Merrill (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
creatorsmercy) wrote2015-02-04 07:25 pm
creatorsmercy) wrote2015-02-04 07:25 pm
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dragonhaven)
Name: Espo
Personal Journal:requiems
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radically | PMs
Other Characters Played: Serah (starseekers), Lucina (falchions), Elize (darkbrush)
Character: Merrill
Series: Dragon Age II
Age: Unknown, and elves do not favours in being physically clear about their age; taking into account the seven years DA2 covers and that she's fairly young in her Origins cameo, I'd pin her at roughly 27.
History: Wiki. However, since the universe can be moulded by the player, we'll assume the following:
Personality: At first glance, it would be easy to dismiss Merrill as nothing more than an airhead, stumbling through life with little clue of what she's actually doing. That's true in more ways than one: Merrill has an appaling sense of direction and has found herself lost in the Chantry airing cupboard amongst other places. Aside from her inability to orientate herself - Merrill's often lost in her thoughts, perhaps daydreaming, perhaps being over optimistic about a situation - there's naturally more to Merrill than meets the eye. Thanks to her heritage, Merrill is a little more than naive about the ways of the world, and despite her time in a human city, there's still a lot she doesn't understand - and whilst human and city elf customs are much more familiar to her now, she still finds a lot of it baffling. She's very literal minded, and jokes often sail right over her head. Outside of her circle of friends and companions, Merrill gets easily nervous and tends to fill that with babbling and rambling in order to try to make a good impression. Even within her clan, Merrill was always on the fringe of things as she was not a hunter, but a First, and has a lack of social skills as a result. This isn't to say she's not friendly - just that if you don't make the effort to respond to her, she'll quickly withdraw, thinking she's being nothing but a bother.
However, to those she calls friend or is merely acquainted with, Merrill is extremely loyal. She's kind, she's a good person, and despite a myriad of wrong choices she's a well-intentioned person. She's quite easygoing, and able to see the good in people even when they don't see it in herself - Anders and Fenris, especially, often criticise Merrill and her choices but she never retaliates in the same fashion. She might sass them (particularly Fenris) but she is never mean to them and is always understanding. Her easygoing nature wins most people over, and should you befriend Merrill, you very much have a genuine friend who would go to the ends of the earth for you.
Merrill is a very curious soul and whilst she may not know a lot about most things, she has no qualms about asking what something means, even if it makes you feel awkward. Even if it makes herself feel awkward because she's quite certain she's missing something here and it's something dirty, isn't it?
What most complicates Merrill's life is her pride. It's not much of a wonder that a Pride demon was attracted to her; she is full of so much pride, for her heritage, her history, her clan, herself. Merrill is incredibly stubborn - sometimes even borderline arrogance. Once she has her mind set on something she will not back down if she thinks she has a way forward, no matter how small. She blinds herself to what could go wrong because she refuses to let herself see it in the first place - yes, Fenris, blood magic is normally bad, but I have control over it! I can use it for a good purpose! Merrill will keep testing her luck, pushing and pushing until inevitably it all comes crashing down around her. Merrill thinks she knows best in terms of her abilities and her decisions regarding what she does know best, and she'll doggedly hold onto that and what might be despite the mounting cost and any evidence to the contrary. The problem is, Merrill's correct. She does know her own capabilities. The People do need to know their history. But she's still naive, still young, and does not see past herself - a self-reliance, if you will, without seeing the bigger picture. She's willing to pay the cost herself, willing to isolate herself, seeing Marathari as someone who doesn't listen to her rather as someone who deeply worries about her safety.
In a lot of ways, Merrill still has a lot to learn; having lost everything she's held dear, she's been humbled. Whether she'll be able to compromise on her beliefs is something that only time will tell.
Skills and Abilities: First and foremost, Merrill is a mage, which means she has magical capability and can easily attract demons (malicious spirits that wish harm unto mortals and can possess a mage, possibly creating an abomination in the process, due to being well-suited vessels due to their magic skills). However, each mage has different skillsets, and there are some forms of magic they will never be able to learn; in Merrill's case, she will never have traditional curative magic.
Whilst most mages are found by the Templars and placed in a Circle whilst in the youth, Merrill is Dalish, which means she's had a different upbringing with her magical skills. She was apprenticed to Clan Sabrae under Marathari as the Keeper's First; the clan's Keeper, effectively their leader, is always a mage and they usually have another younger member of the Clan who stands at their side and can perform tasks, rituals, and so on in their stead or at their instruction - with the eventual goal of them becoming Keeper themselves. In Dalish clans, magic is typically celebrated (though not always, but that's neither here nor there in Merrill's case). However, having spent seven years away from her Clan and living in the human city of Kirkwall, Merrill has become efficient at hiding her magic where necessary and staying off the radar.
