The Minstrel-Harlequin Romance
The 2 Game Two-Timer (but only with you)
Romance character. Male, open for males, intended bisexual.
Minstrel has two romances- the 'first impression' of DDA, his first appearance, and the second arcin... let's call it DA4. There's the player impression, what they see and think the first time, and then there's the meta knowledge- who he actually is, what his actual reasons are. It's key to understand that the player perspective doesn't necessarily get to see the meta.
For purposes of first impressions, I'll summarize the player perspective, then the meta angle.
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DDA Romance: The Rivaini Incident
Minstrel is introduced early in the game as a minor NPC caught up in bad times. Quite possible taken prisoner by the same slavers who captured Seer, whom the player has to rescue with LKISA and Tevinter Templar, Minstrel is a innocent wanderer who just got caught up in the wrong time and place. He's freed by association, he hears the story, and he wants to tag along- because he's umployed, traveling with a Caravan sounds like a good gig, and surely this would make a great story?
With no good reason to refuse, so the Minstrel accompanies. He sings at camp, flirts shamelessly, and is soon slotted as a harmless cad. Doubtless he's said sweet words to many- just as he's saying them now- but he's good with a lute and provides some entertainment at night and finds a place as he proclaims he's just a random minstrel.
He isn't, of course- and we can feel very impressed and our faith in Tevinter Templar's network validated when he uncovers that the Minstrel is an Orlesian Bard. Everyone knows Orlesian Bards are spies, but this one is just so bad at it- he's just so obvious, the only Orlesian bard in fathoms- that it's hard to take him as a threat. Especially at his earnest defense- yes, he learned a song or two from a bard, but that hardly makes him an apprentice to a spy master, right? Surely there are bards out there who just enjoy the life of a wandering singer of songs?
And that's what he is for the game. He stays with camp, he helps in small ways, he offers a shoulder and a song to any who need it. He listens to people talk- he sets the mood when important scenes are happening- he listens some more...
But nothing bad ever comes of it. He doesn't sell out the Fugitive to authorities. He keeps confidence. And, what do you know it, but he proves faithful and true when he is alone and pressed by authorities. Authorities who demand his cooperation, demand to know of the fugitive and threatening steel and offering gold if he cooperates. Authorities who he, in his typical way, lies his way out of even before he knows of your presence. This is the Minstrel you can get to know, and the one you can flirt back with. He's witty, he's charming, and flattery flows easily from his lips as music from his lyre.
But he doesn't just listen- he supports you. When the Fugitive is hunted, he sings a song of daring wanted men who happen to be innocent. When the Fugitive has to make Big Decisions, he listens and lets you justify yourself, why you did what you did. He offers you confidence- and when his secret is revealed, if you believe his words that he has no ulterior motives for you (except the ones you want)... if you believe him, if you take that flirt option, he confides in you.
Confides of a life with no family and few friends. Confides about the lonely road of a minstrel, never staying in one place long. A man who, in his own small way, wanted to help people and make strangers smile in the only way he knew how. Of a life torn between love of music and loving the duty to spread it, but neither being half as beautiful as You.
The romance is set, the minstrel is your paramore. He sees you off on each quest with well wishes, and waits anxious for your next return and the chance to make sweet music together. And when the finale approaches, he's there for you the night before- wishing you well, wanting you safe and hoping nothing ever changes between the two of you, and daring to give you a trinket. Half a token of affection, which is half more of a commitment he's never made for anyone else. He'll keep the other half, and will always hold you close.
He's there for you, right where he should be the night before. And then he's there, where he has no business being, the day of. He's in the castle, amongs the coup, he could get hurt. He's reckless, daring to be dashing but filling with worry, urging you forward. You go. You confront the magister's forces. You hear that his plan is already in motion- that the Qunari will mercilessly kill all between them and the Monarch, your lover to. You rush, to save the King, to save your man...
And find a room full of dead Qunari before his feet, where he stands between them and the Monarch, catching a thrown weapon and returning it in a lethal acrobatic feat. A feat of lethality no peaceful Minstrel should ever be capable of.
But he's not the Minstrel. He's the Harlequin. He talks different, acts different. Is recognized by the Monarch as an agent of the Divine. He tells you that there's no time- the Magister has to be stopped, before it's too late. He'll explain everything later. He loves you.
