faderift application

[aberratic]

PLAYER

Name: Nina (formerly in game as Nat)
Age: 30+
Contact: supersoldier or pm
Other Characters: None
Interests: Libby has promised me adoption and magic menteeing, and I will not be denied.

CHARACTER

Name: Ennaris "Ness" Tavane
Canon/OC: Dungeons & Dragons OC
Canon Point: Post-death on the nautiloid
Journal: tadfool
Age: 20

Canon World

The world of Faerûn is much like the world of Dragon Age—vaguely medieval setting, magic, elves, dwarves, the whole bit. It differs in a few key places, however:

Magic in the Forgotten Realms comes either from the manipulation of the Weave, which can be seen as Faerûn's equivalent of the Fade, or the gods. Anyone can learn to manipulate the Weave through rigorous study, some are born with the power to manipulate it, and still others learn to tap into its power by making pacts with powerful entities. While magic is somewhat unusual in Faerûn, it is not a source of fear and distrust like it is in Thedas—no mage in Faerûn is more susceptible to demons than anyone else.

In Faerûn, elves are much as they are in Tolkien's legendarium: ethereal, powerful beings who are longer lived than humans and have their own forest-dwelling societies away from the cities of man. If elves are ever enslaved or subjugated, it's definitely not a systemic problem. Half-elves carry features of their elven parents to a lesser degree, so a half-elf in the Forgotten Realms may have slightly pointed ears, be slightly taller than other humans, and so on.

Other than these points, the world of the Forgotten Realms will be very familiar to anyone familiar with Dragon Age; the differences are mostly cosmetic.

History

Ennaris Tavane's first memory is the argument her parents had when deciding which of them should be the one to raise her. Mother's life would be too dangerous, the woman claimed, while her father insisted that a library was no place for a toddler. Ness listened from a corner of the room and learned that she is a burden her own parents will squabble to be rid of.

She was four years old, and it's a lesson she never quite forgot.

Eventually, her father relented. Ness loved books, and seeing himself in her thawed Vazeiros somewhat to the idea of raising a child. Her mother left to continue adventuring, and neither Ness nor her father ever saw her again.

Growing up in Candlekeep, the library her father had escaped to after one hundred years of slavery in his native Menzoberranzan, Ness was a friendly, studious child. She excelled in her lessons and stayed out of trouble, certain that if she gave anyone reason to dislike her she would be sent away from the only home she had ever known. Throughout the years, she took on odd jobs around the library and its grounds to make herself useful, from cleaning to food prep to animal care, in hopes of making herself less of a burden. She made some friends, but there weren't many permanent residents of Candlekeep in her age range, so mostly she had pen pals.

When Ness was 15, Netherese wizards invaded the library. She survived the attack, as did her father, but many of her tutors did not, including one particular monk she privately considered her only real parental figure. She has had an intense and abiding hatred for all things Nether ever since.

At 20 years old, having reached maturity, Ness was faced with a dilemma: would she take orders and become Avowed, tied to the library forever, or did she want to leave and begin a new life outside the bounds of Candlekeep? She loved the library and always had, but was its care and preservation truly her life's calling? On the other hand, if she left Candlekeep without taking orders, she would be subject to the same rules as any other Seeker, and may never be allowed to return to her childhood home again.

In the end, she chose to leave, going with one of the merchant caravans headed for Baldur's Gate with intent to get a job, perhaps, or apprentice with a tradesman if she was lucky. Fate had a different plan, however, as she was abducted onto a mindflayer nautiloid on only her second day outside of the library. Before she could be implanted with a mindflayer tadpole, an attack rocked the nautiloid, sending her face-first into the tadpole brine. This contact with the brine gave her access to a new, strange magic—magic which she was unable to ever use, as she was murdered by the same githyanki whose attack saved her minutes before.

Personality

While Ness would be reluctant to claim that she had ever been mistreated in any way, the fact of the matter is that neither of her parents wanted her, and neither of them attempted to hide that fact from her. Due to this, Ness has what she would consider a very matter-of-fact understanding of her own worth; that is, that she's not special, she's no one's first choice, and she'll be lucky to find anyone who likes her half as much as she likes them. To her, this is a just the way her life is, and no more worth railing at than any other immutable fact of the world. Rather, she makes people like her by making herself useful and trying to be as little of a burden as possible, in hopes that it will forestall the inevitable moment that they find someone more engaging, more interesting, more pretty than her. This low opinion of herself can lead Ness to make self-destructive choices while simultaneously convincing herself that she's just being logical about having the least to lose.

