PLAYER INFO

NAME: Laura
CONTACT: jojoveller or laura#8074
OVER 18?: yes

CHARACTER INFO

NAME: Anders
SERIES: Dragon Age
CANON POINT: post-end of DA2
AGE: mid-thirties

CHARACTER SUMMARY:

The elevator pitch for Anders is that he's an exceedingly passionate person who greatly values his freedom and independence as well as the liberation of the oppressed (specifically, mages like himself), but he only picked up the latter in the past decade or so. He's got a chip on his shoulder the size of a small moon and he'll readily tell anyone who'll hold still long enough that he's absolutely correct to have it; he's spent his whole life being told he needs to be controlled so as not to be a danger just by existing, and he's been sick and tired of it since he was 12, so. One might say he is slightly bitter about The Machinations of Oppressive Societal Customs. Where his drive to be free and see that freedom for others (one day for people like him, at least, if not in his lifetime) makes him an incredibly passionate and vivacious person to be around, it also makes him a little intense. He's spent a very long time trying to ask for human rights nicely and it hasn't worked, and so more recently his tack has switched to "whatever it takes to be heard," instead. On an ordinary day he can be a handful, because he's always quick to take offense on behalf of Mages and Mage Rights, and very often he doesn't bother to control his own speech no matter how bonkers his comments are (i.e. asking Aveline if her dead templar husband had roleplay kinks about demons, or asking Fenris if he ever considered suicide, etc).

Broadly, Anders is a person who would just like to stop running for once in his life, although he doesn't believe it will ever happen. All happiness is tenuous at best, and always, always a risk, no matter how careful he tries to be. Getting close to people is a risk and he's tried to live under the person rule of "don't," but he's so attached to people and often lonely that he can't really resist. When he's not being a little intense about his causes he's often cheerful and funny, if deeply sarcastic and sometimes Mean; unfortunately, humor and charm have always been his defense mechanisms, so it's a toss-up whether his friendly demeanor is genuine or a wall he's put up sometimes. He's spent over two decades living a series of lives other people forced on him, he's an expert at keeping his head down to stay alive, but he's done doing it to stay comfortable. His primary trait under the loud activism is compassion, despite all of his abrasive commentary and ranting; it only took one group of weirdos befriending him to change his tune from a guy out for himself to a guy willing to accept a spirit into his body simply because they were friends. At heart he is a weird guy who likes cats and is a tad too clingy when he falls backwards into a found family that won't turn him in for magic, but the decades of trusting only a scant few people and assuming everyone else will turn on him eventually has given him a poor outlook on many things.

POWERS:
Warden stuff

Anders is a Grey Warden in addition to being a mage, and the Warden powers are a much shorter list because this is the whole list:

Upgraded stats: All Grey Wardens have a baseline increase in strength and stamina, but as a wizard, strength is his dump stat anyway and the boost is negligible for standard combat scenarios. Honestly I'm willing to just nerf this entirely and ignore it.

Warden Sense: He can sense other Wardens as well as darkspawn. This is, of course, useless unless some other Warden characters app.

Mage stuff

Now... the big hog. I'm not grabbing from every possible spell Anders can learn because the list would never end, but speccing him for mostly healing abilities with a few combat abilities sprinkled throughout. This is an amalgamation of his initial talents from both Awakening and DA2, primarily the latter.

Healing: Anders' specialty as a healer mage, his healing abilities are his primary talent, magically. He can single-target heal as well as AoE heal. Capped, I will limit his healing to the example outlined in the power caps post, stopping the strength of heal at quick-fixing a mortal wound in a pinch.

Vengeance healing: Having merged himself with the spirit within (formerly Justice/Vengeance), Anders has the ability to sacrifice his own health to cast heals more rapidly. This is technically its own cap as it makes him more vulnerable/loses his own health, but to translate the videogame element of it to RP-able powercaps, he'll be limited to doing this only once per day and it will now have a time limit of ten minutes, so he can't go hog wild on the nonstop healing. Also, he will obviously have to stop doing it before he risks permanent damage himself, as he is completely resistant to being healed while doing this.

Fire control: Good ol' Fireball allows Anders to unleash an exploding burst of flame. Canonically this is limited to a 10m sphere and locked into a cooldown of 20s.

