Dorian Pavus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
prolificarse) wrote2016-11-01 10:28 pm
prolificarse) wrote2016-11-01 10:28 pm
Re-app to ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
synodiporia
P L A Y E R;
NAME: PG
AGE: 33
PLAYER JOURNAL:quantumvelvet
TIMEZONE: EST
CONTACT:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
quantumvelvet, or PM
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Sabetha Belacoros (amadine), Liara T'Soni (brokers), Toby Daye (memoryandtheft)
C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Dorian Pavus
CANON: Dragon Age: Inquisition
POINT IN CANON: Post main questline.
AGE: Early thirties
APPEARANCE: Here
CANON HISTORY: Here
CANON PERSONALITY: Dorian plays the peacock, and he does do very well. Those who don't know him well often see him as either entertaining but ultimately shallow, or a preening arrogant bastard - or, occasionally, both at once. He's quick-tongued, irreverent, and flashy in all things, from his grooming to his speech to his style of magic. He's overtly flirtatious, opinionated, and seems to take nothing seriously except, perhaps, his books, his wine, and his fashion.
It helps that this impression isn't entirely false.
Dorian is an incredibly proud man. He's proud of his appearance, his intelligence, and his skill with magic. He enjoys attention - and while positive attention is vastly preferable, he doesn't particularly care if he's disliked so long as he isn't ignored. He projects the sort of air of confidence that suggests insults bounce off him without ever penetrating, and it takes a great deal to shake him. He has the sort of thoughtless superiority that comes from being raised in wealth, with the best opportunities at his fingertips. He doesn't typically attempt to flaunt his privileged background (unlike the rest, he can't claim credit for it, and so doesn't value it as though it's an accomplishment), unless he's going out off his way to aggravate someone, but it comes out sometimes in his speech and his mannerisms, and most clearly in his frame of reference - while he sees some inequalities, others he doesn't even realize are there until he trips over them, and then he has to extract his foot from his mouth.
Dorian enjoys his creature comforts. He's happiest when he's in a warm space with a glass of wine and a good book - preferably some highly theoretical work about an obscure sort of magic. He is entirely capable of going without, he'll just complain about it, often for no other reason than he thinks he should complain. However much he gripes and acts put upon by circumstance and his companions requests, however, he does not hesitate to step in to help. The complaints are one part formality (he likes to know his efforts are appreciated), and one part obfuscation (complaining about the cold or the quality of the wine or the local fashion sense is a lot less demoralizing than acknowledging the wall of demons that wants to eat your head).
In most situations, Dorian is incredibly irreverent. He enjoys witty banter, and speaks sarcasm as fluently as his mother tongue, if not more so. He jokes, he makes light, he critiques trivial details, and in general behaves as though he's constitutionally incapable of taking anything important the least bit seriously. He doesn't just direct this outward, either - if there's a disparaging remark to be made about his person or his heritage (and, given that the opinion most of Thedas has of Tevinter could be summed up as 'arrogant, decadent, and evil', there are quite a few of the latter), he'll frequently get there first, waxing sarcastic about how he must be there to corrupt and undermine.
It's this last that betrays his behavior for what it is. Coming as he does from a nation where outward appearance means everything, Dorian is quite adept at constructing social armour. His flippancy makes it difficult to tell whether or not he actually cares about any given situation, his critical griping masks fear or worry beneath something constant, low-level, and ignorable, and his exaggerated arrogance hides any hurt he might feel over the distaste or distrust of those around him. He is used to being judged and found wanting, even by those closest to him, and so he's come to expect it. His constructed persona keeps most people at arm's reach, and allows him to deny (even, sometimes, to himself) any hurt that might come of being rebuffed or betrayed.
