he is a little boy.
the world he is born into is defined by chaos. not that he can see it yet, sheltered as he is in his youth. tales of the divine and the horrifying seem so very far away. still, he plays at swords with his friends, laughing as he pretend to kill demons, creatures, evil mages. his antics are looked at as those of a boy – his friends soon forget the games, but he doesn’t find that so easy.it grows into something he wants. a desire, burning in his chest. It would be his chance to be someone, something, in this world. when the templars pass through his village, he is dazzled – mere tales could never communicate how the sun glittered off of their armor; the way they carried themselves, these holy warriors.that is what he will become, he insists.games become much more like training, desperate to be noticed, desperate to be chosen. his family tolerates this. it’s endearing, the bright spark of dreams of a boy doomed to a mundane existence.until he is noticed.when he is offered training, no one objects. it is the most incredible of opportunities, him being part of the most prestigious army in thedas.
though older than his peers, he excels, proving those who invited him to train right every day. it is passion that ignites his blood, the knowledge that he will finally be helping people, and doing it well.he is 18 when the order reveals its true face. lyrium is essential to being a templar, or so they say, its properties giving his training the edge it needs to be wielded as a weapon against the gathering dark in the world. he will regret this later. but for now he takes the offering gladly, the rush partly from the substance and partly from the fact that he has finally reached his dream.this is the proper path.
isn’t it?he began this journey as an idealistic young man. this is soon to be shattered.his downfall begins at the hands of mages, and that is where he directs his fear. he chooses to cling to the illusion that templars were the sworn protectors of mages, though it is a lie. a lie he perpetuates, guarding the circle as he does.
when the circle tower is overrun, he is hardly surprised.what they do to him is horrific, lingering in his dreams for years afterwards. some say it justifies his casual disgust for the mages he continues to guard – this is not valid.objectively speaking, kirkwall is the worst place for someone like him. there is no shame in disliking mages here. what his brothers do to them is concealed behind closed doors. they all turn a blind eye to the suffering, the conditions, the abuse. it’s truly no wonder it is here they revolt.led by a woman mad off her own power, his morality toes the line more every single day. it is difficult to support her brutal measures, but who is he to object? her second in command, he stands by and allow events to unfold, unwilling or unable to intervene. forces outside of him begin to question the gallows as well – this is when he agrees, voices his worries about the path of his order. this job used to be about honor, though that word has been trampled into the dust in the years since he began.in the end, they all stand victorious. it falls to him to quell the fighting in the city.
the order rebuilds.but it rebuilds without him in it, soon enough.
there is a new cause sweeping the world, a place for him to invest his time without the associations he’s formed in his old order. he belongs to the Inquisition now.he owes it his best.

it hardly seems worth asking after his past. when a man reaches a certain level of power, of cruelty and violence and contempt, people usually stop caring, anyway. his allies see him as an unstoppable figurehead, his enemies see him as a monster.despite it all, though, he is indeed a human. and like every human, he was once a child.an unloved child, by all accounts. the question of nature and nurture is a tired one, but it can be said with absolute confidence that whatever violence zenos possessed by his inherent nature was only worsened by his upbringing. his first kill was his mother, who never did recover from his birth, and his father always did consider him guilty on all counts.what happens when you take an unusually bright child and isolate him so wholly from the world that he never has the chance to make a genuine human connection? well, that answer would look different from child to child, so i won't generalize. for zenos, the answer is violence. it started as acting out, one could suppose, a child desperate for attention. but from there it grew into a genuine joy. he had the head for the politics that his position needed him to learn, but he found his joy in swordplay. in bloodshed. in agony. had he been born elsewhere, he could have been turned from this path. but he was born in garlemald, and they had need of a new monster to eventually sit the throne.his talents were put to good use. the subjugation of doma. the continued occupation of ala mhigo. he was acting viceroy of two imperial provinces by the time he hit his mid-twenties, a military career that rivaled that of the most senior officers. he does not enjoy his job, but he tolerates it. for the country, yes, but also for himself.because there must be something more to the world than this. there must be something that can fill the aching hole in his chest. and he will find it.

she is young when her parents die. it's no one's fault, really, just bad luck that they ran into an unusually aggressive beast while out on the hunt. so she is raised by her brother, a traditional man who teachers her the bow, the spear, and self sufficiency.it is a fine life. but she wants more.when the warrior of light rolls through tuliyollal in his quest to aid the new dawnservant, she begs for him to take her along. she'll do anything, cook, hunt, squire. she just wants to brush up against greatness, taste adventure for herself. amused, he says yes.her chance to prove herself finally comes, not far into their adventure. rather than leave her at camp, the warrior brings her along when he goes to face off against that greatest of beasts, valigarmanda. though she is out of her depth, it is her arrow that finally pierces through the sky serpent's eye, finishing the fight. she celebrates with the rest of them, but her mind is far away as she imagines what this could mean for her, for her potential.when their journey comes to an end, she is recruited to join the arcadion, the place where the best of the best clash to amuse the crowd. she readily agrees. though she thinks of it only as an opportunity to train, she soon fights her way to the top of the first division, and then the second. she is the new darling of solution nine, fame and admiration and brand deals going to her head.it is a fine life. but she wants more.

