My entry for the <a target="_self" href="https://biowarefanclub.deviantart.com/"><img class="avatar" src="https://a.deviantart.net/avatars/b/i/biowarefanclub.jpg?4" alt=":iconbiowarefanclub:" title="BiowareFanClub" /></a> NPC Origins Challenge, submitted just under the wire. Ran through a couple ideas for this challenge, as there are a lot of great Dragon Age NPCs I wanted to explore, including Athenril, Thrask, Eamon and Malcolm Hawke, but in the end, I thought it would be cool to look at the woman who would be Merrill's teacher, and who she was before she took everybody's favourite blood mage cutie-pie as her apprentice. Her unknown deal with Flemeth also served as a good anchor for the story, and who doesn't love more Flemeth?<br /><br />A couple things did change from concept to execution, mostly because of a lack of time (without getting into details, I had a terrible week that left me super-stressed out and made writing this a lot harder). I had intended at one point to introduce some myth arc elements that would tie into <b>The Grey Path</b> and my eventual DA2 novelization, but it felt kinda self-indulgent, especially since the story is supposed to be about Marethari, not Sagramor and Hawke. The hunger demon was there to add some action to the whole experience, and seeing as how we don't actually have a unique hunger demon model in-game, I thought it would be kinda nice to create one of my own, so let me know what you think about that.<br /><br />Regardless, I do hope you all enjoy! As ever, any and all comments, suggestions, constructive criticism and favourites are really appreciated. I always enjoy hearing from you guys, and knowing that my work is at least being read is really important to me! Thanks!