ooc: application

[littleblade]

Name: Mhairi
Personal Journal: deathwailart
Contact: aim&plurk: deathwailart
Other Characters Played:
Tanis | drageridder | Original
Desmond Miles | failscendant | Assassin's Creed
Newton Geiszler | kaijupie | Pacific Rim

also apping: Oerba Dia Vanille | rainbowfishing | Final Fantasy XIII

Character:  Damhnait Mahariel aka The Warden
Series: Dragon Age: Origins 
Age:  20 - the Warden is treated like a young woman but as a Dalish hunter, she is clearly of age though still called child by elders in her clan. The Blight takes around a year to defeat and there's a sixth month gap between Origins and Awakening and a little more time between that and Witch Hunt.
History:

Origins Plot
Dalish Elf Origin
Awakening Plot
Witch Hunt Plot

plot specific decisions/quest order
Origins:
Broken Circle
- sided with the Mages

Arl of Redcliffe
- Isolde and Connor survived

Nature of the Beast
- convinced Zathrian to lift the curse, Dalish recruited

A Paragon of Her Kind
- Harrowmount crowned
- Sided with Branka
- Anvil of the Void saved

The Urn of Sacred Ashes
- Kolgrim's offer refused
- Jowan returned to the Circle once Eamon is healed

The Landsmeet
- killed Cauthrien upon rescuing Anora
- informed appropriate Landsmeet parties of family members to gain support
- Unrest in the Alienage: refused Caladrius' offer, defeated him, freed the elves
- killed Loghain (outright attack, not the honourable duel option)
- Anora remained queen
- Alistair remained a Grey Warden
- Morrigan's Dark Ritual accepted

The Final Battle
- killed the Archdemon
- boon requested: for the Dalish to be given land in the Hinterlands

Awakening:
The Assault on Vigil's Keep
The Righteous Path
Shadows of the Blackmarsh
Last of the Legion
The Siege of Vigil's Keep - allowed Amaranthine to burn
Depths of Depravity - killed the Architect

Witch Hunt:
- said goodbye to Morrigan and allowed her to walk through the Eluvian

Canon Point:  end of Witch Hunt

Personality:
The quest order of the game is very important to the choices Damhnait made due to the impact on her mental state.

As one of the Dalish, Damhnait has grown up surrounded by her clan, moving as often as they had to so as to avoid tensions with local shemlen (humans) and she was obviously very close to them; the Dalish view one another in this way as a craftsman, when giving away his father's weapon to another says that the other elf's hand is his hand and that he is not, in fact, giving anything away. Given that they must travel together and only meet other clans during the Gathering when all the clans meet, they are all family to one another. In fact, they are the only family Mahariel has: an older elf woman named Ashalle says as much early on when she speaks of the parents of the Dalish warden - her father, the previous Keeper of the clan and her mother a skilled hunter but the match was not approved by the others of the mother's clan. Sadly, when the pair met in secret, her father was killed and her mother lived only long enough to give birth to her before she wandered away and died. Closeness with her clan is hugely important to her - she told younger elves the story of their people along with the main storyteller of the clan and when she is sent away with the Wardens as the only cure for the Taint in her blood, she is utterly distraught and is only allowed to stay for the funeral of another young hunter, Tamlen. Tamlen, as it so happens, is Damhnait's best friend and someone she had feelings for that he returned: dialogue mentions he covers for her when they got into a fight, she skips working with master Ilen to join him and spend time with him and Ashalle says that all the clan could see they were meant to be together. It's through explorations with Tamlen and coming across a mirror that draws the Darkspawn that sets her on the path of becoming a Grey Warden.

As an elf, Damhnait's people have had a long history of discrimination by humans and being one of the Dalish, she has little regard for them and their problems. If someone speaks rudely to her for being an elf, she lets them know about it though she's hardly shocked because she knows they have to keep moving because of the way shemlen behave towards elves - when she and Tamlen come across three hunters in the forest straying too close to their camp, she kills them with little thought and again at Ostagar when speaking to a prisoner in a cage, she kills him to get a key to a chest he offers and claims he lunged at her. She has little care for what she considers to be shemlen problems and never understands why she is expected to. For instance, when she meets King Cailan she tells him he is not her king and says almost the same again to Teyrn Loghain and when speaking to a woman of the Chantry she makes remarks about how she does not believe in the Maker and brings up the fact that the Chantry marched against the elves. Damhnait cares first and foremost for her people (and that does not necessarily mean all elves) and how they'll make it out of the Blight - after all, there is very little reason for her to care and given the history of the Dalish people (their homeland destroyed more than once, the Tevinter magisters, the Exalted Marches of the Chantry) she has so few reasons to care although in time, she does come to care for Ferelden and not simply her people because all of Ferelden is her home. When it comes to elves in alienages, her opinion is still poor - she is welcoming to those who join the Dalish (even if she does tease the one that arrives after her explorations with Tamlen) but she can still be very rude about them, thinking they have forgotten who they are and wondering why they stay instead of seeking out their culture and heritage. However, Damhnait will not see them mistreated and would rather speak up for and side with them over a shem if she can.

