Other Characters: Thranduil
Interests: More of the same, this time with a character who is much more passive.
CHARACTER
Name: Raas
Canon/OC: OC
Journal: ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
raas Race: Qunari
Nationality: Qunari
Occupation: Former Tamassran
Division: N/A
Mage or Not: not!!
Age: 26
History- Born in Qunandar (9:19)
- Unexceptional, Qunari-normal childhood
- Easy placement at twelve with the Tamassrans, solely a childcare/education role for very young children
- Eventually moved from Par Vollen to Kont-Ar to support expanding population there (approximately age 23)
- En route, dreadnought attacked by Tevinter navy during a storm
- Most of people on dreadnought go down with the ship/when the gaatlok in the supplies explodes
- Seized with the need to live, she swims away from fire and finds floating object to hold on to
- Among a handful pulled from the wreckage and brought back to Minrathous
- Ransom for them is denied, sold into slavery
- Bought by a cloth merchant who regularly travels throughout the empire and even into Antiva/Rivain a bit
- Imposing even though she's short for a Qunari, really good with his kids
- Stays with him until a Rift opens up during a journey, she protects his children but gets a shard
- He shrugs, 'frees' her (no manumission, just tells her to go and gives her some money)
- She decides to join Riftwatch, having no other options
PersonalityGenerally affable and unshakable, she was chosen to be a Tamassran for her low tolerance for bullshit while managing to express the end of that tolerance in a polite but firm manner. Being an upbeat morning person also probably helped. She was steered away from other Tamassran sub-roles due to her contentment and lack of ambition that otherwise might have given her the drive for more of a political role. Intrigue or managing the complex decisions that would accompany administering qamek or psychological counseling for Beresaad was ruled to be likely to burn her out—or at least impair the part of her that made her excellent in the role she ended up in. However, she could handle her specific assignment while under ideological stress, which is why she was sent to Kont-Ar.
Naturally, her big betrayal of the Qun when she decided (‘decided’) not to go down with her ship shook her in precisely the way her assignment was designed to avoid. Now prone to anxiety—generally, and also specifically in relation to both death and any mention or thought of how she got here—when asked for a use-name by the Tevene merchant, she gave him Raas; ‘nothing’. Shielded from the immediate horrors of being sold into slavery by her lingering shock in the aftermath of her survival (and also physical injuries), her despair/apathy to her own well-being only deepened when she realized that an unsuccessful escape attempt was just as likely to lead to her death as a successful one, wherein she would come back to an execution for abandoning her post. The paradox of her depression is thus that she’s too afraid of death and pain to do what she believes would be the honorable thing and commit suicide or put herself in direct harm’s way, but she can’t do the thing that would make her not continue wanting to die, as returning home would also lead to her death. If she did not actively attempt to change anything, she could continue living: enslaved, in a situation she was aware was not the worst, but still pretty awful. Still, not dead! Being freed has forced her to take a more active role in her own survival, and she’s uncomfortably aware that coming to Riftwatch means she’s come to a turning point of some sort in regards to her passivity.
When not struggling under all of that, she takes what enjoyment she can out of the strain of physical labor and the joy of children and also small animals.
Opinions & AffiliationsThe Qun: Great. Got to read way more of it than the average Qunari due to her Tamassran training. Probably got to discuss it a little bit more critically under that study of it, but those are private Tamassran opinions and Not 4 The Plebs. Notably more enthusiastic now that she's seen the world.
Tevinter: Before: awful in a patriotic fervor abstract forever war kind of war before, now: really especially awful with having seen in the first person sense how they are.
Everything Else: Not great.
Not Working Towards the Collective Good: Worse.
No specific racial opinions as they are, very weirded out by the concept of nobility or hereditary anything that isn't hair color, concerned about unchained mages but would be unenthusiastic about Circles (for the wrong reasons), more than a little resentment towards Orzammar for the whole 'allies with Tevinter' business, and surprisingly chill with the Dalish and Avvar given their communal living circumstances.
Strengths & WeaknessesStrong and big (in comparison) and horned. Was never formally taught any sort of combat (maybe some wrestling for sport who knows), but given the Qunari emphasis on being physically fit and well-fed, she would be reasonably ok in a fistfight against Joe Human, but would be less ok in a knifefight with Joe Human, and not ok in a fight with Joe Mageman.
Rock-solid emotionally thanks to a decent childhood and a pretty decent life, unless you bring up anything at all regarding how she ended up here or how she can't go back. Gets a lot of comfort from the Qun also while knowing the Qun condemns her choices. It's fine. She's fine.
InventoryClothes on her back, some balm for her horns/cuticles, the metal collar that once held up her sexy Tamassran bikini, and a well-loved toy wyvern that the merchant's son gave her that she's sentimental and feels guilty for being sentimental about.
MotivationShard Bad and also she can't go home.
SAMPLES
