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tellstales[Character Name] Varric Tethras
[Canon] Dragon Age
[Point Taken from Canon] When Cassandra finishes questioning him (post Act III)
[Age] 30s
[Gender] Male
[Sexual Orientation] Biancasexual. She's his crossbow.
[Eye Color] Amber
[Hair Color] Blonde
[Height] Short? He's a dwarf. Probably a bit above hip height.
[Other] Dat chest hair bitches, dat magnificent glistening chest hair
[Clothing]
[Background]
Life before Hawke
but that all changed whenthe fire nation attacked Hawke got mugged in Hightown
Note: due to Hawke being the player character where they can pick their own options etc, Varric will tell tales of them the way he does in canon to fit in if a Hawke or other party members come in - as it stands though, I've spoken to the Warden's player and so Varric will be coming from the same Thedas, where these key decisions were made:
Dragon Age: Origins
Warden's Choices
Connor is dead
Templars recruited, Circle annulled
Dalish recruited
King Bhelen was crowned King of Orzammar
Anvil of the Void recovered
Urn of Sacred Ashes undefiled
Loghain killed at the Landsmeet
Alistair was made king, Anora queen alongside him
Dragon Age 2
Hawke
Sarcastic/charming personality
Male Mage
Carver taken to the Deep Roads and made a Grey Warden
Bartrand is alive and in an asylum
Duelled the Arishok and Isabela remained with the party
Sided with the Mages in Act III
[Personality]
Suave, debonair, charming, the narrator everyone with a story wishes they knew, in possession of the finest chestful of hair known to Thedas and inseperable from the woman in his life Bianca, his gorgeous crossbow - Varric Tethras, theman dwarf, the myth, the legend. Also the man your man could smell like. Compared to most dwarves, Varric is very different to the standard and not just because he has no beard (although he says the hair just fell onto his chest instead). Yeah, he cares about money and he can be greedy but compared to his brother Bartrand who is somewhat a walking cliche of dwarves, then he stands out. He's not obsessed with the merchants guild even though he's involved in it, he's not averse to making the strangest friends and you know, he's less of a selfish dick than Bartrand. When it comes to the central conflict of Mages vs Templars? Varric doesn't give a damn - in Act III when Hawke asks opinions, Varric states that he's sick of all it. He doesn't get involved in the conflicts at all, even the interparty bickering shown mostly by Anders and Fenris.
Varric was born on the surface, the second son of a noble family who were exiled but there are no real ties to Orzammar with him - he talks a good game but it's secondhand knowledge for the most part. Varric doesn't have the dwarven fear of 'falling up into the sky' but jokes that Bartrand did - he also recalls a moment in their childhood where Varric broke a plate they had brought from Orzammar before the family exile where Bartrand lectures him, further showing how differently they see the world. Varric could be considered idle by some - what does the guy even do, oh wait, he hangs out at the Hanged Man all day. But he's busy. The best way to get ahead in business is to know everything and Varric has a network of spies, vital when you're involved in the dwarven merchant guild because wild tales get people buying you drinks and once alcohol is involved in the equation you learn things.
What Varric likes is a sense of drama. He loves when Hawke tells a joke and he likes stories so when Hawke (or anyone but it's shown through the approval changes) is diplomatic or funny or an outright liar and sometimes even a person who indulges in blackmail, he approves. There are times when Varric can be called upon to construct a lie (such as when Hawke is rescuing a young mage named Feyriel) and Varric goes about the role with great relish.
He's capable of being very flirtatious which is shown most often with Isabela which is no surprise considering Isabela's nature - they joke about his chest hair (and Bianca but Rivaini is to keep her dirty pirate mitts off Varric's lady) and there are points where he wishes there were more dwarven barmaids (clearly they're off in Ferelden being wooed by Oghren's, ahem, many charms) and he shares friend-fiction (what we would call PWP really) with Isabela (and it gets very filthy) and finds it absolutely hilarious.
