[ ooc: application ]
[ PLAYER INFORMATION ]
Player Name: Rian
Age: 22
Timezone: EST
Personal Journal: minachi
Contact Information: rianrps@gmail.com | rianisocd @ plurk | kindalikeutopia @ AIM
[ CHARACTER INFORMATION ]
Name: Anders
Age: 30-35, exact age not given.
Gender: Male
Canon: Dragon Age 2
Timeline: I am taking him from midway through Act III. Three years earlier, Hawke defeated the Arishok in single combat and was proclaimed Champion of Kirkwall (Isabela returned in time to spark the challenge in the first place). Anders himself is comfortably on his final descent into crazy. This desperation will eventually lead to him blowing up the Chantry (and everyone in it), but for the time being that is just a distant, disturbingly promising plan. The quest Dissent has happened, and although Hawke successfully managed to talk Vengeance/Anders down, he is now deeply disturbed by his own actions and Vengeance’s increasing strength. The quest Justice has not happened. For the sake of other details of plot, I am taking Anders from the same version of the story as Missa’s Hawke, albeit from a slightly earlier point in time.
Character History:
His wiki page is here, and has most of the important points - I can elaborate further if needed. At the end of the game, Hawke can choose to kill Anders, abandon him, or accept his aid in the final battle, after which Anders will leave Kirkwall along with Hawke and the rest of the party. If in a romance with Hawke, Anders will stay by his/her side even after the party splits. While this is technically irrelevant, as Anders and Hawke are coming in from before the end-game and they are not romantically involved, it is still worth mentioning for the sake of showcasing Anders's potential fate(s).
Character Personality:
When Anders first appears in Dragon Age: Awakening, he has several distinct qualities, and very few of them are redeemable. He is sarcastic and garrulous, unable to resist making snide comments in even the most inopportune of moments. He tells the Warden-Commander that he is selfish and cowardly, with little desire to risk his skin, and the ease with which he initially abandons the Darkspawn crisis at Vigil’s Keep certainly supports his claim. Anders has an annoying tendency to talk constantly, and the vast majority of his in-game dialogue is obnoxious, one-sided banter or constant, never-ending prodding of the other party members. While arguably more socially capable then many other mages (who spend their whole lives isolated from the rest of the world), Anders is still immature, annoying, irreverent, and an unashamed womanizer (though with varying degrees of success). He is a bit of a romantic as well, wistfully remarking once that all he wants out of life is “a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools.” He would also like several cats and to be respected for his powers rather than feared or used.
Though he is smarmy and overly talkative, very often his teasing is simply a form of camaraderie, of respect, or of comfort. A life of social isolation within the Tower has left Anders somewhat immature, to be sure, but very often this immaturity manifests as intense curiosity or poorly-thought-out but perfectly sincere attempts to understand and learn about the people he meets. Anders’ conversations with the party members very strongly showcase this, and reveal considerably more about himself then he would like to admit to. With Nathaniel Howe, son of a disgraced noble family, Anders shows empathy, relating Nathaniel’s undeserved persecution to his own subjugation as a mage. With Sigrun and Valenna, a casteless dwarf and Dalish Elven mage respectively, Anders is curious, constantly swapping between his usual teasing and general questions about their unfamiliar cultures. Valenna in particular is interesting to him, as she is an example of what mages could be like were they not controlled by the Chantry. Oghren, a warrior-caste dwarf, banters back just as shamelessly as Anders, and likely represents the first friend he’s ever had outside the Circle. This is not to say his companions like him overly much or respond particularly well to his incessant blathering, but they do put up with and perhaps even respect him - sometimes. At least he’s not in the Circle any more.
Anders at this point styles himself as a selfish coward, but this is a very intentional and tenuous sort of selfishness. He is a healer at heart, and no true healer can be selfish in the way Anders wants others to believe he is. Most of his (admittedly minimal due to the length of the game) character development in DA:A revolves around revealing that he is, in fact, a pretty good person. If he is allowed to escape Vigil’s Keep during the first Darkspawn attack, for example, Anders turns right back around to help the Warden-Commander defend the Keep despite personal risk and rapidly-approaching templars. His life as a mage has left him deeply sympathetic towards the oppressed and downtrodden, so despite all his whining and complaining, Anders never shirks from doing what is right and will literally fight to the death to protect what is important to him. If left to defend an un-upgraded Vigil’s Keep, Anders finally falls to a longbow, but not before he takes out an outrageously large portion of the invading army. While obviously I am not taking him from the bad end, this is another excellent example of the strength of will and determination that truly define Anders for the rest of his life, for good or ill.
Sadly, the end of Dragon Age: Awakening marks the end of Anders’ ‘normal’ personality. While all the points outlined previously still constitute the core of Anders’ personality - his wit, his charm, his obnoxious banter, his determination, and his surprisingly caring soul - events between DA:A and DA2 change him drastically. Sometime after the Battle of Amaranthine, Anders, presumably having come to the realization that he can no longer continue to ignore the world around him, and that a difference must be made in the lives of mages in Chantry-controlled lands, joins with a literal spirit of Justice who had become trapped in the mortal world. As Justice is a spirit (as opposed to a demon) and the possession was voluntary, Justice's personality did not consume Anders', and the two begin to work together towards an ultimate goal of righting the wrongs against the mages of Thedas. No possession, however, no matter how well-intentioned, is without side-effects. Drawing on Anders' deep resentment and anger towards the templars and the Chantry, Justice eventually transforms into a different sort of spirit: a demon of Vengeance. In turn influenced by the unstable, single-minded being inhabiting his mind, Anders becomes deeply disturbed by the strain of holding Vengeance and his desire to act in check. After Justice, now Vengeance, lashes out during a moment of extreme stress, killing several Grey Wardens and rather effectively severing Anders’ ties with the organization, Anders flees across the sea to Kirkwall, the City of Chains, where the events of DA2 take place.
Somewhere around a year later, when he finally meets Marian Hawke, Anders is jaded and stressed, and has aged visibly since leaving Ferelden. He is overworked both by holding Vengeance in check and by running a free clinic in the poor quarter of a city famed for its anti-mage policies. Never let it be said Anders favors the easy way out. Despite all the ills Vengeance’s possession have brought him, and I will elaborate on those soon, not all of the changes in Anders are detrimental. While he looses his quick charm and easy-going energy, he gains a deeper sort of calm and begins to mature into the sort of responsible, dedicated person Justice likely saw in him in the first place. He is more focused on making a difference in the world, on using his skills for good and not just escape or self-defense, the most obvious example being the refugee clinic he runs down in Darktown. Additionally, he (…and by proxy Hawke) aids the Mage Underground for most of the game, helping mages from Kirkwall’s Circle escape the city as the Templars continue to crack down. The next few years follow this pattern - working in the clinic, helping mages, following Hawke like a lost puppy, and desperately trying to keep Vengeance under control.
That’s easier said than done, though, and Anders’ success is tenuous and temporary at best. Increasingly often, Vengeance manages to take control, particularly when Anders is threatened or over-worked or simply too close to some templars. The first sight Hawke (and therefore the audience) gets of Vengeance manifesting is when she and Anders go to save an old friend of his, Karl Theka, only to discover that Karl had been made Tranquil - forcibly cut off from his magic and his emotions. As Anders’ panic and anger builds, Vengeance is able to take control and dispatch of the templars who set up the trap. There are subtler effects as well - Vengeance’s all-consuming desire for, well, vengeance, begins to seep into Anders’ mind, to influence his thoughts and motivations. As time goes on and Kirkwall gets less and less unstable, Anders grows as restless as the spirit that possesses him, and starts worrying that helping mages escape isn’t enough, that he can no longer simply treat the symptoms of Kirkwall’s - of Thedas’ - templar disease. As Knight-Commander Meredith squeezes the mages harder and harder, Anders becomes cynical and pessimistic, more and more convinced that no amount of talking or example-setting or compromise will ever make enough of a difference to the mages suffering in Kirkwall. It will be several years yet before he does anything more than brood, but the pressure is building even so.
