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Fade Rift Mods ([personal profile] faderifting) wrote2020-01-06 09:45 pm
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Applications


APPLICATIONS

Applications generally always open (unless otherwise announced and noted) and will be processed on a rolling basis, as quickly as possible.

Before applying, please read the FAQ and the Rules. In addition to a lot of other useful information, the Rules page details the caps and restrictions in place for certain character types. Native characters need to conform to Fade Rift's World State and should take a look at the Timeline of major events that have occurred in the game's version of Thedas. You may also want to check out this post about our incorporation of Veilguard canon and characters.

↠ Reserves
↠ Format Notes
↠ Native Application Form
↠ Rifter Application Form
↠ CRAU Application Form
↠ Canon Updates
↠ Apping Previously Played Characters

RESERVES

To reserve a character, you can comment to this page with a blank comment. You'll have one week to edit your comment to link to a completed application. E.g., you can post a blank comment for Dagna at 1 p.m. on June 1 and will have until that same time on June 8 to finish your application and edit the comment to include it. Do not update your comment until your application is complete. Expired reserve comments will be removed after the deadline passes. Consecutive reserves for the same character are not allowed—you must wait at least one week after your reserve expires to reserve the same character a second time.

FORMAT NOTES

Please paste your application into the comment body, rather than linking it. The subject line of your comment should include your character's name and canon (if they have one). Please don't include any images or adjust the app's style—it's plain to make it easy to read. Also, please make sure you're truly finished with your application before you post it; there are no app deadlines to meet so no rush, and we get notifications for every edit you make, which can get annoying very quickly. And note that we do strictly enforce our word count limits, even if you're only a little over!

If you need help with samples, check the the test drive meme for prompts—you're welcome to either link threads or write starters, whichever is easier for you.

NATIVE APPLICATION FORM

PLAYER

Name:
Age:
Contact:
Other Characters:
Interests: What sort of RP are you hoping for in Fade Rift? Are there particular aspects of the world you're hoping to dig into? Types of plots or threads you're excited about? Do you love action scenes? Political intrigue? Rescuing lost animals? This doesn't have to be long or complex and there is no right answer—it's to help us make sure our plots stay in line with people's interests.

CHARACTER

Name:
Canon/OC:
Journal:
Race:
Nationality:
Occupation:
Division:
Mage or Not:
Age:

History

This section has a 500 word limit. Bullet point timelines are fine! We're less interested in a list of every event in a character's canon/life, and more interested in a description of key moments that shaped the character.

For Dragon Age canon characters, you're welcome to just link to the wiki and then fill in any holes or significant headcanon as needed. If your character has been off-screen for a while since their last canon appearance, please provide a write-up of what they've been doing since their last appearance. For AU'd canon characters, please link to their canon history and write up their AU history. For OCs, just write their history.

Personality

Please describe your character's personality in 300-500 words. No need to touch on every aspect of their being, but do hit the key traits and motivations (as you see them) and demonstrate balance.

Opinions & Affiliations

This section has a 300 word limit. Please briefly note your characters' opinions on topics such as the Chantry, the Qun, the Mage/Templar War, Thedosian race relations, and anything else you feel is worth mentioning for a particular character! If your character is currently or has previously been a member of an IC organization or identifiable group other than Riftwatch, please also briefly describe their relationship with that organization or group. This includes obvious things like Templars, Seekers, Circle Mages, and Grey Wardens, but it can also be used for less organized groups such as Dalish elves, landed nobility, etc., if you have something you'd like to say on the topic that isn't covered in the personality section.

Adaptation Notes

If your character is being AU'd from another canon, please explain in 300 words or fewer how the adaptation you've chosen is a good fit for your character. This should include things like why you've chosen to make them a mage, or a particular race, or a member of a particular organization. How do these choices reflect essential aspects of their canon character? What key features are you adding or subtracting from the canon version of their story and why? There is no single right answer to this question; there may be lots of plausible ways to AU a given character. We're interested in understanding why you've chosen the things you've chosen as part of evaluating your grasp on the character and on the setting.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Basically, what are they best at, and what are they worst at? How can they assist Riftwatch and where will they be a liability? This can include personality strengths and weaknesses as well as any skills or special abilities. It is not necessary to pick a class or to provide lists of specific Dragon Age skills or skill trees, but you can use classes and skill trees as a reference to discuss what your character is and isn't good at, such as saying a mage is good at primal magic but useless with entropy, etc. It's sufficient to give us a general idea of areas and level of ability, but please make sure you mention any magical ability or significant skill/resource/connection you hope to rely on in-game. Please make sure to read and comply with the FAQ sections on character abilities.

Inventory

Please list any notable objects your character will be bringing with them. This doesn't have to be exhaustive, but weapons, magical objects, and items with plot importance must be listed if you plan to use them in the game.

Motivation

What brings your character to Riftwatch? This can be as brief as "he's got a sliver of weird magic in his hand he'd like Riftwatch to deal with" or "he wants to help," though more complex reasons are welcome, and shouldn't be more than 200 words.

SAMPLES

Please provide 2 samples. It doesn't matter if they're written or linked and we don't care if you prefer brackets or normal punctuation, but at least one of your samples must take place in the game world, and at least one must be a log rather than network tags (or their setting-appropriate equivalent). They can be of any length, as long as taken together they provide a good sense of your character and your writing ability. If we feel they aren't sufficient, we'll ask you for more.



RIFTER APPLICATION FORM

PLAYER

Name:
Age:
Contact:
Other Characters:
Interests: What sort of RP are you hoping for in Fade Rift? Are there particular aspects of the world you're hoping to dig into? Types of plots or threads you're excited about? Do you love action scenes? Political intrigue? Rescuing lost animals? This doesn't have to be long or complex and there is no right answer—it's to help us make sure our plots stay in line with people's interests.

CHARACTER

Name:
Canon/OC:
Canon Point:
Journal:
Age:

Canon World

In no more than 500 words, please describe the world your character comes from. Don't try to cover everything, just focus on the key points that an unfamiliar reviewer would absolutely have to know in order to understand your character and their abilities.

History

Please provide a summary of key points in your character's history in no more than 500 words. Bullet points are fine. If there is a wiki history for your character available, please also provide a link in addition to your summary. We're less interested in a list of every event in a character's canon/life, and more interested in a description of key moments that shaped the character.

Personality

Please describe your character's personality in 300-500 words. No need to touch on every aspect of their being, but do hit the key traits and motivations (as you see them) and demonstrate balance.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Basically, what are they best at, and what are they worst at? Where can they help and where will they be a liability? Give us a general idea of areas of expertise and level of ability. While this needn't be 100% exhaustive, any powers/magic/significant areas of expertise not listed here cannot later be used in game.

If your character has superhuman abilities, please describe these abilities in plain terms. Although Fade Rift is based on a video game, we don't write about abilities or attacks as if they are occurring in a video game. For example, characters will not have an ability called "Whirlwind" that enables them to spin in a circle and strike things with a sword. Just tell us they can use a greatsword and they're agile enough to spin in circles with it.

Please make sure to read and comply with the FAQ sections on character abilities.

Suggested Nerfs

Many (if not most) abilities from other canons will be nerfed or adapted to Thedas. We want rifters to be unique and retain what makes them fun to play, but not to be so powerful that they render natives and especially unpowered characters superfluous to missions. A list of universally applied power limits is in the FAQ (http://faderifting.dreamwidth.org/966.html#nerfs). These nerfs will apply to all rifters unless we discuss a specific exception with you. Additionally, we may place other limits on rifters' abilities to prevent them from being too powerful compared to natives and unpowered characters. So if you have a high-powered character, we encourage you to use this section of the app to suggest your own nerfs or let us know what's most and least important to you about their powerset so we can take it into consideration when we establish limits.

Arrival Inventory

What will your character have with them in the dream they arrive from? Please go ahead and list weapons, technology, and magical artifacts, though they may disappear in the passage through the Fade. And please note that we do mean what they have with them in their dream; they can arrive in plainclothes with their usual belongings from a dream about buying groceries, or they can arrive in a gorilla suit with a deflated hot air balloon from a dream that was a little less mundane.

Humanization

Please describe any ways that your character's canon form differs from that of a normal real world human. This should include all physiological differences, even if they're purely cosmetic (for instance, hair or eye color if not standard real world colors). Passage through the Fade will convert each character into a Thedas-standard human, elf, dwarf, or qunari. This means that in every physiological respect, both internal and external, they will be a member of one of those races.

If your character is not a human, elf, dwarf or qunari in their canon, which would you like them to exit the rift as?

Fit

Is there a reason you think this character would be particularly interesting in this setting? Are there particular aspects of the world you're hoping to dig into? Things about your character you think Thedas will help you explore? Will they have a personal connection to an issue, or act as a foil to another character/group/opinion? Give us a sense of what you think your character will bring to the game world and what you think they might take away from it. Basically, why did you choose this character in this game? This shouldn't be more than 300 words.

SAMPLES

Please provide 2 samples. It doesn't matter if they're written or linked and we don't care if you prefer brackets or normal punctuation, but at least one must take place in the game world, and at least one must be a log rather than network tags (or their setting-appropriate equivalent). They can be of any length, as long as they provide a sense of your character's voice and internal narrative. If we feel they aren't sufficient, we'll ask you for more.



CRAU APPLICATION FORM

PLAYER

Name:
Age:
Contact:
Other Characters:
Interests: What sort of RP are you hoping for in Fade Rift? Are there particular aspects of the world you're hoping to dig into? Types of plots or threads you're excited about? Do you love action scenes? Political intrigue? Rescuing lost animals? This doesn't have to be long or complex and there is no right answer—it's to help us make sure our plots stay in line with people's interests.

CHARACTER

Name:
Canon/OC:
Last Canon Point:
Previous Game:
Arrival Point: (At what point in the past game is your character arriving in Thedas?)
Journal:
Age:

Canon World

In no more than 500 words, please describe the world your character originally comes from. Don't try to cover everything, just focus on the key points that an unfamiliar reviewer would absolutely have to know in order to understand your character and their abilities.

Canon History

Please provide a summary of key points in your character's history in no more than 500 words. Bullet points are fine. If there is a wiki history for your character available, please also provide a link in addition to your summary. We're less interested in a list of every event in a character's canon/life, and more interested in a description of key moments that shaped the character.

Past Game History

Please provide a link to the main navigation for the game your CRAU character is arriving from, as well as a summary of key points in your character's prior game history, in no more than 500 words. Bullet points are fine. (There's no need to recount the basics of the game setting, we'll get that from the link.) We're less interested in a list of every event, and more interested in a description of key moments that shaped the character into who they are now.

Personality

Please describe your character's personality in 300-500 words. No need to touch on every aspect of their being, but do hit the key traits and motivations (as you see them) and demonstrate balance. Please make clear which aspects of their personality are from canon and which have changed as part of the CRAU. While it's expected that characters will have changed as a result of their experiences in other games, we expect that they will still remain true to the fundamental nature of the canon character, and that any development will logically follow from the events described in your history sections.

Prior CR

Please list 2 to 5 of your character's closest relationships (of any kind--canonmates or cross-canon, platonic or antagonistic or romantic) from their past game and briefly explain what that relationship was and how it influenced the character's development. This section shouldn't exceed 300 words.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Basically, what are they best at, and what are they worst at? Where can they help and where will they be a liability? Give us a general idea of areas of expertise and level of ability. While this needn't be 100% exhaustive in detail, any powers/magic/significant areas of expertise not listed here cannot later be used in game.

Please note which skills or abilities are from canon and which were developed in your prior game. If your character has superhuman abilities in canon, in their past game, or both, you can choose (1) to keep their canon power set, (2) to keep their game power set, or (3) to lose both. Your character cannot keep both game-granted abilities and canon abilities. If your character's canon abilities were removed in their previous game, you can choose to have them regain them in FR.

If your character has superhuman abilities, please describe these abilities in plain terms. Although Fade Rift is based on a video game, we don't write about abilities or attacks as if they are occurring in a video game. For example, characters will not have an ability called "Whirlwind" that enables them to spin in a circle and strike things with a sword. Just tell us they can use a greatsword and they're agile enough to spin in circles with it. And while we don't want to hear about saving throws or hit points, we do want a sense of the scale of their abilities, so please do include some ballpark parameters for stuff like how big a thing can they lift, how big a ring of fire can they create, how long can they stay transformed into a spider, etc.

Please make sure to read and comply with the FAQ sections on character abilities.

Suggested Nerfs

Many (if not most) abilities from other canons will be nerfed or adapted to Thedas. We want rifters to be unique and retain what makes them fun to play, but not to be so powerful that they render natives and especially unpowered characters superfluous to missions. A list of universally applied power limits is in the FAQ (http://faderifting.dreamwidth.org/966.html#nerfs). These nerfs will apply to all rifters unless we discuss a specific exception with you. Additionally, we may place other limits on rifters' abilities to prevent them from being too powerful compared to natives and unpowered characters. So if you have a high-powered character, please use this section of the app to suggest your own nerfs and let us know what's most and least important to you about their powerset so we can take it into consideration when we establish limits.

Arrival Inventory

What will your character have with them in the dream they arrive from? Please go ahead and list weapons, technology, and magical artifacts, though they may disappear or be bricked or altered by their passage through the Fade.

And please note that we really do mean what they have with them in their dream. They can arrive in plainclothes with their usual belongings from a dream about buying groceries, or they can arrive in a gorilla suit with a deflated hot air balloon from a dream that was a little less mundane. Since your character is arriving from a dream, they may be able to regain canon items, animals, etc. that were not permitted in their previous game.

Humanization

Please describe any ways that your character's canon form differs from that of a normal real world human. This should include all physiological differences, even if they're purely cosmetic (for instance, hair or eye color if not standard real world colors). Passage through the Fade will convert each character into a Thedas-standard human, elf, dwarf, or qunari. This means that in every physiological respect, both internal and external, they will be a member of one of those races.

If your character is not a human, elf, dwarf or qunari in their canon, which would you like them to exit the rift as?

Fit

Is there a reason you think this character would be particularly interesting in this setting? Are there particular aspects of the world you're hoping to dig into? Things about your character you think Thedas will help you explore? Will they have a personal connection to an issue, or act as a foil to another character/group/opinion? Give us a sense of what you think your character will bring to the game world and what you think they might take away from it. Basically, why did you choose this character in this game? This shouldn't be more than 300 words.

SAMPLES

Please provide 2 samples. It doesn't matter if you write a fresh top-level style starter for the app or link us to existing threads, and we don't care if you prefer brackets or normal punctuation, but at least one must be a log rather than network tags (or their setting-appropriate equivalent). One must take place in the world of Fade Rift, and the other in your previous game. They can be of any length, as long as they provide a sense of your character's voice and internal narrative. If we feel they aren't sufficient, we'll ask you for more.




CANON UPDATES

Once in Thedas, rifters don't return to their home universes unless they are dropped and later reapped by the same person. However, your character may acquire new memories from time after their originally apped canon point while asleep and traveling in the Fade. (If your character is a dwarf, please contact us for alternate options.) Your character will not change physically--no new scars, no overnight aging--but the memories will feel as real as if they've experienced them directly. This option is available to both canon and original rifter characters.

If you would like to use this mechanism to update your character, you can do so by submitting the following form as a comment during the rifter application period.



APPING PREVIOUSLY PLAYED CHARACTERS

We allow reapps of dropped characters by both the previous player and new players. Unless their players make other arrangements, dropped native characters generally fade into the background or are sent away on long-term missions. Dropped native AU characters may be reapped by their previous players with their in-game memories intact or by both previous and new players as a new person entirely, with a clean slate. Dropped rifters will have disappeared mysteriously from Thedas, unless killed off in-game prior to a drop. Previously played rifters may be reapped by their previous players with their in-game memories intact, or by both previous and new players with a clean slate.

Dropped Dragon Age canon characters are a little trickier. For characters who were only briefly present in the game or who were dropped a long time ago, it may be possible to retcon their involvement entirely and allow a new player to start fresh. For characters that were around for a while and may have established CR that other characters can't easily retcon, you can work with other players to determine what to keep and what to discard from character histories, and we can work with new players to allow for (selective) memory loss via an in-game mechanic.

If you plan to app a Dragon Age character, we recommend checking for a tag to see if they've previously been played, then contacting us to let us know if you're interested in a clean slate. If you don't want an entirely clean slate, most players who app previously played DA canon characters make OOC posts after acceptance to ask people to recap their previous CR, if any, and decide what CR to keep or change on a chase by case basis.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only
muckspout: (Default)

Catfacts here I come

[personal profile] muckspout 2023-08-23 04:26 pm (UTC)(link)
PLAYER

Name: Lana (rhymes with banana)
Age: four years older than the first time i wrote this app, waow
Contact: coughdrop01 at plurk and coughdrop01 at discord
Other Characters: this is my first born
Interests: Interested in writing action adventure stuff, nihilsm/disillusionment, effects of indoctrination/religion, horse stuff, spooky shit, and throw some silliness in there too

CHARACTER

Name: Edgard
Canon/OC: OC
Journal: https://muckspout.dreamwidth.org/
Race: human
Nationality: Orlesian
Occupation: Thief/Robin Hood
Division: Forces
Mage or Not: not
Age: mid 40s

History

Edgard has humble origins. He was raised on a farm that constantly struggled. He had a dozen siblings and they always did what was best for the group. Edgard hero worshipped his Dad and modeled himself after him. He thought he would always be a farmer because he was. So, when his father told him that it was his duty to go to war for his country, he did it without hesitation. The farm along with his family would be lost to a fire in the war.

He was a foot soldier in the Orlesian civil war with Celene’s forces. He believed very much in the cause and was an obedient soldier always. He saw Celene as a force for positive change that would eventually lead to less people starving.

In the war, he had a buddy who had a sick family member and he tried to desert to help his family. The buddy was caught. Edgard was wrongfully accused of aiding him and was told he had to execute his friend to prove his loyalty. He did this and has never forgiven himself for it. It led him to question everything he believed and he vowed to never follow orders blindly again. He successfully deserted.

After deserting, he wanted to get enough money to get far away, so he fell into a group of thieves. They were a splinter group of the Freedman of the Dales who didn’t want to get involved with Corphyeus. This group saw so much suffering of the people of Orlais and Edgard convinced them to help. They robbed people in order to feed and take care of peasants (ala Robin Hood). They dubbed themselves the Invisible Hands.

Eventually a member of the Invisible Hands was exposed to red lyrium which led him to slaughter the entire group and a group of peasants they were feeding.

Personality

Edgard is a nihilist eeyore type through and through. He can be grumpy and lazy and is exhausted by others. He’s the guy who will participate but complain the whole time about it. On occasions, he can be charming if he really tries. He can come off as brash and is sometimes a bit of a shit stirrer, but means well. He is a strong fighter, particularly skilled at the bow and a very skilled horseman. (Animals, but particularly horses, is the only thing he enthusiastically likes).

Because he’s seen so much tragedy, he doesn’t really think there’s a lot of hope for things to change and thinks people who do are very naive. He’s afraid to care too much because caring has only led him to loss. Despite this, he has a strong sense of justice particularly when it comes to innocents suffering. He is very sympathetic to other’s suffering. He sees this as a weakness. He wants very much to appear as unfeeling and harsh, but he cares too much for that to really work out. He won’t tell you that the Invisible Hands were taking care of peasants. If asked, he will tell you only that he is a thief. He tries to stay focused on the here and now and is impatient with others focusing on past or future (which is hypocritical because he’s very much stuck in his own past). Even though he is miserable, he manages to be funny and generally tries to be helpful if he can.

He spends his free time trying to nap or trying to interact with animals. He isn’t used to having very much and is wildly uncomfortable with money because he’s always given away what he has. He has less of the typical Orlesian superiority due to being of humble means, but has never left Orlais until joining Riftwatch. So, he may not think Orlais is necessarily the greatest, but Orlais is what he knows. He also is not particularly great with hygiene and is very filthy, literally. (Possibly figuratively too under the right circumstances)

Opinions & Affiliations

-Edgard is super not down with class inequities
-But not exactly gunning for a revolution mostly because he doesn’t really think it’s possible/too much work
-War does shit to people and more shit to innocent bystanders
-Wary about a war effort again (although he feels he needs to) but comforts himself with the fact Riftwatch is independent from more official forces
-The Chantry:he once was religious but mostly because he thought he was supposed to and since the war mostly thinks if the Maker doesn’t care, he doesn’t either.
-But on that note he has a Real Problem with people blindly following anything, even if it’s something he agrees with. (Because he used to blindly follow things and it led to heartbreak)
-Tevinter:not down with anything they stand for, but also is frustrated by the exalted march because of what it’s doing to Orlais
-Mage/Templar War:mostly fearful of mages’ power and hasn’t known one personally and been forced to grapple with their rights.
-Race relations: As long as you’re not hurting innocent people, Edgard’s cool with you.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths:
-excellent aim with the bow, with a knife, with anything he can throw
-Good at thinking on his feet and getting himself and others out of danger creatively
-can be fun at parties if you manage to get him there
-strong sense of justice and morals
-excellent horseman and very good with animals
-can be loud

Weaknesses:
-kind of a bummer sometimes/is a complainer
-has been known to get in his own way because of feelings!
-not subtle
-cuts corners/does bare minimum if he can away with it
-says exactly what he thinks
-can be loud

Inventory

Edgard has a bow with arrows, a knife, and nothing else.

Motivation

Edgard has joined Riftwatch because the red lyrium incident shook him up and he wants to stop things like that from happening.

Since joining Riftwatch, Edgard has tried his best and often it has led to disaster. He has consistently done Forces work and though he has seen some successes, he has a bit of a reputation for being a wild card under pressure. The tragic irony is he deeply cares about doing the right thing and has made some steps towards being a little less thoughtless at least in personal relationships. With him, it's very two steps forward, three steps back. He has had only three baths this entire time. Since Wintermarch, he has been on assignment in Orlais, which was a strange experience because he had recently sacrificed his ability to speak Orleasian.

SAMPLES

one, two,
three,
four (ah ah ah ah)


faderifting: (Default)

APPROVED + NOTE

[personal profile] faderifting 2023-08-28 02:01 am (UTC)(link)
WELCOME

Your application has been approved, with the following notes:
↠ You're welcome to just handwave his time in Orlais as background helping the Inquisition with something vague, but if you'd like to make something more of it please drop your plan in the Mod Contact so we can give it a look before it comes up on-screen.
Welcome to Fade Rift! Before you start playing, please:
↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
↠ Reply to the Taken List.
↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.
technologist: (Default)

leo fitz | mcu | rifter

[personal profile] technologist 2023-08-26 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
PLAYER

Name: Melissa
Age: 18+
Contact: PM or awarewolf on plurk
Other Characters: None
Interests: Being heroic and doing nerd stuff with rifts/magic.

CHARACTER

Name: Leopold James Fitz
Canon/OC: Agents of SHIELD/MCU
Canon Point: Early season 7 (in space w/wife, pre-baby)
Journal: [personal profile] technologist
Age: 32

Canon World

The expanded Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is set in the modern day and includes all kinds of high-tech superhero science and ancient alien artifacts. The setting's history is roughly comparable to ours with a few major exceptions: superpowers and aliens, and the existence of SHIELD (the very heroic organization committed to protecting Earth from superpowers and aliens) and HYDRA (a very ancient and evil organization that briefly ran parallel to the Nazi party). As of Fitz' canon point, it's been revealed that HYDRA infiltrated SHIELD a long time ago, and SHIELD's organization and reputation have both been thoroughly dragged through the mud.

Some technology/"magic" that's been encountered in the setting includes: different dimensions, time travel, sentient AI, soothsayers, evil alien possession, an actual wizard, some rocks that control all of space and time or something, etc. It's Outback Steakhouse rules in the MCU baybee

History

@ the wiki
  • Was a very smart wee lad and was recruited to SHIELD Academy and got several degrees or whatever before he was [some impressive age].
  • Met Jemma Simmons at SHIELD Academy and became hopelessly devoted to her, signed up for field missions at her encouragement.
  • Joined Phil Coulson's team, had lots of good times and lots of really traumatic times, some of the big ones being:
  • Betrayed by his buddy, Grant Ward, who tried and narrowly failed to murder him. Gave Fitz brain damage that he's slowly and steadily recovered from.
  • Misguidedly helped perfect the Life Model Decoy (LMD) prototypes, resulting in full AI life that went a little evil and imprisoned Fitz and other agents in a knockoff Matrix called the Framework. This gave Fitz an AU life that included his (previously mostly absent) abusive father. He became a HYDRA leader and committed lots of murder.
  • Post-Framework Fitz feels very guilty and now has 2 lives worth of memories and conditioning stuck in his head. Tries to turn himself in for science crimes, but before he can his team is kidnapped and taken to the future (without him).
  • He spends some time in SHIELD jail being interrogated before his pal breaks him out. Chasing down leads on his team's disappearance leads to the revelation of cool time aliens and time travel, and he decides to find his team by doing time travel the old-fashioned way: freezing yourself and waking up 70+ years later.
  • He does this, and in one timeline he wakes up, rescues his friends, has a massive psychotic breakdown and goes very Mad Scientist/HYDRA leader, and then dies tragically while doing hero stuff. But he helps the team get back to the present time and saves the world, breaking a time loop and deleting the future they'd traveled to. That means that present Fitz, who just popsicled himself to head to that future, is now floating aimlessly in space.
  • In the new timeline, popsicle Fitz' ship is attacked by a mysterious enemy and he and his time traveling alien buddy are forced to go on the run. Fitz spends the next year hopping planets and ships trying not to get caught, hoping to eventually get frozen again so he can get back to saving his team. They don't need saving anymore, but he hasn't gotten the memo.
  • Space hijinks ensue, he's finally reunited with Jemma, he proposes. Then he finds out a) he already proposed once, b) he died, and c) Coulson died. Distant d) he has a grandson who is an adult man.
  • FADE RIFT DETOUR: arrives in Thedas and is stuck for a bit under a year, plenty of time to adapt and put down some roots. Joins research division and focuses on rifts and lyrium, plus more generic weapons research.
  • Goes home, time aliens attack, Fitz and Simmons escape to space and go into hiding while they work on a way to rescue everyone back on Earth.

Personality

Loyal. Fitz is disgustingly loyal. He'll do anything for the people he loves, which sounds very nice — and usually is, as long as the people he loves aren't the type to ask too much or for the wrong things. The show has explored this theme plenty, starting with his anger at and refusal to accept Ward's betrayal. Later, when he's pulled into a Matrix-style AU, his devotion to terrible people drives him to commit (and justify) a whole lot of awful, including human experimentation and cold-blooded murder. The positives are, of course, that he's a very good person to have on your side. He's willing to cross time and space to help out his pals.

Ambitious. An academic at heart, Fitz' curiosity and passion for discovery makes him an asset to any project or team. He's a quick learner and a self-hating over-achiever, which always yields stellar results. While he's generally got a very strong moral compass, he does have a habit of getting carried away — he isn't a total mad scientist, but he's had his moments. This bleeds into his approach to missions, too, and he'll sometimes tackle them with an objectivity and determination that irks his teammates. To be clear, his empathy's still very powerful and intact, and he'll fall apart over hard decisions, but he believes someone has to make them.

Stressed. Fitz takes on way too much. Some of this is the result of messy circumstances and being the only person with the skills to get the job done, but it's been pushed to a boiling point by his desire to seek approval and prove his own worth. His upbringing instilled a hefty dose of insecurity that's shaped a lot of his motivations and relationships. Fitz holds himself to impossible expectations in just about everything, and while he's enough of a genius to somehow meet the mark surprisingly often, it isn't healthy or sustainable; he's always just shy of a meltdown, and he can be very irritable and short-tempered on account of it.

Emotional. Good side: very empathetic, able to sympathize with almost anyone. Bad side: able to sympathize with people who probably don't deserve it, can sometimes let his emotions do the steering. He's an open book in relationships, too willing to care and too willing to trust. He'd go miles out of his way to help a stranger. That said, things have changed a bit post-Framework; while the empathy is still natural, he's also been conditioned to be ruthless regarding perceived threats or morally tough decisions. Also, less dramatically, he is very tired and grumpy and can be a real dick in casual interactions.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Very good at science and other brain stuff (picking up new languages and systems, etc). Also has advanced combat training and is above average with firearms and hand-to-hand, but it isn't his focus and he's very small and in like, decent shape at best.

Arrival Inventory

  • Just a very nice 3 piece suit.
Fit

Having already been to Thedas, he'll settle in quickly and will be more focused on surviving and being useful. Since he's already returned home without any obvious consequences or missed time back on Earth (and has had more experience with time travel and how useful it can be for avoiding responsibilities) it'll be easy for him to let go of "getting home" as a mission.