Beneath his air of flippancy, Dorian does care, and deeply. He is, at heart, an idealist, and believes strongly in right and wrong. He's rejected much of Tevinter's cultural reliance on treachery, superiority, and advancement at all costs, and while this has made him something of a pariah in his homeland, he wears that status like a badge of honour. He joins the Inquisition to fight an ancient, overwhelmingly powerful evil because he feels it's the right thing to do, and remains in spite of the fact that he finds little trust outside the Inquisitor's inner circle. He also wants to prove to the world that some good can come from Tevinter - that they're not all callous monsters who would sacrifice someone for a blood ritual as easily as look at them - and by the end of the game, he has resolved to return and push for reform, adding his own voice to the few willing to speak out against Tevinter tradition.
While Dorian is incredibly good at masking his emotions, he's not nearly as good at actually dealing with them. Negative emotion - fear, worry, hurt - typically comes out as anger when he's pushed past his ability to obfuscate. He will snap and shout in an attempt to gain the emotional distance he needs in order to lick his wounds in private, because anger is easier for him to handle, and leaves him feeling less vulnerable. He will almost always apologize later, particularly if he's taken a swipe at someone who was trying to help rather than at the source of the negative emotion, but that won't keep him from snapping like a fox caught in a trap again the next time it comes up.
He is only a little better at expressing deep positive emotion, particularly in the context of interpersonal relationships. He's had precious few people he counts as friends, most of whom he's lost, and has never had a long-term romantic relationship. In spite of his pride, he expects people to leave him, to have less invested in any relationship than he does, and is genuinely surprised when he finds that someone does honestly care about him, for him, not for any gain. Allowing himself to open up and risk rejection is difficult, and it's implied that he's let at least one man he might have loved go because he was afraid of asking him to stay.
It's notable here that the worst rejection and betrayal he's experienced came from his own father, to whom Dorian was quite close. Amongst Tevinter nobility, homosexuality is something to be kept behind closed doors, and nobles are expected to marry and produce heirs regardless of their sexuality. When Dorian refused to go along with this, his father attempted to use blood magic to force his attraction to his betrothed. He escaped and fled home, breaking with his family and making him something of a social pariah - something which both honed his tendency to employ social deflection as emotional armour, and cemented his willingness to go against those Tevinter cultural conventions which he already opposed. If he's going to be an outcast anyway, he will damned well make it count.
This also feeds into Dorian's distaste for blood magic, something that's uncommon in mages from Tevinter, where anyone who doesn't take any advantage they can is considered a fool. He was raised to believe blood magic to be the last resort of the weak and the unskilled, and the fact that it was almost used against him only serves to reinforce his determination to never be that weak himself.
POINT OF DEPARTURE: Dorian has previously spent roughly six months as a Traveler, spanning from the Liminal Space just before the Digital Frontier Jaunt to halfway through Lightning Age. During that time, he grew fascinated with the possibilities offered by other worlds, and began to form bonds with a few other Travelers, revolving mainly around either shared Jaunt experiences, or shared interest in learning. The most impactful of the Jaunts he was present for was Questing Country; the Bond he was part of shared a sort of unreserved friendship that he'd previously never experienced, and gave him some cause to - if only privately, for the moment - question how vigilantly he needs to ward people off.
He also acquired a handful of skills, some of which (Dreamcatching in particular) he finds alternately fascinating and unnerving for what he suspects they might say about the nature of Traveling and its effects on the Travelers. (Are they being changed in some fundamental manner into spirits? Who knows.)
ABILITIES: Dorian is a mage, able to draw on the energy of the Fade to create effects in the physical world. In combat, this allows him not only to do immediate damage with elemental attacks, but also leave enemies disoriented or vulnerable to further damage from front-line fighters. Use of magic draws on a mage's mana pool, and casting too many spells in quick succession can leave a mage's mana depleted, leaving them vulnerable for a time unless they have access to lyrium to immediately replenish their mana.
Dorian is adept at elemental magic. He favors the Inferno school, but is proficient with the Storm and Winter schools as well. While he's a master of flashy attacks, he does have training in the Spirit school's defensive techniques, and has some skill at healing.