Though she is destined to be Keeper no longer, Merrill still has all the knowledge a First would possess, including knowledge on the Fade and Elven history. She is a believer in the Old Elven Gods and does not believe in the Maker (though does not dismiss a human's beliefs; she just has her own, and does not need to follow theirs). She can also speak the Eleven language as well as the common tongue of Thedas fluently.
Merrill is most apt at nature magic and primal magic (primal being the umbrella term for earth and lightning), and she is also quite skilled in entropy. However, Merrill also has another skill in her arsenal - blood magic.
Blood magic is something all mages can theoretically do - all it requires is for you to use your own blood to cast spells upon others. Blood mages often go mad with the power this holds, being able to control and bend the will of others, mage or non-mage, and make them do whatever they please against their will. Generally, it is feared in most of Thedas and a siren call for execution by the Templars, as the mage is no longer safe, much more susceptible to demon possession, and in most cases, have lost their minds. Merrill is a rare example of a blood mage who has managed to keep a hold of her sanity, likely from the more noble reason of why she turned to it - to restore an Eluvian, an Elven mirror that she believed would hold clues to her people's past, of which so much has been lost. She kept a shard that was tainted by the blight, and the only way she was able to find to cleanse it was blood magic, as her clan wanted nothing to do with assisting her in this endevour.
Merrill was aware there would be a price to pay due to the consequences of using, and learning, blood magic from a demon, but the actuality was worse. The imprisoned demon planned to use Merrill to escape its prison, which Merrill was unaware of; the clan Keeper, Marathari, took it upon herself to take in the demon of pride, Audacity, which resulted in her death - paying for the price of blood magic herself, so Merrill would not have to. After these events, Merrill was finally cast out of her clan for good.
At this point, even though she is distraught over what she has lost from using blood magic, Merrill has been using blood magic for so long that there is something of a reliance upon it. Getting away from it will take her time.
SPELLS
• Primal Magic
- Stonefist (Golem's Fist), Petrify (Dessicate), Rock Armour, Chain Lightning (Chain Reaction), Tempest (Strikes Twice), Galvanism
• Nature Magic
Wrath of the Elvhen (Loss of the Dales, Arithan's Grace), Ensnare, Stone's Throw
• Blood Magic
Blood of the First, Wounds of the Past
First Person Sample: Boop
Third Person Sample: It wasn't that Merrill never went into The Hanged Man. Quite the contrary; two of her best friends frequented its halls, lived in it at best, and so she often found her way here. No, what was more unusual was that after making her way up here from the Alienage, neither of them could be found.
Which meant asking some of the more... unseemly patrons as to their whereabouts.
"You haven't seen Isabella around, have you? Maybe Varric? No?"
The group of drunks looked at the elf in their midst like she was talking Tevine before sloshing more of the foamy stuff down their throats.
"You been hangin' out with tha' pirate, han't ya?" one of them observed. It was kind of hard to make out the slur of what he was saying, but Merrill got the gist of it, and nodded.
"That's Isabella. Like I said, have you seen here? I was supposed to meet her here. Um, now, I think. I walked straight here, followed the ball of twine- sorry, that's not really helping you in telling me if you've seen her, is it?"
Most of the drunks had already grown bored, drifting off - literally, in one's case, he was fast asleep on the table - and only two of them were really paying her any attention now. One of them muttered under his breath; this Merrill couldn't quite catch, but she definitely heard "knife-ear" in there somewhere.
Maybe she shouldn't have talked to them after all. This... after several years in Kirkwall, she knew that this could quickly turn ugly. She'd heard enough horror stories in the alienage.
"Sorry for bothering you. I'll just-"
Merrill backed away, aiming for the door, but the two alert men stood, aiming to block her exit. They didn't get very far, as a hand gripped their wrists, hard.
"I think you'll find you want to go back to your drink," Isabella threatened.
"Isabella!" Merill breathed, watching with wide-eyes. Isabella gave her a hint of a nod and a smile, before the fiercesome look in her eyes returned. When they didn't say anything, her hold tightened. A round of wincing before hurried nods. She let them go, scampering back to the pack with irate looks on their faces.
"Can't stand those two," Isabella said, shaking her fingers as if to get rid of dirt. "What did I tell you about talking to anyone in here, Kitten?"
"I didn't just want to sit and wait for you. I wanted to be... proactive? What if you'd gotten lost somewhere?"
"That'd be you, Kitten," Isabella laughed, patting her on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's get out of this filthy hole and go visit Hawke instead."
Personal Journal:
requiemsContact:
Other Characters Played: Serah (
starseekers), Lucina (falchions), Elize (darkbrush)Character: Merrill
Series: Dragon Age II
Age: Unknown, and elves do not favours in being physically clear about their age; taking into account the seven years DA2 covers and that she's fairly young in her Origins cameo, I'd pin her at roughly 27.
