Garrett Hawke (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fadedchampion) wrote2011-08-06 11:14 pm
fadedchampion) wrote2011-08-06 11:14 pm
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2. Character Information
Name: Garrett Hawke
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fadedchampion
Fandom: Dragon Age 2
Image: http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/111969566/39658684
Reserve: http://magistrated.livejournal.com/10038.html?thread=1746486#t1746486
3. Character Information II
Age/Appearance: Hawke is twenty-eight. Unlike the rest of his family, he has red hair; on the flipside, he’s got his mother’s grey eyes. His hair’s pretty thick, though, and although not all over the place it’s spiky and he keeps it short enough for that to be obvious. He’s about 5’10”, but tends to slouch and present himself in a casual manner that, at first glance, makes him seem shorter. (At second glance the observant will notice it’s a sort of casual ease one should associate with a seasoned fighter.)
Hawke is a mage and so is restricted from wearing most sorts of armour, under penalty of being unable to use magic—or at least hard armour, even leather, restricts his ability to use magic to a point where it’s too exhausting to bother. His robes are almost all enchanted to provide extra protection in compensation. However, mage robes are pretty distinctive, so he wears a basic cloak over the top, with the compulsive habit of keeping it wrapped around him to cover his clothes underneath. His staff is also enchanted, but has been made to look like a religious icon or an ordinary journeyman’s staff.
History: Garrett Hawke was the eldest son of Malcolm Hawke and Leandra Amell, daughter of a Free Marches nobleman from Kirkwall. Malcolm was an apostate mage from Ferelden—that is, a mage outside the control of the Circle of Magi and the Chantry, whose templars are responsible for guarding the mages. Mages who refuse to comply with the Circle and Chantry’s laws are either killed or made Tranquil. This meant that much of Malcolm and Leandra’s early marriage, and Garrett’s early childhood, was spent constantly moving to avoid being found by templars. Garrett was raised to be ready to run at a moment’s notice, to hide his abilities and above all to use his magic wisely.
When Garrett was thirteen the family found a place to settle in peace near a small town named Lothering in central Ferelden. For seven years they lived there peacefully, with both Garrett and Bethany, his younger sister, growing into their magical powers. Then, when Garrett was twenty, his father died. Demons, being drawn to magic through the Fade, are one of the reasons mages are so closely watched, and the Hawke family had three. It was only a matter of time before a demon found them.
The demon in question was one of desire, and it touched the dreams of the whole family before Malcolm realised it was there. As an apostate family the Hawkes didn’t have the resources to enter the Fade with a physical body, and the use of blood magic would have required a murder. Without either of those options, Malcolm took Garrett out into the woods and then deliberately sought the demon for a conversation in his own dreams. He let the demon possess his body, giving it a foothold in the living world. Garrett killed the Abomination the possession created, sending the demon back into the Fade and destroying any connection which allowed it to prey on them specifically. When he returned home Garrett told his family they had been attacked by a large party of bandits and never once revealed the truth, so they could remember Malcolm as a righteous man and controlled mage.
For three more years the Hawkes lived with relative peace in Lothering. Then the darkspawn, the tainted versions of other sentient races, began massing in the south; the army of Ferelden faced the armies of the darkspawn at Ostagar, an ancient fortress, and were routed. Carver, Garrett’s younger brother, managed to escape the slaughter and fled back home. Lothering suffered several skirmishes over the course of the next few months, before a darkspawn vanguard razed the village to the ground. The Hawkes made to escape and were joined by two other survivors, Aveline and her husband Wesley. Wesley and Bethany were both killed on the way, Bethany by an ogre and Wesley as a mercy killing due to the darkspawn taint which would have made him their pawn.
They were ultimately rescued by Flemeth, the witch of the wilds, who led them on a safe route through the wilds in return for delivering an amulet of hers to the Dalish elves in the Free Marches. Like many other Ferelden refugees, they fled by ship to the Free Marches, just across the channel, since Leandra’s family still lived there in the city of Kirkwall. Unfortunately, Kirkwall’s limits were taxed by the number of Ferelden refugees; it took three days before Leandra’s brother Gamlen was able to find them a way into the city proper, and it involved selling Garrett and Carver into indentured servitude for a year to either smugglers or mercenaries. Garrett picked the smugglers, since at least his abilities as a mage would be less easily displayed in that line of work.
After a year of paying off debts, Garrett left the smugglers under bad terms, but that still left his family poor and living in the slums. Even though the Blight, the invasion by darkspawn, was over, they had no money and nowhere to move back into Ferelden. On the other hand, they did have Garrett’s reputation as being both skilful and reliable. It drew to them Varric Tethras, a dwarf whose brother was putting together an expedition into the Deep Roads to recover valuable dwarven artefacts, left behind when the darkspawn invaded their underground empire. The only problem was, Bartrand had already rejected them as hired hands, so they needed to go in as investors. Which meant they needed money.
For the better part of the next year Garrett worked to get up enough coin to fund Bartrand’s expedition—usually by performing jobs for people, many of them minor, some of them major, and with the occasional treasure-hunt along the way. He also built up a party of adventurers, friends, to help him, including Aveline and Varric. In the course of that time, Hawke was involved in several events which proved important to himself, Kirkwall and possibly the continent as a whole, including:
—helping Aveline investigate the city guards for corruption. They discovered that the guard-captain was sacrificing his guards to secretly smuggle items to criminals to pay off his debts. He was arrested and Aveline became guard-captain in his place, giving Hawke an important ally in the city hierarchy and a dependable protector for the city’s citizens. (The way it should be.)
—searching for his and Carver’s grandfather’s lost will, still in the safe in their mother’s family’s old estate, and clearing out the slavers who took it over in the process. They discovered that their grandfather left everything to Leandra, but Gamlen, who took over custody, squandered the fortune in gambling and lost the house to slavers. Since the slavers were cleared, Leandra chose to make a bid to buy the estate back. (Birthright.)
—taking Flemeth’s amulet to the Dalish elves on Sundermount and performing a ritual as directed by the elven Keeper. This caused Flemeth to rise, alive, from the amulet, and freed her to go elsewhere at her own choosing. (Long way home.)
—helping Anders, apostate mage and former Grey Warden, rescue a friend in return for a map into the Deep Roads. Anders’ friend Karl was a mage in residency at Kirkwall’s Circle of Magi and slated to be made Tranquil, but when Hawke and Anders arrived at the Chantry they discovered that the procedure had already taken place and were ambushed by templars attempting to capture Anders. They fought and killed their attackers, letting Hawke discover that Anders shared his body with a Justice spirit. The presence of the spirit allowed Karl to reconnect with the Fade; with his sense of self temporarily restored, he begged for death before the Tranquillity returned and was given a mercy killing. Anders provided the maps of the Deep Road regardless. (Tranquility.)
—searching for a runaway elven mage, Feynriel, at the request of the boy’s mother and Ser Thrask, one of a few templars sympathetic to mages. Hawke discovered Thrask’s own daughter was a mage and became an Abomination out of fear after caught by slavers. Feynriel was found, also in the hands of slavers, but rescued, and Hawke chose to send him to the Dalish so he could hopefully learn how to control his powers without needing to submit to the imprisonment of the Circle. Hawke also chose not to reveal Thrask’s daughter was a mage to the Chantry. (Wayward son.)
—aiding Ser Thrask to help a band of apostates to escape execution by Kirkwall’s templars. Although some mages attacked on sight, and their leader turned to blood magic and was killed, Hawke was able to convince some of the group to let him help. He sweet-talked the reinforcement templars into believing the mages had escaped through other means, causing them to leave and giving the apostates the opportunity to escape. (Act of mercy.)
—investigating the disappearances of multiple templar recruits at the request of one’s sister. With the help of the templar Knight-Captain Cullen, Hawke discovered that a group of blood mages were using the brothel to enchant and kidnap the recruits. The blood mages used the recruits in experiments to possess them with demons and turn them into Abominations, with the intention of undermining the templars’ authority and proving that anyone could be possessed, not just mages. It also let the mages plant ‘sleepers’ within the order to prepare for a future massacre. Hawke found and killed the blood mages responsible and freed the templar recruit, Keran, for whom he was searching. He then chose to recommend Keran for duty in the order rather than allow him be excommunicated just in case he had been possessed. (Enemies among us.)
—investigating the lack of contact from workers in the mines outside Kirkwall. On going to the mines, Hawke discovered that an outbreak of dragons was the cause, with many of the Ferelden workers killed. Once the mine was cleared, Hawke accepted half-interest in the mine as a reward and to make sure the Ferelden workers were fairly treated. (The bone pit.)
—dispatching a band of kossith bandits for Javaris, a dwarf hoping to get an exclusive deal with the Qunari enclaved at Kirkwall for gunpowder. It turned out there was no deal to be made if the bandits were killed, but the leader of the Qunari, the Arishok, forced Javaris to pay Hawke regardless. (Blackpowder promise.)
—aiding a Chantry sister, Petrice, in smuggling a Qunari mage out of Kirkwall. Upon escaping from Kirkwall Hawke discovered that someone had left a trail of bodies leading right to the secret exit they used, allowing a group of Qunari to track them. Although Hawke attempted to argue for the mage’s right to live, revealing himself as a mage in the process, the Qunari only became more determined to ritually execute the both of them as unattended and thus potentially demon-possessed. Although Hawke and his party killed the Qunari threatening them, the mage they were attempting to save chose to follow the path of the Qun and committed ritual suicide with Hawke in attendance. Upon return to the house where Petrice had hidden, she confessed that she had intended for Hawke to be killed so she could use his slaughter to turn the Chantry against the Qunari already in Kirkwall. Hawke then chose to inform the Arishok.
(Shepherding wolves.)
After accumulating enough gold coin to front Bartrand’s expedition and with the map of the Deep Roads in hand, Hawke joined the expedition as a bodyguard and investor. Due to the limits in resources, he was only able to take two others with him aside from those already chosen—namely, Bartrand, Varric, their labourers, a travelling dwarven merchant called Bodahn and Bodahn’s son, Sandal, an expert in enchanting. Hawke chose Anders, due to his previous experience in the Deep Roads as a Grey Warden, and Carver, because he never went anywhere without his baby brother, despite their mother’s pleading to have Carver stay home.
The expedition didn’t go as planned. Firstly, the passage they used turned out blocked and they were forced to use side-passages in which the darkspawn lived. While scouting out the way ahead and searching for Sandal, who had run off, Carver was infected by the darkspawn’s taint and refused to tell anyone. Sandal was found and the party moved on, but descended so far beneath the Deep Roads that they broke into the oldest known dwarven city, previously undiscovered until then. There Hawke discovered an ancient idol made from pure lyrium, the substance used to enchant objects. Bartrand, unwilling to share, took the idol and locked Hawke, Anders, Carver and his own brother Varric into the ruins, forcing them to find their own way back to the surface.