Ice control: Winter's Grasp, not an AoE, allows Anders to summon an ice blast of 1.5m that can occasionally freeze an enemy, which will be translated to "ice around the feet" so it makes sense.

Elemental mastery (general): Specifically limited to fire and ice, these are the elements Anders is most comfortable/experienced with summoning and using. He can do fire and ice magic in much smaller and minor capacities than the big spells above, such as lighting a candle with a fingertip or cooling down a drink. The flavor spells of fire and ice. He does not have electric, earth, or air mastery.

Telekinetic spells: Through a variety of Arcane spells, Anders is capable of using telekinesis to move objects as well as a kind of force, with "waves" of telekinetic force that can knock roughly human-sized enemies around or hold them in place. The two big spells are Mind Blast, the knockback with a range of 5m, and Crushing Prison, which drags force down on a single target for 10s. He cannot use either of these as an AoE.

Shielding: Anders can conjure and maintain an aura barrier that deflects attacks. For just himself, he can hold it up for quite a while until he naturally runs out of energy, although he can't do much else while it's up. For a group, it will be capped to having a range of a 5m sphere and expiring after 10 minutes.

GAME INFO

ASPECTS:

ICONOCLAST: his soul is merged with a spirit of vengeance, so...... Genuinely: when considering the scope of Anders' life, his goals, and the things important to him, Iconoclast is the tightest fit. His life since the age of 12 has been defined by resolve and pride, and for most of his adult life his primary motivation has been having his voice heard for the causes he believes in. He is very gung-ho about having his voice heard and changing the status quo for his people and, broadly, the downtrodden. The fact that he blew up a Chantry when all other avenues had been exhausted without progress neatly covers "whatever it takes," as well... Mostly, the Iconoclast Aspect covers the most good and not so good about Anders, from his devotion to his beliefs to his tendency to lean hard into vengeance.

EXALT: Exalt is the best fit for Anders' deeply compassionate side, because as stated above: the man gets a little clingy really quickly. His People are the ones he's ride or die for, no matter how snippy and mean they might be to each other on a daily basis; when someone else tries to splinter or harm the group, Anders' immediate response is to fire back, because he doesn't like it when the place he's found to belong is threatened. He loves his friends even if he doesn't show it... in normal ways... or by saying normal, sane things, and he would do anything for them with only mild complaining. The Exalt Aspect only kind of falls apart around the manipulation aspect, because Anders is so dedicated to his causes that he's really not so easy to persuade into other paths. He's willing to kill for the people he loves, for sure, but at the end of the day the people he loves can't change his mind about the things he decides matter the most, like his freedom.

ANTICIPATED FACTION:

Truthfully: neither, but if he must choose, he's more inclined towards Meridian for seeming the lesser of two groups that make him kind of uncomfortable in different ways. The single power of Yima leading Zenith, and indeed, having so much influence over so many things, makes his skin crawl - that someone could be that influential, and grant people gifts of things they loved? He assumes this is some kind of awful contract that will end in forced obedience sooner rather than later, and so Meridian is his pick for just... not having that degree of centralized control. But he's not too keen on the Church after dealing with the Chantry, so we'll see how that shakes out. He will likely force himself to harmonize sooner rather than later to get his magic back, but he'll probably complain about it.

SUITABILITY:

you might say anders has a vested interest in things like faction conflicts in places where he lives

Or: while Anders is coming from a canon point after he's made his Great Mistake and maybe has to rethink extremism as a concept, he hasn't stopped being incredibly radicalized and invested in things like personal freedom and an ideal future for the oppressed. "People whose worlds went boom" feels like a pretty downtrodden group, so the Factions' main goal being handling that situation will definitely keep his interest. It is inevitable that he will come to view Shard-bearers as His People (maybe grumpily though) and be highly invested in the whole group of them, regardless of their individual faction allegiances. He also cannot help himself when it comes to offering aid to those in need, so if any Plot or just quality of life issues arise for the locals, he will be Invested in them as well. Anders' clinic... 2!! hopefully not in a sewer.

PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER: Laura
ARE YOU AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD?: yep!
CONTACT: pm
CHARACTERS PLAYED: none

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Anders
CANON: Dragon Age
CANON REFERENCE: here
CANON POINT: Dragon Age 2, mid-Act 3, specifically after the quest "Check on Anders" (that is to say, pre-doing anything with explosives)
CRAU HISTORY: N/A
AGE: Mid-30s
APPEARANCE: what is this pose
CONTRACT PAYMENT: Mages' rights to govern themselves and the dissolution of the Circles.

QUESTIONNAIRE:

What does family mean to you and who do you consider a part of your family?
For Anders, family is who you choose them to be. He was an ordinary child with ordinary parents until he developed magic young, and his father wasted no time in selling him out to the templars out of fear and beliefs that mages are inherently dangerous. As such, Anders hasn't seen his biological family for decades; he can't consider people who would give away their child into the abuse of the Circle family anyway.

(But he does keep the pillow his mother made for him for those decades, so there's a sentimentality for what he lost left in him yet.)

So: Family is chosen, and Anders has chosen Hawke. And Varric. And the rest of the Kirkwall crew even if they might annoy him or he might annoy them to no possible end. Family is trust; family is loyalty; family is the inescapable fear that he will lose them again, like his mother. The first time Anders tried to pick family after being taken to the Circle he chose Karl, a fellow mage, and loved Karl until he lost Karl as well, thanks to templar abuse causing Karl to ask Anders to kill him. That's two families lost, and now he has Hawke and co. and he is terrified, often, that his actions will bring them harm. That being around him will cause Hawke grief in the end, for being a mage (and friends) who associate with him, a fugitive many times over. Family is fragile and priceless and never something he gets to keep as long as he'd like.

He's getting used to it. It hurts worse every time, and if the values of his family don't align with the values he believes in, well— he'll cut the threads himself, if he has to.

What is the most frightening thing you've ever done? What part of you did it test the most?
Every time he escaped the Circle topped the last for the most frightening things he's ever done. He first attempted as a child, not long after he arrived in the Circle, and he's been escaping over and over ever since. They've tested him in myriad ways, from his ability to be charming (so as to incur lesser punishment, when caught) to his ability to face adversity (so as to survive the punishments anyway, because there are never none) to his ability to remain stalwart in his belief that he deserves to be free, to live how he chooses. He's swum across lakes, disappeared into forests, fled into the Grey Wardens (legally allowed to claim mages away from the Circle) and then out of the Wardens later, fearful every time. Every single time he risks being killed for this attempt, or made Tranquil (magically lobotomized, fundamentally), or put into solitary confinement in the dark for a year.

So, it's been horrifying. He's learned to live looking over his shoulder but the fear still remains; daily he is put to the test to continue believing in himself and this one big ideal he has despite the fear and lack of safety. Constantly, he is tested to keep saying no to that which would own him, when really, that which would own him might be more comfortable if he'd just behave. Just knowing that much - that if he stopped, if he gave in, he might live as a prisoner but at least he'd be more superficially comfortable - tests him just as much as the threat of retribution. His fortitude is tested every day, but like, he's pretty sure he's managing quite well, this time!

What are your greatest regrets, if you have any? What would you have done differently?
Probably his biggest regret is being unable to save Karl, and more broadly, being unable to save every other mage made Tranquil by templars or ultimately killed unfairly (or both). Anders escaped the Circle without Karl, traveled to Kirkwall when Karl was moved to that Circle out of concern, and was mere moments too late to save him from being a victim of the templars. It haunts him for years afterwards; what if he had done more? Gone to Karl sooner? Spirited him away in the middle of the night? Been more aggressive in his insistence that Karl should escape with him? He thinks often about how he might have done any of these differently; anything to change what really happened, which was that he was too late.

That Karl's fate is not his fault because mages are second-class citizens to the templars occurs to him in moments of righteous rage, but he's never been able to shake the regret of being unable to save him. Karl's loss hit the closest to home (they were lovers) but is representative of the larger problem of mages Anders hasn't been able to save. He constantly wonders if more or less aggression is right, if acting sooner or waiting things out is right, and so on; the whims of the Chantry and its templars change so quickly and the mages are always the first to suffer. He wishes he could have saved Karl. He will wish it for the rest of his life. And when he remembers Karl begging him to kill him before the Tranquil treatment could take away his magic and emotions, he will always wish he'd gotten there a little bit sooner.

