Siv Aeducan

Siv Aeducan

*"Do you sometimes just ... stop in your tracks and think to yourself: 'Woah there, when did I become an adult? Wasn't I a child like a week ago?' Yeah so, now imagine that instead of realizing that you're grown-up, you realize that people view you as a Hero, and a Paragon. I've got to tell you - it's pretty creepy."*

Siv Aeducan, born in 9:4 Dragon, also known as Paragon Aeducan or the Hero of Ferelden, is a Grey Warden originating from noble caste of the Orzammar dwarves. She played a major role in the victory of the Grey Wardens over Archdemon Urthemiel and the Fifth Blight and was declared Paragon for her deeds.

## Overview

### **Physical Appearance**

Siv is of average height for a dwarf. Her hair is of a brownish-blond color and shoulder-length, she usually wears it openly. She wears the marks of the noble dwarf caste on her forehead and cheeks.

### **Personality**

Siv is a very cheerful and optimistic person, always trying to see the bright side of things. She is outgoing and loves to make friends, although it is often difficult with other dwarves as Siv's high birth often prevents others from acting relaxed around her, a fact that bothers Siv greatly. Generally Siv is not very fond of politics and intrigues and a lot about the life as Orzammar noble always felt dishonest to her.

Siv has a very wide sense of humor, meaning that she will practically laugh at anything that is remotely funny, and her own jokes are often quite corny or straight up bad, too.

Siv has a heavy tendency towards daydreaming and hero worship, to the point where she felt quite starstruck when she first met Duncan - despite her having the higher rank in that situation. She can be a bit inattentive to her surroundings if she is lost in her thoughts, to the annoyance of Gorim and later Zevran, who frequently had to point out steps or lampposts when accompanying her.

Having lived a sheltered life in Orzammar, Siv is very curious about a lot of things, especially different cultures and traditions. Her inexperience in anything that isn't dwarven noble life, however, often leads to her offending people without meaning to. After the Blight, when traveling with Zevran, Siv has developed a decent grasp on the surface world, embarassing herself a little less often.

Siv is often regarded as rather naive, which is true to an extent as she is quick to trust people and does not have any experience with the world outside of Orzammar. It can, however, be a mistake to underestimate her; despite her declared dislike for politics and intrigues, she nevertheless has a great deal of knowledge in them that she will put to use if pressed.

### **Talents and Skills**

Siv is a respected fighter in Orzammar, known for her swiftness and abilities in dual-wielding. Duels are her speciality and her official record in the Provings does not include a single loss.

Although she would not call it a talent herself, Siv always has a smile ready and a joke to go with it, even in the darkest of hours, becoming a great motivator for her allies. While she might lack other qualities of a "natural leader", such as any aura of authority, her companions are often willing to go through hell with (and for) Siv, anyway.

Siv is a passionate storywriter and the few persons that ever got to read any of what she has written claim that she is very talented at it, but usually she keeps her stories just for herself.

## Biography

### **History**

Siv was born as the second of three children and the only daughter to King Endrin Aeducan of Orzammar. Luckily for her, her mother was also from the noble caste and Siv inherited it. Her mother died relatively soon after her birth and Siv was mainly raised by nannies and maids of the royal palace. Siv has an older brother, Trian, and a younger half-brother, Bhelen. Her life as princess of Orzammar was a comfortable one. Since she was not likely to inherit the crown, the main concern for her family was to find her a suitable husband - an undertaking that proved to be more difficult than expected, as Siv had no intention to rush into a marriage - and also was in love with her second, Gorim, a member of the warrior caste, although her family strongly opposed their relationship because of their caste difference.

### **In-game**

**Origins**

Siv's life was shaken up when her older brother Trian was killed and she was blamed for the murder. In reality, her younger brother Bhelen had schemed against both of them in order to take the crown of Orzammar; but Siv had little proof to back up that claim. She was banished to the Deep Roads and would have died there if it was not for Duncan and his Wardens, whom she catched up with. They agreed to make her a Warden and took her to the surface with them. Although Siv was - of course - angry at her brother for his betrayal, she was most saddened by the fact that he deemed this kind of action necessary; in reality, Siv never had any interest in the crown and would gladly have given it up in favour of Bhelen, even supported him in the assembly, if only he had spoken to her. Actually, she had even considered joining the Warden voluntarily before the events forced her to, and thus, she never regretted that she became a Warden, but merely the fact that it was not her own choice to do so.

Siv then traveled to Ostagar alongside Duncan, where she met her fellow Warden initiates and Alistair, the junior Warden. Being completly inexperienced as a new surface dwarf, Siv quickly had to adept to a lot of new circumstances, such as encountering mages for the first time, fighting wild animals and harsh weather conditions. Both King Cailan and her fellow Grey Wardens were curious about how exactly a dwarven princess ends up as a Warden, but as the wounds were fresh, Siv was not all too eager to talk about it.

