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!
⋄ 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.
Argent Tavarys | Native OC
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!
Name: Argent Tavarys
Canon/OC: Native OC
Journal:
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 asshaving 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.
1.there's a shelf-related conspiracy brewing here
2.sweet dreams are made of blight