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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.

Page 7 of 7

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only
rowancrowned: (019)

thranduil, rifter: electric boogaloo

[personal profile] rowancrowned 2024-06-06 02:46 am (UTC)(link)
PLAYER

Name: Katherine
Age: hey do you guys remember how I was 20 when I first joined the game in March 2015
Contact: [plurk.com profile] pr0ph3t
Other Characters: none
Interests: Roleplaying with friends.

CHARACTER

Name: Thranduil
Canon/OC: Tolkien
Canon Point: Post-canon/Third Age 3020
Journal: [personal profile] rowancrowned
Age: ~7000

Canon World
Tolkien’s universe—Eä—begins with song. Eru Ilúvatar, the One, the undisputed (except by Melkor and Sauron) creator of the world, sings existence into being with the help of his Ainur. Chief among the Ainur are the thirteen Valar, born first and directly from his mind. One of the Valar, Melkor, wasn’t pleased with Eru’s plan for the world. Twice, he sung in disharmony with the great music, and twice, Eru merely changed the theme around it. When Melkor tried again, Eru rebuked him.

Melkor’s disharmony disturbed some elements of Eru’s design, and allowed evil into the world. Like mold, so thank Melkor for cheese.

Meanwhile, all the Ainur go down to Arda and make it ready for the first Children of Ilúvatar, the elves. Melkor literally smashes a bunch of mountains, the Valar fix it, Melkor does more things, the Valar patch it up—until the Valar eventually stop trying to protect the whole supercontinent, and King Solomon the landmass. Melkor 'gets' the right half, from then named Middle-earth, the Valar get Aman, the left half, ‘the blessed realm’. Unfortunately, the elves, who the Valar are super excited to meet, wake up on the right half. Melkor finds them first, steals some away, and through torture and selective breeding, turns them into Orcs.

The Valar find the remaining newly-wakened elves, and persuade a majority to come to Aman. Many elves do not complete the journey, but the intent to complete it or how far they get sets up their social class.

Fast-forward a couple thousand years. Due to some debate over intellectual property rights, a bunch of elves leave the blessed realm and come back to Middle-earth. The Valar finally get around to making a non-pole based light source, and promptly curse the elves who ditched Aman—the Noldor—who proceed to mess up Melkor pretty good, and caused him to be banished into the Void, but not without great personal cost. Sauron, his lieutenant, escapes this fate.

Now, after Middle-Earth has been around for Melkor and Sauron to fuss with, it is not nearly as pretty as Aman. Sauron comes to a Noldor smith named Celebrimbor, pretending to be an Ainur, and offers him a way to heal Middle-earth. How? Rings.

Specifically, nineteen rings— of which Sauron had a hand in creating seventeen. Nine for mortal men and seven for dwarves, and one that he forged in secret as a super control ring. One might even say he made it to become lord of all the rings. Celebrimbor created three rings that Sauron did not know about— for elves.

Sauron’s plan for world domination does not go as intended—the elves are able to hold out and resist him, even pulling to gather together for a last alliance to seemingly defeat him. Only seemingly. Many, many years later, a fellowship forms to finally destroy the One Ring, and they succeed.

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
wiki entry!
  • YoT ???: born in the later Years of the Trees in Menegroth, in the Kingdom of Doriath. The kingdom is pretty great at this point- the king's wife is one of the Ainur, and the craft she weaves about the city makes it so no evil thing can enter.
  • FA 502: dwarves sack the city and kill the elven king, Elu Thingol. His wife, Melian the Maia, flees in grief, and the protections she had woven about the city fall apart, leaving it open to attack. Dior, Thingol's grandson, assumes the kingship.
  • FA 506: kinslaying elves sack the city four years after the first sack, looking for a silmaril. The kingdom falls entirely, survivors flee to the Havens of Sirion. Thranduil's mother dies in this attack, if not in the previous one.
  • Oropher, Thranduil's father, however, does not go to the Havens and instead takes his household to Greenwood the Great.
  • FA 538: the same elves who sacked Doriath sack the refugee-filled Havens.
  • FA 590: first Age ends.
  • SA: 100's: Oropher formally assumes kingship over Greenwood the Great, makes his capital at Amon Lanc.
  • SA 1600: Rings of Power forged.
  • SA 3430: Last Alliance of Elves and Men formed to go get Sauron to Stop. Oropher commits to the cause, takes his army there- and dies. Thranduil takes the kingship, and returns to Greenwood, eleven years later, with one third of the army he arrived with.
  • SA: 3441: Second Age ends.
  • TA 800-900: Southern parts of Greenwood start to darken, giant spiders start appearing. Thranduil and his court leave Amon Lanc, both to escape the evil rising in that part of the forest, and to get away from Lothlórien and Galadriel, who are seen as trying to exert too much influence over the kingdom.
  • TA 1050: 'the Necromancer' takes up residence in the abandoned capital, large swaths of the southern forest go dark, spiders get bigger. Greenwood renamed 'Mirkwood' for obvious reasons.
  • TA 2460: Sauron makes Amon Lanc his headquarters.
  • TA 2770: Erebor attacked by Smaug.
  • TA 2942: Events of 'The Hobbit' begin. Battle of the Five Armies, and so forth- Team 'Good' wins, Erebor reestablished, Bard becomes King of Dale, good things all around.
  • At this point, Thranduil boofed into Fade Rift, where he spends some time advocating for the cause of elves generally and then also rifters, goes on a lot of adventures, makes friends, becomes Provost and lords that over others, gets married, causes trouble, gets sad as a bunch of his friends die/vanish/turn coat, then about 1.5 yrs ago, he vanishes. He will remember none of this to start, and will remember it slowly as is fun for me, the player. To him as he arrives now, everything previous up to the end of The Battle of the Five Armies + all the LOTR books happens, he's getting ready for Elf Retirement, and then bam! Thedas 2: Return to Thedas.
  • I have seven words left.

    • Personality
    First and foremost, Thranduil is primarily a survivor. He survived two sackings of his birth city at a very young age, and then went on to survive a battle where not only his own father died, but two-thirds of the army they brought with them also perished. He is so deeply affected by this that spends most of the time after the Last Alliance planning for the return of Sauron, unable to even look south without remembering what happened.

    This fear and the great loss of life at the Last Alliance makes him both stubborn and viciously protective over elven lives—specifically, the lives of his people. Oropher was not born into being King of the Woodland Realm—the Silvans chose him and his line to rule, and Thranduil by extension after him. Their lives are fully in his hands—and he recognizes the magnitude of his task, performing admirably. He is the second-longest reigning king in Middle-earth, and the only major elven ruler to hold on in the Third Age without a ring of power, despite having the largest kingdom. And all of this with Sauron at his doorstep.

    This earns him recognition in Middle-earth—when ‘Elvenking’ is said, it is obvious the speaker is referring to Thranduil. Tolkien even acknowledges him as ‘their greatest King’ (The Hobbit). He is charismatic, witty, spinning turns of phrase that make Bilbo blush.
    Nor can anyone doubt he does not love his people, sacrificing for them—his sole weakness is for ‘silver and white gems’ ( The Hobbit ). Though the Silvan elves ‘neither mined nor worked metals or jewels, nor did they bother much with trade or with tilling the earth’ ( The Hobbit ), Thranduil is somehow able to keep them in imported goods, such as Dorwinion wine. While part of his income doubtless comes from taxes on travelers and traders coming through his wood, it makes more sense that he sells part of his store of treasure to keep his kingdom well-stocked, rather than building the horde, as he so longs to do.

    His ire, though admirably hot when sparked, only comes when those he rules are threatened. He seeks little interaction with the outside world beyond trade because of a fear of outside influences, both from more benevolent sources, such as Galadriel, and darker ones, such as whatever is living in Amon Lanc. Again, it rises not at personal insult, but at threat to his people, and he is more inclined to forgive than anger. The dwarves stumble upon his elves feasting not once but thrice before he takes serious issue with them.

    Thranduil’s identity is bound up with his kingship—his duty to his people must come first before any personal attachments or desires, though not necessarily to the detriment of his own happiness. The quickest way to anger him will always be to harm those under his protection, just as the quickest way to charm him will come from wit or kindness to those selfsame people.

    Strengths & Weaknesses
    Elf…ness—immortality and a bunch of other sub-powers fall under this. Tolkien elves are immortal in the truest sense—if their body is destroyed, the soul goes to Mandos’ halls, where it sits for a while, overcoming the trauma of their death, and is then reshelled in a form more-or-less identical to the one they left. Elves do not sleep, period, but rather engage in an eyes-open reverie, nor do they truly dream. And while they do need to eat and drink, they do not need to consume either at great quantities to keep themselves alive. They are immune to all illnesses and most poisons, heal quickly, do not die in childbirth, and will survive unto the end of the world unless felled by sword or sorrow. They can communicate with plants and animals, to varying degrees of success—Thranduil has a special affinity for speaking with birds, for example. They tend to be taller than most men, and far more beautiful. They learn faster than men, but only initial concepts. Their great mastery over certain subjects comes from the time they are able to devote to them.

    Craft—Tolkien elves wholly object to anything they do being referred to as magic. Magic/sorcery carries dark connotations in Tolkien’s works, especially any magic that forces someone to do something, or compels anything to go against its nature. Tolkien himself says it best:
    “Their ‘magic’ is Art, delivered from its human limitations: more effortless, more quick, more complete (product, and vision in unflawed correspondence). And its object is Art not Power, sub-creation not domination and tyrannous reforming of Creation.”
    So nothing Thranduil does can go against the laws of this. He specializes in concealment and subterfuge, making a place secure. He is able to refuse entrance to his Halls by mere will, he wraps his entire kingdom in illusion and falsehood, and his forest is so saturated with this that a river therein has the ability to cause temporary memory loss if one touches the water. His works are mental rather than physically—he alters almost nothing of the real world, only perceptions thereof, like Melian the Maia did in his birth city, with her protective girdle.

    Marital Ability—Thranduil is seven thousand years old, and has had plenty of time to get good at using a sword. While by no means the best elven swordsman—not even coming close—and due to his poor sight (a result of burns and vision issues stemming from that), no longer an archer, he is still competent enough for an elf, and likely very, very good in the world of Thedas.

    Statecraft—He prefers words over violence. While certain things—dark things, orcs, darkspawn, etc—will not be negotiated with, ever, he would rather use his literal millennia of ruling experience to solve a problem (preferably in his favor too) than kill it. He will also never, ever commit violence unto another elf unless in the gravest of circumstances. Kinslaying is the worst sin an elf can commit.

    Weaknesses—Sorrow can literally kill an elf. Thranduil has several personality flaws, mainly his stubbornness, which lead to interpersonal problems. His elfness is also a weakness, especially in Thedas. In Middle-earth, his reputation proceeds him by a huge degree, both because he's Thranduil, and also simply because he's an elf. His council is heeded, he's afforded a great deal of (earned) respect, and that's vastly, vastly different from how he's going to be treated in Thedas. He's a proud person, and to not only be treated as lesser by humans, but to see the state the elvhen are in as a whole is going to make it particularly difficult to him to have any useful relationships with humans.

    Suggested Nerfs

    See humanization; are the nerfs we had going before OK to use?

    Arrival Inventory

  • cool looking elven armor
  • swords (essential)
  • saddlebags & contents (like a haircomb and maybe some jewelry and a book)
  • elf crown

Humanization

Restrictions/benefits from the last time he was in the game. I had previously purchased greater control for him over his shard and the shield ability with AC points, can he keep that?

Fit

It worked out fine last time and I am an optimist.

SAMPLES

1 + 2

faderifting: (Default)

QUESTION

[personal profile] faderifting 2024-06-11 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
QUESTION

Before we can approve your application, we have a question! You do not need to revise your app. Respond to this comment with your answers.
↠ Please give us a paragraph on how Thranduil's previous years in Thedas impacted him and how he'll handle finding himself back again.
Please respond within four days. (You can request an extension, but please note that you can answer these questions as casually as you want-- don't stress about it or worry over phrasing!) If you have any questions, let us know.

Re: QUESTION

[personal profile] rowancrowned - 2024-06-13 02:04 (UTC) - Expand

ACCEPTED + NOTES

[personal profile] faderifting - 2024-06-17 04:42 (UTC) - Expand
undergrunn: (Default)

abella - fear & hunger

[personal profile] undergrunn 2024-07-01 12:32 pm (UTC)(link)
PLAYER

Name: Bails
Age: my bones are dust etc
Contact: journal dm
Other Characters: Herian
Interests: ham and cheese

CHARACTER

Name: Abella
Canon/OC: Fear & Hunger (2: Termina)
Canon Point: Game 2. 1942 - Termina festival, shortly after seeing Father Domek's death in the church
Journal: undergrunn
Age: 27

Fear and Hunger is a dark canon full of disturbing content. Content warnings should be taken seriously. I have talked around these things for the purpose of the app, but if anything I’ve said has peaked your interest, please, please please please, take the content warnings seriously. I’m happy to provide analysis vids etc for folks who want to learn more.
undergrunn: (pic#17261450)

Re: abella - fear & hunger

[personal profile] undergrunn 2024-07-01 12:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Canon World
The world has elements in common with our own, and heavily influenced by dark fantasy and cosmic horror. Both games have multiple endings, and it’s been described as a “Schrodinger's canon” - events can simultaneously have occurred and not occurred. Ambiguity for days.

The Old Gods are beings of incomprehensible power embodying pure concepts. The Old Gods have moved on from directly interacting with humanity and the world, although their traces can still be found in the world. While their power is nothing to the gods themselves, their influence overwhelms and corrupts, transforming locations, people and reality itself into the stuff of cosmic horror.

The New Gods are mortals who wanted to seize power/save humanity, and completed a pilgrimage to Mahabre. They are doomed to embody an archetype defined by their soul type (equivalent of star signs) and ensnared by the will of the Old Gods.
This is an ongoing cycle and time loop:
  • world gets crappy, prompting...

  • a group or individual traverses to the lost, ancient city of Mahrabre

  • hey battle the existing New Gods, overthrowing and banishing them to a divine retirement home for eternity

  • claim the Throne of Ascension

  • time shifts to 809 CE, beginning their “divine rule”

  • limited change occurs, time passes, world get crappy(er)



And the loop continues.

Exceptions:
  • Alll-Mer - analogue for Jesus, serves as a reference point. Dominant religion in the West.
  • Fear and Hunger - ascended at the end of the first game, beginning the Cruel Age. Pushed humanity to new heights of civilization and industry.



Around 350 years pass between the games; magic and supernatural beings have come to be considered the stuff of make-believe and delusion. There are those who still worship and practice magic, but they're rare. Monsters have been hunted into obscurity.

By 1942, the current New Gods have been secretly manipulating global politics with an immortal who failed to ascend to godhood in the first game.
The setting's Second World War has just ended. The analogue for Germany (Bremen) had been winning when they agreed to peace talks. Their negotiations were focused on securing the backwater city of Prehevil in Bohemia. The abrupt focus on Prehevil is concerning and suspicious.

Very suspicious, in fact: the New Gods and “Kaiser” are devising a new deity to eclipse the Old Gods, a force of and for humanity. Their machinations have paved the way for the ascension of Logic, a machine god born of collective human consciousness.

Unfortunately, there's also...
  • the Old God Rher, the Trickster Moon (hates humans, loves starting shit)

  • an ancient festival that has been so corrupted that it's wiped out much of Prehevil's population

  • cultists of Alll-Mer's evil god twin


None of this is known outside Prehevil and, with peace allegedly restored, fourteen people travel there by train. They are confronted with a shared magical dream, orders to eradicate one another in a battle royale, and foggy streets inhabited by people mutated into monstrosities.

Re: abella - fear & hunger

[personal profile] undergrunn - 2024-07-01 12:34 (UTC) - Expand

ACCEPTED

[personal profile] faderifting - 2024-07-09 03:44 (UTC) - Expand
wildered: (Default)

siorus | native oc

[personal profile] wildered 2024-07-07 01:55 am (UTC)(link)
PLAYER

Name: MJ
Age: So Old
Contact: [personal profile] unbeliever
Other Characters: Bastien, Kostos Averesch, Redvers Keen, Xiomara Novoa
Interests: I want him to go on the Druffy mission and study Druffy so he can turn into Druffy and we can have Druffy all the time to make up for the fact that it's been 10 years and you still haven't given me Druffy

CHARACTER

Name: Siorus
Canon/OC: OC
Journal: [personal profile] wildered
Race: Human
Nationality: Chasind
Occupation: Warden, kinda
Division: Research
Mage or Not: Mage
Age: 30s

History

  • Born and raised in a Chasind village in the Kocari Wilds.
  • Prepared from early childhood for a life of swamp survival and defending against Fereldan trespassers.
  • Exhibited magic around 10; began learning from the village shaman. His parents were very proud.
  • His parents disappeared investigating an uptick in darkspawn activity. The uptick turned into an army that overran and burned the village. Those who made it out were mostly children told to run while the adults bought them time.
  • The Wilds were too blighted to return anytime soon. Settled with a group of survivors in the Southron Hills—first an attempt near a village, then again far enough from everyone to be mostly left alone.
  • One of the younger children, Rhian, eventually also began exhibiting magic; Siorus taught her what he knew, which was only so much.
  • Some minor harassment from the Fereldan locals, but Siorus and Rhian were suckers who occasionally healed someone's wounded child or sick mother and earned a reputation.
  • Uh-oh, Templars! They escaped but had to relocate, retreating further south to find untainted land and rebuild.
  • In the meantime Circles were falling.
  • During some routine wandering/foraging, Siorus jumped in to help Grey Wardens who were dealing with some unexpected demons, then invited them back to the village to recuperate. They said thanks by conscripting him and Rhian both.
  • Turns out they were on their way to Orlais.
  • Siorus and Rhian were among those put through the Joining en masse at Adamant. (The Inquisition found the remnants.) Rhian didn't survive the process.
  • Already furious and disillusioned and now informed he'd been forced to join the Wardens specifically to go die right away, Siorus was in no position to think Warden Commander Clarel's plan sounded fun.
  • Missed the mass exodus of dissenters but made an opportunistic escape via killing a witness/potential alarm-raiser and shapeshifting his way out of there.
  • Under the impression he'd shortly be turning into a ghoul and be a danger to his clan if he went home (or whoever else if he didn't), he did what he understood was the usual non-insane Warden practice during a Calling, which was to go to Orzammar and go down assisting the Legion of the Dead.
  • The Legion accepted the help and taught him a few things. The Calling went away, but the darkspawn in the Deep Roads were endless, and it didn't seem like a good time to abandon them, so he stayed.
  • For eight years.
  • In addition to the endless fighting, he enjoyed compiling notes and information on the darkspawn and other Deep Roads creatures and environs; occasionally a Warden experiencing a real Calling would come down to die and talk to him more about the organization, too.
  • A few months prior to his Riftwatch arrival a particularly bad fight wiped out most of his dwarven friends.
  • The new commander—a friend of his who'd already been bullying him to stop hiding/wasting his life/etc. in general—kicked him out/"sent him to Riftwatch as a liaison" because he was moping about it and being depressing.

Personality

Siorus would label himself responsible. And he is! He's been a community leader since he was twelve—look, everyone else was eight—and from there tumbled into a life of combat against an endless threat that never left time to do anything except step up. He's never shaken or really tried to shake the habit of looking after people, making decisions, and putting himself in the way of any given threat to the people behind him. However, those are learned behaviors layered on top of a core that's curious to the point of distraction and not at all ambitious. He doesn't want to be in charge. He doesn't even particularly want to help save the world. He wants to wander around in the woods looking at cool birds. Shit just keeps happening that he can't walk away from.

Or, usually. Sometimes he still does for a minute. Maybe he'll volunteer for work and truly mean to do it efficiently and come back for more, but wind up two miles off track because he thought he heard a river. He comes back, though. And he's sorry, genuinely, and also mad at himself, because—again—he sees himself as responsible. He has no idea that given the opportunity (e.g. peacetime and a completely different world) he'd have spent his life as an ethologist who had to be dragged in from the field to occasionally publish and teach a class.

His habit of making decisions doesn't necessarily translate to stubbornness about them. He'll listen to pushback. Sometimes he's even too fast to fold to it, especially among people he doesn't know or trust. He's spent a lot of his life accounting for people potentially being afraid—of the magic, of the wilder folk in general—and on the one hand he refuses to apologize for or hide what he is, except when it's a matter of life or death, but on the other he's learned to stay far, far above any accusations of baring his teeth. His agreeableness isn't slick ingratiation; he doesn't have the stomach for that. But he can openly put his hands up and surrender rather than push a point.

Among people he knows better and trusts to know him better, he's more willing to argue and say what he's thinking and show some rough edges. The roughest is a cool-headed, grudge-holding temper. He remembers wrongs and has a hard time letting go of them. He's also endured a lot of loss without ever dealing with it, except in small potent bursts when he slows down too much or something blindsides him; he deals with misery by getting mad about it, and on those occasions his friends catch the brunt of it. Less rough but nonetheless reserved for comfortable company, he has a lot of weird interests and knows a lot of gross darkspawn facts, and he tells some truly terrible dad jokes.

Opinions & Affiliations

Grey Wardens: Kidnapped him, poisoned him, tried to blood magic mind control him. His poor opinion has gained softer edges as older Wardens have come to the Deep Roads to die nobly and told him stories or been charming in the meantime, but still: not a fan. Considers their secrecy and power dangerous and too easily corruptible and is invested in doing things a new way.

Nations: Quick and firm about correcting anyone who tries to call him Fereldan. Otherwise he doesn't know and only sometimes cares.

Races: Obviously very familiar with and fond of dwarves, though many of his friends were in the Legion of the Dead because they'd been somehow wronged by dwarven politics, so he's not an Orzammar stan or anything. Limited elf experience—once he traded with some Dalish, and an elven Warden came down to die a few years ago. No Qunari experience at all. But he knows enough about being treated like shit by the dominant local culture to start from a place of sympathy.

Magic: is only magic, why do you have to be mad??

Chantry & Templars & Circles: Boogeymen from his childhood. Templars were his primary image of the Chantry—the arm of the foreign religion that would reach into the Wilds to destroy them if they were caught, etc.—a long time before he heard any line of the Chant. Andrastianism is weird. Considers any authority the Circle or Chantry might try to exercise over him to be a fundamentally illegitimate incursion of a foreign authority—not in those words but you know—and so the details are not his business. Circle mages figure it out. He'll be elsewhere either way.

Strengths & Weaknesses

A jack of several trades, but his key strengths are shapeshifting and natural history. He took to the intense observation that shapeshifting requires as much or maybe more than the magic itself. Fauna is his favorite—and in particular he's spent years now stuffing journals with sketches and observations of darkspawn and Deep Roads wildlife—but he pays attention to flora and geology, too. He's a dweeb whose main use to Riftwatch will be study of the Blight and red lyrium darkspawn. He's not as well-read as he'd like to be, given the difficulty of finding books or periodicals among the Legion of the Dead, but he's a quick study and has the patient methodology and open-minded curiosity down pat.

Shapeshifting is his primary use of magic in and out of combat situations. His four forms—nightjar, bogfisher, deepstalker, bronto—have varied uses, including subtle observation (nightjar) and rad digging skills (deepstalker). Otherwise, his guided instruction in magic stopped when he was 12, so he has a limited assortment of other spells, although he wouldn't name or divide them that way. He doesn't necessarily conceptualize of or cast magic like an Andrastian mage. He doesn't use a staff or know any spell that goes further than he can physically reach. His healing abilities require more focus and closer proximity than he can achieve in the middle of a fight, and his version of Stone Fist is more an unfocused explosion that might shove people out of his personal space than a long-rage projectile.

Due to being raised with the expectation he'd be a warrior/hunter before he came into his magic, plus years among dwarves happy to give pointers, he can hold his own with a weapon (preference for two-handed weapons and using rock armor rather than a shield) and a bow. He isn't someone who'd ever be picked for most missions for his prowess with a sword. But if that isn't an option he can generally still keep up and be a help rather than hinderance.

The exception to not-being-picked-for-combat is where darkspawn are involved. He's technically a Grey Warden, which means two-way darkspawn sensing, weird dreams, the theoretical ability to kill an archdemon, susceptibility to Corypheus' mind control, resistance to the Blight sufficient to pass for immunity until it finally overtakes him someday, and an inevitable early death. He's been fighting alongside the dwarves in the Deep Roads for years now, so he's pretty good at fighting darkspawn specifically. Even if he couldn't sense them, he knows their patterns.