They succeeded, collecting treasure and artefacts, and killing many demons along the way, but as they neared the surface Carver finally began to succumb to the darkspawn taint. Anders, with his knowledge of the Grey Wardens, was able to direct the party to a group of Wardens in the Deep Roads at the time; for the chance to save Carver’s life, Hawke convinced them to take Carver and put him through the Joining. However, it meant that Carver had to leave Kirkwall and go with the Grey Wardens. Even though it meant possibly never seeing his brother again, Hawke agreed, and his party returned to Kirkwall rich and with one person short.
Another three years passed. With the money made from the Deep Road expedition, Hawke bought back his mother’s family estate and they both moved in, along with Bodahn as Hawke’s manservant and Sandal as his personal enchanter. Carver sent one or two letters in that time, letting them known that he survived the Joining and was serving as a Grey Warden. Hawke became well-known in Kirkwall for his exploits in the Deep Roads, and although not well-liked among the Hightown nobles due to previously being commoner, also had a reputation as an adventurer and problem-solver. At this time he was still not publically known as an apostate. Once again, in the following time he was involved in several events important to himself and Kirkwall, including:
—rescuing Feynriel from possession by some demons. Feynriel, being a mage specifically attuned to manipulating dreams, was trapped in one of his own and tempted by a desire and a pride demon, with a sloth demon waiting in the wings to take advantage of the winner. Although not the first time Hawke had confronted demons or potential Abominations, this was his first time being able to enter the Fade to rescue someone else in a way that Malcolm wasn’t able to do for his family and which Hawke couldn’t do for Malcolm. He succeeded in saving Feynriel from any of the demons’ influence and, rather than render Feynriel Tranquil by killing him in the Fade, allowed him to awaken so he could move to Tevinter to learn from the mages there. (Night terrors.)
—seeking out a poisonous gas stolen from the Qunari. The Arishok himself asked Hawke to help track down the poison, believing Javaris to be responsible, but it turned out the dwarf was framed. The next lead arrived when a side-alley in Lowtown became infected with a poisonous mist and was cordoned off by guardsmen. When Hawke investigated he was forced to fight bands of mercenaries while attempting to close the mechanically-wired barrels releasing the mist. The culprit was an elven woman who stole the poison for use against some groups of humans who were trying to destroy the tenuous peace between humans and the Qunari; Hawke was forced to kill her. When Hawke reported back to the Arishok, the Arishok revealed that despite tensions, the Qunari could not leave until they had recovered a lost item, as a matter of honour. (Blackpowder courtesy.)
—discovering what happened to three Qunari delegates who vanished after leaving the keep; this investigation was specifically requested by the viscount, Dumar, due to Hawke’s amiable dealings with the Qunari. After investigation Hawke discovered that the Qunari were captured by Petrice and her pet templar, Varnell. Although Petrice revealed Varnell’s hideout, apparently to turn him over, she then left Hawke there to be killed by Varnell and his fanatics. Hawke killed them, but failed to save the Qunari; he recommended to Dumar not to hide their torture from the Arishok and then went himself to offer his condolences. (Offered and lost.)
—going with Varric to confront Bartrand about his betrayal in the Deep Roads. They discovered Bartrand’s house filled with guards who had been driven insane by the dwarf. A lone survivor told them that the idol Bartrand took from the ruins drove him mad. Although he sold the idol during a period of sanity, it still had control over him and he began performing experiments on his employees by feeding them lyrium and torturing them. Hawke and Varric were forced to defeat Bartrand and his guards in combat and with Anders’ help were able to heal Bartrand enough for him to cease being a threat. Even so, Varric had to have Bartrand committed. (Family matter.)
—helping Anders stop one of the templars, Alrik, from making mages Tranquil illegally. Alrik was also attempting to pass a law to make all mages Tranquil, period. Hawke and Anders intercepted Alrik as he was about to make Tranquil a mage, Ella, who only snuck out of the Circle Tower to visit her mother. The injustice caused Justice to overtake Anders as Vengeance, and although Alrik and his templars were killed, Vengeance almost killed Ella as well. Hawke was able to bring Anders back, but it left them both shaken, and Anders fled the scene. Hawke later showed him proof that Alrik’s ‘Tranquil solution’ had been turned down by both the Knight-Commander of Kirkwall and the Chantry. (Dissent.)
Not long after that, Hawke was brought, with his mabari hound, into Bete Noire.
Personality: Hawke is, at his core, an optimistic person despite events in his past—optimistic, joking, and flirtatious. This isn’t a cover or even an affectation; he saw the burden protecting their family had on his father and rather than becoming similarly tired Hawke simply made the choice not let the burden weigh him down. With his father taking on that weight, Garrett saw it as his duty, as the eldest son, to ensure that his siblings would have reason to hope and little reason to fear. By being optimistic, he could ensure that there was still something light-hearted in a potentially grim life. Of course, this means that he frequently appears not to take anything seriously, which is only true to an extent—there are many things he chooses not to take seriously, but some that he does and only appears not to. The issue between mages and templars, for instance, is something he does recognise and has firm views on, but in order to oppose the fear of being caught he has a tendency to mouth off at templars and tread the line of revealing himself as an apostate. (Of course, that also annoys Carver, which is Hawke’s Brotherly Duty, as well as proving to Carver that the templars ought not to be feared.) Demon-possession is another thing he will be humourous about in order to refuse the fear, but takes extremely seriously. Finally, his family is something Hawke is entirely serious about, and the deaths of his father and sister are two things about which he still cannot make a joke.
However, Hawke’s optimism and generally upbeat and joking nature runs deeper than just trying to be a cheerleader for his family. It’s something of a self-defence, but not in the sense that he’s covering something else up. Although Hawke appears not to take many things seriously, he is extremely aware of himself as a mage and the power of magic, and the position he holds as an apostate. He does not regret being an apostate, nor would ever voluntarily join a Circle, but he knows most people don’t know much about mages and buy into the Chantry’s propaganda. Due to their constant moving and the mages in the family, making friends was difficult, but Hawke took the stance that if he’s amiable, witty and shows that he’s not about to use magic on them, perhaps once an acquaintance finds out he was an apostate then they wouldn’t care as much. Being friendly was about showing himself as someone who wouldn’t fly off the handle. Similarly, being charming was about stopping fights before they reached the point of coming to blows, when he might be forced to reveal his powers as a mage in order to save his own life. Once a fight was had, he would have to kill all witnesses to protect his family, which is something he’s not fond of doing but has done on occasion, particularly when it comes to bandit groups. Being free with the booze, coin and witticisms marks him as someone not worth getting into a fight with, since he’d pay up or charm the culprits if threatened rather than stand his ground.
That said, his desire not to be seen as a threat does run to the point of being too agreeable. Although he’s not opposed to killing in self-defence, when it comes to more minor confrontations he will fold. This includes in terms of friendships. Real friends have been thin on the ground in his life, so once he gathered his party in Kirkwall, he has been anxious to keep them and for them to actually like him as opposed to merely respect him. Whatever his own views, and despite not being insecure in those views, he does have a tendency not to confront his friends regarding things on which he disagrees. He will tease and joke and cajole, but not actively confront. For instance, Anders and his opposition to the templars; Hawke would and has trash-talked the templars with Anders, despite Hawke himself actually being moderately sympathetic to the templars’ duties and having aided and allied with templars on more than one occasion. Conversely, when speaking with Fenris about magic, although Hawke wouldn’t outright trash mages, due to being one himself, he would either avoid the topic, diffuse it with humour or be non-confrontational in his responses. Similarly, despite knowing that blood magic is dangerous, Hawke has tacitly supported Merrill’s experimentations in it because he’d rather have her as a friend than tell her he disapproves and risk her disliking him.
Although not insecure in his own opinions, this means Hawke also has no trouble deferring to his friends’ opinions or accepting many of their actions, even if he might have disagreed. That said, this is only to a certain extent: there are some things on which he will disagree, period, and which would cause him to confront the person responsible despite his dislike for arguments. More specifically, he does not make deals with demons and disapproves of overly extremist action, since upping the stakes only makes the opposite side more likely to push back harder and thus escalates the problem. The welfare of family is also extremely important to him, partly because of how he was raised and partly because of what he was forced to do to his father; when it came to Bartrand, Hawke came down firmly on the side of keeping Bartrand alive despite what he had done, simply because he was Varric’s brother. Indeed, more recently Hawke holds to his family ties more than ever, because by this point he has lost both father and sister, and all but lost his brother, which leaves him closer to and more protective of his mother than he ever was, and despite not being on particularly good terms with Gamlen he still checks in on the man regularly. Hawke also still has a great sense of loyalty to his fellow countrymen, despite not having been back to Ferelden in several years.
That said, although Hawke prefers non-confrontation and diffusing situations over battle, he has no compunctions about killing when he needs to. Death, after all, is a constant in Thedas; despite the presence of magic it is still a medieval setting, with similar diseases and dangers. Hawke, raised as a commoner, is familiar with death not only due to the Blight, but because of disease and bandits. His dislike for killing comes from the desire for people not to think of him as a threat, not because he’s inherently opposed to taking lives. He’s a warrior and is a protector, and that makes killing necessary; to that end, although he won’t kill an innocent, if attacked he won’t hold back either—he’ll fight to kill, even if the person he’s fighting is a mage. However, if begged for mercy he would, generally, grant it, unless granting it would result in putting his family or friends in danger (eg, if the person in question had seen he was a mage and was likely to report it).
Which brings us to his sense of duty. Hawke’s sense of duty isn’t the overwhelmingly righteous sort exhibited by the Chantry or by conventional heroes. Actually, it’s a rather narrow, selfish kind, one that only incidentally affects the world around him to a great degree due to being combined with his skill and drive. Put simply, Hawke’s duty is to his magic—to being the sort of mage which shows that mages, while powerful, are not rampantly dangerous as the Chantry wants most people to believe. Malcolm may not have consciously intended to instil that perception in him, but that’s what Hawke arrived at while he was being raised; that being a mage is difficult and dangerous, but that, ultimately, his magic is a part of him and he shouldn’t be ashamed of it or afraid of it. In a way, it’s this belief, to be bound neither to his magic nor to the Chantry, which drives Hawke’s desire to be liked: to prove the Chantry wrong, but on his own terms only and not in a way that uses force or magic. It’s the reason why, although not actively a saint, he still feels driven to perform the tasks people ask of him. If he does them, maybe people will like him and he will prove that, despite being a mage, he is not a bad person and thus that magic itself is not bad either. If he can prove that, then he and his family will no longer be in danger for being and consorting with apostates.