What is your favorite diversion? Hobbies, indulgences, vices? Would you put off important things for that diversion, or would you be more strict about how you spend your time and/or money?
He likes cats. The man loves a cute little tabby cat. He had a cat as a Warden that he was forced to give away to a friend because it was a distraction, which on the one hand isn't uncommon for Wardens, whose job is pretty serious and really cannot afford distractions, but given that Anders admits he took the cat into battle, it's safe to assume that how much he loves his pets is a little extreme. He still misses his old cat and when he learns there are bunch of feral strays in the elven slum in Kirkwall, he immediately asks if there are any tabbies; even amidst living in hiding and constant political turmoil and violence, he would like to have a dang pet cat.

The diversion, the hobby, the indulgence: taking care of cats. He would not put off important things for cats so much as, as stated, bring them with him; the line between pet caretaking and being a "dog in a baby carriage" guy is nonexistent with Anders and his cats. He even expresses fond memories of a cat in the Circle, even after it became possessed by a demon and killed several templars (possibly it was Anders who killed these templars, but it's the story he tells). Cats never fail to get him out of the funk of... the rest of his life, so: it's cats. It's about cats.

POWERS & ABILITIES: Here are his DA2 skills. Functionally, Anders is a highly competent mage who specializes in healing spells. He can repair broken bones and knit flesh back together, but he can't revive the dead. He's good with elemental (fire, ice) and primal (earth) spells and passingly competent at spirit and arcane abilities, which are the abilities that center around creating barriers, siphoning life from enemies, and so on. His personal specialization, Vengeance, ironically is a bunch of healing benefit and party buffing skills, with the additional ability to use his own life force to enhance his attack abilities.

All DA mages need mana to cast and mana needs to be consumed as a lyrium potion or regained over time, so the upper limit of his ability to cast a lot of/very strong spells is limited to how much mana he has upon arrival; per the game's overall nerf, this will be lower than usual, focusing the spellcasting area of his spells down to a smaller radius (perhaps the size of a car rather than a truck, for example). In terms of lower limits, his spells just kind of... do that. For example: his healing spell can heal a papercut, if he likes, and his elemental ice skill could cool a drink, if he wanted to.

The Tricky Bit with Anders is Justice, the spirit he's taken into himself. Justice is not a separate being anymore, by Anders' own admission; their thoughts are the same, even if Anders thinks he can sometimes feel the spirit's influence. Justice's presence in the video game manifests as a glow around Anders' body and eyes, and a noticeable uptick in his ability to cast strong magic; however, for the convenience of the RP game, Justice's glowy manifestation will be totally nerfed behind that regain "paywall" per the clan's blessing. Justice will still be part of Anders, because they've fused and cannot be separated, but Anders' temper flaring will not lead to a power boost that the spirit part of him would have originally provided.

One last thing: he is also a Grey Warden, which has no real bearing on anything in-game as its only contributions are a sixth sense for fellow Wardens or darkspawn, boosted stamina, and nightmares. The stamina part is notable but nothing wildly superhuman.

SUITABILITY: Anders is an adult who lives in the lowest slums (basically the sewers) of Kirkwall, canonically. He's been exposed to violence and abuse in the Circle since he was twelve and taken from his mother, so he's well used to all of that kind of suffering. Poverty, crime, and the threat of undue retribution from the local authorities are always present in his life and the lives around him, particularly those he heals in the slums who are the most desperate of the desperate. As for drugs and sex, he's been to both shady taverns and brothels before; these, also, are not new or particularly offensive to him. The biggest shock to the system will be all of the modern technology, actually, because Kirkwall is very ye olde and still burns candles for light.

FACTION SUITABILITY:

Shuten: In terms of strength/might makes right philosophies, Anders isn't a fan for perhaps the obvious reasons - might makes right let the Chantry steamroll over his whole life, after all. He wouldn't be entirely comfortable with that, or with the more boisterous, in-your-face nature of the Shuten, but he does respect and appreciate the dedication to using power to provide for the community. The responsibility Shuten feels for the people's welfare is a good stance to take, in his opinion, and if he were involved with Shuten he would dedicate himself to this part, the community service part. Local on-the-down-low doctor for the needy, and so on.

