[OOC] Infoposts come to you. Usually at night.
They're like a lover... or maybe a burglar. Either they ravish you or run off with all your jewelry. And you have to run them down and stab them in the heart.
And... that metaphor got a bit away from me, didn't it?
The Canon
Like not_every_mage, seeks_truth, and cracksmostly, Isabela comes from the Dragon Age franchise, and explaining non-Isabela related bits of it futher would be completely redundant at this point.
Like Anders and Merril, in the future Isabela is going to be one of Hawke's band of merry adventurers who make TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICES. Seriously, the worst.
But right now, she's a fearless, dashing pirate...for about the last week.
The Backstory
Isabela hails from Rivain, country set on a big-arse pennisula situated to the north-east of the Thedosian continent. Since Thedas is in the southern hemisphere, this translates to a sub-tropical climate, and all things considered is probably one of the less sucky places to live in Thedas, at least for the moment (Dragon Age: It Always Get Worse).
The product of an unremarkable and unmemorable one night stand (seriously, all we get about her dad is 'large, hairy, and good with his hands' in one of the references), Isabela was raised by her mother, a thief and con-woman, who frequently travelled through Rivain scamming people, wee child in tow. Isabela thought this was a kind of awesome way to grow up.
Unfortunately then mother dearest wearied of the con-life and found religion, and it wasn't the Chantry. Instead it was the Qun.
Practised by a tall, horned race called the Qunari (the name literally means 'people of the Qun' and there's a whole mess of fun with nouns as it referes to both the race and practitioners of the religion), the Qun is a philosopical system that can best be described as a kind of militant collectivism, wherein everyone has a place in society, and all places are valued, but if you don't fit in your assigned place (which is decided for you when you're tweleve) you will be made to by any means necessary, up to and including magical lobotomies. Also sucks to be a Qunari mage even more than in the rest of Thedas, like so much more.
Anyways, while her mother was being tempted by the Qun's whole 'we value you for you' spiel, Isabela was not such a huge fan, leading to massive fights between the pair until her mother gave up trying to convince Isabela to convert with her...and sold her in marrige to an Antivan merchant for 'handful of gold coins and a goat'.
Suffice it to say, Isabela has some issues about this.
Note - some discussion of spousal emotional abuse follows:
Shockingly enough, the honeymoon period between Isabela, and her new husband Luis (of whom the nicest thing Isabela has to say about him is that he never beat her) was brief, and Isabela began to chafe at her new life's restrictions and act out, and Luis (with all the tact and nuance of a man who sees an attractive teenager in a marketplace and decides he wants her on the spot) reacted to his prized posession of a wife acting like a human being with emotional needs by doing things like locking her in her room with a bottle of wine and a dirty book to stop her disrupting his dinner parties.
Great dude, really. So great in fact, that after a year of marriage, and it becoming clear this marriage wasn't working, Luis decided to end things...by giving her to some interested friends of his, BECAUSE APPARENTLY THE ARSEHOLE DECIDED DIVORCE WASN'T AN OPTION.
Luckily for Isabela, Luis had managed to piss off someone enough that they'd taken out a contract for his life with the Antivan Crows (an assassins guild), and even more luckily, the particular Crow who'd gotten the job was a young elf named Zevran Arainai, who Isabela'd been having an affair with and learning knife fighting from the past few months. I use the word luckily, because while all signed would point to Isabela having Luis killed, she's pretty adament she didn't, while also being open about the fact she cheerfully banged Zevran after by way of thanks, so I'm inclined to believe her.
In any case, after doing the deed, Zevran gave Isabela two of his daggers (because he's a nice dude like that), and helped her escape from the house with a bag of her jewelry, and she made her way to the docks where she used the shinies to bribe a crew to help her commandeer the Siren's Call, a ship Luis had recently purchased for his merchant, fleet, and she set sail for Llomerryn, a Rivaini island port, and general hive of scum and villiany, where she intended to start her new life of freedom and piracy...unfortunately, when they docked there a week later, her bribied crew abandoned her in search of better paying work, leaving Isabela with no gold, no crew, and no idea how to actually sail her shiny, pretty ship.
But all was not lost, as when she walked down the Siren Call's gangplank, she fond herself on a dock that certainly wasn't Llomerryn...
The Girl
As might be expected from someone with Isabela's background, a major charcter trait (and one she plays up) is a kind of cheerful amorality. She'll happily booze it up, pick barfights, pick your pockets after fleecing you at cards, steal anything that isn't nailed down (though not without OOC permission), is cheerfully blasphemous, doesn't give two hoots what you think of her, and if she finds you attractive she will hit on you regardless of how appropriate it would be.
However, despite her claims otherwise, she is deeper than that. She's loyal to her friends (despite herself), somewhat protective of those weaker than her (especially women, children, and tiny elf kittens), has a number of quite deep thoughts on the idea of freedom, and by Thedosian standards is quite the budding proto-feminist. Also she'll write dirty fic about you. It's friend-fic, she does it out of love.
The Look
Physicallity wise, Isabela is on toned and the taller side of average, wih dark hair, dark, freckled skin, and amber-gold eyes. Also quite blessed in the chestal region.
The important thing to note about Isabela's appearance is her clothing, which currently tends towards a barely there shift (winter's going to be fun) with thigh high boots and various scarves, though she is in fact capable of wearing pants, and her jewelry, which despite not being quite as ornate and copious as in the DA2 icons (her having just used it all for bribery and not yet aquiring more), she does have both earrings and a labret piercing.
