Varric tells the story

About this image

Warm thanks to Thriff who borrowed Varric's voice to tell the story behind the Dragon Knight Armour pack.
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Seven years after his arrival in Kirkwall, Hawke met Varric at The Hanged Man. Varric, deeply moved, told Hawke:

You know it's six years today? Six years since I found you dragging your tail out of Bartrand's office. Here's to whatever comes next. Now please hear me out.

I remember when we met. You were poor and Aveline was your one, lone friend. I saw what you could be. I gave you what you needed the most: a quality armour, black with a red dragon head drawn on the chest. That armour helped you, a Ferelden refugee, get work in Kirkwall and ensured your survival, here and in The Deep Roads. It was a gift that would avail Bartrand and myself.

'The bearded dragon' is the name of my preferred family amulet. That elaborate red dragon head on the chest of your armour was the official emblem of Noble House Tethras, in Orzammar. Once in exile and casteless, Merchant House Tethras made continued use of the emblem. By wearing the black armour, you declared yourself an affiliate of House Tethras. It bolstered your reputation: on the Docks, Lord Renvil Harrowmont told his men 'the human is not a foe' and paid you to clear the Carta. It reassured the other merchants on your abilities, enabling you to receive more jobs. The Merchant Guild did not bother you and the Coterie leaders receiving our bribes or protection money took care not to attack you. I also agreed with the Coterie that when you appeared in a part of town, wearing that distinctive armour, they rid themselves of items they found worthless but embarrassing if found in their possession by the guards. You innocently found those items and the money you won, bringing them back to their legitimate owners, facilitated the financing of the Deep Road expedition.

The armour made evident to my brother Bartrand that I vouched for you. Each one of the partners in the Deep Road Expedition, two merchants and a warrior, would be House Tethras.

About a year ago, you recovered the Tethras family sigil, lost since Bartrand had pawned it to fund the expedition. You saw the exquisite dragon engraving on the sigil, exactly as drawn on your armour. My ancestor Tethras Garen had killed a high dragon and extracted from its belly that very sigil bearing the emblem of the dragon. That same ancestor became Paragon, at the beginning of the Steel Age, and he founded the Noble House Tethras, adopting the sigil and the emblem. But the engraving is not of dwarven origin; it was made by the high artistry of Nevarra and the sigil certainly belonged to one of their famed dragon hunters in olden times. I had Nevarran artisans engrave that red dragon head on the chest of your armour.

For many previous generations, before the founder of my House, the sons in the Garen family had worn black and the eldest had been named Tethras in memory of the first Tethras condemned for the murder of his sister to exile and death in the Deep Roads, at the beginning of the Exalted Age. When it was found that the Carta had committed the crime, Paragon Garen, his father, had sent many volunteers and many wings of the Legion of the Dead to find his son. Much blood flowed for that purpose. Even after many years volunteers went on this search, always without success, now with a view to pronounce the ceremonial words on Tethras' remains, 'Atrast tunsha. Totarnia amgetol tavash aeduc.', the words that will lay the spirit of a warrior to rest in the stone.

That is why the armor is black, why the emblem is red, why it is an elaborate dragon. The Tethras emblem is an armorial bearing: only a warrior may wear it, one per generation, and he has the task, if he finds the remains of Tethras Garen in the Deep Roads, to pronounce the ceremonial words. There, I have said it.