Fandom Dragon Age: Ma Aria'Falons

[PakkuVen]

Title: My Circle of Friends

Name: Anselm
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Race: Elf

Appearance:
5"6', lithe-muscular, light tan, auburn hair cut above his shoulders and typically tied back from his face, freckled, golden-hazel eyes, triangular face with a thin nose

Personality: Fiercely independent, Ambitious, Prefers to be direct, Objective oriented, Loyal

Skills: Fluent in Orlesian, Knows keywords and phrases from other languages, trained in ways of the noble court (as a servant), Hunting and related survival skills (Hobby)
A Rouge who excels at non combat skills of his role: Sneaking, Acrobatics/Parkour, Pickpocketing, Lockpicking, Gathering Intel, Disabling traps, Poisons (dispensing and treating), Minor Healing, Hunting Traps.
Combat ability has only been tested during the Blight (he was 15), and a couple assassination attempts. Skills include: Daggers, Improvised and Throwing Weapons, and Bow (usually as a hunter).

Biography: A city-elf whose father died of illness, and a Dalish mother struggling to provide. She taught him what she could of his ancestral history in secret. But had to make clear to him they would not be accepted back with the Dalish so they must make the best of where they were now. During a famine Anselm decided he would hunt their own meal and surprise his mother. He did manage to procure a bow from the local bann, and even kill two nugs. However the child did not think far enough ahead, nor consider his kills' scent revealing him. When brought before the bann for the serious crimes of theft and possession of a weapon the Bann surprisingly offered Anselm an opportunity. He was paid to be a companion to the spoiled brat of the Bann named Edmund, and eventually they became friends. It was a short-lived happiness as the little lord Edmund came into his magic one day. Anselm missed his friend, but did not need to fear for his employment. The bann had steadily become an unexpected ally to elves despite resistance around him. While Edmund had his own trials in the circle, his friend steadily moved up the servants' ranks. The Corbeau family had the beginnings of their own tiny force of loyal Night Elves, under a different name but inspired by recent history, of which Anselm is arguably the first.

Then the blight happened when he was 15. Anselm and his mother fled the horde with the Corbeaus. Desperate as they were to get away, the bann still stayed behind to evacuate as many as he could. Anselm and his mother stayed with him as well- showing their own battle prowess. They never felt so proud of each other as they did then. Unfortunately she died before the blight ended. During his stay safely behind walls he found himself a target for sexual predators. He also had to chance to meet The Warden and their companions. That chance encounter changed his life; giving him the beginning of skills to wield his new problem as a weapon when necessary. Despite the years that have passed he's kept in touch with a few of them, though he worries about Zevran.

Afterwards his Bann struggled to rebuild his lost holdings. Anselm's training as man-servant and bodyguard began in earnest. There were several assassination attempts from outside but as a result of the Corbeau's actions during the blight their subjects who survived were extremely loyal. Over time, as tensions with mages built, the Lady Corbeau was worried for her youngest son's safety in the circle. It was not long afterwards he suddenly found himself outside of his usual role by the bann's side, and en route to the circle tower. His mission: to get Edmund out by any means necessary. He hoped he was up to the task...and secretly hoped one of the Hero of Ferelden's companions would answer is letter. There was only so much preparation he could do. And he suspected the hardest part would be finding Edmund's phylactery within the tower so the templars could not track them down.

Miscellaneous:

• Name means protected by divinity/god
• Nugs creep him out
• Enjoys hunting and being in the wilderness. That it also provides for the alienage is simply a pleasant side effect.
• Has learned to be okay with killing people
• Sweet-tooth
• Though he enjoys more freedom and respect than most elves, even within the Bannorn racism is an ongoing problem

 

[Ness]

Edmund Corbeau
22 years old
Male
Human

Appearance​

Edmund is tall and lanky, with wavy brown hair that falls to his shoulders. Long years indoors have left an unhealthy-looking pallor to his face, and his grey eyes are ringed by shadows. His features are thin and sharp, with an aquiline nose that dominates his face and makes him look vaguely like some oversized bird of prey. His mage's robes hang loosely off his thin frame, and he doesn't put much effort into keeping them in neat condition -- they're creased, speckled with ink stains along the cuff, and have small burn holes from numerous bits of misaimed magic.

Personality
​

Edmund has always been quiet, more comfortable as a silent observer than the centre of attention. He's well-read and academically intelligent, and his interest in his studies can sometimes lead him to prioritize reading over meals and a consistent sleep schedule. He's not particularly good at speaking to people, and can sometimes be blunt to the point of offensiveness without realizing it.

He was a relatively happy child, with a naively optimistic outlook on the world. He was extremely empathetic -- he couldn't see an injured animal without doing something to help it, whether birds or insects or (in one case) a wolverine that he tried to smuggle home under his coat, and hated seeing people around him suffer. He was always quite passive, more likely to go along with what someone else wanted than start an argument over it. He cried a lot, well past the age where kids are supposed to cry about everything, and overreacted to even the slightest physical pain.

As an adult, he's grown up to be more jaded and cynical. He's learned to better control his emotions, and is now quite guarded in how he expresses himself. He doesn't trust people easily, and these days he's much more willing to lie or go behind people's backs when needed. He still doesn't like direct confrontation, but he's developed a vindictive streak and can hold one hell of a grudge when he wants to.