SAMPLES

- TDM top level with log + crystal threads
- an old network post
- an old log thread
Edited (edit to mention previous thedas time!!) 2023-08-26 23:47 (UTC)
faderifting: (Default)

APPROVED

[personal profile] faderifting 2023-08-27 05:55 pm (UTC)(link)
WELCOME

Your application has been approved! Welcome to Fade Rift. Before you start playing, please:
↠ Read the Rifter FAQ and particularly the sections relating to Arrival and Anchors.
↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
↠ Reply to the Taken List.
↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
↠ Take a look at the most recent mod post concerning the state of the game and any plot sign-ups that may be ongoing.
You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm! Since your character is arriving via rift, you're welcome to post a rift arrival log, or to begin RP in the Gallows and simply handwave that members of Riftwatch met your character on their arrival through the rift, helped them close it, and brought them to Kirkwall. If you have any questions, let us know.
Edited (haha our turn) 2023-08-27 18:00 (UTC)
amaizing: (Default)

[personal profile] amaizing 2023-10-01 04:02 pm (UTC)(link)
PLAYER

Name: Lana
Age: old enough
Contact: [personal profile] coughdrop01 on plurk
Other Characters: Edgard
Interests: having a character that both contrasts and compliments what i have to make things more interesting for me

CHARACTER

Name: Cornelia "Lia" Fromme
Canon/OC: OC
Journal: https://amaizing.dreamwidth.org/
Race: Human
Nationality: Free Marcher
Occupation: Formerly professional con man's girlfriend
Division: Scouting
Mage or Not: no
Age: 25

History

Cornelia Fromme is the only child of two learned professors in Markham who dedicated their entire life to the study of the propagation of corn. (Big Corn) Their precious daughter was expected to follow in her parent's footsteps, so she spent much of her childhood and early adulthood in study and education. Her parents believed that if they fed her the soil of books and the water of science, she would grow tall towards the sun.

What a joke! Lia, who will quickly correct you if you call her Cornelia, has been terribly bored her whole life. While forced to look through microscopes, she dreamed of the adventures she would have. She was born for greatness, not for corn or her silly simple parents! She found her escape in the form of a gentleman who sold her parents a rare and previously thought extinct variant of corn. Her parents paid a fortune for it. Lia, sharp as a tack, recognized that it was a fake before her parents did and packed up her bags. She tracked him down, told him she would turn him in unless he let her join him. He let her join.

This power couple spent some time in Antiva "serving" the locals with a blessing scam. It went well and for awhile, life was exciting! But, the shine on Lia's new man wore off and she, as she always does, got bored. Drunk with power, she ditched him and ran off by herself to another town where she attempted the scam on her own. She was immediately caught.

Personality

Lia is the greatest person who ever lived and is constantly astonished that people don't seem to already know that. She is arrogant, but not in a way where she ever feels the need to prove it, she doesn't need to prove it! Why don't you know?

She was raised by scientists and thus has an insatiable curiosity about everything. She interacts with the world like a small child would: asking endless questions, watching quietly to draw conclusions, and sometimes putting her mouth on it. :) This can be seen sometimes as caring and even charming, but that would be a misunderstanding. She's all about finding what's interesting. Objectively, she can be very sharp and calculated but only about others. She has no sense that she could be wrong about her inflated opinion of herself.

Lia likes to try on other people's opinions and personalities as her own. It's not that she's trying to fit in, it's just fun to see what it's like! She doesn't have a lot of morals. She is not the sort of person who's going do a murder or anything, but she is mostly only out for herself. But what she is out for is excitement alone. If someone were to wrong her, she would probably attempt some kind of petty revenge. She can be cunning and is smart, but not nearly as cunning or smart as she believes herself to be. (A genius, one of the great minds of her time, criminal mastermind). In truth, the only thing she is qualified for is science (specifically corn science). She will talk loudly about how much she hates science. Despite herself, she spends a lot of free time compulsively reading and learning things. Old habits die hard.

Her upbringing was very sheltered and until her recent adventure, has always been stuck inside a lab with her parents. She's extremely ready to have as many adventures as possible. Think freshman year of college party time vibes.

Opinions & Affiliations

Tevinter: They’re the bad ones, right?
The Chantry: Church is boring, but she knows enough to pretend to be a Chantry Sister
Race relations: Definitely never seen anyone who looked like that before!
Mages: Can you really do magic? Is it dangerous? How does it feel? How does it make YOU feel? Can you show me?
Mage/Templar War: Opinion on this will change depending on who’s asking. The truth is a big ole shrug.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths:
-curiosity
-ability to talk people into things
-ability to find things out
-ability to see things as they are (if it's not herself)
-generally charming
-sneaky like a fox
-can run very fast
-incredibly knowledgeable about specifically corn

Weaknesses:
-not particularly loyal
-no self awareness
-arrogance
-absolutely no fighting ability (just running)
-kind of annoying
-hates corn

Inventory

Lia is dressed as a Chantry sister and is carrying a large bag of marbles. Under her robe, there's some coins, an expensive looking bracelet, a pocketwatch, and several jewels.

Motivation

She gets caught in a scam by Desiderio and he literally chases her into a rift. She gets an anchor shard as a result.

SAMPLES

One, two, three ah ah ah ah


Edited (i saw a typo and i couldn't just let it go) 2023-10-01 16:07 (UTC)
faderifting: (Default)

APPROVED

[personal profile] faderifting 2023-10-04 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
WELCOME

Your application has been approved! Welcome to Fade Rift. Before you start playing, please:
↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
↠ Reply to the Taken List.
↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.
axetrovert: (2)

Karlach | Baldur's Gate 3 | Native AU

[personal profile] axetrovert 2023-11-03 07:24 am (UTC)(link)
PLAYER

Name: Charlie
Age: Old
Contact: Unprotagonist @ Plurk and Discord
Other Characters: Ellie
Interests: Found family and y'know, The Horrors,

CHARACTER

Name: Karlach Cliffgate
Canon/OC: Baldur's Gate 3
Journal: [personal profile] axetrovert
Race: Tiefling (Qunari AU)
Nationality: Tevinter
Occupation: Former Slave/Soldier
Division: Forces
Mage or Not: No
Age: 27

History

Canon Wiki

• Grew up as a Vashoth in Tevinter, a Qunari born to Tal-Vashoth parents. Karlach has never lived under the Qun and would never like to.
• Her parents, Pluck and Caerlack, were very decent folks who loved her very much. They weren't well-off, but they made it work.
• Around the age of 16, Karlach accepted work as a bodyguard for Enver Gortash, a young man with some rough dealings and designs on power. Karlach made enough money from this job to get her parents a nicer place to live and set aside money for her future.
• Karlach was an earnest kid who liked her work, who trusted and was very loyal to Gortash, and "would have done anything for him".
• Karlach's parents passed away. Her mother from a fever, and her father from an accident with a trade cart.
• Around age 17, Gortash began to have dealings with Zariel, a Tevinter magister who would later become a Venatori. For reasons unknown to Karlach, Gortash sold Karlach to Zariel.
• Zariel experimented extensively on her slaves with lyrium. She made Karlach into her personal attack dog, and replaced her heart with an unknown device powered by lyrium.
• Karlach became Zariel's top killer, and her strength and prowess in battle meant she was often pushed into war efforts. For the past ten years Karlach has fought as a slave soldier in Seheron, often directly against Qunari warriors. She heard whispers of the war in the south, and of Riftwatch.
• Zariel recently pulled Karlach from Seheron and redirected her to join the invasion force -- namely, Granitefell.
• Karlach realized that they were meant to butcher innocent civilians. Invasion forces of Qunari warriors are one thing, but innocent townsfolk are another. In the original timeline she was captured and killed soon after defecting. That little rewind gave her a new lease on life: and the whispers about Riftwatch began anew.
• The enemy of my enemy is obviously my friend, and anyone with time magic that powerful can surely help with an unstable lyrium heart, right?
• Zariel has issued a sizeable bounty on Karlach and wants her back, preferably alive. Misinformation given throughout Orlais, Nevarra and the Free Marches has painted her as a dangerous, unstable murderer who will tear through anything and anyone she gets her hands on.


Personality

Karlach is big, loud and passionate in every conceivable way. She is outgoing and gregarious, lives life to the fullest and wears her emotions on her sleeves without shame or reservation. She loves unreservedly, leaning into her bottomless capacity for affection just as easily as she does her truly terrifying amount of rage.

She approaches the world positively and with fierce and infectious joy, a forefront sense of humor, and genuine love of other people. She dances when there's no music, indulges in the simple pleasures, and relishes intimacy and touch. She is endlessly loyal when it's been earned, which can be to her own detriment at times.

Karlach can be violent and impulsive, but it's tempered by her ironclad sense of justice and genuine love of other people. If someone asks for help they can usually expect Karlach to have already started, especially if it involves using her strength to remove a threat. She's confident and comfortable with herself, and isn't above poking fun at her own shortcomings.

Karlach's negative emotions are the ones she struggles to bottle up. Pain, betrayal, grief, helplessness, fear, bitterness- she doesn't want to sour the good things she has with things she can't do anything about, like her own fragile mortality. So when she does explode, it's a meltdown. She'll break everything in sight, scream, cry, and rage until she runs dry. It's not pretty. She'll need to be alone.

With an experimental lyrium device for a heart, anything that makes it beat faster or harder, like desire or surprise or joy or anger, will have her running too hot for other people to touch without literally burning themselves. Given that "feeling something strongly" is Karlach's default state, she's horribly touch-starved, and after her years with Zariel, desperate for any type of affection.

She'll be coming to Riftwatch positively giddy about her newfound freedom, and eager to build a circle of people to love.


Opinions & Affiliations

• Chantry: Not sure what she believes, but some of the rituals and songs are nice.
• Qun: No. No thank you. It might work for other people, but she's simply not built for it. While we're at it she's not a Qunari, thank you- she's Vashoth. Not Tal-Vashoth. Vashoth.
• The Mage/Templar War: A complicated and personal thing made into an us-vs-them with a hell of a lot of collateral damage. Tragic mess, really.
• Templars: Sus, but not a dealbreaker.
• Mages: Hackles up on reflex, nothing personal. Individual mages could absolutely earn her trust, but they're starting from behind.
• Seekers: Bit fuzzy on how they're different from Templars.
• Circle Mages: Never met one before.
• Grey Wardens: PLEASE SIGN HER ARM SHE GREW UP HEARING THE STORIES. YESSSSSS
• Dalish Elves: Never met one before.
• Landed Nobility: Never seen a gentry loo before. What's it like?


Adaptation Notes

Karlach's story in Thedas is nearly 1:1 her story in canon, though in canon she was sold to an archdemon in one of the Hells and made to fight in the Blood War, rather than Tevinter and Seheran.

Karlach's heart in canon is something called an Infernal Engine, which is unstable outside of Avernus and needs specialized care. See her wiki for spoilers about her character arc, which heavily involves dealing with this as well as her relationships with Zariel and Gortash.

In Thedas, she has a lyrium-based device instead of a heart, something like Tony Stark's, but dangerously unstable. She will need help before she's able to control her temperature enough to be touched.

Tieflings are physically closest to Qunari, and they're othered in a similar way by the races of Thedas. Everything else is basically as-is.


Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths:
• Like seven feet tall and built. She could lift a fully-grown man in armor with little strain, and probably beat someone else to death with them.
• Swings a mean axe, and is a veteran of more battles than she can rightfully count. Knows how to kill a truly worrying amount of things in detail.
• Excellent at taking orders, organizing others, and strategizing for large and small-scale battle.
• Used to fighting alongside mages.
• Consistent and firm sense of right and wrong.
• Familiar with Tevinter and the Venatori, may have good insights and occasional insider information, especially about locations.
• Difficult to scare.
• Being a ray of fucking sunshine.
• Willing to let the Research team do some wild shit.

Weaknesses:
• Too hot, hot damn. :(
• Not stealthy.
• Will balk at extremely shady orders.
• Well-known and desirable target for the enemy.
• Lyrium heart problems.


Inventory

The clothes on her back, her greataxe and bow, a couple of healing potions, and a raggedy teddy bear named Clive.

Motivation

Both protection from Tevinter and also her best chance at fucking them over. Also she heard Riftwatch can do a LOT, magic-wise. Ever seen a heart like this one before?

SAMPLES

TDM.
faderifting: (Default)

ACCEPTED

[personal profile] faderifting 2023-11-03 11:01 pm (UTC)(link)
WELCOME

Your application has been approved! Welcome to Fade Rift. Before you start playing, please:
↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
↠ Reply to the Taken List.
↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.
brennvin: (Default)

astrid runasdotten | native oc

[personal profile] brennvin 2023-11-15 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
PLAYER

Name: Julie
Age: still old
Contact: [plurk.com profile] quadrille & quadrille on discord
Other Characters: Stephen Strange
Interests: The same nonsense I’m into with Strange, but Astrid specifically is to have someone where it makes more sense for her to get into the Scouting/Forces plots and scrappy messy fieldwork. Plus, dipping my toes into the native OC pool and exploring a human being who’s a blunt hammer having to learn to be more subtle over the course of her Riftwatch work. Could possibly also dig into dwarven Carta stuff, considering Orzammar’s trading connections with the Avvar?

CHARACTER

Name: Astrid Runasdotten
Canon/OC: OC
Journal: [personal profile] brennvin
Race: Human
Nationality: Avvar
Occupation: Scout
Division: Scouting
Mage or Not: No
Age: 27

History

  • Ástríður Runasdotten — it’s a lot, just call her Astrid, or Asta once you’re close — comes from Wulfhold, an Avvar hold in the Frostback mountains. Father died too early, so most of her childhood memories are with her mother Runa and younger half-brother Kristoffer.

  • Her father’s brother Pike was the hold augur; optimistically tried to teach Astrid reading and writing, but she didn’t take to it well and remains only barely-literate to this day.

  • Flourished with scouting instead, light and swift on her feet where her brother is more of a brawny brawler. Scouting ran in the family: her mother was one of the scouts temporarily on loan to the Inquisition years ago. Astrid herself has spent her working life hunting for the hold, ranging across mountains and forests, with the occasional trading trip down the river on boats. But the rest of Thedas has been a source of quiet fascination: starry-eyed at tales of big cities with their masses of people and traders going to Val Royeaux or even Denerim. [i wanna be where the people are.mp3]

  • In her early 20s, she had a temporary two-year marriage to a woman from another hold; it passed fleetingly, as these things do, and they parted amicably at the end of it.

  • Despite the Inquisition being headquartered in the Frostbacks, Wulfhold is so isolated that they escaped most of the war’s direct effects… until recently. Their hold-beast, a giant lone wolf named Raskmodig, started behaving erratically and went missing. Which is a terrible omen, so Astrid and other scouts were sent to track him, see if another hold had killed him.

  • Instead, she found that the wolf had become Fade-touched and developed some strange affinity for rifts, meandering west and north across borders. He slowly followed the path of each rift as they opened up, drawn to them like a moth to a flame. It was a process of literal months following him, particularly when the rifts started opening in Antiva at a greater pace.

  • At the most recent appearance, there were both demons and Riftwatch on the field, and Raskmodig unexpectedly joined the battle. Quick to fight, Astrid joined in — but in her naïvité, she still thought she was safe from the hold-beast. Out of his mind, Raskmodig pounced on her, and she had to fight him off with a dagger and ultimately be rescued by Riftwatch. The animal died with an arrow in its throat, like putting down a beast with rabies. But then again, the injuries from the demons and her own knife were extensive, too. Who’s to say which was the killing blow? She’ll never know.

  • Which is how Riftwatch will take her in: devastated, unable to face the idea of going home with the hold-beast dead, so she’ll instead trail them to Kirkwall. She wants to learn more about the rifts and how the fuck can we someday permanently stop them happening, please. If that also means no more rifters? Oops, sorry, it’s not personal.


Personality

Astrid was raised to be self-sufficient; she’s loud and temperamental and terrifically comfortable with the space she occupies in the world, even as she’s a fish out of water, a mountain barbarian now walking amongst urbane city people. She’s hopelessly blunt and straightforward, gregarious in how she’ll talk to anyone as if she’s known them for years — because, well, her social world once consisted mostly of people she’d known all her life.

That temper means she’ll sometimes come across as rude or fighty, but in the way that brief disagreements might be resolved with one punch to the jaw and a scuffle in the dirt and now you’re best friends thank you. A term of endearment might be go fuck yourself (affectionate).

That said, there’s also a surprisingly naïve streak to her: raised and living only amongst other Avvar, she expects people will keep their word and that they’re fundamentally honourable. She expects a certain level of community welfare and people chipping in to help each other survive, so will be utterly thrown by lying or backstabbing. She’s slightly agoraphobic in crowds and uncomfortable in tight spaces, accustomed to being in the wide-open mountains with the broad sprawling sky above her.

Astrid is used to spending weeks in the wilderness alone and dealing mostly with animals, so is poorly-suited for complex politicking or deceitfulness; the woman’s face and heart is an open book, and so if you feed her nonsense, she’ll likely just believe you outright (and then reciprocate with sharing some of her own superstitions, for your trouble). She gets restless easily, always needing to keep moving and doing something productive with her hands: whittling, carving small animals out of wood, fletching her own arrows, etc.

Outside of hunting, her attention is fleeting and she has trouble sticking to a single project, being easily-distracted — ditto with relationships, drifting in and out of beds — and so it’ll be an interesting challenge, trying to put down new roots in such foreign soil. It’s a chance to see the outside world and experience more of Thedas, though, and so she’s determined to make something good out of it.

Opinions & Affiliations

Avvar: Home. Misses them deeply and will befriend an NPC Avvar expatriate in Lowtown who can hook her up with brown goat cheese and fermented fish. Has a younger brother back home (appable!) and connections to her ex-wife’s hold (appable!), but she’s too ashamed to return.

The Inquisition & Riftwatch: Astrid grew up with her mother being away for long weeks, occasionally scouting for the Inquisition, so she’s been distantly intrigued by them even though she didn’t know much of the nitty-gritty of their existence. They’ve always felt mysterious and somewhat larger-than-life; Riftwatch, as the Inquisition’s splinter cell slash spiritual successor, will feel just as impressive and storied. Until everyday reality sets in, but that’s alright.

Mages & magic: The Avvar have an alarmingly casual approach to spirit possession, and so she’s also pretty blase about it and mages generally. Everything would be a lot better and simpler if people had a more beneficial relationship with their local spirits instead of being so afraid of them all the time, ok. It’s not Astrid’s realm of expertise, though; she’s happy to leave that sort of thing to the augurs.

Lowlander nations in general: All painted with the same brush. Astrid has the habitual Avvar condescension towards lowlanders in their comfortable houses, who would perish in their first winter on the mountains — but at the same time, she’s secretly awestruck by their material comforts. She likes fine clothing and fancy houses and not starving. As confident as she is, she’s a little touchy about being seen as just a dumb barbarian or having her lack of knowledge reflect poorly on Wulfhold.

Orzammar: V comfortable with dwarves, having conducted most of her trading with Orzammar. Some of the business connections might have been Carta. We don’t judge where our supplies come from.

Adaptation Notes

n/a

Strengths & Weaknesses
  • Archery & hunting. Excellent at taking someone or something out from afar.
  • Melee combat, particularly with a dagger. Not as good at it as her brother, but still a competent fighter and doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty or getting into a scrap.
  • Bog-standard survival skills. Wilderness scouting in general, following tracks, foraging food, and making camp.
  • Cartography. Mostly good at map-making and has a good sense of location, but can also draw faces surprisingly well in charcoal.
  • Has a good memory for things she hears, thanks to oral storytelling. Wanna swap folktales? She’s got plenty.


  • Relatively clueless about the world otherwise, particularly international politics. Astrid knows the mountains she grew up in and a bit about Orzammar, but the nuances of lowlander nations barely registered for her until recently.
  • Barely literate. If you hand her a letter she can eventually labour through it in, like, an hour, but it’s not great.
  • She’s literally just a girl who showed up with a bow and who’s sad about her dog, she does not possess any special abilities.
  • In terms of scouting, she’s terrible at social infiltration: trying to pass undercover at a fancy party would be a sight to see (which also means it should happen, please). She’s more useful in the field and on the move.


Inventory

  • Longbow, arrows, more daggers than you thought
  • Carved wolf figurine
  • Leather and hide armour
  • Wolf pelt cloak, will use as blanket
  • White facepaint
  • A broken frost rune, inherited from her uncle. It doesn’t work anymore, but she carries it around as a sentimental trinket.


Motivation

Her hold-beast died and she couldn’t stop it, so sheer shame is keeping her from going home. Considering the animal’s deterioration, Astrid also wants to learn more about Riftwatch’s role in closing rifts (and, as a bonus, more about the outside world and The Big City™).

SAMPLES

one, two
faderifting: (Default)

ACCEPTED

[personal profile] faderifting 2023-11-16 01:30 am (UTC)(link)
WELCOME

Your application has been approved! Welcome to Fade Rift. Before you start playing, please:
↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
↠ Reply to the Taken List.
↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.
exequy: (Default)

kostos averesch | native oc (reapp)

[personal profile] exequy 2023-11-18 05:14 pm (UTC)(link)
PLAYER

Name: MJ
Age: Old
Contact: [personal profile] unbeliever
Other Characters: Bastien, Redvers Keen, Xiomara Novoa
Interests: It has been eight years and you haven't given me Druffy.

CHARACTER

Name: Kostos Sicurano Averesch
Canon/OC: OC
Journal: [personal profile] exequy
Race: Human
Nationality: Nevarran/Antivan
Occupation: Enchanter
Division: TBD
Mage or Not: Mage
Age: 30s

History

  • Father: Nevarran nobleman. Mother: sister of an Antivan Merchant Prince. Siblings: an identical twin and a now-deceased little sister.
  • Ruined his extremely comfortable childhood by developing magic and accidentally killing his sister with it at age 9.
  • First Circle: College of Magi in Cumberland. Kostos was traumatized and miserable and morbid, prone to hiding to avoid magic lessons and scaring the other children with death and damnation talk. Nevarran attitudes about magic plus his family's money and influence meant they were allowed to visit him sometimes, in conference room situations, to try to help him even out.
  • Second Circle: Nevarra City. Transferred in his teens because his aptitude for spirit magic and noble connections made him a natural choice for the Mortalitasi. Got a big head about it.
  • Third Circle: Ghislain, after being dragged out of bed and transported there in chains. Later found out that it was because his brother had tried to kill the king of Nevarra and his family had fled the country. The Circle tossing him outside of Nevarra's reach probably saved his life. But Ghislain sucked. Essentially a prison for mages whose misbehavior didn't quite warrant Tranquility or who were too politically inconvenient for Val Royeaux/Montsimmard. Kostos became extremely annoying about badgering the Templars to follow the rules, which didn't work but also didn't get him disappeared because his family was still rich and important.
  • Fourth Circle: Ansburg, where Ghislain authorities were overjoyed to send him to take on his first apprentice, a young man who shared his particular gift with spirits.
  • No Circle: Ansburg wasn't dramatic about it. Mages just walked out. Kostos went to Andoral's Reach with the others and was on the Loyalist's side of the vote there, but since the deal was that the Loyalists would still fight if they lost, he fought.
  • Wound up in a guerilla-esque unit led by Nell Voss, then wound up her lieutenant and best pal. Did some war crimes. Lost some friends. Threw up about killing people.
  • From out in the field, heard Fiona had indentured the mages to Tevinter. Then like 2 minutes later heard Fiona had pledged the mages to the Inquisition. Confusing and sketchy. So their group was like "nah" and kept doing what they were doing for a while.
  • Eventually did come in and join up when the larger threat persisted in not going away.
  • Highlights with Inquisition/Riftwatch: griffon riding, helping Nell lead a mage strike to force the release of phylacteries, bringing his sister's mummy to the Gallows for reasons, curing someone of Tranquility, big fight with Nell because she helped assassinate a GRAND CLERIC without telling him, etc.
  • Left to rejoin the rebel mage army after Fiona was killed and has been with them for most of the last year.

Personality

Kostos is terminally surly, dark tempered, and intractable. He’s an introvert in a way that he makes everyone else’s problem, starting conversations he seems immediately resentful to be forced to continue and making eye contact with the chin-down borderline hostility of someone who was told not to look at the floor when talking to people and only learned to raise his eyes. But he’s not shy, because that’s a different thing. He has next to zero anxiety about whether people like him. If he has something to say, his impulse is to say it as immediately and directly as possible, whether that’s telling someone he thinks they suck or asking if they’d like to fuck.

He’s stuck between belief in a dogmatic religion and a theoretical yearning for order and control vs. an inescapable chaotic degeneracy in personal practice. He loves to gamble and fight and make bad sex decisions and kick hives just to see. Someone only watching him and never listening to him would maybe never have any idea he’s so uptight about so many things. There’s a bit of logic to it; he thinks he’s dangerous—look at how bad his impulse control is, he is not someone who should have the ability to kill people with lightning—and he’d love to outsource doing something about that to a higher power. There's also some trauma, and then there's some basic hypocrisy and compartmentalization, because he’s human.

He has plenty of self-awareness, and he wavers between regret and defiance. There are days when he hears you honking and he would also like him to not be doing what he is doing. There are other days when he hears you honking and he’s flipping you off about it. His prevailing stance is that he sucks, but so does life, and if he’s the worst thing that happens to someone on any given day then they have it pretty good.

Somehow, despite all of this, he has friends who he cares about a lot and vice versa. I’d attribute that to a few different factors. First, some people are just into his kind of thing. Second, he's sometimes fun. He has a dry brand of humor that makes it hard to tell when he’s joking, but he does joke. He’s capable of smiling. He goes along with dumb ideas; catch him showing up to Satinalia parties looking like he wants to murder everyone including himself but nonetheless wearing whatever stupid costume one of his friends said he should wear. He’s honest (for better or worse, see paragraph 1) and terribly loyal. He will argue all the way to the bridge, but if when they get there his friends still think jumping off of it is a good idea, he’ll jump too. And if any outsider says jumping off the bridge was stupid then he'll punch them in the face.

Opinions & Affiliations

Circles: A lifelong Loyalist prior to the war, Kostos has shifted over the last few years into more of an Aequitarian. He's invested in mages having self-determination as a group, but not as individuals, and he's opposed to them using that self-determination to set themselves loose on the world. Especially steadfast in opposition to mages inheriting, marrying, or procreating.

Templars: As a theoretical group, he thinks they're necessary. As real individuals in the same room as him, he is afraid of them and therefore hates them. Touch him and there's a one in four chance he loses his shit about it.

Nations: Considers himself not a citizen of anywhere anymore but still patriotic in an expat way. Culturally extremely Nevarran and has a chip on his shoulder about other people's horror/confusion about Nevarran practices. Dislikes Orlais because he personally has never had a nice time there.

Races: Elven friends via Circles/Riftwatch but elf oppression isn't really on his radar as a thing to concern himself with. Does anyone have opinions about dwarves? They're fine. Thinks the Qun might be on to something sometimes.

Religion: Nevarran Andrastian and anyone who believes differently is incorrect.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Spirit magic: A former spirit magic child prodigy, mostly by virtue of being one Thedas' rare spirit mediums capable of communing and mentally connecting with spirits, seeing through their eyes, etc. He's extracted a lot of utility out of that talent and is nice to have around in a support role as a barrier machine, battery pack, or commander of a small unit of versatile spirit wisps. Here's a spell list including his previously approved custom specializations.

Veteran: He's been in one war or another for going on a decade, most of it with Riftwatch, so he's acquired all the familiarity with combat and weird shit that entails. He's also a trained griffon rider.

Connections: Kostos' uncle is one of Antiva's Merchant Princes, his parents are extremely wealthy in their own right, and he has some blood ties to various Nevarran noble houses. None of these are things that Kostos wants to acknowledge or would be good at leveraging on his own, but they've come in handy before and might again.

Misc: He speaks Nevarran as a first and preferred primary language, fluent Trade (with an accent), and good albeit slightly stiff Antivan.

WEAKNESSES

Non-spirit magic: Due to a combination of impatience, fear, disinterest in reading, and the plain old absence of talent, he's terrible with any non-spirit spells. In one sense lightning magic comes easily to him—if someone jumps him in an alley they'll probably get electrocuted out of reflex, for example—but in an uncontrolled way. Like fifty-fifty odds of friendly fire. His handful of primal tempest magic spells were an unsuccessful attempt to improve his control, and he only uses them if things are very dire.

