Art by eldrtchmn.

Ghila Mahariel Trickster font by Jean-Baptiste Morizot.
Distributed by velvetyne.fr.

Rebel Warden-Commander, devotee of Elgar'nan, Corruptor of the Urn of Sacred Ashes, and all-round controversial figure in Fereldan's political landscape. On a personal level: queer disaster with an uncomfortable awareness of her own mortality, poor impulse control, and more love in her body than she knows what to do with.

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Pronouns She/her in DA:O and Awakening, any pronouns in DA:I and onwards.
Class Rogue, twin daggers. She'll use a bow when necessary but she's more effective in melee.
Specialisations
  • Assassin (taught by Zevran).
  • Ranger (uses her control of the Taint to command Blighted animals).
  • Shadow (gradually transforming into a Shriek).
Romance Morrigan. She's also in a queerplatonic relationship with Alistair.
Date of Birth 2 Guardian, 9:07 Dragon (making her 23 at the start of Origins).
Tarot Card Death.

Key Themes

Key Choices

It should be noted that Ghila is not the only protagonist of her story. Several of the below are group actions, not authored by Ghila specifically.

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  • A Village Under Siege: Saves Connor and Isolde. Afterwards wishes they'd acted sooner rather than going to the Circle.
  • Broken Circle: Vouches for the mages.
  • Soldier's Peak: Sides with Avernus, encourages him to continue his research ethically.
    Later conscripts Jowan & Lilit Surana and sends them to help out with this.
  • The Urn of Sacred Ashes: Corrupts the Ashes. Leliana and Wynne leave the party as a result.
  • A Paragon of Her Kind: Destroys the Anvil of the Void. Crowns Bhelen.
  • Nature of the Beast: Breaks the curse.
  • The Landsmeet: Crowns Anora. Loghain is spared and exiled.
  • Morrigan's Ritual: Alistair and Morrigan perform the Dark Ritual behind Ghila's back.
  • Awakening: Saves both Amaranthine and Vigil's Keep. Spares the Architect.
  • Witch Hunt: Goes through the Eluvian with Morrigan.

Appearance

'She’s skinny. Sharp. When he first sees her - arms curled over knees, staring blankly down across the Wilds - she reminds Alistair of a letter in some unintelligible writing. Something scrawled down in a hurry.'
'Light brown skin, snub nose. Elaborate markings on her skin – barely visible beneath Blight-scarring. It blossoms over her cheeks in dark welts, collects beneath her eyes. Angry purple skin beneath them, her body struggling, struggling, struggling to quarantine the taint. It’s seeping. Blood darkening in the veins. Eyes bloodshot, whites slowly turning grey.

What he had mistaken for skinniness is now clearly sickness: cheeks gaunt and shadowed, the fat carved clean away. Skull almost visible beneath fading skin.'

-- The Path of Aching Blood, ch2.

Relationships (DA:O)

Alistair

Queerplatonic partners. There was some romantic tension between them early on, before they realised that their desire for closeness was completely satisfied by close friendship. Things are occasionally tense between them - there’s push and pull - but ultimately they’d die for each other.

Morrigan

Lovers. It’s a tumultuous relationship but one founded in very real, deep love and affection. Ghila breaks up with Morrigan relatively early on after growing frustrated with her emotional unavailability - but they get back together after Ghila kills Flemeth. Two women living their lives at threat of obliteration (in very different ways) who find each other and say ‘No. No. This world won’t take her from me.’

Leliana

OH BOY. Initial distrust of a Chantry sister gives way to a blossoming friendship. Then the Urn of Sacred Ashes shit goes down; Leliana nearly murders her, leaves the party, and writes a very popular call-out post song painting Ghila as the Corruptor. Ghila doesn’t really give a shit about the personal slander, but does give a shit about the many Dalish elves who are killed in retaliation as an indirect result of this. (In another universe, they would have a killer friends to enemies to lovers arc. But I digress.)

Wynne

Also leaves after the Urn of Sacred Ashes - they never got the chance to know each other properly, but it still stung.

Sten

Forged an early friendship as a result of both being cultural outsiders. Mutually prickly pals. They just get each other on a fundamental level.

Zevran

Besties. ‘Only elves in the camp’ solidarity. Love to gossip.

Shale

Mutual respect and solid friendship. They both appreciate what it is to barely recognise your former self.

Oghren

They never become particularly close - Oghren's grief for Branka is a bit too close to home for Ghila to be fully comfortable engaging with it.

Anora

The intense distrust that Ghila reserves for any human noble (but, she will acknowledge, Anora’s very good at what she does).

Loghain

She will never forgive him for selling elves into slavery, but he can live. As long as she doesn’t have to see him again. That’s fine.

Tamlen

Her childhood best friend. Haunts her dreams throughout her life (because - spoilers - Urthemiel has plucked his spirit from the Fade and is using him to contact her). The physical manifestation of her survivor’s guilt. She loves him fiercely, and cannot let him go.