Thankfully, though, Anders is not alone in Kirkwall. Hawke, unsurprisingly, is his most important connection - as another mage, another apostate, Hawke is possibly the only person in the party who really understands him. She is kind, supportive, and sympathetic to his - to their - plight. She is charismatic and witty, and basically everything he never thought he’d be lucky enough to have. And of course, that’s a minor problem - he doesn’t have her, not really. Anders has since learned to accept that fact, though, and while he’s still more than a little infatuated with her, he’s perfectly happy just to have her unwavering friendship and support. She helps keep him grounded and, more recently, keep him sane. Anders is also fairly close to Varric and Isabela - he and Varric share a love of snarky banter and dramatic storytelling, while he and Isabela both appreciate personal freedom and inappropriate commentary. Anders tends to butt heads with most of the other party members, though. Aveline, the Captain of the Guard, he likely respects, but he also resents her for not turning a blind eye to the activities of illegal mages in the city, even when said mages actually deserve to be locked up. She accuses him of having issues with authority in general, and it’s a fair assessment. Merrill is a blood mage, which is one of the few things Anders hates as much as templars, so he constantly argues with her about her naiveté and ignorance, but Merrill’s sunny disposition prevents him from being much more than frustrated. It’s doubtful that he thinks she’s a bad person - just naive and overly-trusting. His real conflicts are with Fenris and Sebastian - Fenris because he is just as hypocritical as Anders but on the other side of the discussion and involved with Hawke, and Sebastian because Sebastian is a Chantry Brother and a self-righteous asshole. For the most part, though, his conflicts with the party are low-key enough that they function effectively together.
But behind all of this, Vengeance still lingers, and as the years go by Anders’ control over the spirit dwindles while his own resentment grows. This all comes to a head when Anders (and Hawke and co.) go to save a runaway mage who has been captured by a particularly nasty group of templars. When they finally reach the confrontation, Vengeance suddenly and violently takes control, and goes on a rampage. Even after the templars are dead, Vengeance still demands more, and were it not for Hawke’s intervention, he would have even killed the runaway mage they were trying to rescue in the first place. When he finally snaps out of it, Anders is horrified, and flees the scene. By the time Hawke returns to check in on him, Anders has started spiraling into self-doubt and depression; he feels like he can’t maintain control over Vengeance, that he has no right to champion the cause of mages when he is a prime example of everything that can go wrong with magic. Hawke calms him down, but the damage has been done - Kirkwall is a time-bomb, and Anders finds himself unable to keep pretending that everything is ok.
So we come, three years later, to Anders as he is now. Needless to say, being possessed, however voluntarily, by a less-than-benevolent spirit for nearly 10 years has left Anders with a host of psychological traumas. He has become increasingly paranoid, feeling threatened almost constantly, and frequently lashes out at friends and strangers alike for the smallest perceived slights. Practically the only time he doesn't feel needlessly angry is when around Hawke. Though he’s still a genuinely kind person who prefers healing to combat, Anders has become more vicious in battle, less likely to show mercy when given the chance, and he is in a near-constant state of desperate, terrified worry. He has vicious mood swings, going from ecstatic single-mindedness to crushing despair to self-doubt to extreme rage. Physically, he is tired, worn out by stress, and flips quickly between utter psychological exhaustion and manic obsessive energy. All these problems stem from Vengeance's increased effect on Anders' mind. As a spirit of the endless Fade, Vengeance has no concept of time, and spends every waking moment demanding that action be taken, that something be done to satisfy his need for retribution. As a manifestation of pure vengeance, he can think of nothing besides his call for punishment, and is incapable of both mercy and morality. As a demon, Vengeance's only desire in life is his desire - his only goal is to do what, in his eyes, must be done, no matter the consequences, no matter the cost. Vengeance does not differentiate between friend and foe - there are only those who stand in his way, and those who stand out of it. Removed from the stress of Kirkwall on the brink of war, Anders will likely be able to take better control of both himself and Vengeance, and his instability will pop up less often, though this will not remove Vengeance's omnipresent demands.
Character Abilities you would like to expand on further:
As he has been in the Circle since he was young, Anders is a very well-trained mage. He is particularly talented with Spirit Healing, a specialization of Creation magic in which the mage gains the passive assistance of a benevolent spirit for the purposes of healing, regeneration, and revival. This is different from his relationship with Justice/Vengeance, as the spirit that augments his Spirit Healing connects with him only via the Fade, and there is effectively no deeper meaning to this particular spirit aside from gameplay mechanics. Obviously, his abilities as a Spirit Healer will have very little effect in SC, and he will no longer have contact with the (unnamed) spirit who assists his healing normally. Additionally, Anders does have some ability as a combat spell-slinger, though he is primarily a support class and prefers not to fight. This will be especially true in DC, as the loss of magic will also mean a loss of most of his offensive skills. His only non-magical combat ability is some basic skill with a quarterstaff - mages in Thedas don't just use them for show.
Part of studying as a Spirit Healer includes learning about physiology and the human body. As such, even without his magic Anders has enough medical training to function as a competent non-magical triage doctor. He's no surgeon, but he has plenty of experience with handling anything from basic illness to severe physical trauma. More than that, healing is a calling to Anders, something he will go out of his way to do, no matter the circumstances. Coupled with unflappable nerves and a calm bedside manner, his skills as a physician are universal.
During the events of Dragon Age: Awakening, Anders voluntarily joins the Grey Wardens, a politically neutral brotherhood of warriors dedicated to protecting Thedas from Darkspawn. He joins the Wardens are mostly to save his own skin, as Wardens can invoke the Rite of Conscription and recruit potential members from any walk of life, no matter their crimes or past, which effectively (and finally) removes him from the Chantry's clutches. In order to combat the Darkspawn, Wardens drink a combination of lyrium (raw magic, a mineral), Darkspawn blood, and Archedemon blood in a ceremony known as the Joining. This ritual is potential fatal, though obviously Anders survives - but not without consequences. By imbibing the Taint, Wardens gain the ability to sense Darkspawn, and an almost inhuman amount of physical stamina (Anders, for example, can go several days without sleep and even longer without food if necessary, as evidenced by the long hours he puts in at the clinic and at Hawke's side). These abilities come with a cost, however, which will be discussed in the weaknesses section.
Despite recent developments and Vengeance's influence, Anders is - or was - a very charming man. When not wracked with self-inflicted angsty manpain, he is demonstrably good at making friends, or at least companions, with his unique sort of sympathetic smarm. While his obnoxious, immature needling has been long since mellowed out from long years in Kirkwall, Anders can still be very witty and snarky if in the proper mood.
As he is the manifestation of an ideal, Vengeance's abilities are not particularly tangible. His power lies in the realm of the psychological, and when he does physically manifest he simply uses Anders' memories and skills as his own (i.e. he is, for our purposes, the exact same mage as Anders). When Vengeance manifests, Anders' voice drops considerably and his skin cracks and his eyes and skin glow a bright bluish-white. These are purely aesthetic effects, but worth mentioning. As Vengeance is technically a demon at this point, the vast majority of his abilities as they relate to Anders are detrimental, but as they are also integral parts of Anders’ personality, I’ve elected to discuss them in his general personality section.