Personality Insofar As It Affects Work: Like, most of it. He's churlish and blunt and stubborn to the point that he once had to resign from a leadership position in Riftwatch because he refused to make even a token apology to an offended ally. He is a bad liar and a bad actor. He wants to be a patient mage who reads books but it just isn’t his nature, so given tasks that require a lot of patience/detail he’s also likely to try to just hit it with a wrench (in a manner of speaking) instead.

Misc: He’s gotten better at outdoor survival/scouting than he was during the Mage/Templar War which was his first time outside a Circle in TWENTY YEARS, NELL, how was he supposed to tell animal tracks apart—but still it isn’t his favorite and he acts like a wet cat about being exposed to any elements whatsoever. He's worse at cards than he thinks at the table and is still paying off some gambling debts in Kirkwall.

Inventory

  • Light armor, clothes, good boots
  • Staff enchanted for cold damage and improving mana regeneration
  • Enchanted ring
  • Pet raven (Talas)
  • Camping/dinner/murder knife
  • Phoenix skull he's in the process of burning designs into
  • His own personal phylactery
  • Large black marble hand from a statue

Motivation

After previously leaving Riftwatch on good will-still-be-in-touch terms to rejoin the rebel mage army, Kostos immediately lent his support to Nell Voss' ongoing agitation for the rebel mage army to distance itself from the Chantry and the Exalted March. As a result, he's being reassigned back to Riftwatch by Fiona's acting successor, Rodrigo Valenzolo. If Nell isn't being reassigned too then it's because Kostos is less useful and less popular.

SAMPLES

A public service announcement; normal sibling stuff.
Edited (I hope no one else is tracking this) 2023-11-18 23:13 (UTC)
faderifting: (Default)

ACCEPTED TO PREVENT FURTHER EDITING

[personal profile] faderifting 2023-11-18 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)
WELCOME

Your application has been approved! Welcome to Fade Rift. Before you start playing, please:
↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
↠ Reply to the Taken List.
↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.
galvanising: (Default)

Nell Voss | Native OC

[personal profile] galvanising 2023-11-18 11:54 pm (UTC)(link)
PLAYER

Name: Cass
Age: so, so old
Contact: I'm talking to myself right now
Other Characters: Yseult, Evelyn
Interests: Mage things, jokes, adventures, magic, rabble-rousing, bad decisions

CHARACTER

Name: Nell Voss
Canon/OC: OC
Journal: galvanising
Race: Human
Nationality: Ander, by way of Nevarra
Occupation: Ex-Circle enchanter, rebel mage
Division: Forces
Mage or Not: Y
Age: 30s

History

Born in the Merdaine region in the Anderfels to a working class family, the middle child of five. Her father was a stonemason and aspiring sculptor, her mother a laundress. When Nell was small, her parents loaded the family in a wagon and left in search of work, eventually settling in Nevarra City's equivalent of Lowtown. After an argument at dinner one night, Nell manifested magic for the first time by setting their home on fire. Everyone got out safely, but it destroyed the roof and part of the (shared) building. Frightened and well-trained by Chantry teachings, her family promptly handed her off to the Templars and Nell was enrolled at the Nevarra City circle.

She had some catching up to do when it came to book learning, but took to magic like a duck to water. She excelled in the practical, hands-on courses (not so much in anything theoretical) and her obvious potential combined with her easy acceptance of Chantry supremacy allowed her to begin studying combat magic early, working with Force mages to learn control without losing power. She excelled at her studies and after her Harrowing was tapped to study with the Knight-Enchanters.

Nevarra City's circle used Knight-Enchanters in combat, as guards, hunting maleficarum, and in skirmishes along the borders with Tevinter and Orlais. She was assigned to work with a team of Templars and came to think of them as friends and comrades, and believed they thought the same of her. But when mistakes were made in the field and the time came to place blame, they turned on her with remarkable speed. Overnight, Nell found herself an outcast, the blinders of ambition and privilege removed.

She did a hard 180, becoming an outspoken member of the Libertarian faction and behind closed doors a Resolutionist, too. Her rabble-rousing saw her moved to the remote and conservative Perendale circle, where her arguments fell on deafer ears. Life moved on, until the gathering at Andoral's Reach. She voted to break with the Chantry and joined Fiona's army in the battles that followed. She later broke with Fiona's faction, supporting neither the peace proposed at the Conclave nor the bargain with Tevinter, and was skeptical of the Inquisition alliance that abruptly took its place. Instead she led her own rebel cell, continuing the fight for some years before finally hardship and failures drove her to join old friends in the Inquisition.

She stayed with the Inquisition for years, fighting a lot of battles for them and a few with them, most notably over the handling of phylacteries. She acted as second in command of the Forces division for a while under ex-Templar Coupe, but eventually got restless of working behind the scenes and rejoined the Inquisition about two years ago to fight on the front lines where her combat skills are most useful.

Personality

Nell's childhood, like most Anders', was poor and religious, so the Circle, rich and religious, just seemed like an upgrade. She worked hard, she did well, she was rewarded for it, and that fed her ambition for more and blinded her to the injustices of the system. When other mages complained, she scoffed. If instead of bitching they'd just follow the rules and be better, like her, they'd be fine, like her. How could they not appreciate how good this life was compared to the alternatives? Her awakening to the violence inherent in the system was abrupt and thorough. She's never gotten over her anger, at the injustice of it but especially at herself for being so naive for so long. Her grudge, a mix of vengefulness, shame, and righteous fervor, propelled her into the rebellion and beyond.

The war was the perfect outlet for her grudge, talents, and restlessnes, and she excelled, finding a purpose and a station and new friends to replace all she'd lost. She threw herself into it, becoming one of the cause's most devoted and most terrifyingly effective soldiers. She's most comfortable on a battlefield, in her element throwing boulders at people and people at boulders. She's more or less fearless, partly because the rush of combat and getting to use her magic to its fullest extent is so satisfying and partly because she isn't concerned with her own survival. She's not actively trying to die, she's happy to survive another day to drink with her pals. But she's crossed a lot of lines for the cause(s) and believes it's right that someday she'll pay the price.

Until then, she's got a quick smile and an easy laugh. She can be sharp-tongued and needling in her sense of humor, but she doesn't usually mean it. She can go on a rant, but isn't the sort to preach, better to talk over wine and cards. She lives up to some redhead stereotypes: fiery temper that burns fast and hot, reckless streak a mile wide. She's passionate, stubborn, and outspoken, a thrill-seeker who seems to survive on some mix of luck, power, and bloodymindedness rather than any care for self-preservation.

She can be more thoughtful and calculating than she seems. It took a lot of discipline to learn to harness her power and master the talents of a knight-enchanter, and that strict control exists alongside her headlong pursuit of danger and dissolution, a classic 'work hard play hard' approach taken to some extremes. She's spent years fighting with savage intensity for first one side and then the other of a battle she knows better than most isn't black and white at all. She's determined to see it through until it kills her, but there's no reason she can't enjoy herself along the way.

Opinions & Affiliations

Mage/Templar War: a necessary war that couldn't come too soon and isn't over. Templars and Circles are an evil that must be eliminated for good, and that end justifies the means. (Secretly, in her heart of hearts, she knows there's more nuance to the issue and regrets some of the things she's done in pursuit of mage freedom, but you'll never make her admit that now.)

The Chantry: as an institution, it's been corrupted by hardliners and anti-mage sentiment. She doesn't hate the religion itself in general, and understands the power and appeal it has, but she's no longer a believer.

Tevinter: the way they live obviously has its points, but they also seem like creepy assholes who treat everyone who isn't super-rich like shit and have given all mages a bad name. Destroying the magisters would be a benefit to southern mages, along with the downtrodden of Tevinter.

Qunari: Worse than the Chantry when it comes to their treatment of mages, brutal invaders who must be stopped.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Combat: Knight-Enchanter, force mage, 15+ years of combat experience. Best at offensive magic and big displays of force, not the best at defensive shields and barriers and prefers to rely on others to provide those, no skill in healing or fiddly precision things like glyphs or stealthy types of magic. If you need a building knocked down, she's your girl; if you need an enemy quietly killed without alerting others or a lock picked or thoughts on magical theory, not so much. (Probably going to submit a custom spec.) Fights with a bladed staff (real blade on one end, spirit blade on the other).

Used to taking a lot of damage, getting healed by some other mage, and getting back out there. Learned a little blood magic during the rebellion but not the mind control kind, just how to use blood (usually her own) to power normal spells as a last resort if she's been hit with magebane or run out of energy. She's been practicing staff-less magic for years and is now good enough to hit people with a fireball or blast of force on her own, but significantly weaker and with much less control than with a staff.

Leadership: Reasonably perceptive and strategic, but better at the big picture ("mages should be free") and some gritty details ("we need mages on city guards to keep people safe without Templars"), and not good at the middle ground of how to turn ideas into actual long-term plans to achieve anything. Spent a couple years leading a rebel cell but better and more comfortable following someone else's lead, even if she hates to admit it. Her best role is a battlefield commander type—give her a team and point her at a bridge that needs taking or defending and she'll get it done.

Rabble/Rouser: Good at drinking, gambling, and courting disaster. Good at riling up a crowd, not great at holding her tongue especially when drunk or mad. Can be coarse and impatient, doesn't fit in exalted political circles and has a chip on her shoulder about coming from the lower classes. Does not make good decisions in her personal life, to the point that it seems she may be deliberately making bad ones, though she's calmed down slightly as she's had some freedome longer. Makes casual tavern-friends easily, but doesn't let many people close enough for real trust.

Inventory

  • A bladed staff, wood and dawnstone
  • Odds & ends
  • Is it bad that she doesn't own anything else notable at this point in her life? Maybe. Shut up.


Motivation

She's being "reassigned" from the Inquisition to Riftwatch after making a bit too much noise about how the mages should be in the Free Marches helping stop the invasion and free Starkhaven rather than invading Tevinter with the Exalted March and how they're perfectly free to choose to go do that if they want to.

ANCIENT SAMPLES

link 1
link 2

faderifting: (Default)

ACCEPTED

[personal profile] faderifting 2023-11-19 12:12 am (UTC)(link)
WELCOME

Your application has been approved! Welcome to Fade Rift. Before you start playing, please:
↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
↠ Reply to the Taken List.
↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.
icasm: (watch me make 'em bow)

loki laufeyson 🐍 mcu & d+ 🐍 spoilers through end of season 2

[personal profile] icasm 2023-11-20 05:42 am (UTC)(link)
PLAYER

Name: Era
Age: 40 in 2024
Contact: spacewitchery on both plurk and discord
Other Characters: none at this time
Interests: Found family, coming together to stop apocalypses, things like that

CHARACTER

Name: Loki Laufeyson
Canon/OC: MCU: Specifically Disney+'s Loki TV Show
Canon Point: post Season 2 end
Journal: [personal profile] icasm
Age: Old Enough To Know Better and Still Acts Like This (aka over several thousand years old, at this point - he doesn't even know how long he's been alive anymore)

Canon World

Alright so. The world Loki comes from is a planet called Asgard, which is connected to eight other worlds through a cosmic nexus called Yggdrasil. The Earth of the MCU is one of those eight but is generally considered too low-tech and humans too underdeveloped to be involved in the wider dealings of the other planets connected to Yggdrasil. Asgard in and of itself is somewhat utopic and has been known to be a source of magic, technology, diplomacy, and peace.

Prior to that particular spin on its history, Asgard was a world at war with other planets in the nine realms.

Because of the nature of Yggdrasil, the people of Loki's world have had exposure to alien races and planets, technology that includes ships meant to travel the stars, and people with amazing abilities like magic (just overall) or the ability to pinpoint and locate someone within any of the nine realms.

The setting Loki comes from is pretty fantastical, and he KNOWS incredibly firsthand about the existence of other timelines and realities, so really, anything goes.

History

As per usual, here there be spoilers for seasons 1 & 2 of the Loki D+ TV show

→ betrayed his family (he's adopted & has some unresolved issues about it)
→ faked his death (kinda) once that didn't go the way it was supposed to
→ spent some time in unsavory company (Thanos, et. al.)
→ attempted to take over the entire planet Earth via a coordinated alien attack on New York in 2012, ultimately failing at this goal
→ during capture by the Avengers managed to change his own fate to the tune of getting nabbed by people who were not fond of that kind of behavior (called the TVA)
→ is shown all the tragedies awaiting him in his lifetime including the death of Frigga due to his own poor choices, the destruction of Asgard, and his own death at Thanos' hands, along with a few nice moments
→ started working for/with the TVA to try and help nab a more dangerous version of himself who'd been causing trouble for them (not that there were any other options made available to him)
→ made a close friend in the process (Mobius) and found the more dangerous version of himself (Sylvie)
→ was convinced to join her cause, got Mobius on board, and all three worked together to try to overthrow the TVA & expose its lies
→ ended up at the Void at the End of Time, teamed up with other Variants of himself & Sylvie & Mobius to get them both into the Citadel where whoever ran the TVA was supposed to be
→ succeeded
→ LEARNED HIS ENTIRE LIVED EXISTENCE WAS VERY POSSIBLY SHAPED EVERY STEP OF THE WAY BY SOMEONE (HWR) WHO WANTED HIM TO TAKE OVER HIS JOB DESTROYING FREE WILL FOR THE 'GREATER GOOD'
→ tried to convince Sylvie not to kill HWR until they had a moment to figure out what they'd do to avoid a multiversal war with countless versions of HWR in the mix
→ failed
→ acquired a very painful 'ability' called time-slipping, eventually made his way back to the TVA he was familiar with, figured out how to track Sylvie down
→ tracked down a Variant of HWR (and Sylvie too) in an attempt to prevent a disaster that would destroy the TVA in its entirety and possibly unravel all of the branches of time
→ failed
→ reacquired the time-slipping problem and attempted to avert the disaster that cost him his friends through various means including learning everything he could about the theoretical physics at play
→ failed at this for several centuries and DISCOVERED THAT ALL OF THIS NONSENSE WAS MORE PLOTTING BY HWR
→ continued failing to avoid the timeline disaster for countless attempts in which no one else recalled what transpired except for Loki
→ eventually decided to fix it by turning the infinite branches of time into a tree, becoming the God of Timelines Stories, and isolating himself from his friends in the process, presumably forever

Personality

We'll start with the things that are glaringly obvious to someone interacting with Loki:

He's arrogant. As hell, right off the bat. He's very self-involved and incredibly vain. He's also spoiled, if not by circumstances of his raising then by the use of magic to get what he wants or needs immediately when he wants it. He has never washed a dish in his long, long life and it's apparent. He whines when walking a mile. He has a huge ego and tends to behave as if he thinks he's better than anyone he encounters, whether or not that is objectively true, and usually, it's a resounding not. He's extraordinarily hedonist and tends to be pretty horny on main. He is also extremely chaotic in nature, often seeing through a plan in order to see how the chaos and destruction will pan out as opposed to doing what would be best for everyone or anyone involved, including himself.

He is driven by wanting to be told he's good enough, he's smart enough, and gosh darn it people like him. Being told, however, is not enough; he'd have to believe it and being a giant liar himself and thus knowing and believing that everyone else is capable of lying to him at nearly any moment means that isn't always likely to happen. That is the deep internal reasoning, and the doubt that he is any of those things gnaws at him and causes him to lash out. Loki's got layers, and much like an onion that has started to rot on a kitchen countertop, not all of them are great.

I'm a horrible person. I get it. I really am. I cut off your hair because I thought it'd be funny. And it's not. I crave attention, because I'm a narcissist. And I suppose it's because I'm scared of being alone.

On the definitely more difficult to suss out plus side? He is very smart, actually, and possesses the capability to love and care about others. He also possesses the capacity to be... not a hero, exactly, but not always the villain. Loki had only recently begun receiving positive reinforcement from people whose opinions he believes or at least didn't immediately dismiss out of hand and then he had to live through their disintergration via spaghettification countles times for an unknown number of centuries and backslid a bit to the tune of single-minded problem solving with a side of self-destructive isolation in the name of all of his friends getting to survive and being able to choose what they wanted to do with their lives.

He is, at his core, a deeply lonely and rather selfish person.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Abilities: There are still so many of these and I'm still so very sorry

Powers:
→ Illusion Manipulation - Loki can make illusions of himself, other people, creatures, or things that can interact with the world and take up the appearance of actual space. When they are struck or otherwise physically interacted with, however, it becomes clear that they are illusions and not real.
→ Presence concealment - like a rogue!type, Loki can make himself or someone else (or both) become difficult to be seen or heard
→ Shapeshifting - what it says on the tin: Loki can transform into a version of another person, changing his voice to match the new face and body. He can also turn into a snake.
→ Conjuration - Loki can manifest objects.. However, he needs to possess the items before being able to conjure them. Say someone hands him a knife. He can then put it in a pocket universe and call it up through conjuration. If no one gives him a knife, he can't just imagine one up out of nothing.
→ Telekenesis - Loki can move things with his mind! Requires a line of sight, tends to include him reaching for the thing.
→ Energy blasts - Big bright green energy that he can expel through his hands and use to attack others.
→ Resistant to enchantment - or blood magic, as the case may be.

Skills:
→ Combat-wise, Loki is good at daggers. Like. Scary good. Considering how long he's been alive and fighting, these skills encompass blades of other sizes as well. He's a pretty good hand-to-hand fighter too.
→ Loki is also very intelligent. Good at keeping track of a lot of moving parts, and also lies. Very good at keeping track of lies.
→ Loki is good at tactics and manipulation
→ He's an excellent thief and pickpocket
→ He knows a lot of theorhetical physics now but it'll probably be about 0% useful to him in this setting

Things Loki is bad at:
→ Emotional honesty for the sake of being honest
→ Being a team player, especially if he doesn't trust or respect other members of the team
→ Not acting pompous on some level
→ Not being the center of attention
→ Having had enough sleep
→ Making good decisions while sleep deprived

Suggested Nerfs

Illusion Manipulation will have a time limit that is dependent on the size and complexity of the illusion involved. Also, illusions that are touched or attack will not hold their apparent three dimensional-ness. Upon arrival, I'm going to be limiting his ability to cast illusions to five minutes, maximum, with the idea that if he practices and studies the way magic works for him in Thedas, he'll get this to work for longer time periods over the course of say, six to twelve months in-game.

Overall, he'll max out around 15 minutes, and less than that if the illusion he's projecting is large or complex—so 15 minutes for some static objects or a single duplicate of himself, scaling down to only a couple of minutes for putting an illusion over an entire room or projecting multiple convincing illusions of people at once.

Presence Concealment will also have a time limit of five minutes with a higher chance to fail the longer he's doing it. But if he ran smack into somebody, attacked people repeatedly from the same location, knocked over a big vase, or went and did a dance in the middle of the room, that could draw enough attention to override his ability and cause people to notice him.

Shapeshifting into other people will also have a time limit of five to ten minutes, with the same caveats as Illusion Manipulation and a higher chance to fail suddenly the longer he's doing it. Like native mages, he'll have to study whatever (or whoever) he wants to imitate for a pretty long period of time—think 24 hours or more of dedicated surveillance—to be able to take their shape rather than being able to instantly look like anyone he sees. He'll need more time than that to be able to convincingly replicate their mannerisms and voice and so on.

Shapeshifting into a snake will not have a time limit.

Conjuration as addressed above, only objects that Loki has specifically stored for this ability will work, and I'm limiting his ability to do this by size (objects bigger than him cannot be conjured). Mostly he'll be using it for knives and handkerchiefs and such, so.

His ability to conjure items will be limited to four items overall, similar to how native shapeshifters can only have four forms overall. They have to be smaller than he is. He'll be limited to those specific items.

Current Item List:
1. TVA Handbook (as mentioned in his arrival inventory)

I will let the mods know as he assigns items in-game but he will not be returning with his daggers or the sword he'd given Sylvie.

Telekenesis will be limited to line-of-sight and objects larger than him he will have trouble managing at first. Any improvement to managing larger objects would take practice and study over a six to twelve-month period.

With practice he can get up to moving around things the size/weight of a druffalo. However, he won't be able to develop fine control—no telekinetic writing, lock-picking, pulling specific small books off of a shelf of books without moving any of the others, tying or untying knots, etc. Just propelling (or stopping) objects moving in fairly direct lines or the uncontrolled shaking he demonstrates in canon.

Energy Blasts will be limited to blasts that can startle people or briefly push/blow them back similar to a gush of water, perhaps with a little bit of scorching, but nothing that will kill a person of normal constitution outright.

Resistance to Enchantment/Blood Magicwill provide him with a resistance to abilities others may use on him involving mind control/enchantment but will not be an immediate failure in the case of the caster. He will not have any resistance to the Blight.

All of his abilities will have a line-of-sight limitation similar to native mages'—he can't use his telekinesis or energy blasts on something that's around a wall or otherwise not reachable in a direct line from him. All of his magic will be capable of being cut off by Templars/magebane/other anti-magic measures.

I am not, for the purposes of playing him in FadeRift, allowing him to keep any of the abilities associated with Enchantment or Time-Slipping. They're gone. The Time-Slipping he will definitely not miss.

I'll also be playing him as intensely sleep deprived upon arrival in-game, because it is my understanding he has gotten roughly 0 hours of sleep since the first time he experienced the destruction of the TVA. Humanization will mean no longer having a physiology that can put up with that sort of treatment.

Arrival Inventory

Loki will arrive from a dream in which he is wandering the reset halls of an empty TVA as it is falling victim to spaghettifcation: he will be dressed in his TVA uniform with peacoat and will have a copy of the original TVA Handbook in the interior coat pocket.

He will have no other items or any weapons.

Humanization

On the appearance end of things, Loki looks like a tol human. Now he will be a tol human, with 0 changes to his outward appearance.
icasm: (Default)

sorry for the broken italics above but I didn't want to edit it and send more notifs

[personal profile] icasm 2023-11-20 05:43 am (UTC)(link)
Fit

So first of all, there was a Loki in Riftwatch at one point who was a little different from this one but had/made enemies of course. He's a Loki, what else would one expect? I find that sort of built-in CR opportunity to be really fascinating.

Plus this Loki was in the game a while over a year ago when I last played him and he did really well, actually, in terms of engaging with the plot and making connections with native characters and Rifters alike. He is very invested in his own magical abilities, even by Thedas as a setting imposing limits on what he can do, and I'm curious to see how that complicates CR.

I also personally really like the opportunities to take characters who have been the antagonist before from their home realities and place them smack dab in a conflict that will not be easily solved or ignored by acting in the same ways they have historically.

SAMPLES

1 & 2

ACCEPTED

[personal profile] faderifting - 2023-11-24 13:48 (UTC) - Expand
coquettish_trees: (hat serious)

Alexandrie d'Asgard | Native OC (Reapp)

[personal profile] coquettish_trees 2023-11-27 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
PLAYER

Name: Jasmin
Age: 36 (until tomorrow)
Contact: [plurk.com profile] shaestorms, a_bear on Discord
Other Characters: none current
Interests: Playing with grey morality and exploring how people who aren't "good" can still make positive change in the world. What happens when an addict in recovery has to work near what they were addicted to? (Let's high some society.) Give people who want to push back against Thedosian social norms a player character to fight!

CHARACTER

Name: Lady Alexandrie d'Asgard, née de la Fontaine
Canon/OC: OC
Journal: coquettish_trees
Race: Human
Nationality: Orlesian
Occupation: Nobility
Division: Diplomacy
Mage or Not: Not
Age: 29 for the third time (she's 32)

Initial Application, for reference.

History

In the year and change since Alexandrie left Riftwatch after receiving word that her father was bedridden with what appeared to be a wasting illness, she has been entirely devoted to the care of both her parents and the family estate and village at Val Fontaine. Organizing the harvest, becoming involved with the town's militia, representing the trade and diplomatic interests of her people, fielding the mundane difficulties involved in ordinary people living together; she has taken on the work of a Comtesse, if not the title.

It would have remained so had she not, entirely via the whims of fate, discovered that her father's continual illness was not a natural one but the work of a blood mage who had insinuated herself into the household half a year before making her move.

Personality

Alexandrie is an Orlesian noblewoman in recovery. Once deeply addicted to the many violences, little to large, of someone who sees their place in the world as life-threateningly insecure, she has begun with great difficulty to temper herself. She still has all the skills and reflexes and habits of a social predator, but she has become a more mindful one, preferring to work towards creation rather than destruction. It is a process fraught with growing pains. Even as she is moving towards living in a more complex world in which more and more people are "real people" and ought to have their feelings and interests taken into account and respected rather than catalogued for later exploitation, learning very quietly that not everyone lives in a world in which she herself will have all her feelings and interests catalogued for later exploitation, she is simultaneously hyper-aware that the world she is obliged to walk in as a diplomat is not one in which she can relax. She has become aware of and exhausted by her own paranoia, but can't quite unclench her hand from around it... especially now that she is acting in her father's place and has many more interests to protect besides her own.

So: on one hand, her genuine personal desire to become something kinder, something loving, something strong enough to protect those who don't have the power she does. Something honest, and forthright, and true, that can trust and be trusted. On the other, what she was built to be. What she hates, and knows to be useful: a thing of sharp claws and teeth, of eat-or-be-eaten, of constant paranoid vigilance. As a result of this internal conflict she oscilates between genuine openness and self-involved (often histrionic) fear; although with time she's become more able to calm herself and attempt to make amends for the latter.

Some things haven't changed, and aren't like to. Alexandrie is still extremely vain, stubborn, benevolently contemptuous of those she perceives as being below her social standing or less competent than herself. For those things, there will not be apologies.

Opinions & Affiliations

The Chantry
Ostensibly Andrastian (of the Southern variety), but only in the most cursory of ways. She goes to services, but it's more of a social and political occasion than one of true faith. She has loud problematic opinions on the freedom of Mages (i.e., they should have it) and won't walk it back.

The Old Gods
She doesn't not have a small shrine to the Dragons somewhere.

The Orlesian Civil War
A staunch supporter of Empress Celene, still.

The Current War
For Satinalia she would like Corypheus to be dead and Tevinter to be back behind its traditional borders, but she is notably sympathetic to the plight of Tevinter's civilians. Not just the slaves and the Soporati class, the Laetan and Altus classes as well.

Slavery
A servant class is the natural order of things, but she draws the line at not paying people or allowing them the freedom to change their employ.

Rifters and Other Races
↠ Alexandrie evaluates everyone on a case-by-case basis, but finds it very useful to know how to use the racial stereotyping of any given culture. For the greater good, of course.

↠ She's endlessly fascinated by Rifters, but finds it difficult to treat them as anything but visitors on a time-limit; the ones she gets attached to keep disappearing, and missing people are more complicated for her to grieve than dead ones.

Affiliated with The De La Fontaine Family; currently well liked at court.

Also affiliated with House Asgard; currently disliked at court.



Strengths & Weaknesses

Social

+ Phenomenal Cosmic Power: Operating with the full financial and social resources of the Comte de la Fontaine.

- Itty Bitty Living Space: She can't be as reckless as she was when she was just funky-fun-fifth-daughter, and she'll represent her family's interests over those of Riftwatch.


Education/Skills

+ Float Like a Butterfly, Bite Like a Snake: Trained by an Orlesian Bard for social combat since the age of 16, and then later for combat combat by a really good influence. (Le spec.)

+ Cunning Linguist: Alexandrie is a polyglot; fluent and literate in the human languages, conversationally fluent in Dwarven and Qunlat and able to pick out some words. Rapaciously learns Rifter languages for clandestine reasons.

- If All You Have is a Hammer: While highly skilled in everything a noble daughter of Orlais ought to be, that's not all that cross-disciplinary. As a result, Alexandrie lacks in lateral creative thinking and comes at problems the same way almost every time.


Inventory

Besides the various and sundries of fancy living (including horse and merlin), Alexandrie is travelling with...

↠ the Comte de la Fontaine's signet ring
↠ a beautiful pair of finely weighted knives
↠ p o i s o n s :) (and their antidotes. In a discreet case. Nothing super weird, but half of them are Tevinter's version of normal.)

Motivation

Unsure of who is pulling the strings on the blood mage behind her father's illness, or why, Alexandrie is returning to Kirkwall under the guise of trade-brokering to seek the resources and people that will allow her to pull the entire plot up by the roots. She's trusting it will be in Riftwatch's best interest as well to stop nasty little Probably-Venatori fingers from meddling with the nobility of Orlais.