History: Wiki. However, since the universe can be moulded by the player, we'll assume the following:
• The Warden (Hero of Ferelden) was female, and Dalish. She did not survive the blight. (Bioware's official canon; Merrill knows Mahariel, being in the same clan, etc.)Canon Point: Post-game; in the period where Hawke and companions leave Kirkwall in fear of an Exalted March, but before they go their separate ways.
• Hawke was female, and not a mage (since, personally, it makes no story sense if Hawke is a mage). Merrill was friends with Hawke, but was not in a romance with her.
• Merrill's personal quest was completed. Marathari is dead; Merrill's clan did not perish as Hawke took responsibility for Merrill's actions using blood magic. Hawke was critical of Merrill, telling her she should have listened to what the Keeper was saying even if she thought she knew best. Still, their friendship endured. Being friendly with Hawke, Merrill did not destroy the Eluvian.
Personality: At first glance, it would be easy to dismiss Merrill as nothing more than an airhead, stumbling through life with little clue of what she's actually doing. That's true in more ways than one: Merrill has an appaling sense of direction and has found herself lost in the Chantry airing cupboard amongst other places. Aside from her inability to orientate herself - Merrill's often lost in her thoughts, perhaps daydreaming, perhaps being over optimistic about a situation - there's naturally more to Merrill than meets the eye. Thanks to her heritage, Merrill is a little more than naive about the ways of the world, and despite her time in a human city, there's still a lot she doesn't understand - and whilst human and city elf customs are much more familiar to her now, she still finds a lot of it baffling. She's very literal minded, and jokes often sail right over her head. Outside of her circle of friends and companions, Merrill gets easily nervous and tends to fill that with babbling and rambling in order to try to make a good impression. Even within her clan, Merrill was always on the fringe of things as she was not a hunter, but a First, and has a lack of social skills as a result. This isn't to say she's not friendly - just that if you don't make the effort to respond to her, she'll quickly withdraw, thinking she's being nothing but a bother.
However, to those she calls friend or is merely acquainted with, Merrill is extremely loyal. She's kind, she's a good person, and despite a myriad of wrong choices she's a well-intentioned person. She's quite easygoing, and able to see the good in people even when they don't see it in herself - Anders and Fenris, especially, often criticise Merrill and her choices but she never retaliates in the same fashion. She might sass them (particularly Fenris) but she is never mean to them and is always understanding. Her easygoing nature wins most people over, and should you befriend Merrill, you very much have a genuine friend who would go to the ends of the earth for you.
Merrill is a very curious soul and whilst she may not know a lot about most things, she has no qualms about asking what something means, even if it makes you feel awkward. Even if it makes herself feel awkward because she's quite certain she's missing something here and it's something dirty, isn't it?
What most complicates Merrill's life is her pride. It's not much of a wonder that a Pride demon was attracted to her; she is full of so much pride, for her heritage, her history, her clan, herself. Merrill is incredibly stubborn - sometimes even borderline arrogance. Once she has her mind set on something she will not back down if she thinks she has a way forward, no matter how small. She blinds herself to what could go wrong because she refuses to let herself see it in the first place - yes, Fenris, blood magic is normally bad, but I have control over it! I can use it for a good purpose! Merrill will keep testing her luck, pushing and pushing until inevitably it all comes crashing down around her. Merrill thinks she knows best in terms of her abilities and her decisions regarding what she does know best, and she'll doggedly hold onto that and what might be despite the mounting cost and any evidence to the contrary. The problem is, Merrill's correct. She does know her own capabilities. The People do need to know their history. But she's still naive, still young, and does not see past herself - a self-reliance, if you will, without seeing the bigger picture. She's willing to pay the cost herself, willing to isolate herself, seeing Marathari as someone who doesn't listen to her rather as someone who deeply worries about her safety.
In a lot of ways, Merrill still has a lot to learn; having lost everything she's held dear, she's been humbled. Whether she'll be able to compromise on her beliefs is something that only time will tell.
Skills and Abilities: First and foremost, Merrill is a mage, which means she has magical capability and can easily attract demons (malicious spirits that wish harm unto mortals and can possess a mage, possibly creating an abomination in the process, due to being well-suited vessels due to their magic skills). However, each mage has different skillsets, and there are some forms of magic they will never be able to learn; in Merrill's case, she will never have traditional curative magic.
Whilst most mages are found by the Templars and placed in a Circle whilst in the youth, Merrill is Dalish, which means she's had a different upbringing with her magical skills. She was apprenticed to Clan Sabrae under Marathari as the Keeper's First; the clan's Keeper, effectively their leader, is always a mage and they usually have another younger member of the Clan who stands at their side and can perform tasks, rituals, and so on in their stead or at their instruction - with the eventual goal of them becoming Keeper themselves. In Dalish clans, magic is typically celebrated (though not always, but that's neither here nor there in Merrill's case). However, having spent seven years away from her Clan and living in the human city of Kirkwall, Merrill has become efficient at hiding her magic where necessary and staying off the radar.