However, this desire is tempered by reality. The situation for mages in Kirkwall is far worse than it is in Ferelden; mages are made Tranquil illegally, without any investigation, and the executions are swift. Many apostates in Kirkwall actually are blood mages, but only because they are driven to such desperation that they feel they have no choice but to turn to the thing for which they are feared. For that reason, although Hawke wants to be liked for himself and not feared for being a mage, he’s not so idealistic that he’ll out himself to simply anyone. In fact, he takes great measures to ensure that he isn’t discovered, an act that is second nature. It’s for that reason that he chose to ally with the smugglers to get into Kirkwall, despite Carver and Aveline’s objections, because his abilities were less likely to be discovered by the authorities than throwing it around with the mercenaries. Similarly, his clothes and staff are disguised to seem non-magical, and he has no qualms about outright lying about being a mage if asked directly. This is also partly, though not completely, why he will help templars—generally, templars and mages don’t aid one another, so helping them out gives him a bit of credibility. He wants to be liked, but realises that the position set by the Chantry won’t offer him any respite if he revealed himself to the general public, and so contents himself, for the moment, with incidental friendships.
When it comes down to it, despite his desire to be liked for who he is and his habit of agreeing with people so as not to be confrontational, Hawke is extremely secure in who he is and his beliefs. He knows he is a mage, born free and remaining free, and although he is, to some extent, proud of his magical ability, it’s not any more than a good carpenter would be proud of his skill in carpentry. For the most part Hawke simply accepts his magic as being part of who he is, which gives him a certain security that most mages don’t have, purely because he feels no need to prove himself using his magical power. Rather, his desire to prove himself is related more to proving himself as a person, not a mage. Magic is an issue because the people around him have made it an issue, but he does not accept it as one himself even while he often has to play by their rules. (This is related back to his being so upbeat and humourous—his way of showing that, despite circumstances forced on him, he still refuses to buy into the circumstances himself.) Of course, he is a mage, and for most people that is an issue, and for that reason Hawke is sympathetic to the way in which mages are treated. Although not as openly rebellious as some mages are, he nonetheless would not hesitate in aiding an apostate to escape from the Circle and the templars, even to the point of risking being revealed as a mage himself.
However, Hawke is also very aware of magic as a danger, something which was brought home to him very firmly by his father’s death. Before then, Hawke’s humour was unrestrained, but killing the Abomination his father had become forced him to truly consider what having magic meant, on a level he had not quite needed to confront before. It emphasised what his duty as a mage was—to be watchful and to protect others from the danger his kind and he himself represented. For this reason, Hawke is more sympathetic to the templars than many mages become, because he was without the resentment of being constantly guarded by them and yet had been forced to shoulder a responsibility they themselves shouldered. He objects to the way the Knight-Commander of Kirkwall handles her responsibilities, but not to the spirit of the templars’ responsibilities, and for this reason does not condemn them as an order—only for their individual actions, such as with Ser Alrik. Because of this, Hawke does not hesitate to kill mages who cross the line, as many blood mages and demon-worshippers do. Essentially, he is performing a balancing act, not just with his own magic but in terms of the issue of mages’ rights as a whole. Although many of these beliefs aren’t immediately apparent, due to the way Hawke tends to agree with his friends to avoid confrontation, when push comes to shove he does not undermine them—as can be seen by his vetting Keran, despite Keran being a templar recruit, his aiding in the rescue of mages despite risk to himself, and his confrontation of mages who have gone those steps too far.
Sexual Preferences/Orientation: Hawke is attracted to men and his attitude about monogamy and polyamory is complicated due to setting and circumstance. He wouldn’t cheat on an unsuspecting partner, but his mother is from a noble family and has commented on the need to get him a wife. When he was younger Garrett expected either Bethany or Carver to take care of the family line; Bethany is now dead and Carver is a Grey Warden, a greater responsibility than Garrett currently has, one in which Carver can’t be expected to have a family. For his mother’s sake, Garrett would wed and bed a woman—but he wouldn’t give any illusions as to his own orientation and would want the marriage to be free enough for both of them to pursue their own sexual interests when they’re not involved in creating a family. In other circumstances not including marriage, he may still be open to polyamory if he knew and trusted the third person and all were consenting.
Sex itself he doesn’t mind in the least, either generally or casually, and he is neither a virgin nor unfamiliar with various sexual practices. Actually, he tends to be an unrepentant flirt with either gender. That said, his status as an apostate has made both romantic and purely sexual relationships difficult, since it’s hard to know who to trust with the secret and it’s not something he can entrust to just anyone with his whole family at stake. For that reason, his experiences are limited to few partners—mostly prostitutes, since they wouldn’t care who he was or that he was a mage, if they even found out, as long as he could pay.
Although Hawke appears to be pretty lewd and flirtatious, in bed he can actually be remarkably tender and willing to let his partner call the shots. However, if he knows what his partner likes, he’d be perfectly willing to take command, too. Basically, he’s a switch. He wouldn’t be comfortable with anything too constricting or involving being bound, however, since his entire life has revolved around being free and being bound is entirely contrary to how he was raised.
Powers: Hawke is a mage from the world of Thedas. There are six ‘schools’ and three specialisations which categorise mage spells, aside from parlour tricks like wreathing one’s hand in glowing foggy light. Hawke draws spells from two schools, Primal and Arcane, and one specialisation, Force Magery, and is still learning and practicing new spells. (Note: it is possible for high-level mages to learn two specialisations. If it became relevant in-game, Hawke would choose the Spirit Healer specialisation.)
However, since the use of magic relies upon a direct connection to the Fade, which is a phenomenon specific to Thedas (as opposed to Harry Potter mages whose power-source is carried with them), I had intended for the power of Bete Noire to replace the Fade as the source of Hawke’s magic. That means Hawke’s spells will come out slightly differently. They’ll be stronger but more exhausting and harder to control, and the use of them will give Hawke a greater dose of the city’s manipulating nature. Basically, his spells will be, for lack of a better word, tainted by the city’s presence, as well as potentially more addictive. The more influenced he is, the more powerful they would be, but at the cost of his … well, soul. Spells that last for a length of time will be especially dangerous, since they’ll keep him open to the city’s influence for longer.
Primal Spells
Stonefist (upgraded): The mage generates and hurls a stone missile at a single opponent. It’s an instant-use spell.
Rock Armor: The mage creates armor made of stone as a defence. This is a sustained spell once activated; it turns itself off automatically only if the mage falls asleep or unconscious. It can, however, be turned off at will, and although not energy-draining while activated it will still maintain an open link between Hawke and the city. This spell and all its effects will stack with other spells such as Arcane Shield.
Chain Lightning (upgraded): One target is hit by a lightningbolt which then jumps to others within two meters of one another. It runs out when it runs out of bodies to leap to. This is an instant-use spell.
Petrify: The target is entombed in stone and rendered unable to move until the spell dissolves, but the stone protects the victim from physical damage. The spell itself is instant-use, but the effect lasts for twelve seconds in canon before dissolving. Taking into account spell-strength and potential power buffs in Bete Noire, Hawke will ICly be able to maintain it for between fifteen and twenty before the spell destabilises, and it could still drain him until it does. It will also keep the link between Hawke and the city open until the spell dissolves.
Arcane Spells
Mind Blast (upgraded): A blast of telekinetic energy which throws away enemies standing within a meter and a half, and has a chance of stunning them. Instant-use spell.
Arcane Shield (first upgrade): A protective aura which deflects incoming attacks to some degree. It also absorbs some degree of elemental attacks, including fire, cold, electric, nature and spirit resistances. This is a sustained spell once activated; it turns itself off automatically only if the mage falls asleep or unconscious. It can, however, be turned off at will, and although not energy-draining while activated it will still maintain an open link between Hawke and the city. This spell and all its effects will stack with other spells such as Rock Armor.
Crushing Prison (upgrade): The target is trapped in a collapsing telekinetic cage which deals constant damage and prevents the target from moving. The spell itself is instant-use, but the effect lasts for ten seconds in canon before dissolving. Taking into account spell-strength and potential power buffs in Bete Noire, Hawke will ICly be able to maintain it for between thirteen and eighteen before the spell destabilises, and it could still drain him until it does. It will also keep the link between Hawke and the city open until the spell dissolves.
Force Mage Spells
Fist of the Maker: The mage lifts enemies within a six meter radius into the air and then slams them into the ground with great force. Armour has no effect against this spell.
Spells aside, Hawke also has the ability to summon his mabari hound, Warden, through the Fade from wherever Warden is located—usually Hawke’s current home. Warden will come into Bete Noire by foot along with Hawke, so Hawke’s summoning spell will only work within the city, and quite possibly not even all the time. The summoning still accesses the Fade, so the city effects will be the same on Hawke as with any other spell. Warden is semi-sentient, but intensely loyal and protective, and wouldn’t go out into the city unless accompanying Hawke.
Hawke also has enchanted gear; although Malcolm did bequeath some equipment to Hawke on his death, most of that was sold when they first arrived in Kirkwall. Hawke’s gear now consists of gloves, boots, hood and robes, all of which are enchanted for sturdiness and repelling weather effects, as well as being resistant to tearing or cutting. (That said, a sufficiently sharp and powerful sword-swing will still cut them.) The only thing he kept from his father was Malcolm’s staff. In canon it is imbued with powerful spirit-damage charges, offers a boost to all of Hawke’s attributes, a better chance of critical hits, increased energy regeneration and increased damage against demons and the undead. In realistic terms, the charges are activated by the user and have minor tracking powers in order to aim for the target’s most vulnerable places even if Hawke isn’t concentrating on hitting them specifically. That said, if Hawke totally misaimed he would miss, period; the charges won’t seek out a target on their own. These charges are also especially magically effective against demons and the undead, though of course the level of the effectiveness still depends on the targets’ individual resistances. They won’t instantly kill a demon or undead being, just be a little more effective to varying degrees.
The boost to attributes and increased energy regeneration will only kick in while Hawke has the weapon actually in his hands; if he was disarmed or had his staff slung on his back, they would have no effect. As far as the latter goes, as long as the staff is in hand it let Hawke regain his energy more quickly by drawing it from the staff. As far as the former goes, the relevant attributes consist of passive bonuses to strength, dexterity, willpower, magic, cunning and constitution. Again translating into realistic terms, and in order, the staff would make Hawke a little bit stronger, faster, give him a little more magical energy, let him draw magic from the Fade more easily (which will be a drawback in Bete Noire, since it will leave him even more open to the city’s effects), make his mind clearer and more focussed, and make him a little sturdier against physical attacks. Since using the magic of the staff involves drawing from a contained source, using it would not open a direct link between Hawke and the city’s nature.
Of course, the staff being an object with which he has no actual mental bond such as Ichigo does with Zangetsu, it could be stolen or left behind and Hawke wouldn’t be able to use its effects. It would also work the same way if used by anyone else with magical powers. If necessary, the city can have drained some of the power from the staff, the attribute bonuses in particular.
