a black arrow in the fog
is an ongoing series of Dragon Age fanfictions written by Checkerbox. They serve to novelize Dragon Age: Inquisition and the author's own (rather atypical) Inquisitor, Alexiel Trevelyan; this is done largely by expanding and providing alternate takes on events from the game.
Being an atheist, a Black Sheep in his own family, and having a host of unsettling behavioral issues (primary one being a love of murder,) Trevelyan is not the most obvious choice as a holy savior for all of Thedas. Nonetheless, circumstances thrust him into this role, and the course of the series explores how his character—and his romance with the in-game optional love interest Dorian Pavus—gradually develops as a result.
The entire series is available on Archive of Our Own in chronological order (though not necessarily release order). In addition, the author has written a number of works which are not included in the series but which nonetheless involve the same characters, including:
- On the Subject of Evelyn Trevelyan - A oneshot fic that explains what happened to Alexiel's sister Evelyn since the day she was sent away to the Circle.
- All This Venatori Nonsense - An AU where Dorian begins the story as an agent of the Venatori, which has its own page and is in fact the first story written to feature Alexiel.
- The Definition Of Suffering - Another AU where Trevelyan is merely a companion in the inner circle, and still hopelessly in love with Dorian... who is dating an Inquisitor Adaar.
- Overly Sour When Raw - A fic where Alexiel is made to lose his memories by the Venatori, which explores in more depth his relationship to Dorian and the rest of his inner circle.
- Impurity, Humanity - A oneshot fic taking place in an AU where Alexiel's sister Evelyn is the Inquisitor, regarding her relationship to Cole.
This work contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Alexiel's parents were both terrible in different ways:
- Lady Trevelyan is shown to have been neglectful and selfish, rejecting Alexiel and telling him she wished she'd never had him when he began acting out as a child; Maxwell Trevelyan's perspective later on indicates she was not very emotionally available for any of their children. Furthermore, when Evelyn Trevelyan began to manifest magic, she tried a variety of dangerous and horrible "home remedies" trying to "cure" her of it before she was finally sent to the Circle.
- Bann Trevelyan on the other hand is even worse; having planned out the lives of each of his children before they were even born, he used whatever tactic necessary to keep them from pursuing goals and aspirations of their own, from manipulation to emotional or even physical abuse. Alexiel actually considers himself to have gotten off easy with him, as he was a "spare" child and therefore was left to his own devices most of the time. It's suggested several times that the only child he actually loved was Evelyn, and even she had a fraught relationship with him before his death.
- Amicable Exes: Alexiel and Rev'assan Lavellan (the author's version of the Lavellan Inquisitor) dated briefly during their youth. When they meet up again later they act like old friends, though it's played with in that Alexiel admits Rev makes him nervous precisely because of their history together.
- Amnesiac Resonance: In Overly Sour When Raw. Alexiel has magically lost all of his memories of the Inquisition (and then some,) and he's accordingly lost all of his Character Development and relationships, back to being a suspicious and hostile young man. However, there still are some things that the magic can't erase:
- He treats Dorian with particular hostility at first because underneath the magic, a part of him knows he loves him and this freaks him out. Later he even learns he has trouble sleeping alone because, physically speaking, he's still used to sleeping with Dorian.
- Alexiel has lost his battle skills and abilities as well, but he still carries them out on instinct while in a fight.
Alexiel: I don’t remember being able to do that— - Calling the Old Man Out:
- In one flashback, Alexiel's oldest brother Maxwell attempts to call his father out on how he can't keep controlling every aspect of his life if he expects him to be a proper heir to his legacy, prompted by his father trying to force him to marry someone other than his current (loving) fiancee. Unfortunately, Bann Trevelyan's reaction to it simply goes from amused to annoyed and he doesn't budge an inch.
- After realizing the extent of Bann Trevelyan's favoritism, Evelyn spends most of their visits together arguing with him, from valid complaints about his parenting to minor nitpicks just to let herself vent. This culminates in one particular tirade where she accuses him of having ruined any chance she had to find happiness in her miserable life and calls him a heartless bastard, to which Bann Trevelyan only responds, inexplicably, by hugging her. This ends up being the last time she ever sees him alive.
- Children Are Innocent: Played darkly in Alexiel's childhood; as a boy, he was much creepier and pointlessly cruel to everything and everyone around him, precisely because he didn't understand the impact of his actions and the effect it had on people's view of him.