After the crushing defeat of Ostagar, Siv and her group traveled to Denerim first, as she hoped to gather useful information - and maybe, to meet Gorim after all. To her own surprise, she did actually find Gorim as a merchant on the market of Denerim, but her joy was quickly dampened as she learned that he was living with a surface dwarf woman, claiming that his relationship with Siv never had any future to begin with. Despite being hurt, Siv promised Gorim to stay in contact, as for both of them, the other was everything that was left of their lives in Orzammar.

Having restocked their equipment, the group headed towards the Brecilian Forest to recruit the Dalish Elves for the fight against the Blight. The Dalish were quite surprised to see a dwarven visitor among them. Learning about the curse that afflicted the Dalish and unraveling the truth about its origin, Siv managed to convince Zathrian to lift the curse at the price of his own life, citing her own life as an example of how there are things more important than revenge.

With the support of the Dalish gained, the group headed towards Lake Calenhad in order to recruit the mages for their cause. They were, however, stopped by an assassination attempt; Loghain had hired a Crow of Antiva to kill Siv and Alistair. The attempt was unsuccesful and to the shock of Alistair, Siv allowed the assassin, an elf named Zevran, to accompany them from now on.

Arriving at Kinloch Hold, the group learned that the Circle had been overrun by abominations and the Templar commander Greagoir had requested the right of annulment. As she had no experience in dealing with mages whatsoever - and was, frankly, quite scared of them - Siv agreed to clear the rest of the tower in order to gain the assistance of the templars. Upon meeting Wynne, an elderly enchanter, Siv agreed to try to safe any survivors in the tower. At the top of the tower, the group encountered Cullen, a young templar who had been tortured by blood mages, who begged them to kill the remaining mages as there was no certainty that any of them was innocent. Unsure about the right path of action, Siv entered the Chamber of Harrowing to see the situation for herself and was engaged by Uldred, who was then killed by the group. After the battle, Siv agreed with Cullen that there was no certainty about whether the remaining mages were corrupted, and First Enchanter Irving agreed that they - including himself - should be taken into custody by the templars. With the situation resolved, but the Circle largely gone, Greagoir agreed to let the Templars aid the Wardens against the darkspawn. Wynne also joined Siv's group.

The group then headed to Redcliffe and protected the village from the nightly attack of the undead. Upon learning that Connor, the Arl's son, was the cause of the attacks, Siv was faced with the decision to either kill him or to rely on the blood magic of a killer hired by Loghain. In the end, she decided that she could not put any trust in Jowan, and Lady Isolde was the one who had to kill her own son. Siv then tried to track down the Urn of Sacred Ashes to heal the ill Arl, and after following the trace to Haven and vanquishing a group of dragon cultists, she was successful. The Arl woke up and although he was devastated over the death of his son, he agreed to help Siv and Alistair, bringing up the suggestion of Alistair taking his father's throne.

But firstly, Siv had to face her past, as the last Warden contract was with the dwarves of Orzammar. Upon arriving there, Siv learned that the Assembly was stuck in a deadlock over choosing a King; half of it supported Bhelen, the other half Lord Harrowmont, and Orzammar could not act without a new king. Siv agonized over the choice of whom to support, but decided that she would not turn against her brother without at least the chance to speak to him. She convinced Vartag Gavorn to grant her a meeting with her brother. Bhelen was surprised to see that Siv even considered supporting him after what had happened. Siv agreed to help her brother claim the throne if he would, in turn, reinstate her as member of house Aeducan, to which Bhelen agreed. In order to force the Assembly into a decision, Siv headed to the Deep Roads to find Paragon Branka, and did find her eventually. Branka, however, had no interest in the dwarven politics; her sole goal was to reach the Anvil of the Void, who was guarded by Caridin, its creator. Siv helped Branka to defeat Caridin, but after the fight, Branka realized that the Anvil was not worth what it had costed. After forging a crown for the future king of Orzammar on it, she destroyed the Anvil before commiting suicide, as she had nothing left to live for. Siv returned to Orzammar and declared that the crown should be given to her brother Bhelen. Bhelen was declared King and in turn, reinstated Siv into house Aeducan and provided the Wardens with his troops. Originally, Bhelen had planned to execute Harrowmont, but Siv intervened and Harrowmont was exiled to the surface instead.

