"Perhaps it is understandable," Declan said somberly. "With what hardships your people face. I imagine you want something better for your children though, as those who have them say. To want more for their future and work hard to try and ensure that." He gazed out across the landscape of Ferelden. "Here we have struggled in our own way. Not against the Darkspawn, but occupation of another sort. Shrugging off the yolk of the Tevinter, and then Orlais. Ferelden's independence makes it seem a youthful place. But the people have been fighting here for what was there's before they had a name for this land. There's a pride in that too. We've always been able to rally together in times of need."

There was much more to be found in Ferelden's history than one might think at first glance. So often many countries looked at them as infantile, as barbaric. But that was simple refusing to look beyond the surface. One reason, Declan believed, that the last Blight was ended so soundly and quickly was because of the way the Ferelden people had banned together beneath the Warden's flag. Not only the guards of Denerim and it's standing armies, but across the bannorn, the Dalish had come, the dwarves, and the mages from Kinloch Hold. Perhaps it was because of the Warden himself, the lengths towards which one individual would go to protect his home. Declan believed Emil could likely understand such a sentiment.

And family. To fight for family.

"Your daughter will join as well?" Something about the idea made Declan's heart feel heavy. He could not imagine sending his nieces off to such a fate willingly. If it was their choice, when they were grown, then he would support them and find honor in that. But to tell a child, what their fate was? It seemed so foreign to him. "My eldest niece, Aislinn, is eleven just now. Already trying to take care of everything on the farm." He wondered what Emil's wife thought of the whole thing. He wondered what made a woman choose to marry a man who could never put her and their family first in his life. It must surely have been love. And it was easy enough to see, that whatever arrangements with the Order, Emil certainly loved and missed his family. "Perhaps it will not be long before you see them again."