Application for Fade Rift

[gottakeeponejumpahead]

PLAYER

Name: Wren
Age: 39
Contact: OneStarkWren @ Plurk
Other Characters: Bethany Hawke Darton, James Norrington (PotC AU OC)
Interests: For this guy I am looking to build from a more simple, entertaining point of view. A thief 'hijacked' into doing the right thing is one of the oldest tropes in the book, but I wanted to give my own spin on it. Plus I like having a character that is out to create trouble, travel in the worst of company, and have a fun time doing it.

CHARACTER

Name: Adasse Agassi
Canon/OC: Original
Journal: gottakeeponestepahead
Race: City Elf
Nationality: Born in Ferledan, transplanted to Kirkwall during the Fifth Blight.
Occupation: Pickpocket, thief, all around charming fellow
Division: Scouting
Mage or Not: NOT
Age: 18 going on 19

History
Adasse Agassi was born in Fereledan, the child of two servants serving under Arl Wulff of the West Hills. Adasse grew up seeing the world from the front of the stables or the back of a nursery with toys he was never allowed to play with. To that end, he grew up resentful of humans but wise enough to keep his mouth shut and his eyes open. He learned how to read and write by the age of five, a skill he still hones to this day.

When he was six, the Fifth Blight struck Fereldan and swept up the West Hills in darkspawn carnage. Adasse's parents shoved him on the back of a wagon so he could escape, and his last memory of them was from the back of it, watching in horror as the darkspawn descended on them. He still has nightmares of that day.

He was found by the humans when they finally stopped, and abandoned by the side of the road. He trudged for two days, sleeping in a ditch on the side of the road, without food or water, until he finally collapsed. It was there that Evelina from the Fereldan Circle of Magi found him. She took care of him, raising him with the other orphans she saved. She took them all to Kirkwall, where Adasse again stayed in the background so people would be more generous to Evelina and the other children.

At the tender age of ten, he quickly picked up the skills of a pickpocket, to help make ends meet. When Evelina was locked up by the Templars for being an apostate, he helped out Walter by leaving small bags of coins, but otherwise kept away, knowing that his new life would put theirs in danger. He spent so much time fading into the background, he just barely noticed when the background came to him in the form of a young Haelan. One left hook that was faster and harder than Haelan expected, and suddenly he was being followed by an awe-inspired human boy. They've been friends ever since.

He managed to avoid most of the truly horrific events that befell Kirkwall - the Qunari invasion, and the building war between the Templars and the Mages. In fact the only real effect that had on Adasse's life was losing Evelina. In the aftermath of the Templar Mage conflict, Adasse was forced to become a quick man with a knife. He also had to start coming into the con-game, because not a lot of people went around carrying coin in their pockets.

Yet for all that, he still remembered where he came from - and any orphan in Kirkwall always had a coin or two pressed in their dirty hands when Adasse passed by. Now one of the best Pockets in Darktown, he's just been hit smack dab in the face with Inquisition membership.

Personality

The Orlesians have a saying about masks - well they have quite a few but mostly they talk about how their mask is their real face and their real face is their mask. Adasse has managed to perfect that. He has an emotional mask for every situation, and every mask is a piece of his personality.

He has his thief's mask - the clever, calm one that can see at least fifty routes out of trouble. This is the mask he wears when he's on the job, whatever the job might be. It is a mask that inspires, and radiates self confidence. Of course he knows what he is doing. Of course he won't get caught - see that set of his chin? He has this. He's watched this from every angle, sat quietly and listened. Learned what he needed to know, so whatever he is about to do, it is going to go off perfectly. Even the mistakes are planned.

Another mask he wears is the one of the elven survivor. The wary glance to a group of humans that might be looking at him, the hand on his blade when it looks like he's passing through a human section of the city. This mask is paranoid, ruthless, careful and methodical; this is the mask waiting for the bad things to happen, because they've happened before and they will happen again.

The opposite of this mask, is the elven charmer. This is the one with the mysterious smiles, the bright dark eyes and the tilt to his chin that is inviting and courteous. Mild to intent flirting will likely occur, and he'll be all warmth and honey right until he walks out of the room again. It is all the friendly, alluring traits he has, put out for the world to see, so he can gain trust, friends, or funds. He can ease his way into any conversation, card game, or perhaps into a handsome fellow's bedroom - which is where his preferences clearly lie - while wearing this mask.

Under it all, though, is the orphan boy, the one who has never forgotten where he's come from or what he's had to go through to get even this far. It's the young man who will empty his pockets out to starving children, go into the alienage and help repair a leaking roof or watch someone's children for a mother who has to work in Hightown. It's rare when people get to see the real Adasse. He has only wanted to be on the inside, instead of looking in from the cold. This side shows how lonely he can be, how thoughtful, and how truly kind this elf from the wrong side of the city truly is.