For her PB, I'm using Hannah John-Kamen, because she's badass-adorable, and you all should go watch Killjoys (which most of her icons are from) now.
And... that metaphor got a bit away from me, didn't it?
The Canon
Like not_every_mage, seeks_truth, and cracksmostly, Isabela comes from the Dragon Age franchise, and explaining non-Isabela related bits of it futher would be completely redundant at this point.
Like Anders and Merril, in the future Isabela is going to be one of Hawke's band of merry adventurers who make TERRIBLE LIFE CHOICES. Seriously, the worst.
But right now, she's a fearless, dashing pirate...for about the last week.
The Backstory
Isabela hails from Rivain, country set on a big-arse pennisula situated to the north-east of the Thedosian continent. Since Thedas is in the southern hemisphere, this translates to a sub-tropical climate, and all things considered is probably one of the less sucky places to live in Thedas, at least for the moment (Dragon Age: It Always Get Worse).
The product of an unremarkable and unmemorable one night stand (seriously, all we get about her dad is 'large, hairy, and good with his hands' in one of the references), Isabela was raised by her mother, a thief and con-woman, who frequently travelled through Rivain scamming people, wee child in tow. Isabela thought this was a kind of awesome way to grow up.
Unfortunately then mother dearest wearied of the con-life and found religion, and it wasn't the Chantry. Instead it was the Qun.
Practised by a tall, horned race called the Qunari (the name literally means 'people of the Qun' and there's a whole mess of fun with nouns as it referes to both the race and practitioners of the religion), the Qun is a philosopical system that can best be described as a kind of militant collectivism, wherein everyone has a place in society, and all places are valued, but if you don't fit in your assigned place (which is decided for you when you're tweleve) you will be made to by any means necessary, up to and including magical lobotomies. Also sucks to be a Qunari mage even more than in the rest of Thedas, like so much more.
Anyways, while her mother was being tempted by the Qun's whole 'we value you for you' spiel, Isabela was not such a huge fan, leading to massive fights between the pair until her mother gave up trying to convince Isabela to convert with her...and sold her in marrige to an Antivan merchant for 'handful of gold coins and a goat'.
Suffice it to say, Isabela has some issues about this.
Note - some discussion of spousal emotional abuse follows:
Shockingly enough, the honeymoon period between Isabela, and her new husband Luis (of whom the nicest thing Isabela has to say about him is that he never beat her) was brief, and Isabela began to chafe at her new life's restrictions and act out, and Luis (with all the tact and nuance of a man who sees an attractive teenager in a marketplace and decides he wants her on the spot) reacted to his prized posession of a wife acting like a human being with emotional needs by doing things like locking her in her room with a bottle of wine and a dirty book to stop her disrupting his dinner parties.
Great dude, really. So great in fact, that after a year of marriage, and it becoming clear this marriage wasn't working, Luis decided to end things...by giving her to some interested friends of his, BECAUSE APPARENTLY THE ARSEHOLE DECIDED DIVORCE WASN'T AN OPTION.
Luckily for Isabela, Luis had managed to piss off someone enough that they'd taken out a contract for his life with the Antivan Crows (an assassins guild), and even more luckily, the particular Crow who'd gotten the job was a young elf named Zevran Arainai, who Isabela'd been having an affair with and learning knife fighting from the past few months. I use the word luckily, because while all signed would point to Isabela having Luis killed, she's pretty adament she didn't, while also being open about the fact she cheerfully banged Zevran after by way of thanks, so I'm inclined to believe her.
In any case, after doing the deed, Zevran gave Isabela two of his daggers (because he's a nice dude like that), and helped her escape from the house with a bag of her jewelry, and she made her way to the docks where she used the shinies to bribe a crew to help her commandeer the Siren's Call, a ship Luis had recently purchased for his merchant, fleet, and she set sail for Llomerryn, a Rivaini island port, and general hive of scum and villiany, where she intended to start her new life of freedom and piracy...unfortunately, when they docked there a week later, her bribied crew abandoned her in search of better paying work, leaving Isabela with no gold, no crew, and no idea how to actually sail her shiny, pretty ship.
But all was not lost, as when she walked down the Siren Call's gangplank, she fond herself on a dock that certainly wasn't Llomerryn...
The Girl
As might be expected from someone with Isabela's background, a major charcter trait (and one she plays up) is a kind of cheerful amorality. She'll happily booze it up, pick barfights, pick your pockets after fleecing you at cards, steal anything that isn't nailed down (though not without OOC permission), is cheerfully blasphemous, doesn't give two hoots what you think of her, and if she finds you attractive she will hit on you regardless of how appropriate it would be.
However, despite her claims otherwise, she is deeper than that. She's loyal to her friends (despite herself), somewhat protective of those weaker than her (especially women, children, and tiny elf kittens), has a number of quite deep thoughts on the idea of freedom, and by Thedosian standards is quite the budding proto-feminist. Also she'll write dirty fic about you. It's friend-fic, she does it out of love.
The Look
Physicallity wise, Isabela is on toned and the taller side of average, wih dark hair, dark, freckled skin, and amber-gold eyes. Also quite blessed in the chestal region.
The important thing to note about Isabela's appearance is her clothing, which currently tends towards a barely there shift (winter's going to be fun) with thigh high boots and various scarves, though she is in fact capable of wearing pants, and her jewelry, which despite not being quite as ornate and copious as in the DA2 icons (her having just used it all for bribery and not yet aquiring more), she does have both earrings and a labret piercing.
For her PB, I'm using Hannah John-Kamen, because she's badass-adorable, and you all should go watch Killjoys (which most of her icons are from) now.