Other notes: He speaks Chasind and Trade. He has all of the survival skills naturally acquired from spending most of his life building his own shelters and finding his own food. On the other hand, Kirkwall is by far the largest (and northernmost) city he's ever been to, and like, he's not an idiot—he knows what money is—but he isn't street smart.

Inventory

  • A war hammer—dwarven-make, so a little shorter than it could be for someone his height.
  • Leather-bound journals full of notes and sketches. Some have mold damage from the wet cave parts of the Deep Roads.
  • Clothes and personal affects.
  • Not a scrap of Warden armor thanks.

Motivation

Nominally, Siorus has been sent by the Legion of the Dead to "liaison." In practice, he's not actually a Legionnaire and they don't expect reports—first of all because it's not exactly easy to get messages back and forth from the frontlines of the eternal underground war—unless something's very important, so it's more than he's here to lend Riftwatch their gathered expertise. And also to make him get some fresh air and sunlight. Yes, in Kirkwall.

SAMPLES

Multiple threads here.
Edited (only time i swear) 2024-07-07 02:08 (UTC)
faderifting: (Default)

ACCEPTED

[personal profile] faderifting 2024-07-10 01:31 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.
aberratic: (Default)

ennaris "ness" tavane | d&d oc

[personal profile] aberratic 2024-07-11 11:14 pm (UTC)(link)

PLAYER

Name: Nina (formerly in game as Nat)
Age: 30+
Contact: [plurk.com profile] supersoldier or pm
Other Characters: None
Interests: Libby has promised me adoption and magic menteeing, and I will not be denied.


CHARACTER

Name: Ennaris "Ness" Tavane
Canon/OC: Dungeons & Dragons OC
Canon Point: Post-death on the nautiloid
Journal: [profile] tadfool
Age: 20

Canon World
The world of Faerûn is much like the world of Dragon Age—vaguely medieval setting, magic, elves, dwarves, the whole bit. It differs in a few key places, however:

Magic in the Forgotten Realms comes either from the manipulation of the Weave, which can be seen as Faerûn's equivalent of the Fade, or the gods. Anyone can learn to manipulate the Weave through rigorous study, some are born with the power to manipulate it, and still others learn to tap into its power by making pacts with powerful entities. While magic is somewhat unusual in Faerûn, it is not a source of fear and distrust like it is in Thedas—no mage in Faerûn is more susceptible to demons than anyone else.

In Faerûn, elves are much as they are in Tolkien's legendarium: ethereal, powerful beings who are longer lived than humans and have their own forest-dwelling societies away from the cities of man. If elves are ever enslaved or subjugated, it's definitely not a systemic problem. Half-elves carry features of their elven parents to a lesser degree, so a half-elf in the Forgotten Realms may have slightly pointed ears, be slightly taller than other humans, and so on.

Other than these points, the world of the Forgotten Realms will be very familiar to anyone familiar with Dragon Age; the differences are mostly cosmetic.

History
Ennaris Tavane's first memory is the argument her parents had when deciding which of them should be the one to raise her. Mother's life would be too dangerous, the woman claimed, while her father insisted that a library was no place for a toddler. Ness listened from a corner of the room and learned that she is a burden her own parents will squabble to be rid of.

She was four years old, and it's a lesson she never quite forgot.

Eventually, her father relented. Ness loved books, and seeing himself in her thawed Vazeiros somewhat to the idea of raising a child. Her mother left to continue adventuring, and neither Ness nor her father ever saw her again.

Growing up in Candlekeep, the library her father had escaped to after one hundred years of slavery in his native Menzoberranzan, Ness was a friendly, studious child. She excelled in her lessons and stayed out of trouble, certain that if she gave anyone reason to dislike her she would be sent away from the only home she had ever known. Throughout the years, she took on odd jobs around the library and its grounds to make herself useful, from cleaning to food prep to animal care, in hopes of making herself less of a burden. She made some friends, but there weren't many permanent residents of Candlekeep in her age range, so mostly she had pen pals.

When Ness was 15, Netherese wizards invaded the library. She survived the attack, as did her father, but many of her tutors did not, including one particular monk she privately considered her only real parental figure. She has had an intense and abiding hatred for all things Nether ever since.

At 20 years old, having reached maturity, Ness was faced with a dilemma: would she take orders and become Avowed, tied to the library forever, or did she want to leave and begin a new life outside the bounds of Candlekeep? She loved the library and always had, but was its care and preservation truly her life's calling? On the other hand, if she left Candlekeep without taking orders, she would be subject to the same rules as any other Seeker, and may never be allowed to return to her childhood home again.

In the end, she chose to leave, going with one of the merchant caravans headed for Baldur's Gate with intent to get a job, perhaps, or apprentice with a tradesman if she was lucky. Fate had a different plan, however, as she was abducted onto a mindflayer nautiloid on only her second day outside of the library. Before she could be implanted with a mindflayer tadpole, an attack rocked the nautiloid, sending her face-first into the tadpole brine. This contact with the brine gave her access to a new, strange magic—magic which she was unable to ever use, as she was murdered by the same githyanki whose attack saved her minutes before.


Personality
While Ness would be reluctant to claim that she had ever been mistreated in any way, the fact of the matter is that neither of her parents wanted her, and neither of them attempted to hide that fact from her. Due to this, Ness has what she would consider a very matter-of-fact understanding of her own worth; that is, that she's not special, she's no one's first choice, and she'll be lucky to find anyone who likes her half as much as she likes them. To her, this is a just the way her life is, and no more worth railing at than any other immutable fact of the world. Rather, she makes people like her by making herself useful and trying to be as little of a burden as possible, in hopes that it will forestall the inevitable moment that they find someone more engaging, more interesting, more pretty than her. This low opinion of herself can lead Ness to make self-destructive choices while simultaneously convincing herself that she's just being logical about having the least to lose.

Ness is a kind, idealistic person, rendered more than a little naïve by the ease of her upbringing—she never went hungry, she never lacked a roof over her head, and she knew only occasional periods of turmoil. Despite this, she has a degree of self-awareness, having had access to the journals and stories of people from all walks of life in Candlekeep, which keeps her from being entirely stupid about the rest of the world. This also means she can be, unknowingly, incredibly condescending, believing she understands people better than she does just because she's read a book. While this could easily be (and often is) very frustrating for the people around her, Ness manages to offset it by being extremely willing to learn, and very invested in doing right by people. When she's called out for being a condescending idiot, she may mope about it for a little while, but she comes back with a ready apology and a sincere desire to do better.

Though it's not her most defining characteristic, Ness does have a relatively strong sense of pride, which is one of the only things that can get her to become outright argumentative or difficult. She's not willing to debase herself, even if it would be the easier option, or might smooth over a botched interaction, and will balk at any suggestion that she should be willing to do so. She's not prone to tantrums when her pride is wounded, but it's very much a "Ness will remember that" situation.

aberratic: (Default)

[personal profile] aberratic 2024-07-11 11:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Strengths & Weaknesses
In her "canon", Ness is a level 1 sorcerer who died before she could even realize she had magic. Depending on the pace of a campaign, it could take anywhere from a few months to a year or more of lifestyle adventuring for a D&D PC to reach max level; however, max level in D&D comes with abilities that would be nerfed immediately as too powerful. Given that, Ness will max out at level 12, which she could achieve in two to three years with regular magical training, or four to five with less regular training. Given also that D&D PCs have more power than your average Dragon Age mage, I've trimmed the list of Ness' abilities from what she could have in D&D to what spells and abilities I'm most interested in playing with, as well as nerfed things like range and area of effect from the start so there's less ground to cover in the nerfs section. This is still going to be very long, and I apologize in advance.

Abilities she has immediate access to are as follows:
Drow Abilities— Ness can see normally in dim light to a distance of 60 feet and in shades of grey in non-magical darkness. She is difficult to magically charm, and can't be magically put to sleep. Her father taught her the Dancing Lights cantrip, which summons four small orbs which each shed bright light in a radius of 10 feet.

Cantrips— Ness has access to three cantrips: She can point her finger toward someone within 60 feet of her and Message them in a whisper only they can hear, to which they can respond; Mind Sliver drives a disorienting spike of psychic energy into the mind of one creature Ness can see within 60 feet of her, causing them a bit of pain and making them easier to affect with other spells and attacks for a brief period; Ness can Prestidigitate a minor magical trick, including creating harmless sensory effects, lighting or snuffing out small fires, cleaning or soiling small objects, chilling, warming, or flavoring a small area of nonliving material for an hour, making a small mark appear on an object or surface for an hour, or creating a trinket or image that can fit in her hand for six seconds.

Spells— At first level, Ness has access to three spells: Ness can call on the Arms of Hadar to cause tendrils of dark energy to erupt from her and batter all creatures within arm's reach of her, incurring damage and possibly dulling their reaction times; Charm Person compels a target Ness is in conversation with to treat her as a friendly acquaintance for an hour, but is more easily resisted if the target is in combat with Ness or her companions, and when the spell ends the target knows it was charmed; she assaults a target within 60 feet of her with Dissonant Whispers, wracking it with terrible psychic pain and forcing it to move as far as possible from her as quickly as possible.

Aberrant— Ness can form a telepathic connection with someone she can see within 30 feet of her, allowing her to speak telepathically with them while they're within 4 miles of each other for one minute. The connection ends if she's incapacitated or dies, or if she forms a connection with someone else.

With training, Ness will have access to the following abilities:
Drow Magic— At third level Ness gains the ability to cast Faerie Fire, which causes objects and creatures in a 10 foot cube within 60 feet of her to become outlined in violet light, making them shed dim light in a 5 foot radius and rendering them easier to hit and preventing them from moving stealthily. Later, at fifth level, she can create a 10-foot-radius sphere of magical Darkness for up to ten minutes, which cannot be illuminated by nonmagical light and can't be seen through even by creatures with darkvision.

Spells— Starting at third level Ness can attempt to Calm Emotions in a 10-foot-radius sphere within 60 feet of her, either causing the people within the sphere to shake off charm magic or fear, or making them indifferent to creatures they would otherwise be hostile toward; a jagged iron Crown of Madness afflicts someone within 60 feet of her for one minute, which allows her to choose a creature within reach for the target to attack; for up to a minute she can Detect Thoughts by focusing her mind on any one visible creature within 30 feet of her, learning only surface thoughts unless she attempts to probe deeper, at which point the spell ends and the creature knows its mind has been read, or if there is a hidden creature within range of the spell, she can detect its presence by reading its thoughts; Hold Person paralyzes a target within 60 feet of Ness for up to a minute.

By fifth level she can make someone within 60 feet of her believe that Enemies Abound, so that they can't tell friend from foe and must choose their next target at random from among all the creatures they can see; a Hypnotic Pattern of colors appears inside a 10 foot cube within 60 feet of her for a moment which incapacitates any creature in the area which sees it.

At seventh level Confusion can assault each creature in a 10-foot-radius sphere, spawning delusions and provoking random actions; Evard's Black Tentacles fill a 10-foot square on the ground within 60 feet of Ness for up to a minute, making the area difficult to traverse and battering and attempting to restrain anyone caught within.

At ninth level Ness can attempt to Dominate Person, establishing a telepathic link with someone within 60 feet of her for up to a minute, through which she can issue commands they must do their best to obey; Rary's Telepathic Bond forges a telepathic link among up to four willing creatures within 30 feet of Ness for one hour, during which time the targets can communicate telepathically over any distance; she can cause Synaptic Static to explode in a 10-foot-radius sphere within 60 feet of her, causing psychic pain and muddled thoughts to any creature caught in the blast.

At the height of her power at level 12, Ness can attempt to plant a Mass Suggestion in the minds of up to twelve people within 60 feet of her for up to 24 hours after the casting of the spell. The suggestion must be limited to a sentence or two, and must be a reasonable course of action which does not incur any damage to the suggestees. If affected by the spell, the suggestee will follow the course of action described to the best of their ability, ending the spell on them once the appointed task is complete. If the suggested activity is not triggered before the spell ends, it is not performed.

Suggested Nerfs
Barring an adjustment and training period lasting no longer than one AC period at the beginning of her time in Thedas, which would be opt-in for any parties involved, all psychic/telepathic abilities must be turned on, so to speak—Ness would not be in anyone's head without consciously and deliberately choosing to be. For any charm/enchantment effects, they would be immediately ended if Ness or anyone allied with her attacked the target of the charm, and there would be a visual marker such as a glow or aura that surrounded her and her target so that it would be possible to connect her with the sudden debilitating headache her target is experiencing. Arms of Hadar could have the tentacles spring from her anchor shard, while Evard's Black Tentacles could function by opening a small rift through which the tentacles appear.

These abilities, while powerful, track neatly with blood magic in Thedas, which in my view is a nerf in itself and is in fact what I'm most interested in playing with: if Ness uses these abilities too much, or in front of the wrong people, she will be considered a blood mage and her life will get Much Harder. That tension between knowing she can help, and knowing what may happen to her if she helps in the wrong way or in front of the wrong person, will keep her from utilizing most of these abilities unless not doing so could mean the death of herself or someone she wants to protect. She'll primarily use her psychic abilities only with people she trusts, and wouldn't offer them up as a way to make missions easier for fear of being labeled a blood mage. The more powerful spells she could gain—Dominate Person, Rary's Telepathic Bond, and Mass Suggestion, plus any others you deemed appropriate—would be as taxing for her as mending a near-fatal wound might be for a spirit healer, and would wipe out her casting ability for hours if not days afterward while she recovered from the massive energy expenditure.

As for Mass Suggestion, I know that it affecting up to 12 people for 24 hours are both very high numbers, but I wasn't sure what more appropriate numbers would be. There is also the lower level D&D spell Suggestion, which operates on the same principles but only affects one person and only lasts for eight hours. As this would be her "capstone" ability, achieved only after years put into training her magic, I thought it would be appropriate to have the suggestion affect more than one person for a more extended period of time, but I also understand that this is a collaborative game and that may make her too powerful, so if it has to be nerfed down to plain Suggestion levels, that would be entirely fair. Were that the case, it would still remain her capstone ability.

I would also put up an opt-in page for people to consent to her telepathy being used on their characters.

Arrival Inventory
Ness will arrive with the clothes on her back and nothing else. She could, if you're feeling frisky, bring a newborn mindflayer with her for Riftwatch to kill, but other than that she's got nothing but herself.

Humanization
Ness is a half three quarter elf in Faerûn, with the attendant pointy ears. Due to her father's drow elf coloring, her skin is faintly purple, and her blonde hair is streaked with white. Her connection to aberrant, mindflayer-tinged magic turned her right eye, normally lavender, pitch black, and left a sort of creeping darkness emanating from it. In Thedas, she'll arrive as an elfblooded human, with peachy skin and two blue eyes instead of lavender, and none of the creeping darkness caused by the aberrant magic.

Fit
Ness is dead in Faerûn, and even if she wasn't, she didn't leave behind any great quest or anyone she feels obligated to. In light of this, she has no reason to want to go back, and will be very determined to make Thedas her new home. Despite being broadly progressive as far as Thedosian politics go, she'll be invested enough in assimilating and avoiding notice as a faux-blood mage that she's not willing to rock the boat by trying to effect any change in the world. She will also be fairly harsh on blood magic, as a way to divert suspicion from her own less than savory magical abilities. As far as day-to-day activities, she considers chronicling historical events for posterity one of the most important things any society can do, and will want to either start or join in on any effort to collect first-hand accounts of the events that have taken place since the Conclave. Additionally, even though her elfiness was never a large part of her identity in Faerûn, she may lean further into that elfiness in response to losing the visible markers of her heritage.

SAMPLES

TDM top-level
Midnight Texting meme tag-in
Edited (misremembered a spell name, mind spike -> mind sliver) 2024-07-17 20:52 (UTC)

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hermione granger - harry potter - (crau) rifter

[personal profile] reparo 2024-08-18 08:59 pm (UTC)(link)
PLAYER

Name: Cella
Age: 35 (...fuck)
Contact: [plurk.com profile] shortitude
Other Characters: I'm just a lil' innocent first timer, seduced by wicked wiles (Libby)
Interests: Well, I love Thedas first of all. But also, particularly interested in Hermione's continued growth far away from her OG world, in a setting that's familiar and beloved to me. More below, but to summarise: everything, juicy philosophical shit, survivor's guilt, her bi-awakening, a new magic system, her own magic system, and like maybe let her have a cat.

CHARACTER

Name: Hermione Granger
Canon/OC: Harry Potter
Last Canon Point: post Final Battle at Hogwarts, like literally that evening /vague hand gesture
Previous Game: [community profile] eastbound
Arrival Point: The endgame; upon touching a beacon meant to deliver her back to her world (and make her forget 3 years' worth of CR), she'll stumble into Thedas instead.
Journal: [personal profile] reparo
Age: 22ish, counting for time shenanigans (the game wasn't 1-ooc-day-is-1-ic-day, so I'll say 22 instead of 23.)

Canon World

There is magic in the world! But it's hidden away from non-magical people (Muggles) by wards and other strong magic, because the belief is that non-magical people will Freak The Fuck Out if they find out about magic. The magical society is complex, and spans more than just humans - there are magical creatures, there are schools, there's a ministry for magic (in the UK), and of course there's murderous wizard fascists trying to gain power at all costs, because they're not comfortable with people who are not like them being able to perform magic.

Current events include several Wizarding Wars, and the defeat of Lord Voldemort, hypocrite extraordinaire - a Dark Wizard who split his soul into seven objects so he could live forever. Via murder.

This is the sort of world where prophecies, and Chosen Ones who are just children, and magical maguffins happen.

Canon History
- 11 year old daughter of dentists finds out she is a witch, and gets invited to pursue an education in witchcraft and wizardry in Hogwarts; she pre-studies just because she really wants to make friends and find Her People in this place where she'll be able to do magic! Life Is Good
- 12 year old successfully ostracises everyone in her year by being too much of a know-it-all, Life Is Not Good
- let's speed it up: local nerd is very smart, joins forces with Chosen One and Bestie (Harry and Ron) to solve the Mystery of the Year
- does really well in school, pretends to be a stickler for rules, but also has a history of: setting a professor's robes on fire, trapping a tabloid reporter (turned into a beetle) in a jar because she published mean gossip about Hermione and her friends, tricking another professor into being attacked by Centaurs, brewing complex potions to impersonate other people for an hour and spy on them, breaks into a high security bank, frees a dragon, travels back in time to get to more classes, frees a convicted felon because he's Harry's godfather, memory-wipes her parents and ships them off to Australia to keep them safe during the Wizarding War - it's a lot.
- here's a wiki link for more

Past Game History

Eastbound Main Navigation

Hermione was in-game for almost 3 years, and was involved in all the main plot events, and some downtime events (or TDMs); better to just to with her biggest developments in-game:
- adapting knowledge gained on local plants and herbs to brew healing potions that benefited fighters in group during battles
- became a bit of a liberator of unwatched goods (she stole. she stole books from a cult's library, stole coffee grounds from a train café from Five Hargreaves, stole clothes off a drying wire, stole maps) and justified it as 'it will benefit us all'
- was on the frontline of a lot of battles, because someone determined she's ruthless and offensive with her magic, once the enemies were undead or demonic witches
- got kissed by a witch in public, had a bit of a 'wait a minute...' moment, realised she has had feelings (in game) for people regardless of gender?
- got high out of her mind looking for a serpent god in the forest, refused help
- freed a potentially evil witch from chains because she asked nicely (Hermione Makes Good Choices TM)
- was somehow simultaneously called hyper competent and a child by the same people, much much MUCH to her chagrin
- came to accept that in the pursuit of survival, one must do a murder or two

Personality

used to being the smartest person in the room. Throughout the novels, Hermione is shown to be a studious, curious, contrary little know-it-all. She tries to be the best in all her classes and overachieves as much as she can and then some, to prove she belongs in the wizarding world.

big brain, big heart, can’t lose. She may be a nerd, but she has a heart of gold. She is willing to do anything for the people she loves, even erase their memories of her to keep them safe during a war.

Likewise, she’s a bit of a social justice warrior looking for a new cause to protest against, from the treatment of children born of non-magical parents, to the treatment of House Elves, to the bullying and abuse of children at the hands of professors. She can be ruthless when she needs to – and she is a bit reckless, and impulsive too. Despite her insistence that being expelled is a fate worse than death in Hogwarts, she often acts like rules only apply if they don’t directly bother her.

big hair, big motivations. At the time of arriving in Eastbound, it was one day (tops) from the Final Battle ™ at the end of Deathly Hallows (because I crave suffering), and Hermione did not get to take a nap since. . Her motivations were, initially, to find a way back to her world, but she also did end up compartmentalizing and not processing the grief she suffered during the war until it was safe, which it almost never was. The problem was that she made new friends there, maybe even developed a good handful of crushes and Feelings for some of them, so over time she stopped looking for a way back. Instead, she considered it was her duty (and part of her worth) to stay with the group until they all had a chance to go back to their homes.

ch-ch-ch-changes. The ruthlessness in battle had been there under the surface, but being in a game without a cast meant none of her friends could keep her morality in check, so it veered towards grey. Still the same intellectual, still prone to joining a lost cause, but now with the experience of a world that she won't ever forget and the knowledge that everyone she knew in that world will forget her. It's complicated. She may have secretly been holding off on returning until the last minute because she likes who she was in Eastbound, who she'd become - so she'll think this is her personal fault.

It won’t stop her from paying attention to the shiny new magic, political landscape, and weird people.

Prior CR

Lan Wangji (The Untamed) - a paternal figure, though not what she expected; his stalwart and tacit demeanour was fundamental because nobody could get Hermione to take her temper down a notch quite like Lan Wangji. He was quick to take her under his wing, but often referenced how young Hermione was (a child), which irritated her a lot. Nevertheless, he was subject to a lot of trauma-sharing and trauma-bonding. His husband was nice too.

Wrathion (World of Warcraft) - they bonded over being intellectuals, after which he deliberately got her a book from the falling ruins of a city at war so she could experiment with potions-brewing, so he became her bestie. Later revealed himself to be a dragon, not that it discouraged her from still considering him her bestie. She would’ve gone to war for Wrathion – did, a few times. Went to war with Wrathion a lot too. He is responsible with Hermione’s more excellent wardrobe choices because he was a fancy lad and couldn’t stand his close ones not looking exquisite (he made her clothes). May have pretended he was her betrothed to get out of a surprise marriage to a fox spirit set on eating her.

Lily Evans (Harry Potter) - her best friend’s future dead mother, who Hermione meets before she even began to consider James Potter as a potential boyfriend. Although a brief friendship, it taught Hermione things about not messing up the timeline, and how far she was willing to lie to a woman to save her friend from possibly not existing. The guilt of knowing Harry’s mother when Harry would never be able to, mixed with the guilt of liking her a lot but still not telling her she’d die, and how, and who for – the house is on fire, but this is fine.


Strengths & Weaknesses

Very good at:
- sticking her foot in her mouth (and apologising)
- trying to fight god behind the 7/11
- magic (transfiguration, charms and potions are her forte, but she can attack as well as she can defend)
- magical research (and conspiracy theory boards, complete with red string!)
- resourcefulness overall
- knowing things and having correct opinions (sources needed)

Not very good at:
- diplomacy, political shenanigans (she's not there yet)
- keeping her temper in check
- not picking a lost cause or underdog to go to war for
- flirting

Suggested Nerfs

The world of Harry Potter has a very /vague handwave approach to magic, spellcraft especially, so I'd like to keep Hermione's abilities down to some of the stuff that she'd know by heart (she was still in school when she left her world, and some magic uses require reference books - like potions, or ancient runes), with caveats made for energy-depleting spells and over-powered smartest-witch-her-age stuff.