Character Weaknesses you would like to expand on further:
While mages in Thedas are not as defenseless or squishy as most traditional magic-users, they are hardly juggernauts. Anders' Warden stamina cannot make up for the fact that he has never trained as a physical warrior, and as such does not have the skills or musculature to do much more than swing his quarterstaff around. He's not weak, but he's certainly no stronger than your average person. As Vengeance's previous iteration (Justice) was a literal knight in shining armor, an argument can be made that Vengeance, should he manifest, would at least have the skills and mindset for martial prowess, though he would be limited by Anders' physical form.
Unfortunately, even those Grey Wardens who survive the Joining will eventually succumb to the Taint within them, dying of the poison or going mad long before their natural lifespans are over. At best, a Warden can hope for another 20, maybe 30 years of life after his or her joining, and the Taint also makes it nearly impossible for Wardens to have children. Additionally, Wardens gain some of the features of the Darkspawn they now resemble, including ravenous hunger and horrifying nightmares of the Archdemon attempting to communicate with them. Anders is no exception to any of these side-effects.
As outlined in his personality section, Anders is emotionally and psychologically unstable, though he it at least very aware of his issues. He still has enough self-control to hold himself together, but it would not be an exaggeration to say that he just needs one good push to fall over the brink. Removed from the source of conflict (the mage-templar war), Anders should be fairly stable, though he’ll still have Vengeance to deal with.
Anders' lack of friends by Act III is not entirely due to Vengeance's presence, however. He has always been somewhat petty, and while this was tolerable (and occasionally charming) in DA:A, years of stress have sharpened Anders' verbal barbs into something decidedly less playful. Very few of his companions can keep a good mood going around him anymore, as he will lash out in defensive anger given the slightest provocation. Anders is also wildly judgmental and hypocritical when it comes to the mage-templar conflict. A few choice examples stand out: Anders hates the templars for assuming that every mage is evil and dangerous, but absolutely refuses to consider that not all templars are violent, hateful, and oppressive, going so far as to ignore, antagonize, or warp the motives of the many templars who are genuinely kind, mage-sympathetic people; he constantly compares being in the Circle with being enslaved, yet will outright applaud if Hawke decides to betray Fenris and sell him back into slavery (this did not happen in my Anders' backstory, but point remains that it is something he would approve of); when he learns that Hawke and Fenris are in a relationship, he publicly criticizes Hawke's choice and remarks that she should be with someone "more open-minded" (Fenris thankfully calls him out on this); he is petty and disrespectful towards allies who are not as vehemently pro-mage as he; and he constantly belittles Merrill for accepting demonic aid despite the fact that he's gone one step further in allowing a spirit-cum-demon to possess his physical being. In some cases, Anders is aware of his hypocrisy, especially with Merrill. Additionally, there is a great deal of argument to be made for this rampant hypocrisy being a side-effect of Vengeance's warped, alien 'morals', particularly in the case of Fenris' potential re-enslavement (as Vengeance may have seen Fenris as an obstacle). While removal from the mage-templar conflict will likely lessen the chances of Anders being a raging, judgmental hypocrite in everyday conversation (he’s a very level-headed person, aside from when he’s not), his quicksilver moods and sharp tongue guarantees that he'll have no problem pissing off considerable portions of the populace.
[ SOUL CAMPAIGN SECTION ]
What abilities will your character retain in Soul Campaign?
-As it is more of a passive/non-supernatural ability, Anders will likely keep his Grey Warden abilities. To reiterate, this includes increased stamina (though not increased alcohol tolerance….) and the ability to sense Darkspawn/corruption (for all the good that will do).
-A lifetime of escaping towers and dungeons has left Anders with the (non-magical) ability to shimmy his way out of just about any form of confinement. This is not to say he'll get out unscathed, and he's not actually that good at staying un-captured, but at least he'll get out. It's not so much an ability as it is a talent, but it's worth mentioning even so.
What weaknesses will your character lose or gain in Soul Campaign?
-Of course Anders will also retain his Grey Warden weakness. These include: horrifying nightmares about the Archdemon, ravenous appetite, sharply decreased lifespan (he's got another 15 years or so left, max), near-inability to reproduce, and, as his blood is laced with the Darkspawn taint, he probably isn't going to be a good candidate for giving blood. Contact with his blood isn't deadly or even poisonous, but it can cause a nasty rash.
-Thanks to the effects of BREW, Anders will lose his spell-casting abilities. As he is a very well-trained mage, this will effectively hobble him in conventional combat and remove his ability to defend himself.
The wish Death the Kid made to the BREW in 2009 was to “rescue Death City and stop the waves of Madness from overtaking the world.” By whatever means necessary. Pretend you are the BREW. Why would you choose to bring this character to Death City?
A pretty obvious explanation for Anders' presence in Death City would be his healing abilities. Even denied his magic, he's spent the majority of his life studying healing and human physiology, and would make an excellent conventional healer.
A less benign reason could be the presence of Vengeance. Though wildly unstable and utterly alien in his morals, Vengeance is a powerful and single-minded entity, and an excellent, if risky, ally to have, so long as he can be convinced that his rage is properly directed.
If your character has difficulty verbally communicating or can’t verbally communicate at all (mute or non-humanoid), elaborate on how this will be treated in the game. N/A
[ MEISTER ONLY SECTION ]
Why is your character a Meister and not a Weapon?
Anders has always chafed under any sort of control, no matter how equal, no matter how benign - within the Grey Wardens, for example, he was a brother in arms, but still found himself unable to take orders or be directed or work particularly well with others (the Warden-Commander potentially notwithstanding). This is not to say that Anders is incapable of depending on or partnering with other people, or that he has to remain in control, as his relationship with Hawke and the rest of the party shows is hardly one of hierarchy-derived aggression. He is perfectly capable of stepping out of the limelight and working people he outright hates so long as it serves a common goal.
Ultimately, however, being a Weapon would remind him far too much of being a tool for his companions, be it as the Grey Warden's pet apostate, Vengeance's increasingly unwilling host, or simply another Tower mage squirming under the Chantry's boot. Anders' preference towards being a Meister isn't necessarily because he would work better as a Meister - it is because he would resent (however quietly, however irrationally) being a 'Weapon'.
It is worth noting at well that certain cultures in-game leash, blind, and cut the tongues out of their mages and use them as trained weapons (the Qunari Saarebas, primarily). Even without magic and even knowing that the Weapon/Meister relationship is one of equality, Anders would almost certainly draw extremely uncomfortable parallels between himself as a Weapon and the Saarebas back home.
What is your character’s Meister Ability? Why?
-Soul Bandaid
-Soul Panacea: Similar to his in-game version, this soul ability could allow Anders to passively heal nearby allies at the cost of being unable to use offensive abilities.
-Soul Vengeance: Like his in-game counterpart, this ability could allow Anders to do significantly more damage during a fight at the cost of all regeneration, healing, or other restoration abilities, natural or otherwise, and it would make him more susceptible to damage. Would also make him glow cool colors!
[ SOUL INFORMATION ]
Describe your character’s soul with six adjectives.
Sarcastic, hypocritical, determined, cynical, charming, angry.
What does your character’s soul look like? Be creative.
Anders’ soul is ruddy bronze, with a whitish-blue sort of aura around it that crackles slightly. The ‘hair’ is short and pulled back into the smallest of ponytails. It would be fairly nondescript were it not for the occasional flashes of vibrant, angry crimson that seethe just under the ‘skin’. When Justice/Vengeance is the dominant personality, the bronze recedes and the crimson color dominates. The aura around it becomes almost blindingly bright, and the soul itself resembles a medieval knight’s helm, battered and dented.
[ SAMPLES ]
Provide a First Person style sample in the form of a post to the DEMISE network.
