Born into the noble caste house of Helmi, she grew up amidst the nobles waging simultaneous unending wars on the darkspawn and their fellow nobles. One of the youngest members of her family, Astrild was able to avoid much of the politicking, which was good as she was very uninterested in participating – although she has the utmost respect for those who are skilled at it. Instead she was more interested in history, and learning how to fight. While female fighters in Orzammar are seen as unorthodox, to say the least, she was lucky to be born into a house that already had a few and received training.

She did not manage to stay entirely untouched by scandal; tongues sometimes wagged both her being a female fighter and her semi-open liaisons with women, mostly of fellow upper castes, but some noble hunters as well. Still, it’s not like she tried to marry any of them or take military command, so people mostly let her be.

She sincerely loves Orzammar and wishes what’s best for it. As such, she joined the Shaperate of Memories (her noble status allowing her an immediate good ranking) in order to help preserve what she views as part of the essence of her people. During the time there she briefly met Zevran and Honora, and saw Gisele from afar.
Once the matter of Orzammar’s succession was settled (in which she was totally neutral), the Shaperate sent her to personally observe and record the events of the Blight. Being a bit of a Grey Warden fangirl (particularly of the stunning Warden queen who defeated an archdemon and was a talented politician to boot), she was very excited.
Little did she know…

So far she finds the surface to really, really suck. The ocean is awful, there’s no ceiling, the buildings are all poorly built, and the people have no sense and have weird superstitions (Andraste? Blood magic? Dreams??). Still, she’s very curious about everything and in seeing how the current situation turns out. She really, really enjoys getting a chance to use her fighting skills. She likes the company of certain party members. And she certainly wouldn’t protest if she could find something valuable for Orzammar, whether it be knowledge or an alliance.
(Also, she drunkenly swore to fight the Elven god Fen’harel, but she means it! At the very least, she can fight against the murderous goat. The surface is weird.)

Currently wields the ancient dwarven wrench of bludgeoning.
DEFINITELY NOT making eyes at Honora Kaloethes.