SAMPLES


Many Several Test Drive Threads!

faderifting: (Default)

ACCEPTED

[personal profile] faderifting 2023-11-29 07:52 pm (UTC)(link)
WELCOME

Your application has been approved with the following note:
Be sure to submit a plot request for blood mage activities before getting into details about anything related to enemy goals or interference in Orlais!

Welcome back to Fade Rift. Before you start playing, please:
↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
↠ Reply to the Taken List.
↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.
tadpoled: (Default)

Tav | Baldur’s Gate III | Rifter

[personal profile] tadpoled 2024-01-02 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
PLAYER

Name: Dha
Age: 34
Contact: derecho. @ discord, derecho @ plurk
Other Characters: n/a
Interests: I am a huge Dragon Age fan, especially DA:I. I love that you can navigate around battles if you play your cards right in dialogue sections. (I also love action scenes, but when playing a video game, if I can roleplay my way around a battle, I count that as more successful - such as at the Winter Palace and how you can save a fight by gathering enough evidence and influence.) With Tav, he's getting pretty tired of being Hero Boy, especially with the news that he is at least partially responsible for the current crisis (or his former self, really). He would like to follow orders and be a Good Soldier, especially as a cleric/druid multiclass. He'd be happy to run around the Hinterlands collecting starter herbs for a garden or clearing paths for the Inquisition as a way of redemption for his past terror.

I would love for him to be able to do some errand boy things before he has to realize that he has a responsibility owed that he can't just shake off. Also, since he is of the Dark Urge origin, would love to play with that cropping up from time to time.


CHARACTER

Name: Tav
Canon/OC: Baldur's Gate III
Canon Point: Early Act III, specifically after Tav learns of his role in the Grand Design as the Dark Urge/Son of Bhaal
Journal: tadpoled
Age: ~75 (he doesn't have a canon age, but in DnD literature it says half-elves become "middle-aged" around age 75-ish)

Canon World

Faerun is the world of classic DnD and Baldur's Gate III takes place in an unknown wilderness near the titular Baldur's Gate, a city in the area known as the Sword Coast. Magic in Faerun is extremely commonplace, so much so that there are shops in cities and wizards/warlocks/clerics in military regiments just like any fighter type. Additionally, there are monstrous creatures that vary from legendary (such as the Beholder) to undead (shades and shadows) to the more common pests (goblins and kobolds). Many of the monstrous variety are sentient and build their own societies with their own religions, hierarchies, trades, and interact with other creatures regularly. For example, goblins, despite being considered "pests" by most races, have their own social structure, with leaders, a deity, and live in villages.

Most races in Faerun get along, while lines of hostility are drawn along class, city, deity, or magic source/ability. For example, in Baldur's Gate III, there is a major conflict between a colony of tieflings and a grove of druids (who are of all different races, but all are druids). It is up to the player to decide how to resolve this conflict. Throughout the game, too, is the issue between the githyanki, who usually live on other plane entirely, and the player, based on religion and obedience to their queen.

All in all, Faerun is very magical, with a wide variety of races and religions, but is not a modern world. The most modern technology they have is indoor plumbing, but only in the richest of cities, such as Baldur's Gate. There is no electricity, but they don't need it if anybody can cast the spell Light and have that serve as their light source.

History

Tav's decisions page

Personality

More than anything, Tav is persistent. When Tav woke up on the nautiloid, he had no memory of who he was, where he was going, or why he kept thinking about killing everything around him. So, from Day 1 of this new life, he had to rebuild himself from the shattered pieces he picked up along away, persisting in every way possible. He asked clerics, companions, and just about everyone he met if such a loss of his memory was normal. Additionally, he followed up a cure for the tadpole in just about every conversation with every person, allowed others to test cures on him as needed, resulting in a lost eye, some near fatal poisoning and the like.

His persistence, then, ties in closely with his loyalty, especially to his companions. He allows them to take the lead in situations where he feels they have the most to say (and the most to lose), such as Lae'zel before Queen Vlaakith. Another good is example is how he allows Shadowheart to make the ultimate decision regarding Nighsong's fate. He tries to persuade her in a specific direction, but ultimately, he trusts her to make the right decision. He remains loyal to the friendship they've built over the fate of the entirety of Faerun. He would put any and all of his companions above the world order if that meant keeping them happy and hale.

Finally, while Tav is both persistent and loyal, he is both of those traits to a fault. For example, when he's pursuing the cure to the tadpole problem, he makes a deal with a hag (which nearly the entire entire party disproves and warns him agains). He loses an eye for his efforts and receives a further disadvantage in the fights that follow since the hag can monitor the party's movements through his hag-touched eye. It's not to say that he's stupid, just that he's not a natural born leader, despite being thrust into the role. He can make the difficult decisions, usually with himself as the one who suffers the most from the decision or deal, but he, more often than not, makes terrible decisions.

One cannot talk about Tav without mentioning the Urge. The Urge is in fact Tav’s former self before he was tortured and placed in a mind flayer pod by Orin, his bloodkin (basically his cousin). The biggest glimpse we get is when Tav ingests the Noblestalk in the Underdark. Tav used to be violent and unforgiving but also precise and exacting. For example, in the memory Tav accesses, his butler is assisting him with a living dissection and nicks an artery. Former!Tav focuses first on preserving the pain of his victim, pinching the artery closed before he lays out some serious punishment on his butler. This is seen again in Alfira’s death. She is gored, eyes carved out, yes, but she is also surrounded by the sigil for Bhaal, drawn precisely with her blood.

Strengths & Weaknesses

As a druid/cleric multiclass, he specializes in healing and elemental magics. I have nerfed the spells already in their descriptions (e.g. taken an AoE spell down to a 3ft diameter), but I can further nerf his abilities if need be! The spell level number indicates how many spells at that level can be cast per day:

Cantrips - Relatively often.
I - 4
II - 4
III - 3
IV - 2
V - 2
VI - 1

So, for example, he can only cast one of a VI spell (Sunbeam, Wind Walk, Heal) per day, not one each.

Also note, the Urge does not have access to these spells, as he seems to prefer a good ol' knife or dagger.

Healing Magic:

>Cure Wounds (I) - Will mend small wounds, such as those requiring 1-10 stitches. Or will stabilize someone at death's door (but will not heal them).
>Heal (VI) - Actually heals someone of their injuries or wounds. (Will obviously require OOC coordination.) Will not revive the dead. Can stabilize someone at death's door and heal them a little. Note, can only be done once a day if no other VI spells have been cast, and is extremely taxing on Tav.

Nature/Elemental Magic:

>Fire Bolt (Cantrip) - Produces a small softball-sized flame that can be thrown at an enemy.
>Guidance (Cantrip) - Concentrating on someone else provides some additional strength/dexterity/etc. when that someone else faces a challenge. Spell breaks if Tav gets hit or is distracted.
>Thorn Whip (Cantrip) - Produces a whip made of thorns, used to drag an enemy closer.
>Talk with Animals (I) - What it says on the can. Tav loves talking to all kinds of animals. Get ready fauna of Kirkwall.
>Moonbeam (II) - Creates a ghostly shaft of light, 3ft diameter, 20 ft high. Enemies that enter will be engulfed in white flames. Spell lasts 30 seconds, rather than a minute and Tav must have line of sight.
>Spike Growth (II) - Creates a 3 ft diameter patch of thorns beneath an enemy. Those that try to move through the space may get some thorns in their boots.
>Plant Growth (III)- Creates a 3 ft diameter patch of undergrowth beneath an enemy. Those who have difficulty moving through thick bushes or other undergrowth may struggle. Else, it is primarily a distraction tactic.
>Grasping Vine (IV) - A vine shoots up from the ground and reaches for an enemy within 20 ft of it. If enemy does not cut the vine away or otherwise get out of its range, the vine will drag the enemy toward its center to entangle the enemy in question. This spell requires a great deal of effort from Tav.
>Sunbeam (VI) - A bright beam of light shoots out from Tav's hand in a 3ft by 30 ft line. Any creature in the line must look away/cover their eyes or be blinded for 60 seconds. Those that do look away/cover their eyes but are still in the line still experience burns as if standing in intense sunlight. This is extremely taxing to Tav to cast.
>Wind Walk (VI) - Tav and 3 willing creatures turn into wisps for up to a max of 30 minutes (down from 8 hours). During this time, all wisps have an increased speed that allows them to fly around. The only action the wisps can take is dash (run further) and revert to normal form. Turning back to normal form takes five minutes and this spell is extremely taxing to Tav.

In terms of weaknesses, Tav has plenty. In a hand-to-hand, non-powered fight, Tav would lose every time. He's a skinny himbo who makes dumb decisions every day he breathes air. While he can be charming due to being pretty, he is just inescapably dumb, especially when it comes to his party. As I mentioned in his personality, he's loyal to a fault and would believe the word of, say, Shadowheart over clear-cut facts any day.

Now that's getting him in trouble because Orin has kidnapped one of the members of his party and making him paranoid. He hates doubting anyone on his team, but has to root out the imposter sooner rather than later. This paranoia will carry over into his time in Faderift.


Suggested Nerfs

I have removed a good 3/4 of Tav's inventory of spells. I have removed all of his "Wall of ..." spells, which I think would be way overpowered. For any AoE spells like "Spike Growth", I have dramatically reduced their area of effect. For any direct attack spells like "Moonbeam," I have reduced the width and length of their line (3x20 down from 5x40). Everything a level IV and up requires exertion from Tav. His healing spells have been greatly cut down to just the two on the page.

The Urge has no access at all to spellcasting.

Arrival Inventory

Tav has some minor experience dream-walking in canon, thanks to Gale. He will come with his plainclothes (Ashmeadow Outfit in Black, with the anchor side torn up to the elbow, a pair of plain black shoes), and a pair of crescent earrings.

Oh and the Urge.

Humanization

Not needed for Tav. He is a half-elf with braided white hair and a tattoo on his temple, so he will look like a Dalish elf.

Fit

For Tav, he's been dealing with one increasing problem after another. First it's his loss of memory, then the tadpoles, then the shadow-curse, the Aboslute, the End of the World. He would love to just be a nobody in a uniform, scouting and then developing starter seeds for Kirkwall's Riftwatch. This is especially true after the news he's received from Gortash about his potential role in the Grand Design. Tav has a lot of processing to do and to be able to help an organization while not being the figurehead would be amazing for him. With Dragon Age so close in terms of technology, I think he'll fit right in, especially since he is already familiar with multiple planes of reality. He won't blink twice at being told he's from another plane (or another new theory). The only thing he'd worry about is if anyone unsavory followed him, like half the hells he's pissed off or the githyanki.

As to what he'll bring, Tav is a battleworn, albeit reluctant, leader. If he were thrust into a general position to fight Rift demons, Tav wouldn't hesitate. He's used to weirder things happening. Yes, he would much rather explore the corners of Thedas for interesting (and useful!) herbs, but if he's needed to do battle, he won't complain.

There's also that interesting part of him known as the Urge. Is he possessed by a demon? Is he another Anders about to blow up the chantry? Who knows!

SAMPLES


Sample 1

---

Another day gone and another restless night follows for Tav. He tosses and turns, but he finally falls asleep on the wooden table serving as his bed since he arrived in Baldur's Gate. When his eyes shut, though, he does not find peace. Instead, Tav finds himself walking through the grass just outside the Basilisk Gate. The gate's teeth dig into the earth, barring him entry for some reason. What has he done this time to earn the gods' wrath? Who has he angered where to suffer yet another setback?

"Cursed to touch everything," Tav mutters to himself as he wraps his hands around the lowest bars of the portcullis and attempts to lift the entire contraption.

However, just as he applies upward force, Tav sinks through the ground, disappears into the momentary dark and emerges through a blinding green and black. He crashes into a cart full of hay, right hand burning as if he's had a splinter of something shoved into it. All around him are voices, commotion, and he raises his aching head inch-by-inch to observe the sunset broken over parapets of stone. The light paints the gallows in a hallowed plum and graphite, but the true star of the scene is the burning slice of green and black hanging in the sky.

Wait, did he do that?

Tav glances down to his hand and it blossoms bright and painful, pulsing with each burst of the green sky flame. People clamor around it, shouting, and creatures seem to pour from it without restraint. Glancing back to his hand, Tav sighs. If it's not a tadpole, there's always something else to worry about. At least this looks fixable, for now. Tav hefts himself out of the cart, a bit unsure on his legs, but he surges toward crew.

Time to fight. Again.

Edited (removed image orz) 2024-01-09 13:51 (UTC)
faderifting: (Default)

REVISIONS & NOTES

[personal profile] faderifting 2024-01-12 04:40 am (UTC)(link)
REVISIONS

Before we can approve your application, we need to request a few changes!
Please provide a written history that complies with our requirements. We require histories to be between 300 and 500 words and need them to be provided in a comment rather than linked. It's fine to use bullet points for the history, but when doing so please also provide enough context for someone who isn't canon familiar to be able to follow along and understand why things are happening. E.g., rather than the BG3 shorthand of "• Raided the grove" (in a hypothetical app–we know your Tav didn't do this) we'd need some context along the lines of "• To make inroads with the Cult of the Absolute, helped Minthara wipe out a grove of druids and tiefling refugees." There's no need to fit every quest in the game into your 500 words–you can focus on the ones more important to your characterization and the overall narrative.

Please reply here with the updated section within 5 days. (You can also request an extension if necessary—just reply to let us know so we know you're still planning to complete the application.) If you have any questions, let us know.

Additionally, we have the following notes about other aspects of the application:
Because the human/elfinization process for FR is total, Tav will lose any traits that aren't possible in Thedosian biology, including losing the physiological aspect of being Bhaalspawn. He can still have the Dark Urge despite this. However, should you want to cure/break it at some point, that will require exploring Thedosian options rather than merely a canon update, so drop us a line in our Mod Contact if you reach a point where you'd like to explore that.

As we touch on in the FAQ when discussing tabletop RPG abilities, in Fade Rift, we don't take spell slots into account in evaluating power sets. This is because we can't and won't be policing how many times a day someone uses a spell vs. naps, and it really isn't an effective power limitation in DWRP anyway, since you're never going to thread out enough fights/problems occuring in a single day to ever run out of spell slots.

So for the most part, Tav will be able to use his abilities the same way native mages use theirs: without literally having a specific number of spell slots he can run out of on any given day, but subject to moment to moment exhaustion of his available magical energy stores, with the amount of speed of his exhaustion scaled based on the scope and power of the spell(s) he's doing. Our general goal is to put characters on similar footing in terms of utility and ability to contribute, whether they're rifters with magic or superpowers, native mages, or neither. If he's beginning to outpace everyone else in a fight/plot or is single-handedly eliminating hurdles that might've provided fodder for collaboration and RP, have him run out of juice and need to recuperate before he contributes more magic.

All of your proposed nerfs work for us, with two additions and one note:

  • Talk With Animals won't work for Thedosian animals the way it does in Faerun. Tav will be able to communicate with them to some extent, but it will be more like trying to communicate via signs and single words with someone speaking a different language; he can get across things like "danger that way" or "I'm not a threat" but he won't be able to exchange information more complex than that. It will also depend on the animal's temperament–something like an angry dragon is not going to stop to listen to him regardless. If you ever choose to rift in an animal companion from Faerun, he'll be able to talk to them more in the way he's accustomed to.

  • Wind Walk needs to be cut–it would negate too many potential plot problems/obstacles all by itself to allow entire teams of characters to float through hazards at will. If you'd like to propose a different spell to replace it with along with the history revision, you can do so, though please keep this general limit on plot-breaking abilities in mind if you choose something else.

  • Depending on what he's healing, Heal will remain something he can only do once per day, and healing grievous mortal wounds or pulling someone back from the edge of death may be so exhausting that he can't do anything other than very minor magic until he's had time to recover.

    • Edits in italics (1/2)

    [personal profile] tadpoled - 2024-01-12 20:42 (UTC) - Expand

    Edits in italics (2/2

    [personal profile] tadpoled - 2024-01-12 20:43 (UTC) - Expand

    ACCEPTED + NOTES

    [personal profile] faderifting - 2024-01-15 03:22 (UTC) - Expand

    Re: ACCEPTED + NOTES

    [personal profile] tadpoled - 2024-01-15 14:30 (UTC) - Expand
    extortionate: (Default)

    Lazar | Native OC | Re-App

    [personal profile] extortionate 2024-01-03 08:48 pm (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: k2
    Age: older today than yesterday
    Contact: shambolism @ plurk/discord
    Other Characters: n/a
    Interests: This seems like a low-stakes way to dip a toe back in. I like characters who make bad choices, so he'll be doing some of that. I've given him a little more combat ability this go-round, and a bit less fear of magic, to make missions easier to justify.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Lazar
    Canon/OC: OC
    Journal: [personal profile] extortionate
    Race: Human
    Nationality: Ander
    Occupation: Mercenary, tomb-raider, thief. He's a polymath.
    Division: Scouting
    Mage or Not: Nope
    Age: 35

    History

  • The second of several sons to dirt farmers in the Anderfels
  • Things with his family aren't great: He sustains a serious head injury, almost kills his brother, his mother is convinced he's not safe to be around, something something, blah blah, disinherited from the dirt farm —
  • Signed on to guard a caravan train in his teens as a way to get out
  • Ended up running off with a wealthy academic (Schiele) who was about to be conscripted by Wardens for assorted crimes
  • (Cutscene voice:) So together they traveled far and wide, scavenging off wars/disaster/convenient treasure-filled ruins...
  • Schiele wasn't a nice guy, probably shouldn't have been raising a teenager, so it's really no surprise that many years later Lazar turned on Schiele in order to join the winning side (Riftwatch) when they were backed into a tight spot
  • Lazar worked there for a little bit, doing things like throwing people into boats and getting lightly poisoned
  • Ran off without notice after the second Dark Future event, in search of the beautiful wealthy merchant wife (who was arms trading to the Venatori) that he'd dreamed of
  • Improbably, this person — or someone close enough for him to squint & pretend — existed, and "Baby, I saw our future together" somehow worked out
  • Look, he's a lucky guy
  • He stole a bunch of her money
  • She put a hit out on him in Orlais
  • He's running to Riftwatch to make a little cash and, you know, let her cool down
  • Then they're totally getting back together


    • Personality

    Lazar doesn't think of himself as a good or a bad person, only a person.

    To be clear, he is absolutely a bad person. He just doesn't dwell on it. Introspection and regret aren't really his bag — at least, not to the degree that most people experience them. His capacity for empathy is low, and he makes many decisions on impulse. Morality seldom enters into his mental math, and he's never once questioned that he'll end his days at the side of the Maker, despite the many people shouting at him otherwise.

    That doesn't mean that there aren't things he finds repugnant. Murdering your neighbour for coin is fine, murdering them for fun? Fucked up. He couldn't tell you why if he tried.

    A consummate opportunist, Lazar is most easily swayed by gold, tits, and (in a distant third) his own mortality. He'll take bigger risks in service of the first two, but when outclassed he's likely to cut and run.

    Somewhat passive, and unquestionably lazy, Lazar tends to defer to authority and force of personality. He may not believe in a given plan or figure, but that doesn't mean it's his problem to solve. Although observant, he's been told he's stupid most of his life, and generally rolls with it. He won't follow up on lines of thinking that someone else shuts down, and he's likely to trust that anyone claiming expertise on an academic subject has some. He has a healthy curiousity and sense of adventure, it's just that he doesn't prioritize learning above profit. Someone will always theorize about dragon shit. It's his job to shovel it.

    Privately, Lazar feels that he's a deep and artistic person with a profound connection to the divine. He believes that he once saw a manifestation of Andraste, and that she asked him to send his brother to her. This was shortly after cracking his skull falling out of a tree, so. You know. But it's very real to him, and accordingly, one of the few things that he continues to feel a nebulous sense of guilt over.

    He's difficult to truly insult (there's been a lot of water off this duck's back), but his creative and religious impulses are a soft, vulnerable spot that he'll defend accordingly.


    Opinions & Affiliations

    WARDENS
    Appreciative, like you'd be appreciative of the fire department run by the local mob. You'll still call them, but there's room for improvement.

    TEVINTER & ORLAIS
    His beautiful wife now lives in Orlais, which means that he's on the side of Orlais, unless she wants to move. Minrathous has good weather.

    THE ANDERFELS
    Bye forever!!

    THE CHANTRY
    He has a neck tattoo because it looked cool. Also, he's pretty sure that Andraste spoke to him directly as a child and asked him to kill his brother, but you don't tell other people about that one.

    CORYPHEUS
    A job-creator, but at what cost.

    MAGES & TEMPLARS
    Generally, you don't want to rob a guy in plate armor, or a mage. Except the ones with the little forehead suns. Those are fine to rob.

    COMPLEX SOCIOECONOMIC STRUCTURES AND RACE RELATIONS
    Humans and dwarves have the most money. But if you're desperate, shake down an elf, because probably no one will bother you about it.

    Strengths & Weaknesses

    + POLYGLOT
    Picks up new languages with extreme ease. Fluent in Ander, Trade, Orlesian. Good in Antivan. Passable Tevene, with the substitution of some strangely antiquated words. Claims to not speak Nevarran, but clearly speaks Nevarran.

    + ROGUE STUFF
    A capable swordsman, and extremely willing to cheat. He prefers ambushes, dirty tricks, and avoiding fair fights whenever possible. He'd much rather try and bluster his way out of a situation than risk of getting stabbed. Okay with a crossbow.

    Shockingly quick on his feet, and has a knack for going unseen despite his size. Lies with a straight face. Doesn't necessarily remember what he lied about, or to who, and will fuck it up.

    + / - SOCIALS
    Comfortable moving between social classes. Exposed to more scholarly papers and expensive goods than someone else of his station. He can do math, read, appraise valuables. He's a decent sketcher with an eye for artistic merit.

    But he's made enemies in academia, law enforcement, mercenary companies, trade houses, ghosts haunting gravesites, and wealthy widows. If Riftwatch goes to a new city, odds are that he has an outstanding warrant.

    - JUST NOT GREAT TO BE AROUND
    Doesn't like leading or volunteering. Will take the shortcut, even if it means dicking over an ally. Always looking for an angle for personal gain, will try to negotiate a raise while you're dangling off a cliff. A little too okay with gore. Likes smelling nice, but doesn't always budget for soap.


    Inventory

  • Two nice but non-magical scimitars, like, nicer than he should probably be able to afford
  • Misc knives & leathers & lockpicks & tools for conducting lawful business
  • A small and rapidly-diminishing cash reserve
  • A wedding ring he is not wearing (ladies)



    • Motivation

    He needs a job. Ideally, one that will keep bards far away from him. You guys don't have any of those, right?

    SAMPLES

    Old TDM w/Lino
    Old TDM w/Jone

    Happy to write up something more recent if needed.
    faderifting: (Default)

    ACCEPTED

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-01-05 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved! Welcome to Fade Rift. Before you start playing, please:
    ↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
    ↠ Reply to the Taken List.
    ↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
    ↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
    You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.
    panulus: (Default)

    Gannicus | Spartacus | native au

    [personal profile] panulus 2024-01-21 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Mici
    Age: sehr alt (well over 18)
    Contact: synanthrope (discord) chelicerae (plurk)
    Other Characters: None
    Interests: Politics, love, and exploring what it means to be a freed slave, how a man with a single brain cell can manage his life, etc.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Panulus Quantulius, better known as Gannicus
    Canon/OC: Spartacus: Gods of the Arena
    Journal: [personal profile] panulus
    Race: Human
    Nationality: Seharon, originally, spent most of his life in Tevinter
    Occupation: Former Gladiator
    Division: None yet
    Mage or Not: No
    Age: Roughly 34-35

    History Canon link

    -Kidnapped as a child, enslaved, sold to a training facility run by a human named Batiatus who was desperate to use his slaves as a way to rise to Altus
    -Became really fucking good at fighting. Like insanely fucking good. Became a champion in the arena, indulged himself in wine and women as his rewards for winning. Had exactly two (2) close friends; Oenomaeus and his wife, Melitta. Because of Fuckery, he falls in love with Melitta. Because of more Fuckery, she dies in his arms after drinking poisoned wine. Shortly after he wins his freedom by being really fucking good at fighting.
    -Leaves Tevinter behind to wander the world, drink, and try and forget that he fucked his best friend’s girl and then watched her die in his arms.
    -Generally fails at not thinking about it, but does succeed in avoiding the war by basically fucking off by himself.
    -Starts to run out of money; through a network of freed and runaway slaves he learns about Riftwatch, gets curious. Hears the name Flint as a Vint who might be some kind of potential ally.


    Personality

    The two most important things to Gannicus appears, on the surface, to be women and wine. He does not seem to be too serious on the outside, and is an adrenaline junkie who lives to fight. He’s often smiling, laughing, and joking, and refuses to take anything too seriously even when he probably should. However, this hides the fact that he’s actually intensely lonely and has a hole inside of himself that he seeks to fill. When he can’t quite fill that with the above - wine women and violence - he often turns self-destructive, and slightly suicidal.

    When he feels, though, he feels quite deeply, and he shies away from it. He doesn’t fall in love easy and so when it happens it’s kind of encompassing (this is a theme in Spartacus). Following the trope of macho macho men who have used violence to get them through life, he has a gooey middle of tender feelings (this relates to his loneliness), and breaking through his laughing persona will lead to that gooey middle. He’s intensely pragmatic about his interpersonal relationships and generally does not waste time with people who he views as arrogant or condescending. Outside of that, he is generally willing to give anyone a chance, and is comfortable in almost any setting. He has a lot of feelings, in particular, for the enslaved (although he will pretend that this is not true) and finds random cruelty to the enslaved to be abhorrent to the point of protectiveness.

    He is not motivated to be a leader, preferring to be as independent as possible from responsibility, but he functions well taking orders and generally does as he’s told as long as he respects the person who is ordering him. He has a pretty and shockingly well-developed sense of honor, when it comes to the people who he chooses to follow.

    While no one in their right mind would call him a "problem solver" as much as he's a "problem maker" the truth is most of his problem making is...in fact, his attempts to problem solve. His solutions to most things are either a: getting as drunk as possible and then getting laid, or b: includes brutal violence, usually ill considered, and potentially without consulting anyone. Luckily, for a man who spent most of his life killing people for sport, he doesn't actually have that much of a temper.


    Opinions & Affiliations

    His biggest thing is that he spent most of his life as a slave and generally regards most Vint nobility as abusive, cruel, and without mercy, and most Vints as willing to sacrifice people for entertainment. While he had a “relatively” easy life (you know, for a slave) because he was good at fighting, he also used to kill people, and has had his sexual agency taken from him. As a result, he has a very low opinion of most Vints, no matter their race, except for the very poor.

    Adaptation Notes

    I am not particularly DA fluent so please feel free to correct me and ask for corrections! From what I understand Tevinter is a Rome expy with slaves and an arena so it made sense to make Gannicus a former gladiator slave. I made him from Seheron because from what Abby told me “we don’t know much about it” and it’s a colony of Tevinter, which works because in canon Gannicus is originally Celtic, but this is when Rome controlled the Celtic lands, so it isn’t a precise one-to-one correlation (I know he would technically be Ferelden but culturally he’s…not? And I didn’t know if slaves were regularly taken from there). I figured it wouldn’t take much fudging for him to keep most of his backstory. I am futzing a little with the language - I say he speaks in an old-fashioned and intentionally archaic way because that’s what his enslaver wanted his slaves to speak, to explain the ABSOLUTELY BONKERS way that they use language in Spartacus.

    Strengths & Weaknesses

    He is - and I cannot stress this enough - VERY GOOD at fighting. He specializes in a style of swordfighting involving two swords, and he considered (in his canon) the best warrior to come out of the arena. Otherwise: no magic, no special abilities, just very good at fighting with excellent stamina.

    Also for “reasons” the gladiators don’t seem content to wear a lot of clothes and don’t seem to feel cold. I don’t like to think this is supernatural, rather, this is a skill learned from habit - he was never allowed cold so he just ignores it now.

    Weaknesses: again, just a dude, so no magic, no fancy skills. He’s exceptionally bad at looking ahead more than a few days. If he gets angry, any critical thinking goes out the window immediately. He is relatively plainspoken and doesn’t know how to play politics.

    Inventory

    He travels with his wineskin, a very very limited amount of money, and his swords (two of them).

    Motivation

    He’s broke, he’s in Kirkwall, he needs money, and he is Good At Violence so he figures he could you know. Get a job or something until he can leave, etc.