Currently she uses a wand and verbal incantations for most of these spells; I've found a long list of spells Hermione has either done or been referenced doing throughout seven books - fair warning, it's long - so I tried to trim it down to whatever has an incantation, rather than just a name.
- Accio - summoning spell. She has to know the object to summon it to her hands, and the unfortunate condition is that if she is too ambiguous, all matching objects would get summoned. So "accio book" would result in all books on a radius flinging themselves at her body.
- Alohamora - unlocks a lock
- Apparition (*) - teleportation spell, unnamed incantation but very used and useful. Nerf it down to a Fade Step-style apparition because she knows nowhere in Thedas - similarly I don't think she should over-rely on it, so as a treat to me personally I would like the consequence of multiple use of the spell to come with nausea or lethargy until cooldown.
- Colloportus - locks a door, window, etc
- Expelliarmus - disarming spell. Makes the opponent's wand fly out of their hands. In Thedas this would be somewhat more similar to daggers slip out of a rogue's hand or an incoming attack bounces off at an angle as if deflected? Just to make it work with the world.
- Evanesco - vanishing spell
- Incendio (*) - sets shit on fire. Think of just hitting R on a mage build Inquisitor with a fire magic build. Pew pew.
- Lumos/Nox - summons a light at the tip of her wand/extinguishes the light. Useful for all sorts of shenanigans, like reading past midnight!
- Protego - defensive magical shield, deflects an attack
- Reparo - repairing/mending spell

A lot of the spells above mentioned are not exactly for combat encounters, but she will still easily over-exhaust herself or deplete her magic if she uses them too much.

Potions - she may remember the instructions for some of them, but the ingredients are not the same and so they won't work
Enchantments - complex wards, things that need runes, or anythign that doesn't have a spell name (i.e. Protean charm) is not going to work
Transfiguration - let's just nerf it completely

Arrival Inventory

Her wand, the clothes on her back (her Muggle clothes from the final battle, since she'd changed for the beacon ride back home), and an enchanted bottomless bag (a bag of holding?) full of all sorts of stuff from the world of Akhuras (Eastbound setting). I'm happy for the items in the bag to disappear in the Fade, but would love for her to have her unbeaded bag of holding.

Humanization

Plain humans are plain humans. However, please ignore the fact that the movie adaptations were all cowards and kept Emma Watson's hair either tamed or styled after the first movie - Hermione's hair has been described as 'bushy', but I like to think of it as has a life of its own, and might be an eldritch horror. There are some magical creatures in Hermione's world, but given that all wizards are humans (or werewolves? vampires?) and given that Hermione is a human, adapting won't be needed.

Fit

There are a lot of ways Hermione could grow in Thedas – she could learn to take her foot out of her mouth, she could keep practicing non-verbal magic, she could finally learn some form of martial fighting style. I want to explore personal growth with her as well – at the start she will have a lot of anguish over the fact that she’s in a new world, instead of back home, but I want to give her an opportunity to settle into her new world, and grow with it, wherever this may lead her. I want her to learn to be her own person outside of the Harry-Ron-Hermione trio, which has been her bread and butter for seven years. All the love to those two, but she has outgrown them and this would be the right place to realise that.

Oh, and let her sink her teeth into mage rebellions and the oppression of elves, it’ll be fun. Similarly, I’d like to see her bite her tongue around Templars just to not end up in a Circle, because she’s going to hate every moment of it.

SAMPLES

Fade Rift TDM
Eastbound event (close to endgame)
faderifting: (Default)

ACCEPTED + NOTES

[personal profile] faderifting 2024-08-24 02:38 am (UTC)(link)
WELCOME

Your application has been approved, with the following notes:
↠ Our understanding is that the spells listed in her app are a complete list of the spells you want her to be able to do! If you want to add additional magic in the future, through whatever means—such as remembering or figuring out things on her own—you can use our custom specialization mechanic to submit an additional spell list, but until then she won't be able to do things that aren't covered by your list.

↠ Accio will only be able to summon objects in Hermione's line of sight—they'll need to be both within range for her to be able to see them (though she doesn't have to actually be looking at them at the time) and have a clear, straight shot to reach her, without needing to go around corners or find a path through hallways and windows.

↠ Alohamora will only be able to open mundane, physical locks, not enchanted locks.

↠ Apparition will function like Fade Step even after Hermione has learned Thedosian locations. Lethargy or nausea are fine with us if you want them!

↠ Expelliarmus can make people drop their staves or daggers or other weapons; it won't deflect incoming attacks. Targets of the spell will also sometimes be able to resist it; for example if they know it's coming and brace against it, they'll have a shot at successfully resisting.

↠ Evanesco will only work on inanimate objects with the mass of a chair/side table or smaller, and once the objects have been vanished into non-being, there won't be a way to bring them back again.

↠ Protego will not be able to repel magic more powerful than typical mage spells. E.g., if we ever have a mod plot where there's an ancient elven device shooting concentrated magical blasts, it may not be strong enough to repel that. But a mage's fireball or lightning bolt, it can.

↠ Reparo will only be able to repair/fuse two pieces of an object at a time, and it will fuse them in whatever shape they're being held. For example, one use of the spell can repair a cracked teacup, but if the cup has shattered, the pieces will have to be manually reassembled like a puzzle and repaired piece by piece. Casting the spell on a pile of debris will cause the pieces to fuse together in their piled-up positions rather than reassemble into the original object.

↠ She can keep her beaded bag, but it will have more limitations than she's used to. Specifically, it will be able to perpetually hold a volume of about five gallons (in any shape). But if she exceeds that, it will only be able to contain a larger volume of objects for a short period of time before it starts spitting the extra out at random intervals.

↠ All of her magic will be affected by Templar or other mages' magic-canceling abilities and magebane, and she'll be capable of exhaustion if she casts repeatedly without breaks to recover some magical energy.
Welcome back 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 2024-08-24 04:29 (UTC)

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wanda maximoff | mcu | rifter (1/3)

[personal profile] explosion 2024-09-08 09:16 am (UTC)(link)
[ fyi app includes references to genocide, murder, ptsd, war. i apologise on behalf of the mcu for the abilities section... ]

PLAYER

Name: Jade.
Age: 30 something according to maths, 80 in my soul.
Contact: PM or [plurk.com profile] boofhead!
Other Characters: n/a.
Interests: I like politics, action scenes, mysteries, drama, building character reputation and dismantling it, and impacting setting. (I also really want to run player plots and turn Thedas into WandaVision 2.0. Sitcoms are cute!!!) I don't know shit about Dragon Age and Libby said that was cool!

CHARACTER

Name: Wanda Maximoff.
Canon/OC: MCU.
Canon Point: Post-Multiverse of Madness.
Journal: [personal profile] explosion.
Age: She's either 29 or 34 depending on whether you exclude the Blip's five years (29) or include it (34).

Canon World

MCU is present-day earth with magic, aliens, gods (including mythology come to life!), time travel, and talking raccoons from space. It also now has the Multiverse!

Wanda primarily deals with the Earth-based events of the MCU, which includes:
  • The bombing of Sokovia (a made-up European country), where the weapons were funded by Tony Stark, one of the faces of the Avengers. This is the country Wanda grew up in. As of the events of Age of Ultron (c. 2014), it no longer exists.

  • The Avengers is a team of superheroes (either magically inclined or enhanced individuals) who aim to try and save the world… by also being very destructive forces. Wanda was an Avenger, although she no longer considers herself one. They are praised, have merchandise (most likely funded by Tony Stark), and have a lot of bad press.

  • Artificial intelligence exists, firstly in the form of sentient technology, and then in the bodies of synthezoids (think androids). Vision is a synthezoid with the ability to think and feel, and is able to shapeshift from a red-skinned piece of walking tech to a human man. Wanda thinks he is a hunk.

  • Thanos wiped out half the population across the universe, including space! But since Wanda doesn't deal with space, we'll focus on Earth: Half the population was gone for five years, including Miss Maximoff! This is an event that was not rewound back to 2018; Tony Stark kept the missing five years canon because it suited him, so people like Wanda, who returned, came back to their entire lives changed (some who were in aeroplanes came back from the moment they went missing… It's probably MCU's worst thought-out event because the logistics make no sense). This was the most traumatising event in the MCU and impacted more than the Avengers.

  • Magic exists and it comes in so many delicious flavours! The magic system Wanda uses is Chaos Magic, which is extremely powerful and is wielded by the Scarlet Witch, a mythical being capable of spontaneous creation. It's heavily implied Wanda is the only user of this magic. This magic generates a lot of radiation. There are other types of magic, including Asgardian, Eldritch, Witchcraft, Dark (which Wanda also wields thanks to the Book of the Damned), Dark Dimension Magic, Divine Magic, Necromancy, Mirror Dimension Magic, and probably much more.

    The way the MCU has characterised the magic system is a little misogynistic for my tastes—it claims "witch" is a derogatory word rather than a female-identifying one, while "wizard" seems positive. The magical system is being fleshed out in Agatha All Along!

  • The Multiverse exists and is accessible by very powerful magical means (Wanda accessed it via the Darkhold). It consists of various different universes—think fanfiction upon fanfiction of a base story. This is how the MCU connects itself to Sony products, providing fan service for fans, and establishing comic book storylines as part of the cinematic universe's canon.

    • MCU is a mess.

    History

    She's a magical gal from a small town locale!

    • Pre-Age of Ultron: At the age of 10, the Maximoffs' home is bombed. Olek and Iryna die in the explosion; Wanda and Pietro hide underneath a bed for three days, waiting for the Stark bomb to go off. Wanda's latent magic stopped the bomb from exploding.

      Once young adults, Wanda and Pietro join HYDRA, believing it to be an organisation that will help Sokovians fight against the war and stop Starks' bombs. Here, they sign up for experimentation with what will later be known as the Mind Stone. Wanda receives her incredibly convoluted powers, while Pietro gains super speed.


    • Age of Ultron: The Maximoffs terrorise the Avengers; Wanda plays mind games with them. When Ultron, an artificial intelligence (created by Stark, what a surprise!) decides to nuke the world, Wanda goes against HYDRA's wishes and helps the Avengers stop him. Sokovia is destroyed. Pietro is killed. Wanda joins the Avengers and goes to New York.


    • Civil War: *training montage* At Lagos, Wanda stops a bomb from exploding… only to lose control of her powers and send it upward, where it explodes midair, killing an unidentified number of people. Wanda is classified as "a weapon of mass destruction". Boring stuff happens and she's eventually imprisoned on the Raft.


    • Infinity War: Her romance with Vision blossoms. Thanos wants the Mind Stone, which is inside Vision. Vision begs Wanda to kill him; she refuses. Eventually, Wanda ends up mercy killing Vision to prevent Thanos from getting the Mind Stone. Because Strange gave Thanos the Time Stone, her efforts were for nothing: Thanos rewinds time, kills Vision again, and takes the stone. He snaps half the population from the universe. Wanda turns to dust; she is finally at peace.


    • Endgame: Wanda's been Blipped for five years. When she returns, she battles Thanos, almost killing him, but obviously doesn't because Plot Reasons. She is left alone at the end of the film with no one.


    • WandaVision: Wrecked with grief, Wanda's emotions explode as she overtakes the town of Westview under one of her spells. She resurrects Vision within her Hex, and lives a sitcom-driven life where nothing bad happens and she's the one in control. She births two boys from magic and becomes the Scarlet Witch under the very rough tutelage of Agatha Harkness. She eventually breaks her Hex and leaves Westview, despite it being the town Vision wanted them to build a home. She leaves to an unknown destination that I like to think is Sokovia.


    • Multiverse of Madness: Wanda is apparently corrupted by the Darkhold, the Book of the Damned, and becomes so obsessed with finding her sons in the Multiverse that she is happy to steal them from her alternate self. She torments Strange and hunts America Chavez across the Multiverse to absorb her dimension-hopping powers. Wanda eventually realises what she's doing is wrong and brings down Wundagore on top of her. I doubt she is dead due to an explosion of scarlet that suggests Wanda teleported away.


    Personality

    Wanda is the coolest person you will ever meet, which is why it's unfortunate you won't meet her because she's too busy self-isolating and punishing herself for fucking up.

    The one thing you need to understand about Wanda Maximoff is that she's a control freak. She has good reason for it, too! After witnessing the destruction of her home country, and seeing her parents die before her, Wanda wants to control her narrative ever since she understood what a story was. She escapes into her sitcoms because it's a safe haven; there, no one gets hurt, and if they do, the episode ends with a happily ever after with the hurt erased. She internalises this as her ultimate desire.

    When Wanda wants something, she goes for it. She can be so pig-headed that it becomes dangerous to those around her. She's fiercely protective of her people—she's the ride or die you want on your side, because she will raze the Multiverse for you.

    Her every action is meant to help others, except nothing ever goes as planned. That doesn't lend itself to defeat for Wanda. Sure, she may sometimes get knocked down and wonder if she should get back up again, but Wanda gets up every single time because she's determined to change her story. Wanda is someone who learns—and she's desperate to learn, she's so desperate to be better—that she refuses to rely on anyone to help her because she doesn't understand how to. She never copes with the grief of losing her country, parents, and brother. She doesn't allow herself to rely upon anyone, because Wanda internalises her pain and tries to be the best person she can be to those around her, which often looks like someone who isn't a burden. This is why she subconsciously controls the people of Westview and ensures they get to their appointments and get home just in time for dinner. If she controls those around her, none of them will ever feel the pain she has.

    Despite all the pain that she has experienced and her trust issues, she is someone who is kind and caring. She is social, despite being introverted; quick-witted when you get her to open up. Wanda is an emotionally driven woman who lets her big, fat emotions get the better of her. No one can ever say she's devoid of emotion; sometimes, she has too much, which often can lead her empathetic qualities to become overbearing and controlling. Even when she wants to feel nothing, she feels everything. Wanda's strongest power is her humanity.

    She is a woman who has been called "weird" (derogatory) and dehumanised ("a weapon of mass destruction"), and yet she loves with her whole being. She calls herself out when she realises she's done wrong. She gives up what she has killed for because its pursuit brings pain to those around her. She is not a weapon, but a woman, but sometimes even she seems to forget that.
    explosion: (pic#16686503)

    wanda maximoff | mcu | rifter (2/3)

    [personal profile] explosion 2024-09-08 09:17 am (UTC)(link)
    Strengths & Weaknesses

    • Knowledge of witchcraft — While Wanda grew up not knowing she was a witch, she's learned about magic and how to harness it as an adult. Given that she didn't know what runes were and was able to cast them without instruction after Agatha condescendingly explained that she had cast runes in her basement without demonstrating how, it's easily surmised she's a quick study and can easily pick up magic and harness it despite having little interaction with it beforehand.

    • Fast learner/ adaptability — Wanda's adapted to life in the West quickly. While her accent has become a bit of a meta-joke in the canon universe, it says a lot about her adaptability that she's able to mask her thick Eastern European accent and can easily manage an American one and can adapt to the American culture and way of life. Another example of her ability to adapt is how she quickly breaks out of Stephen Strange's Mirror Dimension by using reflections. Not many characters have been known to break out of the Mirror Dimension, and it took Strange over a day to do so when he was trapped (No Way Home). It took Wanda minutes.

    • Multilingualism — Wanda's fluent in Sokovian and English, and most likely can pick up other languages as well.

    • Attention to detail — Wanda escaped the bleak reality of her war-torn home life in Sokovia by disappearing into her television shows and movies. Wanda was able to replicate these sets and costumes (as well as music, language choices, foods, etc.) when she created her Hex in Westview to resemble an incredibly realistic television show that was reminiscent of the famous television eras it was taking inspiration from.

    • EGOT — She is the only person in the MCU who is probably an EGOT. She's won an Emmy, been nominated for a Golden Globe, probably would win an Oscar, and maybe even a Tony. She is creative! She is a multi-skilled television producer, interior set designer, costume designer, script writer, jingle creator, character developer, director, fantastic at PR, amazing marketing skills, etc. etc.

    • Poor coping skills — Oh, boy, does Wanda suck at coping. She does not have a healthy relationship with grief and loss, and instead burrows down inside herself and refuses to acknowledge it. Wanda's go-to is self-isolation, which is a punishment that only sees her postpone the inevitable. She buries things and doesn't deal; how she took over Westview is an example of how much trauma she's repressed over the years. Her emotions get the better of her and make her powers fluctuate, and even hurt those around her without her understanding.

    • Dependent on magic — Wanda is possibly one of the best magic wielders in the MCU. She is able to combine her abilities with the basic skills she's learned from Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers in hand-to-hand combat and spy training. However! Strip back her powers, and you're left with a woman who wouldn't be able to hold her own in a fight, nor would she be someone who could perform reconnaissance to the skill level of expert-trained spy, Natasha. She is very dependent on her magic to the point where it is a crutch. She uses it for everything.

    • Distract her if you dare! — When Wanda is distracted, she loses focus on her powers. Although we haven't seen Wanda be distracted when at her most OP, I would like to add this as a weakness of hers because even though she has such refined control over her abilities (especially her telepathy), Wanda is someone who can be interrupted when it comes to her magic-use and telepathic-use. She's able to be temporarily incapacitated with a sonic cannon (think a high pitched whistle). The biggest distraction one can wield against her is using her emotions against her (so, think Dead Vision!).


      • Wanda is pretty OP with a lot of powers under her belt. I know a lot of them are gamebreaking… Sorry, her powers are an absolute mess.

      PSIONIC POWERBASE
    • PSIONIC ENERGY MANIPULATION: She can project energy blasts, streams, waves and bolts of her own telekinetic energy, and takes a reddish power. This makes her a rather formidable opponent when it comes to combat. Her emotional state affects her control greatly and can sometimes get the better of her and overwhelm even Wanda.

    • TELEKINESIS: The ability to move things with her mind. Wanda's Telekinesis is extremely powerful; she was able to have an emotional breakdown while killing the Vision and holding back a powerful Titan possessing the almost-complete Infinity Gauntlet. She can levitate herself as well.

    • HEALING: Wanda's seen healing Vision when he's sliced through with a blade that can harm Vibranium products. It looks like she's mending his wires. We never see her heal anyone else.

    • DISINTEGRATION: Similarly to Telekinesis, she can rip things apart at a molecular level.

    • FORCE-FIELD GENERATION: Her psionic blasts can create forcefields she can use as shields and protective bubbles against magical attacks and attacks from manmade weaponry such as bullets.

    • FLIGHT: She is able to use her psionic energy to lift herself up into the air and even levitate. Wanda will be able to do this without using her psionic red energy in the late future.

    • TELEPATHY: The ability to read and control someone's mind. Wanda often uses this to experience the person's most traumatic memory. She can infiltrate minds and take control of people. From this power, Wanda is also capable of mind manipulation and emotional manipulation where she can change someone's emotions and amplify them. Wanda is capable of controlling thousands of minds at the same time and can do this on autopilot, even controlling them without actively focusing on them (i.e. in Westview, Wanda controlled every single citizen to the point where they were going about their daily lives as her per script). She does not tire.


      • MASTER SORCERESS
    • CHAOS MAGIC: Wanda is capable of spontaneous creation, which is shown in the same red energy as her psionic abilities. These creations are corporeal and very much like objects and people who exist in our reality. (They are very real! Super duper powerful magic users may sense something off.) Within this is also spell casting including runes and sensing magic. Wanda's red bursts of energy (or hexes) are spells cast without incantation and are of her own will.

    • REALITY MANIPULATION: Wanda can warp reality to the point where she can take over an entire town and control the people within it every second of every day without growing tired. She can change landscapes, conjure people, and change them at a whim's notice. I'm going to put under this power her ability to manipulate illusions, weather, and elements as these powers are logically a subset of this ability.

    • CONJURATION: The ability to conjure objects at will. These objects are life-like and flawless.

    • TRANSMUTATION: The ability to change an objects' form. As a part of this power, she is able to bring fake things to life.

    • LIFE CREATION: This sits under Chaos Magic, but I feel it's important to pull out considering the nature of what she can do. She creates Vision based on her memories of the real Vision. This Vision was a flawless replica of the real Vision, and even fooled the likes of Darcy Lewis who thought that he was real based on what information she knew about Wanda and Vision. She also created her own children who had their own personalities and powers and behaved like young children would.

    • POWER BESTOWAL: She can apparently grant powers to those who are born without them. When Monica Rambeau walked through her Hex, she was given abilities that gave her light manipulation powers.

    • TIME MANIPULATION: The ability to manipulate time. Wanda can rewind time to the point where a day restarts.

    • TELEPORTATION: Wanda is able to teleport people to locations and can teleport herself.

    • ENERGY ABSORPTION: She can absorb power/energy from people. She does this by absorbing and taking away Agatha Harkness' powers despite Agatha being a witch who is over four centuries her senior. Wanda hunts America Chavez who is not a magic user and successfully begins to absorb her multidimensional travelling power. She successfully absorbed Earth-838 Captain Marvel's cosmic power, rendering Captain Marvel powerless. (I would also assume she could absorb the energy from non-human beings such as worlds and objects.)

    • ASTRAL PROJECTION: Wanda is able to project her being into being in two places at once. Unlike other magic users, her prime self does not need to be asleep. She is able to exist as both entities and does not tire.

    • DARKHOLD MAGIC: Although she doesn't have the Darkhold in-game, she does have the knowledge of the Book of the Damned, which contained spells such as dreamwalking (the ability to transfer her consciousness into the body of her other selves across the universe and still have active use of her powers). What else it contained has remained unconfirmed, but I mention it because it might produce some fun player plots!

    • NEXUS BEING: Wanda is also a Nexus Being, which hasn't exactly been established in the MCU as of yet (although, it was teased in a commercial during WandaVision and implied Wanda was a Nexus Being like her comic book counterpart and Kang has been confirmed as a Nexus Being), it's safe to assume that Wanda will be established as one in the MCU. (I figure I'd mention it in case it's finally confirmed and I can seek mod permission to include whatever this ends up being in her powerset.)


      • MASTER COMBATANT (WITH MAGIC): While Wanda relies more heavily on her abilities when in a fight, since being with the Avengers, she has developed a more hands-on type of fighting style that she incorporates her magic into.

      DURABILITY: She's also pretty durable. Strange shoved her into the Mirrorverse and when she broke out of it, she could repair the shard-like broken fractures of herself with little effort. She's also pretty durable to magical attacks; she can receive blasts that knock her on her ass and then… get back up again.

    ACCEPTED + NOTES

    [personal profile] faderifting - 2024-09-16 15:26 (UTC) - Expand

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    [personal profile] explosion - 2024-09-16 20:55 (UTC) - Expand
    dirthsal: (Default)

    talin | native oc CW: loss of a child

    [personal profile] dirthsal 2024-11-19 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Nina
    Age: 30+
    Contact: smoke signals
    Other Characters: Ennaris Tavane
    Interests: Elves elves elves elves

    CHARACTER

    Name: Talin Shira'nehn
    Canon/OC: OC
    Journal: [personal profile] dirthsal
    Race: Elf
    Nationality: Dalish by way of Orlais
    Occupation: Agent of Fen'Harel :)
    Division: Scouting
    Mage or Not: Not
    Age: 25

    History
  • Born 9:25.??.?? to a very loving elf mommy and daddy in an aravel somewhere in Orlais. Had two older sisters.
  • Clan was barely affected even slightly by the Fifth Blight, mostly just heard whispers of a clan in Fereldan losing a couple hunters to the taint.
  • Grew up healthy, friendly, and well-liked by the clan. Apprenticed with the Halla Keeper from a young age, after his way with animals became apparent.
  • Clan moved more frequently during the Orlesian Civil War and the Mage-Templar War. Had a few close calls with Templars and chevaliers, but aside from some injuries, the clan made it through both alright.
  • Took Ghilan'nain's vallaslin at 19 in 9:44 during the Arlathvhen, where he was betrothed to a hunter from another clan, and it was decided she would join Shira'nehn.
  • Bonded to Ban'abelas (Bela) Ralaferin in 9:44 August. They didn't know each other, but they were determined to make it work—and it helped that they were both attractive and kind.
  • Within a few months, Bela was pregnant. Their daughter, Sulana, was born in 9:45 Solace.
  • In 9:45 Kingsway, Shira'nehn ended up in the path of the Exalted March through sheer dumb luck. No one survived.
  • No one but Talin, who was healed of his injuries by (agents of) Fen'Harel, the Dread Wolf. While recovering, Talin learned of (some of) the Dread Wolf's goals and motivations, and, upon being deemed hardy enough to return to his feet, became an agent of Fen'Harel.
  • In the five years since, Talin has let Fen'Harel free him of his vallaslin, has gotten a couple new tattoos, has returned to the site of his clan's slaughter and planted trees for as many of them as he could, and done exactly what Fen'Harel asked of him whenever he asked.
  • In 9:50 Solace, Fen'Harel asked him to join Riftwatch and report on their efforts... so off Talin went.


    • Personality
    Talin's early life was marked by successes and wins, a happy community, and as much safety as could be expected from the Dalish, and he had every reason to think it would continue. Hell, he deserved for it to continue: he was confident but humble, kind and friendly, beloved of his community and genuinely good at what he did. He wasn't the main character of his clan, but you'd have been forgiven for thinking he was.

