Character Development - Zytarriel

Character developed based upon lore of the Dragon Age series by Bioware prior to DA:I release.

For a very long time, elves have been treated as lesser beings by humans. That was what Zytarriel was born into. Slavery. Her mother had been pregnant when she had been captured and sold. Zytarriel was a miracle. The way her mother had been struck so many times, it was a wonder that Zytarriel hadn't been a miscarriage. When the child was born, her mother tried to keep her a secret. It was only a few months later when the child was found. Thankfully, the child had been found by the master's wife, a very motherly woman, who wanted to keep the child. Her husband was disgusted but allowed it as long as the child was never told she was an elf.

At the age of five, Zytarriel was beginning to look very different than her brothers and sister, all of whom were older than she was. Her brothers, aged seven and eleven, made fun of her all the time. But now, they were getting mean. They told her she was a slave, an elf, made her do things for them. They called her "knife ears" and laughed at her. The teasing brought her to the point of tears more often than not. She was certain she wasn't an elf, but her ears... Her ears were so pointy. Maybe if she cut off the tips, they would stop making fun of her. So that was exactly what the child did. She took a knife from the kitchen and sat in the pantry. The knife sliced through her skin so easily, but when the blood began to run down her hands, she screamed. There was so much pain. One of the kitchen workers found her and rushed her to her parents. Eventually, her ear healed, but she would forever be missing the tip of her right ear.

After that incident, her "mother" told her everything. "Yes, Zytarriel, you are an elf." The five year old couldn't understand. She refused to believe the truth. She was human, she had to be. Elves were slaves, hated. Zytarriel did not want to be hated. Zytarriel simply couldn't believe the truth, no matter how many times her "mother" tried to tell her. Once word had gotten to her "father" that she had been told the truth, everything got worse. That had been the one condition he had given, and it had been broken. He would no longer allow the child to live in his house as anything more than a slave.

Zytarriel became the personal servant of the girl she had once called sister. For the most part, she was treated well. There were times, though, when she did not do something perfectly and the man who had once been called her father would make an example of her poor work by taking the whip to her back. He seemed to enjoy the pain it caused the elves. Zytarriel had never truly been able to grasp the truth. Even though she was made to wait on her "siblings" and would regularly be flogged by her "father." She loved her family.

Several years later, when Zytarriel was seventeen years old, her real mother came looking for her. Years earlier, she had been sold to someone else for an exorbitant amount of money. The man treated Zytarriel's birth mother with much kindness and love and set her free. With her freedom, she came back for her child. Zytarriel refused to see the woman as her birth mother. She was human, why couldn't everyone see that?! Zytarriel pushed the woman away. There was such a commotion from the small scuffle that the master of the house came to see what was going on. When Zytarriel's birth mother stood straight and asked for her daughter back, the man struck her across the face, laughing as he did so. He overpowered the woman, and with Zytarriel right there, watching he raped the woman before binding her hands and whipping her until she could no longer stand. Her screams ripped through the house, the countryside. Zytarriel stood watching in horror, the screams piercing her mind. It wans't long before her birth mother bled out and died right there at Zytarriel's feet.

Everything in the house reminded Zytarriel of that woman, the one who had said she had been Zytarriel's mother. Every night, the screams would wake her. Zytarriel had to leave. In the middle of the night Zytarriel dressed herself in black, covering her silvery-white hair so as not to be seen, and snuck out, away from the house, away from everything. She wandered for days until she stumbled upon a group of Dalish elves. They took her in, fed her, cleaned her up, helped her get rid of the nightmares. She stayed with the elves for a long time. It was with them that she came to Sundermount.

While living with the Sabrae clan, Zytarriel was given proper Dalish markings on her hands and feet. She was happy with the clan, but never truly felt as though she belonged there. At the age of twenty-two, she left the clan and made her way to Kirkwall. There, she found that she was discriminated against for being an elf, but it wasn't nearly as bad as being a slave. She took to crafting blades and set up a shop. She would sell blades along with other trinkets like jewelry, healing salves, and even the occasional gift item. Of course, she also sold things people sold to her. Finally, she was someplace she enjoyed. Kirkwall was a lovely city--usually-- and she loved it there. Of course, there would be times when her mind would slip and she would cower, hearing the screams of her birth mother in her head. These episodes would pass after a couple of hours and she wouldn't remember a thing. Other than those moments, though, Zytarriel lives a pretty decent life now in Kirkwall.