she continued with her pleas, Fen'virna eventually had to knock her out in order to continue, as she could not get the Arlessa to see there were no other options. With Isolde unconscious, Fen'virna ended the demon - and Connor's - life.

With everything done, and Isolde awake again, the group were given instructions to locate Brother Genitivi and the urn of Sacred Ashes, a mythical relic that is said to have the power to cure any and all illnesses. Although she did not believe in the religious aspect, Fen'virna believed they could be a powerful magical relic - if they existed - and set the group on a course to Denerim.

#### **THE URN OF SACRED ASHES**

Note: This table will be removed as events are written.

 **Awakening** | Upgraded keep fully.Keep protected.Killed Architect.

## Relationships

Note: These tables will be removed as relationships are written.

### **Origins**

 **Wynne** | Hostile (-100)
 **Zevran Arainai** | Love (100)

#### **ALISTAIR THEIRIN**

Fen'virna never got along with Alistair. Upon first meeting the man, she regarded him with suspicion. Fen'virna was already wary of humans and considered herself a prisoner of the Grey Wardens, so meeting another human so happy with them did not go over well. Things only went downhill from there, Fen'virna thought Alistair was rather immature, and him passing off all leadership responsibilities to her only solidified that thought. For her part, Fen'virna never tried to get on with him, not willing to invest emotionally in his troubles when he seemed to ignore all of hers. It seemed that the two couldn't agree on anything; however, there were times Fen'virna would help Alistair. She respected his opinion on not being king, and helped him track down his sister, Goldanna.

Their already hostile relationship became even worse after Fen'virna made the decision to recruit Loghain Mac Tir into the Wardens. Despite her practical logic, it seemed this was a decision that Alistair could not get past, and he left, abandoning not only the group, but the Wardens and Ferelden as well.

#### **LELIANA**

Leliana certainly made an impression on Fen'virna. While initially grateful for her assistance against her attackers, Leliana's reason for joining the group was certainly... odd in Fen'virna's opinion. Ultimately, she looked past it as having another body to help in the upcoming war was more important that anyone's reasons for joining the cause. Nevertheless, Fen'virna did not go out of her way to get to know Leliana and the two were strangers for their brief time together.

The turning point came about one month after the events at Ostagar. After finding the Urn of Sacred Ashes, Fen'virna took the small pinch needed to heal Arl Eamon and then dumped poison in the remainder. Leliana, who had been traveling with the group at this time, was outraged and immediately drew her weapons, forcing Fen'virna to kill Leliana in self defense.

#### **LOGHAIN MAC TIR**

Fen'virna finds it hard to define exactly her relationship with Loghain Mac Tir. She never truly got to know the man, and so much of her opinion of him was based on information she obtained from other people. It wasn't until the Landsmeet was called that she truly learned anything definitive about the man. Ultimately, he turned out to be just like many of the other shems Fen'virna had met, fought, or otherwise dealt with on her journey. She didn't care, only recruiting him so that she'd have another body to throw at the archdemon, and thought that punishment enough.

Loghain seemed to admire her practicality, or her tenacity at the least. Even though she only had two days to get to know the man, she discovered quite a bit about him, and even came to have an odd respect for some of his decisions, although there were others she couldn't excuse. After the dust settled, the two parted with a mutual respect, and went where duty told them.

#### **MORRIGAN**

Morrigan was an oddity to Fen'virna right from the start. Although she was human, she was different from the rest and seemed befuddled by them as much as Fen'virna was. Her use of magic added to Fen'Virna's wariness, especially after noting several of her techniques were Dalish in origin. There wasn't much they truly fought about, as they shared a practical nature, and overall they were amicable, with Fen'virna helping Morrigan on several occasions.

#### **OGHREN**

Fen'virna disliked Oghren more than any other companion, and was glad that he joined the party so late. She found him insufferable, and his constant drinking made him almost unbearable at camp. She didn't like his drunken advances, and noticed she wasn't the only one uncomfortable with his presence. On several occasions she considered telling him to leave and on one occasion he threatened to leave, but practicality stopped her from ever allowing him to go. After the final battle, they parted ways as civilly as they could manage.

