App - Singularity

[fadedsunshine]

Player Information ;
Your Nickname: Varis
OOC Journal: offensive
Under 18? hell no
Email/IM: unknowngoddess[at]gmail.com
Characters Played at Singularity: Kaidan Alenko, Rapunzel

Character Information ;
Name: Bethany Hawke
Name of Canon: Dragon Age 2
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: canon
Reference: yo
Canon Point: end of Act 3

Setting: THE SETTING OF DRAGON AGE is a magical generic fantasy land of wonder and amazement. Both games take place on a bigass continent called Thedas (which is literally an acronym for The Dragon Age Setting, because Bioware are unimaginative douchebags) which is split up into several different nations. The big ones you need to remember are Ferelden, Kirkwall, Tevinter, Orlais, and Antiva. Then there are a bunch of smaller nations and the Free Marches (which is actually where Kirkwall is) is a clusterfuck of warring and bitchy proportions which puts renaissance Italy to shame.

Long story short, Ferelden and Orlais didn't get along for a while. The Orlesians (aka the french) occupied Ferelden for a while with their horses and their fancy parties and were generally assholes. Then the Ferelden armies rose up and kicked them the hell out, and went back to loving their dogs and hating horses. Tevinter is off in the corner doing blood magic and giggling about all their awesome power with their Black Divine and enslaving all the normal people and hating those goddamn Qunari bastards (giants not native to Thedas.) and Antiva is getting up in everyone's skirts and assassinating people because that's just kind of what they do. And meanwhile the Free Marches are just kind of doing their own thing, warring amongst themselves and being abusive to their mages.

Thedas is a feminist's dream come true, because all the sexism of the real world and especially our middle ages is completely non-existent. So what if you've got a vagina, you can go out and pick up a sword and kill some darkspawn just like anybody else! Additionally, there's no stigmas about homosexual relationships, so everyone is pretty much pan-sexual in Thedas. Or well, there's the people who prefer this or that, but there's not a big amount of focus on sexuality.

No, most of the hate is saved for the elves and the mages. If you're an elf in Thedas, you have two options. Live in the shitty part of town and be constantly ridiculed for your ridiculous ears, or go do the Pocahontas Colors of the Wind dance in the woods with a bunch of other elves who are attempting to reclaim the 'old ways' of the Elvhenan. This is basically because a while back, despite Andraste (Thedas's magical Jesus/Joan of Arc hybrid martyr) fighting with the elves to free the continent from Tevinter's crazymad magical rule, a couple hundred years later people forgot how useful the elves were and thought they needed to be properly oppressed.

Elves have it better than the mages, though. With the exception of Tevinter, which is still under it's own rule with it's own Divine (The holy leader of the Chantry/Church, basically the Pope, only a girl. The White Divine rules from Orlais and presides over most of Thedas, while the Black Divine is exclusive to Tevinter) mages are kept on a short leash, and carefully watched by the Chantry's order of knights, the Templars. There are eleven circles of Magi throughout Thedas, and they all pretty much suck, because it's like Catholic boarding school that never ends. There are naturally many apostates who either escape the Circle or are hidden by their families, though they run the constant danger of being discovered and horribly murdered for being maleficarum (aka, Blood Mages, which as far as the Chantry is concerned is basically like taking an entire basket of kittens and murdering them in front of a group of orphans after telling them they could keep them. And then murdering the orphans.)

Humans are pretty much the majority rule, there are also the Dwarves, though they tend to fuck off and keep to themselves in their underground world of lava and rock, and the Qunari are mostly just being hipsters up in Seharon, all about how the Qun is too edgy for these lamer humans.

Bethany was unfortunately born a mage, to a family rife with magical potential. Where her elder and twin brothers both escaped the "curse" of the Amell family and their own apostate father's blood, Bethany was not so lucky. The Hawkes couldn't bear to part with their only girl, however, so once Bethany showed her potential for magic, he spent hours working to teach her how to control and hide her talent. They often had to pack up and move whenever the Templars got too observant, which made life hard, and made Bethany often question whether it wouldn't have been better if she'd just been taken to the Circle.

By the time Bethany was fifteen they'd lived in dozens of the small towns of Ferelden, anywhere where they could slip by unnoticed. Eventually they settled in the quiet little town of Lothering which was on the edge of the Kocari Wilds, down near the bottom of Ferelden where most people don't visit because the people who live in the Wilds are weird and wear feathers in their hair.

A few years down the road, a lot of Darkspawn started showing up in the Wilds, Darkspawn being corrupted goblin-looking things that pretty much enjoy killing and burning and... tainting... everything in their path. The current king of Ferelden, Cailan, called for his armies and started recruiting people to fight against the Darkspawn, which was apparently the beginning of another Blight. Blight being the fancy term for 'darkspawn and dragons coming to wreck your shit.' Garrett and Carver both joined the military, while Bethany had no choice but to stay home and look after their mother. She worried for both her brothers, but for obvious reasons couldn't join them in protecting Lothering from the Darkspawn threat.