[ The camera turns on at an odd angle, as though it’s simply been left sitting around and has switched on accidentally. This is entirely the case, of course.
Off to the side of the screen, visible but not intentionally so, Anders is sitting on the edge of his bed, face in his hands. He might appear asleep, or at least resting, were it not for the occasional tremors in his hands and shoulders, and a low, nearly-indistinct muttering is likely him talking to himself. ]
-don’t think I haven’t already considered that; this doesn’t feel like the Fade. ...I don’t think it’s a prison, either. Something about a war, not that that’s anything unusual...
[ After a few more moments and an exhausted sigh, Anders looks up, apparently finished with his rambling. The light coming in from the open window only serves to illustrate how worn out he looks, but there’s a weary set to his brow and mouth that hints at a sort of exasperated, cynical amusement. He pinches the bridge of his nose one last time and then stands, stretching briefly with an audible pop of his lower spine. Anders winces at the sound, then holds his hands over his stomach, hovering but not touching. His brow furrows in concentration, and for perhaps the briefest of seconds it looks like there’s a spark of light under his palms-
But then that proves to have only been a trick of the light, probably reflecting off of one of his bracers. Anders’ expression falls and he drops his hands back down by his side. ]
Maker’s Breath, it really is gone... [ He scrubs at his face, and walks over to the window, leaning on the frame as he takes in the city. ] Well, at least I won’t have to worry about templars.
Provide a Third Person sample set during the last minutes on their world and/or their first few moments in the Kishin Chamber.
Vengeance was loudest at dawn. Not that said anything, exactly, because despite what the Chantry told people about demons whispering into mortals’ minds that simply was not how possession worked- but Anders had always found that it was hardest to ignore Vengeance’s thoughts in the early hours of the morning, when his own thoughts were muddled and dulled, and Vengeance started to realize that yet another (wasted) day had passed. He couldn’t even say that the thoughts seeped in, because there was no seeping anymore - Vengeance was always there, always throbbing in the back of his mind like an abnormal vein, pulsing with hate and rage and fury.
Naturally, of course, that made waking up with a hangover considerably more unpleasant than normal. If Anders had still had his mind to himself he would have taken a moment to consider the unfairness of it all, but as it was ignoring Vengeance and trying not to move too quickly took up the bulk of his mental acuity. He couldn’t even remember most of the previous night, likely due to the Hanged Man’s ‘fine’ spirits, which was probably a blessing in disguise - if he wasn’t so spectacularly bad at betting, Anders would have been willing to wager that the evening had ended with Fenris and Isabela smugly in possession of most of his possessions. Again. The only nice part about the experience was that Vengeance tended to keep quiet while Anders was drinking, likely out of disapproval.
But now that Anders was properly and unhappily awake, Vengeance resumed his standard mantra - destroy the templars, rain fire upon our enemies, crush the hearts of those who stand in our way, the usual. Or, mostly the usual. As Anders rolled over and stood up, displeased to note that he’d fallen asleep in his boots, he caught sight of his desk. Vengeance went eerily still as Anders took in the mess of papers and quills and ink and bandages, which was all the prompting he needed to investigate. He picked up the top-most piece of parchment, observing the details of it before he dared to look at the words. The handwriting was sharp and unfamiliar, sloppy and unpracticed, as though the hand holding the pen had been in less than full control of his facilities. So Vengeance hadn’t been quite as distant the night before as Anders had hoped - just another sign of how much his control was slipping, of how he shouldn’t let his guard down for a second. What if Vengeance had taken over in public? Or worse, around templars? What if he’d tried to hurt someone again, and Hawke wasn’t around to stop him this time?
Anders crumpled the paper violently in his hand, and a pained hiss escaped his unknowingly clenched teeth. He had the words ready in his mind to light the damnable thing on fire, but something (don’t) made him stop and gently smooth the paper back out. Whatever it was, it was probably worth looking at (our plans, our freedom), right? After all, if Vengeance had had the sense of mind to actually leave a message...well, it was better than waking up to a pile of bodies. Most of the writing was incomprehensible, due to a combination of Anders’ inebriation and Vengeance’s lack of patience for good penmanship, but a few things stood out - lyrium, sela petrae, gaatlok, drakestone, and a dozen scribbled lines about the Chantry and necessity and justice will be served. Distantly, Anders wondered if it meant anything that justice wasn’t capitalized.
He didn’t have much longer to become properly curious about the list, though - just before Vengeance started flooding his thoughts with a black tide of ideas (and Anders could feel it coming), he went silent. In fact, everything went silent, from the scuffles and coughing of Darktown outside his door to the low rumbling of whatever arcane masonry separated him from the rest of the city. The world went perfectly still and black, and Anders’ vision swam, unable to focus on the dimming slip of parchment in his hand. Soon even that faded, and Anders wasn’t far behind, succumbing to the quieting darkness with barely a hint of resistance.
-
When he woke up again, a few seconds or possibly a few days later, Anders was pleasantly surprised to notice that he was very much alive, if the aching symptoms of inebriated dehydration were any measure. A split second later, though, he realized that his blackouts were rarely good and in fact usually deadly, and he scrambled to his feet in a panic, looking around for bodies or injuries or whatever else there was that further proved his control of Vengeance was just an illusion.
There was nothing. Anders wavered on his feet, unbalanced by a wave of relief and the uncomfortable protests his body was making to being upright so soon. He leaned against a nearby pillar for support, only to realize that Vengeance was utterly silent. Anders reached to the back of his mind, carefully probing for the spirit, and found no reply - but Vengeance was still there, that much he could tell. He simply wasn’t, for whatever reason, answering, which Anders couldn’t completely write off as a problem. Maker, if he’d known that getting hungover and passing out could get Vengeance to be still...
A moment later, though, and Anders realized Vengeance’s insistent voice wasn’t the only thing missing- his magic was inexplicably gone, the part of his being that usually welled up and over with Fade-given power utterly dark and empty. Anders sucked in a breath, panic and bile rising in his throat, and grabbed frantically at his neck- if there was a collar-- if somehow the Qunari had taken and leashed him- Anders forced himself to calm down as soon as realized there was only skin under his fingers and white-blue blackout started shuttering over his eyes - he wasn’t collared, he wasn’t Tranquil (the panic proved that), and Vengeance was still more than happy to take advantage of Anders’ stress and manifest, even if they apparently weren’t on speaking terms any more.
As his heartbeat and breathing slowly calmed down, Anders glanced around the chamber, trying to take better inventory of his circumstances. He was trapped in some unknown dungeon for some unknown purpose, cut off from his magic and friends but not his charming personal demon, and still pretty hung-over to boot.
Anders covered his eyes and barked out a harsh laugh, well aware that he sounded a little bit mad. “Well,” he said to no one in particular, “I suppose I’ve had worse Tuesdays.”
[ NOTES ]
For the purposes of SC, and because Dragon Age canon is conveniently vague and/or outright silent about where a demon ends and a person begins in cases of possession, I will be playing the Anders/Vengeance relationship as though they have merged, and Vengeance is now a legitimate, separate personality of Anders’. They have never been able to communicate effectively in canon, and this will continue in SC - while their thoughts will influence each other, they will only be able to directly ‘speak’ with each other under times of extreme stress. This is something of a moot point however, as when Anders is experiencing such stress, Vengeance will inevitably try to take over and become the dominant personality.
And as for Vengeance’s personality- well, there’s not much to it. He is a literal incarnation of Vengeance, and cannot be reasoned with or appeased. On rare occasions, it is possible for people close to Anders to talk him down and force Vengeance to retreat (see: Hawke in the quest Dissent), but otherwise Vengeance will stay the dominant personality until he has completed his task or Anders can force his way back up.
