Entry tags:
Sixth Iteration App
BASICS
Your name or nickname: Belle
Your year of birth: 1987
A reliable DW account the mods can PM to reach you:ombranera
Who you currently play at 6I: Tony Stark
Link to your hold comment: Here
Referral: N/A
Character name: Zevran Arainai
Character type: Fandom
Fandom/Canon: Dragon Age: Origins
Character DW journal:
Does this character have previous CR?: No
HISTORY
WIKI LINK HERE.
What is your canon exit point?: End of the Fifth Blight
PERSONALITY OVERVIEW
N/A
PERSONALITY QUESTIONS
What skills does your character bring to the situation?
Antivan Crow - While no longer a Crow Zevran retains their techniques and training as well as picking up on a few new tricks in his year away from the organization. A master of stealth, dual wielding, poisons, a high resistance to pain or other manners of torture, contortion and the Antivan equivalent of parkour (naked or dressed). He's become an even more skilled assassin in the past year traveling with The Warden, enough to assist in the slaying of an Archdemon. A year on the road has made him all the more skilled in tracking, hunting, surviving off the land, keeping watch and defense against creatures more dangerous and much, much larger than he is.
Rogue - Being an assassin means being a sneaky bastard first. Zev can pick locks, pick pockets, detect & dismantle or build traps of various designs, create and resist a wide variety of poisons and venomous oils to be used on arrows or blades, detect or arrange an ambush with great skill, and fight dirty in every which way. He's also quite cunning and a skilled liar, able to coerce his allies into seeing things his way or bluff his enemies out of a fight, he's not as able to handle large groups of attackers on his lonesome easily. Having the mental clarity and patience to do so has come easier to him as he's gotten older but it's not his first choice.
Academic - Part of reading the political landscape of Antiva to make the most of assassinations is knowing how the cards will fall after a mark is dead. Either by the Crows or his own curiosity Zevran is knowledgeable in a great deal of the lore of Thedas's countries and it's people, including the Dalish from what little he remembers of his mother and outside observation. Of course he's not above bluffing to supplement what he already knows or taking a wild stab at what might be so. Being genre savvy offers him a bit of credibility even then. None of his actual political knowledge will be useful in the village but his ability to spin a tale or judge a group into playing along with whatever option is less likely to see them all dead? Probably helpful.
Lothario - Getting a mark to bed you is an easy way to kill them afterward; a tactic Zev preferred in his youth and one he's not at all above using even now. He was trained and employed as the great seducer of his trio while they worked together, playing the honeypot with great abandon. Between his contortion and his increased stamina due to Crow training, as well as his bluffing and coercion abilities and the touch of an actor's soul, he could make himself whatever the mark most desired before murdering them. In the village, little deaths won't end in literal larger ones- it makes for great morale boosting and beyond that he's greatly skilled in massage, mending, altering, stitching clothing, cooking, cleaning, hair trimming/braiding, and manicures (to an extent).
Why did you choose this specific character for 6I, and how do you picture them fitting into the game?
Tony's pretty deep into the heavier plot elements while not particularly fitey himself. I wanted to bring someone in that was A) a little more combat oriented and B) a little less serious. Zev isn't as bogged down by his baggage and will be better able to adapt without getting wound up in the hows, whens, and whys of how he arrived. He wants to live and live well while proving he is useful if only to keep people from deciding he's not worth keeping around, but it's not so much a desperate panic on his part as it is a calm pragmatic choice brought about by his past. He's someone that can and will make connections and comfortably tease others about the circumstances, make light of whatever horrible or not so horrible turns the village might take, and defend his new home fiercely if only for the fact that he lives there and he'd like to keep living there.
While he is a more combat oriented character his auxiliary skills are primarily domestic, cooking, sewing, tending to morale with Antivan Massage or music and humor, and I feel like he could and would get a kick out of providing more of that than the assassiny stabby side of his skillset. Not that he minds but making something out of precious little was how he got by for so long with the Crows, being the beautician (sort of) for people will be a service he'd happily offer if only to stave off boredom and to get all the good gossip.
