Aaliyah Adaar

Aaliyah looking back at the Breach in Therinfal Redoubt

Aaliyah Adaar (born in 9:11 Dragon) is a former member of the Valo-Kas, turn Herald of Andraste and eventually leader of the Inquisition.

## Overview

*(everything here is going to sound super rough 'til I'm able to edit everything properly~ some details may change depending on how I feel, so don't expect this to be set in stone)*

### **Physical Appearance**

Aaliyah is a bit shorter than the average Qunari, standing at 6'5"/195 cm and weighs ~230lbs/104kg. She has red hair, which goes down to the middle of her back, she puts it up into a bun whenever she is on missions. Her skin is light grey and she has violet eyes and while the anchor hasn’t altered the color, it will have small flecks of green whenever the mark begins to spread.

She has has a scar going down her right eye (which has impacted her vision on that eye to some degree) and down her cheek and some scars across her left eyebrow and down to her neck.

WIP

### **Personality**

While Aaliyah can be very polite and outgoing to friends, she can be rather irritable and hostile when she is under a ton of stress. She's always open minded, honest and isn't afraid to speak up. Aaliyah is an optimist who tries to offer people the benefit of the doubt and gives those who deserve it a second chance. Unfortunately, she can quick to be hostile to those who abuse her kindness but tries not to use violence as a solution to problems (though, sadly, this has not happened).

While Aaliyah has no formal education, she is well spoken and has learned mostly everything she knows from books. She is a bookworm who reads whenever she has downtime to do so and will hide away from others just so she can finish reading. She's eager and quick to learn new things while expanding knowledge on stuff that she does know.

WIP

### **Talents and Skills**

Aside from being very proficient at using a bow, Aaliyah is a skilled hunter from being taught at a young age. She knows how to skin various animals for meat and is also a decent cook. There were wild rumors that she's able to shoot a bow by using her feet, but Aaliyah refuses to confirm or deny it.

### **Items of Importance**

* **Kashaari's arrowhead necklace**: A gift that was given to Aaliyah as a child. The necklace was a gift to Kashaari from Ashaad when they got married.

*According to Kashaari, Ashaad had planned on getting a dragon tooth necklace, but did not have the means to obtain a tooth. He wanted to slay a dragon in order to get one, saying that it would be worth the trouble and the feeling of accomplishment that he would feel, but Kashaari told him that it would not be worth the risk. They both instead, settled on an arrowhead since it was easier to make and obtain as Ashaad was skilled at making intricate and decorative arrowheads, which he passed onto Aaliyah as well.*

## Biography

### Parents

Ashaad and Kashaari were born and raised under the Qun from birth up until their mid 20’s. The couple was loyal to the Qun but their loyalty wavered when the two started having feelings for each other. When Kashaari found out she was with Ashaad's child, they both decided to flee Par Vollen. They wanted their unborn child to know and love their parents and have a better life than they did. The Adaar's managed to keep a low profile in the Free Marches, narrowly escaping many scrapes with the Ben-Hassrath with the help of a Dalish elf, Felvin and his human wife, Shonda.

Aaliyah was born on the outskirts of Ansburg in 9:11 Dragon. The Adaar's settled near a small farming community, where Ashaad and Kashaari lived on Felvin’s land in a home adjacent to the farm he owned. Ashaad went on to join a mercenary group when Aaliyah was around five years old to provide for his family. Kashaari took up helping Felvin on his farm as well assisted in raising Felvin’s child, Shanni, along with Aaliyah after Shonda— Shanni's mother— died during childbirth. After years of work, Ashaad was able to buy the unused land adjacent to Felvin’s and quit to help his wife raise Aaliyah. He and Kashaari promptly took up farming, leather working & making bows for the farmers in the area.

### Early Childhood & 'The Incident'

Childhood for Aaliyah was mostly quiet, the Adaar's mostly kept to themselves except on days when they had to go into town to sell of their stock of weapons, armor, jewellery, etc. Aaliyah and her family got along with a good portion of the mostly human population of the village they resided in, there were some who firmly believed that the Adaar's were planted into the town to secretly convert them to the Qun.

Because of this, Aaliyah became a target of constant bullying from some of the school children at the schoolhouse she attended with Shanni. She was told by her parents to never fight back due to fears of retaliation by some of the more hostile townspeople and the possible attention that might be raised if there was a 'savage Qunari child'.

In 9:26 Dragon, at fifteen years old, Aaliyah fought back one of the older bullies, to the dismay of her parents. They would later get word that the boy had died due to his injuries (this would later to be proven as false). For a time, friends of the Adaar's kept a eye out for any attempts of retaliation and it seemed to have keep back any attempts. But during a hunting trip one morning, Ashaad, Aaliyah, and Felvin were ambushed by the boys father and a group of men who believed the lies about the Adaars.

Ashaad was overpowered, beaten and abducted, luckily Aaliyah and Felvin managed to get away to safety. In the days after the abduction, the Villagers conducted a search of the area but were not able to find Ashaad, after a year, he was assumed dead.