Dorian's specialty is Necromancy. He's adept at drawing on the energies related to death, and the spirits drawn to death - particularly on the battlefield - to inflict terror on his enemies, boost his own recovery, and even create temporary simulacra of fallen foes - or of himself, if he falls in battle.
He's also able to temporarily warp time in a small radius around himself to allow his allies to move for a few seconds at greatly heightened speed in comparison to their opponents.
In addition to combat magic, all mage companions in Inquisition have some utility skills: the ability to create Veilfire, a magical flame that consumes no fuel and illuminates magical glyphs, and the ability to levitate and move large objects, allowing them to block doors, create makeshift bridges, and raise fallen floors. They can also detect magical energies, though they can't always pick apart the magic they detect.
Dorian isn't just a practiced battle mage, he's an accomplished researcher and magical theoretician. Before leaving Tevinter, he did a great deal of work in magical theory, and this background even allowed him to reverse a time travel spell created by his teacher, Alexius.
INVENTORY; Masterwork Battlemage Mail, Staff of Corruption, Enchanced Amulet of Magic, 5 lyrium potions, 3 healing potions
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW? I would like to carry over Dorian's previous time in Syn, with the explanation that he's been off on Walkabout, and will be wandering back in a few months late without any coffee.
S A M P L E S;
ACTIONSPAM SAMPLE: It's strange. Dozens of people, professing to be from as many worlds, most of whom have passed through as many worlds again...and no one's even thought to collect a library.
[There's a pause, one that would mark an intake of breath, were Dorian speaking aloud and notabusing using the psychic network.]
Do you have any idea how many opportunities we're missing out on? Worlds worth of research. Magical theory, alchemical practices, rare flora, rare minerals...and not a single record of any of it. Maker forbid we actually learn from our experiences, or carry anything forward so the knowledge isn't lost the next time someone trips and falls down one of those black holes. We might actually have to stretch ourselves to rely on something other than blind luck, and wouldn't that be a tragedy?
[Another brief pause.]
Where was I? Right. Library. I've picked up a few volumes that looked important. If any of you find anything interesting, let me know, and maybe we can start rectifying this...oversight.
PROSE SAMPLE: Thread with Neeshka on the Grid, Thread with Naoki after Questing Country
NAME: PG
AGE: 33
PLAYER JOURNAL:
quantumvelvetTIMEZONE: EST
CONTACT:
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Sabetha Belacoros (
amadine), Liara T'Soni (brokers), Toby Daye (memoryandtheft)C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Dorian Pavus
CANON: Dragon Age: Inquisition
POINT IN CANON: Post main questline.
AGE: Early thirties
APPEARANCE: Here
CANON HISTORY: Here
CANON PERSONALITY: Dorian plays the peacock, and he does do very well. Those who don't know him well often see him as either entertaining but ultimately shallow, or a preening arrogant bastard - or, occasionally, both at once. He's quick-tongued, irreverent, and flashy in all things, from his grooming to his speech to his style of magic. He's overtly flirtatious, opinionated, and seems to take nothing seriously except, perhaps, his books, his wine, and his fashion.
It helps that this impression isn't entirely false.
Dorian is an incredibly proud man. He's proud of his appearance, his intelligence, and his skill with magic. He enjoys attention - and while positive attention is vastly preferable, he doesn't particularly care if he's disliked so long as he isn't ignored. He projects the sort of air of confidence that suggests insults bounce off him without ever penetrating, and it takes a great deal to shake him. He has the sort of thoughtless superiority that comes from being raised in wealth, with the best opportunities at his fingertips. He doesn't typically attempt to flaunt his privileged background (unlike the rest, he can't claim credit for it, and so doesn't value it as though it's an accomplishment), unless he's going out off his way to aggravate someone, but it comes out sometimes in his speech and his mannerisms, and most clearly in his frame of reference - while he sees some inequalities, others he doesn't even realize are there until he trips over them, and then he has to extract his foot from his mouth.
