WHO? Hei
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dipolar Dorian
excelsus and maybe you!
WHAT? Dorian has an obligation to Hei whether he likes it or not
WHEN? Post Dorian's fail!kidnapping and Noctis's real!kidnapping
ANYTHING ELSE? Possible descriptions of violence, will update as necessary! Also top levels!
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I'm aware that most of what I say about my homeland seems entirely negative, but it has so much history and potential, it's where our world began. If I couldn't see the positives I wouldn't miss it...I want to save it.
[So no, Dorian wasn't being sarcastic really, he knew the dark underbelly of his homeland and he wanted to get in there and change the corruption. It was the only place in his world where his kind weren't rounded up in cages after all.]
Hm, I suppose in the upper echelons it doesn't matter, your parents pick out your partner so it's usually impersonal anyway. Mine was Livia Herathinos, unfortunate girl, pretty enough, wicked tongue, sharp wit, and glad I'm gone I suspect. [And part of the reason Dorian left, he had no intention of settling down and having little magelets on command after all.]
Oh, I wonder if you even know, but that's alright, Chiron. I'm here for you.
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That same face transmutes as Dorian speaks of home. He is quiet, and more than anything else, he is intrigued.]
What potential do you see in it? What is the future you want to make so?
[As Dorian continues though, speaking of arranged marriages, well. That's perhaps one thing he has in mind to fix. The practice isn't unusual, of course, it was done in Chiron's own time and done with magi in the time when Chiron was summoned.]
I don't believe that's an uncommon sentiment in situations such as that. [Although a quick wit suggests they might have been a decent enough match with regards to being friends. It isn't for Chiron to say.] My mother had little interest in taking care of me, given my form, and so I was adopted and then let loose on my own. That granted me more freedom in most when it came to meeting my wife.
[There's sentiment in there, but if it's towards his parents or his wife, Chiron is pointedly vague.]
I do mean this unironically: your support is appreciated.
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As for the potential Dorian sees in his country?]
Ah, there's intellectualism, we don't stifle academia. Our magical expertise outstrips most of Thedas because we are allowed to do things with magic, wondrous things with it, that the rest of the world fears and forbids. Some magic is to be lamented, this is true, but transgressors ought to be properly punished and for the proper reasons. Our architectural achievements are also worth preserving and the fact that we have an electoral government is good in theory, in practice it could do with changes to permit a more equal society.
[And yes, Dorian would sort out the arranged marriage business as well, just another aspect of Tevinter society he balked at.]
No, not at all, had we been married it would have looked much the same as my own parent's marriage. Trading coy insults a parties, civil only in the most respectable company, avoiding one another at every opportunity, living in luxurious despair. [Needless to say he knew the woman his parents picked out and they didn't get along in spite of their sharp tongues. The only thing they really had in common was their magical talent and their proclivity for the same parts.] We have that in common, my mother too had little interest in taking care of me. Why should she when there were nannies to do it for her...oh, she was the material sort, winning affections with gifts and things of that nature, but only as motherly as her position permitted her to be.
[Meaning when eyes were on the Pavus family they had to act like a family and she had to act like a doting mother.]
I do what I can, my dear.
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[That...is not a happy family. At all. Luxurious despair is a fantastic description of it, and something Chiron files away for his own use. Among Dorian's many talents is that he can turn a phrase. This is perhaps one of his favorites.] I fear if I say anything about my own experience, this might become a morbid sort of one upmanship. But I follow you, an am sorry that was a part of your childhood.
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[People look down on Tevinter for slavery, but the irony is that everywhere across the world there is some form of slavery or other.]
Oh, you needn't feel sorry for me, look at how well rounded I am! Such talent and remarkable charm and need I remind you of these incredible looks? [Dorian is tilting his face now, one must show off their finer features when prompted. The last thing he wants is to be pitied, however, his childhood was what it was and he knew it could have been worse.]
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Tell me this. All of these hopes and dreams and ambitions you have for Tevinter. Do you believe that there's enough power within your current form of government to make them so? Or is there a need for a larger push and more capable individuals to work at the highest levels to enact them?
[Chiron tilts his head slightly.]
It is as you say. Strong letters and libraries don't make for change. And it is easy to sit far away from the world and judge it. That much I can say wit experience.
[Living on a mountain is great, don't you know.]
You need not. I need only add that while you are well rounded, you have very sharp angles as well.
[He is trying to joke. Trying.]