    SAMPLES


    https://allthisshitisweird.dreamwidth.org/42221.html?thread=16122605#cmt16122605

    https://allthisshitisweird.dreamwidth.org/42221.html?thread=16118509#cmt16118509




    Edited (ahem) 2024-01-22 00:31 (UTC)
    faderifting: (Default)

    ACCEPTED + NOTES

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-01-23 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved, with the following notes:
    ↠ You heard right that Tevinter takes some inspiration from the Roman Empire, but just as a heads up that's definitely not its sole inspiration in canon (in Fade Rift). So while general Latin-sounding/imperial decadence flavor is cool, please don't expect it to be a perfect 1-to-1 analogue or feel beholden to playing it that way. For one example, Tevinter has its own very distinct canon class system, so other legal classes and titles/distinctions that existed in Rome won't exist in Tevinter. Like everywhere else in Thedas it's an amalgamation of multiple real life things and made up fantasy stuff.

    ↠ Regarding his Seheron origins, you're right that we don't know much about it! Depending on the age at which Gannicus was kidnapped and how much he remembers, that might cause you to run into some problems, though, because our policy for player-created information about canon locations/cultures is that information can't be so big or important that other players (including people who might also want to app someone who's spent significant time in Seheron) would have to know and conform to it. So, for example, you'll be limited in the information you can freely invent about Seheron's common religious or cultural practices and would need to run anything on that level past us before writing about it.

    If Gannicus was taken at a young enough age that he won't recall more than what is already on the Dragon Age wiki anyway, that won't be a problem! But if you want to say he was older and would remember a lot about what Seheron is like, we'd recommend saying that he was from one of the smaller islands around the main island of Seheron or a small village remote from the large city (also called Seheron) so you can invent details that other characters wouldn't necessarily be familiar with, since they're more geographically focused on a place you made up yourself, without needing preapproval for everything.

    ↠ There's no need to make up special cold immunity—Thedas gets colder further south and warmer further north, so Tevinter is among the warmest places on the map, with Minrathous in a near-tropical climate where wearing Spartacus costumes wouldn't be so crazy. Points south get much colder in the winter, and he'll ultimately need to account for that like everybody else. He can be stoic and resilient about the cold to a point, but as a purely biological reality he will ultimately need to wear appropriate clothing in Kirkwall and other southern locations in winter or else risk frostbite.
    Welcome to Fade Rift! Before you start playing, please:
    ↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
    ↠ Reply to the Taken List.
    ↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
    ↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
    You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.
    succise: <user name="chiffonnier"> (Default)

    Lady Vega Arany, native OC

    [personal profile] succise 2024-01-29 04:25 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Cadence
    Age: Old enough to know better
    Contact: blisters @ plurk
    Other Characters: Abby & Gela
    Interests: Well, I'm interested in 1) roleplaying a native character that catches a shard and is actually really happy that it happened, 2) getting to have magic and 3) exploring a character experiencing sexism in a way that isn't typical of the Dragon Age universe

    CHARACTER

    Name: Lady Vega Arany of Vyrantium
    Canon/OC: OC
    Journal: succise
    Race: Human
    Nationality: Tevene
    Occupation: Aristocrat
    Division: Scouting
    Mage or Not: Mage
    Age: 23

    History

    • First child born to Lord Alardus + Lady Rohaisa Arany
    • Coveted position as family baby usurped just three years later by the birth of her younger brother Fransisco Arany, future golden child
    • Does well at the Circle of Magi in Minrathous. Very average experience, a middle of the road student. Being a mage is so great and probably makes you better than other people
    • Undertook many teachings expected of a young lady of noble birth: etiquette, modesty, dancing and conversation, archery, fencing
    • Started to get the feeling her family were angling to do something crazy like, say, marry her off assuming she would not like to be in charge of the estate and be next in line for House Magister, a position her family has held for decades. Surely not?
    • Lo and behold: Fran named future benefactor of these prizes, with Vega's hand to be given in marriage once family receives a suitable offer. Following the divine wisdom and teachings of the Imperial Chantry, selecting the youngest male of the family to be heir is actually most correct in upholding the true image of the Maker, amen
    • Vega, furious, decides she is running away if all they're going to do is get rid of her anyway, and then she's going to come back and Do Something about this great unfairness (fratricide?)
    • Prepared to go south to investigate Andrastianism partly out of spite, partly because worshipping women for their power is seemingly normal there and what she deserves actually
    • Mid run-away she catches a shard, and is forced toward Kirkwall instead. She's happy about this. It is a sign probably

    Personality

    Vega is very proud. She takes her noble status seriously because it affords her coveted future opportunities, and demands this be treated with the utmost respect by anybody she is interacting with. She is able to overlook the suffering of other people because it does not directly apply to her, not in a hateful, fuck-you-got-mine way, but in a willfully ignorant, I'm-going-to-pretend-I-don't-see-that way. She knows inequality is wrong, and has surface level, non-offensive opinions that she can quickly dispense before immediately changing the subject.

    She is not motivated solely by envy, but she sure does talk about her brother and her family's preference for him a whooole lot. It's very immediately obvious that Vega has been a background character in her own life, constantly talked over and dismissed. For Vega it is almost worse that she wasn't outright uncared for or neglected. Nobody in her life has ever paid enough attention to her; this is the true crime.

    Boy is she ever hungry for justice over it. She truly believes that the only way forward is for something really terrible to happen to her younger brother, for him to be permanently out of the way so her family will be forced to acknowledge her. She's happy to do this herself (wants to, fantasizes about it).

    Outside of this catastrophe that governs a large portion of her life, Vega is naturally curious. She likes to read and learn new things, and she likes to be in control. She has a very strong sense of self-worth and understands the benefit of hard work and being diligent, and when she is passionate about something it's hard to make her shut up about it.

    Above all things she loves her magic and she loves being a mage. Being a mage makes her god's favourite princess and the most interesting girl in the world; she feels bad for non-mages, even pities them.

    Opinions & Affiliations

    TEMPLARS: Lap dogs.

    MAGE/TEMPLAR WAR: Join a Tevene Circle and quit whining.

    THE CHANTRY: Friendship ended with the Imperial Chantry, now the Orlesian Chantry is my best friend. Vega is disconcertingly preoccupied with the Divine.

    THE QUN: Ew. In a distant sort of way

    ELVES: Probably dangerous!

    TEVINTER CASTE SYSTEM: C'est la vie...

    Strengths & Weaknesses

    + Best at magic! Specifically force magic (worst is healing)
    + Hard-working, will get the job done if you give it to her. Doesn't think she's too good for most work
    + Interesting. Man, there's a whole lot going on there, but it is probably amusing to watch
    + Good with a bow. Good with an épée
    + Excellent time management and will even be there early

    - Can't stand being second best to anybody
    - Ignorant of the realities of war
    - Dismissive of other people's problems
    - Easily manipulated if you're telling her exactly what she wants to hear
    - Narrow world view (comes with the rich, privileged life style)

    Inventory

    • Expensive longbow that seemingly prides itself on aesthetic more than power
    • Light dappled grey mare named Sweet Lavender
    • Saddlebags on the horse contain changes of clothing, a good knife, some food, traveling supplies etc

    Motivation

    She's got a sliver of weird magic in her hand she'd like Riftwatch to deal with look at and admire.

    SAMPLES

    There are two here.
    faderifting: (Default)

    APPROVED

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-02-01 04:10 am (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved! Welcome to Fade Rift. Before you start playing, please:
    ↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
    ↠ Reply to the Taken List.
    ↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
    ↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
    You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.
    roseandthorns: (Default)

    Truthless | Rifter OC

    [personal profile] roseandthorns 2024-02-03 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Dahlia
    Age: 32
    Contact: rozenthorns on Discord
    Other Characters: N/A
    Interests: I love all forms of RP, from slice of life and romance, to grimdark and horror. I was told by a friend that I might be a good fit here, and I've played the first and part of the second Dragon Age games, but don't remember much. I'm down for any kind of RP that involves good, involved stories and characters!

    CHARACTER

    Name: Truthless, also known as "The Truthless, a Truthless, and The Butcher"
    Canon/OC: OC
    Canon Point: Four years after her Oath of Truthlessness
    Journal: roseandthorns
    Age: 24

    Canon World

    Truthless comes from Covalte, a world that is slowly losing its sense of self. A long time ago, the humans kicked out the magical species in what was known as the Cold Iron Inqusition. The Fey, chief amongst the magical races, didn't take kindly to this and unleashed a form of ancient and forbidden magic that consumed and destroyed the true names of people, places and things. This left them as warped, strange entities whose forms desperately tried to bend and change into something, ANYTHING to be recognized.

    Several hundred years later, humans live in large, magi-industrial cities. Truthless comes from Steelclad, the capital of Korrundum. At 12, she joined the Lucite Silver Academy to become a soldier, graduating at 16 to provide for her sickly halfling love, Sejunna. After 16, she rose through the ranks quickly, becoming a Lieutenant by 20. Shortly after her promotion, she uncovered a series of awful war crimes perpetuated by Victriss Aurim, the woman in line to become the next Commander General of the Lucite Silver Army. Victriss used her influence to pin all the crimes on Truthless, and she was found guilty. Instead of execution, they made her take an oath, the Oath of Truthlessness. The subject would hold a simple, carved stone called an Oathstone that would be the sign and sigil of her crimes. Being Truthless meant having no name, the closest the magicless humans could get to erasing someone's name as the Fey did. It was no magic oath, no brand upon the soul. It was purely held by laws. Laws and honor. And Truthless held her honor close and tight. She spent four years as the lowest class of being in Covalte. Lower than pack animals. Laws regarding the Truthless were sparse. As long as they were fed and not worked more than 22 hours a day, they were fine. Then, the Rift took her to somewhere new.

    Somewhere dangerous.

    Somewhere that reeked of magic.

    History

    Truthless (Born Sentri Dyfientt) entered the Academy at 12
    Graduated at 16
    Married at 19
    Became a Lieutenant at 20
    Betrayed and named Truthless at 20 as well
    And swept away in a Rift at 24.

    The most memorable moment of her life was her wedding ceremony with her long-term love, Sejunna.


    Personality

    Truthless is stoic and reserved. Almost scarily so. She reacts to everything with a scrutinizing attention, but a lack of expression. She follows orders to the letter, never questioning, never complaining, and never differing from the exact wording used. If one tells her "sit down and talk to me", she will sit immediately where she stood and begin to speak. If told to hold something, she will hold it until ordered not to. If told to patrol an area, she will patrol it until absolutely ordered to cease. She will do the minimum amount of self-maintenance when necessary. Eating, sleeping, etc, but only when absolutely necessary or when ordered. She keeps a strict log of her macronutrients, calories, and workouts to determine her caloric intake and necessities and formulates her diet based on maximal nutritional value and nothing else.

    Strengths & Weaknesses

    Truthless is, at heart, a martyr and protector. She wields a truly massive poleaxe that's incredibly long and heavy, even for her 7'2" frame. She defends others, sometimes to the detriment of her own health and safety. This lead to her discovery of her own abilities. If someone she wishes to protect is fighting alongside her in battle, she can take some of the damage done to them onto herself, as if her body had been there to take the wound in their stead. It doesn't block all damage, and the damage she takes can't be blocked, even if she's wearing armor. But, that's fine with her. She fights harder when she's injured. Instead of losing stamina as she is wounded, as she loses blood, it's as if the woman grows stronger and faster. She still gets exhausted, of course, but it all hits her at once when the fight is over. Until then, she can push through, persevere, and protect those who must not be allowed to die before she does.

    Truthless also has very exploitable weaknesses. Due to her Oath of Truthlessness, she is almost like a Tranquil. If given an order by someone, she must follow it on her honor. This is no magic effect, but the sheer determination to stick to the word she gave when she forcibly took the Oath. Because of this, orders must be thought out and dictated clearly, and if traitors or spies learn of this, she can prove to be a great liability. Truthless is also expressly forbidden to lie, deceive, or lie by omission. The only exceptions are, she cannot deny the crimes she's been accused of, and she cannot give anyone her original name, only her Truthless moniker.

    Please make sure to read and comply with the FAQ sections on character abilities.

    Suggested Nerfs

    I'm willing to discuss Truthless's powers and work with you on them. I don't mean them to be overpowered, and I'm willing to start her out small and work towards larger things in the future. These two abilities, taking damage for other people, and gaining strength and speed as she's damaged, are her only two powers.

    Arrival Inventory

    Truthless's dream would have been a nightmare. In it, she'd look like the demon people accused her of being in her life. She'd have the oathstone around her neck, and a shattered polearm shaft, and the clothes on her back.

    Humanization

    Truthless was a normal looking human in her original world, but the dream made her feel like a horned beast, the beast others made them. When traveling through the rift, this altered sense of self would become true, shaping her into a Qunari with twisted horns and pale features. The kind of 'monster' she feared others saw her as.

    Fit

    My friend who plays on here kept hyping this place up, so I wanted to join and Truthless is a character I've always wanted to play. When I described her to them, they said "Oh that sounds like a Tranquil, but by choice" and that made me SO excited to see how other Rifters and natives would interact with someone who wasn't magically bound to these rules and regulations, but couldn't break them by choice regardless.

    SAMPLES

    Sample 1: Fade Rift.

    The cave was dark and damp, a perfect place for demons and things of the night. The green glow of the Rift illuminated the surrounding area. A war, a war of one versus a dozen. A woman stood, holding a single shattered polearm haft in her hands, a chunk of inscribed Onyx hanging around her neck. Horns twisted from her scalp, and blood pooled in growing, rosy patches across her dirty, stained clothes. Her face was stoic, calm, rational.

    But her eyes were wild with anger. With hate. These... Things, could not be permitted to live. And she was not permitted to die. Not here, not in this damp cave that smelled of sulfur and rot, of death and demons. Not here, in this unknown world with the spawns of Hell Itself staring down at her with tooth and claw.

    No, not here, not now. And that meant no one ELSE was allowed to die. Not before her. Other people were important. Other people had names, had honor, had truth still left within them.

    But not Truthless, no. So if she wasn't permitted to die here, and neither was anyone else, the solution was elegant in its simplicity.

    She had to kill each and every one of of these Name-Devoured scourges. One. By. One. Truthless twisted the broken, sharp polearm shaft in her hands, a wild grin breaking across her once-stoic façade. "Then we shall dance, devils. I only pray you do not bleed out too quickly."

    Sample 2: Covalte

    The skies were gray as always, choked by smog and cloud until the sun above was a mere suggestion, a faint brighter patch in the steelwork-colored sky above. Truthless stared up for a moment, feeling the sweat trickle down her brow. Her current command was not a bad one, all things considered. It was backbreaking, exhausting, monotonous, and the effort of moving the rough-hewn bricks and laying lye-laden mortar without any tools left her hands scarred and bleeding.

    But it could be worse.

    It had been worse. Like the command to kill any intruders who came along. The command to stand outside in the snow until she passed out, purely for the enjoyment of the others in the tavern. The command to hold her head in the sewage drain until she nearly died. This was much easier than those stains upon her soul. There was a... Freedom in the labor. Yes, she was working for no wages and probably wouldn't earn more than a worm-laden loaf of bread and a mug of warm, possibly polluted rainwater tonight, but no one was ordering her now. No one was forcing her to obey every whim and choice, no one was testing the limits of her honor to her Oath.

    All she had to do was keep quiet, keep moving, and ignore the growing pain in every muscle, joint and bone. Ignore the burning of her hands as the mortar ate away at the first, then second layers of calloused skin upon her hands. Ignore the stains on her once-proud Lucite Silver Army. Ignore everything.

    Compared to the pain in her heart, this was much easier.

    It could always be worse.

    faderifting: (Default)

    REVISIONS

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-02-07 01:18 am (UTC)(link)
    REVISIONS

    Before we can approve your application, we need to request a few changes!
    ↠ For the Canon World section, we need a little more explanation to help establish how her world compares to Thedas. When you say people and places and things are warped and strange, what does this mean? Physically? Is this on-going, or something that happened once in the past and Truthless's generation is unaffected? You mentioned that human cities are magi-industrial—what, if any, magic currently exists in Covalte, and what are human attitudes toward it?

    ↠ FYI, most of the second paragraph onward of your Canon World explanation is what we would typically consider the History section – which is fine, but if you find yourself running up against the word maximum for Canon World when you elaborate on it, you can move the information about Truthless herself to the History instead to make room.

    ↠ We require a minimum of 300 words for a personality section, so please add another paragraph or two! We're particularly keen to hear a little more about her internal working and motivation – you could consider adding discussion of things like how she feels about her oath and her own behavior, where her internal commitment to keeping such a difficult oath comes from, what she does if ordered to something morally repugnant, and how she feels about it? Does she have personal friendships or enemies anymore and what does that look like? Is there anything that could make her break her oath, right now? (It is of course fine for the answers to these questions to evolve through RP; this is just for a baseline.)
    Please respond within 48 hours. (You may request an extension if necessary.) If you have any questions, let us know.

    Re: REVISIONS

    [personal profile] roseandthorns - 2024-02-07 20:00 (UTC) - Expand

    APPROVED

    [personal profile] faderifting - 2024-02-10 17:53 (UTC) - Expand
    bribon: ([086])

    desidério amanza | native oc

    [personal profile] bribon 2024-02-06 12:09 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Abby
    Age: Old
    Contact: [plurk.com profile] prosodi; prosodi@disco
    Other Characters: Flint, Wysteria
    Interests: I play a lot of married nerds. I want to play a guy who's going to swing a sword around, kiss people, and generally be a little ill-mannered and more likely to get chummy with Riftwatch's general roster.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Desidério Amanza
    Canon/OC: OC
    Journal: [personal profile] bribon
    Race: Human
    Nationality: Antivan
    Occupation: Kneecap Surgeon Freelancer
    Division: Scouting (My time has come!!)
    Mage or Not: Nope
    Age: Early to mid-30s

    History

    Desidério is a second or third cousin of some very minor Antivan noble family that fell on exceptionally hard times three or four generations ago. Shocking destitute, the family has traditionally gotten simply by being hangers on to polite society. Various female cousins have gone into the Chantry; various male cousins have gone to the Templars.

    Accordingly, Desi spent very little of his youth considering his social standing. Was he too poor to own very good clothes or to acquire a gambling habit like his peers? Yes, but he had lots of richer friends and near-relations from which he could borrow a good jacket, or who might pass along invitations to parties, or take him along for wild summers abroad. As is the wont of many teenage boys, Desi offset his poverty with hooliganism. By fourteen, he'd somehow contrived not to get stabbed too badly in most of his duels. By sixteen, he was notorious for winning them.

    He was also notorious for climbing out of girls' bedroom windows, and being responsible for one or two serious heartbreaks before he fell madly and deeply in love with the girl of his dreams, Veronica Fonteyn. The daughter of a significantly richer, albeit less notably named family, Veronica was explicitly forbidden from associating with the opportunistic Amanza boy. So obviously, they were promptly married. And, given a year or two for the teenage dream to be replaced by a real loathing for one another, promptly annulled. It cost a lot of bribe money; Desidério still owes his ex-wife a significant sum. He wouldn't recommend the experience.

    With his poor family being somewhat loathe to put him up and Desi not being particularly interested in returning to being completely destitute, he opted to shame himself with a sort of profession. Something of a sword and a snoop for hire, he's made a living from being willing to stick his nose into trouble and chase down problems. While his most common 'client' is historically his own ex-wife and her lending/banking enterprise, he takes freelance work from a variety of rich merchants, Seleny nobles looking to distance their personal names from more creative problem solving methods, and even the occasional neighbor (so long as they can scrape together the cash for his fee).

    When hired to chase down a con-artist who'd gotten away with a fat sum of cash from a Seleny merchant, he happily hopped to it in the name of a rich reward. What he didn't bargain for was running into the aforementioned con-artist over a rift, getting hit with an anchor shard, and both of them having to slum it in Kirkwall.

    Personality

    Desidério is an opportunist with a heart of tarnished silver. Stubborn and a little more loud-mouthed than he by rights should be, he's the sort of guy who gets himself into trouble with an unsurprising ease. What is surprising is that he can usually squirm his way out of it again. This mostly works thanks to a loose-around-the-edges moral code (honor? what's that, can he eat it?), and a highly flexible brand of pride. Does he think he should have nice things? Yes, he's great. Is he willing to debase himself for them? Well, he's working up from one of the lower rungs of gentility's social ladders so no, he's not that fussed about being more than a little crass if needs must.

    And if he were a little less smart, a little more prone to laziness, and a lot less of a romantic, he'd have made an excellent hanger-on in Antivan polite society. Unfortunately for everyone, Desidério included, he's a half mark to clever, two too restless, and great romance (both the kissing and the adventure kind) is the deity his soul worships. Sorry to his very Andrastian mother. Sorry also to anyone, notably certain ex-wives, who would prefer he focused on improving himself and maybe growing the fuck up a little instead of chasing the next thrill.

    Has this worked out for him? Yes and no. He's had his fingertips burned more than a few times, present circumstances where he has a magic cut in his hand and is stuck schlepping it in Kirkwall being only the most notable of recent scorchings. But he's also not penniless, not wearing fashion three years out of date, and all his scars are pretty cool. So you do the math!

    Opinions & Affiliations

    THE WAR. Would really prefer for it to have continued to be none of his business, but if he's stuck here then he might as well have a good time.

    THE CHANTRY. You mean that thing most of his cousins work for? Sure, it's fine. You know, he knew a Chantry Sister once with a fantastically stern disposition. Too bad it didn't work out.

    ANTIVA. Objectively the best place in Thedas. Bootstrap economics just makes sense, says local man currently relying on a line of credit extended to him by his ex-wife.

    MAGES & TEMPLARS. Seem kind of self-centered, don't they?

    RACE RELATIONS. Elves are by and large too poor to hire him, perfectly good information sources when it comes to snooping. Slumming it is an important social skill! Dwarves are good for business, but get suspicious if they start giving you too much money. Something's rotten if a surface dwarf is willing to pay too well and isn't just hiring a Carta goon. Never fight fair against a Qunari.

    Strengths & Weaknesses

    (+) DUELIST. Desidério is an accomplished swordsman. He's been fighting duels since he was a teen, and cheating his way out of getting killed for slightly less than that.

    (+) OBSERVANT. He has a sharp eye for detail, and plies it readily both in the gathering information and playing a role sense. Need a good lookout? Desidério's your guy. Need someone who can quickly pick up and imitate playing above or below his station? You got it.

    (+/-) TENACIOUS. For better of worse, Desidério doesn't give up easily. If he's put his mind to accomplishing something, he'll chew that bone down to the marrow even if he's been ordered not to.

    (-) OVER CONFIDENT. It's not 'reckless' if you have a plan. It's just that sometimes that plan doesn't work out exactly how you think it will and then you have to make it up as you go along, but don't worry it'll definitely work out and nothing bad will ever happen (to him personally).

    (-) CITY BOY. You people sure do a lot of camping.

    Inventory

    - A sick dueling rapier
    - A marginally more sensible sword/belt knife/the usual accoutrements for a guy who traditionally makes his living get into scraps and threatening people
    - A week's worth of clothes, but don't worry he can talk someone into kitting him out on credit
    - A vendetta against a certain con-artist for getting him into this mess
    - A too-expensive smoking habit

    Motivation

    Caught an anchor in his right hand. Unfortunately, he likes that hand and using it for stuff.

    SAMPLES

    1 | 2
    faderifting: (Default)

    APPROVED

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-02-07 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved! Welcome to Fade Rift. Before you start playing, please:
    ↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
    ↠ Reply to the Taken List.
    ↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
    ↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
    You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.
    akmapansa: (Default)

    Kang Yohan | The Devil's Judge | Native AU

    [personal profile] akmapansa 2024-02-13 02:42 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Dha
    Age: 34
    Contact: derecho. @ discord, derecho @ plurk
    Other Characters: Tav
    Interests: So Yohan is all about intrigue, about moving around the chess board. You'll see in his history that he faked his dead after near-mortal wound (and suspecting he'd been caught, as nearly being killed spoiled his Game), so he can't re-enter the Game yet, but he would so love to punish them, perhaps as a spy or diplomat (wearing an Orlesian mask and going under a false name). I think he should also find out of his spy network was killed in his departure (in canon, this is K), which will push him further to get justice.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Kang Yohan [Western order: Yohan Kang]
    Canon/OC: The Devil Judge
    Journal: akmapansa
    Race: Human
    Nationality: Orlesian
    Occupation: Previously Duke/Spy for the Inquisition
    Division: Diplomacy/Spy (if possible, he'd like to tear down those responsible for removing him from the Game)
    Mage or Not: Nope
    Age: 40

    History

    >His father tried to abandon him as a child, but his brother Isaac intervened.
    >Yohan was kept in a basement for most of his life, outside of school, and not allowed to roam around the Kang estate.
    >If Yohan was caught outside or if his father simply decided Yohan deserved punishment, Yohan would be beaten with a metal bar.
    >At school, Yohan did try to make friends, however he accidentally killed a bird when it landed on a girl's desk. This isolated him from the rest of the class.
    >The classroom was seated in pairings of one rich child, one poor child, and to get revenge Yohan stole an item from each rich kid in the class until eventually every rich kid had an item stolen. This resulted in pandamonium breaking out in the classroom.
    >Yohan enjoyed this very much.
    >He also enjoyed manipulating a servant girl to leap from a second-story window.
    >His brother made him promise not to hurt innocents again and gave him a necklace to wear around his wrist.
    >Eventually, his father died and the dukedom/countdom passed to his brother Issac.
    >His brother Issac planned to donate the entirety of his fortune to the Chantry, however before he could, there was a cathedral fire that killed him and his wife and crippled his daughter Elijah.
    >Yohan saw how the other nobles pushed and pulled on each other (one stepped onto a pew to cripple Elijah), to escape and vowed to get his justice.
    >Yohan immediately reversed Isaac's decision to donate to the chantry and kept the estate as is. This pissed off a lot of people.
    >Yohan began to climb the ranks of the Grand Game, holding onto his title as duke/count.
    >On the way he created his own spy ring to monitor the goings on of targets. For example, he successfully outed Lee Youngmin, the son of a Duchess, as a maniac, using Han Soyoon to "start the spark" of accusations.
    >He has several others: Ko Inguk, etc etc and an enigmatic figure only known as K.
    >He also takes a protege, Kim Gaon under his wing (mostly to manipulate him as well, but spoiler alert he starts to like Gaon whoops).
    >When the Inquisition gets going, Yohan offers to serve as a spy for them.
    >Yohan has several other successes, but he soon finds out he's facing a rival in the game: Jung Sunah, the maid he had once manipulated into leaping from the second-floor window. All she wishes is for Yohan to be as lonely as her.
    >She threatens Elijah, threatens Gaon, and eventually kills K.
    >Just as she's about to undo him in the game, one of her associates shoots him with a poisoned bolt from a hand crossbow.
    >Yohan manages to keep face until he gets out of Val Royeaux, but collapses on the riverbanks of the Waking Sea.
    >He is rescued by a scout and barely survives the wound. The Inquisition decides to re-assign him to Riftwatch.


    Personality

    Above all, Yohan is confident, so much so that he brags about it in canon ("The only thing you need to manipulate people is confidence."). That confidence allows him to play the Grand Game quite proficiently, even when he has the occasional slip up, such as mentioning to a count that "I am the abyss." He absorbs the spotlight when it's shone on him and shows no hesitation in using that spotlight to highlight other issues or other persons in the Grand Game who need to be ousted. No target is too high or low in society to avoid his wrath and warnings do little but to entice him.

    That said, Yohan can be a touch disconnected when it comes to the basics of life. He eats to survive, he dresses to match the occasion, but does not receive any joy from it. In fact he seems to derive the most joy from when he's "hunting," when he has a target in sight and the perfect rumor or piece of juicy information to spread about them. Only then does he seem to smile and laugh (albeit in a rather deranged manner). Over time, living with Kim Gaon in his estate teaches him that there is more to life than hunting and the Grand Game. (Unfortunately, Yohan believes Gaon to have sided with Sungah and betrayed him so those small joys are lost to him again.)

    That is not to say that Yohan is completely incapable of caring for others. He demonstrates a deep love for his niece Elijah, so much so that he has hidden the true cause of the fire that killed her parents (her knocking over a candle in the chapel) and taken on the blame himself so that she can use the hate for her uncle to find the strength to continue improving her strength. There are other examples of this, such as hiding his true motives from Kim Gaon, his protege, only to end up stabbed in the hand and later having his position outed where Yohan could be hit with the poisoned bolt.