Despite some of the front he displays where he tries to play it cool, it's obvious that Varric cares greatly for the other Companions who are just as much his friends as they are Hawke's: he gives Merrill a ball of twine to help her find her way around Kirkwall and to stop her from getting lost so she could get back home and he told her to keep it later in the game when she offered to return it. And if Merrill hasn't been romanced, as she works on the Eluvian he goes to visit her every week to try to coax her out into the world again and pays (with his own cash) to have food delivered because she's forgetting to eat. Additionally, he pays what he calls a fortune to stop thugs from hassling Merrill when she wanders into the wrong parts of town (almost every night) as well as stopping them from hassling Anders at his clinic in Dark Town. In the Deep Roads, if Bethany is taken with them thus getting trapped and having to fight her way out alongside Hawke, Varric and Anders (if he is taken for the Grey Warden route or another companion if the sibling is to die), when she collapses after saying she doesn't feel well, he exclaims 'oh Sunshine'. When Hawke is in a romance too, there's a companion quest where Varric will discuss the relationship with them. Varric likes to nickname people too, further showing how he cares, here's a list:
Hawke: Waffles (diplomatic/helpful), Chuckles (sarcastic/charming), Killer (aggressive/direct)
Merrill: Daisy
Isabela: Rivaini
Bethany: Sunshine
Fenris: Elf (although Broody is thrown around a lot)
Carver: Junior
Anders: Blondie
Sebastian: Choir-boy
Tallis: Shivs
In a party that is absolutely rife with bickering, Varric is the only one who gets along with absolutely everyone. That's an absolutely huge deal.
The most important relationship Varric has in the game is with Hawke. He narrates the Tale of the Champion to earn the attention of the Seekers who are looking for said Champion. He cares greatly about Hawke even if he does his best not to show it but there's a strong rapport between the two over drinks at the Hanged Man and how Varric invites them along to the Deep Roads. Varric is there at Hawke's side through thick and thin, wading through the cesspool that is Kirkwall - in fact, they're almost an old married couple thanks to bits of dialogue where there's a throwaway line about Hawke telling Varric he's pretty twice a day. Hawke and Varric define each other - Varric gives Hawke a chance to help make the Hawke name known in Kirkwall by getting the money to get the family estate back as it should be and Varric gains a friendship and stories that will last a lifetime. This is when Varric starts as a companion; he's with Hawke the whole time Hawke is getting that money, he's how Hawke even meets Anders after saying there's not a way into the Deep Roads that hasn't been used and that they need a Grey Warden as Wardens know the Deep Roads damn well. Varric has Hawke's back, as shown in certain circumstances during All That Remains, a quest where Hawke's mother Leandra is killed and made part of a twisted blood mage quest - if a certain lying Orlesian is brought along who turns out to be a shady guy involved in twisted deeds with the blood mage in question, Varric shoots him in the throat. That's what you do when you have someone's back.
As mentioned before, there is Bartrand, the older brother. Unlike certain younger brothers (oh Junior), Varric has no complex about being the second son of the family. It's the usually sibling thing unlike Bartrand goes too far in the Deep Roads expedition he is heading, locking Hawke, Varric and two other companions in a room after taking a thing called the lyrium idol. Varric has to step into Bartrand's shoes as the one who deals with the merchant guild, all the while trying to find his brother to exact revenge. But when he does? Really, it's heartbreaking minus the Tale of Tony Montana interlude. Varric is set on revenge, looking for the brother who left him and his friends to die but what he finds is a broken shell driven mad by the prize he sought - Varric has two choices: kill him and put him out of his misery or commit him to an asylum. No matter the choice, it weighs heavily on him showing that despite whatever there is between them, the rivalry and the justified anger that at least a part of him loved his brother - it's very much a mirror of the possible relationship between Hawke and his brother Carver due to Carver starting out on the rivalry path.