Unfortunately, the king's douchebag father-in-law, Loghain, betrayed the king, let him and all the armies die at Ostagar (which is where they were pressing the Darkspawn horde) and as a result of all this, the events of Dragon Age Origins were put into play. Bethany's brothers escaped the slaughter at Ostagar and made their way home, where the family quickly made to flee. In the escape, Bethany lost her twin, Carver, to the Darkspawn, and though she holds herself together better than their mother, she is no less broken by her brother's death.

While the Hero of Ferelden ran around on foot doing obnoxious errands for Dwarves, Elves, and Mages, Bethany and what was left of her family fled to Kirkwall, where they were forced to work off their debt to pay their way into the city. It was a lot of general business over an entire year that Bethany didn't like, but she was willing to do whatever she had to in order to make sure her mother was safe. In this year, the Hero rallied her troops, and took down the Archdemon, and reunited Ferelden after a fun little war against Loghain.

Over the year, Garrett gained quite a name for himself, and where that was there were generally whispers of his apostate sister who was never far from his side. Fortunately for Bethany, those remained whispers, and the Templars were more or less unaware of her presence. In their year of servitude within Kirkwall, a delegation of Qunari crashed in the Kirkwall harbor, and the tension between them and the people of Kirkwall would later set the stage for a major conflict within the city walls.

Before that, however, came the Deep Roads Expedition, a planned trip into the Deep Roads near Kirkwall, funded by a pair of brother dwarves, and after some hard work doing odd jobs around the city, Bethany's older brother. She ended up going into the Deep Roads with the Expedition, despite her mother pleading for her to stay in the city, Bethany didn't want to be left behind again. That turned out to be a mistake. Bethany was injured by Darkspawn and slowly the taint began to overtake her. Luckily their companion and her fellow mage, Anders, was a Grey Warden, and he was able to lead them to a group of Wardens also exploring the Deep Roads. The only "cure" for the taint, as it were, is to go through the Joining, drinking tainted darkspawn blood mixed with lyrium, thus becoming a Grey Warden. It's a life-sentence, more or less, but it was one Bethany had to undertake, in order to survive.

From there on, Bethany took a more passive role in the politics of the Free Marches, though regular Warden business of destroying pockets of darkspawn throughout Thedas was more than enough to keep her busy while Kirkwall was being wracked with conflict between Qunari and the Viscount, and growing tensions between the Templars and the mages. It was only during the Qunari uprising that Bethany returned to Kirkwall on Warden business, chancing to bump into her brother in the process, though their words were brief, due to Wardens taking... no part in political conflicts, apparently.

After the Viscount was murdered and Bethany's brother was forced to slay the Qunari Arishok, Kirkwall devolved into a sorry state of mounting tension between the mages and the Templars, the Knight-Commander Meredith taking control of most of the state matters, much to the chagrin of everyone with magical talent, and even those who had no magic. Garrett was of course in the thick of it, and when things seemed to start turning south, once Bethany caught wind of it she abandoned her post and returned to Kirkwall to stand with her brother.

She arrived on the scene just in time for the Chantry to go up in Anders's spectacular light show, and spent her time trying to track her brother through the city. Once they met up, she advanced with him to the Gallows. After Meredith declared that all the mages in the Circle must be purged, the only way to stop the madness that had claimed her via a sword made of a magic lyrium idol that had been found in the Deep Roads Expedition so many years before, was taking her out once and for all. Though the idol turned her into nothing more than a smoking husk of twisted lyrium, doing the job before they had to.

Bethany, her brother, and the group of people they'd grown to call friends over the years fled the city, disappearing into the wilderness.

Personality: Bethany has always been a girl with a heart too big for her chest. Despite her difficult life, always having to hide what was such a big part of her, she's always been a sweet and kind person, willing to stop and lend a hand wherever a hand needs lending. She tries desperately to always look on the brighter side of things, to offset her twin's much more dour outlook. Her sunny disposition even landed her the nickname "Sunshine" from Varric, one of her brother's traveling companions.

She is of course extremely prone to insecurities and sadness, though she does her best to internalize it all, so she has the appearance of being strong like her older brother, whom she loves and respects a great deal. She fears for her mother, her heart breaks for her dead twin, and she worries that Garrett will get himself into something so deep he won't be able to climb back out. Sometimes she'll have a somber moment, or she'll sternly scold her brother for doing something foolish, but most of her heartfelt pain she keeps bottled up.