Reason for playing: Hawke’s story is one of the things that appealed to me. It’s not epic or world-spanning, as it only happens in a single city, and yet the things he’d involved in are actually extremely politically relevant to the whole of the continent, which does make it epic in its own way. The thing that makes me want to play my Hawke in particular is the fact that, firstly, he’s a bit of a troll and I’ve rarely played trolls before. Secondly, he’s a mage, and I’ve never played a mage before, but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do.
The fact that Hawke is a mage and the particular traits of mages from his universe, are the main reasons I want to play him in Bete Noire. The nature of Bete Noire is remarkably like that of the Fade. Although the city isn’t exactly a ‘dreamscape’, it is a lingering presence behind the rest of the multiverse, defining and changing the ’verses based on the nuances within it. It also contains demons and spirits, the same way the Fade does. Given how Hawke uses his magic, the idea of Bete Noire replacing or interrupting his ability to use it sounds fun, especially when you consider the high danger-rate of demons from the Fade possessing mages and the fact that magic is treated as a borderline addiction in canon. Being in the city would give Hawke a much more direct source of magic, but one whose nature is far more intrinsically influencing than Fade-magic is. I could see it being both an addiction and something transformative, in terms of flooding Hawke with significant doses of the city’s nature every time he uses a spell.
Basically, his magic and his relationship to it is one of the things he believes he knows best around himself, is possibly the thing he is most secure in. Having the security ripped away by his own magic driving him, increasingly, toward doing things he wouldn’t usually would be a terrific mindfuck. As to the things it would drive him to, likely it would involve some sort of greed, but greed that involves people. Hawke wants to be liked and accepted, and the city would remove the inhibitions that usually encourage him to be friendly about it—it would drive him to possessing people as objects or ‘forcing’ them to like him in ways that aren’t true like at all.
4. Original Character Supplement
World History: What kind of world is your character from? This part can be short, but it must focus on the particular character's context. What was their world like, from their point of view?
Character History: Let us have a summary of the highlights, the turning points of your character's history. What was it that made them who they are?
5. Samples
First-Person: http://dear-mun.livejournal.com/40527248.html?thread=1206335376#t1206335376
Third-Person: Garrett’s time was Very Important nowadays. Being the heir to the Amell estate and one of the few people other than the Grey Wardens who’d gone into the Deep Roads and come out alive in recent history … all that sort of thing gave a person a certain reputation. And having a reputation made one’s time Very Important.
“Clear out an infestation of giant spiders. Check. Go with Isabela to look for that cache south of the Coast … Maker, that one’s not going to be fun. You’d think I’d know better than to agree to things like that.” At the last sentence Garrett looked down to the massive dog trotting by his side, head passing Garrett’s hip in height, and Warden cocked his head with a whine.
“Well,” Garrett amended, “not without knowing what was in there first. Spent a week bedridden last time, bloody spiders … Make sure that group of thugs hasn’t tried to make a comeback to their hovel. Check. Get some extra food stores for Anders’ clinic. Look for another book for Fenris. Buy some jasmine-scented soap for Mother. Andraste’s breath, I hate shopping.”
Warden barked and Garrett tore his eyes from his journal to glance down at the dog again, his mouth tilting up in an ironic half-grin as his quill lowered onto the page. “Buy some mabari crunch. Haven’t forgotten you, my adorable little war-hound.”
The dog let out a happy bark, his tail wagging furiously, and Garrett chuckled, finishing that particular item on the list with a flourish. “Thought you might like that. Let’s see …”
“OUTTA THE FUCKING WAY, YAH BASTARD!”
Garrett jumped at sound of an abrupt, inhuman wailing, Warden barked explosively and something large and metal and shiny shot past faster than a horse with enchanted shoes. Garrett’s astonished eyes followed it as it screeched around a corner, and then, blinking, his gaze returned to the street in front of him.
It was no longer cobblestone, but it was filled with similar large, shiny objects travelling at speeds that would make Fenris green with envy. They were ear-splittingly loud, too; it made Garrett wince. And the smell? Suddenly there was smell. There was no smell in Hightown other than the copious flowerbeds. Well, unless he’d run through a gang or two; then it smelled like blood.
“Kirkwall’s undergone some changes in the last few minutes,” he said bemusedly. Warden just whined.
Third-Person #2: It was dangerous. That was one of the first things his father had told him, the first time he came running up, gleeful with his small hands full of writhing light. It was dangerous, but it was a part of him, and that made it his responsibility to make sure it never got away from him.
It was going to be hard. That was the second thing his father had told him, when he was caught playing peek-a-boo with the light in his hands one night. It was going to be hard, but it was going to be worth it, because it would let him protect people as long as he never let it get out of his hands.
“Hawke!”
Garrett ducked the blade whistling over his head and thrust his staff upward, colliding with the gang member’s throat with a crunch. The man choked, grasped at the wound and then fell away, but Garrett was already turning around to block a dagger and down the attacker with a blow to the head.
“You’re going to get yourself skewered if you’re not careful, Hawke!” Varric called almost cheerfully, bracing Bianca against his shoulder, thick fingers caressing the crossbow as he aimed high and fired. His bolts fwipped as they arced and then fell in among the gang members clogging the alley.
“Who’d’ve have thought Lowtown could be so dangerous at night?” Garrett wondered, belting a woman across the face with his staff before she could succeed in actually skewering him, and then doing the same to another gang member’s head as he rushed Garrett from the other side.
“Maybe they think we owe them something,” Varric suggested, lifting, bracing, firing straight into the gang members and backing up the stairs. “Done any gambling lately, Hawke?”
“Other than with our lives, you m—duck!” Garrett whirled his staff, instinctively drawing on the weapon’s internal magic charge and firing it past Varric’s shoulder. It engulfed a gang member behind him, writhing blue light that wrapped itself around the attacker and turned her skin deathly pale. Literally.
“Duck?” Varric asked incredulously, belting the man behind her with Bianca’s solid end, nearly as thick as Varric’s own arm. The man went down. “You can’t even see over a dwarf’s shoulder, Hawke? How’d you survive this long, being blind?”
The rest of the gang members hesitated. Two cocky and apparently not-so-drunk mercenaries was one thing. A mage? Entirely another. On the other hand, they had the advantage of numbers, and even the narrowness of the alley wouldn’t stop them from swarming the two. Besides, Garrett hadn’t used much magic; if he could have used some powerful spell, he would have, right?
That conclusion had them rushing forward again, forcing the pair closer together; Varric’s hands worked Bianca’s bow and trigger faster than a merchant dwarf with a chest full of gold coins, while Garrett’s staff was whirling, deflecting sword-blows and bathing the alley walls with a blue-white glow in the light of the charges. “I hate to rush you, Hawke, but we could do with some magic tricks. I wouldn’t want to explain to your mother why your sword-riddled corpse got found in Lowtown’s sewers.”
“Good thing you won’t have to, since you’ll be right there beside me!”
But he was right. Only a mage could use a staff’s magical charges, and the gang members had already seen that. Oh, there were rumours of apostates galore in Kirkwall’s underground, but he was too well-known in Hightown for his description to get attached to the word ‘apostate’ without someone noticing, and too many Hightown nobles had underhanded dealings in Lowtown for him to risk it.
For his mother’s sake, he couldn’t let that happen.
It’s dangerous. It’s going to be hard.
“Duck,” Garrett said again with a grin, and reached through the Veil for the Fade. His next breath was like breathing in pure lyrium. Not that Garrett had ever breathed in or even touched raw pure lyrium, because that would be suicide, but if it could be breathed in he was sure that’s what it would feel like. Like a rush in his veins, in his head. Climax without the sex and far more danger. It let him touch another world, one that whispered with all the voices in it—demons, dreamers—and left his ears ringing with something faintly musical.
It was a matter of will to shape it. Magic had always been his plaything, never something of which to be ashamed or afraid, only respectful, only wary. Not like a mage of the Circle. It was just a matter of visualising what he wanted, giving it a channel, letting it out before it filled him up.
Sometimes he wondered just what would happen if he let it fill him up.
It’s dangerous. It’s going to be hard.
He saw a lightning bolt in his mind and it shaped itself over his skin with a crackle. He thrust his staff forward and the lightning leapt—from staff-head to a gang member’s chest to another’s. Garrett was there with it, the lightning an extension of him, tearing through muscle and over bone and darting through air until there was nothing left to land on or it fizzled out against solid stone.
He breathed out and let the Veil reassert itself, coming between him and the Fade. The dreamworld’s magic still lingered on his skin, under his skin, the alley drawing itself back around him until he was just in this world instead of partly in that one. When he inhaled again, it was with a noseful of burning flesh.
“Well, at least you won’t have to worry about your reputation, Hawke.” Varric, beside him, partly behind him. Out of the way. “But I still think we could get some help from Aveline and the city guard in clearing this up, what do you say?”
“Maybe we’ll even get a thank-you note,” Garrett mused, taking another breath. A deep one, as filled with the stench of dead and lightning as the last. Something to help wash away the lingering sensation of magic in his skin—like an afterglow, warm and lingering and complacent.
It’s dangerous.
“For calling her in after the battle’s over? You’re dreaming, Hawke.”
And it’s going to be hard.
How do you think this character would react to a magically permissive culture like Bete Noire, since this is an important part of how he developed as a person?
In the beginning, I think he wouldn't be able to help but suspect it's some kind of trick to catch mages out and have them carted off and imprisoned or made Tranquil. The idea that magic in other places doesn't work the same way his does won't even occur to him and would take a little while to sink in once he knows it. So despite the apparent permissiveness, he will initially still keep his identity as a mage hidden, because he's not willing to take the risk that there will be a boot to drop.
Once it sinks in that, yes, magic is actually allowed in Bete Noire, without regulation, he will probably not know what to do with it. On one hand, here is freedom like the mages of Thedas only imagine; on the other, magic is dangerous and there is nothing regulating it. He may make overtures into somehow keeping magic regulated, though likely wouldn't push it once/if he understands that all magic is not his magic. He actually may investigate other forms of magic to see if he can use them, though he won't be able to shake the expectation that magic from other worlds will have its own cost. (He won’t be able to use magic like other magic-users can, though, obviously.)
In the end, chances are he will still never be able to shake off his feeling of responsibility as a mage, especially if the city influences him in such a way that he winds up possessed or uses magic in ways that betray his beliefs. If anything, occurrences like that would probably make him backlash a little further into the Chantry's side of the line than he began on, so that he’d avoid using magic at all. Even if nothing truly bad happens, he would still regulate his own magic for his own reasons; that said, especially if he never becomes aware of how his magic is allowing the city to affect him, he will probably be freer with it than he would have been back home, even in front of other people who know nothing about mages.