The shems she does feel some sympathy for are the Mages. Dalish Mages live within the clan and elves were the first with magic so she finds it very cruel to keep them caged in such a way and will help them - she has no opinion on the apostates, in fact she probably thinks that is how they should be allowed to be, practicing magic freely as a Keeper is someone with magic and Keepers lead and guide clans. Again, this ties into her feelings on shemlen and the Chantry because it's the Chantry's teachings that do this and elves haven't exactly had the best of relationships with them - her own father was a mage and Keeper of the clan even though he died prior to her birth.

Over the course of her travels and real exposure to others, Damhnait comes to understand shems and their problems and she grows very close to everyone in her party. She points out the racist undertones in Leliana's view of Dalish as savages and she enjoys listening to her stories, she befriends Alistair and comes to consider him one of her closest friends along with Zevran, Sten respects her and calls her kadan, Wynne is something close to a maternal figure, she gets along with both Oghren and Shale and she comes to consider Morrigan practically a sister. This continues in Awakening where she gets along perfectly well with Nathaniel and Anders as well as Sigrun and she of course sympathises hugely with Velana although she is hugely wary of Justice given that Dalish do not draw any such distinction between spirits and demons they way shems do by considering spirits good or benign and demons evil.

Damhnait is possessed of an incredible strength and endurance even before becoming a Warden. She is infected with the Taint through contact with the mirror in her origin story and through the magic of her Keeper and her own sheer willpower she manages to survive, explore the ruins she and Tamlen ventured into once more, travel to Ostagar from the Brecilian Forest and then battle Darkspawn in the Korcari Wilds before she is cured by undertaking the Joining. All that she endures along the road only proves this - she faces all sorts of foes and obviously defeats them all, including the Archdemon itself but on top of that, she has a great will in the face of the horror that must be faced as she witnesses some of the very worst that there is in the world. One of the hardest things to face for her is the fate of Tamlen: one night at camp, the party are attacked by Shrieks, elves infected with the Taint and among them is Tamlen who still has some memory of who he was and she is the one to have to kill him. But she keeps going and despite having so little reason to care for Arls or Dwarven rulers, she tries to do what is best for the common people and tries to keep as many alive as possible - she will not give them another reason to look down on elves or the Dalish.

A huge source of conflict in Damhnait's life revolves around having to be around shemlen for the first time in her life; she doesn't mind Morrigan because Morrigan is an Apostate and free with her opinions and has a very pragmatic view on life and of course, being Dalish she grew up with stories of Asha'bellanar but there was Alistair. Alistair a human male, Alistair raised by a powerful man, Alistair bastard son of the former king, Alistair the guy who believes in the Maker and was raised in the Chantry - Damhnait has no time for the Maker or Andrasteism due to the fact that the Chantry went on Exalted Marches against the Dalish and that any mention of Shartan, the elf who fought at Andraste's side. In her mind when she met Alistair she was forced to become a Grey Warden because it was the only way to save her life - she begged the Keeper not to send her away after all - and her only investment in the Blight was making sure her clan would stay safe, that no one else would be lost like Tamlen or sent away.

Damhnait's main motivation in life and in staying with the Wardens is her clan - above all else, she wants to protect them, to make sure no one else must go through what she went through.

She's somewhat complicated in how she prioritises the people she cares for: the Dalish of course are number one and the vulnerable elves - children, the very old, the ill and those grieving a recent loss - come next although she does look down on elves that live in alienages. She can't understand why they stay when they can leave and look for the Dalish and whilst she is standoffish at first and prone to teasing, she comes to accept them if they join the clan and yet to her, they are still not Dalish. Only those who are raised from childhood within a clan are Dalish to her and she really thinks that city elves are embarrassing, clawing and scraping for the humans. Damhnait doesn't want to care about the opinions of the shemlen and yet she realises that she has to because she does have a chance to change their opinion on elves and the Dalish; she stands up for herself, tells them to treat elves better (she'd say she "suggests") and calls them out if she feels it's her being an elf that makes them say certain things (such as when Isolde says she's being impertinent) and she does hope (though she'd likely never admit it) that she can lead to some sort of change for the better. As well as that, it's more the nobility and those in power that she dislikes the more she's among a wider community - she realises that even though she must wander, as one of the Dalish she hasn't really known poverty as such. She can hurt for herself, go where she likes, answers only to elders and the Keeper. Common people she will help though she usually asks for payment or waves away their thanks by being grumpy and usually justifies doing things for the money/reward or to get more help for the Blight. Not that the party always believe her.

