Sandtigress wrote...
I think it's more of Eamon not really knowing what to do with Alistair. He's got the king's bastard as a ward, but no one's supposed to know he's the king's bastard. So give the kid some attention and maybe an early education....but make him sleep in the stables cause he's supposed to be no one important. Keep him close when going to Denerim....but make him sleep in the kennels because it would have been inappropriate for him to be in the keep proper, etc. etc.
It seems like they went to Denerim often - Alistair says Eamon spent the winters there, implying that it was a fairly regular thing.
I don't really think Isolde was involved in much more than Alistair being made to feel (even more) not at home and his eventually sending to the Chantry. I think most of it was just Eamon's awkwardness, which probably made Isolde even more suspicious, else why would he treat a servant boy with any sort of attention?
I've said several times that Eamon seems to be a character with the best intentions who repeatedly fails miserably at accomplishing anything actually good.
Hah, I like that description of Eamon. He was placed in a bit of a sticky situation, when you think about it. Not only was he harbouring the king's secret bastard child, but there were rumours saying it was his child, and treating him too well could be raising suspicions on his heritage
and validating those rumours - rumours his own wife may already feel uneasy about. He
is supposed to be treating Alistair like the orphaned son of a woman who worked for him, after all.
I think I'll touch on how complex things are on Eamon and Isolde's side in the fic. It helps that the time he was sent away to the Chantry could coincide with Isolde's own pregnancy (which could give her new motivations for wanting Alistair out the way) since we don't know Connor's actual age. In fact, the ambiguity of a lot of the ages in the game can help in the world of fic. (Or hinder terribly).