Name: Garrett Hawke
Livejournal Username:
fadedchampionFandom: Dragon Age 2
Image: http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/111969566/39658684
Reserve: http://magistrated.livejournal.com/10038.html?thread=1746486#t1746486
3. Character Information II
Age/Appearance: Hawke is twenty-eight. Unlike the rest of his family, he has red hair; on the flipside, he’s got his mother’s grey eyes. His hair’s pretty thick, though, and although not all over the place it’s spiky and he keeps it short enough for that to be obvious. He’s about 5’10”, but tends to slouch and present himself in a casual manner that, at first glance, makes him seem shorter. (At second glance the observant will notice it’s a sort of casual ease one should associate with a seasoned fighter.)
Hawke is a mage and so is restricted from wearing most sorts of armour, under penalty of being unable to use magic—or at least hard armour, even leather, restricts his ability to use magic to a point where it’s too exhausting to bother. His robes are almost all enchanted to provide extra protection in compensation. However, mage robes are pretty distinctive, so he wears a basic cloak over the top, with the compulsive habit of keeping it wrapped around him to cover his clothes underneath. His staff is also enchanted, but has been made to look like a religious icon or an ordinary journeyman’s staff.
History: Garrett Hawke was the eldest son of Malcolm Hawke and Leandra Amell, daughter of a Free Marches nobleman from Kirkwall. Malcolm was an apostate mage from Ferelden—that is, a mage outside the control of the Circle of Magi and the Chantry, whose templars are responsible for guarding the mages. Mages who refuse to comply with the Circle and Chantry’s laws are either killed or made Tranquil. This meant that much of Malcolm and Leandra’s early marriage, and Garrett’s early childhood, was spent constantly moving to avoid being found by templars. Garrett was raised to be ready to run at a moment’s notice, to hide his abilities and above all to use his magic wisely.
When Garrett was thirteen the family found a place to settle in peace near a small town named Lothering in central Ferelden. For seven years they lived there peacefully, with both Garrett and Bethany, his younger sister, growing into their magical powers. Then, when Garrett was twenty, his father died. Demons, being drawn to magic through the Fade, are one of the reasons mages are so closely watched, and the Hawke family had three. It was only a matter of time before a demon found them.
The demon in question was one of desire, and it touched the dreams of the whole family before Malcolm realised it was there. As an apostate family the Hawkes didn’t have the resources to enter the Fade with a physical body, and the use of blood magic would have required a murder. Without either of those options, Malcolm took Garrett out into the woods and then deliberately sought the demon for a conversation in his own dreams. He let the demon possess his body, giving it a foothold in the living world. Garrett killed the Abomination the possession created, sending the demon back into the Fade and destroying any connection which allowed it to prey on them specifically. When he returned home Garrett told his family they had been attacked by a large party of bandits and never once revealed the truth, so they could remember Malcolm as a righteous man and controlled mage.
For three more years the Hawkes lived with relative peace in Lothering. Then the darkspawn, the tainted versions of other sentient races, began massing in the south; the army of Ferelden faced the armies of the darkspawn at Ostagar, an ancient fortress, and were routed. Carver, Garrett’s younger brother, managed to escape the slaughter and fled back home. Lothering suffered several skirmishes over the course of the next few months, before a darkspawn vanguard razed the village to the ground. The Hawkes made to escape and were joined by two other survivors, Aveline and her husband Wesley. Wesley and Bethany were both killed on the way, Bethany by an ogre and Wesley as a mercy killing due to the darkspawn taint which would have made him their pawn.
They were ultimately rescued by Flemeth, the witch of the wilds, who led them on a safe route through the wilds in return for delivering an amulet of hers to the Dalish elves in the Free Marches. Like many other Ferelden refugees, they fled by ship to the Free Marches, just across the channel, since Leandra’s family still lived there in the city of Kirkwall. Unfortunately, Kirkwall’s limits were taxed by the number of Ferelden refugees; it took three days before Leandra’s brother Gamlen was able to find them a way into the city proper, and it involved selling Garrett and Carver into indentured servitude for a year to either smugglers or mercenaries. Garrett picked the smugglers, since at least his abilities as a mage would be less easily displayed in that line of work.
After a year of paying off debts, Garrett left the smugglers under bad terms, but that still left his family poor and living in the slums. Even though the Blight, the invasion by darkspawn, was over, they had no money and nowhere to move back into Ferelden. On the other hand, they did have Garrett’s reputation as being both skilful and reliable. It drew to them Varric Tethras, a dwarf whose brother was putting together an expedition into the Deep Roads to recover valuable dwarven artefacts, left behind when the darkspawn invaded their underground empire. The only problem was, Bartrand had already rejected them as hired hands, so they needed to go in as investors. Which meant they needed money.
For the better part of the next year Garrett worked to get up enough coin to fund Bartrand’s expedition—usually by performing jobs for people, many of them minor, some of them major, and with the occasional treasure-hunt along the way. He also built up a party of adventurers, friends, to help him, including Aveline and Varric. In the course of that time, Hawke was involved in several events which proved important to himself, Kirkwall and possibly the continent as a whole, including:
—helping Aveline investigate the city guards for corruption. They discovered that the guard-captain was sacrificing his guards to secretly smuggle items to criminals to pay off his debts. He was arrested and Aveline became guard-captain in his place, giving Hawke an important ally in the city hierarchy and a dependable protector for the city’s citizens. (The way it should be.)
—searching for his and Carver’s grandfather’s lost will, still in the safe in their mother’s family’s old estate, and clearing out the slavers who took it over in the process. They discovered that their grandfather left everything to Leandra, but Gamlen, who took over custody, squandered the fortune in gambling and lost the house to slavers. Since the slavers were cleared, Leandra chose to make a bid to buy the estate back. (Birthright.)
—taking Flemeth’s amulet to the Dalish elves on Sundermount and performing a ritual as directed by the elven Keeper. This caused Flemeth to rise, alive, from the amulet, and freed her to go elsewhere at her own choosing. (Long way home.)
—helping Anders, apostate mage and former Grey Warden, rescue a friend in return for a map into the Deep Roads. Anders’ friend Karl was a mage in residency at Kirkwall’s Circle of Magi and slated to be made Tranquil, but when Hawke and Anders arrived at the Chantry they discovered that the procedure had already taken place and were ambushed by templars attempting to capture Anders. They fought and killed their attackers, letting Hawke discover that Anders shared his body with a Justice spirit. The presence of the spirit allowed Karl to reconnect with the Fade; with his sense of self temporarily restored, he begged for death before the Tranquillity returned and was given a mercy killing. Anders provided the maps of the Deep Road regardless. (Tranquility.)
—searching for a runaway elven mage, Feynriel, at the request of the boy’s mother and Ser Thrask, one of a few templars sympathetic to mages. Hawke discovered Thrask’s own daughter was a mage and became an Abomination out of fear after caught by slavers. Feynriel was found, also in the hands of slavers, but rescued, and Hawke chose to send him to the Dalish so he could hopefully learn how to control his powers without needing to submit to the imprisonment of the Circle. Hawke also chose not to reveal Thrask’s daughter was a mage to the Chantry. (Wayward son.)
—aiding Ser Thrask to help a band of apostates to escape execution by Kirkwall’s templars. Although some mages attacked on sight, and their leader turned to blood magic and was killed, Hawke was able to convince some of the group to let him help. He sweet-talked the reinforcement templars into believing the mages had escaped through other means, causing them to leave and giving the apostates the opportunity to escape. (Act of mercy.)
—investigating the disappearances of multiple templar recruits at the request of one’s sister. With the help of the templar Knight-Captain Cullen, Hawke discovered that a group of blood mages were using the brothel to enchant and kidnap the recruits. The blood mages used the recruits in experiments to possess them with demons and turn them into Abominations, with the intention of undermining the templars’ authority and proving that anyone could be possessed, not just mages. It also let the mages plant ‘sleepers’ within the order to prepare for a future massacre. Hawke found and killed the blood mages responsible and freed the templar recruit, Keran, for whom he was searching. He then chose to recommend Keran for duty in the order rather than allow him be excommunicated just in case he had been possessed. (Enemies among us.)
—investigating the lack of contact from workers in the mines outside Kirkwall. On going to the mines, Hawke discovered that an outbreak of dragons was the cause, with many of the Ferelden workers killed. Once the mine was cleared, Hawke accepted half-interest in the mine as a reward and to make sure the Ferelden workers were fairly treated. (The bone pit.)
—dispatching a band of kossith bandits for Javaris, a dwarf hoping to get an exclusive deal with the Qunari enclaved at Kirkwall for gunpowder. It turned out there was no deal to be made if the bandits were killed, but the leader of the Qunari, the Arishok, forced Javaris to pay Hawke regardless. (Blackpowder promise.)
—aiding a Chantry sister, Petrice, in smuggling a Qunari mage out of Kirkwall. Upon escaping from Kirkwall Hawke discovered that someone had left a trail of bodies leading right to the secret exit they used, allowing a group of Qunari to track them. Although Hawke attempted to argue for the mage’s right to live, revealing himself as a mage in the process, the Qunari only became more determined to ritually execute the both of them as unattended and thus potentially demon-possessed. Although Hawke and his party killed the Qunari threatening them, the mage they were attempting to save chose to follow the path of the Qun and committed ritual suicide with Hawke in attendance. Upon return to the house where Petrice had hidden, she confessed that she had intended for Hawke to be killed so she could use his slaughter to turn the Chantry against the Qunari already in Kirkwall. Hawke then chose to inform the Arishok.
(Shepherding wolves.)
After accumulating enough gold coin to front Bartrand’s expedition and with the map of the Deep Roads in hand, Hawke joined the expedition as a bodyguard and investor. Due to the limits in resources, he was only able to take two others with him aside from those already chosen—namely, Bartrand, Varric, their labourers, a travelling dwarven merchant called Bodahn and Bodahn’s son, Sandal, an expert in enchanting. Hawke chose Anders, due to his previous experience in the Deep Roads as a Grey Warden, and Carver, because he never went anywhere without his baby brother, despite their mother’s pleading to have Carver stay home.
The expedition didn’t go as planned. Firstly, the passage they used turned out blocked and they were forced to use side-passages in which the darkspawn lived. While scouting out the way ahead and searching for Sandal, who had run off, Carver was infected by the darkspawn’s taint and refused to tell anyone. Sandal was found and the party moved on, but descended so far beneath the Deep Roads that they broke into the oldest known dwarven city, previously undiscovered until then. There Hawke discovered an ancient idol made from pure lyrium, the substance used to enchant objects. Bartrand, unwilling to share, took the idol and locked Hawke, Anders, Carver and his own brother Varric into the ruins, forcing them to find their own way back to the surface.