Related to the above, when the party venture into the Fade to help Feynriel (again), Varric can be tempted by a pride demon that offers him power to get back at Bartrand for his betrayal. It's the only time in the game that does anything that puts Hawke in an awkward spot or does something that has a detrimental effect as Hawke must not only fight the demon, he must fight Varric too.
Oh don't touch Bianca, she's his lady and she doesn't need your fingers on her trigger (Rivaini) or her cocking ring (Choir-boy). Really, he knows his lady and he knows what she likes - Bianca levels up with (unlike other companions and Hawke who can get better weapons) and he talks about her as though she were a real person so it's safe to say that he is very much attached to her.
Finally, there are times when Varric is an unreliable narrator, shown most explicitly in one of his companion quests where it suddenly gets all Tony Montana when they confront Bartrand with Varric mowing down thug after thug as he spits one liners. Then when he confronts dear big brother, Bartrand can't shut up about how awesome Varric is. Then Cassandra snaps him back to the present. The opening narration with the Hawke family too suffers from it - Bethany is bustier, Carver is in Grey Warden gear and Hawke is in their ultimate armour for whatever path they choose. The story is told through the eyes of Varric and he narrates Hawke's story in game as Hawke will note that Varric has been embellishing their journal. Again.
Varric also can't describe caves. Ever. He's the one telling the story, why else would every single cave have exactly the same layout?
[Specialties/Abilities]
Varric falls into the Rogue class in Dragon Age meaning he's sneaky, cunning and good with his hands, able to disarm traps (if Hawke doesn't blunder on into them, seriously these Fereldens who don't look before they put their foot down and then pout over bear trap gouges on their ankles) and pick locks (really, who puts a moldy scarf in a locked chest?)
Rogue class
Rogues in DA2
In the Rogue class, Varric's specialisation is as follows:
Marksman Specialisation - he has the friendship path (because how can you rival Varric, what sort of monster are you?)
Additionally, Varric's clothes and weapon are notable too:
Varric's gear
his best girl Bianca
Talent trees aka stuff he can do
Varric is a talented writer too, telling the tale of the Champion. He knows people who know people and good luck trying to phase him because as the internet would put it, he has seen some shit.
[Affection] Hugs and stuff, he's pretty cool if you manage to bromance him. Nothing more though.
[Fighting] Discuss it first?
[Other Permissions] Don't break the fourth wall please. As for mindreading, Varric is an unreliable narrator
[Other Facts] Boom pregnant
[Canon] Dragon Age
[Point Taken from Canon] When Cassandra finishes questioning him (post Act III)
[Age] 30s
[Gender] Male
[Sexual Orientation] Biancasexual. She's his crossbow.
[Eye Color] Amber
[Hair Color] Blonde
[Height] Short? He's a dwarf. Probably a bit above hip height.
[Other] Dat chest hair bitches, dat magnificent glistening chest hair
[Clothing]
[Background]
Life before Hawke
but that all changed when
Note: due to Hawke being the player character where they can pick their own options etc, Varric will tell tales of them the way he does in canon to fit in if a Hawke or other party members come in - as it stands though, I've spoken to the Warden's player and so Varric will be coming from the same Thedas, where these key decisions were made:
Dragon Age: Origins
Warden's Choices
Connor is dead
Templars recruited, Circle annulled
Dalish recruited
King Bhelen was crowned King of Orzammar
Anvil of the Void recovered
Urn of Sacred Ashes undefiled
Loghain killed at the Landsmeet
Alistair was made king, Anora queen alongside him
Dragon Age 2
Hawke
Sarcastic/charming personality
Male Mage
Carver taken to the Deep Roads and made a Grey Warden
Bartrand is alive and in an asylum
Duelled the Arishok and Isabela remained with the party
Sided with the Mages in Act III
[Personality]
Suave, debonair, charming, the narrator everyone with a story wishes they knew, in possession of the finest chestful of hair known to Thedas and inseperable from the woman in his life Bianca, his gorgeous crossbow - Varric Tethras, the
Varric was born on the surface, the second son of a noble family who were exiled but there are no real ties to Orzammar with him - he talks a good game but it's secondhand knowledge for the most part. Varric doesn't have the dwarven fear of 'falling up into the sky' but jokes that Bartrand did - he also recalls a moment in their childhood where Varric broke a plate they had brought from Orzammar before the family exile where Bartrand lectures him, further showing how differently they see the world. Varric could be considered idle by some - what does the guy even do, oh wait, he hangs out at the Hanged Man all day. But he's busy. The best way to get ahead in business is to know everything and Varric has a network of spies, vital when you're involved in the dwarven merchant guild because wild tales get people buying you drinks and once alcohol is involved in the equation you learn things.