And then he vanishes, before you return. No one saw him leave, but he left you even so. The Monarch doesn't know- only that the Divine sent a hidden hand on the scale. Tevinter Templar apologizes- he had suspicions, but no proof, hadn't wanted to assume and assume wrong if the Fugitive was happy...
The Fugitive's hand wraps around the token still around their neck. Half a token. Half of a pair.
Maybe they tear it off. Maybe they don't. Player's choice.
There's an epilogue slide, of course. Two, really. One of a minstrel making his way east, to Tevinter- singing merry songs, seemingly without a care in the world. And another of the same- but singing the same song as the night of culmination, of a man torn between love and duty, and neither as beautiful as you.
End Part 1
/
Begin Part 2
Dragon Age 4: The Tevinter One
Not even approaching a plot synopsis here. It takes place in Tevinter, the Inquisition is searching for Solas, but the PC is their own factor with their own reasons. Their goals happen to align with the Chantry, and friends of friends who are friends with the Inquisition have a potential ally.
He's the Harlequin this time. No lies, no deceit- little point of it this time, his cover's been blown by the Agents of Solas who are everywhere. Word's already spread from Rivaini. He wears an Orlesian mask, but you know who he is. The mask is just to conspicuously draw attention, so that when he leaves no one will remember the man beneath.
This is the real him, or the other him- the man who loves duty even more than music, and who helps people in the only way he knows how: by killing the worst and putting on a show for the rest. He acts a different man and if you don't get too close you may believe that. Even as a friend, a companion, he's not a caddish minstrel- he's a killer, a spy, he knows the Game and he plays it very well no matter what his circumstance. He'll prove it, to, if you want.
That's the lead to the romance- the decision to be entertained by an Orlesian Bard when you know it's an Orlesian Bard, one who's job is to entertain and seduce even the most wary of hosts. That's part of the charm, the excitement. All it requires is a bit of trust.
Maybe you have it. Maybe you don't. If you don't- if you adamantly refuse- obviously a relationship wouldn't work in the first place. Nothing ventured nothing gained. But if you do- or perhaps, if you just need some little bit of truth, something sincere to believe in...
Would you believe he regrets leaving behind everyone in the end? That he regrets leaving behind you? Not you, the PC, but you, the Fugitive.
He'll explain it, if asked. His cover was compromised. The Agents of Solas were all around, and haste was necessary- he didn't have time to tell you that he couldn't tell you what he wouldn't tell you. Any lingering connection could have raised the Fugitive from an Annoyance to an Obstacle, something that could have brought Agents of Solas to target the Fugitive. He didn't want that, didn't want You caught up in the Game with stakes such as these. Fleeing protected You. He would have left anyway, true- duty called, and he's faithful to the Divine and her cause- but he didn't want to. He never wants to, but he does anyway because there are things more important than one person's desires, and You are strong and can find love with someone else if You want to.
It may be hard. It may be weary. But it's true- as is his openness to the PC's interest. He regrets leaving, he misses them still, but he'll no more live a life of regretful misery any more than he'd want the Fugitive to. There's no lie, no misdirection this time- he's hear for duty, and he'll likely leave for duty. He'd change that if he could- go back if he could- but he can't. But if you can accept that- if You want to get to know him better anyway- to spend some brief time of happiness together with him- You can.
That's the relationship the PC can enter this time around. A temporary dalliance, expected to end from the start, but no less sincere for it. It's for relief, for mutual comfort and support, for kind gestures and encouraging slight smiles as the two of you do what you both do best. Fight, and change things, and hopefully make the world a better place. It's a redemption of sort, for at least one man who feels guilty.
The honesty is refreshing. It's different. He's no longer putting on a facade he wished was true, wanted to be true. He's honest, and you accept that, and he thanks you for it. You remind him of You, for a reason he can't explain as he reminisces about traveling with the Fugitive. Sharing honest tidbits of past companions and friends, and of course what he remembers of You. But you're not You anymore- you're the PC. And he likes you too. He kisses you, and if You want it a different sort of music is made. It's not just sex and seduction anymore- it's personal, private, intimate.
It might be love. If you take off his mask, to see him once more, it might well be, even if half a pendent dangles from his chest.
