Guides - Ashina de Riva née Tabris
- name: Ashina de Riva
Tathas Adaia Arainai("deceased" as of 9:33 Dragon)Ashina Tabris
- nickname: Ash
- Snapdragon (Varric only)
- alias: The Grey Raven (Bane of the Antivan Crows - 9:31 to 9:33 Dragon)
- The Dark Wolf of Denerim (9:31 to 9:33 Dragon)
- Warden Tathas Arainai - The Hero of Ferelden ("deceased" as of 9:33 Dragon)
- gender: Female
- pronouns: She/Her/Herself
- in character: IC ☾⭒ Ashina Tabris
- open starters: Open Starter ☾⭒ Ashina Tabris
- headcanons: Headcanon ☾⭒ Ashina Tabris
- wishlist: Wishlist ☾⭒ Ashina Tabris
- desires: Desires ☾⭒ Ashina Tabris
- musings: Musings ☾⭒ Ashina Tabris
- aesthetics: Aesthetics ☾⭒ Ashina Tabris
- visage: Visage ☾⭒ Ashina Tabris
- playlist: Playlist ☾⭒ Ashina Tabris
Universal Guides
Things You Should Know
Please pay attention to this fact:
- Ashina NEVER goes by "Tabris" with anyone she's met after becoming a Grey Warden and/or an Antivan Crow (so anyone met after the events of the Origins prologue).
- No one who didn't know her prior to one or both of these events should even know her family name at all unless she explicitly tells them or it's revealed to them through the story itself (example: those present during the Fifth Blight when she returns to the Alienage may learn her true identity as a result of her interacting with her family).
Pre-Approved Exceptions
- Of those who may know without prior plotting include:
- Cyrion Tabris
- Shianni
- Soris
- Valora
- Nelaros
- other Denerim Alienage elves from and/or prior to 9:30 Dragon
- Duncan
- Adaia is a rank & file Crow of House Arainai, one of many elven compradi within the House, having been purchased as a young child and raised as an assassin.
- She flees Antiva City and the Crows in 9:06 Dragon, where she makes her way south, into Ferelden.
- While in Denerim, she meets Cyrion Tabris — they become engaged and then wed soon after.
- Adaia gives birth to Ashina Tabris on the 30th of Harvestmere, 9:06 Dragon.
There were plenty of questions around the Denerim Alienage as to whether Cyrion was truly Ashina's father, given the timing so soon after he and Adaia even meet before she is noticeably pregnant, and with how little Ashina actually favors him, while being very clearly Antivan.
While still in Antiva, Adaia learned she was pregnant, and in House Arainai, a child born of a Crow becomes a Crow, and so Adaia flees to Ferelden in hopes of giving her child a chance and a choice of their own future. She was vocally against the Alienage tradition of only being recognized as an adult by marrying, fought to keep the hahren from trying to force Ashina to marry until she wanted to, and preferably for love.
Even though she might not be his by blood, Ashina is Cyrion's daughter. She doesn't know who her biological father is, but it is most likely another elven Crow in House Arainai.
- Ashina's Common accent evolves over the course of the timeline, depending on which country she is living in, as the notes of her Ferelden accent fade to be less noticeable the longer she lives in Antiva.
Ashina is raised speaking both Common Trade Tongue and Antivan, taught the latter by her mother.
(verse/timeline dependent - Ashina must be a Grey Warden)
- Ashina is capable of obfuscating the blight in her veins, effectively hiding herself from both darkspawn and other wardens alike when she uses this ability.
- Much like slipping into shadows, it takes some degree of focus to initiate and maintain this obfuscation, and is likely to drop when she must commit more focus to another action that renders her unable to maintain focus on suppressing the blight.
- When not in combat, Ashina can maintain the obfuscation for long periods of time so long as her attention is not too divided by other tasks, allowing her to stay hidden even while in conversation with another Grey Warden.
- When in combat, she will remain hidden for up to 4 seconds after the obfuscation drops before darkspawn and/or wardens may become aware of her blighted presence.
(verse/timeline dependent - must have traveled with Sten)
Ashina learns to speak, read, and write Qunlat from Sten during the course of the Fifth Blight, gaining fluency through continued correspondence with him in the years following ending the Blight.
Things Your Muse Could Know
(verse/timeline dependent - Ashina must be a Grey Warden & the HoF)
- Ashina takes up Master Ignacio's offer to join the Crows when she tires of being a Warden, entering negotiations with the Fifth Talon of House de Riva in 9:33 Dragon to secure a promise of protection from the Order of the Grey Wardens in return for her service as an Antivan Crow within House de Riva.
(verse/timeline dependent - Ashina must be a Grey Warden & the HoF)
The First Warden has ordered that "Warden Tathas Arainai", also known as the Hero of Ferelden, the Warden-Commander of Ferelden, and de facto Arlessa of Amaranthine, be brought in to Weisshaupt for questioning pertaining to her survival after killing the Archdemon Urthemiel, as well as her encounter with the Architect, among many other things he seeks answer to about her activities during the Fifth Blight itself.
