(If somebody could tell me how to do the profile picture thing into the post body, I'd appreciate it. Otherwise, just look at my avatar)
(While I have taken every effort to ensure lore-ical accuracy, I cannot verify that the following summary/narration is 100% canonical. In those areas where my ignorance has let me miss a few lore-based details, I have only this to say: If the devs would come out and tell us more lore-things, then I wouldn't even need this disclaimer!
)
Aileth Surana:
Aileth had been a curious elf, even in his childhood (despite how short it was, he often remembers his close relatives and time spent as a part of the alienage fondly). He got along with others easily, and was often the ringleader amongst his juvenile (and some might feel inclined to add the descriptor "delinquent") peers. When he was finally considered old enough to wander out of the alienage, with the company of an older elf of course, he was ecstatic, as most children so easily are. His life, however, was not destined to be that of hard, menial labor like that of his fellows. On one of his first visits outside of the alienage proper, him and his accompanying group passed by a group of mages who had come to town with a group of Formari to sell their wares to the local teyrn. To his shock, and the alienage's great dismay, Aileth was proclaimed to have noticable potential as a mage.
He never had the chance to return to the alienage.
Wisked out of the city by one of the mages who had been with the Formari that very day, Aileth found himself plunged into a world lacking any sort of familiarity, without even the simple comfort that final farewells could have provided. While the teachings of the Chantry weren't completely alien to him (his natural curiousity had made him one of the more eager listeners that the Chantry priestesses had managed to willingly gather when they dared venture into the alienage with an armed escort, but, as his concerned family members assured the community, he was just a child, and more curious than devout), the culture present in the Tower that he was dragged to was still strange enough to leave him feeling lost and helpless. After a long journey followed by a subjectively longer boat ride out into the magnificent lake with the tower at its center, he did not even find the comfort of a familiar race awaiting him.
While growing up in the alienage, humans hadn't really been much of a focus for Aileth. They, like adults, had just been large figures that would yell at you if you were somewhere you shouldn't be, eating something you shouldn't eat, or throwing something that you shouldn't throw. Now, though, with frighteningly few exceptions, he was an elf surrounded by humans, in a society patrolled, controlled, and cared for by the "human" (as he'd heard a few of the older elf children deridingly lable it) Chantry. While it took some getting used to, Aileth soon managed to feel at home with the Circle, and even managed to forge close friendships with other apprentices, who for the most part managed to overlook his non-human-ness in all the ways that counted.
His years as an apprentice were wonderful for a child with as insatiable a curiousity as Aileth was. He did well in his lessons, and showed more than a passing interest in the teachings of the Chantry (to the joy of several of the priests and even a few templars), but when he knew that nobody was looking, he managed to foster an equal, if not greater, interest in his elven heritage. For while others were able to see him (more or less) as human, at some deep level Aileth never forgot his heritage, and spent a lot of his free time learning as much about his brethren as he could. While still a young apprentice, he began to grow a secret, idealistic reverence and interest in the Dalish. It wasn't until he was halfway through his teenage years that he began to grow disenchanted with the notion of riding around on ships that sailed on land, but deep, deep down he always perked up whenever the chance came to hear whatever stories he could of the Dalish wanderers.
His teenage years also brought other interests to the front of his mind. Foremost among those was, of course, females. While there are rumors outside of the Circle of how informal social life is amongst the mages, the truth was, to Aileth, a dream come true. Through his teenage years, he had two (and a half, he would frequently joke with his closest friends) "lovers"... he was never able to be like some of his peers, and make it a casual thing, but those few girls that he did get close enough to to feel comfortable with were frequently absent from lectures and meetings and, often enough to make a few good jokes, meals. In the end, though, his relationships went the way of many young loves do, progressing from a fumbling passion to an awkward friendship to an even more awkward pointed ignorance of each other.
He was, apart from stories and legends, classes, friends, and girls, also developing an interest in intra-Circle politics by the time he was more than halfway through his teenage years. To the chagrin of the priests who'd hoped that he would become a truly devout Andrastean, he showed little interest in the Loyalists, leaning more towards the Aequitarians or Libertarians. As he matured, he began to grow out of his childish fear of the templars (at least, he managed to talk a brave talk when none of them were around), but still maintained an interest in the faith of the Chantry. He still disliked the idea of a Circle completely bound to the Chantry, but felt that the Chantry's belief that mages should serve rather than rule to be not only functionally sound, but safer for the world at large. Despite these, in his mind, deep-seeded opinions, he was still changing, learning, and growing. Like many other adolescents, he flirted with the idea of rebellion, but never really managed to bring himself to become outspoken on any of his thoughts. While he would be the last to admit it, the right circumstances could still push him towards either the Loyalists or hard-core Libertarians, and despite a verbal willingness to shun interest in the darker sides of magic, they, like the Dalish, held a sort of secret untouchable fascination for him.
Adolescence, like childhood, soon passed him by, and the time grew nigh when many of his teachers started to speak to him about preparing for the Harrowing. Like it did for most of the other students in the tower, the Harrowing held a great sense of mystery about it to Aileth. Some of the students spent a lot of time speculating about what it really was, and some of the story's thought up by Aileth became popular "bogey-man" tales amongst certain groups of younger students, but eventually fantasy would turn into reality, and Aileth began to grow nervous. His rite of passage was, if the attitudes expressed by his teachers were any indication, growing closer by the day.
For those who don't want to read the wall of text:
Aileth is, in his own mind, a "good guy". He's personable, gets along with others easily, and is fascinated by stories and myths, regardless of subject or nature. He holds a secret fascination for both his elven heritage and some of the more unsavory aspects of magic (which will be shown by him taking many Entropy spells), but at the end of the day he likes to think that he's just another mage. Nothing extraordinary about him.
Retour en haut
![=]](https://lvlt.forum.bioware.com/public/style_emoticons/default/sideways.png)
.
