Player
Name: Emma
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atraphoenixIM: atravenenum
Email: atraphoenix@hotmail.co.uk
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Leela of the Sevateem [D1]Character Information
Character: Guinevere / Gwen
Series: Merlin
Deviance: 2
Age: 21
Gender: Female
Species: Human
Canon Used: The first series of Merlin, up to episode twelve, as well as details about Gwen’s history - notably the existence of her brother and the fact that her mother was a maid in a noble household - from later episodes.
Appearance: Gwen, portrayed by Angel Coulby, is of average height, with curly dark hair and big brown eyes. She might not be a classical beauty like her mistress, but she is by no means unattractive. Her clothes - which are usually in cheerful shades of orange, yellows or red - are generally simple, practical and homemade, befitting a servant who is also one of the best seamstresses in Camelot.
Psychology: Despite being a ‘mere’ servant, Gwen is not ashamed of who or what she is. She always carries herself with dignity and is happy with her life, despite her father’s attempts to improve it and his fervent belief that she deserved more. Although she is capable of standing up for herself -she fiercely protested her innocence when she was arrested for witchcraft and tried not to weep in the dungeons, despite how frightened she was - her position often makes that difficult. She frequently finds it hard to say what is truly in her heart, though she often has thoughts and opinions beyond her station. (She believes, for example, that women have just as much right to right for their lives and their homes as men and that nobility is not just an accident of birth.) Usually, what is in her heart is an infinite capacity for forgiveness, a caring nature and an innate ability to see the best in people who can’t always see it in themselves. She is extremely compassionate, with a good heart, a strong sense of morals and firm feelings on right and wrong. Despite hating Uther for what he did to her father, she is not a killer and told Merlin, perfectly sincerely, that she would not kill him if the chance presented itself. She was not and would not become as bad as him.
Gwen’s loyalty to those that she holds dear is unwavering and steadfast. She believed her father was innocent, despite his attempt to escape, and was heartbroken to think that other people would think of him as a traitor. He deserved so much better than that. Furthermore, she has comforted Morgana after many of her nightmares and knows something of her powers, but would never dream of betraying them to anyone. Despite having more than enough work to be doing, she often spends nights in her antechambers to care for her mistress. (Her relationship with Elyan, her only sibling, is a little less straightforward. As much as she loves him, she is angry with him for disappearing and even angrier that she can’t summon him home now that their father is dead.) In the absence of any family in Camelot, she has come to consider Morgana, Merlin and Arthur - despite their differences in station - as her family. She would do anything for any of them, just as readily as she would help a stranger who needed her aid.
Although she has a tendency to give in to shyness and awkwardness at times, particularly when she is in situations she isn’t comfortable with or doesn’t really want to be in, Gwen has a quiet sort of inner strength and the decorum needed to work in a royal household. (When she does given in to the shyness and awkwardness, she ends up saying something that she perceives that she shouldn’t have said, which is swiftly followed by slightly frantic corrections and apologies. It’s rather adorable.)
Gwen is also eminently practical, soldiering on even when she is clearly hurting inside, and brave in often difficult circumstances. She is a useful person to have around, despite not having any magical powers or particular fighting skills, because she does has common sense and is a very quicker thinker. Her practically is one of the reasons why she denies her attraction to “rough, tough, save-the-world” and claims to like more ordinary men. She is perfectly ordinary, after all. Or so she thinks.
Other Skills / Abilities: Although she doesn’t have any supernatural powers or magic, Gwen has plenty of useful practical skills. She is one of the best - Merlin actually calls her the best - seamstresses in Camelot, a diligent servant and she learned how to work metal from her blacksmith father. Furthermore, she can use swords as well as repair them, although she prefers not to if there is any alternative. She can wield a weapon well enough to defend herself and those she loves, but she’ll never be a natural.
Other Weaknesses: Gwen is a baseline human, with all the weakness and fragilities that that implies. She can fall ill or be injured easily enough and, depending on the severity of the problem (and the amount of interference from her more magically inclined canon mates, I suppose) it can take a long time for her to heal.
Her status is also a major weakness, at least in her own world. She is a lowly servant, despite her close ties to the royal family, and that means that her voice - when she can manage to make it heard, which is rare in itself - doesn’t count for much amongst the nobility. She fervently believes that Arthur will be able to change things for the better but, for the time being, she is a member of a low class in a kingdom built on the class system.