    None of that saved him from tragedy.

    The slaughter of his clan, bondmate, and infant child didn't so much break Talin as it focused him. Where in the days before the March he was happy to meander through life with no goal but happiness, in its aftermath he's become a man of purpose, laser-focused on achieving his goals. He's still affable, confident, competent—but he's no longer content to be just those things.

    The idea that his goals, and his alignment with Solas, are borne of nothing but a broken young man's broken heart is one he would argue against fiercely—he sees genuine merit in taking down the Veil, despite its dangers, as a matter of practical and logical destruction. Does one not sometimes burn a forest to save it from rot and allow new growth to flourish? Does a mis-healed bone not sometimes need to be broken to be reset? The pain and loss there is no less tragic for its necessity, but it is necessary. He is willing to die for what he truly, genuinely believes will be a better world...

    ...But he is a broken young man with a broken heart, and that influences him more than he's allowed himself to be aware of. The loss of his family has instilled in Talin a misanthropy that he's blinded himself to, as in spite of it he makes friends easily, and holds no resentment toward individuals for the actions of groups. There is still, within him, a sense that the whole world is to blame for his tragedy, and so the whole world needs to be corrected. It's not enough to work for elf liberation, or a Dalish homeland, or any more conventional justice—the world itself must be remade, or he cannot remain within it.

    Opinions & Affiliations
    Fen'Harel—The Saviour This World Needs, But Not The One It Deserves.
    Dalish—the last of the Elvhenahn, the People, the true stewards of Thedas.
    City Elves—Apart from themselves, but still People.
    Elfblooded—Why Do You Exist.
    Humans—Not The Real Problem... but not not a problem.
    Dwarves & Qunari—Also Here.
    Mages—Love 'em, very necessary to a functional community. Kill them if they fuck up.
    Rifters—Spirits, probably, but according to Fen'Harel spirits might be People...? Unsure.
    Wardens—Fen'Harel doesn't like them, so Talin doesn't like them.
    The Chantry—More of a real problem... But still Not The Real Problem.
    Templars—Fuck 'em.
    Chevaliers—Fuck 'em.
    Orlesian nobles: Fuck 'em.
    The Veil: The Real Problem.

    Strengths & Weaknesses
    Strengths
    • Animal Handling—They just like him! Mammals, birds, reptiles, fish–he vibes with all manner of non-human creature, but has a particularly calming presence with ungulates. Halla are THE BEST.
    • Dalish—Talin has the requisite Dalish skills, such as general wilderness living. He can skin a rabbit as fast as he can tame one, and he won't even feel bad about it.
    • Elvhen—From working for Fen'Harel, he has a somewhat higher degree of knowledge about Elf Stuff than even your average Dalish. Still can't read or write Elvhen, nor is he fluent in it, but he knows the interesting stuff from the mundane stuff.
    • Spy—The skills Talin had before the loss of his clan have been honed and sharpened by his past five years of work as Fen'Harel's agent. He's more skilled in a fight than he would have been five years ago, and he's got experience keeping his cool under pressure. Lying and obfuscation are the new tricks of his trade, and he's gotten pretty good at them.


    Weaknesses
    • Literacy—He has just barely learned to read and write Trade, and he's not good at it. It's still fastest and most effective for him to dictate to someone or be read to.
    • Cities—Dalish upbringing makes cities a dangerous place to be, and he still hasn't entirely gotten used to them. Money is annoying, can't we trade goods or skills instead. How do you navigate? How do you interact with so many different kinds of people all the time??
    • Dwarves/Qunari—He has not paid them a single iota of attention. Culturally ignorant and utterly useless with any of their history or architecture.
    • The Veil—Talin truly, deeply, in his heart of hearts, thinks the Veil is at the root of all of Thedas' problems, and is a true believer in Fen'Harel's cause. Convincing him to change his mind would be extremely difficult, if not completely impossible.

    Inventory
    • The clothes on his back
    • His clan's First's ring
    • Bela's lovespoon, charred


    Motivation
    Fen'Harel said jump, and Talin said "How high?" He's not here to sabotage anything, or to steal the eluvians back—it's useful to Fen'Harel for Riftwatch to have them, at least for the moment—he's just observing, making sure Riftwatch's focus remains on Corypheus, and sending information back. His instructions were to earnestly assist with Riftwatch's goals, and he intends to do just that. Sending information to Fen'Harel might even benefit Riftwatch in some ways—they both want Corypheus dealt with, after all.


    SAMPLES
  • Inbox log with Astrid
  • Network thread with Sennara
    • faderifting: (Default)

    ACCEPTED + NOTES

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-12-01 03:35 pm (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved, with the following notes:
    ↠ Talin's history as written is totally fine and we don't expect him to necessarily care about this IC! but just a heads up OOC that the current Exalted March isn't, as a matter of policy, targeting elves and does have elves among it. (Briala raised an elven military company to fight the invasion of Orlais and they've gone along to fight Tevinter.) So while a company of zealots going rogue and reenacting the March on the Dales on encountering his specific clan is sadly plausible, it isn't something that'd be happening often or officially approved of.

    ↠ Another FYI that only a minority of Fen'Harel's agents are aware of his intentions for the Veil and what that would mean for the world. Most have only been sold a vaguer notion of freedom or a return of elven glory. Talin can have been brought in on the Veil plan! But it won't be the vibe that everyone involved is aware or would necessarily be on board if they knew.

    ↠ The odds are very high that we deviate from canon when it comes to the specific details of Solas' plans—not his ultimate goal of tearing down the Veil, that'll stay, but the requirements and process for actually achieving it are very likely to change and we may handle his broader network differently (e.g. by having them continue to exist). So don't assume that Talin would know, for example, about a ritual being planned in Arlathan Forest, because there's a good chance that's not how it goes down here!

    ↠ In general, while some contact with Solas, and awareness of his goal and some parts of his network/other agents is obviously fine, since we'll be using him as a mod NPC and moving him around the board it's important they not be in such close contact that Talin is necessarily aware of where he is or what all he or the other agents are up to. Some distance between them will save you having to submit constant info requests (and us having to make up a lot of detail and spoilers we're not prepared for) or jump through hoops to explain why Talin didn't know about XYZ in advance.
    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] aberratic - 2024-12-01 16:23 (UTC) - Expand
    shiftsandshades: (Default)

    kieran | dragon age

    [personal profile] shiftsandshades 2024-11-25 11:10 pm (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Dove
    Age: 21+
    Contact: [plurk.com profile] hellzapoppin or PM this journal
    Other Characters: N/A
    Interests: I'm interested in building out Kieran's character and sending him on adventures. In general, my RP interests currently tend toward horror, character-driven drama, complicated CR, and whatever extreme situations I can finagle.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Kieran
    Canon/OC: Canon
    Journal: [personal profile] shiftsandshades
    Race: Human
    Nationality: Fereldan by heritage, stateless by vibe
    Occupation: The Thedosian equivalent of High School Graduate On A Gap Year
    Division: Scouting
    Mage or Not: Mage
    Age: 19

    History

    Wiki for the first 10 years of his life, OGB flavor. His father was Alistair.

    Since that point:
    • Kieran lived briefly at Gwenaëlle Baudin's Kirkwall mansion while his mother served as a member of Riftwatch.
    • After Morrigan moved on from Riftwatch, Kieran went with her. Where possible, they traveled together, sometimes using eluvians. When her pursuits were too dangerous or delicate for a boy to assist with, she left him with trusted allies.
    • As a result, he's seen bits and pieces of Ferelden, Orlais, the Free Marches, Nevarra, Antiva, Rivain, and the Fade.
    • He's spent the most time in the Marches and Orlais, respectively; at least a year of his mid-teens was spent at the edge of the Grand Game, learning more explicitly the dozens of unspoken rules of the nobility.
    • In the last year or so, he's begun to explore the world on his own. He comes to Riftwatch by way of Nevarra.
    • His father - about whom he was told several years ago - died earlier this year, and he's privately mourned that loss since he found out about it.

    Personality

    On the surface, Kieran is a quiet, well-mannered young man. Perhaps a bit over-educated and fussily clothed - but clever, easy to chat with, and willing to help allies in sticky situations. He puts the gentle in gentleman and tends toward the steadfast...though he's as capable as any nineteen-year-old of overindulging in the world's vices occasionally. While he's clearly well-off, his connections aren't especially notable.

    And he'd prefer it if most people stayed on the surface with him.

    Though his upbringing featured everything Morrigan's didn't, it managed to lead to the same place in many ways. He didn't grow up isolated from the entire world - but he did spend much of his youth in appearance-obsessed Orlais, where his mother took pains to ensure he wasn't connected to her publicly. While he wanted for nothing, the Old God sharing his body ensured he also experienced terrifying nightmares and perceived the world in ways he couldn't fully understand or share with others. His life has always involved some careful rearrangement of the truth in order to protect himself and present himself advantageously.

    It wasn't all bad, of course; he didn't always notice the weight of the more complicated aspects of being himself. The people around him cared about him, often a great deal, and there was generally someone he could turn to when Morrigan wasn't available. And whenever he escaped society's eye, he was free to talk about anything he liked, in the company of the mother he adored. Travel, and especially camping in the wilderness, became a safe haven for him.

    As a result, he might have better social skills, but he's very much his mother's son. Fiercely independent, he's reticent to get too close to others or allow them into the depths of his emotional life. Sharing the details of his family, his past, or the strange marks both have left on his thoughts is an idea that discomfits him. He's stubborn, too, and canny - though he tends to be choosier than his mother about sharing sarcastic observations, preferring to catch his flies with honey.

    When he's interested in something, he can be intense, putting all his energy toward it. When he's not interested, he'll drag his feet and has to be pestered to do it. His ambition is outstripped by a desire to be comfortable and happy, and he tends to prefer active work to studying. The exception to this is - unfortunately - blood magic, something he's quietly fascinated by, thanks to his own early awareness of just how much one's blood can tell.

    Ultimately, he's interested in being left to his own devices to do what he likes. Since he lives in A Society, however, he spends much of his time trying to bridge the gap between who he is and who he wants other people to think he is.

    Opinions & Affiliations

    • Chantry: A blinkered and often cruel view of the world. Individuals might be fine, but someone who professes a great love for the Chantry should be regarded with some suspicion.
    • Qun: Also blinkered, also often cruel. Same general rule as the Chantry.
    • Other races: Generally positive; close alignment with the major religions of Thedas gives him more pause than someone's background. Really does think elves are pretty.
    • Circles: He understands the theory behind them - but they're so antithetical to his baseline worldview that his kneejerk reaction is a mix of bafflement and sadness.
    • Grey Wardens: Great fondness, shot through with grief at the moment.
    • Magic: As vital to existence as breathing. He feels some pity for people without it.
    • Blood magic: Feels natural to him in a way he knows it shouldn't. Most interested in the question of how blood magic could be wrought without spilling blood, and whether it could be used for matters of perception rather than offensive magic.

    Adaptation Notes

    While Kieran's not an adaptation, he's an elaboration, so in the spirit of explanation: I've tried to build out his personality and experiences by thinking about the environments he's existed in and the expectations they might have impressed upon him. Formative experiences in settings where appearances are everything, for instance, where his identity can only be shared in pieces. Awareness of others' fears of magic, abominations, and by extension, his mother and himself. Unconditional love and affection - but also high expectations for him, often upheld from afar. A war-torn land filled with people who lack the security he's always been able to rely upon.

    I've also tried to think about him in terms of the question How has he disappointed his mother? Every child grows in directions their parent doesn't expect, after all - and Morrigan's desire to give her son everything she never had, only for him to long for (a better version of) the experiences of her youth appeals to me as a premise. Fight for Riftwatch now so he can be the Witch of the Wilds soon.

    Strengths & Weaknesses

    STRENGTHS:
    Personality
    • Socially adept
    • Adaptable in the face of change
    • Bright, well-educated
    • Reads people fairly well
    • Good-humored

    Skills
    • Outdoor survival
    • Non-magical basic first aid
    • Fencing
    • Common and Orlesian languages

    Magic
    • Magic related to:
    ◦ Transformation
    ◦ Theoretically, blood (I wouldn't want him to have any such abilities upon apping him in, but I'm interested in exploring blood magic over time)

    WEAKNESSES:
    Personality
    • Distrusting of others
    • Fitful about his work and studies
    • Lacks ambition
    • More inclined to brood than share difficulties

    Skills
    • Doesn't blend well - he's easy to pick out in a crowd both visually and in terms of The Vibe He Gives Off
    • Gets seasick
    • Despite the occasional lesson from his father as a boy, he has neither the bulk nor the skill for melee fighting or hand-to-hand combat beyond unskilled scuffling

    Magic
    • Magic related to:
    ◦ Healing
    ◦ Creation

    Generally speaking, I hope to write his magical abilities as naturally tending towards destruction, chaos, and change. It's far more difficult for him to build something than to take it away or destroy it.

    Inventory

    • Several sets of clothing, clearly well-made but not necessarily flashy
    • A staff
    • Several books - some for reading, some for writing in
    • A dagger
    • A fencing foil
    • An Orlesian mask

    Motivation

    Kieran spent some time in Riftwatch's orbit as a young boy, when his mother was involved with the organization. He thinks well of their efforts to end ongoing conflicts and recalls the kindness he was shown in the past. It seems only right to come back and help, now that he's old enough to be an asset to them.

    More selfishly, he benefits from lasting peace; it would make both travel and setting up a home base of sorts far less onerous.

    SAMPLES

    one, two
    Edited 2024-11-25 23:10 (UTC)
    faderifting: (Default)

    ACCEPTED + NOTES

    [personal profile] faderifting 2024-12-01 03:37 pm (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved, with the following notes:
    ↠ During Kieran's time in the game as a child NPC, there was a player plot similar to what happens with Morrigan, Kieran, and Flemeth in Inquisition that ended in the removal of the Old God soul. Based on the app and the reference to having only been the OGB for the first ten years of his life we're assuming you're already aware of this and have included it in his history, and so we've evaluated his app on the understanding that the soul was removed, but if that's not what you had in mind please let us know so we can discuss.

    ↠ Kieran's knowledge from his childhood possession of the soul/power fragment/whatever it officially is now will need to be very limited. You can attribute this to a mix of the information that was available to him being cryptic and fragmented and hard for a child to understand in the first place—not a god's entire collection of memories and knowledge but more limited and jumbled impressions similar to pieces of dreams or the more selective whispers heard by the ancient magisters, just more/worse since Kieran was carrying it around with him—and forgetting childhood memories or being unsure now what was Urthemiel vs. just a child's imagination. He can have some (still cryptic and fragmented) lingering impressions of larger mysteries, sufficient to know that there's some kind of a question about some things, but not to know the answers.

    ↠ The OOC bottom line is that we want to make sure he's not going to be a walking spoiler for all the big new world-changing facts from Veilguard that we're hoping to let PCs discover in various ways. We'd like to avoid having someone hanging around who knows everything already and having to dance around why he doesn't just explain the lore mysteries to everyone else as they arise in game plots, so please take that into account in determining what sorts of memories he has.
    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] shiftsandshades - 2024-12-01 15:47 (UTC) - Expand
    corpsestuff: (Conspiring)

    Emmrich Volkarin | Dragon Age

    [personal profile] corpsestuff 2025-01-12 05:13 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Kel
    Age: 41
    Contact:
    Other Characters: N/A
    Interests: I just need more of Emmrich in Thedas, and while it will be very different for him to come in solo rather than being with a team, I want him pushing himself past his fears to help out (so action!) but also there's something so powerful about a very compassionate man in a world that is often incredibly cruel so maybe not rescuing lost animals but lost people for sure.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Emmrich Volkarin
    Canon/OC: Canon
    Journal: this one, corpsestuff
    Race: Human
    Nationality: Nevarran
    Occupation: Professor, Necromancer
    Division: Research
    Mage or Not: Mage
    Age: 58

    History

    https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Emmrich_Volkarin

    Other fill-in headcanon notes:
    -Orphaned around the age of six.
    -Magic manifested around when he was 12, and he was taken in by the Necropolis then.
    -Several months into his time in the Necropolis he met Johanna Hezenkoss, who got pissed off that someone as smart as him was being shoved into the Thedas equivalent of lockers. She bullied his bullies and they became friends, bonding over all the nerdy things as she taught him how to grow something resembling a backbone.
    -Started teaching students around the age of 20.
    -Has worked with Manfred for about 10 years now, and Manfred has had his body for about 9 years.
    -Since the undead uprising he's been working near-tirelessly on helping fix that, and now that the work is nearing completion the Mourn Watch can consider some reassignments.


    Personality

    Emmrich is compassionate and kind, taking people as they are and giving the benefit of the doubt for as long as he can, especially demonstrated in how he treats Hezenkoss. It does sometimes mean he's taken advantage of, see the fake charms seller in Minrathous, and then he can sometimes be petty in getting revenge, see also the fake charms seller in Minrathous. He is also a romantic.

    His greatest joy is learning whether it's information or getting to know people. That's what drew the curiosity wisp to him in the first place, and why it stuck around. He's excited by new discoveries, adores putting information together, and even more than that utterly enjoys when he gets to share it with people. Education is a gift, something that was made very clear to him by his poor childhood. He is a teacher and a lifelong learner, more than happy to burrow his way through a library or spend an abundance of time studying an artifact, and then break it down for anyone else who needs to know.

    Due to his focusing, studying, and work, he's known as a respected expert on the Fade and spirits outside of the Necropolis, through lectures and also books he's authored. Due to his relationship with the spirits he can even pick up on their presence and hear them when others can't, as evidenced by him knowing about Spite without being told and then hearing when Spite is talking with Lucanis.

    At all times, though, Emmrich is afraid. He is terrified of dying. That means he's also incredibly brave in the way he leaves the safety of the Necropolis to go fight gods. He doesn't consider it bravery because he's still scared. He worries and frets. He overthinks, and he overprotects. Some of the overprotection is unconscious, demonstrated by how he worries about Manfred's patella bones and thinks nothing of how he shelters his ward. Sometimes, though, he's very aware of how his fears are influencing him which is why he speaks of both his fear of death and his plan of lichdom to Rook. He knows being scared has an impact on his life. He knows it holds him back.

    Emmrich is heavily motivated by emotions. He's incredibly intelligent and utilizes it well, so there's thought behind what he does, but he's never going to be impartial or objective. That's not to say the emotions are the biggest factor or that it's always obvious he's being emotional. He's very good at rationalizing his actions and there's always reason and logic involved at least somewhat, but one doesn't jump to lichdom to avoid death for purely educated reasons, nor does one take in the skull of someone who tried to kill him and did kill his ward with a realistic chance of rehabilitating them. That's all hope. He can look collected and hold his own in a debate or on the battlefield, but Emmrich is feeling a whole lot, all the time.

    Opinions & Affiliations

    Emmrich is with the Mourn Watch, an elite group in the already-elite mortalitasi of Nevarra. He serves in the Necropolis with the dead, undead, and spirits. He does not believe in the concept of demons, only spirits who have had their purpose altered.

    He's vaguely religious, in that he'd call himself Andrastian, but it doesn't have much impact on his life particularly as a Nevarran necromancer. He comforts Harding when she's worried about Veilguard revelations having implications for the Chant while seeming unbothered. He isn't a huge fan of the Chantry as an institution (as seen by how he's dismissive about Templars) and isn't worried about 'magic ruling over man' because he knows full well that (in canon) King Markus has been dead with mages in power in Nevarra for a time now. He's also not fond of nobles in general

    He's very aware of how lucky he is to have been a mage in the Necropolis, and not placed in one of the many Circles across southern Thedas, and supports mage equality and freedom. While he'd question some of the actions taken in the war on the part of the mages, he also doesn't know what options were there so refrains from judging. He also supports Dalish equality and is passionately anti-slavery.

    Emmrich loves Nevarra and thinks of Ferelden as a storied kingdom. While he's interested in qunari funerary practices, it's unthinkable that he'd be fine with the Qun due to how it depersonalizes people and treats people in general poorly but mages specifically like things and tortures them.


    Adaptation Notes
    N/A

    Strengths & Weaknesses

    Strengths:
    Necromancy: Emmrich has studied necromancy for 46 years. He's an expert at calling and controlling the dead and undead (and sending specters to haunt scammers,) putting the unrested to rest, and knowing a bunch of different rituals to help with dead and undead alike. He protects against the cryptid horrors that go bump in the Necropolis night, and knows about hands of glory, liches, and the importance of lighting the right candle in the right place with the right words.

    Healing: Limited magic-wise, but he's an expert at anatomy and knows some botany so if a bone is broken or dislocated he can at least attend to those and he can make some medicinal blends to combine with his knowledge of how the body is supposed to work. He's also got great sewing skills.

    Agility/Combat: He does flips, he can fling people in the air and crush their bones before dropping them, and he's great at aiming rocks. Emmrich's got great reflexes from dealing with bitey or ornery undead and spirits who have become twisted. He's an expert with magical staves.

    Corpse Stuff: Emmrich is a corpse whisperer, someone with a rare gift that enables them to speak with the dead and ask them a few questions. Dead who would have been hostile toward him in life are more challenging, but he can often get at least hints from the strongest. He can also feel where someone's died long after it's happened if the event had enough resonance in the Fade.

    Spirit stuff: A flicker of a spirit can give him hints into the context of what's going on, such as when a spirit of devotion shows up near a romanced Taash. He can summon wisps to help guide someone, he can placate upset spirits, and he can hold conversations with possessing spirits (Spite.) The amount he cares about and respects them is reflected in his relationship and abilities with them.

    Fade stuff: He's a renowned expert, able to theorize on the fly and work out how to do things like open a prison in the Fade. He can see magic flow, and can even show a receptive audience with a skull and some focus. When trapped in the Fade temporarily by Johanna he stays calm because he knows how the place works and how to get back out.

    Research/resourcefulness: He's in academia so this probably goes without saying, but he's also pretty decent at connecting the dots. I'm also using this to note other things that don't deserve a whole category like magical locks (he can sort them out in endgame,) fluent in Nevarran, Tevene, Trade, and the Tomb Language used in the Necropolis.


    Weaknesses:
    Primal/elemental magic: It's the opposite of spirit magic. Sure, he can do your basic static/sparklefingers stuff, but if you want a lightning bolt he is not your man unless you also want him fried. No stonefisting either. He can light a candle or heat water but there won't be fireballs or walls of fire or even blizzards for that matter.

    Emotions: Emmrich is a man of a lot of feelings, all the time. This can lead to anxiety, second-guessing, and self-sabotage. He's also not great at being alone, as evidenced by him befriending a wisp of Curiosity, naming it, and building it a body. He's definitely a bit sensitive. He also can't lie for anything, and constantly wears his heart on his sleeve.

    Too trusting: He likes to have faith. He still has faith in Veilguard that Johanna can be redeemed, and even tries until she attacks to get through to her. He has faith that Bellara/Neve can be rescued after Tearstone Island even though there's no reason to believe that. He trusts a random charm seller on the street because Nevarran systems taught him to believe he's safe buying charms. Even after Solas imprisons Rook he still thinks there's a chance to talk him down. Sometimes he's right. Sometimes he's wrong. Regardless, he's very trusting in a world full of people who are often not trustworthy.

    Melee/range weapons: Sure, he knows which bit is the pointy bit and that said pointy bit shouldn't go into him or allies. But he's not gonna be effective at hitting anything other than a stationery target with a sword, he's useless with a shield bash (the shield might even weigh more than this stick figure of a man) and forget figuring out how to fire an arrow. He's accurate with a thrown heavy blunt object (aka rocks) but nothing that's the traditional realm of warriors and rogues.

    Animals: He doesn't know how to mount a horse, forget how to ride it, would give even the happiest of mabari a wide berth, and knows full well he'd lose a limb trying to groom a griffon. He was good with one (1) animal when he was five years old and that was a pig named Lucy.

    Inventory

    MANFRED - A wisp of curiosity housed inside a custom-built corpse, Manfred is an intelligent little companion who understands language and can do a lot of basic tasks from finding specific books to brewing tea, washing laundry to mixing inks. He wears boots and carries a backpack.

    Guardian of the Abyss staff and Staff of Incessant Gaze (second staff because he should have one that he can pretend maybe isn't a skull. It's totally a snake. Serpentine.)