What Varric likes is a sense of drama. He loves when Hawke tells a joke and he likes stories so when Hawke (or anyone but it's shown through the approval changes) is diplomatic or funny or an outright liar and sometimes even a person who indulges in blackmail, he approves. There are times when Varric can be called upon to construct a lie (such as when Hawke is rescuing a young mage named Feyriel) and Varric goes about the role with great relish.
He's capable of being very flirtatious which is shown most often with Isabela which is no surprise considering Isabela's nature - they joke about his chest hair (and Bianca but Rivaini is to keep her dirty pirate mitts off Varric's lady) and there are points where he wishes there were more dwarven barmaids (clearly they're off in Ferelden being wooed by Oghren's, ahem, many charms) and he shares friend-fiction (what we would call PWP really) with Isabela (and it gets very filthy) and finds it absolutely hilarious.
Despite some of the front he displays where he tries to play it cool, it's obvious that Varric cares greatly for the other Companions who are just as much his friends as they are Hawke's: he gives Merrill a ball of twine to help her find her way around Kirkwall and to stop her from getting lost so she could get back home and he told her to keep it later in the game when she offered to return it. And if Merrill hasn't been romanced, as she works on the Eluvian he goes to visit her every week to try to coax her out into the world again and pays (with his own cash) to have food delivered because she's forgetting to eat. Additionally, he pays what he calls a fortune to stop thugs from hassling Merrill when she wanders into the wrong parts of town (almost every night) as well as stopping them from hassling Anders at his clinic in Dark Town. In the Deep Roads, if Bethany is taken with them thus getting trapped and having to fight her way out alongside Hawke, Varric and Anders (if he is taken for the Grey Warden route or another companion if the sibling is to die), when she collapses after saying she doesn't feel well, he exclaims 'oh Sunshine'. When Hawke is in a romance too, there's a companion quest where Varric will discuss the relationship with them. Varric likes to nickname people too, further showing how he cares, here's a list:
Hawke: Waffles (diplomatic/helpful), Chuckles (sarcastic/charming), Killer (aggressive/direct)
Merrill: Daisy
Isabela: Rivaini
Bethany: Sunshine
Fenris: Elf (although Broody is thrown around a lot)
Carver: Junior
Anders: Blondie
Sebastian: Choir-boy
Tallis: Shivs
In a party that is absolutely rife with bickering, Varric is the only one who gets along with absolutely everyone. That's an absolutely huge deal.
The most important relationship Varric has in the game is with Hawke. He narrates the Tale of the Champion to earn the attention of the Seekers who are looking for said Champion. He cares greatly about Hawke even if he does his best not to show it but there's a strong rapport between the two over drinks at the Hanged Man and how Varric invites them along to the Deep Roads. Varric is there at Hawke's side through thick and thin, wading through the cesspool that is Kirkwall - in fact, they're almost an old married couple thanks to bits of dialogue where there's a throwaway line about Hawke telling Varric he's pretty twice a day. Hawke and Varric define each other - Varric gives Hawke a chance to help make the Hawke name known in Kirkwall by getting the money to get the family estate back as it should be and Varric gains a friendship and stories that will last a lifetime. This is when Varric starts as a companion; he's with Hawke the whole time Hawke is getting that money, he's how Hawke even meets Anders after saying there's not a way into the Deep Roads that hasn't been used and that they need a Grey Warden as Wardens know the Deep Roads damn well. Varric has Hawke's back, as shown in certain circumstances during All That Remains, a quest where Hawke's mother Leandra is killed and made part of a twisted blood mage quest - if a certain lying Orlesian is brought along who turns out to be a shady guy involved in twisted deeds with the blood mage in question, Varric shoots him in the throat. That's what you do when you have someone's back.