How do you imagine your character will survive in 6I, and in what ways will they contribute to the settlement, if any?
Zev is an assassin, a fighter, a survivor- and a musician, a lover, someone that enjoys many fine things and knows how to make his own slice of reality into something bearable by taking his surroundings and sprucing them up into something palatable. He can hunt, track, he can grind poisons and antidotes, he can craft scented oils and cosmetics to an extent, cook, massage- couch surf from house to house as paranoia won't really let him hole up in one place for awhile- and make each stop a little bit warmer, a little bit brighter with his humor, his skills, and his cooking. Seriously, living off the land is no excuse not to eat well. Offering a slice of civilization and normalcy via tending to his appearance and those around him? Is good for village morale. I can see him becoming the village Barber/Beautician pretty easily.
How will your character react to...Being separated, possibly permanently, from loved ones and their previous life, including loss of powers, if applicable? HA what loved ones?
I kid, He made friends, genuine friends on the road during the Fifth Blight and while it will hurt to lose that connection- it's something he's used to. People do not stay in his life very long and as he's marked for Death by the Crows? Kind of not something he'd worry about overmuch. If he's not in reach of Antiva he's not likely to die- and seeing as the last time he left his city he gave up all hope of ever returning? Losing that doesn't bother him as much as it could. He may be homesick from time to time, may miss The Warden but- he has ever been one to pull himself up and move forward (save for that one incident but he got over it). He's never had any powers to speak of and thus loses nothing, his skills are hard earned after years of training, trial and error, and pursued interest. The Village is simply another realm to settle in and explore. It's a grand adventure!
Their environment being manipulated, possibly in strange or extraordinary ways, and possibly in ways which restrain them?
It is not his favorite thing. His brush in the Fade was...uncomfortable to say the least, reminders of a part of his life he'd survived and tried not to think about. It is what it is, he moves forward. Having personal agency is relatively new to him in earnest; so having the world work against him rather than his fellow crows? Feels slightly less unfair. After all Crows could band together and not be assholes to one another but choose to be terrible because...that is all the know. Nature is a somewhat compassionate if brutal mistress (He's met her, she's lovely and terrifying) and therefore somewhat easier to understand and endure because- she is as she is, because that is what she is. She cannot choose to be different, it is in her nature. Just as it is in his to endure and find humor along the way.
Being physically and/or mentally manipulated, such as having hallucinations or suddenly possessing special abilities they did not have before?
He really didn't like the Fade but he was able to shake it off for the most part and move forward with the mission. Being twisted about by his own companions in the Crows? That was the greater betrayal. When who he trusts turns the knife against him, that is when it is most difficult for him; as trust isn't something he hands out easily and sentiment isn't something he is meant to feel. When the rest of the world outside that limited circle decides to make a toy of him? That's a day ending in Y. It's familiar enough that he will experience and tamp down on distress as it happens and focus on moving forward. On hiding his discomfit and laughing it off afterward. Suddenly having skills or powers he did not have before? He'd take to it with far less fear and far more glee than caution.
Magic without risk of demonic possession? He is all about this, and will inevitably seek ways to use whatever he picks up as means of making his life more comfortable, or endearing himself to people he assumes hold some kind of power.
POWERS & SPECIAL ABILITIES
N/A
WRITING SAMPLES
SAMPLE 1
Why did you choose this sample? Zev adapting to the environment with little fear and a great amount of curiosity- also with a touch of his reservations and empathy RE looking different than most and how that shapes his worldview.
Linked or pasted sample: With Kurt on the TDM
SAMPLE 2
Why did you choose this sample? It's a good showing of how Zevran attempts to navigate conflict without resorting to knives and how he handles power dynamics in a tense situation.
Linked or pasted sample: With Iron Bull on the Duplicity TDM