    Funeral Finery and Researcher's Robes

    Grim Grinning Visage - a golden necklace enchanted to cast a glamor of a glowing green skull with green flames and green flaming eyes over the wearer's head when activated.

    Mom's tea set

    Dad's butcher knife

    Shaving ki--okay sorry, I'm kidding and won't list out all the stuff. But he's bringing some luxuries, a metric ton of jewelry, a few skulls, and oh boy is he bringing books.

    Motivation

    Relations between Nevarra and the Riftwatch are... complicated. The mortalitasi and Mourn Watch would like one of their active members to join in the efforts to fight Corypheus while also helping avoid more disasters.

    SAMPLES

    Sample 1

    Sample 2 (does go NSFW about 50 comments in)

    Edited (Reserved.) 2025-01-14 22:03 (UTC)
    faderifting: (Default)

    APPROVED + NOTES

    [personal profile] faderifting 2025-01-20 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved, with the following notes:
    ↠ With regard to the flips: we do ask everyone to operate on a slightly more realistic plane than the video games, i.e. even agile rogues aren't supposed to be casually doing backflips mid-combat. So it's perfectly fine for Emmrich to be agile and quick, but keep it realistic, including making sure he isn't out-flipping the rogue-archetype characters who don't also get to do magic.

    ↠ Be prepared for his corpse whispering and other magic to not always work or produce comprehensible results during mod/player plots! It's difficult to design mysteries or multi-step plots that can't be immediately short-cut by someone's special ability, given how many different special abilities we have floating around, so sometimes we just say stuff isn't going to work.

    ↠ On a similar note, make sure to check in with us first if you want any of his books to provide plot-useful information in the future.
    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.
    boeric: (pic#17492879)

    Sennara | Native OC

    [personal profile] boeric 2025-01-12 09:40 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: k2
    Age: old
    Contact: shambolism @ plurk / discord
    Other Characters: Lazar, Cedric, Isaac
    Interests: helping our milf stats

    CHARACTER

    Name: Sennara (Isskari)
    Canon/OC: OC
    Journal: [personal profile] boeric
    Race: Elf
    Nationality: Seheron (Qunari)
    Occupation: Ben-Hassrath
    Division: Research
    Mage or Not: No
    Age: ~50

    History

  • Born in a contested area of Seheron to escaped Imperium slaves
  • Turbulent childhood
  • Parents converted when she and her brother were teens
  • He took off for the Fog Warriors, she stuck with the Qun
  • Plucked for Ben-Hassrath training
  • Became an Isskari: Magical artifact investigation and recovery
  • As a Seheron native, her work emphasizes less ruin-spleunking and more recovering-stuff-from-dead-Vints
  • (Still some ruin-spleunking)
  • Some of that loot goes to a darvaarad
  • Some gets redistributed to allied groups, who are more free to use it than the Qun
  • She's in contact with a number of Seheron rebels who favour the Qun slightly more than the Imperium
  • Including her brother, who's now leading his own cell
  • Moved around the island as needed, has traveled a little around the North
  • It's abruptly better for her to be off-island, and Riftwatch has some shared contacts
  • Also interested in Riftwatch's university presentations, and whether those inventions are safe to leave in Southern hands / usable
  • She showed up with parachutes and books, got rules to follow, and made some introductions



    • Personality

    Sennara is an individualist who has dedicated her life to the collective. She genuinely believes in her cause, but that love first came from a selfish place.

    Converting gave Sennara the safety and support that she'd never had. She was seen and valued as more than an extension of her family, and encouraged to grow into herself. The Qun didn't just tell her that she was clever and capable, it demanded that she be. Self-doubt wasn't an option. Guilt wasn't: Her parents were taken care of, and after all, wouldn't it more selfish to not pursue being her best self? You can't make the world better if you're not.

    That was a long time ago. Sennara today is confident, curious, and (she believes) at peace with a violent history. She isn't. A rough upbringing has left her with little patience for fragility or perceived disrespect. Even as she works to soften the way for others, she believes that she is set apart from them. A role that emphasizes independence in the field has only reinforced a quiet sense of superiority.

    Sennara is stubborn, brisk, and bad at deescalation: Even if you're "equals", the horned guy two feet taller than you might not listen until you get in his face about it. The habits that she's built don't always serve her well — there's a reason that she's fifty, and still not managing anyone.

    That's fine. Solo work suits her. Sennara wants a better world, but she often doesn't like the people in it. Independent and protective of her privacy, she's happiest when alone with a problem to contemplate or conquer. She finds guidance in the Qun's philosophy and metaphor, and believes in doing the work she won't live to see done. She's deeply curious about the world, with a particular fascination for its dangers. Sennara handles her fears by holding them close enough to name and categorize, to hide or use.

    She's less skillful with sentiment. Her close relationships expose vulnerabilities that she finds personally uncomfortable, and professionally hazardous. Sennara has never severed ties with her brother, and entanglement with an attempted defector nearly sent her to reeducation. She allows more room for grey in her actions and beliefs than a priest should, and it probably wouldn't fly in a role with more oversight.

    But I'm sure that'll never be a problem.


    Opinions & Affiliations

    The Qun & Religion

    The Qun makes the world a better place. Its emphasis on self-mastery, a malleable future, and (material) equality is deeply admirable.

    But she's not a hardliner as Qunari go, and she favours voluntary conversion over shows of force. You can't open someone's mind against their will, that's just trepanation.

    She can respect the Chantry's emphasis on Making the world anew, but she's starting from Imperial Chantry doctrine so like, shame about the slaves and all. Considers animism and elven religions to be interesting stories that sometimes try to kill her.


    The Imperium & Mages

    Sennara believes the Imperium should fall, and the first priority is ousting them from occupied territories. Her animosity is personal, particularly for the military and ruling class.

    Her opinion of magic is filtered through the Imperium. Accordingly, she doesn't trust it. Magic is dangerous, magic should be investigated. But danger is interesting. She has the job she has because she's willing to walk toward it. Sennara doesn't balk for a spell before her, and will equivocate if asked whether all mages should be made saarebas: That's not her decision. Now show her that cool floating rock.


    The South & Class

    Sure, they're more free than the Qunari. Free to starve and die in the service of monsters.


    Elf stuff

    Several layers removed from alienages or aravels. Seheron has its own history, and she's got a lot of rage about that in a way that is very obviously personal if you're not her, and thus unable to see it.


    Strengths & Weaknesses

    Educated

    Literate in Trade, Qunlat, Tevene.

    Strikingly well-read in Tevinter magical theory, and has some limited knowledge of ancient elven and Rivaini practice — mostly by running afoul of it (think: "this kind of trap is common", not the Veilguard lore drops). She isn't a mage, but she's good at taking apart their toys without getting killed.


    That's my purse, I don't know you

    Not a dedicated fighter, but has been trained in some nasty, improvisational scrapping. Has no qualms about stabbing someone as much as it takes. This is strictly an emergency thing, she's small and has creaky joints. Most of Riftwatch could kick her ass.


    Friends & enemies

    Reports to a salit in the Seheron port, has broader connections in the Qun. The policy of cycling non-native agents off the island after a few years means that her relationships are both shallower and widespread: She knows people all over, but few of them are close.

    She's spent a long time working with rebel groups on Seheron, some of whom have contacts within the Imperium. These view her with varying degrees of suspicion or favour. She might get an audience, but flip a coin whether it's friendly.

    The Tevinter military wants her dead. Sennara isn't a big shot, but she's been working long enough to be on a list or two.


    Survival

    She can camp!! Additional experience in navigating spooky ancient ruins.


    Inventory

  • Experimental Parachutes Donated to Riftwatch
  • Spellbinder tomes Donated to Riftwatch
  • Basic fiddly tools and kit



    • Motivation

    She needs to be off-island for a bit, and the Qun would like a look at your "hot chips".


    SAMPLES

    Network
    Log
    faderifting: (Default)

    APPROVED

    [personal profile] faderifting 2025-01-17 10:58 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.
    mournwitch: (thedathenais493)

    athénaïs tavarys — native original

    [personal profile] mournwitch 2025-01-14 01:12 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: libby
    Age: old as shit
    Contact: [plurk.com profile] keanuleaves
    Other Characters: Gwenaëlle Baudin, Petrana de Cedoux
    Interests: I love Nevarra and don’t have a character that’s actually personable. Two problems solved!

    CHARACTER

    Name: Athénaïs Tavarys
    Canon/OC: Original
    Journal: ~mournwitch
    Race: City Elf
    Nationality: Nevarran, by upbringing
    Occupation: sometime Mourn Watcher, sometime criminal
    Division: Research
    Mage or Not: Yes
    Age: 35

    History
  • As children, Athénaïs and her sisters are brought to Nevarra by Orlesian parents, seeking a better life than serfdom in Orlais offered and the shelter of anonymity against their debts and debtors back home. They have a hard-scrabble existence, supplementing their parents’ income by dancing and singing on street corners where they pick up varying degrees of habitual petty theft. (Athénaïs takes to it the quickest and most.)
  • Anonymity doesn’t last, or shelter. Their mother hides them in an entrance to the Necropolis with everything they were able to carry from the room they rented; she tells them to wait there for her to come back. They never know what becomes of her. It’s a week before they run out of food and water and start to venture deeper in search of, if nothing else, a grave to rob. They’re discovered by a skeletal servant of the Mourn Watch, and Athénaïs is so startled she manifests her magic.
  • Athénaïs and Athaliah are taken in by the Mourn Watch, but separated from their third, unmagical sister, Agarance, in the process: the remaining Tavaryses are housed, educated, provided for in exchange for the usual work apprentices are expected to do. Athaliah takes to it immediately; Athénaïs takes to it selectively, an exemplary student when the subject holds her interest and an ongoing problem when bored by a topic or task. A penchant for petty theft and malleable relationship with the truth would make her more enemies in authority if not for the willingness of particular instructors that she impresses when focused to go to bat for her.
  • The Tavarys sisters remain with the Mortalitasi when the mage rebellion takes place, out of Athaliah’s sense of duty to the dead; watching other mages of Nevarra and the nations of the south step outside of their proscribed duties and roles as the rebellion doesn’t come to an end makes Athénaïs restless, exasperated with Mortalitasi politicking, annoyed by the wrangling over the Nevarran throne, dissatisfied with her work. She leaves under the cover of night so her sister can’t talk her out of it, with a vague intention of joining the Inquisition,
  • which she does not ultimately do. She falls in with thieves and adventurers surviving and occasionally thriving in the changed world of ongoing conflicts, instead, making a name for herself among mercenaries and explorers of ruins: if she finds a job interesting, she’s going to get it done.
  • That name travels back to Nevarra, and when Athaliah tracks her down and reaches out, asking for help with a difficult situation that’s arisen for the Mourn Watch as they attempt to resecure Nevarra City and corral the dead, Athénaïs predictably cannot tell her sister no, abandoning her companions (and lover) to return. She does so, sticks her oar in, and efficiently prevents further conflict with minimal further bloodshed. Maybe something explodes. Don’t worry about it.
  • She is also asked to leave Nevarra, like, for a while.

    • Personality
  • TENACIOUS determined or stubborn, depending on your perspective on the rest of her personality. a dog with a bone once it’s between her teeth.
  • IMPROVISATIONAL if in doubt, it’s macguyver hours up in this bitch. adapt, improvise, overcome. ‘i guess that’s not happening’ is not in her vocabulary, see above. you can always pivot. maybe by the time you get back to where you started, you’ve got new possibilities from all the other shit you tried.
  • IMPULSE-DRIVEN or, if you ask her sister, unreliable. grab that shiny trinket. pursue this new curiosity. bang that hysterically obvious bad idea. leave nevarra in the dead of night because you think there’s something better for you out there.
  • ACADEMIC studied elvhen not for elven reasons but because it’s a difficult semi-dead language harder to get to if you aren’t dalish, and she’s a nerd who loves a challenge. a dedicated student of projects that interest her.
  • QUICK-WITTED what emotionally difficult moment can’t be improved by an ill-timed jest to deflect from the possibility of being vulnerable?
  • PLAYFUL the world’s a stage and we are all but players on it etc. tell lies, why not. be funny all the time, not just when you’re trying not to have a difficult conversation about your own feelings. equally enthusiastic about a children’s game of pretend or an adult game of cards. cards with adults. strip wicked grace optional but she’s up for it.
  • BRAVE or … stupid? looks and leaps. runs toward the screaming, runs into the burning building, says the thing she’s pretty sure we’re all thinking, right?
  • FRIENDLY when you’re community-oriented, you need to be willing to community-build. her boyfriend was trying to invent communism or something, very cool and sexy to do.
  • GENEROUS with her time and her resources, as above, but also with her willingness to become what she sees someone needing her to be, to give not just of herself but herself. sturdy for someone who is scared when she’s scared too; heroic when someone is looking, in case they need the bolstering to be brave themselves.

    • Opinions & Affiliations
  • THE MOURN WATCH complicated. tricky thing to ‘quit’. lingering loyalty and respect mingling with resentment for the burden of obligation.
  • THE CHANTRY does what it wants regardless most people’s opinion, so why concern herself with having one? does good work in the community. doing worse work institutionally. wary.
  • THE QUN sounds like a bad time!
  • THE MAGE TEMPLAR WAR conscious of the privilege involved in her positive experience of nevarran circles, pro mage, warily interested in reaching out to templars that seem reasonable.
  • ELVES, HUMANS, QUNARI, OH MY an elf before she’s a mage or a nevarran (or an orlesian, for that matter). city elf through and through; approaches elvhen history from an academic perspective.

    • Adaptation Notes
    Athénaïs is an AU of [personal profile] moonwitchery (a drow protavonist from Baldur’s Gate 3) with inspiration and elements from Dragon Age: Veilguard. Across both versions the cornerstones are an orphan with a difficult relationship with her sister and a chaotic yet competent relationship to her own chosen pursuits; a struggle with finding purpose or not and a hunger for community with a tendency to up stakes and bolt when dissatisfied. I have intentionally used the Mourn Watch background from Veilguard as more of a jumping off point to adapt Athénaïs’s existing history and vibe in a way that makes sense for Dragon Age without being inextricable from the protagonist of Veilguard and hopefully avoided using anything that’d make it hard for someone else to work from a similar base!

    tl;dr I don’t want to play the main character of Fade Rift, don’t worry.

    Strengths & Weaknesses
  • A necromancer with the death caller specialization who often favours the orb focus and blade; noted for her talents during training, a lot of ‘if only she applied herself’ on report cards from subjects she was less interested in. Good with a project, stubborn when she’s into something, bores easy. An accomplished academic, but more of an Indiana Jones type: struggles to sit still, struggles to have only one project, etcetera.
  • Very focused on her special interests in magic, not amazing outside of them. Outside of necromancy she’s also effective with force magic (good at holding bones where she needs them to be while she’s figuring out another aspect of what she’s working on — much of the magic she does is through the lens of how it can contribute to the magic that she focuses on), but has no knack for healing or warding, can get a fire started or some ice but certainly isn’t going to wow anyone with her mastery of the elements.
  • Experienced with using magic in combat, not experienced with battle magic, per se. The fighting she’s done has been close quarters and vicious, relying on maybe one or two other people rather than being accustomed to working in a larger group or dealing with a battlefield’s scale. She’s used to accounting for one, usually specific, person at her back and not accounting for or being part of a team.
  • A criminal! She has ties to various criminal elements in southern Thedas who were willing to work with mages; smuggling, theft, extortion, blackmail, etcetera. Due to her tendency to dip whenever she feels like it, some of those think more positively of her than others, and as she’s distinctly recognisable, she can be a point of contention with those who recognise her from the south rather than her years of reasonably well behaved academia.
  • Fluent or conversant with trade, Nevarran, and elvhen; grew up speaking Orlesian but has retained very little of it and would have to relearn the language to make any real use of it, and she was never literate in the language.
  • Personality strengths + weaknesses covered in personality section.

    • Inventory
  • Veilseeker staff, veilsong arcane orb and twist of the veil blade. You may be sensing a theme. (None of these are unique items.)
  • A generous pay off from the Mourn Watch for her services rendered and her willingness to fuck off and keep her mouth shut.
  • A couple of sentimental keepsakes from her sister and a former mentor there.
  • Personal effects, etcetera. She likes and has nice things, but abandoned a lot when she left Strand, so she isn’t exactly bringing a ton of luggage with her.
  • A mummified and possessed cat skeleton in its own dedicated traveling case. It is curious but not clever and requires regular maintenance. Not all of the bones are original and several of them are no longer from cats. It has jewels for eyes, but other decorations have been removed or toned down because of accidents and the possibility of theft.

    • Motivation
    Needing not to be in Nevarra for a while and having at least heavily singed a bridge in the south so she can’t easily slot back into the life she was leading before she went home, Athénaïs is restless and in need of occupation. Riftwatch is Athaliah’s suggestion, based on their recent work in Nevarra through the eluvians. I’m being vague about what exactly this was in case there’s a fun opportunity to tie it into something in game, and she wasn’t asked to leave due to the way she handled the situation she was called back for (which went smoothly) but the optics of her, specifically, having been involved due to “nearly a decade of recent criminal activity”. It was also specifically the connections she’d built through that that her sister reached out to her for; she could pull strings and make moves that would be unacceptable for the Mourn Watch to do publicly or directly.

    SAMPLES

  • ONE
  • TWO
    • faderifting: (Default)

    APPROVED + NOTE

    [personal profile] faderifting 2025-01-17 11:04 pm (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved, with the following note:
    ↠ In addition to being semi-dead, Elvhen is also a mostly-lost language for modern elves—even the Dalish don't know enough to speak it fluently—but she can have learned what they know.
    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.
    verminius: (right)

    Vandren Verminius | Native OC

    [personal profile] verminius 2025-01-15 09:43 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Rock
    Age: Old
    Contact: hackfraud @ plurk
    Other Characters: Dick Dickerson
    Interests: I miss RP and I love mess.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Vandren Verminius
    Canon/OC: Dragon Age OC
    Journal: [personal profile] verminius
    Race: Human
    Nationality: Tevene
    Occupation: War Mage
    Division: Forces
    Mage or Not: Mage
    Age: 57

    History

  • Born to a Soporati merchant family in Minrathous that was elevated into Laetan status after he was confirmed to have magical talent.
  • Initially apprenticed to a distant, grandfatherly relation in Minrathous to learn the fundamentals of magic.
  • Finessed his way into the lowest rungs of Minrathous' Circle of Magi to further his studies.
  • Clever and charismatic, but lacked the study skills, discipline, and killer instinct required to make much of himself in the Circle on merit.
  • Relied heavily on being handsome, spent most of his Circle career engaged in a series of variously toxic on-again-off-again relationships with other mages wealthier and more powerful than him.
  • Worst (and most consistent) of all was another mage a few years his elder with Magisterium connections to whom he eventually became an sort of semi-official trophy paramour.
  • I, Rockefeller, don't personally understand exactly when or how the Venatori started, but his partner was either already entangled with them at this point or otherwise became a Venatori loyalist as soon as they could have.
  • Paramour status made "formal" in his early 20s when his partner married someone significantly older, wealthier, and more powerful than him.
  • Vandren consented to a private binding wherein he and his partner cut each other's ring fingers off and burned them together in a closed ceremony. Very dark and dangerous and blood-magicky and cool. Thrilled about his cushy future as a stay-at-home paramour, he had big feelings about it he was sure were mutual, great sex that night.
  • Morning after, partner informed Vandren he would need to leave town and join the military as an enlisted war mage for glory and Tevinter and also to keep them apprised of intelligence from the front.
  • Vandren balked, whereupon his partner revealed they'd swapped Vandren's finger out prior to the burn and incorporated it into a phylactery to use against him for blood magic purposes.
  • Upsetting but he was also a little bit into it.
  • So began his career as a war mage, wherein he spent many years in grueling, thankless conflict with the Qunari.
  • Middling rank eventually achieved by being capable Enough, supplemented by his partner back home pulling strings.
  • Regular trips home to Minrathous to kick it in luxury with his partner took a little bit of the sting out of it.
  • Deployments shifted south over the past decade. Requests to his partner to retire politely declined.
  • Instead, increasing pressure from his partner over that time to fall in with the Venatori cause, which Vandren successfully maneuvered out of, having, over time, become more self-confident and also suspicious of the boons being promised. Skepticism driven by his direct witness of horrors associated with Venatori magic, darkspawn, red lyrium, etc, in the field, particularly as inflicted upon their own Tevinter people.
  • Partner in Minrathous recently began to exert heavy pressure on him to return to Minrathous for a visit off-cycle, even levering abruptly to have him permanently re-stationed in Minrathous.
  • Vandren took leave to visit them unannounced and found letters in his partner's chamber outlining plans to sacrifice him to some inscrutable dark end, among other nightmare plans.


  • Personality

    Vandren is clever and capable enough to have survived for decades on a warfront at the beck and call of a significantly more powerful mage safe in an ebony tower back home, but not clever or capable enough to have avoided getting into that situation in the first place, or to navigate his way out of it. He relies heavily upon his looks and (weathered) charm to get by, and anyone who has worked with him for any length of time knows it.

    He wouldn't describe himself as a good person -- not heroic, or kind, or overly concerned with others at all. When he doesn't have a good reason to be nice, he will say whatever is on his mind, and bears scars to prove it. He's self-involved, cynical, and a bit lazy, especially about work he considers beneath him, but he does having some grudging empathy for others (mostly humans), and a less grudging sense of patriotism that has kept him going despite everything. Towards the end of his military career, he supplemented his income heavily with bribes from resistance forces shuttling supplies and refugees away from the Venatori.

    More than anything he is tired, and aware that he is fast approaching the end of his life with nothing to show for it but the steady encroach of blight and black magic into Tevinter, and especially Minrathous.

    Joining Riftwatch is a last shot at redemption and rebellion before he flames out entirely, whether that's via noble sacrifice, alcohol poisoning, or being hunted down like a dog and stamped out by his former lover. Who he does still have feelings about, albeit very bleak, spiteful, divorce-tinged feelings these days.

    Opinions & Affiliations

    Tevinter: Best society, best people, best dining, best fashion, best architecture, best leathergoods, best mages, best circles, best religion, and so on. A genuine tragedy so many of them are blind with ambition and being eaten alive by hubris in such a world-ending kind of way.

    Venatori: Interesting discourse compelling arguments until you see your third or fourth red lyrium-infected war-thing and the way it groans and oozes or clock how black and sticky things have a tendency to wind up after Venatori mages have been meddling. It all seems very evil and it's very obvious to him after some thirty plus years that he doesn't personally stand to gain anything from them.

    Orlesian Chantry: Genuinely terrifying and befuddling how they've managed to establish such an iron grip over the south and its mages. If he was any younger/wasn't already resigned to dying imminently it might be enough of a dealbreaker to keep him in Tevinter.

    The Inquisition: Closely coupled with the Chantry in his mind, whether or not that's still very true. He'll have come to Riftwatch specifically because it seems sufficiently splintered off.

    Qunari: Grudging respect but unfortunately more in the way someone might respect a spider that is still coming after them after they've hit it with a heavy book ten or twelve times. Not actually people.

    Elves: He understands you're expected to be polite to them in the south.

    Templars: Should all be destroyed ha ha just kidding who has the time when everything is so terrible.

    Strengths & Weaknesses

    War Mage: Vandren is a war mage specializing primarily in primal/elemental magic (particularly ice magic), with some supplementary blood magic he picked up from other ne'er do wells back at the Circle. He prefers to disable at mid-range before moving in to finish combatants off with a spellblade, if he has to move in at all -- the dream is to have a grunt in heavy armor carrying a glaive sweep in once he's slapped a layer of ice over someone.

    He's capable enough to survive a melee just by virtue of being old, war mage trained, and wily, but would Prefer Not To and there's bound to be flailing. He will not perform well 1 on 1 vs someone skilled at close range combat, especially if they are in significantly better shape and/or get the jump on him, preferring to retreat/defend/reset to give himself a better chance. Nullified by a Templar he'd have only rusty blade training to fall back on, pretty much certain death for him without help.

    He was a poor study in anything to do with spirit or healing magic, flat out just not interested and no good at it. If you're grievously injured and he's the only help around good luck. You're supposed to put pressure on it, right?

    I've concocted a rough "canon" spell list for him to give a sense of his arsenal. I'd like some room to flesh this out on my own time outside of copy-pasting from the DA wiki but if I need to get nitty gritty from the jump I will do this thing.

