Swamp Witch Wannabe

For most of her life, Enaste has sought only to be a useful member of her clan. She trained to be a hunter first, and her magic did not manifest until she was nearly ready for her vallaslin. Since she became an apprentice to Keeper Deshanna her goal has been to ensure her clan's survival as well as the preservation of its lore. Now, as Inquisitor, her goal is to fulfill whatever duties have been put upon her until she can go home. Her uncle recently arrived at Skyhold after a long journey, and told her that her brother and sister-in-law (what would be the Dalish term for that? .-.) are expecting their first child. Nothing is going to stop Enaste from going home to help with the birth. The question is if she can be made to return.

When Enaste was ten-years-old, her mother died of an infection. It was sudden, and terrible, and nothing anyone did seemed to help. Her younger brother was a disaster, too, and she tried to be there for him as best she could. She noticed that her father, with whom she'd always had a good relationship, was behaving strangely after her mother's death. He would sneak out at night and reappear hours later, and the lack of sleep was making him mean. So one night she followed him. He went into the outskirts of a human village the clan was camped close to, and she saw him meet with and kiss a human woman. The way he held her was the same way he held her mother, and the way he talked to her was the same too. Enaste felt betrayed beyond words. She told Keeper Deshanna, who eventually gave her father an ultimatum: stop seeing his human love, or leave the clan to be with her. Enaste angrily told him to leave. He did. She wasn't truly alone. Roshan, her mother's brother, was deeply sympathetic and tried to comfort her, but he had his own problems at the time and wasn't very good at it. Her brother needed her even more than she needed him. Keeper Deshanna tried to help too, but ultimately Enaste just wanted her mother back. It still hurts. The last time she heard from her father, he was living in Antiva. He has two human children. Enaste has no interest in meeting them.

As First, Enaste learned to do a little bit of everything in her clan. She is foremost a scholar, and a healer, but initially she trained to be a hunter and a fisher. When the food at Haven proved much too... terrestrial, for her tastes, Enaste spoke to the locals and learned how to ice fish. This gave her a way to eat something a little more familiar to her in such a strange new place. She can also tie a mean fly.

Enaste has mentioned that she knows how to deliver babies, and is considered a talented midwife. This is in no small part due to Keeper Deshanna, who taught her everything she knows, as well as other Dalish elves who've found and shared, in recent years, ways to reduce both mother and infant mortality using a combination of magic and careful precautions. As a result, there are more children in Clan Lavellan now than anyone alive can remember. Once, her uncle made a mostly-joking comment about how some of the children were getting in the way of his meal preparations. It occurred to her then that 'too many brats around' was a wonderful thing to be able to complain about. As both Herald and Inquisitor, she's found a sort of cautious hopefulness in what she's been able to accomplish. It's a good thing, mostly, even if her association with the chantry makes her deeply unsettled. She's also found a doomed hope in being with Solas, as she had long considered any kind of romance impossible for her: one, because it would distract from her responsibilities, and two, because she hasn't had much of any romantic feelings for anyone since her childhood sweetheart died in an accident.