It'd be easy to forget this is a temporary arrangement. It'd be easy to pretend it could last forever- until you can't, until you can again. Because eventually Duty no longer applies- the Harlequin is released from service, cut off from the Divine, has no other master to serve. Perhaps it is a cold calculation for plausible deniability. Mayhaps it's a reward for services rendered, an offer for a new life. And perhaps it's a mercy- an apology for years taken and hearts broken, and opportunity for a man to live for himself. What does it matter? He has no Duty keeping him here. But he also has no Duty taking him away.
This is the crux of the Harlequin's finale- a man no longer bound by duty and obligation, free to go where he wants. Where he said he always wanted to go back to.
Do you remember how he said he regrets leaving, and would go back to You if he could?
And that's the crux of it, an order of precedence. Complete honest and yet a surprise once again, as meaningful words from earlier can come back to haunt You.
If the Harlequin is never romanced, he disappears. Perhaps he had a long lost love somewhere he was returning to. Occasionally a Minstrel is seen traveling the countryside, unafraid of bandits prowling the area, singing of his love of music and making hard-pressed people smile.
But if the Harlequin was romanced by the Fugitive, he also disappears. He leaves his mask behind- a momento for you to remember him by, but a single thing. Not a half. He goes, and searches for the one he loved first and regretted leaving. He might regret you, but You always knew this was coming, that this was a temporary thing, didn't you? Tales differ on what happened next, but You can decide for yourself. Maybe he was forgiven. Maybe he wasn't. Maybe he came crawling back afterwards and the PC faced the same choice. Ironic how that seems to happen, isn't it?
And if only the PC romanced the Fugitive, he stays. Why wouldn't he? What you had is real. And he's always been faithful to You.
/
The Meta
What actually happened in all that?
The Minstrel is actually the Harlequin- the elite bards of Orlais. Famed for their prowess in not just subertfuge but in fighting, they serve the nobility, always hiding behind masks of one sort of another. Bards are renowned for tricking the very lords who invite them in expecting to be tricked. Harlequins manage to hide in plain sight, despite the most Orlesian of finery.
Harlequin happens to work for the Chantry. The highest levels of the Chantry. The bard he learned a song or two from, the spy master he joked he needn't be serving under as an Orlesian bard? Leliana. The Harlequin, while not a Hand of the Divine proper, may well be the hidden hand. He's certainly serving on her behalf as he was sent to investigate the instability in Rivaini.
Not everything was part of some plan- he let himself be captured by the slavers when he realized they had a mage coming, the encounter with the Fugitive was by chance- but it served his goals and he went along with it. The Inquisition's tacit support deserved to be watched closely.
Caring for you wasn't in the plan. Asking you about your Big Decisions was supposed to help him understand the reasons why, not fall for the person making them. He didn't mean to fall in love- but he did, even as he knew it couldn't last forever. So he told you sweet things, and gave you something so that he would remember you, and he hoped he could manage it somehow. If you never knew- if you never learned- perhaps he could make a plan. He could disappear as a minstrel- and return as the same, when his missions permitted. He wanted it to work somehow.
But it didn't, because he had to save the Monarch. He revealed himself, saving Rivaini but ruining his chance at a secret relationship. He fled, hoping to evade the Dread Wolf's Fangs, even as his next mission would lead him to opposing Solas to help save the world. A necessary mission. But he did regret leaving.
Harlequin arrives in Tevinter, and is promptly exposed. The Agents of Solas are too good, and finding new cover would take too long. So he joins the PC's effort openly- a Harlequin as an ally- and lends his blades and skills. He's open to a new relationship because that's how he's lived, as a Bard- always moving, always meeting new people as you leave the old ones behind. You take comfort where you find it when you arrive. Pining forever only offers misery.
The relationship with the PC is built on open honesty and low expectations. It's time-limited from the start. Something to ease the heartache if he left, or a respite and solace if he never had anyone at all. Feelings start to grow, but with no illusions of their permanancy.
Until he's fired, and loses his job, and his biggest excuse of leaving in the first place.
If he loved the Fugitive, he still loves the Fugitive, never denied it and now has nothing else keeping him from returning. Solas is stopped, and Duty doesn't take him away. He wants to come to terms with leaving- even if it means leaving the PC. Who was always a rebound, and warned to expect not much. There's tenderness, and affection, but not what he had with the Fugitive.
And if he didn't... he has no reason to leave. No unsettled business. So he stays, and even if what you have is new and raw, he'll let it grow into something more if you want.
And if he's single, he lives the life he wished he had as a Minstrel... and lives as a minstrel.
That's how I'd try to frame such a romance over two games.
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