Skills
​

Edmund is a fully-trained mage who specializes as a Spirit Healer. He has some basic skills in a few other schools of magic, namely Spirit and Creation, but his knowledge is primarily focused on practical and healing magic rather than direct combat. He learned to ride horses as a child, but his skills are rusty since he hasn't so much as seen a horse in years. Because much of his studies have focused on ancient magic, he can read and write in Ancient Tevene and has a loose grasp of written Elven -- or at least, he knows what little of the language there is to know among scholarly circles.

Background​

As the youngest child of Bann Regnault Corbeau, Edmund had a fairly idyllic upbringing. He was kept happily ignorant of any political struggles or burdens of leadership that his parents had to deal with, and spent most of his time running around the countryside or holed up in the library of his family's castle. He didn't have many friends, as he never found much common ground with the servants' kids, but for the most part he didn't mind. He liked the quiet.

Although as a noble he was expected to learn archery and swordsmanship, he never had much aptitude for combat skills. He was too passive to enjoy fighting, and his 'delicate constitution' couldn't tolerate even the slightest bruise or muscle fatigue that came with training. He skipped out on his lessons whenever he could, and his father tried everything he could to motivate him, eventually hiring an elf kid to take archery lessons with Edmund so he'd have someone to compete against. While that did little to encourage Edmund's archery skills, he and the elf, Anselm, became close friends.

The winter after Edmund turned twelve, he and some other children were playing on the newly-frozen river that ran near the castle when the ice broke beneath him, dropping Edmund into the freezing water below. As he sank, his limbs paralyzed from the cold, an inexplicable rush of warmth flowed through him. A blue glow surrounded him as he swam to the surface, a burst of energy giving him the strength to pull himself out of the water, and collapsed unconscious on the snow-covered riverbank. By the time he awoke in his bed hours later, news of his magical abilities had already reached the local Chantry. His parents insisted it was some kind of mistake, their son couldn't possibly be a mage, but they couldn't stop a templar from arriving a few days later to take Edmund off to the Circle.

Edmund had trouble adjusting to the Circle from the first days of his arrival. Although his parents' money earned him a few privileges above the other mages, such as the ability to send letters home, his new teachers were much less willing to coddle him than any of his old tutors. His sensitivity made him an easy target for bullying from other apprentices, being kept under watch by armed templars was frightening, and the food was bad. He became sullen and withdrawn, refusing to speak with anyone or put any effort into learning magic. He wrote to his parents, detailing everything he hated about the Circle and begging them to take him home, feeling horribly betrayed when they told him that wasn't possible. After almost a year he gave up on any hope of leaving. He threw himself into his lessons, quickly making up for lost time and establishing himself as one of the more promising apprentices of the Ferelden Circle. His letters home became much shorter, containing only questions about events back in Harpford and next to no information on Edmund's own life.

After the Blight broke out, Edmund didn't hear from his family for ages -- but he had his own problems to worry about after the Circle was overtaken by demons. He survived by sealing himself in a disused classroom, but a good half of the Circle's mages weren't so lucky. After many of the survivors went on to die fighting the Archdemon in Denerim, the Circle emerged from the Blight with only a fraction of its former population. The halls felt empty, everyone struggled to move on from the horrors they'd experienced, and the fear of another demon outbreak hung heavy on their minds. The templars were more watchful than they'd ever been, the mages happy to turn on each other at any hint of blood magic. Letters sent months ago by Edmund's family finally reached the Circle, and he learned of the troubles they'd faced during the Blight. His eldest sister had apparently been killed in battle alongside most of the king's army in Ostagar. This was the last he heard from them before the templars abruptly started confiscating his letters with no explanation.

But life in the Circle gradually returned to some sense of normalcy, even if it was a new, more fearful, kind of 'normal'. Edmund passed his Harrowing, becoming a full-fledged mage, and began working in the tower's infirmary. His dreams of the Fade, which had always been unusually vivid, began to regularly feature one particular spirit of compassion. The spirit seemed to follow Edmund around the Fade like an affectionate puppy. He took to channeling that spirit when performing healing magic, as it seemed eager to help him in any way it could, and each summoning felt easier than the last, like the spirit was becoming less a separate entity and more a part of him. He elected to not mention this to any templars or senior mages, no need to worry them.

 

[PakkuVen]

The second week. He'd been creeping about the Tower of Magi was just learning the floorplan and the occupant's routines. In the prior week he made preparations for their escape, undoubtedly with pursuers, before formally delivering a handful of letters to the Tower with gifts to try and ply the templars to deliver them to Edmund. In retrospect he should've done that after casing safe routes into the tower. He had no idea if they ever reached Edmund, or even where his room was yet.

A few times he spotted someone he was could assume was Edmund but could never get close enough. It pained him to see the state of his old friend. 'Creators he got tall' he thought to himself. There were clothes for Edmund to change into later but he hadn't accounted for his height properly. The glimpses into life here had shown him why; he was tempted to try and free them all if he thought that could succeed. There were also the unnerving trainquil...he'd never seen one before now.

It was at the beginning of his third week he finally figured out where his old friend stayed. By this point he also had a nearly complete map of all the floors above ground. A copy was drawn up and hidden in an agreed spot for someone to find in case he failed. Anselm snuck in through a window dressed as a servant but was not going to push his luck on going ignored. It was incredibly late, late enough to almost be morning again. "Edmund?" he whispered while also holding out a folded letter.