They succeeded, collecting treasure and artefacts, and killing many demons along the way, but as they neared the surface Carver finally began to succumb to the darkspawn taint. Anders, with his knowledge of the Grey Wardens, was able to direct the party to a group of Wardens in the Deep Roads at the time; for the chance to save Carver’s life, Hawke convinced them to take Carver and put him through the Joining. However, it meant that Carver had to leave Kirkwall and go with the Grey Wardens. Even though it meant possibly never seeing his brother again, Hawke agreed, and his party returned to Kirkwall rich and with one person short.
Another three years passed. With the money made from the Deep Road expedition, Hawke bought back his mother’s family estate and they both moved in, along with Bodahn as Hawke’s manservant and Sandal as his personal enchanter. Carver sent one or two letters in that time, letting them known that he survived the Joining and was serving as a Grey Warden. Hawke became well-known in Kirkwall for his exploits in the Deep Roads, and although not well-liked among the Hightown nobles due to previously being commoner, also had a reputation as an adventurer and problem-solver. At this time he was still not publically known as an apostate. Once again, in the following time he was involved in several events important to himself and Kirkwall, including:
—rescuing Feynriel from possession by some demons. Feynriel, being a mage specifically attuned to manipulating dreams, was trapped in one of his own and tempted by a desire and a pride demon, with a sloth demon waiting in the wings to take advantage of the winner. Although not the first time Hawke had confronted demons or potential Abominations, this was his first time being able to enter the Fade to rescue someone else in a way that Malcolm wasn’t able to do for his family and which Hawke couldn’t do for Malcolm. He succeeded in saving Feynriel from any of the demons’ influence and, rather than render Feynriel Tranquil by killing him in the Fade, allowed him to awaken so he could move to Tevinter to learn from the mages there. (Night terrors.)
—seeking out a poisonous gas stolen from the Qunari. The Arishok himself asked Hawke to help track down the poison, believing Javaris to be responsible, but it turned out the dwarf was framed. The next lead arrived when a side-alley in Lowtown became infected with a poisonous mist and was cordoned off by guardsmen. When Hawke investigated he was forced to fight bands of mercenaries while attempting to close the mechanically-wired barrels releasing the mist. The culprit was an elven woman who stole the poison for use against some groups of humans who were trying to destroy the tenuous peace between humans and the Qunari; Hawke was forced to kill her. When Hawke reported back to the Arishok, the Arishok revealed that despite tensions, the Qunari could not leave until they had recovered a lost item, as a matter of honour. (Blackpowder courtesy.)
—discovering what happened to three Qunari delegates who vanished after leaving the keep; this investigation was specifically requested by the viscount, Dumar, due to Hawke’s amiable dealings with the Qunari. After investigation Hawke discovered that the Qunari were captured by Petrice and her pet templar, Varnell. Although Petrice revealed Varnell’s hideout, apparently to turn him over, she then left Hawke there to be killed by Varnell and his fanatics. Hawke killed them, but failed to save the Qunari; he recommended to Dumar not to hide their torture from the Arishok and then went himself to offer his condolences. (Offered and lost.)
—going with Varric to confront Bartrand about his betrayal in the Deep Roads. They discovered Bartrand’s house filled with guards who had been driven insane by the dwarf. A lone survivor told them that the idol Bartrand took from the ruins drove him mad. Although he sold the idol during a period of sanity, it still had control over him and he began performing experiments on his employees by feeding them lyrium and torturing them. Hawke and Varric were forced to defeat Bartrand and his guards in combat and with Anders’ help were able to heal Bartrand enough for him to cease being a threat. Even so, Varric had to have Bartrand committed. (Family matter.)
—helping Anders stop one of the templars, Alrik, from making mages Tranquil illegally. Alrik was also attempting to pass a law to make all mages Tranquil, period. Hawke and Anders intercepted Alrik as he was about to make Tranquil a mage, Ella, who only snuck out of the Circle Tower to visit her mother. The injustice caused Justice to overtake Anders as Vengeance, and although Alrik and his templars were killed, Vengeance almost killed Ella as well. Hawke was able to bring Anders back, but it left them both shaken, and Anders fled the scene. Hawke later showed him proof that Alrik’s ‘Tranquil solution’ had been turned down by both the Knight-Commander of Kirkwall and the Chantry. (Dissent.)
Not long after that, Hawke was brought, with his mabari hound, into Bete Noire.
Personality: Hawke is, at his core, an optimistic person despite events in his past—optimistic, joking, and flirtatious. This isn’t a cover or even an affectation; he saw the burden protecting their family had on his father and rather than becoming similarly tired Hawke simply made the choice not let the burden weigh him down. With his father taking on that weight, Garrett saw it as his duty, as the eldest son, to ensure that his siblings would have reason to hope and little reason to fear. By being optimistic, he could ensure that there was still something light-hearted in a potentially grim life. Of course, this means that he frequently appears not to take anything seriously, which is only true to an extent—there are many things he chooses not to take seriously, but some that he does and only appears not to. The issue between mages and templars, for instance, is something he does recognise and has firm views on, but in order to oppose the fear of being caught he has a tendency to mouth off at templars and tread the line of revealing himself as an apostate. (Of course, that also annoys Carver, which is Hawke’s Brotherly Duty, as well as proving to Carver that the templars ought not to be feared.) Demon-possession is another thing he will be humourous about in order to refuse the fear, but takes extremely seriously. Finally, his family is something Hawke is entirely serious about, and the deaths of his father and sister are two things about which he still cannot make a joke.
However, Hawke’s optimism and generally upbeat and joking nature runs deeper than just trying to be a cheerleader for his family. It’s something of a self-defence, but not in the sense that he’s covering something else up. Although Hawke appears not to take many things seriously, he is extremely aware of himself as a mage and the power of magic, and the position he holds as an apostate. He does not regret being an apostate, nor would ever voluntarily join a Circle, but he knows most people don’t know much about mages and buy into the Chantry’s propaganda. Due to their constant moving and the mages in the family, making friends was difficult, but Hawke took the stance that if he’s amiable, witty and shows that he’s not about to use magic on them, perhaps once an acquaintance finds out he was an apostate then they wouldn’t care as much. Being friendly was about showing himself as someone who wouldn’t fly off the handle. Similarly, being charming was about stopping fights before they reached the point of coming to blows, when he might be forced to reveal his powers as a mage in order to save his own life. Once a fight was had, he would have to kill all witnesses to protect his family, which is something he’s not fond of doing but has done on occasion, particularly when it comes to bandit groups. Being free with the booze, coin and witticisms marks him as someone not worth getting into a fight with, since he’d pay up or charm the culprits if threatened rather than stand his ground.
That said, his desire not to be seen as a threat does run to the point of being too agreeable. Although he’s not opposed to killing in self-defence, when it comes to more minor confrontations he will fold. This includes in terms of friendships. Real friends have been thin on the ground in his life, so once he gathered his party in Kirkwall, he has been anxious to keep them and for them to actually like him as opposed to merely respect him. Whatever his own views, and despite not being insecure in those views, he does have a tendency not to confront his friends regarding things on which he disagrees. He will tease and joke and cajole, but not actively confront. For instance, Anders and his opposition to the templars; Hawke would and has trash-talked the templars with Anders, despite Hawke himself actually being moderately sympathetic to the templars’ duties and having aided and allied with templars on more than one occasion. Conversely, when speaking with Fenris about magic, although Hawke wouldn’t outright trash mages, due to being one himself, he would either avoid the topic, diffuse it with humour or be non-confrontational in his responses. Similarly, despite knowing that blood magic is dangerous, Hawke has tacitly supported Merrill’s experimentations in it because he’d rather have her as a friend than tell her he disapproves and risk her disliking him.
Although not insecure in his own opinions, this means Hawke also has no trouble deferring to his friends’ opinions or accepting many of their actions, even if he might have disagreed. That said, this is only to a certain extent: there are some things on which he will disagree, period, and which would cause him to confront the person responsible despite his dislike for arguments. More specifically, he does not make deals with demons and disapproves of overly extremist action, since upping the stakes only makes the opposite side more likely to push back harder and thus escalates the problem. The welfare of family is also extremely important to him, partly because of how he was raised and partly because of what he was forced to do to his father; when it came to Bartrand, Hawke came down firmly on the side of keeping Bartrand alive despite what he had done, simply because he was Varric’s brother. Indeed, more recently Hawke holds to his family ties more than ever, because by this point he has lost both father and sister, and all but lost his brother, which leaves him closer to and more protective of his mother than he ever was, and despite not being on particularly good terms with Gamlen he still checks in on the man regularly. Hawke also still has a great sense of loyalty to his fellow countrymen, despite not having been back to Ferelden in several years.
That said, although Hawke prefers non-confrontation and diffusing situations over battle, he has no compunctions about killing when he needs to. Death, after all, is a constant in Thedas; despite the presence of magic it is still a medieval setting, with similar diseases and dangers. Hawke, raised as a commoner, is familiar with death not only due to the Blight, but because of disease and bandits. His dislike for killing comes from the desire for people not to think of him as a threat, not because he’s inherently opposed to taking lives. He’s a warrior and is a protector, and that makes killing necessary; to that end, although he won’t kill an innocent, if attacked he won’t hold back either—he’ll fight to kill, even if the person he’s fighting is a mage. However, if begged for mercy he would, generally, grant it, unless granting it would result in putting his family or friends in danger (eg, if the person in question had seen he was a mage and was likely to report it).
Which brings us to his sense of duty. Hawke’s sense of duty isn’t the overwhelmingly righteous sort exhibited by the Chantry or by conventional heroes. Actually, it’s a rather narrow, selfish kind, one that only incidentally affects the world around him to a great degree due to being combined with his skill and drive. Put simply, Hawke’s duty is to his magic—to being the sort of mage which shows that mages, while powerful, are not rampantly dangerous as the Chantry wants most people to believe. Malcolm may not have consciously intended to instil that perception in him, but that’s what Hawke arrived at while he was being raised; that being a mage is difficult and dangerous, but that, ultimately, his magic is a part of him and he shouldn’t be ashamed of it or afraid of it. In a way, it’s this belief, to be bound neither to his magic nor to the Chantry, which drives Hawke’s desire to be liked: to prove the Chantry wrong, but on his own terms only and not in a way that uses force or magic. It’s the reason why, although not actively a saint, he still feels driven to perform the tasks people ask of him. If he does them, maybe people will like him and he will prove that, despite being a mage, he is not a bad person and thus that magic itself is not bad either. If he can prove that, then he and his family will no longer be in danger for being and consorting with apostates.
