inquisitorialness | (no subject)

Player Info

Name: Froda
Age: Old
Contact: frodabaggins
Characters Already in Teleios: Snow White (neverlose); Tess (nowthatsfunny)
Reserve: here

Character Basics:

Character Name: Nadia Trevelyan, aka "The Herald of Andraste", aka "The Inquisitor"
Journal: inquisitorialness
Age: Approximately 25.
Fandom: Dragon Age
Canon Point: Post-game.
Debt:
Class A: 1600
Class B: 1515
Class C: 162
Posing as a Religious Figure

GRAND TOTAL: 2371 (spreadsheet is here.)

Canon Character Section:

History: I AM SO SORRY FOR HOW COMPLICATED THIS IS. Okay first off, here is an info page! AS YOU CAN SEE, the Inquisitor is a malleable protag, thus, this one specifically is a human (Trevelyan) and a mage, so that's the background she has (born to the Trevelyans, lived most of her life in the Ostwick Circle, came to the Conclave to try and broker peace between mages and Templars).

Decisions specific to this character's playthrough:

- Followed the mage questline (and thus did NOT follow the Templar questline); recruited the rebel mages as allies of the Inquisition.
- "Here Lies the Abyss": Stroud was Hawke's Warden companion; Stroud was left behind and Hawke saved; the remaining Grey Wardens were recruited as allies.
- "Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts": Brokered a truce between Empress Celene, Grand Duke Gaspard, and Ambassador Briala. Captured Florianne alive.
- "What Pride Had Wrought": allied with Abelas and his followers; allowed Morrigan to drink from the Well of Sorrows.
- Cassandra Pentaghast became Divine Victoria.

Personality:
Probably one of the first things to be aware of when understanding Nadia Trevelyan is that she has, in the space of about a year or so, become one of the most important and influential people in her world - politically, militarily and religiously. She has an Empress and the head of the most widespread religion in her pockets, she commands a large army and is seen by many to be a figure of reverence, if not outright worship, a symbol of hope and the restoration of order in a chaotic and frightening world. That is a lot of power to place on one young woman's shoulders, and she didn't really ask for it, either. It was mostly circumstance that put her in this position - well, circumstance and her own strength of character. Needless to say, however, Nadia is very keenly aware of her position, she takes it very seriously, and it strongly informs the way she behaves with people.

She is reserved, sometimes to the point of seeming aloof. She's always been a bit like this - she was born to a noble family and taught genteel manners and politeness from practically day one. This early training has served her very well, particularly in her political dealings with countries like Orlais, where appearances are everything and they operate an elaborate "Game" with very high stakes - life or death, in fact. She knows how to deal with situations with seeming poise and confidence, and when necessary she has a sharp wit as well. Essentially, in public, she is every inch the Inquisitor, revered Herald of Andraste and guiding light for most of southern Thedas.

Under the surface, however, there's a very different story to be told. Behind the reserve, behind the wit and the carefully constructed facade of power, lies a relatively young woman who struggles with the expectations laid on her, with her own faith and with a certain amount of self-loathing and survivors' guilt as well. She grew up in a very pious family, and in a world where magic users are feared by most people, to the extent that they are literally locked away in towers by law - this is what happened to Nadia, at about the age of ten, and while she was relatively sheltered from abuse due to her family's position and the fact that the Circle she was part of was generally very sedate, she's not entirely unaware of the things many mages would go through who weren't as lucky as she. Furthermore, when the Circles fell, when the Templars broke away from the Chantry and war broke out, she lost a lot of friends very suddenly and violently, mage and Templar alike. For almost a year, she couldn't trust anyone and that has also colored her experiences greatly. As the sole survivor of a cataclysmic event that killed thousands, she was at first a suspect and treated as though she had been the cause of it. To say she can be slow to trust strangers, then, is a bit of an understatement.

Nadia's relationship with religion is also a complicated one. She has become an important religious figure in her world, but she doesn't necessarily believe herself to be a chosen one. She allows the "Herald of Andraste" thing to go relatively uncontested because she feels it's important that the people of her world have something to believe in, something in which to place their faith, and because, quite frankly, trying to explain how she actually got that mark on her hand is nearly impossible. People will believe what they want - what they need to believe. All she can do is try to be a good leader. Nonetheless, she frequently feels a lot of guilt about this, as though she is a fraud, playing on the people's faith in order to convince them into fighting for her, into dying for her. Because many people have died for her, calling her the Herald, and that sometimes eats away at her. She believes in the Maker, and in Andraste, and is sometimes concerned about the idea that she is, effectively, a lie. She of course wants to believe that she is doing the Maker's work, so to speak, but she doubts herself a lot.

Part of the reason why she doubts herself so much is the fact that she is a mage, and has grown up and spent her entire life with the edict, "Magic exists to serve man, and never to rule over him." Magic is largely feared in the world of Thedas, for reasons both superstitious and practical - when everyone else effectively has medieval technology, someone who can shoot fire, lightning or ice from their hands can be a powerfully destructive force. Placed in a position of great power, then, Nadia is aware that there are a lot of people likely just waiting for her to abuse that power in any way, thus proving their point about how magical power universally corrupts its users. At the same time, having grown up in the incredibly broken Circle/Templar system, Nadia is also keenly aware of the plight of a lot of (former) Circle mages, and has great sympathy for them (hence why she took the rebel mages on as allies, rather than forcibly conscripting them). Essentially, magic is a tool, one she's not afraid to use, per se, but one she is keenly aware can be easily abused and which she is not necessarily always proud of.