Player Name: Rian
Age: 22
Timezone: EST
Personal Journal: minachi
Contact Information: rianrps@gmail.com | rianisocd @ plurk | kindalikeutopia @ AIM
[ CHARACTER INFORMATION ]
Name: Anders
Age: 30-35, exact age not given.
Gender: Male
Canon: Dragon Age 2
Timeline: I am taking him from midway through Act III. Three years earlier, Hawke defeated the Arishok in single combat and was proclaimed Champion of Kirkwall (Isabela returned in time to spark the challenge in the first place). Anders himself is comfortably on his final descent into crazy. This desperation will eventually lead to him blowing up the Chantry (and everyone in it), but for the time being that is just a distant, disturbingly promising plan. The quest Dissent has happened, and although Hawke successfully managed to talk Vengeance/Anders down, he is now deeply disturbed by his own actions and Vengeance’s increasing strength. The quest Justice has not happened. For the sake of other details of plot, I am taking Anders from the same version of the story as Missa’s Hawke, albeit from a slightly earlier point in time.
Character History:
His wiki page is here, and has most of the important points - I can elaborate further if needed. At the end of the game, Hawke can choose to kill Anders, abandon him, or accept his aid in the final battle, after which Anders will leave Kirkwall along with Hawke and the rest of the party. If in a romance with Hawke, Anders will stay by his/her side even after the party splits. While this is technically irrelevant, as Anders and Hawke are coming in from before the end-game and they are not romantically involved, it is still worth mentioning for the sake of showcasing Anders's potential fate(s).
Character Personality:
When Anders first appears in Dragon Age: Awakening, he has several distinct qualities, and very few of them are redeemable. He is sarcastic and garrulous, unable to resist making snide comments in even the most inopportune of moments. He tells the Warden-Commander that he is selfish and cowardly, with little desire to risk his skin, and the ease with which he initially abandons the Darkspawn crisis at Vigil’s Keep certainly supports his claim. Anders has an annoying tendency to talk constantly, and the vast majority of his in-game dialogue is obnoxious, one-sided banter or constant, never-ending prodding of the other party members. While arguably more socially capable then many other mages (who spend their whole lives isolated from the rest of the world), Anders is still immature, annoying, irreverent, and an unashamed womanizer (though with varying degrees of success). He is a bit of a romantic as well, wistfully remarking once that all he wants out of life is “a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools.” He would also like several cats and to be respected for his powers rather than feared or used.
Though he is smarmy and overly talkative, very often his teasing is simply a form of camaraderie, of respect, or of comfort. A life of social isolation within the Tower has left Anders somewhat immature, to be sure, but very often this immaturity manifests as intense curiosity or poorly-thought-out but perfectly sincere attempts to understand and learn about the people he meets. Anders’ conversations with the party members very strongly showcase this, and reveal considerably more about himself then he would like to admit to. With Nathaniel Howe, son of a disgraced noble family, Anders shows empathy, relating Nathaniel’s undeserved persecution to his own subjugation as a mage. With Sigrun and Valenna, a casteless dwarf and Dalish Elven mage respectively, Anders is curious, constantly swapping between his usual teasing and general questions about their unfamiliar cultures. Valenna in particular is interesting to him, as she is an example of what mages could be like were they not controlled by the Chantry. Oghren, a warrior-caste dwarf, banters back just as shamelessly as Anders, and likely represents the first friend he’s ever had outside the Circle. This is not to say his companions like him overly much or respond particularly well to his incessant blathering, but they do put up with and perhaps even respect him - sometimes. At least he’s not in the Circle any more.
Anders at this point styles himself as a selfish coward, but this is a very intentional and tenuous sort of selfishness. He is a healer at heart, and no true healer can be selfish in the way Anders wants others to believe he is. Most of his (admittedly minimal due to the length of the game) character development in DA:A revolves around revealing that he is, in fact, a pretty good person. If he is allowed to escape Vigil’s Keep during the first Darkspawn attack, for example, Anders turns right back around to help the Warden-Commander defend the Keep despite personal risk and rapidly-approaching templars. His life as a mage has left him deeply sympathetic towards the oppressed and downtrodden, so despite all his whining and complaining, Anders never shirks from doing what is right and will literally fight to the death to protect what is important to him. If left to defend an un-upgraded Vigil’s Keep, Anders finally falls to a longbow, but not before he takes out an outrageously large portion of the invading army. While obviously I am not taking him from the bad end, this is another excellent example of the strength of will and determination that truly define Anders for the rest of his life, for good or ill.
Sadly, the end of Dragon Age: Awakening marks the end of Anders’ ‘normal’ personality. While all the points outlined previously still constitute the core of Anders’ personality - his wit, his charm, his obnoxious banter, his determination, and his surprisingly caring soul - events between DA:A and DA2 change him drastically. Sometime after the Battle of Amaranthine, Anders, presumably having come to the realization that he can no longer continue to ignore the world around him, and that a difference must be made in the lives of mages in Chantry-controlled lands, joins with a literal spirit of Justice who had become trapped in the mortal world. As Justice is a spirit (as opposed to a demon) and the possession was voluntary, Justice's personality did not consume Anders', and the two begin to work together towards an ultimate goal of righting the wrongs against the mages of Thedas. No possession, however, no matter how well-intentioned, is without side-effects. Drawing on Anders' deep resentment and anger towards the templars and the Chantry, Justice eventually transforms into a different sort of spirit: a demon of Vengeance. In turn influenced by the unstable, single-minded being inhabiting his mind, Anders becomes deeply disturbed by the strain of holding Vengeance and his desire to act in check. After Justice, now Vengeance, lashes out during a moment of extreme stress, killing several Grey Wardens and rather effectively severing Anders’ ties with the organization, Anders flees across the sea to Kirkwall, the City of Chains, where the events of DA2 take place.
Somewhere around a year later, when he finally meets Marian Hawke, Anders is jaded and stressed, and has aged visibly since leaving Ferelden. He is overworked both by holding Vengeance in check and by running a free clinic in the poor quarter of a city famed for its anti-mage policies. Never let it be said Anders favors the easy way out. Despite all the ills Vengeance’s possession have brought him, and I will elaborate on those soon, not all of the changes in Anders are detrimental. While he looses his quick charm and easy-going energy, he gains a deeper sort of calm and begins to mature into the sort of responsible, dedicated person Justice likely saw in him in the first place. He is more focused on making a difference in the world, on using his skills for good and not just escape or self-defense, the most obvious example being the refugee clinic he runs down in Darktown. Additionally, he (…and by proxy Hawke) aids the Mage Underground for most of the game, helping mages from Kirkwall’s Circle escape the city as the Templars continue to crack down. The next few years follow this pattern - working in the clinic, helping mages, following Hawke like a lost puppy, and desperately trying to keep Vengeance under control.
That’s easier said than done, though, and Anders’ success is tenuous and temporary at best. Increasingly often, Vengeance manages to take control, particularly when Anders is threatened or over-worked or simply too close to some templars. The first sight Hawke (and therefore the audience) gets of Vengeance manifesting is when she and Anders go to save an old friend of his, Karl Theka, only to discover that Karl had been made Tranquil - forcibly cut off from his magic and his emotions. As Anders’ panic and anger builds, Vengeance is able to take control and dispatch of the templars who set up the trap. There are subtler effects as well - Vengeance’s all-consuming desire for, well, vengeance, begins to seep into Anders’ mind, to influence his thoughts and motivations. As time goes on and Kirkwall gets less and less unstable, Anders grows as restless as the spirit that possesses him, and starts worrying that helping mages escape isn’t enough, that he can no longer simply treat the symptoms of Kirkwall’s - of Thedas’ - templar disease. As Knight-Commander Meredith squeezes the mages harder and harder, Anders becomes cynical and pessimistic, more and more convinced that no amount of talking or example-setting or compromise will ever make enough of a difference to the mages suffering in Kirkwall. It will be several years yet before he does anything more than brood, but the pressure is building even so.