It's important to note that the course of quests Damhnait undertakes to gain support have a huge impact on her. She starts a reluctant recruit who was forced away, grieving the loss of her clan and someone she cared about deeply, thrust into a world she had only ever dealt with as threats to her and her people. At Ostagar she is subjected to rude remarks from an Ash Warrior and a quartermaster as well as the other recruits being surprised that she's an elf and a woman. This continues in other places and it does make her sharper because she's used to it but never so blatantly, as if she should learn her place. But her first few quests after setting out go well - she saves the Circle and that makes her feel powerful, like she can do this because she's not a Mage and yet she fights her way out of the Fade, fights demons and abominations and saves the day. She does what Templars cannot. Next she goes to Redcliffe and somehow manages to inspire a militia to fight and defend their home where she doesn't lose a single soul before going on to save a young boy without his mother losing her life either. Given the crushing losses at Ostagar and that it was just her and Alistair, it does so much to boost her confidence in saving the day like that. She starts to really believe they can do it.

Next she ventures to the Brecilian Forest and even though the Dalish are not her clan, it feels like coming home again. She's around a culture she understands. The aravels, the halla, the language - that's what she grew up with. She feels guilty about wanting their support for the Blight given that her primary interest is protecting her people and though she counts Dalish fighters highly, when any are lost, it's a huge blow to the clan and to the people. It takes everything she has to defy a Keeper the way she defied Zathrian in wishing for an end to the curse that didn't mean simply slaughtering the werewolves. He'd betrayed their people though and she couldn't stand for that - his actions were hurting the clan and he had perverted a spirit to do it, something she honestly didn't think an elf would be capable of and so solving it peacefully was the only option in her opinion. But it still weighed very heavily on her and leaving that clan behind as they mourned their dead reminded her far too much of leaving her own home to join the Wardens.

It's after that that things go south. Orzammar is a confusing mess of a place where she doesn't understand the politics and she's aware of how much she still has to do and how each time she stops, the Darkspawn and Loghain manage to advance. She supported Harrowmount because his options were the most straightforward; in her mind, she's Dalish, she has very little right (or interest) to get involved in dwarven politics and she just wanted her army. So Harrowmount it was and off she went into the Deep Roads. In canon, it's stated that the Deep Roads are difficult for Wardens because of the connection to the Darkspawn and it didn't help that it was dark and claustrophobic, long tunnels and traps and lots and lots of Darkspawn. And spiders. And golems. And ghosts. Oh and that time the Archdemon itself flew over her as the Darkspawn army marched out. But the very worst thing she encountered in the Deep Roads was the Broodmother. The Broodmother is a woman that has been mutated through a horrible process (which she learned from a dwarf found in the Deep Roads who had witnessed this happening to all the other women on an expedition and that it had been allowed as a means to an end by the leader who was also a woman) to become a monstrous creature that births more Darkspawn. Given that Grey Wardens take their Calling in the Deep Roads, it was hugely difficult for Damhnait to cope with because it was so monstrous and a violation of who she was and what she did - she fought Darkspawn and the idea of becoming something that just created hundreds, if not thousands, more was abhorrent. It strengthened her resolve to do what she had to in finishing the Blight, perhaps not for the better. Damhnait chose to attack the great smith Caridin because it was the only way she could get golems to fight and she was damn sure she wasn't about to let herself lose this battle.

Shortly after this, when she returned to camp she had the encounter with Tamlen. Whilst it meant she finally knew what happened to him, having to see him like that, knowing that he had suffered whilst she had lived was very difficult to deal with.

In the end, she ends up doing fewer sidequests and her answers are sharper than normal. There isn't time for being honourable - there's a Blight to win and she will take every single advantage she can to fight it. If there's a chance for more coin then she'll try to wheedle it out of someone. If a deal seems fishy she won't take it and she'll get violent. She refused to let Eamon use Alistair as a bargaining chip, she cut down Cauthrien when she rescued Anora because there was no way she was going to surrender, she attacked the slavers and freed elves in the Alienage and she denied Loghain an honourable duel because he had done nothing to deserve it. This carries over into her life as Commander and Arlessa; the Vigil is her priority and she makes it as safe as she can and will not stand idle when there is a threat. It's why she allows Amaranthine to burn and refuses the deal the Architect offers - she's a Grey Warden, for better or worse, and weighing things against what benefits them is the main way she makes her decisions now.