it's an anomaly, really. an enlisted officer, high ranking, returning from a diplomatic trip with a half-viera baby in his arms. he won't talk about it much, just repeating that he met the mother while in thavnair on official business and chose to take the child home to the empire.cassius is raised in a gilded cage. rich, old money rich, with all of the expectations that carries along with it. he is a promising young debutante in his youth, odd ears aside, and the garlean court whispers that he will make a fine bride for someone important some day. two things occur to throw a wrench in these plans that the scheming aristocrats make for him. the first: he finally asserts that he is indeed a man, shedding his long hair and his gowns. the second: his father is caught aiding the citizens of ala mhigo, smuggling them across the border when he can and giving them provisions directly from the imperial storage when he cannot.so, his father is sentenced to death for treason and he is sentenced to the imperial army. he is not wholly cut out for military life. he had training in his youth in the ways of swords and gunblades, but he is soft. he is not interested in subjugating the empire's enemies, never has been. he deserts first chance he gets.eorzea is a confusing place for one raised in the heart of the empire. he doesn't speak the language, doesn't know how to navigate these people and these politics. he does know how to fight, though, so he makes a living doing odd jobs, escorting people on the road who don't hold a care for his odd mannerisms.his eventual alliance with the scions of the seventh dawn is one of mutual convenience. he has the echo, though he just refers to it as a migraine, and they have the connections that will allow him to do good in this world. he has the understanding of how garlean fortresses are laid out, where the cracks in their armor are; they have the political know-how to decide where and when to strike.he did not get into this to save the world. it's for revenge, mostly. it just so happens that his revenge points him in the right direction every time. that, and he can never truly deny someone in need.

it's the sort of thing that happens in fairy tales. a younger sister wanders into the woods, heedless of the warnings she's been given. her older brother goes after her. he has to. what other choice is there? while in the woods, the brother is stalked by a beast, a wolf with the size and the intelligent eyes of a man.but there is no brave woodcutter to fell the wolf, not here. no hero to come to the rescue. there is only dominic, the fangs of the wolf sunk into his shoulder, screaming loud enough to wake the dead. and certainly loud enough to attract help. the beast escapes, but he is saved.they call it a miracle, his recovery. he should really have died of those wounds. he is the town's hero for a few days, the boy that nearly died trying to rescue his sister. they give him a medal.all is well. until it isn't.when the full moon rises, casting silvered light into the bedroom where dominic is still recovering, he changes. fur bursts from his skin, his bones twist and crack, his teeth sharpen and grow. his sister has the misfortune of being the first to check on him and he rips out her throat.he flees. what else is there to do? he flees, he learns to keep himself alive, he learns to fight in order to take down other beasts like himself, praying that this will help absolve him of what he's done.there is always another monster on the loose. his work is never done.

wip

she is a bright child. inquisitive. creative. lonely.there are few things in the world that alice is absolutely certain of, but one is that she cannot remain in the town in which she grew up. it is too small, too dingy, too isolating. she yearns for the world beyond the maine horizon. and if there is one thing her parents taught her, it is that she needs to work to earn what she wants.so she does. top of her class becomes a full-ride becomes summa cum laude. she falls in love with her work, far more love than she can muster up for the few that try to court her, and she throws herself into it. the world is wider than she could have ever imagined and she wants to see all of it, speak to the people that occupy all corners of the globe.so, summa cum laude becomes a master of arts becomes a phd.she specializes in the anthropology of war, of resistance, of refusal. there are so many stories that are never told. the stories of those who do not enact conflict, but have it forced upon them.

dragon age:DA2: alice resides in the kirkwall circle during the events of DA2. she is a model apprentice, just quiet enough to avoid notice, but not so quiet that she garners suspicion. she is 14 by the end of the game, so her formative years are largely tainted by the memory of the strife within the circle and within the city.
inquisition: she opts to join the inquisition as soon as she hears about its existence. she is unpracticed in combat magic, but she is an excellent people person. if an inquisitor was inclined to listen to her ideas, she would spend her time with the inquisition amongst both the mages and the templars that joined the cause. she lends an ear, learns about their daily lives and their wants and their needs. these she relays back to those in charge, with the mission of improving lives and making the inquisition run more smoothly. she is also an earnest student, always eager to learn more about magic.
veilguard: rook info tba. transitioned into the ranks of the veil jumpers following inquisition.metal gear solidactually her original verse because i was like 'mother base could really benefit from having an anthropologist' so i made one. in her peace walker era.