Application for Singularity
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: Abigail Hawke
Name of Canon: Dragon Age 2
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: AU
Reference: yo
Canon Point: end of Act 2, just after being declared Champion of Kirkwall
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 pansexual 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, though 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.
Hawke is luckily in the human category, though she's also got the lucky distinction of having an apostate for a father, AND one for a sister! This resulted in a lot of new and exciting childhood homes.
They lived in Ferelden, which is known by most other nations as that gross brown country with all the dog fuckers. 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.' Hawke and her little brother, Carver, both joined up, since the Darkspawn were so dangerously close to their home.
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, while Hawke and her brother got the hell out of dodge and back to Lothering.
While the Hero of Ferelden ran around on foot doing obnoxious errands for Dwarves, Elves, and Mages, Hawke and her family fled to Kirkwall, where they were forced to work for a year to get comfy. In this year, the Hero rallied her troops, and took down the Archdemon, and reunited Ferelden after a fun little war against Loghain.
At this point, things in Kirkwall become more of a focus. Many Fereldens fled the Blight by taking ship to Kirkwall, the Hawkes included. Abigail and her sister had to buy their way into the city with the help of a smuggler's guild that she had to work for to pay off the debt of getting into the city. This was the beginning of her adventures, and even working in a cutthroat business of shady reputation, Hawke began to gain quite a name for herself. Over the years, that reputation only grew, and people came to respect her a great deal. Still life beyond Hawke in Kirkwall went on. A ship of Qunari crashed and were housed for three years in a compound off the Kirkwall docks, and mages were constantly pressing against the templars in the Gallows, resorting to blood magic and getting oppressed all over the place. Small mage problems were quelled with Hawke's assistance, though she was also quick to point out how at fault Templars were with the way the mages were treated, which never gained her too many fans within the order.
The living conditions for many Fereldens in Kirkwall improved due to Hawke's efforts, especially in becoming partial-owner of a mine where many Fereldens were able to gain employment. She also regularly donated money to the poor she saw around Darktown, and helped children when she saw them struggling.
The Qunari became a growing problem. While Hawke initially didn't have much to do with them, she ended up dealing with the Arishok more and more as she earned her living and made a name for herself. She had respect for the ways of the Qun, despite not expressly seeing it as the perfect solution the Qunari seemed to think it was. She cooperated with Viscount and Qunari both when she was able, and never attempted to hide the flaws of humanity, despite what others may have wished. Inevitably, despite Hawke being a decent person, the Qunari deemed Kirkwall a pit, and converged to take the city over. Hawke was forced to kill the Arishok after he murdered Viscount Dumar, though it was actually because he wanted to take her companion, Isabela, that she engaged him in single combat and sent the Qunari packing.
Personality: Hawke is oddly not the type of person you'd expect to favor the fighting styles of a rogue. She's honest, frank, and generally enjoys helping people. Though she carries herself with a quiet sort of confidence, she doesn't tend to brag about her abilities, though Varric certainly does what he can to brag about them on her behalf. She mostly just does what she does to protect her family, and by extent those that she befriends.
Her ideals tend to be optimistic, and focused on her family she feels like she can accomplish whatever she needs to. She's not naive, however. She's essentially the head of her household, and the only one in charge after the death of her mother. She knows how to think diplomatically, and she knows enough of politics to know how to speak around those in power to avoid too much backlash. She has problems where she will sometimes say the wrong thing, when she believes strongly in something, and she will have to tiptoe around the matter for a time afterwards, to avoid any kind of backlash to her family. Most of her life she has spent protecting her sister from the Chantry, she has learned caution.
Of course, she can't simply let things lie. While she does attempt discretion, there are times when her mouth gets her or those around her into trouble. She tends to have overly blunt moments where she'll come dangerously close to mentioning her travelling companions include apostates to templars, or she'll directly state when blood magic has been the reason behind some horrible happening, which does directly effect the way mages are treated within the Circle. Her general cooperation with the templar Order has kept the apostates she travels with safe, but there are times when it's obvious they'd happily throw the lot of them into cells within the Gallows.
She likes to go out of her way to help those less fortunate, giving her a reputation all its own of an almost modern-day robin hood, though she doesn't do...
