fade rift.

[heorte]

PLAYER

Name: eppy
Age: old
Contact: pogonophile @ plurk
Other Characters: john silver, derrica
Interests: playing someone who gives zero fucks about magic and is just here trying to fight shit and haphazardly put his life back together in the midst of a war, and because "A Warden who participated willingly in Clarel’s plan because it was supposed to end the Blights, and now has to live with slitting all those friends’ throats" is the perfect au fodder for this character.

CHARACTER

Name: ellis
Canon/OC: oc
Journal: heorte
Race: Human
Nationality: Fereldan
Occupation: Grey Warden
Division: Forces
Mage or Not: No
Age: mid-thirties

History

Born 9:12 Dragon, the only son of a farmer. Idyllic childhood, etc. Minor conflicts arose as he grew older, but mostly because he didn't want to be a farmer and his father didn't get why not.

He was 18 at the time of the Fifth Blight. It promptly wiped out both his parents; the entire village was overrun and slaughtered. Very few people escaped and Ellis lost track of them pretty quick while fleeing. Exceedingly traumatic event.

Drifted along aimlessly for a while, didn't deal well with PTSD, did some petty crime, was claimed by the Wardens instead of getting a hand lopped off.

Made a good, efficient Warden!! Having a specific mission was somewhat good for him, he took the work, let it crowd out everything else. Slowly became a functional human being.

Could have been promoted out of the rank-and-file if he'd shown even a little interest, but he gave zero fucks. Lots of Warden activity goes here, etc. Routing out darkspawn, hanging out in the Deep Roads, generally learning and excelling as he went along.

I cannot emphasize enough how unhealthy this hyperfocusing on The Mission was for him overall. It was 900% a terrible coping method.

Game events roll out!! Everyone starts hearing the Calling!! People panic!! A terrible plan with blood sacrifice is floated!!! Ellis supports it!!!

Throats are cut.

Technically he's still a Warden when all is said and done, but he's been spending a lot of time wandering, murdering darkspawn, and avoiding checking in at the home office for obvious reasons.

Washes up on Riftwatch's door .

Personality

You know those people who seem super put together on the surface and everyone's always like wow so-and-so really has their life together but then you scratch the surface and you realize they're held together by chewing gum and string? That's Ellis.

He was fundamentally fucked up when his town was swallowed up by the Blight, and everything he's done in the aftermath was slapping band-aids over the aftereffects of that rather than actually processing survivors guilt and trauma in a healthy way. Joining the Wardens felt productive to Ellis, and it was, but only because he narrowed his focus down to simply killing darkspawn and let go of just about every other aspiration he'd had before the Blight hit.

Even all these years later, he has a lot of survivor's guilt, which developed into a very passive death wish. Dedicating his life to the Wardens and ending the Blight felt right to him, and he always had this comforting sense that he'd die in pursuit of ending the thing that killing his parents and should have killed him.

A lot of Ellis' satisfaction within the Wardens was the idea that he was preventing darkspawn from overrunning people the way his village was overrun. He always had this innate sensibility pushing him to protect the people around him, especially people who weren't capable of standing up for themselves. It just changed from every day conflicts to "protect common folk from darkspawn." Having seen firsthand the damage darkspawn can do, he believes strongly in taking decisive action to minimize risks. He'll advocate for difficult sacrifices in the process, even if it compounds the guilt he's already carrying around. It's why he backed Clarel's plan; if there was a way to cleanse the Blight from Thedas, it had to be tried. The cost of their lives to complete their mission was always something Ellis was willing to pay.

Even Ellis will admit that his work is the only that kept him alive. He grew into a strong, capable Warden. His conscription gave him something bigger than himself to serve, and he shifted all of his natural skills into being the best Warden he could be. He's suppressed the messy parts of himself, and becoming a quietly competent, polite Warden. It's the clearest way he has to be effective in his role.

Opinions & Affiliations

GREY WARDENS the organization he dedicated his life to. ellis still supports the mission, still enthusiastically about eradicating darkspawn, but it's a little awkward after cutting all those throats, so.
MAGES VS. TEMPLARS this is all noise. the basic premise of "mages should be treated like humans" he agrees with, but the knock down drag out fight here is something ellis feels is a distraction from bigger problems.
THE CHANTRY / THE CHANT OF LIGHT he was raised with the chant, but he's fairly severed from any real belief. the only weight it has for him now is nostalgia, remembering his family and childhood, rather than any guiding principle. he still has lingering belief in the maker, but he doesn't quite know how to worship anymore.
THE INQUISITION it feels like they're fighting the same brand of hopeless war that the wardens are. he can respect that.
TEMPLARS most of the templars he's interacted with have been defectors within the wardens, or aggressive figures he's butted heads with while conscripting folks. it hasn't left a super great impression, but he doesn't have an ax to grind, just vague skepticism.

Adaptation Notes

Strengths & Weaknesses

+ TANK need someone to bash your opposition into dust? ellis is your man. he's great for deploying to the front lines of a conflict to hammer at an enemy until they crumble, and soaking up damage like a sponge. think blackwall: that's his fighting style.
+ MILITARY-MINDED in fifteen-ish years of clearing out darkspawn, ellis soaked up a lot of knowledge about strategy aka how to approach total clusterfucks in the most efficient way possible.
+ HERBALIST from the time he was a wee tot, he's been learning about effective ways to use herbs and other plants to brew potions, make salves, etc. these days it's mostly put to work in battlefield patch-job situations, but he knows a lot about cool ways to use plants.
+ GUARDIAN he's extremely good at being level-headed and patience in times of stress, and talking other people through panic and other intense emotions.
+/- PROTECTOR squishy and/or noncombatants take up a lot of real estate in his head. he'll readjust on the fly to take a hit for someone who's faltering or he perceives as weak. his viewpoint is, if he can manage to do it, it would be nice to get everyone out alive. as always, this has a chance to hamstring him or reduce his ability to be as effective as possible in combat.
+/- WHATEVER THE COST ellis leans into the warden ideology of attaining victory regardless of what it might cost them. he's pragmatic to the point of ruthlessness, and is willing to be the person who advocates to make difficult sacrifices if there's a clear benefit or it opens up a path to a victory.
- WHAT'S COPING? as it turns out, weathering huge trauma and not actually addressing it for years is not great!!
- BLOODY HANDS lots of baggage from supporting clarel. he's probably not a super popular guy in certain circles, not to mention his own intense hangups about making the wrong call and the cost of it.

Inventory

one fuck off morningstar

battered shield with grey warden heraldry painted upon it.

full set of standard warden armor

weather-worn pack with handful of rations, some personal items ie bedroll, spare clothes, small keepsakes, a journal, etc.

Motivation

That complicated moment when things are super awkward with the home office so you decide to do some freelancing.

Basically, he's trying to cope with his Bad Decision/backing the wrong play and wandering aimlessly/having extremely awkward groupings with other Wardens isn't doing the trick for him. Riftwatch is a landing spot for him while he tries to regroup and figure out how to move forward.

SAMPLES

test drive
og verse musebox thread