Though she is destined to be Keeper no longer, Merrill still has all the knowledge a First would possess, including knowledge on the Fade and Elven history. She is a believer in the Old Elven Gods and does not believe in the Maker (though does not dismiss a human's beliefs; she just has her own, and does not need to follow theirs). She can also speak the Eleven language as well as the common tongue of Thedas fluently.
Merrill is most apt at nature magic and primal magic (primal being the umbrella term for earth and lightning), and she is also quite skilled in entropy. However, Merrill also has another skill in her arsenal - blood magic.
Blood magic is something all mages can theoretically do - all it requires is for you to use your own blood to cast spells upon others. Blood mages often go mad with the power this holds, being able to control and bend the will of others, mage or non-mage, and make them do whatever they please against their will. Generally, it is feared in most of Thedas and a siren call for execution by the Templars, as the mage is no longer safe, much more susceptible to demon possession, and in most cases, have lost their minds. Merrill is a rare example of a blood mage who has managed to keep a hold of her sanity, likely from the more noble reason of why she turned to it - to restore an Eluvian, an Elven mirror that she believed would hold clues to her people's past, of which so much has been lost. She kept a shard that was tainted by the blight, and the only way she was able to find to cleanse it was blood magic, as her clan wanted nothing to do with assisting her in this endevour.
Merrill was aware there would be a price to pay due to the consequences of using, and learning, blood magic from a demon, but the actuality was worse. The imprisoned demon planned to use Merrill to escape its prison, which Merrill was unaware of; the clan Keeper, Marathari, took it upon herself to take in the demon of pride, Audacity, which resulted in her death - paying for the price of blood magic herself, so Merrill would not have to. After these events, Merrill was finally cast out of her clan for good.
At this point, even though she is distraught over what she has lost from using blood magic, Merrill has been using blood magic for so long that there is something of a reliance upon it. Getting away from it will take her time.
SPELLS
• Primal Magic
- Stonefist (Golem's Fist), Petrify (Dessicate), Rock Armour, Chain Lightning (Chain Reaction), Tempest (Strikes Twice), Galvanism
• Nature Magic
Wrath of the Elvhen (Loss of the Dales, Arithan's Grace), Ensnare, Stone's Throw
• Blood Magic
Blood of the First, Wounds of the Past
First Person Sample: Boop
Third Person Sample: It wasn't that Merrill never went into The Hanged Man. Quite the contrary; two of her best friends frequented its halls, lived in it at best, and so she often found her way here. No, what was more unusual was that after making her way up here from the Alienage, neither of them could be found.
Which meant asking some of the more... unseemly patrons as to their whereabouts.
"You haven't seen Isabella around, have you? Maybe Varric? No?"
The group of drunks looked at the elf in their midst like she was talking Tevine before sloshing more of the foamy stuff down their throats.
"You been hangin' out with tha' pirate, han't ya?" one of them observed. It was kind of hard to make out the slur of what he was saying, but Merrill got the gist of it, and nodded.
"That's Isabella. Like I said, have you seen here? I was supposed to meet her here. Um, now, I think. I walked straight here, followed the ball of twine- sorry, that's not really helping you in telling me if you've seen her, is it?"
Most of the drunks had already grown bored, drifting off - literally, in one's case, he was fast asleep on the table - and only two of them were really paying her any attention now. One of them muttered under his breath; this Merrill couldn't quite catch, but she definitely heard "knife-ear" in there somewhere.
Maybe she shouldn't have talked to them after all. This... after several years in Kirkwall, she knew that this could quickly turn ugly. She'd heard enough horror stories in the alienage.
"Sorry for bothering you. I'll just-"
Merrill backed away, aiming for the door, but the two alert men stood, aiming to block her exit. They didn't get very far, as a hand gripped their wrists, hard.
"I think you'll find you want to go back to your drink," Isabella threatened.
"Isabella!" Merill breathed, watching with wide-eyes. Isabella gave her a hint of a nod and a smile, before the fiercesome look in her eyes returned. When they didn't say anything, her hold tightened. A round of wincing before hurried nods. She let them go, scampering back to the pack with irate looks on their faces.
"Can't stand those two," Isabella said, shaking her fingers as if to get rid of dirt. "What did I tell you about talking to anyone in here, Kitten?"
"I didn't just want to sit and wait for you. I wanted to be... proactive? What if you'd gotten lost somewhere?"
"That'd be you, Kitten," Isabella laughed, patting her on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's get out of this filthy hole and go visit Hawke instead."