- Commonality Connection: While in Redcliffe, Evelyn Trevelyan becomes friends with Felix because she empathizes with his "wasting disease", the Blight, as she herself suffered from a different wasting disease in her youth.
- A Day in the Limelight: Though usually relegated to his backstory, Alexiel's mage sister Evelyn Trevelyan has two oneshots from her perspective that serve to flesh out her character: Impurity, Humanity, and the aptly named On the Subject of Evelyn Trevelyan.
- Disease by Any Other Name: The "wasting disease" that Evelyn Trevelyan develops which eventually leads to her becoming an abomination has all the hallmarks of Type I Diabetes. She never gets nutrients no matter how much she eats and slowly starves, always feels exhausted, has sweet urine, and even being healed by a spirit healer doesn't permanently solve the problem (as it is at root an autoimmune disorder.)
- Eye-Dentity Giveaway: During the series' version of the quest "Here Lies the Abyss", Corypheus has insinuated himself into the Grey Wardens under a human disguise, in order to better fool Clarel. On two occasions, when the disguise starts to slip, the first thing to change is the eyes—becoming the inhuman eyes Corypheus had from the Dragon Age II DLC "Legacy". Alexiel points this out to everyone the second time it happens.
- Lack of Empathy: This is one of Alexiel's main character flaws, having unusual difficulty empathizing with people, particularly strangers. This makes social interactions more draining on him as he has to make a conscious effort to read someone's emotions and to respond appropriately, something he had to learn by rote after years of being a social outcast for getting it wrong. It also leads to him being generally unbothered by death and suffering unless it affects people he likes personally.
- My God, What Have I Done?: In the Halloween-themed Monster Mash, Dorian and Alexiel both experience deep regret—Dorian because his attempt to undermine one of his political opponents snowballs into the destruction of the man's entire family, and Alexiel because he was cursed to turn into a werewolf and killed and ate innocent people while transformed. Unusually, their actions themselves aren't all they feel guilty over; Alexiel feels the most guilty that he doesn't feel guiltier about it, having on some level enjoyed being a werewolf, while Dorian is most horrified because on some level he was happy to have finally gotten his way in the brutal Magisterium for once.
- Nature Versus Nurture: A running question whenever the topic of Alexiel's family and background come up is how much of his antisocial tendencies can be blamed on the environment in which he was raised and how much he simply developed naturally. It's worth noting that his father is described as having a similar Lack of Empathy for other people, meaning some of it could be genetic—but whereas Bann Trevelyan went on to abuse his entire family into submission, Alexiel actually does care about the people in his life and their emotional wellbeing, much as he struggles to relate to them.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: Alexiel's mage sister Evelyn is a vampire in all but name after becoming possessed by a demon of Craving, growing fangs and drinking blood to get by.
- Parental Favoritism: Evelyn is described as being the only one Bann Trevelyan loved out of his seven children, and he always treated her far more kindly than the rest of his family when he visited her growing up. Evelyn herself becomes distraught when she realizes that her father treats her so much better than her other siblings, and eventually comes to conclude that she is his favorite because, unlike her other siblings, he can completely control her life since she's trapped in the Circle.
- Poor Communication Kills: Almost all of the conflict in The Definition of Suffering comes from Alexiel and Dorian's failure to communicate what they want. This goes from Alexiel beginning the story being unable to voice his feelings for Dorian, to Dorian not just explaining to Adaar that he isn't happy with a purely physical relationship. Similarly, he's later unable to apologize to Alexiel for his rejection and explain that he actually does like him back, which indirectly leads to Alexiel nearly being killed.
- Static Role, Exchangeable Character: The series' interpretation of the different origins the player can pick from in Inquisition is that these characters exist, but were not present at the Conclave when it exploded. This is shown in how three other origins—Adaar, Lavellan, and a mage Trevelyan—are characters who occasionally get a cameo in the series. Similarly, Adaar and Evelyn Trevelyan both have fics portraying routes where they ended up as the Inquisitor, and Alexiel still exists in both of them, in fact being a party member in Adaar's route.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Deconstructed with Alexiel; his siblings Maxwell and Evelyn see him as having been a good kid when he was little, and gradually getting "worse" after Evelyn was taken to the Circle. In contrast, Alexiel comes to believe that he was always the way that he was, and there just wasn't an opportunity for it to show until after his sister was sent away. Acknowledging that his brother wasn't "broken" by his childhood into being the way that he is actually helps Maxwell take steps towards mending their relationship in the present.