However, this desire is tempered by reality. The situation for mages in Kirkwall is far worse than it is in Ferelden; mages are made Tranquil illegally, without any investigation, and the executions are swift. Many apostates in Kirkwall actually are blood mages, but only because they are driven to such desperation that they feel they have no choice but to turn to the thing for which they are feared. For that reason, although Hawke wants to be liked for himself and not feared for being a mage, he’s not so idealistic that he’ll out himself to simply anyone. In fact, he takes great measures to ensure that he isn’t discovered, an act that is second nature. It’s for that reason that he chose to ally with the smugglers to get into Kirkwall, despite Carver and Aveline’s objections, because his abilities were less likely to be discovered by the authorities than throwing it around with the mercenaries. Similarly, his clothes and staff are disguised to seem non-magical, and he has no qualms about outright lying about being a mage if asked directly. This is also partly, though not completely, why he will help templars—generally, templars and mages don’t aid one another, so helping them out gives him a bit of credibility. He wants to be liked, but realises that the position set by the Chantry won’t offer him any respite if he revealed himself to the general public, and so contents himself, for the moment, with incidental friendships.
When it comes down to it, despite his desire to be liked for who he is and his habit of agreeing with people so as not to be confrontational, Hawke is extremely secure in who he is and his beliefs. He knows he is a mage, born free and remaining free, and although he is, to some extent, proud of his magical ability, it’s not any more than a good carpenter would be proud of his skill in carpentry. For the most part Hawke simply accepts his magic as being part of who he is, which gives him a certain security that most mages don’t have, purely because he feels no need to prove himself using his magical power. Rather, his desire to prove himself is related more to proving himself as a person, not a mage. Magic is an issue because the people around him have made it an issue, but he does not accept it as one himself even while he often has to play by their rules. (This is related back to his being so upbeat and humourous—his way of showing that, despite circumstances forced on him, he still refuses to buy into the circumstances himself.) Of course, he is a mage, and for most people that is an issue, and for that reason Hawke is sympathetic to the way in which mages are treated. Although not as openly rebellious as some mages are, he nonetheless would not hesitate in aiding an apostate to escape from the Circle and the templars, even to the point of risking being revealed as a mage himself.
However, Hawke is also very aware of magic as a danger, something which was brought home to him very firmly by his father’s death. Before then, Hawke’s humour was unrestrained, but killing the Abomination his father had become forced him to truly consider what having magic meant, on a level he had not quite needed to confront before. It emphasised what his duty as a mage was—to be watchful and to protect others from the danger his kind and he himself represented. For this reason, Hawke is more sympathetic to the templars than many mages become, because he was without the resentment of being constantly guarded by them and yet had been forced to shoulder a responsibility they themselves shouldered. He objects to the way the Knight-Commander of Kirkwall handles her responsibilities, but not to the spirit of the templars’ responsibilities, and for this reason does not condemn them as an order—only for their individual actions, such as with Ser Alrik. Because of this, Hawke does not hesitate to kill mages who cross the line, as many blood mages and demon-worshippers do. Essentially, he is performing a balancing act, not just with his own magic but in terms of the issue of mages’ rights as a whole. Although many of these beliefs aren’t immediately apparent, due to the way Hawke tends to agree with his friends to avoid confrontation, when push comes to shove he does not undermine them—as can be seen by his vetting Keran, despite Keran being a templar recruit, his aiding in the rescue of mages despite risk to himself, and his confrontation of mages who have gone those steps too far.
Sexual Preferences/Orientation: Hawke is attracted to men and his attitude about monogamy and polyamory is complicated due to setting and circumstance. He wouldn’t cheat on an unsuspecting partner, but his mother is from a noble family and has commented on the need to get him a wife. When he was younger Garrett expected either Bethany or Carver to take care of the family line; Bethany is now dead and Carver is a Grey Warden, a greater responsibility than Garrett currently has, one in which Carver can’t be expected to have a family. For his mother’s sake, Garrett would wed and bed a woman—but he wouldn’t give any illusions as to his own orientation and would want the marriage to be free enough for both of them to pursue their own sexual interests when they’re not involved in creating a family. In other circumstances not including marriage, he may still be open to polyamory if he knew and trusted the third person and all were consenting.
Sex itself he doesn’t mind in the least, either generally or casually, and he is neither a virgin nor unfamiliar with various sexual practices. Actually, he tends to be an unrepentant flirt with either gender. That said, his status as an apostate has made both romantic and purely sexual relationships difficult, since it’s hard to know who to trust with the secret and it’s not something he can entrust to just anyone with his whole family at stake. For that reason, his experiences are limited to few partners—mostly prostitutes, since they wouldn’t care who he was or that he was a mage, if they even found out, as long as he could pay.
Although Hawke appears to be pretty lewd and flirtatious, in bed he can actually be remarkably tender and willing to let his partner call the shots. However, if he knows what his partner likes, he’d be perfectly willing to take command, too. Basically, he’s a switch. He wouldn’t be comfortable with anything too constricting or involving being bound, however, since his entire life has revolved around being free and being bound is entirely contrary to how he was raised.
Powers: Hawke is a mage from the world of Thedas. There are six ‘schools’ and three specialisations which categorise mage spells, aside from parlour tricks like wreathing one’s hand in glowing foggy light. Hawke draws spells from two schools, Primal and Arcane, and one specialisation, Force Magery, and is still learning and practicing new spells. (Note: it is possible for high-level mages to learn two specialisations. If it became relevant in-game, Hawke would choose the Spirit Healer specialisation.)
However, since the use of magic relies upon a direct connection to the Fade, which is a phenomenon specific to Thedas (as opposed to Harry Potter mages whose power-source is carried with them), I had intended for the power of Bete Noire to replace the Fade as the source of Hawke’s magic. That means Hawke’s spells will come out slightly differently. They’ll be stronger but more exhausting and harder to control, and the use of them will give Hawke a greater dose of the city’s manipulating nature. Basically, his spells will be, for lack of a better word, tainted by the city’s presence, as well as potentially more addictive. The more influenced he is, the more powerful they would be, but at the cost of his … well, soul. Spells that last for a length of time will be especially dangerous, since they’ll keep him open to the city’s influence for longer.
Primal Spells
Stonefist (upgraded): The mage generates and hurls a stone missile at a single opponent. It’s an instant-use spell.
Rock Armor: The mage creates armor made of stone as a defence. This is a sustained spell once activated; it turns itself off automatically only if the mage falls asleep or unconscious. It can, however, be turned off at will, and although not energy-draining while activated it will still maintain an open link between Hawke and the city. This spell and all its effects will stack with other spells such as Arcane Shield.
Chain Lightning (upgraded): One target is hit by a lightningbolt which then jumps to others within two meters of one another. It runs out when it runs out of bodies to leap to. This is an instant-use spell.
Petrify: The target is entombed in stone and rendered unable to move until the spell dissolves, but the stone protects the victim from physical damage. The spell itself is instant-use, but the effect lasts for twelve seconds in canon before dissolving. Taking into account spell-strength and potential power buffs in Bete Noire, Hawke will ICly be able to maintain it for between fifteen and twenty before the spell destabilises, and it could still drain him until it does. It will also keep the link between Hawke and the city open until the spell dissolves.
Arcane Spells
Mind Blast (upgraded): A blast of telekinetic energy which throws away enemies standing within a meter and a half, and has a chance of stunning them. Instant-use spell.
Arcane Shield (first upgrade): A protective aura which deflects incoming attacks to some degree. It also absorbs some degree of elemental attacks, including fire, cold, electric, nature and spirit resistances. This is a sustained spell once activated; it turns itself off automatically only if the mage falls asleep or unconscious. It can, however, be turned off at will, and although not energy-draining while activated it will still maintain an open link between Hawke and the city. This spell and all its effects will stack with other spells such as Rock Armor.
Crushing Prison (upgrade): The target is trapped in a collapsing telekinetic cage which deals constant damage and prevents the target from moving. The spell itself is instant-use, but the effect lasts for ten seconds in canon before dissolving. Taking into account spell-strength and potential power buffs in Bete Noire, Hawke will ICly be able to maintain it for between thirteen and eighteen before the spell destabilises, and it could still drain him until it does. It will also keep the link between Hawke and the city open until the spell dissolves.
Force Mage Spells
Fist of the Maker: The mage lifts enemies within a six meter radius into the air and then slams them into the ground with great force. Armour has no effect against this spell.
Spells aside, Hawke also has the ability to summon his mabari hound, Warden, through the Fade from wherever Warden is located—usually Hawke’s current home. Warden will come into Bete Noire by foot along with Hawke, so Hawke’s summoning spell will only work within the city, and quite possibly not even all the time. The summoning still accesses the Fade, so the city effects will be the same on Hawke as with any other spell. Warden is semi-sentient, but intensely loyal and protective, and wouldn’t go out into the city unless accompanying Hawke.
Hawke also has enchanted gear; although Malcolm did bequeath some equipment to Hawke on his death, most of that was sold when they first arrived in Kirkwall. Hawke’s gear now consists of gloves, boots, hood and robes, all of which are enchanted for sturdiness and repelling weather effects, as well as being resistant to tearing or cutting. (That said, a sufficiently sharp and powerful sword-swing will still cut them.) The only thing he kept from his father was Malcolm’s staff. In canon it is imbued with powerful spirit-damage charges, offers a boost to all of Hawke’s attributes, a better chance of critical hits, increased energy regeneration and increased damage against demons and the undead. In realistic terms, the charges are activated by the user and have minor tracking powers in order to aim for the target’s most vulnerable places even if Hawke isn’t concentrating on hitting them specifically. That said, if Hawke totally misaimed he would miss, period; the charges won’t seek out a target on their own. These charges are also especially magically effective against demons and the undead, though of course the level of the effectiveness still depends on the targets’ individual resistances. They won’t instantly kill a demon or undead being, just be a little more effective to varying degrees.
The boost to attributes and increased energy regeneration will only kick in while Hawke has the weapon actually in his hands; if he was disarmed or had his staff slung on his back, they would have no effect. As far as the latter goes, as long as the staff is in hand it let Hawke regain his energy more quickly by drawing it from the staff. As far as the former goes, the relevant attributes consist of passive bonuses to strength, dexterity, willpower, magic, cunning and constitution. Again translating into realistic terms, and in order, the staff would make Hawke a little bit stronger, faster, give him a little more magical energy, let him draw magic from the Fade more easily (which will be a drawback in Bete Noire, since it will leave him even more open to the city’s effects), make his mind clearer and more focussed, and make him a little sturdier against physical attacks. Since using the magic of the staff involves drawing from a contained source, using it would not open a direct link between Hawke and the city’s nature.
Of course, the staff being an object with which he has no actual mental bond such as Ichigo does with Zangetsu, it could be stolen or left behind and Hawke wouldn’t be able to use its effects. It would also work the same way if used by anyone else with magical powers. If necessary, the city can have drained some of the power from the staff, the attribute bonuses in particular.