    Fadestep
    Ice Armor
    Winter's Grasp
    Cone of Cold
    Chain lightning?
    Trivial fire stuff like lighting candles/suspicious letters/campfires

    Re: blood magic, I have two interests here:

    1. Standard blood to supplement exhausted mana + or to boost spell power type stuff, nothing buckwild just like a charged version of an attack that kills flat out where it might've otherwise disabled.
    2. Utilizing it as a means to defer attention away from himself, like the opposite of drawing aggro. Useful in and out of combat to avoid undesired attention. I'm not talking invisibility, just like the blood-magic equivalent of walking past with a clipboard so nobody thinks too hard about it. Maybe they can't remember what he looked like very well later. Would help to get an illicit package through a harried checkpoint, but wouldn't magically get him past a dedicated guard looking for suspicious characters. If this is illegal cut it, I don't have strong feelings it was just a subtle application I thought could be neat.

    He'd be most useful in Forces or Diplomacy. He can work as a Face, very capable of gladhanding/blowing smoke up asses even if his heart isn't really in it anymore. He lies easily and well and is a difficult read. He's good at talking his way out of trouble.

    Good on horse/dracoliskback, savvy about Qun + Tevine forces in the wild.

    Not a very good judge of people. Poor judgment in general really, if we're honest.

    Old and busted, low endurance. Troublemaker + provocateur. Habitual follower.

    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.

    Vint mage armor, maybe he can get it dyed in colors not considered universally evil in the south
    Spellblade
    Mage staff
    Bootknife/various other basic soldiery sundries
    Couple pairs of clothes
    A mountain dracolisk named Dennis

    I don't recall if there are rules about coming in with a mount -- if they want to take it off him until they feel like they can trust him that's fine and I can buy it back with points later or however things work in 2025. Provided Marcus doesn't steal this one too.

    Motivation

    Burnt out and disillusioned with the state of Tevinter/the out-in-the-open rise of the Venatori to power there. Dreads the chantry as much as he does the Venatori, looking for a place to be useful and feel like he's done anything to help the world before he dies. Also trying to get as far away as possible from his ex.

    He will come in hands-up as an open book on everything with the exception of the phylactory in his ex's possession, which I'd expect him to reveal eventually once he's made connections with people in Riftwatch. He will debrief Scouting to the best of his ability when he comes in as a demonstration of faith, presumably offcam. I don't know that he'd actually know anything very useful long-term -- mainly just short-term/recent Vint troop movements and maybe some intel on the state of some of the bad shit in Minrathous like the encroach of blight into the city.

    Bolding a couple of notes here: IF this character having an active phylactory in the possession of the Venatori is too problematic to make sense for the game, I'm happy with shifting to him having managed to klep it before he hit the bricks, we can just add it to the inventory list.

    I left details about his ex intentionally vague in the off chance anyone is itching to play a nightmare character who has history with Vandren and flips to RW for some reason, or if fleshing them out becomes useful for player plot purposes.

    SAMPLES

    HERE!
    • Edited (pulled a couple words out from an older write-up no material change) 2025-01-17 18:48 (UTC)
    faderifting: (Default)

    APPROVED

    [personal profile] faderifting 2025-01-20 01:18 am (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved, with the following notes:
    ↠ Your proposed blood magic is approved. Since Blood Magic is a specialization in canon we count this as taking up one of his slots, but because this isn't a full set of spells you can come back and add 2-3 more (canon or custom) in the future to fill it out if you'd like.

    ↠ The phylactery is also fine!
    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.
    anthracite: (Default)

    Lamentation Strand | Native OC

    [personal profile] anthracite 2025-02-13 12:24 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: k2
    Age: old
    Contact: shambolism @ discord/plurk
    Other Characters: Lazar, Cedric, Isaac, Sennara
    Interests: I'd like to write a new and different jerk.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Lamentation Strand
    Canon/OC: OC
    Journal: [personal profile] anthracite
    Race: Human
    Nationality: Ander
    Occupation: Grey Warden
    Division: Scouting, probably
    Mage or Not: No
    Age: ~35

    History

  • Raised in a mining community outside Tallo, by a man who probably wasn't his father.
  • Child labour! Religion! Convenient tunnels and port access for trafficking goods!
  • Falls in with the wrong crowd, drags some friends down with him.
  • Eventually, hops a boat to Antiva. BFF / right-hand comes with.
  • Exposed to ideas like a legitimized criminal class, technically non-hereditary rule, and taking votes.
  • And a girl.
  • They travel. He begins organizing immigrant labourers in coastal outposts controlled by smaller merchant interests.
  • Establishes himself in one of these, and makes a project of building a power base (aka "gang of thugs and racketeers").
  • The mayor dies. Strand makes a play for the opening way too early, without the security of generational wealth or remove from the crime funding him.
  • And at the end of the day, he's not seen as Antivan.
  • Things go badly very quickly.
  • The girl takes off. He sticks around a little too long, even after bestie tells him they should run.
  • No one's spending the money / doing him the honour of a Crow execution. They just have him arrested the ordinary way.
  • Conveniently conscripted off the gallows, by one of the many splintered Warden groups who'd taken some recent, heavy casualties.
  • BFF dies in the Joining ritual. Strand doesn't.
  • This Warden group includes a mage doing Blight research.
  • He volunteers for the guy to do a lot of blood magic taint experiments on him.
  • That guy gets ripped apart by an ogre or something. RIP.
  • As the closest thing to his living notes, Strand is now the mutant expert around here.
  • Sent to Riftwatch, after Siorus (and/or an NPC Warden) sent word about Sarrux Pass.
  • Will be introducing himself as a Senior Warden. Good luck fact-checking that!


    • Personality

    LOYAL / CONTROLLING

    Strand is intensely loyal to people and causes, even when they've hurt him. This isn't necessarily positive: He refuses to let go of negative sentiment, and no matter what he tells someone, he doesn't forgive and forget. It's just that he doesn't always have clear boundaries between what he's willing to do for an enemy, or for a loved one. Which is a great deal — his chosen family and close friends are a weak spot in any discussion of ends or means.


    IDEALIST / CYNIC

    Somewhere under there, Strand's an empathetic man who wants better for the world. He roots for an underdog, he's sentimental about a wound, and he'll ignore all of that to scramble for personal control. He venerates an idea of freedom that his choices don't live up to, because he doesn't trust people to make their own decisions.

    At this point in life, he's largely given up on big dreams and big change. Strand is focused on accruing power and legitimacy for himself, out of a stung sense of safety. He covers for that by claiming it's necessary to get things done.


    BRAVE / ARROGANT

    Strand's proud, and has a bad habit of thinking he's the smartest guy in the room. He esteems people who can "keep up with him", by which he actually means yes-and-ing his ideas. He's a gambler who doesn't know how to pass up a risky opportunity, and leans in even when it's a bad idea. He joined the Wardens, and proceeded to commit to the bit so hard that he bleeds Taint.

    This is partly a bid for control. Strand attempts to project calm and fearlessness not because he really is, but because he can't stomach begging. He doesn't mind jokes at his expense, but he remembers and resents underestimation.


    PRAGMATIC / RESERVED

    Strand mediates his personal limitations through others. Curate a few nerds, and your own lacking education doesn't matter. Contain your thoughts and feelings, and the people around you will speak more loudly.

    Theoretically, at least. His unwillingness to engage fully in emotions or interests can look pretty mercenary, and put people off. Expressing less has made Strand worse at expressing appropriately, and a long fuse on his temper gets increasingly smoky as it burns. If he loses his shit, it's at full volume.


    Opinions & Affiliations

    RELIGION

    Raised Andrastian, but influenced by Tallo's nearer proximity to Tevinter than Val Royeaux (doctrinally, it's a mess). An atheist who turns to ritual when stressed.


    CLASS

    The nobility should be [ redacted ]. The people should have a voice. That voice shouldn't be buyable, but it is, so it's up to him to acquire the wealth and prestige necessary to interpret that. He'll get it right.


    MAGIC

    Courts mages for the power they offer, but southern Circles aren't his priority. He knows a lot of people threatened by soldiers, and most of them weren't well-fed or -read. Or able to electrocute him with their brains. He'd take lyrium in an instant if it weren't for the addictive properties.


    THEDAS RACE RELATIONS

    Humansplaining the revolution.


    THE WARDENS

    Deeply bitter about the Wardens, and blames them for killing his bestie. Also considers them his best shot at real power and legitimacy. He'll invoke their storied, honourable history whenever that seems helpful. He'll also talk shit about them whenever that does.


    THE WAR

    Previously skeptical about conscription and the extent to which Tevinter was a real problem. Considers it a very real problem now that Corypheus can be in his brain.


    Adaptation Notes

    N/A


    Strengths & Weaknesses

    VIOLENT CRIMINAL

    Nasty scrapper, used to close quarters and weapons small enough to conceal. The Wardens trained him in longer blades, but it's not his skill in the same way as a lifetime of knife-fighting. Good shot with a crossbow.

    Straight-faced liar, doesn't startle easily, knows his way around a cave and small watercraft. He can pick your basic lock, or lift a pocket, but he's not a specialist. There are places and people who'd be very unhappy to see him again.


    EDUCATION

    Speaks Ander and Trade, only literate in Trade. Understands Antivan well, but his speaking skills have eroded.

    Self-taught, and limited in scope. He reads voraciously, but not for fun, and has a hard time with anything that he can't brute-force his way through. Good with numbers.


    SPEC - POWER OF BLOOD

    Based loosely off this from DAO. Cool to remove or change any of these around, I'm mostly interested in the themes.

    He knows this isn't advertiser-friendly. Also: May not be great to be tapped into Blight (?) magic given the state of the plot. I'd have fun with consequences there.

    Ghoul - Passive
  • He reads more like a Darkspawn than a normal Warden. Animals don't like him.
  • Darkspawn and Blighted creatures have a chance to ignore him if he's not actively causing problems.
  • Think Darkspawn-specific stealth. This isn't a guaranteed thing, and won't work if it makes for a better thread.

    • Tainted blood - Passive
  • Doesn't spread Blight directly, but is non-lethally bad for you.
  • You can use it like poison if you're a real freak about it.

    • Dark passage - Passive
  • Enhanced speed and reflexes. He's not the Flash, but he's noticeably faster than an ordinary man.

    • Rupture - Active
  • Spurts concentrated tainted blood from his eyes. Small AOE of nasty, acidy effect. Super goth.


    • BAD VIBES

    The weird blood magic powers and scars are a bit of a "PR liability".


    Inventory

  • Standard Warden armor / weaponry
  • Meticulously-kept civilian clothes
  • Some vaguely-defined research notes
  • Bestie's knucklebone


    • Motivation

    Siorus (or a vague NPC if mj prefers) sent word about Sarrux Pass and his sweet new nictating membranes. Strand was sent to check in with Riftwatch about it.


    SAMPLES

  • Kaidan TDM
  • Hugh TDM
    • faderifting: (Default)

    APPROVED

    [personal profile] faderifting 2025-02-17 09:53 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.
    catathymic: (Default)

    connor guerrin | dragon age: origins (and inquisition for two seconds)

    [personal profile] catathymic 2025-03-17 01:28 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Nina
    Age: 30+
    Contact: PM
    Other Characters: Ennaris Tavane, Talin Shira'nehn
    Interests: Please let me make Connor king, it'd be so funny.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Connor Guerrin Aurum
    Canon/OC: Canon
    Journal: [personal profile] catathymic
    Race: Human
    Nationality: Fereldan
    Occupation: Sad boi
    Division: Research (eventually)
    Mage or Not: Mage
    Age: 31, born 9:20:(mumblemumble)

    History
    • Canon history, Isolde lives version. Also turns out Teagan's his actual father, per this tweet from a dev.
    • Sent to Kinloch Hold in 9:31, where he slowly came to understand what had happened in Redcliffe and what he'd done, and had to help clean up after Uldred.
    • Went through a period where he was deeply, suicidally depressed due to shame and guilt. Didn't sleep for fear of demons, refused to have anything to do with learning magic.
    • Irving eventually convinced him to learn, at least enough to keep himself and others safe.
    • Passed the next eight years in varyingly intense states of self-loathing depression. Almost took Tranquility over a Harrowing, afraid to be in a situation where he had to be relied on to say no to a demon.
    • Passed his Harrowing because pride is not his problem, actually.
    • Sister Rowan Guerrin born in 9:32/33. He's Fine with that.
    • Struggled to make friends in the Circle due to his depression, but he did have a few. Excelled at more academic studies, loved math and mundane science.
    • Voted against mage freedom every time it came up; Loyalist leaning Isolationist.
    • Stayed with the rebel mages despite voting against freedom and despite hating the plan to ally with Tevinter.
    • Joined the Inquisition as soon as that became an option and was put on creature research, yay!
    • Had a brief but intense romance with another mage during this time; he ended it due to differing political views and genuine belief mages shouldn't marry or have children.
    • Drifted further into Loyalist views over time in direct response to the Inquisition/Riftwatch's more liberal politics.
    • Joined Vivienne's splinter group of Loyalists, despite disliking her political ambitions.
    • Worked since 9:45 to restore Circles and has willingly had a new phylactery made for himself.
    • Has never met or corresponded with Rowan. Hasn't had contact with Teagan or Isolde since joining the Loyalists.
    • Had the opportunity to go to Eamon's deathbed in 9:48 but didn't and that's Not Something He Regrets At All.
    • Heard of Mage Heroics in Starkhaven 9:49 and Had A Feeling.
    • Heard of Alistair's death in 9:50 and Had A Feeling.
    • Got leave from Loyalist things to travel to Kirkwall to pay his respects to his cousin's friends; he doesn't mean to stay very long.

    Personality
    DEFINED BY FEAR. Even Connor isn't sure who he is when he's not afraid of himself. Fear and self-loathing have been his constant companions for the past 20 years, and at this point he's fairly sure they'll be with him until he dies. He's yet to figure out how to atone for Redcliffe, or if he even can; he vacillates between feeling that he has to try and feeling that trying would be a pointless exercise. It's easier to manage these feelings when he's busy, so he stays busy. Can't be possessed if you're too over-worked to have emotions or desires for the demons to prey on!

    NOBLE-BORN. Though his magic disqualifies him from inheriting or holding a title, no one knew he had it for the first 11 years of Connor's life. He was raised with a sense of duty and honor that's hard to shake, and that means he takes his responsibilities seriously, lives by his word, and has a sense of paternalistic entitlement buried somewhere deep in his subconscious. He believes in the divine right of kings, but he also believes in said king's responsibility to his subjects. Though he himself avoids all forms of power, political or otherwise, he has strong feelings about how power should be used and who should have it.

    CONTROLLED. Connor caused the tragedy in Redcliffe by being curious, trusting, and loving—qualities he has since deemed to be his downfall. While he can't smother them completely, he has made active and concerted efforts to manage all three traits: his curiosity he channels into mundane science and avoids quandaries of a magical nature; he keeps himself as far from power as possible to prevent his trusting nature from harming anyone but him; and he holds himself far on the outskirts of any group he ends up in, to avoid having entanglements that he might be tempted to protect. It's a constant battle though—he's smothering his own innate verve for life every day. He wants to connect with people and trust in himself, and doing so is the more natural state for him.

    FAITHFUL. Belief in Andraste and the Chant helped Connor through the worst years of his life. He's not militantly Andrastian, but his faith is pretty much unshakable and he believes in the importance of the Chantry as an institution. The structure and answers it provides have been incredibly useful to him in figuring out how to live with himself in the aftermath of his mistakes in Redcliffe, and he's internalized a lot of its rhetoric. He looks at the world through an Andrastian lens.

    Opinions & Affiliations
    THE CHANTRY. The voice of the Maker on Thedas, the only ones with the authority to make any decisions about mages and Templars.
    CIRCLES. The only safe place for mages, please bring them back.
    THE TEMPLAR ORDER. Absolutely necessary to the safety of literally everyone.
    MAGES. Too dangerous to be left to their own devices anywhere, ever, for any reason. Give them an inch and they'll take a mile.
    THE TEVINTER IMPERIUM. Evil, obviously, we already knew this. Sucks for all the normal people horrifically oppressed by the mages/Corypheus, though, we should help them.
    LANDED NOBILITY. It makes sense for the people educated in and good at running things to be the ones who own land, and for the people who don't have that education to be living on their lands, following their rules, and paying taxes to them. It isn't suspicious or worth examining that those people all seem to come from the same few families; the Maker just likes them more than other people, or something.
    GREY WARDENS. Heroes, the best, deserve every possible accolade.
    ELVES, DWARVES, QUNARI. Sirs Also Appearing In This Setting.

    Strengths & Weaknesses
    SPELLS
    SPELL SHIELD. While this ability is active, any hostile spell targeted at the caster has a 75% chance of being absorbed into the Fade, draining mana instead. Once all mana has been depleted, the shield collapses.

    DISPEL MAGIC. The caster removes all dispellable effects from the target. Friendly fire possible.

    PEACEFUL AURA. Your aura of tranquillity makes enemies less likely to attack you in battle, even when you damage them.
    STRENGTHS
    ARL'S HEIR. He hasn't been part of the Fereldan bannorn circles in 20 years, but he can still trade on his family name if need be. The Guerrins are just and fair rulers; Fereldans have positive associations with the name. Additionally, he's 20 years out of practice, but he has a faint idea of military strategy, civil governance, and managing lands. He'd have to dig deep and push through some trauma, but he could at least keep a settlement going long enough for someone more qualified to show up.

    SWORDPLAY. He hasn't studied since leaving for Kinloch Hold, but as the heir to an arl he was training to be proficient in combat. He knows a little about swordplay and spears, both on and off horseback. It would take time, but given cause he could gain proficiency in both.

    BILINGUAL. Fluent in Trade and Orlesian. His Orlesian's a little obnoxious, though.

    CONVICTION. When Connor commits to things he commits. His sense of duty and responsibility allows nothing less than 100% effort at all times.
    WEAKNESSES
    SELF-LOATHING. Disgust with himself and his magic hold Connor back in all areas of his life. He's 31 and he barely has friends due to the isolating effects of his own shame and fear; his only serious relationship happened over five years ago, and he ended it because it was serious.

    MAGIC. Reluctance to attain any magical power whatsoever has stagnated Connor's abilities—he knows less than an apprentice at this point, knows nothing about the fade beyond "say no to everyone and everything", and has no inclination to learn.

    PHYLACTERY. It's with the Loyalists in Montsimmard, and they'll fight tooth and nail to protect their cache from all comers... But it does exist.

    DESIRE. Vulnerable to desire demons especially.

    Inventory
    A pack of travel necessities, including a few changes of clothes, rations, a waterskin, a purse of gold for any incidentals, and whatever other conveniences people carry on the road with them. He also has a letter touting his loyalty to the Chantry and the Circles bearing Enchanter Vivienne's signature and seal, which should (hopefully) incline those affiliated with the Chantry to help him out when he needs it. Notably, he does not carry a staff.

    Motivation
    Though he disagrees strongly with Riftwatch's more liberal politics, Connor was very moved that their intervention in Starkhaven let the rebel mages evacuate the city. In addition, his cousin Alistair was a supporter of Riftwatch, and had friends there, last Connor knew. He wants to gain some closure on that relationship by meeting with said friends. He doesn't intend to stay with Riftwatch long, but a short trip can easily turn into a long stay when travel is unsafe, weather is bad, he's made friends he'd prefer not to leave... Perhaps he'll catch an anchor shard, who's to say, I'm playing that by ear at the moment. Regardless, he has no intentions of permanently joining Riftwatch; unfortunately for him, he has no say in the matter.

    SAMPLES
    TDM top-level with Julius, Isaac, Cassian, and Gwen
    faderifting: (Default)

    APPROVED

    [personal profile] faderifting 2025-03-22 11:10 pm (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved, with the following notes:
    ↠ Based on your app it sounds like Connor is unlikely to get involved in Ferelden politics (having been gone for a decade and not being in touch with his family, on top of his status as a mage), but just to cover our bases since Guerrin is a name in canon: please run it by us first if you ever want to do something with that or have it impact NPCs in a plot, etc.
    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.
    wardwitch: (Default)

    Argent Tavarys | Native OC

    [personal profile] wardwitch 2025-03-21 12:53 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Dylan (ikr?)
    Age: 25+
    Contact: PM this journal; plurk on request
    Other Characters: Not for a Looooong Time
    Interests: Keen to explore what Wardens look like in the context of Faderift's divergent timeline, as well as how a person who hates politics deals with being thrust into, you know, those. Also, playing a lady!

    CHARACTER

    Name: Argent Tavarys
    Canon/OC: Native OC
    Journal: [personal profile] wardwitch
    Race: Elf
    Nationality: Free Marcher
    Occupation: Grey Warden
    Division: Forces? Probably?
    Mage or Not: Yes
    Age: 35

    History

    ⋄ Born Agarance in elvhen typical poverty; the younger twin of three sisters who supplement the family's meager income via thievery disguised as busking. Agarance distracts human adults by being a grimy, elfy urchin and therefore wildly offputting...while significantly more charming twin Athenais picks their pockets.

    ⋄ Fleeing Orlesian debtors, the family resettles briefly in Nevarra before their mother leaves the girls at the entrance of the Grand Necropolis, where, startled by an animated skeleton, Athenais manifests magic. She and youngest sister Athaliah are taken in to be raised by the Watch, while nonmagical Agarance is sent to the Alienage orphanage. For four years she dedicates every waking moment to escape attempts; eventually she succeeds and promptly stows away on the first ship to miss her sneaking in.

    ⋄ She lands in pre-Blight Kirkwall; for once the pointy ears act as an assist: an older couple raising five grandchildren take her in as combination ward/nanny. She rediscovers life with a family and falls in with a handful of other preteen girls led by charismatic, older Silvie. Agarance falls in love instantly.

    CW: reference to sexual assault

    ⋄ Concurrent with DA2's second act, an increasing number of elves leave their homes in the Alienage to join the Qun, only a single facet of the city's increasingly perilous sociopolitical tension. When a city guardsman assaults a young woman from the Alienage, the Proper Authorities act with so little urgency that her brothers, radicalized by the Qun, take murder into their own hands. The Arishok's refusal to hand them over ends with a lot of Kirkwall on fire! In the interstice post-Qunari, pre-Meredith's increasing despotism, Silvie decides those elves had the right idea.

    ⋄ They trail a guardsman with the intent to do nothing more than observe (yet), but when they're caught and the man's patrol partner grabs Silvie, Agarance manifests magic of her own, meaning: her hands catch fire. So does one of the guards. The usual execution sentence is passed down quickly, distinctly over Agarance's protests that she's never done magic before. Luckily (??) for them there's a Warden recruiter (Geralt of Rivain, that's right) in the area who pulls both girls out of prison. Silvie survives the Joining, but as of today Agarance (Argent now) doesn't even know if she's still alive.

    ⋄ Her time as a Warden is not glamorous, hampered by a compulsive penchant for talking back. She does get her Senior Warden merit badge, but only because the higher-ranking Warden fighting alongside her is decapitated by a hurlock, and someone has to keep the troops together. Her feelings on authority do not soften; as a consequence she's typically being shunted to one or another ass end of Thedas.

    ⋄ As it turns out, that's what saves her from Corphyeus and Adamant.

    ⋄ Now someone much more important has decided she'd serve better with Riftwatch, i.e. away from Wardens who like, do what they're told.

    Personality

    Adaptable: Everything from fighting to cooking to freelance masonry is best served by the ability to roll with the punches. Usually delivered by darkspawn.
    Determined: Terriers across the Thedas eat your heart out.
    Resourceful: Makeshift Molotov not catching? Dip it in blade oil. Give her that warden banner immediately; she needs it for bandages.
    Unflappable: She's almost definitely seen weirder. And worse.
    Quick Witted: Well, she thinks she's hilarious.
    Pragmatic: As a warden currently alive tends to be. Has definitely led to some gray areas.
    Guarded: You must be this tier friendship to unlock her tragic backstory.
    Curious: Limited exposure art, science, history, culture etc; she wants to know more!
    Irreverent: Andraste who? Is it her panties to which we refer when swearing about the Maker?
    Questioning: Her whole life. Hasn't served her well with the wardens, to put it mildly.
    Battle-hardened: She's had the kind of life that either inoculates a person or kills them.
    Headstrong: No, you move.
    Flippant: Never met a deflection she didn't grab onto with both tiny hands.
    Secretive: A consequence of 20 years with the Grey Wardens.
    Cynical: The vast majority of people are out for themselves; the best way to protect herself is by leading with that.