Thankfully, though, Anders is not alone in Kirkwall. Hawke, unsurprisingly, is his most important connection - as another mage, another apostate, Hawke is possibly the only person in the party who really understands him. She is kind, supportive, and sympathetic to his - to their - plight. She is charismatic and witty, and basically everything he never thought he’d be lucky enough to have. And of course, that’s a minor problem - he doesn’t have her, not really. Anders has since learned to accept that fact, though, and while he’s still more than a little infatuated with her, he’s perfectly happy just to have her unwavering friendship and support. She helps keep him grounded and, more recently, keep him sane. Anders is also fairly close to Varric and Isabela - he and Varric share a love of snarky banter and dramatic storytelling, while he and Isabela both appreciate personal freedom and inappropriate commentary. Anders tends to butt heads with most of the other party members, though. Aveline, the Captain of the Guard, he likely respects, but he also resents her for not turning a blind eye to the activities of illegal mages in the city, even when said mages actually deserve to be locked up. She accuses him of having issues with authority in general, and it’s a fair assessment. Merrill is a blood mage, which is one of the few things Anders hates as much as templars, so he constantly argues with her about her naiveté and ignorance, but Merrill’s sunny disposition prevents him from being much more than frustrated. It’s doubtful that he thinks she’s a bad person - just naive and overly-trusting. His real conflicts are with Fenris and Sebastian - Fenris because he is just as hypocritical as Anders but on the other side of the discussion and involved with Hawke, and Sebastian because Sebastian is a Chantry Brother and a self-righteous asshole. For the most part, though, his conflicts with the party are low-key enough that they function effectively together.
But behind all of this, Vengeance still lingers, and as the years go by Anders’ control over the spirit dwindles while his own resentment grows. This all comes to a head when Anders (and Hawke and co.) go to save a runaway mage who has been captured by a particularly nasty group of templars. When they finally reach the confrontation, Vengeance suddenly and violently takes control, and goes on a rampage. Even after the templars are dead, Vengeance still demands more, and were it not for Hawke’s intervention, he would have even killed the runaway mage they were trying to rescue in the first place. When he finally snaps out of it, Anders is horrified, and flees the scene. By the time Hawke returns to check in on him, Anders has started spiraling into self-doubt and depression; he feels like he can’t maintain control over Vengeance, that he has no right to champion the cause of mages when he is a prime example of everything that can go wrong with magic. Hawke calms him down, but the damage has been done - Kirkwall is a time-bomb, and Anders finds himself unable to keep pretending that everything is ok.
So we come, three years later, to Anders as he is now. Needless to say, being possessed, however voluntarily, by a less-than-benevolent spirit for nearly 10 years has left Anders with a host of psychological traumas. He has become increasingly paranoid, feeling threatened almost constantly, and frequently lashes out at friends and strangers alike for the smallest perceived slights. Practically the only time he doesn't feel needlessly angry is when around Hawke. Though he’s still a genuinely kind person who prefers healing to combat, Anders has become more vicious in battle, less likely to show mercy when given the chance, and he is in a near-constant state of desperate, terrified worry. He has vicious mood swings, going from ecstatic single-mindedness to crushing despair to self-doubt to extreme rage. Physically, he is tired, worn out by stress, and flips quickly between utter psychological exhaustion and manic obsessive energy. All these problems stem from Vengeance's increased effect on Anders' mind. As a spirit of the endless Fade, Vengeance has no concept of time, and spends every waking moment demanding that action be taken, that something be done to satisfy his need for retribution. As a manifestation of pure vengeance, he can think of nothing besides his call for punishment, and is incapable of both mercy and morality. As a demon, Vengeance's only desire in life is his desire - his only goal is to do what, in his eyes, must be done, no matter the consequences, no matter the cost. Vengeance does not differentiate between friend and foe - there are only those who stand in his way, and those who stand out of it. Removed from the stress of Kirkwall on the brink of war, Anders will likely be able to take better control of both himself and Vengeance, and his instability will pop up less often, though this will not remove Vengeance's omnipresent demands.
Character Abilities you would like to expand on further:
As he has been in the Circle since he was young, Anders is a very well-trained mage. He is particularly talented with Spirit Healing, a specialization of Creation magic in which the mage gains the passive assistance of a benevolent spirit for the purposes of healing, regeneration, and revival. This is different from his relationship with Justice/Vengeance, as the spirit that augments his Spirit Healing connects with him only via the Fade, and there is effectively no deeper meaning to this particular spirit aside from gameplay mechanics. Obviously, his abilities as a Spirit Healer will have very little effect in SC, and he will no longer have contact with the (unnamed) spirit who assists his healing normally. Additionally, Anders does have some ability as a combat spell-slinger, though he is primarily a support class and prefers not to fight. This will be especially true in DC, as the loss of magic will also mean a loss of most of his offensive skills. His only non-magical combat ability is some basic skill with a quarterstaff - mages in Thedas don't just use them for show.
Part of studying as a Spirit Healer includes learning about physiology and the human body. As such, even without his magic Anders has enough medical training to function as a competent non-magical triage doctor. He's no surgeon, but he has plenty of experience with handling anything from basic illness to severe physical trauma. More than that, healing is a calling to Anders, something he will go out of his way to do, no matter the circumstances. Coupled with unflappable nerves and a calm bedside manner, his skills as a physician are universal.
During the events of Dragon Age: Awakening, Anders voluntarily joins the Grey Wardens, a politically neutral brotherhood of warriors dedicated to protecting Thedas from Darkspawn. He joins the Wardens are mostly to save his own skin, as Wardens can invoke the Rite of Conscription and recruit potential members from any walk of life, no matter their crimes or past, which effectively (and finally) removes him from the Chantry's clutches. In order to combat the Darkspawn, Wardens drink a combination of lyrium (raw magic, a mineral), Darkspawn blood, and Archedemon blood in a ceremony known as the Joining. This ritual is potential fatal, though obviously Anders survives - but not without consequences. By imbibing the Taint, Wardens gain the ability to sense Darkspawn, and an almost inhuman amount of physical stamina (Anders, for example, can go several days without sleep and even longer without food if necessary, as evidenced by the long hours he puts in at the clinic and at Hawke's side). These abilities come with a cost, however, which will be discussed in the weaknesses section.
Despite recent developments and Vengeance's influence, Anders is - or was - a very charming man. When not wracked with self-inflicted angsty manpain, he is demonstrably good at making friends, or at least companions, with his unique sort of sympathetic smarm. While his obnoxious, immature needling has been long since mellowed out from long years in Kirkwall, Anders can still be very witty and snarky if in the proper mood.
As he is the manifestation of an ideal, Vengeance's abilities are not particularly tangible. His power lies in the realm of the psychological, and when he does physically manifest he simply uses Anders' memories and skills as his own (i.e. he is, for our purposes, the exact same mage as Anders). When Vengeance manifests, Anders' voice drops considerably and his skin cracks and his eyes and skin glow a bright bluish-white. These are purely aesthetic effects, but worth mentioning. As Vengeance is technically a demon at this point, the vast majority of his abilities as they relate to Anders are detrimental, but as they are also integral parts of Anders’ personality, I’ve elected to discuss them in his general personality section.
