ooc: application

[arcaneadvisor]

PLAYER

Name: Mhairi
Age: 26
Contact: deathwailart
Other Characters: Araceli Bonaventura | Original (Rifter)
Interests: With Morrigan, I'd love to have her poking around into any sort of magical goings on given all the time she's spent studying the eluvians as well as her own knowledge of the Orlesian court after time as Celene's advisor. She'd absolutely still be good in a fight but I'd love to have her digging into magical lore more than anything else and disappearing off with various groups to go find new places and things to research properly. Or 'research' because it's Morrigan her interpretation is impeccable thank you very much or it is until the universe decides to smack her back down when she's getting too big for her boots.

CHARACTER

Name: Morrigan
Canon/OC: Dragon Age
Journal: arcaneadvisor
Race: Human
Nationality: Fereldan
Occupation: Arcane Advisor to the Imperial Court of Orlais
Age: mid-30s at least given Kieran is 10 at the start of Inquisition

History
Morrigan at the Dragon Age wiki. In addition to the world state, she's spent the intervening years since Origins and Witch Hunt in the Imperial Court of Orlais including being sent to Serault by Empress Celene to rebuild an eluvian. She also studied the lineage of Serault including the Shame of Serault, the great-grandfather of the current Marquise.

Morrigan's position within the Imperial Court is of course controversial. Though Celene had sought a mage that hadn't come from the Circle and was free from any religious bias regarding their skills and viewpoint on magic, there were those who didn't trust Morrigan at all and believed she had used blood magic to enchant the Empress. However, it's stated that Morrigan and Celene argue a lot which can silence a lot of those believing in the blood magic stance. And, unlike Vivienne who had to work to convert the position into anything more than a jester, likely because of the sort of mage Morrigan is, she's managed to gain her own political power remarkably quickly.

She has joined the Inquisition at Skyhold ahead of schedule to shame you into saving the Empress get on with it kids provide magical assistance and to further her own goals. And maybe to torment Alistair. Just a little.

Personality

In the beginning, Morrigan was snarky, spiteful and more than a bit of a bitch. Time spent with the Warden, one son and ten years down the line then she's not nearly so spiteful and snarky – she's even almost friendly to Alistair and Leliana - and more willing to volunteer actual useful information. Of course she still has an agenda she probably hasn't informed you of but where's the fun in being completely honest? And she's still not above being snarky but it's very clear that she's kinder than she was, possibly down to her son, being away from her mother or more likely both of those things.

In the intervening years, she's had plenty of time to study and learn about ancient magic. Unfortunately that means she can be ignorant of her own ignorance when she's very much convinced that she's in the right. This can come off as rather smug and insufferable when she's speaking of a culture and magic that isn't even her own and when she blurs the line of history and legend. She's also not above using small lies to achieve her ends. Still, she does offer what she knows which is a damn sight more than most because she specialises in the lost and the ancient; indeed, her ultimate goal is to restore what has been lost from the world so that it's a less 'dull' place. Alas, when there is something older and bigger with you with an agenda that knows you? This desire can come back to bite her. Hard.

Despite having lived most of her life away from civilised society, she's managed to gain political power in Orlais which is no small feat given that she's the ultimate outsider: a Fereldan mage not of the Circle, one some believe to be a blood mage. Even though she's advisor to the Empress, it's stated that the pair of them will still argue, likely due to Morrigan having her own agenda rather than just doing exactly what Celene wants. Even so, despite the rumours of her using blood magic on Celene, she's still shown to do her part to help save Celene's life from a Venatori plot.

If there's one main thing that changed Morrigan's life, it's her son, Kieran. She will admit that she didn't expect to care for the child, and yet despite being aware of her faults, potentially even having to look over her shoulder for the rest of her life, she puts her son first. She wants him to have a much better upbringing than she ever did and she will pay the price to allow him to have that. Definitely a far cry from the woman we met back in Origins.

So if you require vital assistance in stopping the holes in the sky and the thing responsible for them? Trust in a witch. Just maybe not without a pinch of salt.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Mage: Morrigan is a daughter of Flemeth, an extremely powerful WItch of the Wilds and as such she has an understanding and knowledge of magic without the typical influences of the Circle such as caring for ancient and lost magic. In Origins she can be developed however the player wishes but based on her starting stats, she's a blend of primal (ice and lightning) and entropy spells. Her specialisation from Origins is shapeshifter though she does mention in dialogue that she can become other creatures, namely a bird, a wolf or a cat so gameplay/story segregation. I highly doubt she's somehow forgotten any of that. Alas, for all that she's a mage so she is definitely squishy and not to be put on the front lines unless you want her turned into a fine red paste.