WIP

### Young Adult & the Valo-Kas

At 18, Aaliyah decided to leave home to help get her mother medicine and medical care. She took up work on a family friend's farm as a farmhand for about two years. At 20 she was approached by William Tully, whom offered to join his company, as he would offer better pay than she would've gotten as a farm hand. While she would be the only Qunari in the company, she accepted, and she remained for about four years before she had to step down due to her mother's health getting worse. Aaliyah took odd jobs around and outside of Ansburg to stay as close to her mother as she possibly could. At one point worked at a back street brothel, work that Aaliyah surprisingly enjoyed even though her customers were not as enjoyable.

At 25 she was involved in a fight at a tavern when a man tugged on her horns and threatened to kill her for denying his advances. She fought back and in the scuffle, the man pulled out a knife and managed to cut her down her right eye, which she lost partial vision in but is able to still see out of. Aaliyah was thrown in jail for only a few hours until a Tal-Vashoth, by the name of Shokrakar, bailed her out. She noted that that she saw her fight the man and was impressed how she was able to handle herself and Shokrakar offered her a position in the Valo-kas but Aaliyah initially turned down the offer, saying that she had steady work and that she could not leave her mother. But after noting that there were other Qunari like her and that they work mostly around the Free Marches, Aaliyah agreed. She quickly adjusted to the other members of the Valo-kas, becoming close friends with most of the group.

### The Inquisition

In 9:41 Dragon, Aaliyah and some of the members of the Valo-kas were hired as bodyguards for a peace summit between the Mages and the Templars.

## **Relationships**

### Family

Blood Relatives:

* **Kashaari Adaar:** Aaliyah's Mother, was a jeweler under the Qun
* **Ashaad Adaar**: Aaliyah's Father, former Ben-Hassrath, member then leader of Ausan's Rogues

Non Blood Relatives

* **Felvin Lavellan:** Shanni's Father, helped raise Aaliyah when Ashaad was kidnapped in 9:26 Dragon
* **Shonda Lavellan (deceased)**: Shanni's human mother, Midwife to Kashaari, died giving birth to Shanni in 9:16 Dragon
* **Shanni Lavellan:** Best Friend & nonblood 'sister'
* **Aniese Cadash** *(aka Auntie Annie):*Friend of the Adaar's, Ausan's Rogues second-in-command

### Relationship

* **Blackwall | Thom Rainier**: Aaliyah and Blackwall became close friends after meeting in The Hinterlands. They flirted often and hard, mostly in private, and Aaliyah would always come to him whenever she needed a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen to her ranting about her day. She looked up to him and admired him greatly as a friend and a companion, but realized soon after one particular night spent together, that she felt something more.

*WIP*

### Friendships

* **The Iron Bull:** The two quickly hit it off and became close friends after meeting at the Storm Coast. Aaliyah shared Bull's passion of 'killing a lot of shit', especially dragons. The pair could be seen drinking A LOT in the tavern after a dragon slaying, almost getting kicked out one more than one occasion for making a ruckus. There were rumors that they— for a time—were in a sexual relationship and that Aaliyah had a crush on Bull, but that's all it was... just rumors, at least according to Aaliyah. She refuses to confirm or deny those facts as well.

* **Dorian:** WIP
* **Sera:** Sera and Aaliyah got along quite well and saw Sera more as a younger sister, like Shanni. They would often come in the middle on some things but others, not so much. She condoned Sera's behavior well enough, much to the disdain of her other companions. Whenever Sera AND Shanni are together, though, she really has to keep a close eye on the both of them.
* **Varric:** WIP
* **Cassandra:** WIP

### Neutral Parties

* **Vivienne:** WIP
* **Solas**: WIP

## **Miscellaneous**

* Aaliyah's petname is 'Ali'
* While Aaliyah does use she/her pronouns, she really does not call herself a 'woman'.
* Aaliyah is prone to nightmares, especially on high days of stress and anxiety.
* Aaliyah's favorite places to get away is the vault library and the stables, they both remind her of home.
* Aaliyah smokes Elfroot to ease her anxiety and help her sleep.
* Aaliyah loves to collect stuffed animals. She keeps a secret stash of them in the vault library in Skyhold.
* She has a life sized fennec she takes with her to sleep with on missions if Blackwall is not with her at the time.
* She is a heavyweight when it comes to holding her liquor, she will get tipsy, but she would have to drink something super strong in order to get her fully drunk. She has beaten Iron Bull plenty of times in drinking contests because of this.
* Aaliyah snorts whenever she laughs. If she’s nervous or is super flustered, for example from flirting, the amount and intensity of the snorting will increase. Blackwall takes advantage of this and makes sure she snorts as much as possible whenever they're together since he finds it 'cute' and it makes him laugh.
* Aaliyah has a habit of collecting and hording books. Though she never steals any books that may belong to anyone, she will usually stop what she is doing and read through it as fast as she could

## Links

### Reddit Headcanon Threads:

Thedas Social Network edition!

Secrets~

First Kiss, Meeting Family, Getting Knocked Down a Peg

Let's Get Meta

Strange Things

A dream and a visit

Reddit AMA

### Reddit Writing prompt Threads:

A quiet moment between companions [Iron Bull & Blackwall]

Catching Up [Aaliyah and Ashaad Adaar]

Memories [Aaliyah and Blackwall]

Story Time [Aaliyah and Blackwall]

Pranks [Aaliyah & Shanni]

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

Jinxies AO3

Jinxies Writes

BETA 'Belonging' *(Still working on what this will be about, updates will be sparse)*

## **Gallery**

1/8