Timeline in effect:
- Post-Amaranthine Crisis — 9:31 Dragon onward
Who could know this fact:
- Grey Wardens — most wardens enlisted at the time in and/or after 9:31 Dragon are under orders by the First Warden to bring "Warden Tathas" in by any means necessary for questioning.
- Antivan Crows — must be influential enough to have been made aware of any details, but rumours are bound to have spread throughout the Houses, even among the fledglings, when they learn of the de Riva fledgling joining the ranks in 9:31 Dragon who is a Grey Warden and the new Warden-Commander of Antiva.
Things Your Muse Should Not Know
(verse/timeline conditional - Ashina must be a Grey Warden & the HoF)
- When Ashina is conscripted into the Grey Wardens, she insists that she not be enlisted under her real name, for her family's protection.
- The name in the recruit roster lists her as "Tathas Adaia Arainai" — named such after the story she tells the kids playing in the alley about the elven hero-thief, and her mother.
- Once she leaves Denerim, only Duncan knows her true identity, but only refers to her as Tathas, per her request — it is this name that she uses to introduce herself throughout the course of the Fifth Blight, and throughout the Amaranthine Crisis.
Pre-Established Exceptions (open to plotting)
- There are some who may know her true identity after 9:33 Dragon, when she joins the Antivan Crows. This includes a few of the Talons, primarily the Fifth Talon (Viago's predecessor) and First Talon (likely Caterina Dellamorte), as well as a handful of Master Assassins and other influential Crows, such as Viago de Riva, Andarateia Cantori, and Lucanis Dellamorte (if they do not know the truth sooner, they will likely learn it when they become Talons themselves).
When This Could Be Revealed (open to plotting)
- Veilguard (9:50 - 9:54 Dragon)
- ROOK: de Riva or Thorne
- RECRUITMENT: Lucanis Dellamorte &/or Davrin
- ENCOUNTER: First Warden & Senior Wardens
- EVENT: Blighted dragon attack on Treviso
- EVENT: Siege at Weisshaupt
- Inquisition (9:40 - 9:44 Dragon)
- COMPANION: Varric Tethras &/or Hawke (if met in Kirkwall)
- ENCOUNTER: Senior Wardens
- LOCATION: City of Redcliffe
- ENCOUNTER: King &/or Queen of Ferelden
- ENCOUNTER: Hawke's Grey Warden Contact
- EVENT: Siege at Adamant Fortress
- Kirkwall (9:35 - 9:39 Dragon)
- COMPANION: Anders &/or Justice
- EVENT: Deep Roads Expedition
- EVENT: Qunari Invasion of Kirkwall
- ENCOUNTER: Nathanial Howe &/or Senior Wardens
- EVENT: Fall of the Gallows
(verse/timeline dependent - Ashina must be a Grey Warden)
- Ashina learns of a potential cure in 9:33 Dragon from the gift left behind by Morrigan at the eluvian.
- As a master herbalist, Ashina is skilled enough to pull it off, if she can find the information and components she needs to do so.
- Her joining the Crows in that same year, however, sets her back, as she is unable to dedicate the necessary time and effort to her research — she may likely rely on Zevran to do much of the legwork for this, even while he is still dealing with House Arainai and some of the other, more brutal houses within the Crows.
- Ashina does not immediately involve many people in her search, in part because of the conditions of her contract with House de Riva and the Crows that ensures the contracts that were taken out against "Tathas Arainai" are considered complete now that "Warden Tathas" is dead and she is a de Riva.
Pre-Approved Exceptions
- Morrigan - have the information to Ashina in the first place
- Zevran Arainai - likely helping search while she's a fledgling, and a rank & file Crow, as she's largely restricted to Antiva during this time
(verse/timeline dependent - must have been to Brecillian Forest)
Ashina frees a trapped ancient spirit, and in return it teaches her the way of the Arcane Warriors, of which she can use little of herself, as well as the elvhen language from its memories that it shares with her.
She does not make a point of letting others know she speaks this language, not wishing to have to explain just exactly how she learned it in the first place.
Canon Typical
Dragon Age Guides
Things You Should Know
Ashina cares very little about the fate of Ferelden as a whole — her only real concern is protecting her family back in the Denerim Alienage. She certainly doesn't care about protecting the lives of the nobles or pretty much any other human in the process.
Things Your Muse Could Know
Things Your Muse Should Not Know
Ashina did not want to get married, and had managed to avoid such ever since her mother was killed in 9:24 Dragon. But with her approaching the age of 25, her father was pressured into arranging something for her lest the Alienage's hahren do so himself, as he did for Soris.
Pre-Approved Exceptions
- Of those who may know without prior plotting include:
- Cyrion Tabris
- Shianni
- Soris
- Valora
- Nelaros
- other Denerim Alienage elves from and/or prior to 9:30 Dragon
- Duncan
Ashina has never killed anyone before she is kidnapped by Vaughan Kendall in 9:30 Dragon alongside a half dozen or so other women from the Denerim Alienage.
The massacre that follows in the Arl of Denerim's palace as she leaves a trail of blood and death in her wake is the first time she has ever killed anyone at all, and she kills dozens of guards and nobles alike in order to free herself and the other women.