Character Weaknesses you would like to expand on further:
While mages in Thedas are not as defenseless or squishy as most traditional magic-users, they are hardly juggernauts. Anders' Warden stamina cannot make up for the fact that he has never trained as a physical warrior, and as such does not have the skills or musculature to do much more than swing his quarterstaff around. He's not weak, but he's certainly no stronger than your average person. As Vengeance's previous iteration (Justice) was a literal knight in shining armor, an argument can be made that Vengeance, should he manifest, would at least have the skills and mindset for martial prowess, though he would be limited by Anders' physical form.
Unfortunately, even those Grey Wardens who survive the Joining will eventually succumb to the Taint within them, dying of the poison or going mad long before their natural lifespans are over. At best, a Warden can hope for another 20, maybe 30 years of life after his or her joining, and the Taint also makes it nearly impossible for Wardens to have children. Additionally, Wardens gain some of the features of the Darkspawn they now resemble, including ravenous hunger and horrifying nightmares of the Archdemon attempting to communicate with them. Anders is no exception to any of these side-effects.
As outlined in his personality section, Anders is emotionally and psychologically unstable, though he it at least very aware of his issues. He still has enough self-control to hold himself together, but it would not be an exaggeration to say that he just needs one good push to fall over the brink. Removed from the source of conflict (the mage-templar war), Anders should be fairly stable, though he’ll still have Vengeance to deal with.
Anders' lack of friends by Act III is not entirely due to Vengeance's presence, however. He has always been somewhat petty, and while this was tolerable (and occasionally charming) in DA:A, years of stress have sharpened Anders' verbal barbs into something decidedly less playful. Very few of his companions can keep a good mood going around him anymore, as he will lash out in defensive anger given the slightest provocation. Anders is also wildly judgmental and hypocritical when it comes to the mage-templar conflict. A few choice examples stand out: Anders hates the templars for assuming that every mage is evil and dangerous, but absolutely refuses to consider that not all templars are violent, hateful, and oppressive, going so far as to ignore, antagonize, or warp the motives of the many templars who are genuinely kind, mage-sympathetic people; he constantly compares being in the Circle with being enslaved, yet will outright applaud if Hawke decides to betray Fenris and sell him back into slavery (this did not happen in my Anders' backstory, but point remains that it is something he would approve of); when he learns that Hawke and Fenris are in a relationship, he publicly criticizes Hawke's choice and remarks that she should be with someone "more open-minded" (Fenris thankfully calls him out on this); he is petty and disrespectful towards allies who are not as vehemently pro-mage as he; and he constantly belittles Merrill for accepting demonic aid despite the fact that he's gone one step further in allowing a spirit-cum-demon to possess his physical being. In some cases, Anders is aware of his hypocrisy, especially with Merrill. Additionally, there is a great deal of argument to be made for this rampant hypocrisy being a side-effect of Vengeance's warped, alien 'morals', particularly in the case of Fenris' potential re-enslavement (as Vengeance may have seen Fenris as an obstacle). While removal from the mage-templar conflict will likely lessen the chances of Anders being a raging, judgmental hypocrite in everyday conversation (he’s a very level-headed person, aside from when he’s not), his quicksilver moods and sharp tongue guarantees that he'll have no problem pissing off considerable portions of the populace.
[ SOUL CAMPAIGN SECTION ]
What abilities will your character retain in Soul Campaign?
-As it is more of a passive/non-supernatural ability, Anders will likely keep his Grey Warden abilities. To reiterate, this includes increased stamina (though not increased alcohol tolerance….) and the ability to sense Darkspawn/corruption (for all the good that will do).
-A lifetime of escaping towers and dungeons has left Anders with the (non-magical) ability to shimmy his way out of just about any form of confinement. This is not to say he'll get out unscathed, and he's not actually that good at staying un-captured, but at least he'll get out. It's not so much an ability as it is a talent, but it's worth mentioning even so.
What weaknesses will your character lose or gain in Soul Campaign?
-Of course Anders will also retain his Grey Warden weakness. These include: horrifying nightmares about the Archdemon, ravenous appetite, sharply decreased lifespan (he's got another 15 years or so left, max), near-inability to reproduce, and, as his blood is laced with the Darkspawn taint, he probably isn't going to be a good candidate for giving blood. Contact with his blood isn't deadly or even poisonous, but it can cause a nasty rash.
-Thanks to the effects of BREW, Anders will lose his spell-casting abilities. As he is a very well-trained mage, this will effectively hobble him in conventional combat and remove his ability to defend himself.
The wish Death the Kid made to the BREW in 2009 was to “rescue Death City and stop the waves of Madness from overtaking the world.” By whatever means necessary. Pretend you are the BREW. Why would you choose to bring this character to Death City?
A pretty obvious explanation for Anders' presence in Death City would be his healing abilities. Even denied his magic, he's spent the majority of his life studying healing and human physiology, and would make an excellent conventional healer.
A less benign reason could be the presence of Vengeance. Though wildly unstable and utterly alien in his morals, Vengeance is a powerful and single-minded entity, and an excellent, if risky, ally to have, so long as he can be convinced that his rage is properly directed.
If your character has difficulty verbally communicating or can’t verbally communicate at all (mute or non-humanoid), elaborate on how this will be treated in the game. N/A
[ MEISTER ONLY SECTION ]
Why is your character a Meister and not a Weapon?
Anders has always chafed under any sort of control, no matter how equal, no matter how benign - within the Grey Wardens, for example, he was a brother in arms, but still found himself unable to take orders or be directed or work particularly well with others (the Warden-Commander potentially notwithstanding). This is not to say that Anders is incapable of depending on or partnering with other people, or that he has to remain in control, as his relationship with Hawke and the rest of the party shows is hardly one of hierarchy-derived aggression. He is perfectly capable of stepping out of the limelight and working people he outright hates so long as it serves a common goal.
Ultimately, however, being a Weapon would remind him far too much of being a tool for his companions, be it as the Grey Warden's pet apostate, Vengeance's increasingly unwilling host, or simply another Tower mage squirming under the Chantry's boot. Anders' preference towards being a Meister isn't necessarily because he would work better as a Meister - it is because he would resent (however quietly, however irrationally) being a 'Weapon'.
It is worth noting at well that certain cultures in-game leash, blind, and cut the tongues out of their mages and use them as trained weapons (the Qunari Saarebas, primarily). Even without magic and even knowing that the Weapon/Meister relationship is one of equality, Anders would almost certainly draw extremely uncomfortable parallels between himself as a Weapon and the Saarebas back home.
What is your character’s Meister Ability? Why?
-Soul Bandaid
-Soul Panacea: Similar to his in-game version, this soul ability could allow Anders to passively heal nearby allies at the cost of being unable to use offensive abilities.
-Soul Vengeance: Like his in-game counterpart, this ability could allow Anders to do significantly more damage during a fight at the cost of all regeneration, healing, or other restoration abilities, natural or otherwise, and it would make him more susceptible to damage. Would also make him glow cool colors!
[ SOUL INFORMATION ]
Describe your character’s soul with six adjectives.
Sarcastic, hypocritical, determined, cynical, charming, angry.
What does your character’s soul look like? Be creative.
Anders’ soul is ruddy bronze, with a whitish-blue sort of aura around it that crackles slightly. The ‘hair’ is short and pulled back into the smallest of ponytails. It would be fairly nondescript were it not for the occasional flashes of vibrant, angry crimson that seethe just under the ‘skin’. When Justice/Vengeance is the dominant personality, the bronze recedes and the crimson color dominates. The aura around it becomes almost blindingly bright, and the soul itself resembles a medieval knight’s helm, battered and dented.
[ SAMPLES ]
Provide a First Person style sample in the form of a post to the DEMISE network.