History: Guinevere, more commonly known as Gwen, was the only daughter of Tom, a blacksmith in Camelot, and Claire, a maid in one of the city’s many noble households. She grew up alongside the son of the family, a boy named Leon who would one day become of Camelot’s most trusted knights, helping her mother with her work when she could and learning to work metal from her father whenever she had a spare moment.
Following her mother’s early death, Gwen accepted a position as a maid in the castle in order to help keep food on the family’s table and raw materials in the forge. She eventually went on to become the Lady Morgana’s personal maid and, over time, her closest female friend as well. (Her elder brother, Elyan, left Camelot at around the same time she came to work for Morgana. Currently, Gwen has no idea where he is or if he is even alive.)
She befriended the young warlock Merlin as soon as he arrived in the city of Camelot, admiring him for standing up to Arthur, the kingdom’s arrogant crown prince. Although she initially had a bit of a crush on Merlin, it didn’t last long and their relationship soon settled into a close and comfortable friendship. This friendship encouraged Merlin to use his magic to help Tom when he was infected by a magical plague that had been unleashed on Camelot by the vengeful sorceress Nimueh. Unfortunately, there was no known cure for the disease at the time, and Uther swiftly arrested Gwen for practicing witchcraft. She was only saved from execution when the Afanc responsible for poisoning the water supply and causing the plague was slain by Arthur, Merlin and Morgana.
A few weeks later, Merlin introduced Gwen to Lancelot, a commoner with dreams of becoming a knight. She was immediately attracted to his nobility and bravery and was eager to help him achieve his goal, believing fervently that Camelot needed knights like him and that nobility wasn’t necessarily the result of noble blood. Unfortunately, Lancelot was forced to leave Camelot before their relationship could grow any further. Uther discovered that his papers of nobility had been forged and, although Arthur freed him from prison on the condition that he left Camelot forever, he returned to risk his life and help to slay the griffin that had been plaguing the city. Lancelot didn’t stay long enough to find out if his act of bravery would have been enough for Uther to restore his knighthood. He knew that Merlin had enchanted the spear he used and had been truly responsible for saving the city and refused to lie any more. Gwen had no way of knowing if she would ever see him again.
Over the next few months, Gwen played a key role in helping to hide the druid boy Mordred when he was being hunted by Uther’s guards and continued to care for her friend and mistress when she was troubled by her prophetic dreams. She also helped - admittedly unwitting - to create Excalibur, providing Merlin with the finest blade that her father had ever made when he asked for her aid. (Merlin then asked the Great Dragon to imbue the blade with his breath and his power so that Arthur could use it to kill the wraith that had challenged him to a duel. In the end, it was Uther who killed the wraith and Merlin had no choice but to take the immensely powerful blade and throw it into a lake to stop it from falling into the wrong hands.)
When Hunith, Merlin’s mother, came to beg King Uther for aid against the raiders that were troubling her village, Uther was unable to offer assistance without violating a treaty with a neighbouring king. Merlin intended to help alone, but, in the end, Gwen - and Arthur and Morgana - road to Ealdor with him to offer what assistance they could. She repaired armour and weapons using the knowledge she’d picked up from her father and convinced Arthur to allow the women of the village to fight alongside the men. She also scolded him for his lack of gratitude when Hunith used up some of her scarce food supplies to cook him a meal that he didn’t want to eat. To her surprise, he apologised for his behaviour instead of punishing her for her disrespect. At last, her opinion of Arthur - and their relationship - began to change.
The raiders were defeated with both sword and magic, with Merlin’s childhood friend Will - who was killed in the fight - pretending to be responsible for the magic. The four friends eventually returned to Camelot, closer to each other than ever.
And then it all went wrong.
Her father, eager to provide a better life for his beloved daughter, collaborated with a man named Tauren who was, unbeknown to him, a dangerous sorcerer. When the guards caught up with them, Tauren fled and Tom was arrested for treason. Although he was promised a trial, most people - including Morgana - knew that Uther had already made his decision. Unable to see Gwen lose her father as she had lost hers, Morgana stole a key to the cells and smuggled it in to him. Despite her efforts, however, Tom died on the swords of the guards during his attempt to escape.