    Opinions & Affiliations

    The Aristocracy: If she ever meets a noble who isn't phenomenally useless you'll be the first to know.

    The (Southern) Chantry & Affliated Parties (Seekers, Templars, the Inquisition): laysisters et al are fine, the lower eschalons are the ones she perceives as actually doing work. The further up in the hierachy the more the respect plummets; at a certain point it's more about fancy clothes and speeches than it is doing anything.

    Grey Wardens: In a word: complicated. They gave her a (leaky) roof over her head, three square (cold) meals a day, and training to survive the magic she came into very late; without having undergone the Joining she'd be dead a couple times over. That said: she hates taking orders and will 100% bend them to the point of hairline fracture if she thinks it's necessary, chafes frequently against the secrecy that surrounds a Warden's day to day when they're not killing archdemons, and considers the First Warden's job a big ol waste of time. Executives do not remember the mailroom.

    M/T War: Almost completely uninvolved but definitely lied to the face of more than one Templar if their mage quarry wasn't actively setting peasants aflame.

    Race relations: A mess! She'd be doing more "btw elves? also people" style activism if her adolescence had gone differently, but doesn't have much faith in the process of Proper Channels changing things.

    The Qun: Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeee lived in Kirkwall while the Arishok did his thing, so. You tell me.

    The Dalish: For the most part y'all do you, but city elves are not inherently less worthy because they don't live in the woods.

    Strengths & Weaknesses

    + Survival skills, wilderness navigation, fishing/hunting, herbalism, basic to moderately complex field medicine (she can set a bone or stitch a wound, but please don't ask her to do surgery while darkspawn try to decapitate her), academic and artistic potential, talented with offensive spells (please see below) but garbage at magical healing to the point that she simply doesn't use it, relying instead on the aforementioned herbalism, ostensibly able to make people laugh, and can speak, read and write Dwarven with moderate fluency in addition to common.

    - Weaknesses: the typical warden early death a/o turning into a horrifying ghoul plus the added vulnerability of potential proximity to Corypheus, not kissing enough ass having clashed on more than one occasion with other higher ranking wardens that she's the opposite of an asset when it comes to dealing with them, disadvantages imposed by poverty and minority status (ie she can read, but didn't learn beyond the basics until she became a warden), has very little money or status otherwise, and a deeply frustrating relationship with anything more than six feet high.

    NB: I'd like to have her come in having mastered DA2's Force Magic Tree; it's a specialization, but one I believe she could have attained in her 18 years as a mage, especially with warden training. The specialization itself would be encouraged (or at least that's my theory) by the wardens; those AOE spells must be great for picking up and clobbering the horde!

    She's also competent in fire and lighting, but definitely nothing exceptional; I'd like to build those out as time goes on if that's possible.

    Inventory

    INVENTORY:
    • One (1) Scorch Staff, the base uncommon version.
    • Mage Knife, a whetstone about the size of her hand, and a small tin of blade oil.
    • One painstakingly well maintained set of medium armor (Garb of Kinship, also in its base uncommon version).
    • Four changes of clothing, all basic tunic & legging style. She favors blues.
    • Thedosian equivalent of an army duffle bag containing the following
    o Herbalist’s kit (bandages etc, nothing fancy) and doorstop sized book on the same, bookmarked and scribbled on. It includes instruction for making healing poultices and the like, but also: poison.
    o The drop of blood pendant she was given after surviving the Joining; it’s on a chain around her neck along with a shard of pottery, its edges worn smooth.
    o One (1) comically oversized bag of dried elfroot, rolling papers, and pipe.
    o NTS check with someone about cosmetics, but essentially kohl to put around her eyes daily. Religiously.
    o Two days worth of incredibly stale rations.
    o One (1) waterskin.

    Motivation

    What brings your character to Riftwatch?

    She'd certainly like to do some good while she's there, but in literal technical terms via being such a pain in the ass the Wardens as a whole have essentially put her in timeout.

    SAMPLES


    1.there's a shelf-related conspiracy brewing here

    2.sweet dreams are made of blight
    Edited 2025-03-21 06:29 (UTC)
    faderifting: (Default)

    REVISION

    [personal profile] faderifting 2025-03-24 12:27 am (UTC)(link)
    REVISIONS

    Before we can approve your application, we need to request a change:
    For the personality section we have a 300-word minimum, and yours is a bit shorter than that! Please revise it to provide more information. Please also expand on the traits you've listed, such as explaining how they're influenced by her history or what limits might exist to their extremes. E.g., has something in particular made her guarded or still curious, are there things she actually isn't irreverent/flippant about for some reason, times she does defer to others, etc.
    Please respond within four days. (You can request an extension if needed, but do that within the four days if so.) If you have any questions, let us know.

    REVISIONS

    [personal profile] wardwitch - 2025-03-26 03:40 (UTC) - Expand

    ACCEPTED + NOTE

    [personal profile] faderifting - 2025-03-26 16:28 (UTC) - Expand
    sssshredded: (Default)

    Buppitathuppity | SNRIFTER (Snake Rifter)

    [personal profile] sssshredded 2025-04-01 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: k2
    Age: The same as Jurasssic Park
    Contact: Isla Nublar
    Other Characterss: Lazar, Cedric Carsssusss, Isssaac, Sssennara, Ssstrand
    Interestsss: I'd describe myssself as a light empath. Ssso far outssshining the people around me that I sssort of take over a thread'sss ssspotlight automatically. You wouldn't even notehiss, sssay, a very dangerousss background character while threading with mine.


    CHARACTER

    Name: Buppitathuppity
    Canon/OC: Jurasssic Park
    Canon Point: Hisss sssstar appearance
    Journal: [personal profile] sssshredded
    Age: Older than Jurasssic Park, probably

    Canon World

    Jurasssic Park is a documentary about the tragic eventsss that took place at a renowned animal theme park of cloned dinossssaurssss off the coassst of Cosssta Rica. It taught the world about the importance of an automatic generator ssssystem, and also how frogssss ruin everything by fucking too hard. Although thisss is a documentary, I think we should change the rulessss to allow RPF (real python fic).

    Hisstory

    Wiki link

    Persssonality

    Buppitathuppity is unflappable, unbothered, hasss ssseen sssso much in hisss time that he letsss even deadly sssituationsss roll off hissss back. Assss a python (I think) he hasss diverse interesstsss including hunting, ssssleeeping, and obssserving. Curioussssity leadssss him into ssssome trouble, ssssso he'ssss been a witnessss to death many timessss over without ssssshutting his eyessss, and willingly putssss himssself in danger out of sssssolidarity with hisss sssscaled kin. Adaptable and practical, he eatsss everything from ssssmall rodentssss to sssslow-moving inssssectsss, and hissss ambitionssss have led him to even sssset his ssssights on deer. He'ssss not there yet, but he'sss determined and hard-working. It'll happen.


    Strengths & Weaknesses

    + SSSTRONG SSSPINE
    Literally and figuratively. He'ssss got a heart of gold to protect hisss friendsss, and an incredibly mussscular body to conssstrict prey.

    + FLEXIBLE
    Incredibly agile. Of great benefit to Sssscouting.

    + AMBUSSSH PREDATOR
    Ssstealthy, the perfect hunter, I'd like to give him the asssssassssin ssspec.

    - COLD-BLOODED
    Ssssometimes, you've jussst sssseen sssso much death that you forget how to love. Alsssso, you can't internally regulate your body temperature.

    - HASSSS NEVER HAD HANDSSSS BEFORE
    Will need to quickly get up to sssspeed on "fingersss".

    LANGUAGESSSS
    Fluent in sssnake, dinosssaur, and Ssspanisssh (he'sss Cosssta Rican)


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

    Suggested Nerfs

    It'ssss my headcanon that he'sss actually capable of flying a plane with Sssamuel L Jackssson, but maybe he can buy that back with sssspecssss.

    Arrival Inventory

    Arriving completely naked, but I'd like a T-Rex to come through the Rift with him.

    Humanization

    Although he'll be reptilianized into a Sssean Teale-PBed Ssscaled One, I'd like him to keep hissss full set of extra vertebrae for ability reasssonsss.

    Fit

    I've alwayssss loved Fade Rift'sss capacity to play with both AU and Rifter characterssss. I think he'll have great CR with himsssself from Thedasssss.

    SAMPLES


    one
    two
    byssstander: (Default)

    thuppatibuppity | snative jurassic park au

    [personal profile] byssstander 2025-04-01 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Cami
    Age: upwards of 300 in dog years probably
    Contact: you know where to find me.
    Other Characters: Barrow, Benedict, Fifi, Teren
    Interests: I think the best CR is developed from afar and involves no interaction whatsoever. I like to think of myself as a Dark Empath

    CHARACTER

    Name: Thuppatibuppity
    Canon/OC: Jurasssssic Park
    Journal: [personal profile] byssstander
    Race: snake (humanized)
    Nationality: Rivaini
    Occupation: jusssst a little guy
    Division: Sssscouting
    Mage or Not: not
    Age: a lady never askssss and a gentleman never tellsssss

    Hisssssstory

    Off the coast of Rivain is a ssssmall tropical island known to the localssss as Isssla Nublar. Few humans (or their ilk) have ever set foot on it until recently, when a wealthy Orlessssian investor named Jean Amaund set his sights on it for Thedassss' first ever prehistoric theme park. Featuring a variety of winglesssss dragon sssspeciessss grown from morally dubiousssss blood magic experimentsssss, the island has seen a boom in popularity after itssss first ever tour group went missssssing during a thunderssssstorm.

    After a not insssssignificant amount of violenc(sss)e between the ssssapient sssspeciessss and the mutant dragonsssss, thingssss came to a head when one of the professsssor's hired toughsss took it upon himself to try and eliminate the particularly deadly and intelligent two-legged variety. He went about it sssolo, for sssome reason, with a weapon he primed only after entering the jungle, and proc(sss)eeded to be devoured by hissss prey.

    Thuppatibuppity wasss there too, but very ssssmall. Alsssso he's a human now.

    Snerssssonality

    Unasssssssuming, jussst wants to live hisss life. Likessss to eat inssssects and small rodentssss when he can catch them. Generally ssstays out of the way of larger creatures, ssssince he wouldn't be much of a match for them. Likesss to ssssit in the ssssun or curl up under rockssss depending on the weather. Will bite when threatened but isssn't especially venomousssss or dangerousssss to other people.

    Opinionsss & Affiliationssss

    Everything issss fine basssically but dragonssss are pretty rude and humansss, ssssuch that they are, should probably sssstay where they belong.

    Adaptation Notessss

    I think with him being an unnamed background character in Jurassic Park I have pretty much limitlesssss freedom to play him however I pleasssse. The main thing is that he sssslithered across the ssscreen for about twenty sssecondssss in one ssscene and may or may not have notic(ss)ed the nearby veloc(ss)iraptor, who may or may not have notic(ss)ed him. Really the possibilitiessss are endlesssss.

    Sssstrengthsss & Weaknesssssessss

    He'ssss very good at ssssstaying sssilent and out of the way and catching insectsss with his mouth. He can make himssself very ssssmall, which can alssso work against him, I ssssuppossse. One major weaknesssss isss he doessssn't have any armsss or legsssss in his pre-human form, ssso hisss ssstyle of ambulation once transssformed can be besssst dessscribed as 'flopping around with jussst hisss torssso'.

    Inventory

    leaf

    Motivation

    He doesssn't know what he'sss doing here. He doesssn't know how to ssspeak any human languages or ussse hisss handsss. But he isss, and I cannot sstressss this enough, very good at witnesssssing hideousss violenc(ss)e without reacting at all.

    SSSAMPLESSSS


    no
    Edited 2025-04-01 04:32 (UTC)
    sillyserpent: (Default)

    RYAN HISS | SNATIVE SNOC (Snake Native OC)

    [personal profile] sillyserpent 2025-04-01 04:33 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Ammmy
    Other Characters: Julius, Cosima, Vanya, Siegfried (and Antoine coming soon)

    CHARACTER

    Name: Ser Ryan Hiss
    Race: Human
    Nationality: Fereldan
    Mage?: No
    Age: 35
    Affiliation: Fereldan nobility
    Occupation: Advisor/crony
    About:
    Ryan is loosely inspired by two sources: Sir Hiss of Disney's Robin Hood (1973) and well-known striver Ryan Bigcity. Given these characters' demonstrated ambition, cleverness, and dedication to getting ahead, they seemed naturally complimentary when building my own take on the guy whispering in a figurehead's ear.

    While I expect to refine Ryan's approach via voice testing, his elevator pitch is something along the lines of "aspiring Grima Wormtongue but make it fashion." Ryan has the ear of a significant Bann who was a rejected candidate for Queen Anora's hand. (If you have a handy NPC in mind, I'm open, but you know I never mind making a new guy.) Ryan has been working for the past several years to help maneuver his boss into a more powerful position; recently, he's started thinking beyond Ferelden's borders. By volunteering to join Riftwatch, Ryan hopes to feed geopolitical information of note back home. If he can get any tips on dealing with a boss who is obsessed with his mom and still occasionally sucks his thumb, all the better.

    Though Ryan's motives are inherently selfish ones, he will do his best on any assignment he receives and will actively work to make connections with other Riftwatch agents (especially those with leveragable social positions). He is inherently hardworking and will give 110% at all times. Given his sneaky nature, Scouting seems like a natural fit. Ryan is a devout Andrastian, but will tolerate working with those who are not (while privately judging them) at least to a point. He is not graceful at dealing with perceived disrespect or condescension.

    Is Ryan Hiss just a non-mage AU Julius? I hope not, but that's part of what the voice test is meant to determine, to be totally frank.
    ssssafecracker: (Default)

    MR SNAKE | SNATIVE AU (The Bad Guys)

    [personal profile] ssssafecracker 2025-04-01 04:35 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Julie
    Age: mumblemumble
    Contact: [plurk.com profile] quadrille
    Other Characters: Stephen Strange, Astrid Runasdotten
    Interests: 🐍 Heists, hijinks, robbing Tevinter artefact caches, hanging from the ceiling over a web of magical lasers, dramatically getting a gang together to do One Last Job before retiring.


    CHARACTER

    Name: Mr. Cedric Snake
    Canon/OC: The Bad Guys (native AU)
    Journal: [personal profile] ssssafecracker
    Race: The skinniest Qunari you’ve ever seen
    Nationality: Technically Tal’Vashoth. Marcher, sort of.
    Occupation: Thief, safecracker
    Division: Scouting
    Mage or Not: No
    Age: 40ish


    History

    Canon bio. For the AU:

    • Born to a pair of Tal’Vashoth Qunari who fled the Qun years ago during a particularly bad year during the war with Tevinter, Cedric Snake grew up in Kirkwall where his entire family was judged for their origins, looked at askance, and he was usually assumed to be a Bad Guy. They tried to make the best of it, however, and without the brutal military regimen of the Qun, he was both 1) a limp noodle who never did a single day of strength training, and 2) free to pursue whatever he wanted to do in life.

    • Unfortunately, what he was most interested in was Crimes. Terribly bullied as a child by the human neighbourhood children and ostracised, everything changed when he met his future best friend Mr Wolf, a rakishly charming dwarf who looks like George Clooney, who taught Mr Snake to embrace his ~bad~ sides in order to stand up for himself and be more intimidating. They eventually started a ragtag criminal crew of fellow non-human outcasts and misfits, recruiting Ms Tarantula (a sneaky elf mage skilled at puzzling through magical tools), Mr Shark (a beefy golem who happens to be a social chameleon and master of disguises), and Mr Piranha (a ferociously violent and extraordinarily tiny surface dwarf).

    • What with Kirkwall’s thriving criminal underworld and multitudes of gangs waiting to pounce on people like Hawke around every corner, the Bad Guys found ample opportunities to operate. They competed with other groups and developed a reputation for cunning heists, eventually expanding to robbing banks and museums and manors in Hightown and Val Royeaux and Treviso, always staying just a step ahead of the beleaguered authorities chasing them, and the Kirkwall City Guard in particular.

    • Until the day they’re trying to steal a statuette called the Golden Dolphin, and a rift opens up during the gala. There’s lots of screaming and lots of demons, and Mr Snake catches a shard in the middle of the heist, throwing the entire operation into further disarray; all his friends are caught and sent to prison, and he’s remanded to Riftwatch so he won’t just crystallise and die in jail.



    Personality

    Cynical, grumpy, and utterly sssselfish, Mr Snake is the ultimate pessimissst and deeply sssnarky and sssarcastic. Life taught him that everyone’sss out for themselves, and ssso Mr Snake decided that he would do the sssame and expect nothing from the world and take whatever he wanted from it.

    The only people he allowsss beneath his sssskin are the crew of thievessss he’s been working with for mossst of his life, and even with them, he refusesss to share his beloved favourite sssnacks.

    He’s intelligent and clever and loyal when the chipssss are down, however, and with the right presssure can learn to become Good.


    Opinions & Affiliations

    The Qun: No-good, very-bad; the attempted Kirkwall invasion was particularly grim and had his family extremely worried that they’d be swept up with the invaders.

    Corypheus & the war: Not his first choice to get involved, but war’s bad for business. If they can take down the evil wizard, maybe he can get back to what he really loves doing: putting on sunglasses and zooming away in a high-speed carriage chase while music blasts in the background.

    Kirkwall: It’s a shithole but, like, it’s our shithole. Very protective of it and familiar with the complicated overlapping professional dynamics of the Guardsmen Pretenders, Redwater Teeth, Sharps Highwaymen, Dog Lords, Invisible Sisters, The Undercuts, Crimson Weaver Bloodragers, Followers of She, The Reining Men, Carta Loyalists, Denerim Avengers, Qunari Death Squad, and Rivaini Legendary Beard.


    Adaptation Notes

    Sssssomething about today just put me in the mood to write a snake. 🐍 The Kirkwall setting is rife for characters with criminal connections, and a ragtag group of bad guys deciding to turn over a new leaf and seeking to do good is also very fitting with Riftwatch’s entire vibe.

    Perhaps he has some mysterious Scaled One heritage, if we wanted to go into that lore. 🐍🐍🐍


    Strengths & Weaknesses

    + Extremely flexible and bendy, excellent at yoga

    + Great hearing, which he uses for safe-cracking

    + Can swallow pretty much anything without getting sick

    — Loves disguises but is terrible at them; his Qunari appearance means he sticks out like a sore thumb

    — Selfish to the point of harming all his personal relationships

    — Deep and abiding weakness for his favourite foods. Will jeopardise a heist for a really good meal.


    Inventory

    • Bucket hat and Hawaiian shirt

    • A push-pop ice cream

    • Dwarven-made grappling hook

    • Loyalty card to a local Kirkwall diner



    Motivation

    He got sharded and his crew’s in prison. :(


    SAMPLES



    Edited 2025-04-01 05:58 (UTC)
    ssscarysssnakey: (Default)

    Colby the Cobra | Rifter Application

    [personal profile] ssscarysssnakey 2025-04-01 05:15 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Sssssssssssamssssson
    Age: 25
    Contact: 867-5309
    Other Characters: Ghilan’nain
    Interests: Sssssssomething a little more lowkey and lesssssssssss antagonissssssstic.

    CHARACTER

    Name: Colby the Cobra
    Canon/OC: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
    Canon Point: as Indy asks why it has to be snakes.
    Journal: Ssscarysssnakey
    Age: 18

    Canon World

    Colby’s world is our world, except in his world not only is it acceptable to punch Nazis, it’s expected.


    History

    Once upon a time, Colby’s mother gave birth in a warm, dark place with plenty of food and fascinating things to climb. 18 years later, some jerk descended down a rope and shoved a torch in Colby’s face just because Colby was startled. Until that point, Colby lived in peace. But now? Now he wants to bite jerks.


    Personality

    Colby is a straightforward being. If it doesn’t threaten him, he’ll let it be. If it waves a torch at him or gets jumpy, well, he’ll bite. Wouldn’t you?

    He’s also very fashionable. Did you see that hood? It’s a great hood. He knows that it gets him looked at, and he wants to be looked at. He grew up in an ancient treasure trove.

    Colby values family. He hatched first out of the 38 eggs his mother laid that time, and lived with hundreds of siblings in a tight-knit community. Being alone now will be a challenge for him. He’ll definitely be looking for a dark corner to curl up in and feel safe.


    Strengths & Weaknesses

    Colby is great at getting into and out of tight spaces. He’s agile, able to climb quickly and even swim.

    Despite having a hood that would make you think he’d be great at it, Colby cannot fly. He also cannot sing, much to his eternal dismay.

    Colby’s greatest fear is fire. His second greatest fear is gliding into a room only to realize he’s forgotten to put pants on.

    His strength is his bite attack as he’s got a venomous neurotoxin in his fangs and can move pretty quickly. Nearly as dangerous is his ability to summon all of his siblings by channeling the eldritch power of the cobra. There’s nothing quite like seeing 500 cobras rain from the sky to break any opponent.


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

    Suggested Nerfs

    Colby will bite anyone who tries to nerf him.

    Arrival Inventory

    Fifteen pairs of pants. That now he suddenly has to figure out how to put on.

    Humanization

    Colby’s eyes will be yellow and snake-like, his tongue will be longer than average and he’ll still have fangs. Otherwise he’ll totally look like a qunari.

    Fit

    Sometimes characters come up with complicated solutions to complicated problems. Colby is here for simple solutions. Bite jerks. Live in community. This can solve everything.

    SAMPLES

    Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

    Ssssssss? Sssss. Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Ss ss!

    desssspacito: (Default)

    ssscher / snative oc

    [personal profile] desssspacito 2025-04-01 07:33 am (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Cella
    Age: 35
    Contact: blow a kiss into the ether
    Other Characters: hermione granger (crau)
    Interests: mussssssssssic, ssssssssex, moneysssssssssss

    CHARACTER

    Name: Ssssscher
    Canon/OC: snative OC
    Journal: this one
    Race: snerson
    Nationality: Orlesssssssssian
    Occupation: Ssssssuperssstar
    Division: Diplomassssssy
    Mage or Not: flexible
    Age: rude

    History

    In the beginning, there was nothing. Then, Ssscher was hatched from an egg, fully-formed and ready to SING.

    Personality

    Do you not know who she is?

    Opinions & Affiliations

    "Mother, I am the rich man."
    👢

    Strengths & Weaknesses

    She's incredible, booked and blessed.

    Inventory

    bedazzled microphone

    Motivation

    Mussssssic calls me.

    SAMPLES

    ssssssSSSSSsssss??
    magike: (pic#17661244)

    rowena macleod ★ supernatural

    [personal profile] magike 2025-04-17 02:18 pm (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Kerry
    Age: 34
    Contact: pm / [plurk.com profile] skitties
    Other Characters:
    Interests: I was drawn here by the high action, rich cr potential! I'm looking forward mostly to building cr through the actions of the world, responses to situations and having the time to develop the moments in between and explore the setting fully/deeply with the more spaced-out-ness of the actual game events. Plus, magic and conflict are absolute bonuses, and getting to challenge Rowena in a new way (magic nerfs, having to work together with strangers, and figuring out some puzzles!).

    CHARACTER

    Name: Rowena MacLeod
    Canon/OC: Supernatural
    Canon Point: 1508 Our Father Who Aren't In Heaven
    Journal: magike
    Age: 300+

    Canon World
    Supernatural is a very standard present-day Earth, where all of the stories and lore about supernatural creatures are actually true, even if the stories and media stretch that truth a little. Heaven, Hell, angels, demons, God, monsters and witches, everything you could think of or have read a story of actually exists. And likes to bite with vengeance.

    Most of the world tends to be blissfully ignorant of these happenings: multiple apocalypses have attempted to happen, and aside from weird news stories, things seem to get quickly forgotten about, and monsters survive by not making their presence publicly known.

    The only difference is the two hunter brothers who have made it their mission to keep the world ticking and to save as many lives as possible. If you think they have impossible plot armor, it's true: God made it so. God ended up setting this current universe to revolve around them (the universes where these brothers made different choices or didn't exist quickly turned to one apocalypse or another) and watching their story as the biggest fanboy possible. No, really, there's fanfiction and everything. (God wrote half of it).

    Rowena's a witch who kept to herself and has purposely stayed out of supernatural-type events (especially those apocalypses) for centuries. This changes when she kills a demon two hunters want, gets on their radar, and though she escapes, she's caught in the narrative now. Her relationship with the hunters turns from antagonistic and mortal enemies to the family we didn't know we needed. She ends up helping them in one way or another, initially for a price and then because she cares.