Dorian enjoys his creature comforts. He's happiest when he's in a warm space with a glass of wine and a good book - preferably some highly theoretical work about an obscure sort of magic. He is entirely capable of going without, he'll just complain about it, often for no other reason than he thinks he should complain. However much he gripes and acts put upon by circumstance and his companions requests, however, he does not hesitate to step in to help. The complaints are one part formality (he likes to know his efforts are appreciated), and one part obfuscation (complaining about the cold or the quality of the wine or the local fashion sense is a lot less demoralizing than acknowledging the wall of demons that wants to eat your head).
In most situations, Dorian is incredibly irreverent. He enjoys witty banter, and speaks sarcasm as fluently as his mother tongue, if not more so. He jokes, he makes light, he critiques trivial details, and in general behaves as though he's constitutionally incapable of taking anything important the least bit seriously. He doesn't just direct this outward, either - if there's a disparaging remark to be made about his person or his heritage (and, given that the opinion most of Thedas has of Tevinter could be summed up as 'arrogant, decadent, and evil', there are quite a few of the latter), he'll frequently get there first, waxing sarcastic about how he must be there to corrupt and undermine.
It's this last that betrays his behavior for what it is. Coming as he does from a nation where outward appearance means everything, Dorian is quite adept at constructing social armour. His flippancy makes it difficult to tell whether or not he actually cares about any given situation, his critical griping masks fear or worry beneath something constant, low-level, and ignorable, and his exaggerated arrogance hides any hurt he might feel over the distaste or distrust of those around him. He is used to being judged and found wanting, even by those closest to him, and so he's come to expect it. His constructed persona keeps most people at arm's reach, and allows him to deny (even, sometimes, to himself) any hurt that might come of being rebuffed or betrayed.
Beneath his air of flippancy, Dorian does care, and deeply. He is, at heart, an idealist, and believes strongly in right and wrong. He's rejected much of Tevinter's cultural reliance on treachery, superiority, and advancement at all costs, and while this has made him something of a pariah in his homeland, he wears that status like a badge of honour. He joins the Inquisition to fight an ancient, overwhelmingly powerful evil because he feels it's the right thing to do, and remains in spite of the fact that he finds little trust outside the Inquisitor's inner circle. He also wants to prove to the world that some good can come from Tevinter - that they're not all callous monsters who would sacrifice someone for a blood ritual as easily as look at them - and by the end of the game, he has resolved to return and push for reform, adding his own voice to the few willing to speak out against Tevinter tradition.
While Dorian is incredibly good at masking his emotions, he's not nearly as good at actually dealing with them. Negative emotion - fear, worry, hurt - typically comes out as anger when he's pushed past his ability to obfuscate. He will snap and shout in an attempt to gain the emotional distance he needs in order to lick his wounds in private, because anger is easier for him to handle, and leaves him feeling less vulnerable. He will almost always apologize later, particularly if he's taken a swipe at someone who was trying to help rather than at the source of the negative emotion, but that won't keep him from snapping like a fox caught in a trap again the next time it comes up.
He is only a little better at expressing deep positive emotion, particularly in the context of interpersonal relationships. He's had precious few people he counts as friends, most of whom he's lost, and has never had a long-term romantic relationship. In spite of his pride, he expects people to leave him, to have less invested in any relationship than he does, and is genuinely surprised when he finds that someone does honestly care about him, for him, not for any gain. Allowing himself to open up and risk rejection is difficult, and it's implied that he's let at least one man he might have loved go because he was afraid of asking him to stay.
It's notable here that the worst rejection and betrayal he's experienced came from his own father, to whom Dorian was quite close. Amongst Tevinter nobility, homosexuality is something to be kept behind closed doors, and nobles are expected to marry and produce heirs regardless of their sexuality. When Dorian refused to go along with this, his father attempted to use blood magic to force his attraction to his betrothed. He escaped and fled home, breaking with his family and making him something of a social pariah - something which both honed his tendency to employ social deflection as emotional armour, and cemented his willingness to go against those Tevinter cultural conventions which he already opposed. If he's going to be an outcast anyway, he will damned well make it count.