Reason for playing: Hawke’s story is one of the things that appealed to me. It’s not epic or world-spanning, as it only happens in a single city, and yet the things he’d involved in are actually extremely politically relevant to the whole of the continent, which does make it epic in its own way. The thing that makes me want to play my Hawke in particular is the fact that, firstly, he’s a bit of a troll and I’ve rarely played trolls before. Secondly, he’s a mage, and I’ve never played a mage before, but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do.
The fact that Hawke is a mage and the particular traits of mages from his universe, are the main reasons I want to play him in Bete Noire. The nature of Bete Noire is remarkably like that of the Fade. Although the city isn’t exactly a ‘dreamscape’, it is a lingering presence behind the rest of the multiverse, defining and changing the ’verses based on the nuances within it. It also contains demons and spirits, the same way the Fade does. Given how Hawke uses his magic, the idea of Bete Noire replacing or interrupting his ability to use it sounds fun, especially when you consider the high danger-rate of demons from the Fade possessing mages and the fact that magic is treated as a borderline addiction in canon. Being in the city would give Hawke a much more direct source of magic, but one whose nature is far more intrinsically influencing than Fade-magic is. I could see it being both an addiction and something transformative, in terms of flooding Hawke with significant doses of the city’s nature every time he uses a spell.
Basically, his magic and his relationship to it is one of the things he believes he knows best around himself, is possibly the thing he is most secure in. Having the security ripped away by his own magic driving him, increasingly, toward doing things he wouldn’t usually would be a terrific mindfuck. As to the things it would drive him to, likely it would involve some sort of greed, but greed that involves people. Hawke wants to be liked and accepted, and the city would remove the inhibitions that usually encourage him to be friendly about it—it would drive him to possessing people as objects or ‘forcing’ them to like him in ways that aren’t true like at all.
World History: What kind of world is your character from? This part can be short, but it must focus on the particular character's context. What was their world like, from their point of view?
Character History: Let us have a summary of the highlights, the turning points of your character's history. What was it that made them who they are?
5. Samples
First-Person: http://dear-mun.livejournal.com/40527248.html?thread=1206335376#t1206335376
Third-Person: Garrett’s time was Very Important nowadays. Being the heir to the Amell estate and one of the few people other than the Grey Wardens who’d gone into the Deep Roads and come out alive in recent history … all that sort of thing gave a person a certain reputation. And having a reputation made one’s time Very Important.
“Clear out an infestation of giant spiders. Check. Go with Isabela to look for that cache south of the Coast … Maker, that one’s not going to be fun. You’d think I’d know better than to agree to things like that.” At the last sentence Garrett looked down to the massive dog trotting by his side, head passing Garrett’s hip in height, and Warden cocked his head with a whine.
“Well,” Garrett amended, “not without knowing what was in there first. Spent a week bedridden last time, bloody spiders … Make sure that group of thugs hasn’t tried to make a comeback to their hovel. Check. Get some extra food stores for Anders’ clinic. Look for another book for Fenris. Buy some jasmine-scented soap for Mother. Andraste’s breath, I hate shopping.”
Warden barked and Garrett tore his eyes from his journal to glance down at the dog again, his mouth tilting up in an ironic half-grin as his quill lowered onto the page. “Buy some mabari crunch. Haven’t forgotten you, my adorable little war-hound.”
The dog let out a happy bark, his tail wagging furiously, and Garrett chuckled, finishing that particular item on the list with a flourish. “Thought you might like that. Let’s see …”
“OUTTA THE FUCKING WAY, YAH BASTARD!”
Garrett jumped at sound of an abrupt, inhuman wailing, Warden barked explosively and something large and metal and shiny shot past faster than a horse with enchanted shoes. Garrett’s astonished eyes followed it as it screeched around a corner, and then, blinking, his gaze returned to the street in front of him.
It was no longer cobblestone, but it was filled with similar large, shiny objects travelling at speeds that would make Fenris green with envy. They were ear-splittingly loud, too; it made Garrett wince. And the smell? Suddenly there was smell. There was no smell in Hightown other than the copious flowerbeds. Well, unless he’d run through a gang or two; then it smelled like blood.
“Kirkwall’s undergone some changes in the last few minutes,” he said bemusedly. Warden just whined.
Third-Person #2: It was dangerous. That was one of the first things his father had told him, the first time he came running up, gleeful with his small hands full of writhing light. It was dangerous, but it was a part of him, and that made it his responsibility to make sure it never got away from him.
It was going to be hard. That was the second thing his father had told him, when he was caught playing peek-a-boo with the light in his hands one night. It was going to be hard, but it was going to be worth it, because it would let him protect people as long as he never let it get out of his hands.
“Hawke!”
Garrett ducked the blade whistling over his head and thrust his staff upward, colliding with the gang member’s throat with a crunch. The man choked, grasped at the wound and then fell away, but Garrett was already turning around to block a dagger and down the attacker with a blow to the head.
“You’re going to get yourself skewered if you’re not careful, Hawke!” Varric called almost cheerfully, bracing Bianca against his shoulder, thick fingers caressing the crossbow as he aimed high and fired. His bolts fwipped as they arced and then fell in among the gang members clogging the alley.
“Who’d’ve have thought Lowtown could be so dangerous at night?” Garrett wondered, belting a woman across the face with his staff before she could succeed in actually skewering him, and then doing the same to another gang member’s head as he rushed Garrett from the other side.
“Maybe they think we owe them something,” Varric suggested, lifting, bracing, firing straight into the gang members and backing up the stairs. “Done any gambling lately, Hawke?”
“Other than with our lives, you m—duck!” Garrett whirled his staff, instinctively drawing on the weapon’s internal magic charge and firing it past Varric’s shoulder. It engulfed a gang member behind him, writhing blue light that wrapped itself around the attacker and turned her skin deathly pale. Literally.
“Duck?” Varric asked incredulously, belting the man behind her with Bianca’s solid end, nearly as thick as Varric’s own arm. The man went down. “You can’t even see over a dwarf’s shoulder, Hawke? How’d you survive this long, being blind?”
The rest of the gang members hesitated. Two cocky and apparently not-so-drunk mercenaries was one thing. A mage? Entirely another. On the other hand, they had the advantage of numbers, and even the narrowness of the alley wouldn’t stop them from swarming the two. Besides, Garrett hadn’t used much magic; if he could have used some powerful spell, he would have, right?
That conclusion had them rushing forward again, forcing the pair closer together; Varric’s hands worked Bianca’s bow and trigger faster than a merchant dwarf with a chest full of gold coins, while Garrett’s staff was whirling, deflecting sword-blows and bathing the alley walls with a blue-white glow in the light of the charges. “I hate to rush you, Hawke, but we could do with some magic tricks. I wouldn’t want to explain to your mother why your sword-riddled corpse got found in Lowtown’s sewers.”
“Good thing you won’t have to, since you’ll be right there beside me!”
But he was right. Only a mage could use a staff’s magical charges, and the gang members had already seen that. Oh, there were rumours of apostates galore in Kirkwall’s underground, but he was too well-known in Hightown for his description to get attached to the word ‘apostate’ without someone noticing, and too many Hightown nobles had underhanded dealings in Lowtown for him to risk it.
For his mother’s sake, he couldn’t let that happen.
It’s dangerous. It’s going to be hard.
“Duck,” Garrett said again with a grin, and reached through the Veil for the Fade. His next breath was like breathing in pure lyrium. Not that Garrett had ever breathed in or even touched raw pure lyrium, because that would be suicide, but if it could be breathed in he was sure that’s what it would feel like. Like a rush in his veins, in his head. Climax without the sex and far more danger. It let him touch another world, one that whispered with all the voices in it—demons, dreamers—and left his ears ringing with something faintly musical.
It was a matter of will to shape it. Magic had always been his plaything, never something of which to be ashamed or afraid, only respectful, only wary. Not like a mage of the Circle. It was just a matter of visualising what he wanted, giving it a channel, letting it out before it filled him up.
Sometimes he wondered just what would happen if he let it fill him up.
It’s dangerous. It’s going to be hard.
He saw a lightning bolt in his mind and it shaped itself over his skin with a crackle. He thrust his staff forward and the lightning leapt—from staff-head to a gang member’s chest to another’s. Garrett was there with it, the lightning an extension of him, tearing through muscle and over bone and darting through air until there was nothing left to land on or it fizzled out against solid stone.
He breathed out and let the Veil reassert itself, coming between him and the Fade. The dreamworld’s magic still lingered on his skin, under his skin, the alley drawing itself back around him until he was just in this world instead of partly in that one. When he inhaled again, it was with a noseful of burning flesh.
“Well, at least you won’t have to worry about your reputation, Hawke.” Varric, beside him, partly behind him. Out of the way. “But I still think we could get some help from Aveline and the city guard in clearing this up, what do you say?”
“Maybe we’ll even get a thank-you note,” Garrett mused, taking another breath. A deep one, as filled with the stench of dead and lightning as the last. Something to help wash away the lingering sensation of magic in his skin—like an afterglow, warm and lingering and complacent.
It’s dangerous.
“For calling her in after the battle’s over? You’re dreaming, Hawke.”
And it’s going to be hard.
How do you think this character would react to a magically permissive culture like Bete Noire, since this is an important part of how he developed as a person?
In the beginning, I think he wouldn't be able to help but suspect it's some kind of trick to catch mages out and have them carted off and imprisoned or made Tranquil. The idea that magic in other places doesn't work the same way his does won't even occur to him and would take a little while to sink in once he knows it. So despite the apparent permissiveness, he will initially still keep his identity as a mage hidden, because he's not willing to take the risk that there will be a boot to drop.
Once it sinks in that, yes, magic is actually allowed in Bete Noire, without regulation, he will probably not know what to do with it. On one hand, here is freedom like the mages of Thedas only imagine; on the other, magic is dangerous and there is nothing regulating it. He may make overtures into somehow keeping magic regulated, though likely wouldn't push it once/if he understands that all magic is not his magic. He actually may investigate other forms of magic to see if he can use them, though he won't be able to shake the expectation that magic from other worlds will have its own cost. (He won’t be able to use magic like other magic-users can, though, obviously.)
In the end, chances are he will still never be able to shake off his feeling of responsibility as a mage, especially if the city influences him in such a way that he winds up possessed or uses magic in ways that betray his beliefs. If anything, occurrences like that would probably make him backlash a little further into the Chantry's side of the line than he began on, so that he’d avoid using magic at all. Even if nothing truly bad happens, he would still regulate his own magic for his own reasons; that said, especially if he never becomes aware of how his magic is allowing the city to affect him, he will probably be freer with it than he would have been back home, even in front of other people who know nothing about mages.