    Opinions & Affiliations

    Feelings Regarding other Countries/Groups

    *Spy Yay/Nay indicates if Yohan would be willing to serve as a spy on the organization

    >The Chantry: Nay (Spy All Day)
    >The Qun: Tal-Vashoth Yay (Spy Nay), Everyone else Nay (Spy Nay)
    >Mages: Yay
    >Templars: Nay (by association with the chantry) (Spy Yay)
    >Seekers: Nay (by association with the chantry) (Spy Yay)
    >Orlais: Previously yay, still mostly yay with a couple key players as a Big Nay (BIGGEST SPY YAY)
    >Orlesian Nobles: In Between (Hot Spy Yay)
    >Orlesian Commonders: Yay (Spy Yay)
    >Ferelden: Who are these dusty miscreants (reluctant Spy Yay)
    >Free Marches: Who are these dustier miscreants (reluctant Spy Yay)
    >Tevinter: Need to be taken down a notch or two, again (Big Spy Yay)
    >Dalish Elves: Yay (Spy Nay)
    >City Elves: Yay (Spy Nay)
    >Grey Wardens: If they still exist, yay (Spy Nay)

    Affiliations

    >Kang Dukedom
    >Orlesian Society for the Institution of Judiciary (is nothing but a statement piece and has no real teeth)


    Adaptation Notes

    The main difference between canon Yohan and AU'd Yohan is that he is not a judge in the AU. I searched and searched and could not find information on a judiciary system for Orlais. Then I remembered that the Grand Game is jury, judge, and executioner for most, so I subbed Yohan in there. For fun, he's part of a toothless organization that seeks out a formal judiciary system in Orlais. Other than this swap, Yohan fits extremely well, as he can keep his wealth (to a degree), he can still do his spy work, and follow his need for justice against a handful of people, once given the opportunity to work in Orlais.

    The other main difference I am subtracting is how he faked his death. In canon, he gets shot in the vital organs, somehow survives that, goes to jail, fakes his death once. Then, he comes back and fakes his death a second time with explosives. I think for the ease of faderift and the mechanics of healing, being hit with a poisoned bolt is enough to fake his own death and depart the Grand Game for the time being.

    Also, he is a Duke because in canon he is a high-ranking judge and has stupid amounts of money, so to balance those two --> dukedom. But I am happy to lower him to a count or comte.

    Strengths & Weaknesses

    >Yohan is trained in unarmed, one-handed blade, and archery. Obviously the most dignified is archery, so he uses that the most.
    >Yohan is also trained in sleight of hand, lockpicking, and moving unseen when he needs to (primarily from his childhood).
    >Yohan is a superb player of the Game and is difficult to get information out of unless he is corresponding with a known contact at the Inquisition/Riftwatch.
    >He has a fantastic pokerface and is not easy to provoke, however once he has been provoked, his anger is white hot and burns everything it touches.
    >He has relied on a network of spies for a long time now, that he has to rebuild skills (such as listening in the dark, lockpicking, sleight of hand, etc).
    >Again, because outright violence is rarely tolerated in the Game, Yohan needs to brush up on his unarmed and one-handed skills.
    >Still recovering from a near-fatal wound.
    >Extremely headstrong. He used to fly free and send information as he pleased, now he's under orders, so he will feel at first that the Riftwatch is ~cramping his style~
    >He will be weak to anyone mentioning Elijah (his niece) who is still in Orlais. This is the fastest way to provoke him. Once he gets settled at Riftwatch, he will insist on a mission to bring her to Kirkwall for her safety. (where she will be a neat NPC in a corner until/if someone plays her.)

    Inventory

    Black Orlesian Courser (horse)
    A stupidly expensively leather saddle with a removable sigil of his dukedom28
    Nice Clothes (think winter palace but not as ugly)
    Black cloak/scarf
    Commoner clothes
    WIP "Night clothes" for going out to listen for secrets - he has to find fabric and re-sew these
    Emperor Guard Blade, but without all the fancy attributes.
    Balanced Hunting Longbow, again without the fancy attributes.
    Quiver of 30 arrows.
    Fancy pocketwatch, broken from the bolt


    Motivation

    Yohan was reassigned to the Riftwatch after nearly being killed in Orlais. Not just to recover, but under orders to offer his special sort of services.

    SAMPLES



    iii. lowtown

    [With his arrival and his re-assignment settled, Yohan sets a room up for himself. Of course, it's much smaller than his home, but he'd lived in a basement for most of his life; the room would serve just fine. He changes out of the silks and brocades and into a commoner's ensemble, complete with ripped sections of fabric and ruined shoes. Time to explore the city proper, the true city, the gaping maw that devoured the sun as Yohan made his way into an area to listen.

    Usually he had K do this, or perhaps Kim Gaon, but K was dead and buried and Gaon betrayed him the same as Sunah. No, it was up to him now to simply listen to the city, to her occupants, to brush up on skills that had grown rusty.

    Coin could loosen some lips, but after this re-assignment, he only had so much left. Elijah may be able to send some by Raven, but for all intents and purposes, the Kang Dukedom died with Yohan.

    He would change that. He would fight his way back out of the deepest hole if he had to.

    He pauses at one vendor, selling fabrics. Yohan would need to replace his night uniform if he wanted to be any good at his job.

    Blackened Samite. Good. He enjoyed that even in Val Royeaux.]

    How much for this?


    AND


    https://allthisshitisweird.dreamwidth.org/42221.html?thread=16144621#cmt16144621TWO


    faderifting: (Default)

    REVISIONS

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-02-17 06:44 pm (UTC)(link)
    REVISIONS

    Before we can approve your application, we need to request a few changes! We've got a lot of notes on this, but please don't get stressed by the length of the response—the notes are long in part because we're trying to be thorough and provide some context to help with revisions. They're mainly things that will need to change because they conflict with canon (whether DA's or FR's) and then a few odds and ends.

    These are aspects of DA canon you need to revise the app overall to account for:
    ↠ AU'd characters need to be integrated into the setting rather than the setting adjusted to fit them. Among other things, this means that names will always be in Western order (as there's nowhere in Thedas that uses East Asian order). And while we don't want to make you change the name of the character himself, the names of connected NPCs outside of Yohan's immediate family also need to be Orlesianified—so changed to something French or approximately Fantasy French-sounding—rather than bringing in a wide web of nobility within Orlais with names that don't fit the established canon pattern for that country.

    ↠ Thedas doesn't have formal primary education and in particular doesn't have schools where rich and poor students would learn together. Johan could have been schooled privately by hired tutors with siblings and a few other children rather than alone, but if poor children were included, it would have to be the choice of his family to include them, and this would be unusual generosity.

    ↠ Orlesian justice in the courtroom sense would typically be handled by the nobles administering different areas of the country, not left solely up to the machinations of the Game, which is about social influence and intrigue rather than addressing crime. As a general rule there are laws and systems to enforce them in every part of Thedas; for Orlais specifically in canon we see lawbreakers (such as Blackwall) being jailed to await formal sentencing and punishment, gallows for the public execution of criminals, and judges and ministers.

    Given that information, pushing for a new system more like a modern independent judiciary would be very unusual, especially for a noble who is already more or less the judiciary for his own domain. So that would need strong justification in his background. If Yohan belongs to a pre-existing organization pushing for something like this, it will also need to be an organization small/new/secret enough that it's reasonable for other Orlesian characters who are involved in Orlesian politics and intrigue to have not heard of it yet.

    And these are some more specific things to adjust:
    ↠ Please revise the Opinions section to give us explanations of his opinions. It's not necessary to address every faction, but you should touch on the ones that are most relevant to the game plot and his life, as well as any that are unusual given his background (such as if he has strong opinions about mage freedom despite not having any involvement with mages or the Circles). We use this section to get a sense of a character and evaluate whether their takes on things make sense given their personalities and backgrounds, to make sure opinions that would be unusual for their background have some grounding, and to have a chance to make sure players are on the right page on the major game elements. That becomes especially important when people want to play high-ranking and politically-involved characters.

    ↠ Wardens do exist, and that's not a secret IC. You can review the game Timeline, Events, and World Status on the wiki to familiarize yourself with major events and the broad strokes of where things stand in Thedas. (We don't expect players to memorize 8 years of game history and questions are always welcome! But playing a character who's positioned to be highly aware of world events and has been working for the Inquisition for years will require some homework.)

    ↠ In general, we'll need you to decrease the scale of Yohan's power and influence somewhat. In addition to changing his rank to Comte, the scope of his personal spy network and things like exposing a duchess's child as a criminal (rather than someone lower down the social food chain) will need to be scaled back as well. As a general rule of thumb, his activities shouldn't be so widespread or so prominent that it's unreasonable for other Orlesian characters who have been involved in the Game to be unfamiliar with him or his exploits. Their players can of course choose to decide they were aware or have preexisting CR with you–it just needs to be up to choice, rather than a situation where they'd appear ICly ignorant or incompetent if they haven't kept up with the events in your app.

    ↠ He won’t be able to have a pocket watch, because they don't currently exist in Thedas. (Mechanical clocks do exist, but they're rare and large and mainly would be on towers or other public places, or statue-sized features in rich people’s homes.) If someone invents them in the game then he can acquire one, though!

    Because these revisions are fairly extensive, we'll extend the deadline to respond to one week, or of course you're always welcome to submit a new app for the character next month. If you have any questions, let us know.

    Re: REVISIONS

    [personal profile] akmapansa - 2024-02-20 01:36 (UTC) - Expand
    quaestionespatris: (wasn't talking to u but go on i g)

    Octavius Vedici | Native OC

    [personal profile] quaestionespatris 2024-03-05 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: ray! used to go by liz but pls use ray now, ty
    Age: 30+
    Contact: [plurk.com profile] ragweed
    Other Characters: none currently! i used to play Kit Gandir, Atticus Vedici, Fern Dornain and Loghain back in 2017-2018 tho.
    Interests: i'm here for CR and plot-focused RP that doesn't move at a breakneck pace, since i straight-up can't keep up with that anymore, unfortunately. i do love all of the examples provided though--action scenes, political intrigue, rescuing lost critters, i'm here for all of it.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Octavius Vedici--err, I mean, Tavi Rutyer, of the Qarinus Ruyters!! he is definitely Byerly's cousin! absolutely probably!
    Canon/OC: native OC
    Journal: [personal profile] quaestionespatris
    Race: human
    Nationality: Tevinter, though he has spent the better part of the last six years living in Nevarra with his mother and her Mortalitasi paramour.
    Occupation: in theory, would-be heir to the Vedici seat in the Magisterium; in practice, he acts as the part-time steward of his quasi-stepfather's household in Nevarra City, and serves as a spirit healer where he's needed.
    Division: unclear at the moment, would welcome some modly feedback on where you feel he might be best suited
    Mage or Not: yes! he is a spirit healer by vocation
    Age: newly 25 (he's a satinalia baby)

    History

    Octavius ("Tavi") Vedici is an Altus mage and heir to his father's seat in the Magisterium. He was born in Minrathous as the only child of Magister Atticus Vedici and his Altus wife, Ophelia Nautia, but spent very little time there as a child, instead returning to his mother's family estate in Qarinus once she was recovered enough from her labour to travel. Qarinus is where Tavi spent the vast majority of his early life, and while he bears the Vedici name and was raised understanding his obligations to his ancestors and his place in Altus society, it was inevitable that growing up so far removed from his father's sphere of influence would result in internal strife regarding his sense of self and familial loyalty. However, this inner conflict did not prevent him from enjoying an otherwise idyllic, albeit rather solitary childhood on the northern coast of Tevinter, where he received formal schooling courtesy of his maternal family, and spent most of his formative years socializing with his cousins.

    Tavi was about eight or nine years old when he discovered that his particular magical proclivities tended less towards the Entropy School favoured by the Vedicis, and more towards the Restoration and Spirit schools favoured by his mother. Under Ophelia's careful guidance and tutelage, he befriended a benevolent spirit of Devotion in the Fade, and in the years since has often relied on his connection to this Fade spirit to augment his spellcasting. By the age of twelve, he knew with certainty that he wished to pursue spirit healing as his vocation.

    Roughly seven years ago, the scaffolding of his entire world came tumbling down around his ears when he learned, to his horror, that his father Atticus had not only thrown in his lot with the Venatori, but gone and gotten himself and his apprentice, Benedict Artemaeus, captured by the fledgling Inquisition. That Atticus would join up with an organization that seemed antithetical to what few life lessons he went out of his way to teach his only son seemed wildly out of character. Shortly after receiving this news, Tavi and his cousin, Otho Luria, were abducted from the Nautia estate in Qarinus by mercenaries hired by Magister Calpernia Artemaeus, whose intentions it seemed were to keep both Tavi and Otho in her custody in Minrathous until Tavi's maternal family could ransom Benedict Artemaeus back from the Inquisition. Whatever shape these negotiations took, Tavi wasn't privy to them, and was eventually able to arrange for his and Otho's escape from Magister Artemaeus's household. Once free he and Otho fled to Nevarra City where Tavi's mother had been visiting her paramour, Prelate Matthijs van Reede. And while his cousin found his way back to the rest of their family within the Imperium, Ophelia deemed a return to Tevinter was too dangerous for herself or Tavi for the foreseeable future.

    Personality

    Fundamentally, Tavi is an idealistic young man who is carrying a tremendous amount of anger and hurt within a very gentle heart, which he wears on his sleeve despite his best efforts to adopt the inscrutable, more politically astute mien that he has always observed in his mother. He's earnest and sincere with nearly everyone he meets, at least to begin with, and has a creative spirit; he's drawn to both art and music, though he's only dabbled in the former and is far, far too self-conscious to share what he has composed for the latter. (He does have, and play with proficiency, a mandolin; a gift to him from his mother after he joined her in Nevarra. He would be the first to tell you, however, that he writes music better than he plays it.) By default he's mannerly and polite in most social situations, but a childhood spent mostly in the company of his cousins or "valet" (aka an elven slave raised from birth to be his servant and confidante which, yikes), or retreating into his family's library to devote himself to the study of spirit healing and the fade, left him ill-equipped to manage more fraught political situations.

    This shortcoming is something he has addressed to a certain extent while living with the van Reedes in Nevarra City, though it wasn't a conscious choice; socially, Tavi went from being the scion of one of Tevinter's greatest houses for whom his path forward into the future was never in doubt, to effectively a high ranking servant (albeit one who is loved as dearly as any of Prelate van Reede's other children) in the household of his mother's paramour in a foreign country, with no security or clear idea of what his future will look like. Compounded with being so often the subject of rumour and speculation in Nevarran high society circles (e.g., "could he be Prelate van Reede's love child?") for the latter half of his teenage years and early twenties, Tavi has grown more defensive, cynical, and prone to bouts of depression. His chosen means of managing these mood swings is through work, however he can find it: through his vocation as a spirit healer, first and foremost; composing music for his mandolin; or managing Prelate van Reede's household accounts.

    However, he has the self-awareness to recognize that these are stop-gap measures, and that the only way for him to meaningfully change his and his mother's material circumstances involves finding his father, and reclaiming at least a portion of what he took from them. (The portions that can be reclaimed, anyway.)

    Opinions & Affiliations

    Tevinter: it will always be his home, but boy is it a fucked up place! Tavi hasn't set foot within his home country's borders in nearly seven years, and misses it painfully (Qarinus, at least).

    The Venatori: Tevinter at its worst; Tavi grew up sharing both his parents' disdain for blood magic, and so views the Venatori's reliance upon it as additional proof of their immorality. related--

    Blood Magic: a crutch for the weak-willed and weak-minded, Tavi considers this one lesson instilled in him by his father that continues to hold value.

    Mage-Templar War: not quite just a problem for Southerners anymore, is it!

    Templars: Tavi never paid much attention to Tevinter templars, as they were defanged generations ago and their role within the Tevinter Chantry is largely symbolic. The Templars of the Andrastian Chantry were effectively the bogeymen of his childhood nightmares; it's entirely possible his older cousin intentionally told him scary stories about them when they were kids just to watch him have a panic attack about it. (thanks, Otho.)

    The Qun: a barbaric religion/culture that no one in their right mind would ever choose to adhere to. Tavi feels very sorry for their mages.

    Elves: ...complicated. Tavi's closest friend from childhood into his adulthood was an elf named Theovas--who also happened to be a slave in his family's household. Theovas was raised from birth to be Tavi's valet and companion, and while the (many, many) inequalities between them as children were not as apparent to Tavi as a child, as he grew older, it was impossible for him not to make uncomfortable, necessary observations, the sort that only grew more stark and harder to deal with as he grew older and gained confidence in his opinions and values. While Theovas now works in Prelate van Reede's household as a paid servant, Tavi is still sorting through his complex web of feelings about Theovas's place in his life, and by extension, his interactions with other elves.
     
    Strengths & Weaknesses

    Strengths:
    • an Altus mage, born into power and influence. He can't wield any of it right now, being on the outs with the current prevailing political forces in his home country, but this is his background.
    • he's a formally educated and trained spirit healer, with all the risks and rewards associated with that vocation, including a connection to a Spirit of Devotion in the Fade.
    • his secondary skills as a mage involve drawing from the Creation (e.g., healing spells, glyphs and wards, haste, as examples) and Spirit schools (e.g., mind blast, spirit bomb, etc.)
    • "dual nationality"; while not actually a dual national of Tevinter and Nevarra, Tavi is familiar with most of the historical and cultural touchstones of both nations, and can of course speak Tevene fluently.
    • detail-oriented and good with numbers, a skill he's put to use for the last seven years while living in Nevarra.

    Weaknesses:
    • ...he's an Altus mage in Kirkwall, complete with all the political baggage that entails.
    • as discussed in his history and personality sections, Tavi is a little bit naive, and while he's less easily led than he would have been even a handful of years ago, he struggles with even minor deceptions. Don't make him a spy, it's a bad idea.
    • in combat, he is extremely squishy, like most mages, but made even squishier by not having a particularly impressive arsenal of combative spells at his disposal. 
    • as a spirit healer with a connection to a Fade spirit, he is more susceptible to demonic possession than other mages might be.
    • he is Atticus Vedici's son and heir, and for all that he could not be more different from his father if he tried, that kinship tie could still damn him if it came to light under the wrong circumstances (or the right ones).
    Inventory
    • A mandolin that was once a very pretty and impressive instrument, but which has been battered by months on the road;
    • The clothes on his back!! They were very nice clothes at one point, but have seen considerable wear and tear over the last few months;
    • His paternal grandmother's Vedici signet ring, given to him upon her death, which he does not wear on his hand but instead on a chain around his neck, concealed under his clothes;
    • Letter of credit from Prelate Matthijs van Reede, which Tavi has not yet made use of;
    • Paperwork drawn up by a solicitor that will 1) grant Tavi the right to claim the Vedici seat in the Magisterium; 2) grant Tavi access to the Vedici estate and fortune in Minrathous; and 3) grant Tavi's mother, Ophelia, a good-faith divorce, which will allow her to finally marry her paramour, Prelate Matthijs van Reede, back in Nevarra.
    • An unsealed letter addressed to him from Ophelia;
    • A sealed letter from Ophelia addressed to his father, Atticus. (it definitely looks like he's contemplated opening it several times though.)

    Motivation

    Tavi's motivation for coming to Riftwatch is to find his father, Atticus Vedici, for his own deeply personal reasons. He is following a trail that is many years old at this point, but Kirkwall is his father's last known location, and a logical place for him to begin his search in earnest.

    (NB: I have confirmed with Hope (Byerly's player) that Tavi is able to come into Riftwatch concealing his identity for now! He is going to identify himself as Byerly's cousin, Tavi Rutyer, a Laetan spirit healer.)

    SAMPLES

    TDM threads!
    PSL thread!
    faderifting: (Default)

    ACCEPTED + NOTE

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-03-09 06:52 pm (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved, with the following notes:
    ↠ We'll need you to make a minor tweak to Tavi's history because Nevarra City was overrun by possessed, red lyrium-tainted undead in an attack on Satnialia in 9:45 that forced the citizens to evacuate, mostly to Cumberland. The city was abandoned with the undead locked inside its walls. After a lot of those undead were used for another attack in 9:47, the Mortalitasi eventually took responsibility for returning the dead to their necropoli and restoring Nevarra City, but that's apparently still ongoing. Tavi would probably have been living instead in either Cumberland (huge city, coastal trade hub) or Hunter Fell (smaller river city, historic retreat of the royals and now seat of the Van Markham claimants to the throne). There's some more info on the timeline on the wiki, but let us know if you have questions!
    Welcome to Fade Rift! Before you start playing, please:
    ↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
    ↠ Reply to the Taken List.
    ↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
    ↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
    You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.

    (no subject)

    [personal profile] quaestionespatris - 2024-03-09 18:59 (UTC) - Expand
    dissolving: (Default)

    Cedric Carsus | Native OC

    [personal profile] dissolving 2024-03-07 06:19 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: k2
    Age: old
    Contact: shambolism @ plurk, discord
    Other Characters: Lazar
    Interests: I wanted a character able to engage with Templar / Mage stuff, and do things that require, like. Morals.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Cedric Carsus
    Canon/OC: OC
    Journal: [personal profile] dissolving
    Race: Human (Elf-blooded)
    Nationality: Nevarran
    Occupation: Templar
    Division: Forces
    Mage or Not: Nope
    Age: 28

    History

  • Born in the alienage, dad not in the picture, mom died young
  • Scooped up by a charitable Chantry sister, instead of notifying his remaining family
  • Templar training
  • Knighted at 18 and posted to Nevarra City's Circle
  • Six weeks later, the Circle rebelled
  • Followed a Knight-Captain Broward through the next year of fighting
  • Then to the Inquisition
  • Joined the Templars recalled by the Divine
  • Part of the Exalted March since
  • It's not great!
  • About a year ago, Broward retired due to lyrium decline, and was replaced with a nobleborn Orlesian who was probably fine but -
  • Cedric didn't take this well
  • Interpersonal friction abruptly intensified with the whole nightmare magic thing
  • When Riftwatch showed up, he saw it as a way out
  • Wouldn’t it be nice to not be fighting against an endless grind of mundane horror? And maybe get some recognition for it, or at least food you can chew? Is that just him??
  • Deliberately sought out Rift assignments to catch a shard, in the hopes of fucking off somewhere that he imagined there's more opportunity for personal advancement
  • Joined Diplo, went on a lil job trip to Antiva, getting settled


    • Personality

    Sometimes people treat you like a child and shelter you from tough decisions for like ten years, while also expecting you to do a lot of very violent work without question, and then suddenly they're gone and everyone expects you to be an adult about it overnight.

    When Nevarra City rebelled, Broward recognized Cedric's inexperience and guided him through a dangerous time. The problem is, that never really stopped - and neither did the danger. Even as the context of their relationship shifted from a student and teacher to an old man and his caregiver, no one really treated Cedric like an adult until his own testimony benched the guy. He didn't handle it well: Heaping responsibility onto grief might have given someone else an outlet, but it just made him angry. For the past year, he's been going through an extremely belated, muted sort of teenage rebellion.

    It's not his usual mode. Cedric strives to be friendly, curious, and humble. He's spent most of his life trying to please others. It's a survival trait - growing up, there weren't a lot of people in his corner. He attaches to those that seem to be and tries to mold himself into what he imagines they want. It wears thin.

    Though he tries for easy self-effacement, he takes insults personally. That off-hand joke you made that accidentally touched a nerve? He’ll laugh, and then remember it for months. Perceived social threats are very real to him: They could mean the difference between an empty stomach, and a warm place to sleep; an assist in battle or being left for dead.

    Cedric is ambitious and analytical in a way that can make unguarded emotional connection difficult. There's a persistent asterisk attached to his otherwise genuine interest in others; it's hard to make true friends when you're trying to optimize choices on the dialogue wheel. His demeanor can seem insincere even when heartfelt, which just makes him try harder at it - so if someone reads him as fake, he's bad at ever amending that impression.

    It would help his career if he were just a bit more cynical. Unfortunately, his time with the Chantry and Inquisition fed him the hero narrative, and he fully bought in. Cedric would give a stranger the shirt off his back, and stick his neck out for an enemy. If it’s payday, he’s got drinks. He's desperate to frame himself as the good guy, because good guys don't have to reckon with their hand in atrocity.


    Opinions & Affiliations

    Templars & Mages -

    Barely saw the inside of a Circle before war broke out. Didn’t have time to take in abusive systems, or meditate on gilded cages: He just saw that a bunch of people who had it good were burning down fields.

    His views have evolved, but he still sees mages as figures of intrinsic and social power, who need a check.

    Cedric lost friends in the war, but not a way of life. It's been easy for him to disavow Red Templars in a way that others may find callous, and to express opinions about Circle management that he never had to test. More than one colleague has correctly diagnosed that he's too young to know shit.

    Also, discontinuing lyrium would disrespect the sacrifice of captain dad others.

    Chantry -

    Andrastianism is the structure that he grew up in, and he doesn't have a lot of other examples for that. Not a fan of templars increasingly rocking back into the role of seen and not heard. He’d like to be heard!

    Elves -

    It would help Cedric's ambitions to disavow his dragon age origins, so it's notable that he hasn't. He doesn't internally consider himself human, but he definitely doesn't think of himself as an elf - and tends to feel out of place in homogenous communities of either.

    Nevarra -

    While his religious views are Nevarran, his firsthand experience with spirits has not endeared him. His surviving family were probably eaten by zombies, many of which were better cared for than the living. So he's got some hangups. Does Not Care who takes the throne.

    Tevinter -

    Carsus is a Tevene name, and Nevarran proximity makes him more willing to acknowledge the Tevinter people as people, but like. People we still gotta invade.



    Strengths & Weaknesses

    + Templar

    Martial training, anti-magic junk. Basically all he's done in life is kill things, people, and things that used to be people. He's good at it!

    +/- Languages

    Literate in Trade & Nevarran, can muddle through Orlesian prayers but doing so by repetition not comprehension. Knows a few important vocab words ('demon', 'mage', ‘jackass’) in other languages.

    - Arrested Development

    Cedric has spent 2/3 of his life in the Chantry, either fighting or training to fight. Until recently, a pseudo-father figure was making most of his decisions. He has a limited context of the outside world, and is now playing rapid catchup on things like 'adulthood', 'unstructured free time', and 'emotionally processing the last decade'.


    Inventory

  • Sword n’ board n’ plate
  • Lyrium kit
  • Chantry papers
  • A personal letter of recommendation from Knight-Captain Broward, who retired before he could have written it
  • A now-mummified dead lizard in the pocket of some bag he never excavated that he won't find for months


    • Motivation

    Caught a Rift shard to open up his career prospects. It’s hard to make a name as an individual contributor when you’re faced with the mundane horrors of everyday warfare. But Riftwatch is out there killing dragons!!

    SAMPLES

    Vanya
    Benedict
    faderifting: (Default)

    ACCEPTED

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-03-09 06:53 pm (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved! Welcome to Fade Rift. Before you start playing, please:
    ↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
    ↠ Reply to the Taken List.
    ↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
    ↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
    You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know
    inmycare: (Default)

    Siegfried Farnon | All Creatures Great and Small (2020) | Native AU

    [personal profile] inmycare 2024-03-13 06:46 pm (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Ammmy
    Age: Eight years older than the first FR app I wrote, jesus christ (and well over 18)
    Contact: [plurk.com profile] prettiestwhistles or prettiestwhistles on Discord
    Other Characters: Julius, Cosima Niehaus, Vanya Orlov
    Interests: I'm weak for a spiky man who cares very much.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Siegfried Farnon
    Canon/OC: All Creatures Great and Small (2020 TV version) | Native AU
    Journal: [personal profile] inmycare
    Race: Human
    Nationality: Marcher
    Occupation: Vet/Healer with a specialty in animals
    Division: Research
    Mage or Not: Apostate mage
    Age: 44

    History

    (I didn't find an operative fan wiki for the 2020 show, and this version of Siegfried is significantly different from the real-life person he's based on, the book character, and the version from the 1970s show. That said, here is the Wikipedia page for the 2020 show, and I'm happy to explain more about the canon version I'm adapting from if needed.)

    • Siegfried was born in 9.6 in Ansburg to a Marcher father and a Nevarran mother.

    • Siegfried's magic manifested when he was around seven. His parents' reaction to the idea of sending him to the Circle was roughly "Hmmmm we'd rather not." This was facilitated by Siegfried's mother's connection to a trusted old friend from Nevarra with Mortalisi connections. The friend was able to provide enough training for Siegfried not to do magic accidentally and to let him hide his nature; the deception was made easier by his parents' dedication to rural life.

    • Siegfried assumed he would become a physician like his father, but his passion for animals manifested strongly and early. At some point in his early adolescence, Siegfried connected with a spirit that approved of his fierce desire to take care of animals and alleviate their suffering. He's mainly able to pass off spirit healing for animals as a "knack" (though some farmers who suspected were happy to look the other way after he saved a valuable portion of their livestock).