    Magic in her universe is something that anyone can learn, though how they get their power (bargaining with a demon, being a natural-born witch, or simply studying magic) determines how much they can do with magic. Natural-born witches like Rowena are the strongest magic users. Sadly, much magical knowledge and witch culture was lost during the witch trials, with the great covens being decimated, but magic itself comes from nature: it will always exist. Based in nature, witches use ingredients, incantations, sigils, and spellwork, very natural magic that allows the caster to do great feats (such as telekinesis, astral projection, and conjuration) rather than a witch having specific power. It's very traditional magic. And old.

    History
    wiki link

    historically--
    ★ Rowena's born in Scotland in the 1600s, the daughter of a tanner, and hooks up with a married man, having a son (Fergus) in 1661. Abandoned by his father, Rowena begins delving properly into witchcraft.
    ★ She flees Scotland in 1669/1670 (without Fergus) when the witch trials begin and attempts to find refuge across Europe. Later, she is accepted into the Grand Coven before being banished and forbidden to use magic (she does not listen to that)
    ★ She encounters a Polish family who take her in, and in return, she heals their dying son (hugely important: Rowena loved him like a son).

    to the narrative--
    ★ Rowena discovers that her son is alive (and the King of Hell) and attempts to return to his life. She kills a demon, meets the Winchesters, and gets dragged before her son. They reunite; it's manipulative, she has a great time.
    ★ Rowena tries to kill the Winchesters to try and remove their influence from her son. But (in his eyes) she goes too far, and he kicks her out.
    ★ She ends up assisting Sam in researching and removing the Mark of Cain from Dean, succeeds, and accidentally releases God's sister (Amara). With Amara free, the Winchesters want her help in stopping her. This includes meeting Lucifer, where she releases him, and is killed by him. She resurrects, the Winchesters get her on side again to deal with Amara, happily ever after.
    ★ Rowena tries to have a supernatural-free life and dates (boring) rich men, but with Lucifer a problem, her son finds her and manipulates her into sending Lucifer back to the cage. It fails, but this time, she agrees to be on call to best Lucifer when they need her (growth!). Months later, before they can try to imprison Lucifer again, he kills her (again).
    ★ This time, after resurrecting, Rowena tries to find the spell to unlock the seal that the Grand Coven placed on her magic. The Winchesters don't want to help her, but she gets the spell from Sam, who understands her trauma. (Her opening up to Sam about her trauma was huge and helped him understand her.)
    ★ Except that Rowena also learned that her son had died and, grief-stricken, tried to get an audience with Death to get him back. Rowena fails; she is left with the knowledge that she is no longer capable of the terrible things she used to do: the Winchesters made her a better person, and she cares about them.
    ★ When God has a tantrum and tries to end the world, she's there. When the world is threatened to be consumed by the souls from Hell, Rowena puts her life on the line: magic and her body can take those souls back to Hell.
    ★ In a beautiful twist of fate, and through sheer intimidation and her intimate knowledge of Hell, Rowena is now its Queen.

    Personality
    Rowena is brave, bold and gutsy. A lot of her boldness stems from how she speaks, seeming to lack a filter and saying what's on her mind, though it's usually a calculated attempt to throw someone off their footing by revealing their weaknesses or making another snide comment. Rowena's a survivor, which makes her constantly fight for her life even when a situation could make you want to run and hide. It's meant that she's made a lot of bad choices over the years, mostly in sucking up to powerful beings to try and find safety to ensure her survival, but when combining her boldness with her cunning you can see she always has a backup plan up her sleeve. Rowena's survived these centuries where some of those powerful beings (or other over-confident witches) have been bested. Overall, she wants to make you think that she has no weaknesses, doing everything that she can to hide her fears and insecurities, trying to make others fear her. The other half of Rowena's boldness is a mask, it's that cover-up for her fears and her insecurities: if she presents a confident, put-together woman who has no chinks in her armour you wouldn't think to dig any deeper, especially if she's on the verbal attack to knock you down (or flirts. Usually, there's flirting).

    Rowena is an incredibly ambitious witch, someone who initially spent much of her life trying to gain as much power as she possibly could. Her real motivations for her ambition stem from her desire to survive and protect herself: she has spent the majority of her life being shunned or rejected and has felt little but hurt. It leads to her being incredibly mistrustful of others, cagey and keeping others at arm's length. Rowena acts as if she's all about herself, and has done many things without seeming to care about how they'd hurt others. Rowena's selfishness comes from what has happened to her in her life, the heavy stream of rejection becoming pivotal moments for her, teaching her to think about herself because no one else was on her side. When she finds herself in a situation where she feels trusted or supported, that falls apart, and you see her willingness to help and even protect the world.

    When Rowena does find a friendship or believes in someone, she is incredibly loyal, but it takes a lot to get there. She believes in actions over words. Family is something important to her, even though she hasn't known much of it (or much goodness in it) in her life. When Rowena feels safe, she is kinder, more open, and would do anything to protect those she loves. She may still not willingly (verbally) admit that she cares but her actions speak far greater than words could.

    magike: (pic#17661337)

    [personal profile] magike 2025-04-17 02:21 pm (UTC)(link)
    Strengths & Weaknesses
    + Multi-lingual! Rowena grew up bilingual (Scottish Gaelic and English) and has learned numerous other languages in her lifetime (ancient and modern).
    + Incredible memory (not photographic but Rowena has a tendency to memorise her spellwork, including the entirety of the encoded Book of the Damned so she didn't have to keep translating it)
    + Herbalism! Rowena has excellent botanical knowledge of the plants from her world. She could make you a special tea, a poultice, a potion, etc etc. (Or do something less kind with that knowledge)

    - Physically weak. She's a squishy mage and has no capabilities in a fight. Can figure out how to fire a gun, though, but is unskilled in it. Worse with a knife
    - Suffers PTSD from her deaths and treatment by Lucifer, has nightmares of him, relives those memories, and often sees his face in the corner of her eye/when she closes her eyes.

    ★ MAGIC. At home, Rowena is a powerful witch with centuries of research, practice and use of magic. It's known that there are three ways in which people in her world access magic: deals with demons for some power, being students of witches (not powerful but able to cast spells and build some power) and natural-born witches (like Rowena) who's magic comes from nature, born with the capability to use magic (and are thus more powerful). Whilst a lot of the ways that Rowena would usually be able to use her magic are not applicable here (either due to the ingredients she'd need not being found in this world or the spells themselves not translating to Thedosian magic), below is a list of her magical capabilities that do have Thedas-magic connections.

    ★ HEALING. Rowena can use her magic to heal others, and in Thedas this would align more to how a spirit healer would use their magic rather than her typical capabilities, something she'd need to also spend time learning about with the interactions with spirits for healing. She also wouldn't be able to heal anyone in as much capacity as she's used to (limited to game limits).

    ★ ELEMENTAL MAGIC. Rowena can conjure fire (as small as something like the spell spirit bolt, or toned down to light just a candle, or more create a wall of fire), lightning (in small static jolts, or larger attacks similar to a lightning bolt or chain lightning) and knows ice-based magic (smaller cold-based spells like winter's grasp -- the cold isn't her favourite). Larger uses of her magic (like wall of fire or chain lightning) would weaken her much quicker than if Rowena just used a small spell to light a candle. If she sustained a small spell for a significant period (e.g. a more continual blast of a lightning bolt) that would also drain her much quicker than she's used to.

    ★ NATURE MAGIC. As a Celtic witch, Rowena is very familiar with druidic magic, how nature works with magic and plant-based magic (and even speaks the language of the trees). As the plant-life in Thedas is different to her knowledge, Rowena would need to spend time researching the nature of this world and would need to make connections. I'd like (as a basis, if possible) that she could perhaps use the magic she already knows when tending a plant as "encouragement to grow". Given the secrecy of Keeper magic in Thedas she may not be able to learn more, but it could be an avenue for development (and knowledge trade?)

    ★ TELEKINETIC MAGIC. Rowena has used telekinetic magic either as a destructive shockwave or to throw someone clear, which works similarly to mind blast.

    ★ HEXES. This witch loves a hex. One of her favourite's is an immobilisation spell (paralyze or glyph of paralysis if she's used a spell bag (she'd have to learn how to set a glyph instead in Thedas)), putting someone to sleep, draining someone's energy to kill them (with great pain to them, toned down to be like weakness or curse of mortality). And if she knows a curse (or has a grimoire), she can undo someone else's curse (dispel magic).

    ★ NECROMANCY. Rowena has created resurrection spells (both for herself and others, using the spirit as well as body), however, I feel her resurrection magic in Thedas would work better, similar to animate dead rather than anything true-resurrection. NOTE: that necromancy is not something that Rowena does often, she's used it for herself (and one or two others at a push) but how death and necromancy works here could be more of a plot point of magical research into this world's necromancy or spirit magic, hence its listing.

    ★ BLOOD MAGIC. It's something spell-specific, but Rowena isn't against using blood as an ingredient in her spells. It isn't common, but I'm listing it as knowledge as it'll surely be plot-relevant (her spells using blood often involve linking spirits/life forces together). Even if Rowena can't use blood in her spells in Thedas as she normally would it's a thing.

    ★ SPIRIT MAGIC. Rowena knows how to astral project, either just projecting her consciousness somewhere else to spy on someone, or to have a conversation ("mentally") with someone, or can physically project her image. This obviously wouldn't work in the same way, but I'd like to develop the idea that perhaps she could similarly enter the Fade (remaining conscious and lucid), something that she'd need to learn about, learn how to do and take time to figure it all out.

    Suggested Nerfs
    ★ I've omitted spells which didn't have any magical parallels in Thedas. Whilst Rowena will still know them and may try them, they simply just won't work. How frustrating for her!
    ★ Whilst she is ridiculously powerful in her universe, her magic will be scaled down to the level of a highly skilled and powerful mage of Thedas proportions.
    ★ Whilst the Book of the Damned is on her inventory (and her journal, of some of her recent spellwork) those spells would also just fail.
    ★ Using magic continually/high amounts of magic will exhaust her quicker than she's used to, and she'll have to rest for longer to build her energy back up.
    ★ Whilst a lot of Rowena's magic does translate to how Thedas magic works, where she uses specific spell-words for some of her spells, she'd need to learn how to cast certain spells in Thedas style instead of her original style (particularly glyphs and hexes). I plan for this to take time for her to learn (lots of study, weeks and months of slowburn learning/research) before she's able to confidently set certain spells (particularly the glyphs and her capabilities in healing. Spirit magic would be her very last thing to learn/open up).
    ★ I'm happy for this to be the very top end of Rowena's magic and her not to be able to learn anything additional/gain additional magical power -- she already has a lot of power and doesn't need more! In terms of nature magic, this could also be "she can learn by reading about it but may not be able to cast the spells for it" (perhaps it's too different to her druidic knowledge).
    ★ If need be, I'm happy to nerf Rowena's capability to cast any necromantic magic. She'd probably share in terms of "intellectual study" with other mages her knowledge as discussion points, maybe read up on how it works here (for curiosity) but not be able to cast it. Same for her nature magic!

    Arrival Inventory
    ★ a pink dress, including jewellery of matching silver and blue earrings and necklace, an iron chain, and her hair pins
    ★ the book of the damned. the book was spelled to be indestructible, but we're nerfing that!!
    The Book of the Damned is a centuries old book created to be like an "ultimate guide to curses" (undoing powerful, dark magic) but anything in it came with almost biblical consequences at times. Since the curses in it are very situationally specific (e.g. opening Lucifer's cage, removing the Mark of Cain, dark necromancy) none of the spells would be able to be cast even with the book present because they're specific to Rowena's world in circumstance. It's just there for cool plot and oh shit.
    ★ a bloodied dagger
    ★ one of rowena's journals

    Humanization

    She's delightfully human! (or will be again, having currently existed as a soul in Hell)

    Fit
    Whilst Rowena's from a more modern time now, having lived as long as she has means that she remembers a time similar to Thedas, before there was technology, electricity, and when life was much harder, particularly if you were a witch.

    Given that Rowena can be quite outspoken about her opinions on magic and hunters (and having lived through the witch trials), it'll be interesting to see how she adapts to the world, how readily she opts to be helpful to any particular organisation or effort, and where she'll lay that help. Being a Rowena survivor foremost, she'll be helpful enough to ensure her survival and is as talented at research and teaching as she is at being a witch.

    Rowena's also knowledgable about other universes, both due to having met God (really) and having opened a portal to another universe. It's something that will make the concept of the Fade interesting to her and how she tries to work it into her conceptual knowledge of universes and realms.

    Rowena will also enjoy a new chance on life, even if it's not a life she would have asked for. Whilst being Queen of Hell is wonderful she does miss being alive (and hadn't been ready to accept her death), so she'll be very motivated to stay alive again. However (and if she hears opinions on this), given the ideas of the Fade and spirits it might give her a slight existential crisis if she thinks on it too hard (but she's equally likely to try and not do that).

    SAMPLES

    link + link

    QUESTIONS

    [personal profile] faderifting - 2025-04-23 01:14 (UTC) - Expand

    (no subject)

    [personal profile] magike - 2025-04-23 16:19 (UTC) - Expand

    ACCEPTED + NOTES

    [personal profile] faderifting - 2025-04-30 01:48 (UTC) - Expand

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    interroga: (Default)

    cassian andor | star wars (native au)

    [personal profile] interroga 2025-05-08 11:43 pm (UTC)(link)
    PLAYER

    Name: Julie
    Age: mumblemumble
    Contact: [plurk.com profile] quadrille & quadrille on discord
    Other Characters: Stephen Strange, Astrid Runasdotten
    Interests: Political intrigue, spycraft, thrillers, leaning into Tevinter Nights vibes, Shadow Dragons v Venatori conflict, getting to operate within plots as someone with a deft touch instead of my other two sledgehammer characters. Also there are no Andor S2 spoilers in this app, in case that’s a worry!

    CHARACTER

    Name: Cassian Jeron Andor
    Canon/OC: Star Wars (native AU)
    Journal: [personal profile] interroga
    Race: Human (elf-blooded)
    Nationality: Tevene
    Occupation: Rebel, spy, Shadow Dragon
    Division: Scouting
    Mage or Not: Nah
    Age: 32, b. 9:19

    History

    Canon. AU:

    • 9:19: Cassian was born as “Kassa”, an elf-blooded boy in a Dalish settlement on the Tevinter-Antiva outskirts, with an elven mother and human father for the usual unsavoury reasons that happens. He never knew his father (good riddance) but initially grew up with his mother and younger half-sister Kerri.

    • When he was a child, an Imperial lyrium excavation disaster nearby led to all the adults in the clan dying, but the clan children were old enough to survive by themselves in the woods. Eventually two Tevene scavengers came to loot the nearby dig site: Clem and Maarva Andor were two well-intentioned humans who found a near-feral Kassa attacking the digging machines; not knowing what else to do and thinking he’d die out here by himself, they took the boy in.

    • So he was adopted, and raised in a human household. Life in Ferrix, a small Tevene mining town in the mountains, was hard but full of warm community and non-magical citizens doing everyday toil. There are more Soporati than magisters and they keep the wheels of the empire moving, and yet you only ever hear about the mages. Does that seem fair?

    • As a valuable quarry, Ferrix was strip-mined and its non-magical citizens overworked, and experienced some of the brutality of the Tevinter Empire even before Corypheus came on the scene. When Cassian was fourteen, his father was hanged mostly for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

    • This led to the boy becoming loose and adrift, and Causing Problems On Purpose; he made petty trouble and did some jail time, and it was lucky he escaped death or Warden recruitment. This led to a few years as a thief, smuggler, and mostly a self-serving noncommittal fuckup.

    • 9:41: When he was twenty-two years old, the Breach opened, and the Venatori started becoming an issue. Imperial conditions became worse, and over the next few years as Corypheus rose behind the scenes, keeping your head down became an impossibility. Cassian helped rob the Empire, was jailed again for a time, and managed to escape, only to miss his mother’s death and catch a civilian uprising in Ferrix which was violently quashed.

    • As the Lucerni started ramping up in earnest, they needed operatives. Hating what his country’s become, Cassian was recruited by them as an agent and intelligence operative. He spent the subsequent five years learning to care about something bigger than himself: spying, stealing, smuggling, sabotaging, escorting targets or assassinating them, truly anything that was asked of him.

    • Since Corypheus took open control in spring 9:50, Tevene rebellion efforts have heightened further. When the Lucerni splintered off and became the Shadow Dragons, Cassian went into the shadows and continued his work with them over the next year.

    • 9:51: He’s arrived at Riftwatch’s Minrathous safehouse, injured and tired, sent as an official envoy from the Shadow Dragons, vouched for by Riftwatch’s allies in the Lucerni, as an indication for the orgs to continue to work together.



    Personality

    Years of war and spywork have hardened Cassian into a pragmatically brutal operative. He’s dulled his morals until he’s able to kill an ally in a heartbeat if necessary; it’s not pleasant, he doesn’t relish it nor enjoy the role he’s been shoved into, but he’s willing to do it for the sake of the mission. He’s level-headed and practical to a fault, and has been steadily carving his entire life down until the only thing left is the fight.

    It does weigh heavy on him and he’s constantly carrying the guilt of the awful things he’s done for the greater good, even as he pushes on. Was it worth it? That’ll be for the Maker to decide, if there even is a Maker.

    Cassian was always a smooth-talker, a quick-thinking thief in his youth, and spywork has only crystallised these traits further: he’s slippery, adaptable, and good at getting into places and making himself unremarkable. The fact that he’s technically born-and-raised Empire makes him blend in well amongst enemy forces as well. He can be a pleasant, charming flirt when the job calls for it, tapping into what used to be his lighter side; he has a subtle, wry sense of humour, although it’s gotten flattened over time.

    He’s self-possessed enough that he doesn’t often seem angry, but there’s a deep well of rage humming beneath his surface against the corrupt Magisterium, against injustice, against the horrors of their daily lives. He’s often kind and attentive to servants and slaves (perhaps aware of how close he came to being one of them but for an accident of birth). Once you do make it into his inner circle, he’s warm and affectionate and physically demonstrative; he loves fiercely and never wants to leave a friend behind, but the grim reality is that he’s grown accustomed to choosing the fight over them.

    He’s more serious than he used to be, his shoulders heavy with the weight of an unwinnable war that he’s been fighting for too many years and where he’s forgotten what the end even looks like.


    Opinions & Affiliations

    Tevinter: He hates the embodiment of empire and the people at the top of it with every fiber of his being; but he loves the everyday common people of his country, the ones who deserve better. He’s spent years fighting for their liberation from their corrupt leadership.

    Shadow Dragons: Cassian has given them his blood, sweat, and tears for the past year, and as the Lucerni before that. He’s loyal to an extent which borders on zealotry, and they promoted him to captaincy within the organisation and trust him with sensitive operations. It doesn’t conflict with Riftwatch, considering how their goals are in alignment.

    Mages: Mistrustful and wary of them as a whole. Experiences with magisters back home haven’t been great.

    The Qun: Thanks to growing up in Tevinter with its backdrop of endless war with the Qun, he has a kneejerk distaste of the Qunari, even if it’s unfair.

    The Dalish: Complicated. He’s distantly aware that he was technically one of them once, but he’s been so effectively severed from his culture and history and elven identity that he’s lost most of it except for a few childhood scraps.

    City elves: Complicated. As above, he also feels guilty that he managed to escape being perceived as an elf, and grew up in a human family with the rest of the world being none the wiser.


    Adaptation Notes

    Ever since we found out about the Shadow Dragons, I’ve wanted to smash Cassian Andor into this canon. A determined, adaptable spy working for a rebellion trying everything to take down a sinister empire from the inside?? HELLO. I also want to dig a little more into representing the Tevinter struggle from an everyday non-mage perspective, which could be fun to bounce off our in-game Vints.

    Canon Cassian was also adopted into a human family from an indigenous people living in the forest, so that felt like a good parallel to Dalish elves and making him elfblooded: someone who’s been effectively cut off from a native culture that he never knew and barely remembers, and filled with a lifetime’s worth of rage towards the empire whose shadow he grew up in.

    Also, for posterity: over time I’ll probably incorporate elements & anecdotal experience from Andor S2 into his Lucerni/Shadow Dragons backstory, but haven’t covered it in the history section in order to avoid spoilers in his app. And because I ran out of space. Mostly it’s just more of The Horrors.


    Strengths & Weaknesses

    + Trained and experienced spy. He’s quick-thinking, adaptable, and well-versed in theft, smuggling, surveillance, assassinations, etc, and all the tedious paranoid caution that comes with it. Might’ve made a good bard if he were raised in Orlais.

    + Comfortable combatant and quick killer with whatever’s at hand: swords, daggers, beat them to death with hammers, whatever.

    + Connections in Tevinter; if you’re in the country, Cassian often knows safe houses and places to lay up, sympathetic storefronts where you can pick up supplies or get a discount, etc.

    + Good at languages. Speaks Trade, Tevene, Antivan, a smattering of children’s Dalish; understands a little Orlesian although can’t speak it.

    — Terrible in the wilderness. Nevermind that he was born Dalish, he’s now a city boy through-and-through and prefers cobblestoned streets over the muddy outdoors.

    — Mistrustful. This can be a good thing professionally, but is a terrible thing socially; with the way he slips in and out of his various cover identities as needed, it’s hard to know if you’re getting the genuine Cassian.

    — Accent. Try as he might, he hasn’t been able to shake his accent in any language; he always sounds like he’s from the border of Tevinter and Antiva, which he is.

    — No magic. Honestly a huge weakness when your main opponents are scary blood mages.


    Inventory

    The clothes on his back. A trusty sword. Some enchanted ink which only appears under veilfire. A few poison capsules, mostly for self-administering if need be. An encrypted letter of introduction from the Lucerni.


    Motivation

    Riftwatch has been Corypheus’ main opponent for so many years. The Shadow Dragons are also very invested in toppling Corypheus and his Venatori and false Archon and installing better politicians at the head of their country. Ergo, their goals align. Cassian’s been sent as a liaison and ally, to get the lay of the land and collaborate with Riftwatch. He cares about the rebellion above all else, so he’s just as invested in this as they are.

    Happy to enable any potential Shadow Dragon-affiliated plot, but otherwise he’s just here to help out.




    SAMPLES

    1, 2 (Fade Rift-specific)

    faderifting: (Default)

    APPROVED + NOTE

    [personal profile] faderifting 2025-05-10 02:25 pm (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved, with the following notes:
    ↠ Also for posterity! If there's anything from s2 that you end up wanting to work in that is a major addition or departure from what's in the app, or that includes events on a scale that Riftwatch would be aware of, please drop it in the mod contact 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.
    sumptus: (eyes)

    cauis porthmeus | native oc

    [personal profile] sumptus 2025-05-29 02:36 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 (adding an elven grandparent he doesn't know about, if that's cool)
    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.
    • Got exposed to some corrupted lyrium that turned one arm dragon-y, and he asked to be reassigned to an isolated post in a Free Marches to sulk figure that shit out.
    Personality

    At first pass, Caius comes off as a sharp but cautious young man who keeps things 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. A baseline sarcasm and tendency to be a jerk first, friendly later, hasn't made him the easiest to befriend, but his quips are more reflex than pointed.

    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 base his judgments on 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!

    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. Now that Ghilan'nain has done something to him, he's interested in her specifically.

    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. Also one of his arms is weird and scaly, which makes it hard for him to do missions where he needs to be undercover, if constantly wearing gloves and a bulky cape would draw suspicion.

    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
    Terrible bowl cut ig he can have better hair this time
    Staff Scepter and MAGE KNIFE thanks veilguard

    Motivation

    The explanation Caius gave 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.

    Since he was last here, I'd like to say he's been goat herding on a hillside in the Free Marches, as a cover to pick up messages from a dead drop for a Starkhaven contact, and he's been doing research on his corrupted lyrium sample during his downtime.

    SAMPLES

    Sample 1

    Sample 2
    faderifting: (Default)

    ACCEPTED + NOTE

    [personal profile] faderifting 2025-05-30 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
    WELCOME

    Your application has been approved, with the following notes:
    As your application does not reflect that he underwent the character development necessary to develop better fashion sense, he will be required to keep the bowl cut.
    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] sumptus - 2025-05-30 02:57 (UTC) - Expand
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