#gislore Gisèle’s Fray wears the face of Loghain Mac Tir, her one time *BITTER* enemy from the Seventh whom she very unexpectedly came to love, and promptly lost when she died there. Because Haurche and Ysayle survive HW, her DRK journey is entirely about her unresolved guilt and trauma from Thedas.

#gislore there is no implicit stigma against sex work in the empire but its disdain for hetairai is due to the perception of trickery. if gods are fake, as the argument goes, then the concept of sacred sex work is farce, a deception intended to manipulate people via their basest instincts.

#gislore this folktale has been told for centuries on the Seventh, and it’s distinctly Orlesian. But it’s why Gisèle, despite her Circle education, avoids the number four as dreadfully unlucky, and never passes a spring without leaving some kind of offering. And if you notice her w red anemones…?

#gislore I need to explain the soul scar bc it’s not poetry, it’s literal. Aphrodite was soul bonded to Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus. And because of her nature, being so violently severed from Hyth by his death drove her literally mad from grief for a time, and the trauma memory imprinted on her soul.

#gislore fun fact: Viera!Gisèle is also a fun little Easter egg homage to A Link to the Past on SNES, my fav Zelda game. When Link first goes to the Dark World early on he turns into a rabbit. The “Moon Pearl” Beq Lugg makes to put Gisèle back is the item Link gets to keep his regular form there.

#gislore it’s hard to explain her reluctance to discuss it bc Gisèle genuinely feels no shame abt sex, but even Ishgardians can have a hard time understanding the concept and it stems from their own culture! The marque on her back is so beautiful and distinctive though, ppl inevitably ask abt it…

#gislore did some more thinking on this last night btw and decided upon “ranseur”. evocative of the fury’s lance, blessed to wield it rather than be pierced by it as her anguissette. I brought it to the kushiel chat and oomfie knew Exactly why I chose that particular polearm as its namesake. ☺️

#gislore also: while Ilberd knew she was an anguissette, if not fully what it meant, by then he DID know she was a hetaera in Nald’thal’s service and what he did was tantamount to blasphemy. any price to save his homeland. If he would be damned for it, he thought, he wouldn’t be damned by halves.

#gislore this was what sparked that VERY unwanted, visceral, lizard brain physical attraction Gisèle had re: Zenos btw. Before Rhalgr’s Reach, she had never been beaten so badly on the field. The physical pain from the sheer strength of his attacks, her abject humiliation, and the cold indifference-

#gislore To the untrained Eorzean ear, she sounds like an Ishgardian; it’s why Thancred assumed she was in ARR and everyone ran w it at first, even her. But there ARE subtle differences between Ishgardian Elezen dialect and Valrois Orlesian. Ishgardian’s dragonspeak loan words are Elvhen in Orlesian

#gislore quiet codifying of an ARR plot point I’d been torn over for literal years but it’s 2026 and per my recent thread I’m not so worried abt Gisèle being too similar to Phèdre anymore to follow my creative bliss, and it sparks joy. She similarly worked Nald’thal’s temple in Warlords AU anyway.

#gislore behemoth of a Gisfilia lore thread that should have just been an ellipsus doc, but I realized that about 15 posts too late. a billion thanks to everyone w the patience to read the whole thing.

#gislore I can’t emphasize enough how Gisèle’s background informs this bc despite being born into destitution there was a distinct pride the Orlesian elves of the Denerim alienage took in trappings of refinement and honor codes and that was reinforced by Viv when she mentored Gisèle in the Circle.

#gislore this is a very long thread please do not stop w post 1 bc character limits don’t do this part of her story justice. Even this is truncated and leaves things out.

#gislore It’s v. important to me that she’s never had to ask. Growing up in the Circle, she escaped into romance stories bc she never expected to marry; mages aren’t permitted to. When she became a Warden and fell for Alistair, his jerk foster father deadass told her she could never be his Queen.

#gislore it’s likely stating the obvious given her chosen non combat-related profession that the art of adornment is VERY important to Gisèle. But it’s how she expresses herself, and she is nearly always flamboyant in her dress, deliberately so. Her OTT performance of femininity is deeply healing.

#gislore btw what makes it extra fraught, besides Z doing so much direct harm to ppl Gisèle loves eg Shtola, is that her SAM crystal belonged to Lord Kaien and Hien gave it to her when she expressed interest in learning it along w Haurche (he and Gosetsu taught them both during SB).

#gislore I’m probably underselling how close Gisèle and Emmanellain are. She genuinely loves him as the brother she never had, no matter how he vexes her at times. He’s been instrumental in the Atelier’s success too, w his finger on the pulse of the Pillars; why Gisèle learned the ropes so quickly.

#gislore on a meta level, the anguissette thing is also fraught. Character limits prevent in depth discussion. I’ve said her Fortemps choker is a sub collar for brevity’s sake and multiple ppl have replied “oh my oc wears it like that too” 🤦🏾‍♀️ but it’s actually so much deeper than that for Gisèle.

#gislore Vandarel Surana, Keeper of Clan Halathren and Elder of New Arlathan. One of a long line of gifted mages reaching back not only to the lost Dales but fabled Arlathan itself, something rare for the Dalish; he was treated like a prince for it, which discomfited him greatly, reserved as he was.