As mentioned before, there is Bartrand, the older brother. Unlike certain younger brothers (oh Junior), Varric has no complex about being the second son of the family. It's the usually sibling thing unlike Bartrand goes too far in the Deep Roads expedition he is heading, locking Hawke, Varric and two other companions in a room after taking a thing called the lyrium idol. Varric has to step into Bartrand's shoes as the one who deals with the merchant guild, all the while trying to find his brother to exact revenge. But when he does? Really, it's heartbreaking minus the Tale of Tony Montana interlude. Varric is set on revenge, looking for the brother who left him and his friends to die but what he finds is a broken shell driven mad by the prize he sought - Varric has two choices: kill him and put him out of his misery or commit him to an asylum. No matter the choice, it weighs heavily on him showing that despite whatever there is between them, the rivalry and the justified anger that at least a part of him loved his brother - it's very much a mirror of the possible relationship between Hawke and his brother Carver due to Carver starting out on the rivalry path.
Related to the above, when the party venture into the Fade to help Feynriel (again), Varric can be tempted by a pride demon that offers him power to get back at Bartrand for his betrayal. It's the only time in the game that does anything that puts Hawke in an awkward spot or does something that has a detrimental effect as Hawke must not only fight the demon, he must fight Varric too.
Oh don't touch Bianca, she's his lady and she doesn't need your fingers on her trigger (Rivaini) or her cocking ring (Choir-boy). Really, he knows his lady and he knows what she likes - Bianca levels up with (unlike other companions and Hawke who can get better weapons) and he talks about her as though she were a real person so it's safe to say that he is very much attached to her.
Finally, there are times when Varric is an unreliable narrator, shown most explicitly in one of his companion quests where it suddenly gets all Tony Montana when they confront Bartrand with Varric mowing down thug after thug as he spits one liners. Then when he confronts dear big brother, Bartrand can't shut up about how awesome Varric is. Then Cassandra snaps him back to the present. The opening narration with the Hawke family too suffers from it - Bethany is bustier, Carver is in Grey Warden gear and Hawke is in their ultimate armour for whatever path they choose. The story is told through the eyes of Varric and he narrates Hawke's story in game as Hawke will note that Varric has been embellishing their journal. Again.
Varric also can't describe caves. Ever. He's the one telling the story, why else would every single cave have exactly the same layout?
[Specialties/Abilities]
Varric falls into the Rogue class in Dragon Age meaning he's sneaky, cunning and good with his hands, able to disarm traps (if Hawke doesn't blunder on into them, seriously these Fereldens who don't look before they put their foot down and then pout over bear trap gouges on their ankles) and pick locks (really, who puts a moldy scarf in a locked chest?)
Rogue class
Rogues in DA2
In the Rogue class, Varric's specialisation is as follows:
Marksman Specialisation - he has the friendship path (because how can you rival Varric, what sort of monster are you?)
Additionally, Varric's clothes and weapon are notable too:
Varric's gear
his best girl Bianca
Talent trees aka stuff he can do
Varric is a talented writer too, telling the tale of the Champion. He knows people who know people and good luck trying to phase him because as the internet would put it, he has seen some shit.
[Affection] Hugs and stuff, he's pretty cool if you manage to bromance him. Nothing more though.
[Fighting] Discuss it first?
[Other Permissions] Don't break the fourth wall please. As for mindreading, Varric is an unreliable narrator
[Other Facts] Boom pregnant