[ The camera turns on at an odd angle, as though it’s simply been left sitting around and has switched on accidentally. This is entirely the case, of course.
Off to the side of the screen, visible but not intentionally so, Anders is sitting on the edge of his bed, face in his hands. He might appear asleep, or at least resting, were it not for the occasional tremors in his hands and shoulders, and a low, nearly-indistinct muttering is likely him talking to himself. ]
-don’t think I haven’t already considered that; this doesn’t feel like the Fade. ...I don’t think it’s a prison, either. Something about a war, not that that’s anything unusual...
[ After a few more moments and an exhausted sigh, Anders looks up, apparently finished with his rambling. The light coming in from the open window only serves to illustrate how worn out he looks, but there’s a weary set to his brow and mouth that hints at a sort of exasperated, cynical amusement. He pinches the bridge of his nose one last time and then stands, stretching briefly with an audible pop of his lower spine. Anders winces at the sound, then holds his hands over his stomach, hovering but not touching. His brow furrows in concentration, and for perhaps the briefest of seconds it looks like there’s a spark of light under his palms-
But then that proves to have only been a trick of the light, probably reflecting off of one of his bracers. Anders’ expression falls and he drops his hands back down by his side. ]
Maker’s Breath, it really is gone... [ He scrubs at his face, and walks over to the window, leaning on the frame as he takes in the city. ] Well, at least I won’t have to worry about templars.
Provide a Third Person sample set during the last minutes on their world and/or their first few moments in the Kishin Chamber.
Vengeance was loudest at dawn. Not that said anything, exactly, because despite what the Chantry told people about demons whispering into mortals’ minds that simply was not how possession worked- but Anders had always found that it was hardest to ignore Vengeance’s thoughts in the early hours of the morning, when his own thoughts were muddled and dulled, and Vengeance started to realize that yet another (wasted) day had passed. He couldn’t even say that the thoughts seeped in, because there was no seeping anymore - Vengeance was always there, always throbbing in the back of his mind like an abnormal vein, pulsing with hate and rage and fury.
Naturally, of course, that made waking up with a hangover considerably more unpleasant than normal. If Anders had still had his mind to himself he would have taken a moment to consider the unfairness of it all, but as it was ignoring Vengeance and trying not to move too quickly took up the bulk of his mental acuity. He couldn’t even remember most of the previous night, likely due to the Hanged Man’s ‘fine’ spirits, which was probably a blessing in disguise - if he wasn’t so spectacularly bad at betting, Anders would have been willing to wager that the evening had ended with Fenris and Isabela smugly in possession of most of his possessions. Again. The only nice part about the experience was that Vengeance tended to keep quiet while Anders was drinking, likely out of disapproval.
But now that Anders was properly and unhappily awake, Vengeance resumed his standard mantra - destroy the templars, rain fire upon our enemies, crush the hearts of those who stand in our way, the usual. Or, mostly the usual. As Anders rolled over and stood up, displeased to note that he’d fallen asleep in his boots, he caught sight of his desk. Vengeance went eerily still as Anders took in the mess of papers and quills and ink and bandages, which was all the prompting he needed to investigate. He picked up the top-most piece of parchment, observing the details of it before he dared to look at the words. The handwriting was sharp and unfamiliar, sloppy and unpracticed, as though the hand holding the pen had been in less than full control of his facilities. So Vengeance hadn’t been quite as distant the night before as Anders had hoped - just another sign of how much his control was slipping, of how he shouldn’t let his guard down for a second. What if Vengeance had taken over in public? Or worse, around templars? What if he’d tried to hurt someone again, and Hawke wasn’t around to stop him this time?
Anders crumpled the paper violently in his hand, and a pained hiss escaped his unknowingly clenched teeth. He had the words ready in his mind to light the damnable thing on fire, but something (don’t) made him stop and gently smooth the paper back out. Whatever it was, it was probably worth looking at (our plans, our freedom), right? After all, if Vengeance had had the sense of mind to actually leave a message...well, it was better than waking up to a pile of bodies. Most of the writing was incomprehensible, due to a combination of Anders’ inebriation and Vengeance’s lack of patience for good penmanship, but a few things stood out - lyrium, sela petrae, gaatlok, drakestone, and a dozen scribbled lines about the Chantry and necessity and justice will be served. Distantly, Anders wondered if it meant anything that justice wasn’t capitalized.
He didn’t have much longer to become properly curious about the list, though - just before Vengeance started flooding his thoughts with a black tide of ideas (and Anders could feel it coming), he went silent. In fact, everything went silent, from the scuffles and coughing of Darktown outside his door to the low rumbling of whatever arcane masonry separated him from the rest of the city. The world went perfectly still and black, and Anders’ vision swam, unable to focus on the dimming slip of parchment in his hand. Soon even that faded, and Anders wasn’t far behind, succumbing to the quieting darkness with barely a hint of resistance.
-
When he woke up again, a few seconds or possibly a few days later, Anders was pleasantly surprised to notice that he was very much alive, if the aching symptoms of inebriated dehydration were any measure. A split second later, though, he realized that his blackouts were rarely good and in fact usually deadly, and he scrambled to his feet in a panic, looking around for bodies or injuries or whatever else there was that further proved his control of Vengeance was just an illusion.
There was nothing. Anders wavered on his feet, unbalanced by a wave of relief and the uncomfortable protests his body was making to being upright so soon. He leaned against a nearby pillar for support, only to realize that Vengeance was utterly silent. Anders reached to the back of his mind, carefully probing for the spirit, and found no reply - but Vengeance was still there, that much he could tell. He simply wasn’t, for whatever reason, answering, which Anders couldn’t completely write off as a problem. Maker, if he’d known that getting hungover and passing out could get Vengeance to be still...
A moment later, though, and Anders realized Vengeance’s insistent voice wasn’t the only thing missing- his magic was inexplicably gone, the part of his being that usually welled up and over with Fade-given power utterly dark and empty. Anders sucked in a breath, panic and bile rising in his throat, and grabbed frantically at his neck- if there was a collar-- if somehow the Qunari had taken and leashed him- Anders forced himself to calm down as soon as realized there was only skin under his fingers and white-blue blackout started shuttering over his eyes - he wasn’t collared, he wasn’t Tranquil (the panic proved that), and Vengeance was still more than happy to take advantage of Anders’ stress and manifest, even if they apparently weren’t on speaking terms any more.
As his heartbeat and breathing slowly calmed down, Anders glanced around the chamber, trying to take better inventory of his circumstances. He was trapped in some unknown dungeon for some unknown purpose, cut off from his magic and friends but not his charming personal demon, and still pretty hung-over to boot.
Anders covered his eyes and barked out a harsh laugh, well aware that he sounded a little bit mad. “Well,” he said to no one in particular, “I suppose I’ve had worse Tuesdays.”
[ NOTES ]
For the purposes of SC, and because Dragon Age canon is conveniently vague and/or outright silent about where a demon ends and a person begins in cases of possession, I will be playing the Anders/Vengeance relationship as though they have merged, and Vengeance is now a legitimate, separate personality of Anders’. They have never been able to communicate effectively in canon, and this will continue in SC - while their thoughts will influence each other, they will only be able to directly ‘speak’ with each other under times of extreme stress. This is something of a moot point however, as when Anders is experiencing such stress, Vengeance will inevitably try to take over and become the dominant personality.
And as for Vengeance’s personality- well, there’s not much to it. He is a literal incarnation of Vengeance, and cannot be reasoned with or appeased. On rare occasions, it is possible for people close to Anders to talk him down and force Vengeance to retreat (see: Hawke in the quest Dissent), but otherwise Vengeance will stay the dominant personality until he has completed his task or Anders can force his way back up.