Verald was the youngest son of Maferath and Gilivhan and adopted son of Andraste.
Background[]
Verald's father, Maferath, was an Alamarri chieftain, commanding the biggest and most powerful Alamarri tribe through his marriage to Andraste. As she was believed too weak to bear children, Maferath took a concubine to provide him with heirs. He sired three boys with the Alamarri woman named Gilivhan. After the concubine's death, Verald and his brothers were adopted by Andraste and raised as her own.[1][2]
When Maferath betrayed Andraste in exchange for the lands he and his wife had conquered from the Tevinter Imperium, he ordered his vast armies to retreat back to the Fereldan Valley. He split the land into five; he kept the Fereldan Valley for himself; he gave the Dales to the elves for their part in the Exalted March, as promised by Andraste; he gave the Ciriane lands to Isorath; and he split the lands north of his own between Evrion and Verald, his youngest sons. Verald took the lands to the west, around Nevarra City.
Verald constantly leveraged his parents' name and legacy to strengthen his rule, claiming that their actions were his, likely against the wishes of his father, who remained silent on the matter and rarely visited Nevarra. A decade later, when Maferath's betrayal was revealed, Verald had drawn such strong ties between himself and his father that he was instantly vilified alongside him. While his entire court was murdered, Verald managed to escape to the lands of his brother Isorath,[3] possibly at the invitation of Isorath's wife, Jeshavis.[4]
Jeshavis was a Ciriane woman who harbored a secret hatred of the Alamarri. Though she had suffered the Grand Unification, she would not suffer the rule of an Alamarri, son of Andraste or no.[5] She manipulated the young Verald into killing her first husband, then married him when he demanded it to bring legitimacy to his claim. She then seeded rebellion against her new husband; within a decade, she was the figurehead of a people's rebellion against him. After Verald's death, Jeshavis ruled Orlais for forty-two years, having finally rid her lands of Alamarri rule.
After he abandoned Nevarra City, it developed into an independent city-state, and eventually into the nation of Nevarra.
Codex entries[]
Codex entry: The Children of Andraste
Codex entry: Jeshavis, Mother of Orlais- Codex entry: Not of Heroes: Division and Distance
- Codex entry: Not of Heroes: Maferath and Sacrifice
- Codex entry: Not of Heroes: The Death of Diversity
- Codex entry: Not of Heroes: United in Hatred