Naturally, Gwen was devastated to lose the most important person in her life. Arthur’s assurances that her home and her job were still hers helped, but they were not enough to help her forget that she was essentially alone in the world. To make matters worse, Tauren returned to Camelot, demanding the return of the magical stone that Tom had been working on for him. Gwen so shaken by the confrontation with him that Morgana had no trouble getting the truth out of her the next morning, just as Gwen had no trouble discovering that Morgana had spent the night in the dungeons for standing up to Uther on her account. She petitioned Morgana to take care, unable to bear losing her dearest friend and the only family that she had left
Morgana agreed, marching off - as far as Gwen was concerned - to report Tauren to the knights. Instead, the king’s ward left to confront Tauren herself, with Merlin following to spy on her. Morgana joined forces with Tauren, offering to help him kill Uther, bringing the long outlawed magic back to Camelot and avenging both her own and Gwen’s fathers. She persuaded Uther to ride with her to her father’s grave and begin to put the past behind them. Once again, Merlin followed her, knowing what Morgana was planning and inspired to save Uther by an oblivious Gwen, who had reminded him that killing the king would make them no better than he was, even if they hated him for what he’d done.
While they were at her father’s graveside, Uther apologised to Morgana and confessed that he had been wrong not to listen to her in the first place. Morgana relented and forgave him, but it was too late. She only hesitated for a moment, but that was long enough to give Tauren - who had already knocked Merlin unconscious - the chance to kill Uther. Though she killed Tauren a moment later, it was too late for the king.
Uther’s premature death meant that Arthur was placed on the throne before he was really ready to take it. In his grief, Arthur rode out to fight the Questing Beast when he should have delegated the task to his knights, leaving him on the edge of death and Camelot in an even more precarious position. Gwen refused to give up on the young king and nursed him during his illness, confessing to the only partly conscious Arthur that the prospect of his rule and the bright future that he will bring was one of the few things that kept her going. Arthur was eventually restored by Merlin’s aid and water from the Cup of Life and, to Gwen’s intense embarrassment, he remembered everything that she had said to him
For the sake of the kingdom and political stability, Morgana and Arthur were soon wed. Currently, the kingdom of Camelot is tentatively stable, but the future is uncertain.
Canon Point: A few months after the AU ending of ‘To Kill the King’, following the marriage and coronation of King Arthur and Queen Morgana.
Reality Description: The Camelot of Gwen’s reality is a somewhat anachronistic but mostly medieval kingdom on the island of Albion, with a capital city of the same name. Gwen lives in a small and somewhat delapadated house on the edge of the bustling city, next to what used to be her father’s forge. (The forge itself is still in perfect working order, but it has not been in use since Tom’s death at the hands of Uther’s soldiers.) The castle at the centre of the city is the residence of the royal family - the Pendragons - and the base of the knights of Camelot, noble warriors - both literally and figuratively, since only those of noble birth can currently join - who defend the kingdom from it’s many enemies. As a maid to and close friend of the Lady Morgana, Camelot’s queen, Gwen tends to spend a lot of time in the castle to tend to her mistress’s needs.
Arthur Pendragon, the king of Camelot, was forced to take the throne sooner than expected due to the premature death of his father, Uther. This left Camelot in a rather precarious political position, with their enemies - from Cendred, the warlord who rules the neighbouring kingdom, to Lord Bayard of Mercia, tentative allies of the Pendragons - waiting for a chance that Arthur refuses to give them. He married Morgana for the sake of stabilisation and the kingdom is slowly settling back in to normality, but, without an heir, there is a limit to how stable Camelot can become.
(Magic, outlawed in Camelot since Arthur’s birth and the death of his mother, is one of the things that threatens the tentative balance in the kingdom. Uther was fanatical in his pursuit of both practitioners of magic and people who helped them, both accidentally and deliberately. Understandably, this made him a lot of enemies and some of these enemies hold grudges that have now transferred to his son. It’s a good job that Arthur has the young warlock Merlin at his side to help him deal with these enemies, even if he doesn’t actually realise who keeps saving his life.)
Mergers:
- A partial merger with
Mu. Marble ruins have replaced parts of the castle in Camelot.
- A partial merger with
Oliver Day. The greenhouse in the TARDIS now overlaps with one of Camelot's forests, allowing people to stand in both places at the same time. Furthermore, smoke in the TARDIS has gained some of Camelot's magic and the ability to form itself into strange shapes.
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realityshifted tag-
shifted_logs tag