Skills and Abilities:
Attributes:
Strength: 22
Dexterity: 63
Willpower: 26
Magic: 15
Cunning: 57
Constituion: 42

Resistances:
Mental: 34
Physical: 56
Fire: 0%
Cold: 0%
Electrical: 0%
Nature: 30%
Spirit: 0%

Skills:
Coercion: Master
Stealing: Master
Trap-making: Master
Survival: Master
Poison: Improved
Combat training: Master
Combat tactics: Master

Talents:
Rogue:
Dirty fighting, combat movement
Below the belt, deadly strike, lethality
Deft hands, improved tools, mechanical expertise, device mastery

Ranger:
Summon wolf

Power of Blood:
Dark passage, the tainted blade
Dual Weapons (all skills)
Archery (all skills)


Inventory:
Weapons:
The Sorrows of Arlathan; Tooth of the Mountain-Father; Dar'Misu: dagger, one-handed (white steel) [Damage: 6.80, Critical chance: 5.10%, Armour penetration: 9, Strength modifier: 0.85]

Armour:
Quicksilver; Studded Leather Gloves (drakeskin); Dalish Armour (drakeskin); Leather Boots (drakeskin); Cinch of Skillful Maneuvering (+2 to all attributes, +14% spell resistance, +15% chance to dodge attacks); Iced band (+10 cold resistance)

Other:
5x health poultice, 5x injury kit, 107G, 7S, 11B

First Person Sample:
[It's a very disgruntled tattooed elf who appears on the video looking as if she's ready to bolt at a moment's notice or to loose an
arrow at the screen, the lines of ink by her mouth twisting as she frowns.]

Shemlen. [It's an annoyed mutter, not quite the snarl it usually is because fortunately for all, she isn't actually dealing with any shem in person. Yet. But they're everywhere and she's sure that soon enough she'll have to toe the line with them in order to get anywhere.] I am Damhnait Mahariel of the Grey Wardens - call me either of those names or simply Warden. I...I find myself having to ask for ai- advice. [Not aid. She's not a flat ear, she has her pride, her independence even if this is something out of the ordinary for her and that's saying something.] I'm in need of work - I have skills as a hunter, I know the ways of the forests and how to fight monsters of all sorts as well as men, dwarves, elves and even Qunari. [You probably need to know what a Qunari is to find that impressive although given that it's pretty obvious she's short even when sitting, it should say something about her.] Even passing messages or supplies I can do, if the coin is right.

[The shit you do in Ferelden to keep your party in armour, weapons and poultices.]

And if anyone knows anything about crafting aravels - I think shems call them landships - I... [by the Dread Wolf Mahariel you can do this] would appreciate it.

Third Person Sample:
Each morning when she'd woken in camp, there was always a moment when panic gripped her; no creaking of aravels, a dog barking, foreign accents murmuring to one another as she lay in her tent tracing over her Vallaslin. You are Arlathan, she would always think to herself, you are Falon'din. You are the last of the elvhen. At least the walking she was used to when all her life had been spent traversing the forests or moving from place to place lest the shemlen start to take issue with their presence by them. Only there was no Keeper here to lead them, that was her job now since Alistair had placed that responsibility on her shoulders before they had even arrived in Lothering so long ago.

Now she had a Vigil in a human city to run, a Dalish elf who had never so much as set foot in a town until she'd joined the Wardens. Not joined, she thought, still with that sharp twinge of bitterness and hurt, remembering how she'd begged to be able to stay, sent away, sent away to become this. Stuck listening to shemlen problems, most of them from the trumped up important ones who were probably supposed to help their people and instead bickered over land. At least when Varel had been alive there'd been someone to talk to about it, since the attacks when Amaranthine had burned it had been just her and the remaining Wardens and likely more plots brewing against her.

Let them come. Let them see my skill with a blade for themselves.

She missed her clan. Missed Ashalle who had been a mother to her in the absence of her own, missed Fenarel, Junar and Merrill and time spent with them. Hahren Paivel's stories, the one who'd handed down the stories of their past to her as a girl sitting at his feet around a fire, making sure she knew their history and never again shall we submit. Master Ilen and his beautifully crafted weapons and his stories too. Maren tending to the halla - it had been so long since she'd last seen a halla she couldn't even remember how they smelled anymore - and the steady guiding hand and voice of the Keeper. What did Marethari think of her now? Would she still welcome her with open arms and her kindly smile, gathering her close to call her da'len?

Most of all she missed Tamlen but she tried not to think about him, not when it still hurt, when he still might have been saved as she was. There was work to be done, there was always work to be done, petitions from this Bann or that Bann, Mistress Woolsey talking trade routes, the guards wanting to know what to protect. Maybe, if she was very lucky, a Darkspawn band would show up and she could grab Oghren, Nathaniel and Velanna and traipse off into the wilds to deal with it. For now she sighed, rubbed the last of the sleep from her eyes and steeled herself to face the day.