Tamamo: Philosophically, this is the clan that suits Anders the best, purely for the ideology of freedom and expression above all else. Libertarian vice and indulgence don't bother him, but they're outside what he's usually experienced and make him kind of uncomfortable in such high doses; he always likes to have a back exit in case the indulgence and the safety of freedom is not actually free or safe. That paranoia aside, the Tamamo drive to attain freedom and personal expression speaks directly to what Anders has wanted his whole life, that is, to be allowed to exist as a free mage and express his magic without being persecuted for it. This is his life's purpose, he's written manifestos about the rights of mages to freely exist and self-govern without being literally controlled prisoners and second-class citizens. There's a law in the Thedas Chantry that allows templars to kill mages at will, if they believe a mage to be unsafe; Anders has been fighting the long fight for a while.

So! Tamamo believes in freedom, ergo, Anders believes in Tamamo. He doesn't necessarily believe that power is the path to freedom, because he's spent equally long trying to convince anti-mage forces that mages aren't all power-hungry monsters, but he's just about reached a point in his life where he's willing to reconsider previously dismissed options. Like power. Not having to hide one's true self matters the most to the Tamamo and it matters the most to Anders; he's here for it, he can support this kind of group without having to question himself repeatedly. As for literal services, well, entertainers also need a doctor? He tends to keep to the behind the scenes areas, but if his magic is useful in aiding Tamamo needs outside of just healing, he'd be willing to provide.

Sutoku: A close second place to Tamamo for Anders would be the Sutoku. He doesn't prioritize intelligence-gathering besides the kind that will protect himself and others like him; knowledge that can keep his people safe is the most useful kind, and that's a philosophy he can get behind. Beyond that, the Sutoku's belief in a more egalitarian ruling system appeals way beyond something like the Enma or the Shuten's might makes right, because— he's been through (basically) Cops and he's been through the strong walking all over the weak. He believes people should be allowed to rule themselves with fair representation, such as the mages, again! Mages should be allowed to self-govern! Without the class disparity that exists inherently in the typical Chantry-based and nobility-based system in most parts of Thedas. Anders has a lot of concern for the downtrodden and the oppressed, and Sutoku's desire to rule the people to their benefit, and not simply To Rule, does appeal to him.

Broadly, Sutoku's value of equality among groups appeals to Anders philosophically slightly to the left of Tamamo's preference for individualism and personal freedom. He sees the value in having solidarity not only in a group, but as a group among groups. He isn't completely okay with secrets and blackmail being the main form of threat posed by the Sutoku, given it would remind him of being turned in for being a mage, but - despite this, he's got a sneaky side. He knows how to live under the radar and to learn other people's secrets, how to move information and people in secret, etc.

Enma: He straight up wouldn't agree to work for any kind of official city guard/authority like this because he has so many overt problems with big Powers That Be authority groups. The Enma's additional insistence that the system is correct because it's the system and need not ever be examined further is definitely a hot-button thing for him that would set him off, so: he would not cooperate with these people. He'd rather be arrested. That kind of authority/way the organization is run is way too close to the templars and the Chantry, that is, considering themselves absolute; he Cannot.

SAMPLES

two threads on the tdm

stuff:
-don't 4th wall
-don't crau at him without asking
-flirting/phys contact fine, please keep it 21+ because he is in his thirties. m/* anything goes
-if you wanna hit we can discuss
-if you wanna fight we can also discuss, he is a wizard
-if you wanna get in his brain please be warned there's weird shit going on in there
-i'll backtag to a point, if it's lagging i prefer to start something new!


quick n dirty info one might want to know re: world state:

-lady mage hawke, insufferably blue
-everyone is pals, no one is romanced*
-all party members recruited
-carver with the wardens
-tbh if it sounds like a goody two shoes thing for hawke to do then it happened, ask me ig for individual quests
-anders spared (goodbye sebastian), bullied into helping the mages, flees kirkwall alone
*I don't ship with Hawkes in general ty