    • When he was old enough, Siegfried attended the University of Markham to learn mundane veterinary skills.

    • Siegfried's brother Tristan was born 9.26; their mother died in childbirth with him.

    • In 9.27, a trade dispute between Hercinia and Ansburg broke into outright hostilities that lasted roughly a year.* Siegfried volunteered as a field medic, but the realities of how people behaved in combat soured his initial heroic impulses.

    • After the fighting ended, Siegfried married his university sweetheart, Evelyn Sinclair, in 9.28.

    • Siegfried and Evelyn traveled between Marcher farming communities in a circuit, offering Siegfried's services. Their small house was remote, somewhere between Ansburg and Starkhaven.

    • Siegfried's father was killed in a mundane accident in 9.34. Evelyn and Siegfried adopted young Tristan.

    • Around 9.42, Evelyn died of cancer after a lingering illness.

    • Tristan, following in his brother's footsteps, trained to be a vet. He'd been talking about going to Markham, but the invasion of the Marches effectively put that on hold. He's also been talking about joining the Inquisition, an idea Siegfried has repeatedly discouraged.

    • About a year ago, Siegfried took on a partner to try to cover more ground. James discovered Siegfried's secret but pledged not to tell.

    • Recently, Siegfried was outed as a mage in a way that won't immediately blow over. For now, he's left practice to Tristan and James, who are both mundane vets with no secret magic.


    * Note: If this is too big to make up, it can be amended or dropped.

    Personality

    Siegfried is gentle and intuitive with animals (and, usually, young children). He's a bit less great with adults, his patience being much shorter with them. He has a temper, which usually manifests in snappishness or sarcasm, though never violence. He's incredibly set in his ways and not great at compromise, as he's usually convinced his own way is the obviously best one. (As Sophie Brookover wrote for Vulture, "Siegfried must [eventually] acknowledge that being a well-intended control freak is not, in fact, a viable love language.") He's also terrible at admitting he was wrong under any circumstances. Siegfried is prepared to look at you blankly if you claim he said the opposite thing to you in your previous conversation, or that you did something that turned out badly because he suggested it. Obviously you misheard.

    Pride aside, Siegfried is genuinely devoted to doing the best he can for every animal he cares for. His deep feelings for animals are unfeigned and the one place he's willing to make changes without resistance is in providing proven new methods of improved treatment. While he's less conscious of it, he feels equally deeply devoted to people if he lets them in; if he comes to care for a person, he is unflinchingly loyal and will do his best to take care of them in whatever way he thinks is best. He is not above deceiving people he loves for what he perceives as their own good, but he is genuinely well-intentioned when he does so. He conceives of himself as an intensely independent person, but he holds tight to the people he loves.

    Despite his sometimes spiky exterior and his ego, at heart Siegfried is a good man who is disinclined to put anyone else in a tight spot needlessly. In his work, this often meant accepting a half a dozen eggs or a string of sausages in lieu of cash for payment. In his personal life, this means that if you need him to pick up supplies for a party, he will loudly complain all the way to and from fetching those supplies. His intention with Riftwatch is to mainly help with animals but he will inevitably find himself drawn in elsewhere, I expect.

    Opinions & Affiliations

    Aggressively non-political. Anti-Tevinter and Corypheus, especially since the invasion of the Free Marches, but in a broad way that suggests yes, someone should absolutely do something about that. He doesn't mind helping to that end, but it's not what brought him to Riftwatch. Would personally prefer not to be locked in a Circle, but also uninterested in the political work involved in actively campaigning for mage rights and sort of just hopes everyone will leave him alone about it. Zero tolerance for animal abuse of any kind, regardless of the motive or the person doing it.

    Adaptation Notes

    While there's a few ways to approach it, I wanted to explore Siegfried's gift with animals. In the show, it's clearly talent and experience, but in Thedas it seemed like beefing it up with magic would create some interesting RP opportunities. I also love the idea, after years of mage politics with Julius, of playing a person who couldn't care less about that. Siegfried is very content to build a small-scale life where he's a big fish in a small pond, and I'm intrigued by that contrast. After some thought, a Marcher background felt like it would fit a farm-facing existence. It will also inevitably mean he's had some incidental experience with Fade-touched animals and environments, which I think would be an interesting hook into the Research division. Obviously, the state of the world is going to create some differences from his "late 1930s England" original, but I think the bigger differences will be putting him in a new place where he isn't in charge.

    Strengths & Weaknesses

    Strengths

    • Magic: spirit healing (animals, and potentially very young children, only)

    • Trained mundane vet

    • Especially great with horses; can ride bareback

    • Conversational in Nevarran, though his accent suggests fluency


    Weaknesses

    • Diplomacy

    • Non-healing magic. Any spells that aren't from the spirit healer tree (or "heal," which is hilariously not in that tree) he'd have to do untrained. I'd propose that untrained spells generally have a chance of failing, maybe a dice roll, though we can talk about the mechanics of that if it feels too nerfed/not nerfed enough

    • Keeping an open mind

    • Organization when it comes to paperwork; good luck getting his reports in a timely fashion


    Inventory

    • Small trunk full of veterinary supplies such as bandages, surgical instruments, tinctures, poultices, etc.

    • A few (roughly five) annotated books about animal husbandry, animal diseases and basic fundamentals of care, mainly focused on livestock and horses.

    • Clothes, including a heavy overcoat and gloves for messy work

    • A hand-sized portrait of his late wife

    • A few personal letters

    • If permitted: A pet rat named Volonel, with his cage


    Motivation

    After many years, Siegfried's magic was finally discovered and exposed in a major enough way it can't be swept under the rug. While no one is going to force him into a Circle at present, he can't continue practicing as he has been, and the world is shrinking enough that just starting somewhere else runs the risk of re-discovery. Since his options are a) defecting to Tevinter (absolutely not) b) joining the mages attached to the Inquisition (seems regimented in a way he doesn't care for) or c) joining Riftwatch, he's picking option c as the one most likely to just let him do his work as long as he makes himself useful.

    SAMPLES


    Sample One

    Test drive meme

    Sample Two

    Siegfried has had a long day.

    Not that long days are so unusual, in his profession, though under pressure he would admit he feels them more than he did 15 years ago. Calves have an uncanny preference for being born at three in the morning, for one thing. Any hope for a nap after the early calving vanished when a messenger arrived with a note about a dog who'd throw his hip out of joint, followed promptly by the dog's owner noting that, while Siegfried was there, he could maybe take a look at a pig that was off his food.

    So as he returns to the inn, he's looking forward to a quiet evening featuring a warm meal and perhaps a quiet card game. It's a bit late, but not so late he expects the kitchen to be closed or his assistants to have retired for the night.

    What happens next, however, is: The cook has gone home early because his wife is in labor. James has, in fact, been called out to see about a horse with what sounds like stomach troubles. And Tristan has managed to fall asleep early with the help of several pints of beer.

    With some warmed over stew that is better than nothing but hardly much comfort after the day he's had, Siegfried sets himself up at a table in the common room and begins a game of solitaire. Whether or not be particularly wants to play solitaire is not the point. It's the principle of the thing. He's earned a relaxing evening, and by the Maker, he intends to relax as hard as he can.

    faderifting: (Default)

    ACCEPTED

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-03-21 07:07 pm (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved! Welcome to Fade Rift. Before you start playing, please:
    ↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
    ↠ Reply to the Taken List.
    ↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
    ↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
    You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know
    daturameloxia: inkonic @ dreamwidth (k)

    Wylan van Eck | Grishaverse | Native AU

    [personal profile] daturameloxia 2024-03-30 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Dha
    Age: 34
    Contact: derecho. @ discord, derecho @ plurk
    Other Characters: Tav
    Interests: I'm really interested in how Wylan would have developed outside of the Crows. He'll settle in Lowtown, since he has no money. He also believes himself to have no ability to perform a job properly, so having someone to build his confidence that isn't Kaz "Dirtyhands" Brekker will be interesting!

    CHARACTER

    Name: Wylan van Eck (will be going by Wylan Hendriks)
    Canon/OC: Grishaverse
    Journal: daturameloxia
    Race: Human
    Nationality: Free Marches
    Occupation: Artificer
    Division: Research
    Mage or Not: No
    Age: 17

    History

    >Born to Nobleman Jan van Eck from the Free Marches
    >Raised to be the successor of the van Eck estate
    >Except Wylan can't read (undiagnosed dyslexia)
    >Jan van Eck brings in all kinds of tutors, language, music, chemistry
    >Wylan picks up the sciences and music rather quickly but man those languages
    >He is eventually told he'll travelling to a music school in Orlais
    >It is actually an opportunity for Jan van Eck to kill his son
    >While crossing the Minear River, Wylan is attacked and nearly killed
    >Wylan barely escapes with his life and runs South
    >Eventually Wylan sees the ocean fortress of Kirkwall and enters it, hoping he will be far enough away from his father to be hidden
    >Took to busking in Lowtown for some petty coinage
    >Made several flasks of Fire Bombs (accidentally for a Riftwatch agent) and was recruited to be an artificer for the Riftwatch

    (Canon history is here (book) and here (TV Show) He is from Crooked Kingdom, shortly before he meets Kaz Brekker)


    Personality

    We first meet Wylan in a flashback to his home and his father's care. It's in these interactions that we first see Wylan's non-confrontational manner. His father berates him time and time again, calls Wylan names, all for Wylan's inability to read.
    At no point does Wylan stand up to his father. Even when Wylan finds that he excels in the sciences (or as sciencey as Thedas gets) and music in particular, he does not bring this up to his father. Jan van Eck finds out through tutors that his son does have some skill, but not the right skill and continues to berate his son.

    However, eventually Jan van Eck found a solution to the problem that is his son: a second wife Alys who has become pregnant and will sire him a proper heir. His father attempts to kill Wylan, under the guise of sending him to a music school in Orlais, but Wylan fights back. However, upon arriving at Riftwatch, Wylan will go to great lengths to hide his disability. He will pretend to read documents if he's seen familiar symbols, he labels his flasks with music notes and thread so he can read what they are. He will also be hiding his true background and go by the name Wylan Hendriks (his mother's last name.

    Above all, though, Wylan is adaptable to any situation he enters. For example, he has created a system of labeling that he can read. He can "read" documents, by memorizing the sounds and patterns of someone's words. He will be pretending to be a low-level artificer with a knack for knowing recipes upon arriving in Riftwatch and hope that he's worth keeping around.

    Overall, he’s incredibly intelligent and while he at first will be non-confrontational, he has the potential to grow into his confidence and would do well in a department that allows him to do so.

    Opinions & Affiliations

    As the son of a nobleman fighting to earn his father's approval, Wylan has largely been sheltered from the outside world. However, what opinions he's formed have done so due to the tutors he's received (which were primarily Nevarran, Free Marchers, and the occasional Ferelden or Orlesian). So, he has a great deal of respect for those nationalities for at least trying to help him.

    Chantry - Wylan finds that with enough experimentation, almost anything is possible, so while he doesn't turn his nose up at religion, he does not find the same sort of solace that others might.

    Qun/Qunari - Wylan is familiar with the Qun in a strictly historical sense, so he has no grand opinions regarding the Qun, but he's always curious to learn more.

    Mage/Templar War - Wylan does not know the entire details of the war, but he lands solidly on the side of the Mages. He believes in them keeping their freedom after the Conclave, especially in light of the red lyrium Templars.

    Nobility, in general - Wylan will very likely shy away from anyone who appears, acts, or otherwise seems to be of nobility. Not that anyone would know the van Eck family, but he wants to keep away from anyone who might.

    Adaptation Notes

    I am subtracting a good amount of Wylan's canon. This is primarily to not pigeonhole anyone from the Grishaverse, and especially the Crows, who may show up in Riftwatch. However, I am also super excited, as I mentioned above, to see how he will develop under a non-Kaz Brekker hand. Kaz is not exactly known for being nurturing, so I'm hoping that Wylan's confidence, mentioned in his personality, will grow even faster. The only downside is that he will not know any Crows who arrive and will likely distrust anyone who knows anything about him.

    Strengths & Weaknesses

    Strengths:
    +Flute playing and piano playing!
    +Has memorized several recipes for grenades and poisons
    +Can pretend to read by memorizing the patterns of words
    +Adaptable
    +Excellent at chemistry and any non-language science
    +A natural artificer

    Weaknesses:
    -Suffers from severe dyslexia
    -Jumps at loud noises or aggressive behavior
    -non-confrontational
    -Will run if his father turns up at the Riftwatch


    Inventory

    -Leather backpack containing:
    >A flute
    >Some materials to make grenades and poisons (specifically Weakened Fire Bombs)
    >Two pre-made Weak Fire Bombs (that are given to NPC Riftwatch Agent)
    >A handful of silver and copper coins
    >His brown jacket, blue vest, and a white-ish shirt (all dirty)

    Motivation

    Wylan seeks safety from his father Jan van Eck in the Riftwatch. He will try to prove himself useful enough to keep around and earn their protection.

    SAMPLES


    Sample 1 - Abby (TDM)

    Sample 2 - Inej (TDM)

    faderifting: (Default)

    ACCEPTED + NOTE

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-03-31 10:30 pm (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved, with the following notes:
    ↠ Wylan can know how to make any of the canon grenades/bombs you like, with the usual IC restrictions based on cost/material availability for actually making them. If, down the road, you and other Research members would like to potentially concoct any new types of explosives that don't currently exist in canon, please submit them to the Mod Contact in advance for approval.
    Welcome to Fade Rift! Before you start playing, please:
    ↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
    ↠ Reply to the Taken List.
    ↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
    ↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
    You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.
    wythersake: (Default)

    Isaac | Native OC

    [personal profile] wythersake 2024-04-02 12:34 am (UTC)(link)

    PLAYER

    Name: k2
    Age: old
    Contact: shambolism @ plurk or discord
    Other Characters: Lazar, Cedric
    Interests: I'd like to write some magic, and have a different angle to engage in theory and politics with. He's a lil braver this time around to make a wider range of missions accessible.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Isaac (born Isaac Kellar)
    Canon/OC: OC
    Journal: [personal profile] wythersake
    Race: Human
    Nationality: Orlesian
    Occupation: Healer
    Division: Research
    Mage or Not: Mage
    Age: 46

    History

  • Son of poor Fereldan collaborators who fled to Jader when Orlais withdrew.
  • Manifested magic at an early age by sickening his siblings. Unclear whether he meant to.
  • Taken to Montsimmard Circle.
  • Aptitude for creation and entropy spells. Pursued healing.
  • Successfully harrowed: Fear demon.
  • Acquired the patronage of the Revin noble family.
  • Spent a few years on a nice estate, ostensibly looking after the health of the elder Baroness.
  • And also poisoning their rivals. And making out.
  • Took the fall for some shit he didn't do to seal over a political misstep. It wasn't willingly.
  • The Chantry would prefer that you didn't execute their very expensive healer.
  • So he was sent to Ghislain with the other problem wizards.
  • It sucked! Started narcing to the local templars to make it suck less.
  • Relatively friendless by the time the war came.
  • Decided he had a better chance with the Rebellion. Betrayed some fellow Loyalists to prove his credibility.
  • Fought for a while. Vanished when Fiona made the Tevinter deal.
  • Joined the Inquisition, spent a few years at Griffonwing Keep.
  • Kept passing info to extremist contacts.
  • Transferred to Kirkwall, stayed through its Riftwatch transition.
  • Fought in some battles, had relationship drama, did rebellion stuff, taught people magic, and ultimately betrayed everyone in a spooky dream.
  • At which point he had a midlife crisis and left.
  • Briefly came back to deposit a stray teenage apostate with the pirates and leave again when I instantly got busy irl.


    • NOW
  • Working for the Revins. They've patched things over. Kinda.
  • One of their kids is his illegitimate daughter. And an apostate. Oops.
  • Finally found out. Has been privately tutoring her and doing some sketchy things for them since.
  • Not long ago, surrounding an engagement, her secret leaked to a party interested in blackmail
  • He took care of it.
  • There are recent rumours of an ambitious bard or three dying pretty badly to what looks like blood magic.
  • It’s mysterious and probably unrelated. And prudent for him to not be in Orlais right now.


    • Sidenote - If the apostate thing is too much, happy to nix it.



    Personality

    Isaac first advanced in life by poisoning children. It set a tone.

    Not remembering whether he meant to has sat uneasily with him since he was old enough to understand the distinction. His study of healing was at first a conscious drive away from doing harm.

    He quickly realized that it made him useful.

    It would be a mistake to consider Isaac ambitious. He courts security before power, and involves himself with the causes and people that provide it. He expects there to be strings attached - a transactional approach to survival that has left him bitter and paranoid. He bears a deep resentment for those times he's been thrown to the wolves, and has oriented his life around avoiding it. By throwing someone else, if need be.

    He doesn't like that about himself - or much at all, really. Self-loathing steers his judgment. Isaac is a little too emotional and odd, too bent by the shape of his upbringing, to succeed in the ways that he'd like. He knows it, and considers it weakness.

    That doesn't mean he isn't proud - he might be terrible, but Isaac will happily assure others that they're worse. A degree of that arrogance is a disguised bid for control. It's been historically necessary for him to assume authority in situations where it doesn't exist: Sometimes, you have to get the guy who unlocks your room every morning to sit down and stop the bleeding.

    He's grown more intentional about wielding this with age, and lately attempts to project a version of himself that's more at ease with his violent history. Isaac is frightened by doing harm, but he has a great and pragmatic capacity for it, and there are fewer people that he's scared of now.

    Probably that's fine.

    Spending your life bracing for the next blow makes it difficult to plan very far ahead. Isaac attempts to maintain the appearance of a schemer, but in practice deals with events as they come. He squirrels away advantage without much discernment or planning, just tipping out his pockets when it's convenient.

    It can make him a useful man (or mark) to have on your side. He's chatty, superficially interested in people, and not without genuine affection or principle. He'll even extend a more honest self to some. Isaac finds a degree of purpose in teaching, and is one of those rare freaks who actually likes teenagers. He cuts children a lot of slack - may even stick his neck out for them. His sympathies ultimately lie with the ugly and strange, and for all that he likes Nice Things, at his core he's still the kid who feeds the Circle spiders.

    Isaac is not a good man, nor the worst. There are just limits to how far he can pushed: Generally, until his back's against the wall.



    Opinions & Affiliations

    RIFTWATCH
    Thanks for giving him a tiny bit of cover. For what? Don’t worry about it.

    GEOPOLITICS
    Orlais sucks. Everyone else sucks worse.

    MAGE STUFF
    Sympathies remain with the Rebels: He's not going back to a Circle. But he expects that to look like individual maneuvering, before any broader political wins. He’s not going back. Him. Specifically.

    ('Isaac, if you like the Rebellion so much, why aren't you fighting with the Exalted March?' Wow he can't read suddenly)

    Scared of templars and likely to cover with jokes. He doesn't intend to heal them within Riftwatch, which I imagine will be an IC discussion if and when the time comes.

    Rifters must complete a short obstacle course for approval. He won't tell them what's on it, but they are being judged.

    NON-HUMANS
    No active feelings against elves, plenty of quiet bias. The Qun sounds like a bad idea for him personally. Dwarves are just people, sometimes hot wealthy people. But they’re not mages, so they’re maybe - hear him out - a little less people? Much to consider.



    Strengths & Weaknesses


    STRENGTHS

  • Apothecary & herbalist, with a focus to poisons
  • Custom Spec - Weaponized healing magic. As before, he’s cautious about advertising this because it looks real bad, but a few people know.
  • Circle-educated, fluent in Trade and Orlesian
  • Some (unreliable) high-society contacts


    • WEAKNESSES

  • Sketchy reputation among most Loyalists, some Rebels, several Templars, assorted bards, and a handful of long-time Riftwatch members
  • Has the non-magical combat skills of a limp noodle
  • Can barely ride a horse, is scared of the horse, may fall off the horse
  • Astonishingly bad at languages. You'd be like, hey Isaac, shoulyou reallyeally understand at least a little Nevarran by now? No.



    • Inventory

  • Very nice clothes he will immediately ruin in the rubble
  • The world's jankiest-looking fire staff
  • Misc healer's kit
  • A small cache of savings
  • An enchanted dagger
  • His own phylactery


    • Motivation

    Sometimes the people you care about most have a history of stabbing you in the back, and that means leaving town for a while when you do a big crime for them. Just in case.

    He will be coasting on Kirkwall getting wrecked to avoid too many questions.

    SAMPLES

  • Recent TDM
  • Previous game tag

    • faderifting: (Default)

    APPROVED

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-04-06 02:55 am (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved! Welcome to Fade Rift. Before you start playing, please:
    ↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
    ↠ Reply to the Taken List.
    ↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
    ↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
    You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.
    allthatgleamsisgold: (Default)

    Vlast / Gleam | Guild Wars 2 | Rifter

    [personal profile] allthatgleamsisgold 2024-04-14 12:04 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Green Rivers
    Age: 38
    Contact: [plurk.com profile] GreenRivers
    Other Characters: N/A
    Interests: Trite but true: anything and everything. Mostly looking for more adventure and mission-type plots with Vlast than political intrigue (though tossing him at the stuffiest nobility could make for some hilarious hijinks as well).

    CHARACTER

    Name: Vlast / Gleam
    Canon/OC: Guild Wars 2
    Canon Point: Path of Fire
    Journal: allthatgleamsisgold
    Age: 250+

    Canon World

    Tyria is not a world dissimilar to Thedas. There's a variety of races, there's magic, there's a parallel realm of dreams and demons separated by a veil, and there are dragons with hordes of hiveminded minions hellbent on wreaking havoc.

    And oh boy are the dragons a problem.

    As of PoF, the main story is focused on the Elder Dragon plot; the many dissonant factions of Tyria coming together to face world ending foes in the six Elder Dragons (draconic embodiments of various spectrums of magic, each of them, to a one, hostile in some fashion).
    Presently, two are down, with four left to go.

    Unfortunately, two wrenches have been thrown into the Pact's dragon-killing escapades. One; the dragons are part of a cycle that keeps the world intact, even if it causes cataclysmic decimation to the inhabitants of said world. Killing any more without anything to take their place would potentially tear reality apart.

    The other problem is that the God of War, Balthazar, freshly freed from the Mists, has made a beeline to Elona so that he can slay Elder Dragon #3; Kralkatorrik.

    There is one sliver of hope in this whole debacle; Glint's Legacy. She was Kralkatorrik's first child, freed from his hivemind long ago and bonded with the mortal races. She has had two offspring of her own, potential candidates to replace the Elder Dragons who will circulate and share magic rather than the devastating ten thousand year cycles of feast and famine.

    Vlast is one such candidate for the role of Crystal Dragon Jesus. Or he was. He sort of died.
    History

    GW1 Wiki
    GW2 Wiki

  • Vlast was born, roughly, circa 1075 - 1077 A.E. in Kesho where he spent the majority of his life

  • He briefly accompanies adventurers escorting him to his mother's lair in Guild Wars who protect him from Primordus's minions.

  • Vlast, at some point, returns to Kesho where he is raised by his Exalted attendants, led by Sadizi. They try their best, but there aren't exactly manuals on how to socialize a dragon. He is generally regarded as reluctant in the role chosen for him.

  • For a time he traveled between Kesho and his mother's lair, though in 1320 A.E. Glint sent him back to Kesho which would become his permanent home after her death in the novel Edge of Destiny.

  • Vlast spends the next decade fighting Kralkatorrik's branded, and lending some assistance against the lich ruler, Palawa Joko. A third front is added to that particular fight when Balthazar joins the fray with his army of Forged.

  • In 1330 A.E., Balthazar forms an alliance with Palawa Joko and the two break into Kesho to 'study' the Exalted to find out how they bound their souls to metal constructs. Vlast is forced to flee, and only Sadizi survives by locking himself away.

  • In 1330 A.E. Vlast is killed after a protracted fight with Balthazar. He leaves behind one last message for his sister Aurene.


    • Personality

    Vlast: Some advice: if you grow weary of your caretakers, offer a hiss or a swat of your tail and watch them scatter. Do not let them—or yourself—forget what you are.


    Vlast is rather old by human standards and very young by the standards of Elder Dragons. Thus he is an ornery mix of crotchety old man and rebellious teenager acting out in whatever ways you'd expect from a 250 year old young adult.

    His ill-tempered nature is not completely unjustified; he has been raised from a hatchling to fulfill his mother's prophecy and put an end to the cataclysmic dragon cycles by replacing the Elder Dragons with less predatory counterparts. It's a weighty destiny to place on a fledgling, and while Vlast was committed to his duty, he saw it as only that; a job that needed doing and only he could do.

    He overall sees his mother's plan as a sound one that would, ultimately, be beneficial to all. His resentment and frustration stems from how he feels trapped in his role and has let himself be shaped and molded to fit into it, as more tool than a thinking and feeling person. He struggles with the responsibility left for him to shoulder in the decade since Glint was slain by her own sire.

    Vlast's existence has been a painfully isolated one. His main caretaker, Sadizi, admits the dragon was never properly socialized and spent whatever free time he had soaring the desert skies alone. By the time the Exalted realized Vlast needed to bond with mortal races, it was past the point of no return. He either no longer could - or cared to - and they were left with a restless, impatient dragon who viewed them as insignificant.

    The birth of his younger sister offered a rare glimmer of hope for Vlast - perhaps he wouldn't have to endure alone. Despite the distance between them, Vlast and Aurene shared an empathic bond, and Vlast cared deeply for his younger sister.

    So much so that he was willing to give his life to protect her champion without ever having had the opportunity to meet her.

    Strengths & Weaknesses

    Vlast was raised to be a pawn in his mother's long, long game. However he grumbles, he can obey orders, though he will lash out and challenge any perceived weaknesses where he sees them - especially as he grows more used to the idea that he's no longer beholden to his mother's plans.

    His pragmatism and blunt personality combined with his proactive and independent nature, makes him a reliable ally in small groups. Though on the flipside, he becomes restless if there is no task immediately on hand. He can also be petulant and irritable.

    Vlast is well-educated, given his access to insights many mortals would (and did) kill for. He especially has a vast array of magical expertise. While his knowledge largely pertains to Tyria, Vlast is clever and adaptable, and could offer a fresh perspective.

    There are, of course, gaps in that education. The Exalted didn't exactly go over manuals of social etiquette with him, and he certainly wasn't attending soirees where he could pick it up as he went. He will struggle with social mores, especially as he lacks emotional maturity.

    He also has a tendency to bite.

    Physically speaking, he's a typical Qunari that's on the leaner side. He's mostly healthy, though there's external and internal issues in the right side of his torso where he sports a nasty scar - the lingering evidence of a large puncture surrounded by a webbing of burn scars. He may have gotten a new life in Thedas, but when the god of fire and war stabs you, you stay stabbed. The wound that ended his first life will trouble him for the remainder of his days.

    Powers
      Humanized:
      When we first meet baby Vlast in GW1, he's categorized under the Mesmer profession, so that will be his skillset when he falls out the Rift.

      Mesmers are magical duelists that utilize illusion and trickery to warp their opponents perception of reality. They create clones and phantasms and use the confusion to strike quickly with the considerable arsenal (laser-greatsword) they have access to.

      Mesmer can also cast boons on their allies and conditions on their enemies, and create reflective domes, short-range portals and teleportation, speeding up and slowing down time, invisibility, and transformation.


      Draconic
      Vlast is a dragon. Or was. Whatever the case, that presents its own host of issues, and may leave some residual weirdness when coming to Thedas. In Tyria, dragons are big, they are scaly, they can typically fly, and breathe magical energy that manifests in one form or another (fire, ice, death, magic crystals, whatever). Vlast is not an Elder Dragon, though he is of that lineage.

      Consuming and Circulating Magic
      In addition to their regular diet, dragons also consume magical energy. They're a bit like shoals of shellfish and other filter-feeders; they consume and circulate magic, filtering out pollutants, including Void energies making them vital to the ecosystem.

      Consuming too much magic, or hoarding large quantities within themselves without circulating it back into the world leaves them prone to corruption, becoming increasingly hostile and malicious. On the other hand, if they consume enough of a certain type of magic, they can also learn new skills from it.

      Brandstone, Connection vs Corruption

      Brandstone is the manifestation of a crystal dragon's magic.