This also feeds into Dorian's distaste for blood magic, something that's uncommon in mages from Tevinter, where anyone who doesn't take any advantage they can is considered a fool. He was raised to believe blood magic to be the last resort of the weak and the unskilled, and the fact that it was almost used against him only serves to reinforce his determination to never be that weak himself.
POINT OF DEPARTURE: Dorian has previously spent roughly six months as a Traveler, spanning from the Liminal Space just before the Digital Frontier Jaunt to halfway through Lightning Age. During that time, he grew fascinated with the possibilities offered by other worlds, and began to form bonds with a few other Travelers, revolving mainly around either shared Jaunt experiences, or shared interest in learning. The most impactful of the Jaunts he was present for was Questing Country; the Bond he was part of shared a sort of unreserved friendship that he'd previously never experienced, and gave him some cause to - if only privately, for the moment - question how vigilantly he needs to ward people off.
He also acquired a handful of skills, some of which (Dreamcatching in particular) he finds alternately fascinating and unnerving for what he suspects they might say about the nature of Traveling and its effects on the Travelers. (Are they being changed in some fundamental manner into spirits? Who knows.)
ABILITIES: Dorian is a mage, able to draw on the energy of the Fade to create effects in the physical world. In combat, this allows him not only to do immediate damage with elemental attacks, but also leave enemies disoriented or vulnerable to further damage from front-line fighters. Use of magic draws on a mage's mana pool, and casting too many spells in quick succession can leave a mage's mana depleted, leaving them vulnerable for a time unless they have access to lyrium to immediately replenish their mana.
Dorian is adept at elemental magic. He favors the Inferno school, but is proficient with the Storm and Winter schools as well. While he's a master of flashy attacks, he does have training in the Spirit school's defensive techniques, and has some skill at healing.
Dorian's specialty is Necromancy. He's adept at drawing on the energies related to death, and the spirits drawn to death - particularly on the battlefield - to inflict terror on his enemies, boost his own recovery, and even create temporary simulacra of fallen foes - or of himself, if he falls in battle.
He's also able to temporarily warp time in a small radius around himself to allow his allies to move for a few seconds at greatly heightened speed in comparison to their opponents.
In addition to combat magic, all mage companions in Inquisition have some utility skills: the ability to create Veilfire, a magical flame that consumes no fuel and illuminates magical glyphs, and the ability to levitate and move large objects, allowing them to block doors, create makeshift bridges, and raise fallen floors. They can also detect magical energies, though they can't always pick apart the magic they detect.
Dorian isn't just a practiced battle mage, he's an accomplished researcher and magical theoretician. Before leaving Tevinter, he did a great deal of work in magical theory, and this background even allowed him to reverse a time travel spell created by his teacher, Alexius.
INVENTORY; Masterwork Battlemage Mail, Staff of Corruption, Enchanced Amulet of Magic, 5 lyrium potions, 3 healing potions
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW? I would like to carry over Dorian's previous time in Syn, with the explanation that he's been off on Walkabout, and will be wandering back in a few months late without any coffee.
S A M P L E S;
ACTIONSPAM SAMPLE: It's strange. Dozens of people, professing to be from as many worlds, most of whom have passed through as many worlds again...and no one's even thought to collect a library.
[There's a pause, one that would mark an intake of breath, were Dorian speaking aloud and not
Do you have any idea how many opportunities we're missing out on? Worlds worth of research. Magical theory, alchemical practices, rare flora, rare minerals...and not a single record of any of it. Maker forbid we actually learn from our experiences, or carry anything forward so the knowledge isn't lost the next time someone trips and falls down one of those black holes. We might actually have to stretch ourselves to rely on something other than blind luck, and wouldn't that be a tragedy?
[Another brief pause.]
Where was I? Right. Library. I've picked up a few volumes that looked important. If any of you find anything interesting, let me know, and maybe we can start rectifying this...oversight.
PROSE SAMPLE: Thread with Neeshka on the Grid, Thread with Naoki after Questing Country