Adasse is a man of many masks - or so he thinks. Sooner or later he will realize that the masks are simply who he has chosen to become, and will some day soon, show what kind of man he will truly be.

Opinions & Affiliations

Adasse has a lot of opinions on a lot of people, and he'll be willing to share most of them over a pint at the pub.

For starters, he has no problems with mages whatsoever. He was a young boy, but he knew of the Mage Underground and if he could do them a favor, he would. He owed his life to a mage, after all, and he never forgot Evelina's kindness. Nor did he forget that most mages do not carry the stigma to elves that most humans do, and for that they have endeared themselves upon his memory and opinion.

Templars, however, are an entirely different matter. He believes them to be mindless, Chantry toting idiots in the best of times, and at the worst, the defilers and destroyers of innocent men and women. He grew up in Kirkwall; he has seen the blank faces of the many Tranquil. He has also seen his foster mother hunted and killed by the same armed bullies. Would he kill a Templar? No. But he sure as shit would rob them blind.

And if anyone is to blame for the Mage and Templar war? Clearly, the Templars.

The Chantry baffles Adasse, for the simple reason that is a bunch of humans going around saying what the Maker thinks or what Andraste, thinks but none of them actually know The Maker or Andraste personally. They also seem to like to make up their own versions of what happened when, and while Adasse enjoys a good con story as much as the next person, it really seems awful to pull that tripe on the entire world. Still, there are good sisters and brothers out there doing what they can, so they're not All Bad. Just most.

Outside their eating of nugs, Adasse's got no problems with dwarves. They often offer him a good line of work, they pay well and they're upfront. He doesn't see them really on a personal level - after all their worlds are usually drastically different and they don't run in the same 'social circles'. He would never wish them ill will, though.

The Qunari, and the Qun, outright terrify Adasse. He is a young elf who believes strongly in following your own independent path, and from what he has seen of the Qunari they are just interested in pressing you into your own little cookie cutter world. He's know his share of mercenary Tal-Vashoth and Vashoth. They're not all bad but don't cross them because they will smash you. As a whole, wary respect and a lot of distance is how he deals with the Horned People.

As for his own people, he very much identifies with city elven culture. He goes to the Alienage as often as he can to help out, and one of the few places he feels safe to gather his thoughts is at the feet of their Vhenadahl. The Dalish elves mostly ... amuse him. They're just all so serious, or at least the few he's met are. Ranting about a world that has nothing to do with the one they're living in now. The stories are interesting though, and Maker knows he'd like to believe in them, but they seem more like fairy tales than reality.

For the most part, Adasse doesn't trust humans. Humans were the ones who left his parents behind to be murdered by the darkspawn. They are the ones who left him to die on the side of the road as well. However, he has known some excellent humans, and so he finds himself hopefully wary whenever he meets a new one. Usually he's waiting for them to either become great friends - or try to take advantage of him in some way because he's an elf. That goes across the board for humans from any country - as far as he's concerned it's the same thing just with different accents. Orlesians are the worst, Fereldans are the best, and he really has to wonder about Antiva.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Adasse is basically a brilliant criminal. He's a great pickpocket, a decent con man and an excellent burglar. He knows how to pick locks, how to case a home and find at least three different ways out, and how to sneak objects out without being noticed or caught.

He's an excellent dagger man - he prefers having a weapon in each hand because then he can stab more people with them if necessary. He's also in great shape - running over buildings and through alleys away from the Kirkwall guard tends to make you rather fit.

He speaks enough Dalish to be dangerous and enough Orlesian to know where they're hiding the really good silverware. His Antivan is all right but his Nevarran is atrocious and he won't learn Tevene because that's just asking for trouble.

He knows how to read and write, and how to do simple maths, but anything beyond a few years at a Chantry school and he is lost.

He cannot resist a challenge - sometimes to his own detriment. This can often get him into hot water if he has taken a wager above his head and skillset. He also tends to do this impulsively - while in every other aspect of his life is cautious as the day is long.

He doesn't have a lot of faith in people - he has seen the bad in them far too often than the good - so he can come off as callous or snide to some when he is talking about the good that the Inquisition is supposedly doing.

He can sometimes come off as overly paranoid - he never sits anywhere in the room except back against the wall, close to at least one exit. Early experience taught him it was smarter to be ready to run and that has stayed with him even in adulthood.

Inventory

Coin purse, two pairs of trousers, two well patched shirts, undergarments, boots, worn coat for winter, a dozen assorted doll dresses that fit on a chocolate nug, a purse of coins that is jealously guarded, two common mercenary daggers, dagger belt that allows him to hide the blades at his back, and one chocolate Nug, named Coco.

Motivation

It isn't as much as he has come to join than the Inquisition is giving him an out in a bad situation, and he'd rather work for the good guys (so to speak) than have his limbs cut off by a bad guy instead.

SAMPLES

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