Okay she is kind of a thief. But it's typically for a good cause. She does what she can to improve the lives of those around her, though. At one point it's said of her that her rise to fame improved the lot of many around Kirkwall. And while certainly indirectly she was an inspiration, directly she unintentionally inspired, as well. Her convictions and morals in rescuing a young girl inspired that same child to one day become a city guard, and her compassion towards apostate mages because of her sister helped the Mage Underground in ways even she isn't entirely aware of.
This is not to say she is nothing but diplomacy and a will to help others. She has always had a sense of humour when with those who know her well, and Varric and Isabela especially bring out this side in her. She enjoys a good joke and witty rapport, but she would never speak to the Viscount or Arishok in the same fashion that she speaks with her siblings or her closest friends. It's a level of comfort that others don't see in her often, mostly. Her entire life has been carefully guarded, due to her sister's gift, so the ability to open up, smile, and joke freely is something that was mostly lost to her.
She doesn't always see eye-to-eye with her friends, though she would defend any of them to the death. Arguments typically involve Fenris, Anders, and mage rights, though she has had her share of conversations about Merrill's blood magic. She doesn't try to make choices for people, even though at times she probably should, she encourages them to make their own mistakes. She's direct when she needs to be, of course, and it's mostly from the things she drags them into personally that problems occur.
She is also incredibly inquisitive, and will do whatever she can to learn everything she can about a problem before deciding on a course of action on how to repair it. She will actually go out of her way to help people who are looking down on their luck, because she's been there, and she feels badly for them. But she may drive them insane with questions, first. She just likes to get all the information, because there have been a few times in the past where she'll go help someone and whoops, turns out they're a mass murderer. That dick Gascard is pretty much a case in point of where she should've pressed just a little bit harder.
Anger is rare with Abigail, though it does happen. When she's placed her trust in someone, and that trust is exploited (Isabela...) she is more hurt than anything, though that can come out in a raised voice and upset tone. Primarily, she doesn't appreciate being used, and while she censors herself, she's not the type to just passively accept any wrongs to her. It's why she was pretty okay with a Qunari strolling into the Chantry and plunking an arrow through Petrice's skull.
This is also a point of a lot of heartbreak for her. She makes herself easy to be used, though she tries to be cautious, and when she is used it hurts her, and any relationship she may have with that person. She is intuitive to a point, but she likes to believe in the good of people. Gascard is a person she should have shot an arrow into when he wouldn't tell her the name of the man who was killing women in Kirkwall, and due to her choice to believe in his story, her mother wound up dead. The bitterness of that choice coloured the way she saw things from then on, though she refuses to give up on believing in people entirely.
Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitation Suggestions: As a rogue, Abigail is adept with fighting two-handed with daggers, in addition to archery. She's also capable of masking her presence as only a rogue can, and picking locks. She's athletic, often preforming flips and impressive spins when she's fighting with her blades, and there's a certain fluidity and grace required to be a rogue. You can't really plunk along and expect results.
The drawbacks of being a rogue are she's not built to take a lot of punishment. She's built to dart in, poke you full of holes, then dart away before an axe can come down on her head. If caught by a particularly powerful foe, she needs all the help she can get, otherwise she'll be squashed flat. She's very mortal, and since being a rogue requires lighter armor, she doesn't have much by way of protection in the event of a heavy blow or two. She can parry, but if her opponent is stronger than her, she's toast.
Inventory: two daggers, a throwing knife, bow and quiver of arrows, the Enasalin rogue armor, side pack full of disgusting health potions and poisons.
Appearance:
Abigail Hawke is a slender woman with an athletic figure earned from years of learning how to fight with daggers and bow both. She has olive-toned skin which is marked by scars from her years of fighting, in addition to the few tattoos she sports. Her features are mostly soft, though there is a sharpness and strength in her jawline, and the red-ink tattoos just below her green eyes on either cheek give her a more edgy look than she tends to exude otherwise. She keeps her eyebrows well manicured and her brown hair cropped short, because fighting in close proximity of others tends to make having long hair unwise.
Typically she's dressed in leathers that provide protection but also allow for mobility, crucial to the rogue's fighting style.