A year later, when Fen'virna was instructed to go to Vigil's Keep, she ran into Oghren fighting darkspawn within the keep. Although she appreciated his assistance in the matter, Fen'virna wasn't sure she could survive more time with Oghren, and told him to leave Vigil's Keep once it was secured.

#### **STEN**

Professional is the way Fen'virna would describe her relationship with Sten. Although she wasn't deliberately trying to become friends, Fen'virna impressed him with her philosophy. He was often the only one agreeing with her harsh decisions, and because of that she had Sten accompany her nearly everywhere. He also proved to be a formidable bodyguard. When he mentioned his missing sword, Fen'virna dropped everything to help him search for it. She understood the bond a person had with their weapon - she still carried the bow Master Ilen gave her. By the time they set off for Orzammar, they had a close friendship and referred to each other as "Lethallin" and "Kadan".

#### **WYNNE**

Wynne was sweet to Fen'virna, if not misguided every so often. Fen'virna could respect that, but she wasn't in any place emotionally to receive advice. Wynne occasionally tagged along with the group, but largely remained at camp to treat injuries and provide comfort

### **Awakening**

 **Justice** | Warm (65)
 **Nathaniel Howe** | Neutral (15)
 **Sigrun** | Warm (70)
 **Velanna** | Friendly (95)

### **Other OC Protagonists**

#### **DRASIA HAWKE**

Fen’virna and Drasia meet each other at Skyhold in 9:41 Dragon. Upon learning Drasia’s name, Fen’virna immediately tried to punch her, which Drasia easily blocked. It took two days for Drasia to figure out why this Warden wanted to fight her.

Altogether, Fen’virna and Drasia do not get along. Most of the animosity comes from Fen’virna unable to forgive the Champion for murdering her entire clan. Fen’virna only works with Drasia because of Nevan, and will often use Nevan as a go between if she needs to talk to Drasia. In the fade, Fen’virna would have preferred Drasia stay behind like she suggested, because Loghain is a much better person that she is, but grudgingly accepts the outcome.

#### **NEVAN TREVELYAN**

Another professional relationship, Fen’virna respects Nevan’s outlook and attitude on the current situation with Thedas. Even if they don’t share beliefs, Fen’virna can commend the Inquisitor’s helpfulness when it comes to those that are caught in the crossfire. Although she may have disagreements with the woman, they are nowhere near as volatile and sometimes help Nevan by offering a different perspective. Nevan was also one of the people checking on Fen'virna once she was aware of the situation with the Wardens.

## Miscellaneous

* Fen'virna translates to "Way of the wolf"
* Fen'virna has the Experienced voice.
* Her leitmotif is "Natural" by Imagine Dragons.
* The first time she visited Denerim, Fen'virna got so lost that Alistair had to take point and guide the group.
* Among her companions, only Zevran, Velanna, and Sigrun are allowed to call her "Virna".
* Fen'virna's MBTI type is ENTJ.
* Fen'virna is illiterate. Zevran taught her to read during their travels after the Fifth Blight.
* Enmity Era: Fen'virna has tried to fight not only Drasia, but Blackwall and Leliana as well.
* Enmity Era: Varric's nickname for her is "Snowdrop".

## Links

### **Reddit Headcanon Threads:**

February 23rd, 2021

March 2nd, 2021

April 6th, 2021

April 27th, 2021

July 27th, 2021

September 14th, 2021

October 5th, 2021

### **Reddit Writing Prompt Threads:**

November 20th, 2021 - 100 Words: Broken Promise + The Shriek Attack from Solas POV

November 27th, 2021 - Someone insults a companion + "You're despicable." & "Thank you."

### **Non Reddit Links:**

Freeform: Who Will Win the Prestigious Title of Miss Thedas?