Cauthrien Musings Time

20th November 2011

Post with 34 notes

Cauthrien Musings Time

AKA, What is Cauthrien responsible for? Seri’s quick analysis.

So, straight up - Cauthrien is responsible for a lot of the bad shit that affects everyday people in Ferelden during the Blight. A lot of this, if not all of it, is somehow under order, which may, for some people, excuse her of full culpability.

What we know:

She’s head of Maric’s Shield. What, exactly, this gives her the power to do is unclear. Technically, Maric’s Shield is more a division of the army. However, given what we see at Ostagar, it seems to be a division that is at the head of the army proper, or is extremely large, large enough to serve as all of General Loghain’s troops. She has command over them. Loghain tells her to do something, she gives the official order, they march out. It’s arguable that she is also guilty of Cailan’s death; she questioned but did not reject Loghain’s orders (for a variety of reasons).
She’s Captain of the Guard in Denerim. This is from the toolset, so it may not be strict canon, but it makes a hell of a lot of sense. Defense of the city would be in the hands of somebody Loghain knows he can trust (and control). Her relationship with Loghain (no matter what you see it as - I see it as nonsexual nonromantic, at least as acted upon) allows Rendon Howe the in he needs to get his men into the guard, a situation which Sergeant Kylon will tell you is out of hand and extremely dangerous.
She supports the use of torture when, in her mind or the mind of her superior (read: Loghain), Ferelden’s safety is on the line.
She is distrustful of the Orlesians, but not to the same extent as Loghain. She can see Loghain’s actions as coming from unwarranted paranoia, at least for the end, and doesn’t seem to think that the Orlesians are a threat. In fact, what she says is:
“Loghain is a great man, but his hatred of Orlais has driven him to madness.”
She, like a companioned Loghain, will not say that what they did was wrong, only that they failed in their aims - at first. But this changes. When you talk her down, she says,
“He has done terrible things, I know it, but I owe him everything.” Which, by the way, distances her from all of this… when she really couldn’t have been distant. Anyway.
She is doubtful and feels guilt over how far things went, but as far as we see on screen, did nothing to stop it.

However, on that last part, I’d argue that it’s not inconceivable that she did voice misgivings - she did so at Ostagar, if ineffectively. But that’s personal interpretation.

Re: the use of torture - Cauthrien casts this as a regrettable reality. She doesn’t touch on Rendon’s use of it directly, but it’s tricky to know if, when you bring up the topic, she knows you mean Rendon’s dungeons, or if the Warden is referring to Drakon. At Drakon, we see Ser Gilmore and Mother Mallol dead, presumably having been tortured and finally killed.

My best guess as to what happened is that Rendon had them thrown into Drakon as Orlesian conspirators, both to bolster his claim to what he did to the Couslands with Loghain and to get them out of the way. Cauthrien must have allowed this, and must have also given the order to have them tortured - possibly for almost a year.

She likely didn’t perform the torture herself. Being head of the army during a civil war and running the guard of a city is, uh. A lot of fucking work. But I wouldn’t rule out her being present at a few sessions to try and gain confessions.

Re: the civil war - This is actually where I see her greatest crimes, because they affect the largest number of people. The Bannorn is in SHAMBLES by endgame. Whole fields have been burned. People have been slaughtered. Loghain’s armies, for some unknown fucking reason, don’t seem to be attacking Banns’ estates, they’re attacking the people.

Which is so incredibly stupid for so many reasons.

But the upshot is, even after the Blight, even if the Blight had never happened, there is going to be famine. With how much Loghain (and Rendon, with his embezzling) empty the Denerim coffers, it’s going to be hard for Ferelden, already the poorest country in Thedas, to import food, and the breadbasket of Ferelden has been half-torched.

And Blighted.

And during the civil war/Blight, I doubt there was a lot of food to go around/to be harvested.

So Cauthrien, whether she was just following orders or not, and whether she regretted it or not, seriously injured her country. She killed men and women not unlike her parents, and who she would have been had she not met Loghain on the road.

And why?

Re: obsession with Loghain

Well, Loghain is Ferelden to her, for a large number of reasons. She idolizes him. He’s everything she wants to be - a loyal protector of her country, her home, a man who helped push out Orlais, a man who crafted her in to one of the best knights in the kingdom, if her position is to be accepted and not written off entirely to favoritism (which, given her effectiveness in battle and the fact that the civil war was at a standstill, I’m willing to do).

And he gave her a sword.

Oh yeah.

So, at Ostagar - Cauthrien doesn’t have the Summer Sword.

But she sure as hell does the next time we see her. But hey, cool upgrade, right? Except that sword is Loghain’s. Codex entry states even how he got it - by killing a chevalier during the last war. And Cauthrien has it. I very much doubt she just picked it up and went, hey Ser, can I use this. No, he gave it to her to use. A sword with that much meaning.

It will always be a bribe to me, a piece of support she can’t refuse, a sign that she is following a great man.

And now I’ve kind of lost the thread. But, summary-

Cauthrien did bad shit. She did a lot of it under orders. She did a lot of it by giving orders. She regrets a lot of it, if you peel back her defenses enough. She mourns the loss of Loghain as a great man. But she did not, as far as we see, fight too hard against him. She doesn’t betray him until the end.

I’m willing to give her a chance of redemption, and obviously love trying to articulate what would happen afterwards… but I also understand why this is unspeakable to some people.

(Though I would hope that if you kill Cauthrien because you want to (and not because you can’t make the check), that you also kill Loghain. But I also understand why that might not be the case.)

Tagged: ser cauthrien serindrana rambling forever