Age: 25
OC/AU Justification ;
If AU, How is Your Version Different From Canon, and How Will That Come Across? HAWKE IS A BIOWARE PROTAG. She's only ever referred to by her surname or by obnoxious petnames her love interests will give her, to allow you to give her a first name of your choice (IE: the default is Marian, but I've chosen to use my custom Hawke, Abigail.) My Hawke is obviously different from your standard default Hawke in that she's appearance-wise a bit darker in skin tone, different hair, eyes, face, etc etc. She looks different. Her family is all more olive-white than the usual pale-white as well, except Carver is still that disgusting shade of yellow he always seems to be.
Superficial differences aside, Hawke's personal AU is primarily in her personal choices. She is a diplomatic-friendly Hawke, though she is charming-humorous when with her friends or people she's comfortable around. Primarily though, she's a Nice Person and Does Nice Things. Even if some of the stuff she says is hilariously derpy sometimes.
Early on, she joined the smugglers over the mercenary guild, because while she had no personal objections to killing for money, as she'd been in the army, she wasn't comfortable with putting her sister in that situation, initially.
She GENERALLY got along with everyone she recruited, though mages and templars are a sore topic for everyone. Fenris and Merrill were on the lower end of the friendship scale because they kept getting contradictory friendship/rival points before she realized it was a bad idea to have them together in the same room.
She's actually supportive of both the templars and the mages, for varying reasons. She can see why the Circle is needed, especially after the death of her mother to a maleficar, but she can also see that the templars have been abusing their power, and that they are overly harsh in their treatment of people whose only true sin was being born unlucky. She overall can see the faults in both schools of logic, and kind of facepalms at most of the lack of thought everyone has on the subjects. It's actually difficult for her to not smack Anders in the back of the head sometimes. Ultimately she will side with the mages, due to her love for her sister and the other mages she has fought with for so long, but she hasn't crossed this bridge yet.
If OC, Did You Run Your Character Through a Mary-Sue Litmus Test?
And What Did You Score?
Samples ;
Log Sample: One minute Hawke had been standing in the Viscount's throne room, wiping the blood of the Arishok from her cheek as Meredith proclaimed her Champion of Kirkwall-
-The next she was suddenly falling, out of control, before she hit a pile of metal and garbage. She didn't even have time to cry out in surprise, though she second she tried to move after landing she had time to let out a yelp as the pile she was on gave way and she tumbled down the side, jagged metal edges snagging on any exposed flesh. She came to a stop at the base of the pile, arms up over her head, bleeding from the cuts inflicted here and by the Arishok both. She held still in that position a long moment, not daring to even breathe, before she slowly blinked her eyes open and lifted her head, assessing her condition and what exactly had happened.
Her brain couldn't make sense of it. This was not where she'd been, and yet here she was all the same. Had she fared worse in the battle against the Arishok? Was she in the Fade? Wincing a little, she pushed herself to her feet, pulling a stray piece of glass that had embedded itself in her bicep out with a grunt, before assessing further damage.
"Can't be the Fade... This pain is far too real," she murmured, rubbing the back of her neck. It was then she spotted creatures rolling towards her, unlike anything she'd ever seen. In a normal situation, she might have waited for them to finish their approach before deciding on their danger. However, she'd just been plucked from normalcy by Maker only knows what, and deposited in a hostile environment. She was bleeding, bruised, and still tired from the long night in Kirkwall. So her fight instincts kicked into full, and she pulled her bow from its strap and notched an arrow all in one fluid movement, before bringing it level and aiming at the being closest to her.
"Stay back, or I will shoot you!"
Network Sample:
[Having paid attention to the canned introduction Abigail at least has some clue what she's doing when she turns on the network video feed. She doesn't say anything for a long moment, squinting at the odd display with a look of mixed curiosity and discomfort. After the silence stretches for a beat too long, she speaks]
As I understand it, I've come to this place by accident. While this seems completely unlikely as I am fairly certain you can't "accidentally" abduct someone, it is the only explanation I have, at the moment. If there's anyone here who could give me a more believable theory, I'd be most interested in speaking with you.
That aside, my name is Hawke. If any of my companions have ended up in this Maker-forsaken place, you can show your faces any time, now.