Having assembled her allies, Siv returned to Denerim to investigate rumors about slavers in the Elven alienage. Also, they rescue Queen Anora from Arl Rendon Howe's estate, but Siv and Alistair were captured and imprisoned by Ser Cauthrien, an assistant of Loghain, while Anora and the others managed to escape. Zevran and Leliana helped the Wardens break out of prison, and after they returned to Arl Eamon's estate, Anora suggested an alliance in order to overthrow her father Loghain. Siv, having profound political experience, saw an opportunity and suggested that Anora and Alistair could marry and rule over Ferelden together. Both sides were baffled over the proposal, but reluctantly agreed. Anora then helped the Wardens win the Landsmeet, but asked for the life of her father to be spared. Siv agreed, which infuriated Alistair, who then refused to venture into battle with Loghain as fellow Grey Warden. Siv was saddened by this, but did not budge. After having learned the truth about what killing the Archdemon would mean, and Morrigan having informed her about the possibility of the dark ritual, Siv handed over the choice to Loghain - to redeem himself, he could either kill the Archdemon, and die, or go through the ritual. Loghain argued that there would no certainty that he would reach the Archdemon to kill it, and reluctantly agreed to the ritual.

The battle of Denerim ended with Siv delivering the killing blow to the Archdemon - and surviving. The other Wardens that arrived from Orlais questioned her survival, but Siv simply stated that she did not know how or why she was not killed, trusting in Loghain to keep the secret. Alistair and Anora were crowned King and Queen of Ferelden, as although Alistair did not make it a secret that he had not forgiven Siv for sparing Loghain, he had not backed out on his promise.

The Assembly of Orzammar declared Siv a Paragon, and Bhelen spared no expense to honor his Paragon sister. In honor of her great deeds for Ferelden, Siv was also granted a boon by Queen Anora, for which she asked the Warden's sacrifices to be remembered this time around, which led to a memorial being buildt and the Warden being granted Amaranthine. Siv was installed as Warden-Commander of Amaranthine and took on her new position after a visit to Orzammar.

**Awakening & Witch Hunt**

When Siv arrived in Amaranthine, chaos was abound once more. With the help of Mhairi, Oghren and Anders, Siv defeated the intelligent darkspawn horde that was attacking Vigil's Keep. To replenish the Warden's numbers quickly, Siv allowed both Oghren and Anders to join the Wardens, as well as Nathaniel later.

In the vending woods, Siv encountered Velanna and allowed her to join the Wardens in order to look for her sister, Seranni.

In the blackmarsh, the spirit of Justice joined Siv's cause as he was not sure where else to go.

At Kal'Hirol, Sigrun, a member of the Legion of the Dead, helped Siv vanquish several broodmothers and later joined the Wardens, too.

When the darkspawn attacked Amaranthine, Siv decided that the remains of the city were not worth potentially losing the Keep over, and headed back to defend Vigil's Keep instead. Siv later encountered the leader of the intelligent darkspawn, calling himself "The Architect". Though the creature asked to be spared, Siv was not willing to strike a deal with darkspawn, and killed him, as well as the other darkspawn leader, who called herself "The Mother."

Having heard rumors about Morrigan being seen again, Siv eventually tracked her down in the Wilds. The two parted on good terms, and Morrigan left several sources for Siv that indicated that it might be possible to find a cure for the Calling.

### **Post-game**

Siv eventually retired as Warden-Commander of Amaranthine, feeling that the Wardens were strong enough again to prevail without her. After a last visit to Orzammar, Siv and Zevran left Ferelden in order to investigate the sources Morrigan had left for them at her departure.

Their travels also led them to Kirkwall, where Zevran had an unpleasant encounter with his past as a Crow of Antiva. With the aid of Alecto Hawke and Varric Tethras, they managed to take down the majority of the Crows that had followed Zevran and escape the city. Varric would later tell the tale about how he and Hawke once rescued the Paragon Warden-Princess of Orzammar and her elven assassin boyfriend from their hunters, but people usually regarded it as one more of his excessively exaggerated stories.

Siv later received letters from both Inquisitor Trevelyan and Varric, asking her to assist the Inquisition in stopping Corypheus. Even though she could not intervene personally - her own quest was too important to her to interrupt -, she did send a very Paragon letter to her brother, King Bhelen of Orzammar, and urged him to assist the Inquisition. Unable to openly argue with a Paragon, Bhelen grudgingly agreed to send dwarven soldiers to the Inquisition's aid, which greatly helped the Inquisition's efforts. Siv was also present when Alecto Hawke arrived at Weisshaupt, informing the Wardens about what had happened at Adamant at that the remaining Wardens would now be part of the Inquisition. After a short stay in Weisshaupt, Siv and Zevran ventured deep into the wastelands of Anderfels, slowlily piecing together the hints to the cure of the Calling.

