Isabela
Naishe (a.k.a. Isabela)
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Isabela's birth name is Naishe. She was born in Rivain to Madam Hari, a notorious thief and charlatan, and an unknown father who was described as "large, hairy, and good with his hands" by her mother. When she became a pirate, the first ship's captain she served under began to call her "Isabela," his "little beauty," as a joke and she eventually adopted the name as her pseudonym.
Madam Hari was a thief and charlatan who had infamously posed as a Rivaini seer to help a village in the Rivaini interior in exchange for coin. When she got bored, she would leave the village to steal from other people or con them into buying mystical charms like the Rivaini Fertility Talisman. These trips could last weeks, and Hari would often take her daughter with her to help. The young Isabela took to dishonesty quickly. But Madam Hari grew disillusioned with the life of a fraud and eventually she converted to the Qun to give meaning to her life. She sold Isabela into marriage with a business associate of the Antivan Crows, Luis, when she refused to convert. While Isabela offers numerous interpretations of the bargain her mother struck when she was given away, she is noted as having told Varric Tethras once that her mother gave her away in exchange for nothing more than the promise that she would be looked after. Luis took her to Antiva City and they were married three weeks later, just shy of Isabela's nineteenth birthday.
As a result, Isabela has a poor opinion of her mother. When romanced, she will say to Hawke, "At least your mother loved you. Not everyone can say that." Similarly, if she is present while speaking to Arianni when beginning the Wayward Son quest, she will comment that Feynriel is lucky to have a caring mother.
Luis was a rich man, buying Isabela many fine things and hiring a tutor to teach her to read and write, but the marriage was loveless and she was treated as his "plaything." Though Isabela enjoyed the first few months of her life with Luis, she quickly became bored, and then angry when it became clear she was expected to act as "befitted the lady of the house". After a year, Isabela began to deliberately antagonize him, thinking he'd let her go. Around this time, she met Zevran Arainai in Antiva City, and promptly started an affair, based mostly on physical attraction and a desire to test her boundaries with Luis. Zevran also taught her the basics of knife combat.
Realizing that his young wife was out of control, Luis resolved to get rid of her. According to his journal, he planned to "lend" her to certain business acquaintances who had expressed an interest. He was assassinated in his bed a week later by Zevran. Isabela provides differing accounts of the exact circumstances of his assassination to different parties. If Isabela is romanced by Hawke she claims that she did not have Luis killed, although she was grateful for his death regardless, however she later claims to Varric that she directly ordered his assassination. The Antivan Crows keep their records secret, and so the identity of the person who wished Luis dead has never been revealed. Though it is unclear whether Isabela contracted the assassination, she helped Zevran accomplish his task by giving him the location of the key to Luis' room.
On the same night, she left the house with nothing but two daggers (given by Zevran, who carried seven on his person) and a sack full of jewelry she used to bribe sailors into helping her commandeer the Siren's Call, her husband's ship. They sailed to Llomerryn, where the sailors abandoned her. A day later, Isabela used her untested knife skills to duel a man she has only referred to as the Jackdaw, betting that if she could best him in single combat, he would have to help her hire a crew and find a job. Isabela won the duel, though she's unsure whether the Jackdaw let her win out of pity. She found herself a new crew and a new captain (as she knew she would be unable to captain her own ship and wanted to learn under someone who could). She later killed the captain over an insult and took back control of the Siren's Call. There are rumors that she and the Jackdaw started a passionate love affair, though he disappeared never to be seen again a year after they met.[1]
After she became a pirate, Isabela became extremely promiscuous, and soon became a raider—the self-proclaimed "Queen of the Eastern Seas." By the time she landed in Kirkwall, she had been a captain for approximately 10 years.
Social
Family Ties
Zevran - Friend/ Former lover,
Garrett - Friend,
Marian - Friend,
Anders - Friend,
Fenris - Friend,
Varric - Friend,
Merrill - Fiend,
Aveline - Friend
Relationships
Legal Status
aunt and nephew
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aunt and niece
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aunt and niece
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aunt and nephew
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aunt and nephew
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aunt and nephew
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aunt and niece
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aunt and niece
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aunt and nephew
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aunt and nephew
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aunt and niece
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friends
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aunt and nephew
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friends
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friends
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friends
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friends
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friends
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friends
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friends
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friends
Species
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Eyes
playful golden
Hair
nearly shoulder length brown hair
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
warm brown
Height
5'6"
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