Well, I guess there were those stories, too. But they weren't intended for our ears. Of course we heard them anyway.
Oh, those are the good parts. But then there are politics. If you thought Antivan politics were brutal, you should see the matchmaking politics of a noble house in the Free Marches. I think for a time when I was about 7 years old, I was engaged to a Tevinter fifth cousin twice removed on my father's side - I hear she was supposedly only 5 years older than me - except then her maternal grandfather snubbed the Archon's second cousin's wife's brother at a dinner party, leading to the entire family to plummet from a cozy rank as the sixth more prestigious house in the region to a mere seventh or eight, whereupon a contingent of my aunt and uncles along with my parents stumbled to make new plans to spare the family the humiliation, and announced over dinner that I was now promised to a plain third cousin, ten years my senior, from a humble but steady lesser house in Nevarra, which was deemed a much less risky and scandalous choice, and we wouldn't spend the summer in Minrathous even though we only ever visited another branch of the same family there.
Of course that was all before they found out I was a mage. Naturally, that ruined a few minor chances at more influence for my parents. I can't say I was terribly sorry.
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Oh, those are the good parts. But then there are politics. If you thought Antivan politics were brutal, you should see the matchmaking politics of a noble house in the Free Marches. I think for a time when I was about 7 years old, I was engaged to a Tevinter fifth cousin twice removed on my father's side - I hear she was supposedly only 5 years older than me - except then her maternal grandfather snubbed the Archon's second cousin's wife's brother at a dinner party, leading to the entire family to plummet from a cozy rank as the sixth more prestigious house in the region to a mere seventh or eight, whereupon a contingent of my aunt and uncles along with my parents stumbled to make new plans to spare the family the humiliation, and announced over dinner that I was now promised to a plain third cousin, ten years my senior, from a humble but steady lesser house in Nevarra, which was deemed a much less risky and scandalous choice, and we wouldn't spend the summer in Minrathous even though we only ever visited another branch of the same family there.
Of course that was all before they found out I was a mage. Naturally, that ruined a few minor chances at more influence for my parents. I can't say I was terribly sorry.