Dragon Age: Origins & Roleplaying (plot spoilers).
So, I've been getting into discussions on RPing games over at the Mark Plays Dragon Age comments, and someone actually asked me about my characters and their story. Baaaaad idea. This is just my main DA:O character. I tried to write up my main DA2 character as well, but too many feelings got in the way, so for now there's just this.
Name: Criedhe Aiducan
Gender: Female
Race: Dwarf
Class & Strategy: Warrior - Duelweilding swords (I'm a huge duelwielding fan in any game for any class).
Appearance:
Personality: Puts up charming, funny, sarcastic, flirty mask to hide issues over her family situation when she left. Tough, honest, no-nonsense, silver-tounged charmer, good hearted and compassionate.
Backstory (pre origin): Just that she was a warrior who loved and respected her father but was very anti-tradition when it came to the stuffy standing on ceremony parts and the caste system (but her father understood and loved her for her fiery spirit and determination to do right). She was also determined to prove that her gender couldn't stop her being the toughest most badass Aiducan in history (and so far succeeding).
Origin story: Didn't like Trian because he was condescending, disrespectful, privileged and arrogant. She knew she'd make a better ruler than him, but she wasn't arrogant enough to demand it as a given, just to prove it consistently and ultimately let their father decide. She liked and got along with Behlan casually, though she wasn't close to either brother. She flirted with Gorim a couple of times when it let me but I got the idea he didn't want to have a relationship with her for whatever reason and her flirting was just good fun. When she was betrayed by Behlan, she honestly did not see it coming at all and felt horrified and constantly beat herself up over it - why didn't I see it coming so I could have stopped it. She was ashamed of how focussed she'd been on proving herself and winning glory and felt like she let her father and her people down. She blamed herself for what had happened and accepted her outcast with humility.
Ostagar & Lothering: Was stand-offish but not disrespectful towards Cailan (you're not my king and you're kind of foolish but I respect your general goodness and your status in this world I have to live in now) and very tight lipped with everyone as to who she was (I can't remember if it was an option to hide that she was a outcast princess but if there was she would have). She liked Duncan a lot and was very grateful to him for taking her in and giving her a purpose after she had been cast out of her previous life into a world that was so unfamiliar. She just wanted to move on and forget about it so that maybe she could stop having giant pity and self loathing parties in her head every night. She thought Alistair was a bit whiny with the but I want to go into the real fighting stuff because he reminded her of what she'd been like in Orzamar and she wanted to get away from that. She didn't get along with Morrigan worse though, because she was always being cruel to Alistair about Duncan and having a go at Criedhe for helping people out. She recruited Sten just because I said so and she didn't believe Lilliana about the visions (because she didn't believe in the Maker or Andraste) but she thought she was really nice and interesting and that she could be really helpful so she brought her along too.
Redcliff: I went here first because Criedhe was feeling unsure in her newfound position as leader of their little band, issues of her life in and outcast from Orzamar still making her uncomfortable when in charge, feeling like she hadn't earned the right yet. So she went to the place Alistair advised her to go to. She let the guy in the dungeon go despite Alistair's protests because she believed him that he had nothing to do with the demon and she didn't have a problem with apostates in general. When he came back to help with the demon problem even though he didn't have to she was all see, told you so to Alistair. Then he turned out to be a blood mage and Alistair was all told you so in return. She was torn up with her choices at Redcliff. On the one hand, she didn't want to sacrifice the Arlessa but she also didn't like the idea of wasting time going to the circle for the mages. She definitely didn't agree with slaying the boy. In the end, she went to the circle.
Mages: In the mages tower, Criedhe sided with the mages. She never really got along with Morrigan but that wasn't because Morrigan was an apostate and Criedhe definitely didn't agree with potentially sacrificing innocents including children to contain the abominations. Also, she needed these mages for the Arl's son. Although, she understood where the templars were coming from, and didn't wholly disagree with the idea of the circle and confining mages. She hated the whole fade trip. Hated hated hated it. It was lonely and terrifying and she had no idea what to do because she was a dwarf and had no experience with magic (and this is how I justify how bad I was at solving the puzzle and using the other forms the first time round - I'm getting better each time I do it).
Redcliff (again): After the circle she immediately returned and vanquished the demon with the help of the mages from the circle.
Elves: At this stage Criedhe was getting kind of annoyed at how everyone she asked for aid so far was all sure thing, but can you help us with this demon/curse problem that no-one else has been able to solve yet first? She went in to the forest to kill Witherfang, determined to get this quest done with so she could get on with the rest. This meant she was straight-up determined to just kill the werewolves and get back rather than listen to them. But then when the Lady of the Forest told her the truth about the curse she agreed to bring Zathrian to see her and then convinced him to lift the curse.
Urn of Sacred Ashes: So at this point she finally decided to go in search of the ashes. I don't remember much about it, but she got them and cured the Arl and everything was peachy.
Orzamar: Criedhe left this to the very very last moment, because she didn't want to face her past. Eventually though, she had to suck it up because they needed the dwarves. Obviously, she sided against Behlan and helped her father's adviser take control. I was surprised there wasn't the option of her taking the throne, but Criedhe herself would have rejected it because she didn't feel she deserved it. She was very touched when the adviser guy gave her that staff (or something - been ages since this play through) and this helped her come to terms with her past somewhat.
Landsmeet: She originally intended to put Anora on the throne, as she knew that Alistair would be miserable and that even if she weren't a dwarf and they weren't both Wardens she couldn't deal with being a ruler after what happened with her brothers but then when Anora betrayed them she decided couldn't trust her to be a good ruler and it had to be Ali. She killed Logain at the Landsmeet, for Duncan and all the people at Ostagar and had Anora taken away. Then she put Ali on the throne because she knew he'd do a good job.
Final Battle: She refused the ritual because she was in a dark place after Alistair broke up with her (she knew they probably couldn't be together officially when she put him on the throne but she thought it was something they could talk about after the battle - his breakup came out of nowhere and hit her really hard) and because she didn't trust Morrigan enough to give her a god baby and let her run off and do as she willed with it. She took Alistair with her to the final battle because it would have been horribly impractical not to take all the Grey Wardens just in case and because at that stage she couldn't imagine punching Hurlock face in without him by her side.
Romance: Criedhe wasn't thinking too much on romance when she met Alistair but gradually, his sweetness, humour and awkwardness got under her skin and she began to fall. She wasn't angry with him when she found out he was Merrik's bastard because she was keeping a very similar secret from everybody as well, and she understood his reluctance to tell people. Very soon after she told him about her past at Orzamar (though no-one else) and they started to get close. A couple of times she put her foot in her mouth and made some jokes at times when he was super serious but presents always made him like her again (seriously all the companions in this game are super shallow when it comes to bling and stuff).
Other stuff: Her party usually consisted of Liliana, Wynne and Alistair. Her BFFs were Liliana, her dog, Alistair and Shale. She got along with all her party members though, except Morrigan and she found Ohgren to be really crude and unpleasant. Plus he reminded her of Orzamar. Side-quest wise she always helped those in need, didn't do any shady quests like the ones from the tavern keeper or the crows, but did do all the Blackstone Irregulars and apostate ones. She did everyone's side quests, but in Morrigans she didn't kill Flemeth, just told Morrigan she did because I died like 3 times trying to take that badass dragon witch down. I passed this off as Flemeth made Criedhe think she'd killed her by poisening her and making her deam it or something like that because normally Criedhe wouldn't lie about that.
So if anyone else here plays DA:O I'd love to hear about your characters. I'm going to post about my characters in DA2, SW:TOR and the Mass Effect trilogy in the future.