Merrill

An awkward but whole-hearted friendship. They came very close to dating as teenagers - it’s unclear how well that would have gone! It probably falls into the same genre of ‘strong platonic friendship that hovered nebulously around romance for a short time’ that her relationship with Alistair does. For Ghila, before they meet again, Merrill is very emblematic of how her life might have gone if not for the Eluvian. Merrill, meanwhile. Well. *Gestures at DA2.*

Sturdy (mabari)

Ghila takes a while to adapt to dog ownership, but finds a lot of comfort in Sturdy’s companionship. It’s certainly one of her easiest relationships.

Art by Chimeowrical.

The Blight

Having to undergo a long journey while tainted does a number on her. Ghila goes through her Joining while unconscious because the Blight comes extremely close to killing her at Ostagar.

As a result, her connection to the Blight is incredibly strong. She feels the lure of the Horde day and night.

Her Archdemon dreams are unusually vivid - to the point where she is able to make direct contact with Urthemiel in the Fade.

The Joining slowed but did not stop the taint from spreading - only Avernus’ research was able to stabilise it and keep her alive long-term.

Avernus’ potions also deepened her connection to the Blight, allowing her to exert limited control over it. With time and practice, Ghila is able to manipulate the Call a little bit.

She can’t change the song, but she can essentially tweak the volume on certain parts.

This lets her control Blight-infected animals and send telepathic messages to nearby Wardens in the form of very strong, abstract emotional impressions.

Ghila never experiences the Calling, but instead slowly transforms into something akin to the Architect. By Inquisition, she has more biology in common with Darkspawn than elves.

Art by LuckyWizard.

The Corruptor / Gwil-nanlen

Thanks to Leliana, it is incredibly well-known that Ghila corrupted the Urn of Sacred Ashes. Thanks to Ghila's facial scars, xie is incredibly recogniseable.

This is Ghila's main legacy - this is the first thing that your average Joe thinks of when they think of xir.

Humans (and especially the Chantry) refer to xir as the Corruptor, while among the Dalish xie's known an Gwil-nanlen (one who takes vengeance).

Crucially, Ghila is an incredibly controversial figure! Even among the Dalish, there are many who disagree with xir actions. The vast majority of the Chantry actively despise xir. There is definitely a non-zero amount of art and stories out there that portray Ghila as a quasi-demonic villain.

The Red Wardens / Bria'lin

While Warden-Commander, Ghila makes some pretty controversial decisions.

These include: no longer enforcing the Joining, pouring a lot of money and resources into researching the source of the Blight (yes, this includes doing blood magic), and unapologetically meddling in politics.

Regarding the last of these: not only that, she's lending her support to extremely marginalised groups who don't have a lot of power. And making the Wardens some very powerful enemies in the process.

The Grey Wardens as a whole really do not like this and dedicate a lot of time and resources to various attempts to get her to fucking stop.

After a while of this (and some other key factors)... Ghila basically says 'fuck this, fuck you, I'm out' and splinters from the Grey Wardens.

With the Wardens still loyal to her, she forms the Bria'lin. More frequently, though, people call them the Red Wardens or the Blood Wardens. Depending on how much they dislike them.

The Bria'lin continue to operate even after Ghila has burned out on politics and left through the Eluvian with Morrigan - led predominantly by the Awakening gang.

Fic Appearances

The Path of Aching Blood
[M | 17,341 words | incomplete]

Mahariel's long exposure to the Taint leaves her forever changed, the Darkspawn whispering in her mind night and day. Alistair attempts to reconcile the more troublesome parts of his identity with his desire to fade into the background. Morrigan finds herself in the mortifying predicament of caring about them both.

An account of the Fifth Blight, featuring three queer disasters with intimacy issues and an uncomfortable awareness of their own mortality. Will likely be high on body horror.

Read on AO3 here.


Dendrochronology
[T | 864 words | complete]

A tree grows around itself; it holds inside it everything that it has ever been.

Lanaya, and the tree rings of her life.

Written as part of the DAFF Moodboard Exchange, inspired by images chosen by pickledfig.

Read on AO3 here.


For Love of The People
[G | 1,339 words | complete]

The Fifth Blight leaves the Dalish in an interesting position. When tensions brew at the following Arlathvhen, Mahariel is faced with the fallout - and the inescapable fact that, for her, there is no going home.

Written for Dalish Appreciation Week, following the prompt 'Arlathvhen'.

Read on AO3 here.


Death is an Open Door by youworeblue
[T | 8,125 words | complete]

Old Wardens told tales of long-gone companions and how they knew it was time to go. When hair thinned and nails grew sharp; when bone spurs sprouted or muscles began to hunch; when the eyes grew milky and the veins grew dark, and the light of the sun burned like the Maker’s wrath… that was when a Warden was a Warden no longer.

Mahariel had never known old Wardens.

Mahariel traveled at night.

Read on AO3 here.