Witch of the Wilds: After growing up in the middle of the Korcari Wilds, she knows enough about survival out there and her time with the Warden and her travels alone would only have enhanced that. Like remember that fun time she told Alistair about all the possible poisons in the Wilds? Good times. Classic banter. She can cook, she can set up her own camp as witnessed by her not camping with the loser brigade in Origins, by the fact that even as a child she could evade Templars with her mother and even thought of it as a game. Her shapeshifting has likely helped her but she ultimately values survival so she knows how to survive in the middle of nowhere with only herself to rely on.  Her interpersonal skills can be somewhat...lacking as a result and no one was surprised.

Temptation Lies in the Forbidden: So here's the thing: Morrigan cares about what is lost to the point that she will do stupid things. Like wanting to drink from a well even after it's revealed that she doesn't know everything about, even when it will take her away from the son that she loves. Which leads nicely into the fact that she will withhold information to get what she wants. Still, she's studied a great deal of lore that falls outside of the Circle teachings, especially elven lore and magic, so she does actually have plenty of knowledge to back the talk up but she can be a bit smug about it. The thing is though, is that she believes so greatly in her own interpretation of things that she can ignore or not fully realise what she's getting into and when life comes along to humble her, she falls damn hard.

Elfy stuff: Like it or not, she does know an awful lot about very ancient elven history. She's pretty smug about it though it's all her own interpretation of it but it's pretty handy to have someone around who can actually read the elven written language when that's stated to be something few elves themselves can do these days.  She will probably annoy the hell out of elves to her own peril given she tends to equate history and legend.

Mama bear: Seriously do not touch her son even if she has to look over her shoulder for the rest of her life you will not have her son to use for your own ends. I mean he is a sweet boy why would you want to have your face zapped off for trying to do anything to him?

Grey Wardens: And finally, thanks to the treaties, Flemeth and probably sneaking around like a sneaky witch thief, all in addition to the time with the Warden, she knows a fair bit about them and Warden-y things.


Inventory

1 x Robes of Possession (ten years and a kid but nope you get the same outfit)
1 x fancy Orlesian court gown
1 x staff
1 x black grimoire
1 x Flemeth's grimoire
1 x golden mirror
Assorted mage supplies (herbs, crystals, lyrium potions, way too many books for one lady)
A decent amount of coin
1 x eluvian  (to be sent for)
1 x Kieran* (and the necessary supplies a kidlet would require)

*Assuming that unless Kieran is considered to be playable, it'll pretty much go the way of Inquisition in that she will tell him that his butt should run along to go do his homework.

Motivation

Morrigan has been in the Imperial Court for some time as arcane advisor, furthering her own research; she has rebuilt an eluvian for Celene as seen in the Last Court but of course like all things, she wouldn't have done it if she hadn't stood to gain something from it. In joining the Inquisition, she would gain access to magical items and to go research them with much less oversight than she would in the Imperial Court, especially when the Inquisition has so many minds from different places coming together.

SAMPLES

sample one;
Tarasyl'an Te'las, it was properly called yet for all the Dalish so far from their clans, did any of them know the true name of the place they now called home? Or had that too been thought lost forever as so many other things, like the eluvians and the crossroads, the old bones of an empire that could scarcely be recalled now by a single soul.

To see it in the glory days of the empire would have been something spectacular. Now however, given the history, given the fall of the elven empire, it would have to do as it in the current condition.

In the quiet of the rooms they'd been assigned, Kieran moved in his sleep with the rustle of blankets, exhausted from the longest journey they'd taken, from the excitement of marching through snow and being somewhere new. A curious boy, not prone to trouble but trouble had a way of finding boys and she'd need to arrange tutors sooner rather than later though given the numbers present it didn't look to be a problem.

Only here he wouldn't have the anonymity he'd had in Orlais. In Skyhold he would be her son and it would be known. And if people knew enough about the Fifth Blight, about old Ferelden tales of Flemeth, of witches in the wild places only the Chasind traversed then it could get back to him.

He was only a boy. A normal boy despite his conception, despite what dwelt within him. A boy she'd raised and loved and guarded fiercely all his days. Coming here would be the right thing to do, after all there was war in Orlais, not so open as Loghain's civil war had been a decade ago, nothing so uncouth for the Orlesians who at least kept it to the Plains but here he would be safe. All else could wait until the morrow, she decided, checking the lock on the door and setting her staff within easy reach as she made herself ready for bed.

"The eluvian has waited this long, it can wait a little longer," she murmured to herself. There might be several fits if a sudden flurry of letters from the Empress herself appeared after all. "A secure room away from the bustle of the masses, away from prying eyes." Prying elven eyes who might take exception should they know what it was.

For now, it was time to sleep and gather Kieran close when he reached out in the dark, like she had when he was smaller, unwilling to dream of the past reached out with hands as sharp and ragged as the demons that spilled through the rifts.

sample two;
The Fifth Blight ten year reunion goes better than expected