Inspired by TrilliumG’s Ostagar photoset earlier...

21st January 2012

Photoset with 29 notes

Inspired by TrilliumG’s Ostagar photoset earlier tonight (and borrowing some of her shots).

There’s a real difference between Cauthrien at Ostagar and Cauthrien in Denerim, nearly a year later. Some of it could be just a matter of scene lighting - but there seem to be telling changes, ones that always get me when I look at screenshots for her for reference (or just because of Cauthrien feels).

The most obvious (to me) will always be her sword. Cauthrien doesn’t receive the Summer Sword until after Ostagar, and so it will always read (to me) as an emotional bribe. Loghain won that sword pushing out the Orlesians, specifically the chevalier in charge of Denerim, an incompetent sod who didn’t know the value of what he had because of style. And so after the events of Ostagar, Loghain gives it to Cauthrien, now guard captain of the city (according to toolset info, and never contradicted - and it makes her coming to arrest the Warden at Howe’s more sensical). There’s no way she can refuse it. It’s a gift from a man she idolizes, from the conflict she idolizes him for. Even if she’s dedicated to his support, this cements it. It’s emotional bribery. It also demands she use it for the purpose of protecting Denerim, which its original owner was incapable of.

And she does.

The rest, as I said, could be lighting - but her cheeks seem thinner, her eyes more tired. She seems older. More tired. Of course, Ostagar is a cut-scene, and the rest of these shots are from dialogue scenes (I believe from Howe’s estate?), so that, too, accounts for some of the changes. But even if unintentional, they fit. This woman has spent the better part of a year waging war on her own people for her own people, razing the Bannorn where she was in all likelihood born. Her doubts have been growing but she refuses to give in to them, because she can’t.

Here’s the wiki text of talking her down at the Landsmeet:

Warden: Do you really not see what Loghain has become?
Ser Cauthrien: I have had…so many doubts of late. Loghain is a great man, but his hatred of Orlais has driven him to madness. He has done terrible things, I know it, but I owe him everything. I cannot betray him, do not ask me to!”
Warden: Then let me stop him. You know it is the only way.
Ser Cauthrien: I never thought duty would taste so bitter. Stop him, Warden. Stop him from betraying everything he once loved. Please… show mercy. Without Loghain, there would be no Ferelden to defend.

She’s exhausted. She’s done, except that she can’t be done, not until the choice is taken out of her hands either by her own death or by her failing. She fails at the Landsmeet, because that’s the only way to serve and protect. She gives up triumph on the battlefield.

She flees, and allows her commanding officer - in most playthroughs - to die.

I’m not sure I’ll ever quite understand why I love this (tiny minor npc) woman so much, or that I’ll ever get over it. Something about her loyalty, her dignity, and her failure, really gets to me - even in the drabbles and bits I write where she doesn’t find redemption or where she dies. Every iteration of her I write, I love.

But Maker, Cauthrien - you deserve some rest.

(screenshots and any post processing by trilliumg, anon1879, and skiesovergideon)

(also, on what she’s responsible for during the Blight)

Tagged: cauthrien ser cauthrien serindrana has a lot of feelings no. 1 cauthrien fangirl apeacebone serindrana trilliumg skiesovergideon anon1879 loghain ostagar denerim