## **Relationships**

**Family**

**Endrin:** *"I was told father believed me to be innocent when he died. It's a comfort, if true. I just wished he had lived long enough to see me now. His daughter, a hero, a paragon? He would burst with pride. And he would probably owe me an apology."*

**Trian**: *"I know, I know, you should't talk badly about the dead ... but even with all the stuff Bhelen did, we should't forget that Trian, too, would have killed me on the spot if I had threatened to take the crown from him. That's just how dwarven noble families work. No hard feelings. Not openly, at least."*

**Bhelen**: *"Look, I'm not stupid. I know what kind of person my brother is. He didn't throw me into the Deep Roads for shits and giggles, he wanted me dead. But I'm better than he is, and in the end? I won this game. He might be king, but I'm a paragon who gets to boss the king around. And... that does feel pretty good."*

**Companions**

**Zevran**: *"Hey, now, that's a bit of a personal question, isn't it? Looking for some inspiration for a novel or something? Hey, I mean - the exiled dwarven princess who tries to save the world and the elven assassin who tried to kill her, falling in love at the brink of doom? I'd read the shit out of that."*

**Alistair**: *"Ah, Alistair. Bit of a pity that he is still mad at me, really, we always got along well before. He's a funny guy. Heart in the right place. Didn't figure him for the bloody-murder-vengeance-type... humans are always full of surprises, I guess."*

**Morrigan**: *"Funny story. Before I left Orzammar, I barely had a concept of what a mage even is, let alone an apostate, and I had never even heard of 'Witches of the Wilds'. Now, one of them is a good friend of mine. At least I think she is. She's not the type to tell you that kind of stuff, you know?"*

**Leliana:** *"I heard that they made Leliana the head of the Chantry. Well, I guess that settles my ancient question of whether she is actually believing in all that stuff she talks about or if she's just crazy - it's definitely both, at this point. A good kind of crazy, but crazy nevertheless."*

**Sten**: *"Not gonna lie, those Qunari are scary. And not because they are three times my size - okay, it might have a part in it, too, but what I mean is this ... this thing were they seem to be nothing but what their society dictates them to be. People say that about dwarves too, but the Qunari are extreme even by our measures."*

**Wynne:** *"Wynne is a nice lady. And to be honest, that's all I really have to say about her. We got along, but it's not like we were best friends or anything. We're too different for that, but that's alright. I left it to Alistair to look for a new mother in her."*

**Oghren:** *"The good thing about being exiled is that no one gives a shit anymore who I hang out with. Back home, if I even spoke more than a few words to Oghren it would probably have been a scandal. And that would have been a shame, because I'd have missed out on a good friend - and drinking comrade."*

**Shale:** *"I must admit, I feel a bit bad about all that happened at the Anvil. With all her talk about how great it is to be a golem, I did not expect Shale to be so opposed to the idea of keeping the Anvil. Well, lesson learned - the hard way."*

**Loghain**: *"What's there to say about Loghain? He's a bitter old man with a bad attitude. If there's anything more to him, he hides it well. He's pretty useful in a battle though, I'll give him that. And for fathering demon babys, I suppose."*

**Others**

**Gorim**: *"Gorim's an ass. Like ... 'oh, you made all the way from Ostagar to Denerim just to see me, despite being a Warden now? Well guess the news, I'm married now!' Pffffff. I'm not mad that things turned out the way they did, but ... really?"*

**Hawke**: *"Hawke? Yeah, I know her. Seemed nice enough, but ... she's pretty serious, isn't she? I don't know if she even smiled once when I met her. Well, I suppose when your boyfriend is blowing up churches and you have to clean up the mess afterwards, one does have reason to be a bit pissed."*

**Varric**: *"Oh, I'll never forget the look on Varric's face when I introduced myself. 'Hi, I'm Siv Aeducan, Paragon of the dwarves, thanks for your help.' For all his "proud surfacer" demeanour, his jaw dropped pretty far, you know. Ah, for the reactions alone all that 'fighting the Blight' stuff was SO worth it."*

## **Miscellaneous**

* The Champion of Kirkwall of her worldstate is Alecto Hawke.
* The Inquisitor of her worldstate is Carys Trevelyan.
* Siv's name is pronounced /ˈsiːv/.
	+ In the real world, Siv is a name of scandinavian origin, meaning "bride". In Norse mythology, the name of Thor's wife was Siv.
* Her birthday is 3th Solace (3rd July).
* As she learns when she enters the surface, Siv has an allergy to grass and tomatoes.

## **Links**

### Non-Reddit links (AO3, DeviantArt, Tumblr):

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## **Gallery**

* Siv Aeducan
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