#gislore “mamounette” btw is so so closely affectionate and loving, it’s basically like “mommy”. She is almost always crying when she refers to her mother this way.

#gislore how tf did I forget to mention dragonspeak…I need caffeine

#gislore the ancient isle of Troia is where Aphrodite was born. her mother gave birth to her in the sea and she emerged from the foam, as the custom went; they were sea-born, Troians, and returned to the sea when they went at last to their rest.

On Source, the isle of Thavnair sits upon its ruins.

#gislore idk if I ever mentioned it here but Hyth is meant to be the Adonis figure in her story, the beautiful dying god who drives her to madness with his loss. Together with Hades they were soulbonded in the manner of the Ancients, and when Hyth died Aph felt it despite her having left Amaurot.

#gislore Aph’s creativity was truly an outgrowth of her nature as Love made flesh; her love of the star and its peoples moved her to spread beauty wherever she went, in gratitude, to bring them happiness.

The rose was born of her grief for Hythlodaeus: beauty and pain entwined in petal and thorn.

#gislore and I didn’t make that up btw, that’s actual BW canon re: thedas. it’s one of the v first bits you learn in da:o if you roll a mage. in the context of gisverse i explain it as a deliberate effect of the Veil, bc the Ascians wanted peoples isolated to control the pace of their development.

#gislore obligatory "why does Gisèle hate being called 'Warrior' of Light so badly?" excerpt from No Sweeter Warmth.

#gislore I feel like I talk a lot about ShB being a huge traumatic Fifth Blight PTSD episode for her but not nearly enough about how StB touched old pain in her. It’s way subtler than the 1:1 “this is a Light-colored Blight”, but being an Orlesian-Fereldan elf made StB’s themes very personal to her.

Although I was scarcely a girl of nineteen, and tastes may change over time, there remain certain constants within my palate, and it has been ever thus. Ever have I been drawn to those of the blade, stern and proud, with as much steel within their eyes as within their scabbards, sharpened to a razor’s edge upon the whetstone of defiance. Tis any wonder my heart sings for Ishgard! But I have recalled over the years that this is a peculiar quality of Fereldan men that, too, remains a certain constant. My beloved Duncan possessed it of a surety, though his blood was tempered by Rivaini fire. Teagan does, most certainly, to the eternal chagrin of his elder brother where I am concerned. Even Alistair, for all his easy jesting and boyish charms, shares it in some measure when he is set to purpose. Loghain Mac Tir was also such a man, even to my naive young eyes. "Son of the land" is the meaning of his name, in the ancient tongue of the Alamarri from which he descends.

It remains an encounter that is seared into my memory, even now, though I am certain were he to stand before me in truth and not as the Shadow in my mind, he would feign encroaching senility rather halfheartedly and beg my forgiveness that he remembered only my beauty and not the words we exchanged. But I still remember: Loghain Mac Tir, Teyrn of Gwaren, emerged from his dour pavilion in the king’s camp, well-worn chevalier’s armor an old trophy gleaming in the sunlight even as shadows clouded his eyes. And I, a young girl but freshly Harrowed and still testing my newfound wings as I wandered freely at last from my gilded cage, trembled before this figure of legend who towered as surely as my home did within the clouds. Pallid though he was from lack of rest, he bore the weight of his responsibility with a dignity I cannot describe.

Thus the Hero of River Dane stood before me, a very real man of middle years, when he had only ever been a romantic myth from the tales of my childhood. These were not tales told in the alienage, for such things were as distant as the stars to us there; shemlen wars and intrigues were of little consequence to us, as we had not been truly free since the time of the Dales, but a child is ignorant of such truths. No, these were tales told in the thick tomes of the histories within the Circle Tower: of Ferelden’s greatest deliverer, driving back the cruel chevaliers beside the Rebel Prince, liberating this proud land from the brutal yoke of Orlesian usurpers. And I, an elven bastard of the stews of Denerim bearing an Orlesian name, devoured them as eagerly as sweets stolen from the tower kitchens. My favorite part of the tale: he could have had his pick of any highborn woman or man in the land, but in the end, it was told, he chose a humble lass to wed. Franchement, c’est trop bon!

It was these old tales that swirled through my mind as I met Loghain that fateful day in Ostagar, a man at last and not a myth: stern and proud as Fereldan men are, full of steel and purpose, tall and imposing in his sense of presence. His hair was still black as a lad’s despite the fine lines of age which crept about his eyes and mouth, and this I remember distinctly. For another constant of my palate is my appreciation for beauty of a certain vintage. Some men wither upon the vine as the winter of their years approaches and frost claims them, but others only come deeper into their vintage, and Loghain was such a man, I was certain. For a moment, one all too fleeting, he was my entire world. I flush now to remember it, how I must have gazed at him sick with desire, but if he noticed he did nothing to shame me, exchanging pleasantries with me instead.

old, old! but tidied up, given a fresh coat of paint.

who is Gisèle's Fray? (1/2)

#aurorawrites | #gislore

#gislore wrt the elfpile specifically, most of them have lovers outside the marriage and not all of them are shared w Gisèle. And she’s also married to Vrtra, separately. Aymeric and Estinien had been together for years (and Haurche their occasional play partner) before Gisèle even met them.