This part of her personality was magnified exponentially when she became a Grey Warden. She was furious with her brother for what she saw as giving her no choice, because he didn't want to lose her, he lost her anyway. She survived the taint, and the Joining, but becoming a Warden was painful. It was hard work, and a hard life, and due to the taint in her blood she was plagued with the constant nightmares a Warden suffers from Joining until death. To keep herself from missing her family and her old life, she forced herself to toughen up, become what she'd never been before, solemn, serious, a seasoned and mostly joyless soldier of a war she'd never particularly wanted to be a part of.

All the anger and bitterness could never completely destroy the big heart Bethany has, however. She used to dream of pretty dresses and fancy parties, as well as finding true love and a happily ever after, though much of that has been put aside, there are still times when she can be caught giving way to her fancies, a lingering look at a handsome stranger, and of course all the romance novels and letters Isabela sends her. Her love for her brother overall is what brings her back to Kirkwall, despite her new hardened edge, she is still the sweet girl who loves her big brother underneath.

Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitation Suggestions: Bethany is, of course, a mage, so she has command over the four elements and healing skills. After becoming a Warden she also learns the specialty of Force magic, which is basically applied telekinesis. Her weaknesses are of course sharp pointy weapons, as she is what is classified in fantasy as a "glass cannon." She's very skilled with her magic, but defensively, it's typically up to the others to keep her safe, because while she does know defensive enchantments, they are more of a deterrent than a solid shield.

As far as power limitations go, I'd be happy to scale her back so she can only use her lower level spells, or if her magic overall drains more of her power when used, tiring her out more quickly than it used to. As it is she typically doesn't use her magic unless provoked, preferring to fly under the radar.

Inventory: Grey Warden mage robes, the Bloodline staff, an amulet with a portrait of her family, and her grandmother's wedding band.
Appearance: Bethany is a lovely young woman who has the strong features of an Amell. Her hair is black and slightly curly, falling just past her shoulders, and her eyes are a caramel-colored brown. She has a sharp nose and strong jaw, though her overall appearance is on the soft side. Her skin is very pale, and she only wears a little make-up, more to accentuate her natural beauty than anything to cover up imperfections.

She's at about average height, and she's a good healthy weight, with curves in all the right places, as Varric would likely say out of earshot of either of the Hawke siblings. Though he apparently wishes her boobs were bigger.

Age: 25

Samples ;
Log Sample: It was a mixed blessing, blacking out from the pain after she'd felt the bizarre pulling sensation before being thrown through a terrifying whirlwind of sharp bits of metal and Maker only knows what else. It was over in a matter of seconds, and she landed hard on her stomach, wind and consciousness being knocked from her.

When she woke up, she became quickly aware of every ache on her body.

"Oh... Maker! What just happened?" She could feel something warm and sticky seeping into her eye, and as she slowly blinked the other eye open and moved a hand up to her face, her fingers found a raised bump on her forehead, which sent a new wave of pain through her head as she found the obvious source of the blood that was blocking half her vision.

Groaning, she pushed herself into a sitting position, wiping the blood from her eyes as best she could, before taking stock of the rest of her injuries. Overall, it felt worse than it looked, only a few cuts to her arms and legs, but after the hard landing every inch of her ached. She took a moment to breathe, before focusing the magic within her to her fingertips, letting the healing aura of her small spell wash over her. It wasn't perfect, but it'd take the edge off the pain until she could get a better grasp on her situation.

She pushed herself to her feet, using her staff as a crutch, and looked around, a frown settling on her face. Wherever she was, it wasn't the Free Marches. It looked like a junk heap, though most of the piles of twisted metal were things she couldn't even begin to identify. A moment after she realized she had no idea where she was, the panic started to settle into her bones. Where were the others?

"Brother?" she called out tentatively, starting to take slow and careful steps forward, finding a path through the mess. "Isabela? Varric?" She called out the names of each of her friends in turn, but received no answer. And no one else seemed to be answering, either. She was a Warden, she was prepared for a fight if it were to come upon her, but she didn't want to be alone in this strange place, and she couldn't help the tingle of fear that ran up her spine and made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

Network Sample:

[There's a burst of static before Bethany's face comes in, dirty and frowning, but more or less in one piece. She's obviously struggling with the device]

-estly couldn't make this thing any bloody easier to use? Come on, now...

Oh. Oh I think it's on.

[She takes a second to straighten up, a little, the confused look on her face readjusting to the cool professional mask she puts on while in Grey Warden mode.]

I'm a little confused as to what is going on, and why I am here, but the odd creatures who gave this bracelet to me told me I was to use it for... communication.

Though I don't know why I can't just talk to people face-to-face like a normal person.

[She shakes her head, obviously there's nothing to be done on that matter.]

My name is Bethany, and I am a Grey Warden. If anyone is familiar with my order I would... greatly appreciate someone putting me in contact with them.

[She hesitates a moment, looking a little uncertain, before adding-]

...Thank you.

[aaand disconnect.]