Nadia's advisers and inner circle have become the bedrock on which she rests her decisions. They are, by and large, also her friends, a family she has built for herself, the people she's come to really care for. She relies on them for political and military advice, but more than that, for the emotional support she needs to be in the position she's in without completely losing her mind. She trusts them and is able to open up to them in a way that it is difficult for her to do with anyone else, because of her keen awareness of her position and her power. Particularly noteworthy are Cullen, Cassandra, Dorian, Iron Bull and Varric. Cullen is probably the most important person in her life - despite being a former Templar, the two became very close, sharing their fears and their deepest secrets, eventually falling in love. Thus she relies on him heavily for that emotional support she needs. Without this support structure, she would feel adrift, lost and unsure of herself.

Nonetheless, despite her self-doubts, despite the second guessing she does, she has remarkable strength of character, a big heart, a lot of charm and charisma and an insatiable curiosity about the world around her. The reason for all the self-doubt is her need to be a force for good in the world, a real desire to make things better, for everyone. She has a very strong sense of duty to Thedas as a whole and despite the fact that she was thrust into this situation somewhat against her will, she has, to a certain extent, embraced the role if not the title. Some of it is a deep-seated desire to show the world that a mage can be truly good, can indeed serve man, but most of it is simply her vast empathy. This shines through in her insistence on leading from the front, and on helping even the lowliest of peasants with the most minor of tasks. She has the power to unseat rulers, to determine the fate of armies and entire kingdoms, but that doesn't mean she won't stop to help a widow find her husband's heirloom ring, or assist a man in getting medicine for his wife. She delegates when she has to, but if she can do it herself, she will. Whether or not she is any kind of religious chosen one, it's a safe bet that what a lot of people see in her back home is her kindness.

In Teleios, she'll have very mixed feelings about the whole situation. First of all, being taken from her world against her will of course will cause a fair amount of outrage. Beyond that, she still feels a strong sense of duty to her world, so she will want to return to it. However, with time, she will come to see the lack of pressure and expectations on her in Teleios to be somewhat of a relief, despite the (what she considers to be) absurd debt system and fake gods (who are probably demons or worse). And then there's the lack of magic. For the first time in a long time, she will be "just a normal person" and she will have very mixed feelings about this. Her magic has always set her apart, it's both made her special but also made her a danger - and a target. She'll be very conflicted about the whole thing.

Powers/Abilities: Magic: Magic is just one thing in Thedas - it doesn't come in different forms or anything, it's just a power that people have or they don't. Nadia was (un)lucky enough to wind up with it.
The Anchor: This is, however, something unique to her. It's quite literally a mark on her left hand (it glows green) that connects her to the Fade (the world of spirits and source of all magic). With it, she is able to close Fade rifts in her world (and it also grants her a couple of other magical abilities).

Appearance: here

CR AU
Game You’re Transferring CR from:

How has your character changed from their canon self?

Are they gaining any abilities from their time in game? Did the game setting take something from them?

Samples:
Actionspam Sample:
bakerstreet thread

Prose Sample:
Nadia Trevelyan has been in Teleios for about two weeks, now, and she feels as though she's starting to get a feel for the place. It's strange, no doubt, and being more or less crammed in with all these people in one building is - well, it's rather frighteningly reminiscent of her life in Ostwick's Circle. Especially as an apprentice, when they all shared quarters. At least they don't all live in the great big dormitories that she remembers so vividly. She has a little more privacy than that.

Still, though, she can't stay cooped up in this temple all the time. It's not in her nature, not anymore. No longer the quiet, perfect little mage girl, the star student, the one who never gave the Templars or senior enchanters any trouble. She is Lady Inquisitor Trevelyan, Herald of Andraste, commander of the faithful, she's put down rebellions and saved monarchs from assassination and she's even influenced the naming of the new Divine. Not to mention that bit with the evil ancient darkspawn would-be-god she killed.

She may not have her castle, her army or even most of her friends here, but Maker help her, she's going to figure out how to get back to them. Until the morning when she wakes up, and there's a golden bracelet on her wrist that wasn't there before. Others have them, of course, many others, though she doesn't know exactly what it means, in what way her status here has changed. Not until she steps outside, wrapped in wool and fur, her staff in her hand to aim a blast of fire at the nearest snowbank to melt it away.

It doesn't work.

A strange, sick feeling forms in the pit of her stomach as Nadia reaches for her mana, tries to touch the Veil and beyond it, the Fade, to draw on her power and make a simple bit of fire, and - nothing. Nothing. She sucks in a breath, fighting back a sudden surge of panic. Breathe, Nadia. Breathe. Never show weakness. Never let them see your fear.

"What in Andraste's name is going on here?" she asks, letting her voice ring out with anger and annoyance rather than the terror she suddenly feels. Her magic is gone.