      GW2 lore plays pretty fast and loose with what Brandstone is and can do. To start, it's a byproduct of dragon magic. It releases a sort of electric energy that, in large concentrations, can create a perpetual storm. It also hums; in the words of Josso Essher, the crystals "share a fundamental resonance that connects them [...] and makes them vulnerable to each other". Vlast and Glint use it to record their memories. Vlast and Aurene are able to use their own Brandstone to contain the spread of their grandfather's corruption. After Vlast's death, there are Elonian's collecting shards of his crystals to turn into weapons to combat Kralkatorrik's minions

      Branding is also the vehicle through which Kralkatorrik and his descendants can corrupt or connect with other living things.

      It is something all Elder Dragons and their scions can do; it is their most distinctive trait. Whether it's the former or the latter depends on the dragon's intent and the willingness of their target. Corruption is generally done against the target's will, and their mind is subsumed into the dragon's. Connection is made with a willing participant and their faculties remain intact. The latter creates an empathic link between the dragon and the person, able to share thoughts, emotions, and visions. The recipient is also able to draw from the dragon's powers, such as the Bond of Faith and Bond of Vigor the Commander shares with Aurene.

      It's a plot-point than Vlast never formed such a bond, though he is physically capable.

      If any of this remains in Vlast after coming Thedas, it may mean he will have a very high tolerance for raw lyrium, and some resistance to Blight (likely forming thick cysts as other dragons do or forming a Brandstone encasing to isolate and contain the infection for a time).

      Prophecy

      Another distinctive property of the crystal dragons is their ability to foresee possible futures.

      Unlike his mother, however, it seems Vlast is not particularly gifted on that front. As far as we can tell, he only ever foresaw his possible death at the hands of Balthazar.


    Suggested Nerfs

    Most, if not all, Mesmer spells already follow similar rules of line of sight, time and distance. For the clones, I'd stick to the in-game limitations of only being able to have three active at any given time, and that they'd be very limited in functionality.

    The only skills that might be iffy are the teleportation skills like Blink and Portal Entre/Exuant and Time Warp so maybe either heavily limit access to them or just nerf those entirely.

    I want him to retain his innate need to consume, filter, and circulate magic, and create small quantities of Brandstone as a byproduct of his spellcasting. He will be as reliant on Lyrium potions as he is on food and water to keep himself hale and whole. As he adjusts to the ambient magic in Thedas, he will become less dependent, but he will still need to consume them fairly regularly.

    As for his other draconic powers, if they aren't completely nerfed, I'd like for him to regain some (heavily) limited form of them through activity rewards.

    Dragon form: if he is ever able to regain this form I would suggest it requires
    • Several months of research and practice at least.

    • Serious shrinkage to about the average size of a Skyscale

    • Only able to be maintained for a few hours tops (much shorter depending on how much his magic reserves he burns through).

    • While he'd be able to create larger quantities of Brandstone with his magic breath, it probably shouldn't be more than a streak of twenty meters long by one meter high.

    • Post-transformation recovery could take a few days - a week to fully recover from depending on his access to food, water, Lyrium and rest.


    Corruption/Connection would require both player and mod permission and input.

    Prophecy should be used at mod's discretion. If you guys want to put it to use, have at it. If not, it will not be missed.

    Arrival Inventory

    Nuthin.

    Humanization

    A Qunari would fit him best, both physically and thematically. Naturally they have ties to dragon blood, and while he may not follow the Qun, he does struggle with duty vs freedom, depersonalization, and purpose and connection to it.

    Fit

    A dragon should fit just fine in the Dragon Age setting.

    Vlast would be an interesting fit in the DA setting, largely because Tyria is, in many respects, very similar to Thedas, while the social mores and values are wildly different. Detached as he is, Vlast has been at war for a long time so he's well used to being stuck in conflicts he has no personal investment in. Whether that latter part will change or not would be interesting to explore - especially now that he's been forced into a mortal body. Maybe the connection and purpose he felt he was lacking can be found in Thedas and her many conflicts? Or maybe he'll be driven deeper into his jaded cynicism?

    SAMPLES

    1 & 2
    faderifting: (Default)

    APPROVED + NOTES (OR QUESTIONS IF YOU PREFER)

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-04-22 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved contingent on the following:
    We apologize for the delayed response! We also apologize that despite our best efforts at wiki research (we're completely canon-blind), we're unsure about what some of the abilities you've mentioned entail as well as the scope of the abilities you're looking for here. From what we've seen, things like Mesmer seem to include a vast array of possible abilities and skills, far beyond what we'd expect any one character to possess all at once, and we're not sure which ones you intend Vlast to actually have.

    So we have two options to offer. #1, we've laid out below a set of powers, as we understand them, that we'd be comfortable approving right now. If this works for you, great! The app is approved.

    • He can create up to 10 phantasms and 3 clones at a time, which (like you mentioned) will be only work while within his line of sight.
      • The phantasms can last up to 10 minutes, but that time will decrease proportional to how many he has going at once (so, 1 phantasm for 10 minutes or 10 for 1 minute). The amount of damage they're able to do will be equal to the amount Vlast himself can do, which will also be divided among the phantasms in the same way as the duration.
      • The clones have similar time limits, and otherwise work as you described in your proposed nerfs.
      • Clones can be shattered to damage/confuse the enemy, but only in the sense that they can explode on Vlast's command and this can harm and disrupt—the other more complex shatter options listed in the wiki won't apply.

    • He can create a projectile-resisting dome as described in the Feedback spell, which can cover a maximum 20 foot radius and last for up to 20 seconds.
    • Teleportation will be limited to the equivalent of the Fade Step ability.
    • He can become invisible for up to 5 minutes, and the invisibility will be broken if he attacks or otherwise does something to draw attention like shouting or bumping into someone.
    • He can retain or regain the ability to assume draconic form, with the limitations you suggested, without the need for you to purchase it through activity rewards. He can arrive with that ability or regain it on whatever schedule you'd like.
    • He can need to consume lyrium as described, but won't be able to acquire any new magical skills through this alone. He can also have unusual resistance to raw lyrium, equivalent to a dwarf's.
    • He cannot be immune to the Blight in his default qunari form, but in dragon form can isolate it in cysts that will provide some limited protection, and it will remain contained in those cysts when he transforms back into a qunari. If there's a scenario in-game where you'd like him to interact with Blight corruption in dragon form, let us know and we can discuss how much he can handle before becoming infected.
    • He can create Brandstone, which in Thedas will be akin to a DAI Tier 4 material, associated with electrical/storm-related magic. In its raw form it can emit lighting akin to the Chain Lightning spell when thrown or struck with sufficient force. It can be forged or worked into items that will allow the possessors more precise/powerful electrical and/or storm-related abilities. We're open to ideas about what exactly that might be, and to letting that be something that you can explore in RP—if there's something you'd like to experiment with making with it, please drop it in the mod contact as with any new Research development and we'll review. Anyone (including you) who'd like to make weapons, armors, or other items out of Brandstone will need to purchase them as enchanted objects through our rewards system.
    • Any other magic not described here, including but not limited to corruption/connection, prophecy, and time-related magic, will be nerfed entirely. If, in the future, you'd like to use activity rewards to purchase a custom specialization that includes a limited set of other Mesmer abilities, we'll consider that.

    If this doesn't work for you as-is, then option #2: please give us a much more specific rundown of the abilities you'd like to have in game, how they work in practice, and what their limits are, so that we can review and consider those details. E.g., instead of Mesmer as a whole, which specific abilities or portions of those ability trees are you hoping to include? What exactly are you hoping Brandstone will be able to do in game? Do you plan for this character to have any non-magical abilities (i.e., combat skills)? We'll treat this as a Question rather than a Revision, so no need to revise the app itself, just respond to this comment within a week with the info.

    Before you start playing, please:
    ↠ Read the Rifter FAQ and particularly the sections relating to Arrival and Anchors.
    ↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
    ↠ Reply to the Taken List.
    ↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
    ↠ Take a look at the most recent mod post concerning the state of the game and any plot sign-ups that may be ongoing.
    You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm! Since your character is arriving via rift, you're welcome to post a rift arrival log, or to begin RP in the Gallows and simply handwave that members of Riftwatch met your character on their arrival through the rift, helped them close it, and brought them to Kirkwall. If you have any questions, let us know.

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    [personal profile] allthatgleamsisgold - 2024-04-22 15:49 (UTC) - Expand

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    doneisdone: (Default)

    Teren von Skraedder | Native OC

    [personal profile] doneisdone 2024-04-15 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Cami
    Age: thirty[mumble]
    Contact: [plurk.com profile] eolasemah, Cafiffle on discord
    Other Characters: Benedict, Barrow, Fifi
    Interests: The usual bullshit, causing problems on purpose, Big Drama, vibing gently as the passage of time grinds us all to dust

    CHARACTER

    Name: Teren von Skraedder
    Canon/OC: OC
    Journal: [personal profile] doneisdone
    Race: human (elf-blooded)
    Nationality: Nevarran
    Occupation: Senior Warden
    Division: Scouting
    Mage or Not: N
    Age: early 60s

    History

    Here's a link to her old app, additions to her history consist of 'has just about killed herself several times over for Riftwatch/The Inquisition, crashed a dragon into a tower once, and most recently conscripted and trained a group of baby Wardens in the area around Champrovent.
    She briefly returned to Riftwatch to assist with the blighted Rift, then fucked off again [because I got pregnant and had a bad time].

    Personality

    Surly, opinionated, and generally Not To Be Trifled With, Teren is awfully tough for someone who looks like she could be snapped in half by a stiff wind. Though standoffish and unfriendly at first glance, anyone who gets to know Teren will learn sooner or later that she is quite passionate about more than one topic: this includes Nevarran politics, the state of the Grey Wardens as an organization, the state of the Grey Wardens she has known as personal associates, sewing patterns that are or are not for whores, Orlesians as a collective, the Fifth Blight and its effects on Fereldan royalty, what kind of whiskey is good, how she's going to kill every single individual person who has wronged one of hers, and so forth.
    She's very particular about everything she eats, drinks, or wears, and is a fearsome haggler, a skill she's more than willing to lend her fellow Wardens, in addition to mending their clothes for free (everyone else has to pay).

    Her romantic ventures have categorically ended in tragedy and her sexual encounters are as rare as they are mysterious; the less said about them, the better. She has successfully killed one other member of Riftwatch and almost killed a few others, but it's not her fault they were babies about it. When she loves, she does so fiercely, and anyone Warden or otherwise who finds themselves under her wing will benefit from her attention, whether they like it or not.

    In the wake of losing more than one of her closest associates to the war with Corypheus, Teren's outlook has taken a turn for the maudlin (or at least she would say so): feeling that there is little left for her to do apart from watch all of her loved ones die in turn, whether to combat or to the Calling, her mind has turned toward how she can make the most of her own last days. Riftwatchers both new and familiar to her will find her rather more withdrawn, more focused-- as a result, perhaps more helpful-- and less opinionated than before, belying an internal struggle that she has no interest in sharing with the class.

    Opinions & Affiliations

    Mostly chill with everyone, but Orlesian Imperialists (including Chevaliers) can fuck off, Mortalitasi are sus, and regular mages are spooky but generally judged on a case-by-case basis.


    Strengths & Weaknesses

    Strengths: An absolute whiz with twin daggers, quick-thinking, seemingly indestructible or at least unwilling to die when she probably should, iron-willed and pragmatic.

    Weaknesses: Paranoid, stubborn, bossy, sometimes unpleasant for no reason, at least a touch sadistic, Getting On In The Years, easily manipulated if someone knows which buttons to push.

    Inventory

    Typical Warden gear, fancy knives acquired through Riftwatch, a billion other less-cool knives tucked into her various articles of clothing, sewing kit, personal flask, and her horsey Riddle.

    Motivation

    Most of her closest Wardens were just killed in action, which means it's time to get Weird (in the sense of returning to Riftwatch and devising the most devastating possible counter-attack, from which she feels no need to return). Riftwatch has the resources to make it really count, and it has never been beyond Teren's scope of morality to manipulate situations to her own ends-- she's also got very little left to lose, which at this point is more of an asset to the organization than it would be to her alone.

    SAMPLES

    Log
    Crystal
    faderifting: (Default)

    ACCEPTED + NOTE

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-04-22 03:23 am (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved, with the following notes:
    If you want to handwave anything about Teren's off-screen adventures that's more significant or plot-affecting than generic Warden Stuff, Fighting Darkspawn, You Know How It Is, make sure to run it past us first!
    Welcome to Fade Rift! Before you start playing, please:
    ↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
    ↠ Reply to the Taken List.
    ↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
    ↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
    You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.
    dashing: (Default)

    HERIAN AMSEL - native oc

    [personal profile] dashing 2024-05-15 07:02 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Bails
    Age: 30+
    Contact: journal dm, haybails on discord
    Other Characters: NA
    Interests: Gleefully frolicing back with one of my ocs, except worse. I love all kinds of plots, initially my focus will be on re-familiarising myself with the game and exploring the differences this direction for Herian will mean in terms of her role in things. If there’s a way for her to be rescuing cute animals, though, I support that.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Herian
    Canon/OC: OC
    Journal: dashing
    Race: elf–blooded human
    Nationality: Marcher
    Occupation: previously: Circle Mage, knight enchanter. Now… helper?
    Division: unknown
    Mage or Not: Tranquil
    Age: 33 (i think?)
    dashing: (♛ nèamh.)

    [personal profile] dashing 2024-05-15 07:08 am (UTC)(link)
    History

    Previously on Fade Rift:
    - Starkhaven alienage baby
    - Family history of mages being yeeted across many Circles
    - Dad panicked when she started showing signs of magic and tried to smuggle her off to the Dalish
    - Went very badly because past Bails went really over the top with TRAGIQUE backstory so he was murdered, she was tortured, everything bad forever.
    - Back in Starkhaven she does some magic and gets taken to the Circle. Bummer.
    - But her bff Saorise was there so that was great!
    - But then the Circle burned down so they were sent to different Circles. Bummer.
    - Her new Circle was fine until it sucked ass and the White Spire collapsed.
    - Herian’s new form was a sulky, broody, pro-Circle knight enchanter trying to be goth-chic Robin Hood around alienages in Orlais. Her other bff has swooshy red hair that’s legit as hell.
    - Joined the Inquisition, left for a while on a long mission
    - Came back, was Ambassador, got engaged to a Rifter, acquired a corgi, had various dilemmas and crises.
    Left after Riftwatch separated from the Inquisition and bc she missed Cosima
    - Rejoined the Inquisition, got frustrated with them not being intensely progressively enough re: elves, mages and Rifters and came back to Riftwatch. She was kind of a reclusive asshole during this time, ostensibly due to injury-related health problems and emotional trauma, in reality because I was not able to be on top of being in a game.
    - Left again. This may indicate Herian Has Issues Addressing Problems That She Can’t Hit With A Sword/Magic.

    Since then:
    Recovered health stuff, working on personal insight and growth and not being full of rage, reconnecting with the Honour spirit etc. Has been working alongside the Chantry but as part of a small, independent group of ex-Circle mages. This group pushed for the Chantry to have a more progressive stance on mages and elves (and Rifters, but the latter is probs mostly Herian lbr).

    While undertaking a mission, Herian was attacked by a group of rogue Templars. As a former Ambassador to Riftwatch and for her outspokenness on various topics (but especially mages and Rifters), they decided to make an example of her. Herian was subjected to the Rite of Tranquility, and sent to Riftwatch. (They kept her horse as a useful resource and destroyed her staff and her knight enchanter lightsabre, but she has her dog and her amazing hair.)


    Personality

    Prior to the Rite of Tranquility, Herian tended to feel a lot of things very intensely and tried to cram them all under a calm demeanor, with mixed results.
    For a long time she defined herself and her value in terms of her responsibilities, the good she can do, and honour. That was her way to navigate the world and attempt to function around all that ptsd. There are times this has aggressively undermined her (gestures to my last stint in game, etc). She dreads indecision and inaction born of trying to know the right thing to do, and the harm that can come from that inaction.

    All that HONOUR and DO GOOD energy are not immune to pride and ego. Severity + pride + big do-gooder energy don’t tend to make for easy friend making. IIRCly, she was referred to ICly as “Sister Killjoy,” and that’s legit.

    Despite seeming like she is made either of rage or uptightness, depending which person she’s failing to communicate with and what kind of emotional disaster she is currently navigating, she’s capable of close attachments. She believes in the importance of love, kindness and compassion. When you get past the rigidity, there is warmth, charisma and even some playful humour. She is surprisingly gentle, and fiercely protective.

    Herian carries a lot of anger and a hefty load of ptsd. Anger has been a significant part of her survival and how she's kept going. Her work on herself over the last few years involved being more emotionally healthy,which makes the next part of this personality section Another Bummer for Herian.

    For all that Herian was accused of being cold, the intensity of her emotions defined her. The Rite of Tranquility has not made her “more Herian” in any sense. Granted, some elements of how she speaks may mirror elements of her earliest stints in FR, when she tried (and failed) to compartmentalise. While she spoke rigidly, Herian felt with dangerous intensity.
    Her tranquility will be disturbing to those around her, but not herself. I’d say she might view it with ‘detached curiosity,” but even that wouldn’t be accurate. Maybe she can just look at it objectively, or with as much objectivity as being directed by the will of those around her allows.
    Beyond the obvious lack of emotion, the absence of the tenacity and drive she once had would be the most glaring difference. Some things she will do solely due to instruction or understanding necessity, e.g. she knows her dog requires feeding and exercise, and knows she has an obligation to her companion, but she doesn’t feel about it as she did before.

    One or two folks in-game may remember a time where she plead with Coupe to be subject to the Rite. Though she was dissuaded, the anger and turmoil she’s so often experienced might open the door to interesting/ uncomfortable discussions around whether she’s more able to be at peace now than before.


    Opinions & Affiliations

    Normally she has many, many opinions. Currently, not so much.
    ✓ Aequitarians, elves (!!!!), rifters, mostly the Chantry, the Knight's Code, the Dissonant Verses
    It's Complicated: Circles, Loyalists, Templars, Seekers, Libertarians, nobility, Grey Wardens
    ✘ Dalish elves, Resolutionist Libertarians, Lucrosians, Chevaliers, blood magic, apostates


    Strengths & Weaknesses

    Magically speaking, she used to have access to the Knight-Enchanter and a custom Code of Honour specialisation, alongside the Champion specialisation.
    Now that her connection to the Fade has been severed, she has lost her magic and her ability to dream.
    Technically she would still have the Champion specialisation, but I imagine that without emotion and the Tranquil very rarely exercising free will, her ability to utilise it would be limited. (How do you defend yourself without a sense of fear/urgency/desire to survive, etc?)

    The whole Tranquil thing is kind of a weakness generally, I’d say. She will still have her incredible hair, though.

    Inventory
    Literally just her clothes and her dog. Anything that could have been useful to the Templars would have been taken (including her HORSE, someone please go John Wick on her behalf to get her back.)

    Motivation
    Templars sent her there to be intimidating. As in, to intimidate Riftwatch (but especially mages) via their creepiness, not for Herian to be intimidating. She will stay because presumably her buds won’t want to yeet an extra vulnerable Herian into the nightmare that is Thedas.

    SAMPLES

    ONE vintage, so adorable.

    TWO

    THREE


    Edited (i can html real good) 2024-05-15 07:09 (UTC)

    ACCEPTED

    [personal profile] faderifting - 2024-05-24 02:47 (UTC) - Expand
    sumptus: (Default)

    cauis porthmeus | native oc

    [personal profile] sumptus 2024-05-30 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Jenni
    Age: Older than jesus 4ever
    Contact: jennibeans on plurk, jennibeanss on disco
    Other Characters: None atm.
    Interests: Magic nerdery, weird Fade shit, and ends-justify-the-means political intrigue.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Caius Porthmeus
    Canon/OC: OC
    Journal: [personal profile] sumptus
    Race: Human
    Nationality: Tevene
    Occupation: Academic
    Division: Research
    Mage or Not: Mage
    Age: 24

    History

    • Born in Tevinter to an Ander couple who had immigrated looking for work and only found enough to get trapped in a debt pit.
    • Sent to work in a local mage's household as soon as he was old enough to be worth the cost of feeding.
    • Had A Bad Time. Remarkably intelligent from a young age, but in a way that earned him a reputation for acting above his station and more than a few beatings.
    • Became said mage's assistant nonetheless.
    • Hid the emergence of his own magic until said mage lost control of a summoning spell and was messily killed by a demon. Preteen Caius probably didn't have anything to do with that, don't worry about it.
    • Ran away to the farthest-away Circle he could find, hello it's me definitely an orphan.
    • Turns out Circles that take in orphans aren't great!
    • Worked his ass off both in school and outside it. He earned his place in increasingly prestigious Circles, at first out of an overabundance of survivalist paranoia, but that gradually blossomed into ambition.
    • Realized his dreams were not like other mages’, suspected he might be a somniari but that would be crazy right? Ha ha anyway.
    • Decided to keep that revelation on the inside where it belongs.
    • But one of the senior enchanters noticed he was attracting demons all the damn time and started working with him on that, oh my god Caius.
    • She kept his secret as a temporary gesture, for her own future gain, but was killed by a rival before she could share it. How that rival finally got to her, exactly, is also not something anyone should worry about!
    • Made some rich friends but had a chip on his shoulder the size of Orlais about being anyone's charity case.
    • When he next transfered Circles, he switched to straight-up lying to everyone about his perfectly normal happy family and status.
    • Got recruited to help the Venatori with research re: power sources, which has been half academically fascinating, half terrifying in its practical applications.
      [ unease intensifies over the next few years ]
    • When Corypheus formally took over the Magisterium, Cauis finally broke from the herd and made for Riftwatch.
    Personality

    At first pass, Caius comes off as a sharp but cautious young man who keeps his thoughts and feelings close to the vest. Old habits die hard, and his are to watch and learn until he knows the lay of the land. Anyone who spends more time with him will find a lack of confidence or social ability isn't his problem; he's more likely to be considering whether other people are worth his time than vice versa, he just prefers to do so from inside his own head.

    For people who get over that initial hurdle, he can be personable in a salt-of-the-earth way that he's careful to spin as "authentic" and not "poor" in polite company. He's even-tempered, with a dry, stealthy sort of humor that sneaks up on you and pushes you into the pool when you least expect. Caius doesn't want to be class clown, but he's ready to enable whoever is. Left alone with his thoughts, he can get kind of intense and bitter, so he's learned to surround himself with people who don't take him (or anything else) quite so seriously.

    But even amongst friends, Caius is stubbornly independent. He's been an army of one as long as he can remember; apart from said friends, no one has ever looked out for him, and he doesn't expect that to change. Caius believes most people's actions are motivated by cost-benefit analysis and self-interest -- and that's not a bad thing, he's just not interested in pretending otherwise. Altruism isn't real, kindness is essentially transactional, and he doesn't want to owe anybody anything when he finally claws his way to the top of the shit mountain that is Tevinter.

    And he's going to claw his way to the top. In the absence of parental validation or support, Caius has become tremendously ambitious, with a driving need to prove himself to the whole damn world. That has fueled an obsessive work ethic and unhealthy commitment to pulling himself up by his own bootstraps, which, while effective so far, is probably not sustainable. His friendships in the Circle have helped him learn to chill out and occasionally accept help, but he is still pointed due north at "accomplishing everything I can without stopping to examine why."

    It helps that he's smart and good at things that are rewarded in Tevinter. Caius is a fixer, a problem-solver, the sort of person who asks whether he can without sparing a thought for whether he should -- and he usually finds a way to make that first answer "yes." In his work and life, he prefers to withhold judgment until presented with hard evidence, but is unafraid of making bold moves once he has that. However, his belief in the pure and unbiased nature of logic means he often ignores everyone's feelings and overlooks human consequences until he's already done things he regrets.

    Opinions & Affiliations

    Venatori: Know a lot of interesting magic Caius wants to learn, have a lot of social power he envies, but as a die-hard skeptic he doesn't vibe with their blind devotion to Corypheus -- or all the resulting human suffering! He doesn't love that!

    Chantry: Speaking of blind devotion, he doesn't love the Southern or Northern iterations, but he sees the Imperial Chantry as less of a threat since it doesn't want to lock him in a tower.

    Old Gods: More academically interesting, powerful in ways he can more easily observe and test. He doesn't trust or worship them either but he's more likely to believe they can do something for him.

    Qun: He likes his tongue attached, thanks. Hasn't thought about the war very hard.

    Slavery: Is happening, but for most of his life he's been more concerned about making sure it doesn't happen to him. As he's gained social status, he's had a harder time existing in proximity to it without feeling like he's becoming the thing he hates most. Cool!

    Tevene class structure: Shitty, but shitty in ways he understands and wants to conquer. He's vaguely aware that systemic change would supposedly make that unnecessary, but the problem is too personal for him; he doesn't really believe there's a solution beyond bootstrapping his way up like he's already doing.

    Race relations: Seem fine in the Circles, seem like something he'll put his foot in his mouth over if he tries to have an opinion otherwise.

    The South: You know those nightmares where you show up for a final exam and realize you've studied for the wrong test? That, but it's now his whole life.

    Strengths & Weaknesses

    Academic: Focused on magical energy -- mana from the Fade, lyrium, blood, whatever, he's good at figuring out how to get the most out of power sources and amplify the energy they produce, usually through mechanical means like glyphs or more involved physical rituals. See custom spec here for the specifics I apped in with last time. (Approval thread here.)

    He understands a little Ander, knows enough Ancient Tevene to make complicated nerd jokes, studied whatever scraps of old languages he's needed for research, and is otherwise well-read in the way of obsessively diligent Tevene Circle students.

    Combat: Never been, Would Prefer Not To. He's highly uncomfortable with being physically threatened (by people/demons at least, animals are fine), so there's a 50/50 chance he'll either freeze up or produce So Much Lightning if cornered. From a safe distance, he could make a good mana recycling machine for other mages, but only if he's not busy having a panic attack.

    Dreamer: His training was cut short not long after How Not to Become An Abomination lessons. At this point, Caius can "see the stitches" in the Fade the way Feynriel can at the end of DA2's Night Terrors quest; he lucid-dreams well enough to have self-aware conversations with spirits and manipulate the Fade in small ways. He's practiced on his own enough to be able to wander the Fade and visit people's dreams, but he's inexperienced; there's always a risk he won't find his way back to his body again. Similarly, while he can make changes to other people's dreams, he doesn't always have the coordination to keep those changes from spiraling out of control. Things like impacting the waking world or killing people in their sleep are beyond him, and he'd need a teacher to get to that point. The presence of demons outside the Fade also causes him physical pain.

    I'd like to use this for random dreamscape threads and occasionally have him scout the Fade for information, the way Solas dreams in ruins and watches ancient battles or consults with spirits, etc. But ICly it's dangerous enough he wouldn't use it often, and OOCly I'd submit a plot request if I wanted him to learn anything plot-relevant.

    Misc: Has done a lot of random manual labor to get by, so he can build a fence and mind a horse and do minor handyman tasks, along with regular rural household chores and generally looking after himself. Not as great at rubbing elbows, though he's trying hard to catch up. Can't hear in his right ear and has a dodgy sense of smell/taste as a side effect of a childhood head injury.

    In Riftwatch: Scary Vint Mage, actual former Venatori ally, could be a liability in a lot of situations even though he is generally polite. Abomination risk. Practical in a way that sometimes fails to account for other people's morals. On the plus side, he's got some nice Venatori intel to sell.

    Inventory

    Travel clothes
    Research notes
    Staff
    Terrible bowl cut ig he can have better hair this time

    Motivation

    The explanation Caius would have given Riftwatch for defection is twofold: 1) he's been increasingly uncomfortable with the Venatori's methods, and 2) he believes strongly in an independent Magisterium.

    The first of those things is true, even if he would only admit such a soft feeling as a means of manipulation. His commitment to political independence is not actually as strong as advertised, but he does believe he has a better chance of getting the kind of power (and vis-a-vis stability and security) he wants if Tevinter has an archon other than Corypheus.

    If he's accepted, I have a specific idea for what Venatori intel I'd like him to bring to Riftwatch in exchange for help defecting, but I'll submit a plot request for it. (And I'm fine doing a regular, non-specific intro if my idea doesn't work out.)

    SAMPLES

    Sample 1

    Sample 2 (im sorry)

    Sample 3 (sheds a single tear)
    faderifting: (Default)

    ACCEPTED

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-05-31 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved! Welcome to Fade Rift. Before you start playing, please:
    ↠ Join the Log, "Network," OOC, and (optional) Meme comms.
    ↠ Reply to the Taken List.
    ↠ Reply to the Player Contact List.
    ↠ Read the most recent mod posts.
    You're then welcome to post an introduction to the OOC comm and begin RPing! If you have any questions, let us know.
    Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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