Ness is a kind, idealistic person, rendered more than a little naïve by the ease of her upbringing—she never went hungry, she never lacked a roof over her head, and she knew only occasional periods of turmoil. Despite this, she has a degree of self-awareness, having had access to the journals and stories of people from all walks of life in Candlekeep, which keeps her from being entirely stupid about the rest of the world. This also means she can be, unknowingly, incredibly condescending, believing she understands people better than she does just because she's read a book. While this could easily be (and often is) very frustrating for the people around her, Ness manages to offset it by being extremely willing to learn, and very invested in doing right by people. When she's called out for being a condescending idiot, she may mope about it for a little while, but she comes back with a ready apology and a sincere desire to do better.

Though it's not her most defining characteristic, Ness does have a relatively strong sense of pride, which is one of the only things that can get her to become outright argumentative or difficult. She's not willing to debase herself, even if it would be the easier option, or might smooth over a botched interaction, and will balk at any suggestion that she should be willing to do so. She's not prone to tantrums when her pride is wounded, but it's very much a "Ness will remember that" situation.

Strengths & Weaknesses

In her "canon", Ness is a level 1 sorcerer who died before she could even realize she had magic. Depending on the pace of a campaign, it could take anywhere from a few months to a year or more of lifestyle adventuring for a D&D PC to reach max level; however, max level in D&D comes with abilities that would be nerfed immediately as too powerful. Given that, Ness will max out at level 12, which she could achieve in two to three years with regular magical training, or four to five with less regular training. Given also that D&D PCs have more power than your average Dragon Age mage, I've trimmed the list of Ness' abilities from what she could have in D&D to what spells and abilities I'm most interested in playing with, as well as nerfed things like range and area of effect from the start so there's less ground to cover in the nerfs section. This is still going to be very long, and I apologize in advance.

Abilities she has immediate access to are as follows:

Drow Abilities— Ness can see normally in dim light to a distance of 60 feet and in shades of grey in non-magical darkness. She is difficult to magically charm, and can't be magically put to sleep. Her father taught her the Dancing Lights cantrip, which summons four small orbs which each shed bright light in a radius of 10 feet.

Cantrips— Ness has access to three cantrips: She can point her finger toward someone within 60 feet of her and Message them in a whisper only they can hear, to which they can respond; Mind Sliver drives a disorienting spike of psychic energy into the mind of one creature Ness can see within 60 feet of her, causing them a bit of pain and making them easier to affect with other spells and attacks for a brief period; Ness can Prestidigitate a minor magical trick, including creating harmless sensory effects, lighting or snuffing out small fires, cleaning or soiling small objects, chilling, warming, or flavoring a small area of nonliving material for an hour, making a small mark appear on an object or surface for an hour, or creating a trinket or image that can fit in her hand for six seconds.

Spells— At first level, Ness has access to three spells: Ness can call on the Arms of Hadar to cause tendrils of dark energy to erupt from her and batter all creatures within arm's reach of her, incurring damage and possibly dulling their reaction times; Charm Person compels a target Ness is in conversation with to treat her as a friendly acquaintance for an hour, but is more easily resisted if the target is in combat with Ness or her companions, and when the spell ends the target knows it was charmed; she assaults a target within 60 feet of her with Dissonant Whispers, wracking it with terrible psychic pain and forcing it to move as far as possible from her as quickly as possible.

Aberrant— Ness can form a telepathic connection with someone she can see within 30 feet of her, allowing her to speak telepathically with them while they're within 4 miles of each other for one minute. The connection ends if she's incapacitated or dies, or if she forms a connection with someone else.

With training, Ness will have access to the following abilities:

Drow Magic— At third level Ness gains the ability to cast Faerie Fire, which causes objects and creatures in a 10 foot cube within 60 feet of her to become outlined in violet light, making them shed dim light in a 5 foot radius and rendering them easier to hit and preventing them from moving stealthily. Later, at fifth level, she can create a 10-foot-radius sphere of magical Darkness for up to ten minutes, which cannot be illuminated by nonmagical light and can't be seen through even by creatures with darkvision.

Spells— Starting at third level Ness can attempt to Calm Emotions in a 10-foot-radius sphere within 60 feet of her, either causing the people within the sphere to shake off charm magic or fear, or making them indifferent to creatures they would otherwise be hostile toward; a jagged iron Crown of Madness afflicts someone within 60 feet of her for one minute, which allows her to choose a creature within reach for the target to attack; for up to a minute she can Detect Thoughts by focusing her mind on any one visible creature within 30 feet of her, learning only surface thoughts unless she attempts to probe deeper, at which point the spell ends and the creature knows its mind has been read, or if there is a hidden creature within range of the spell, she can detect its presence by reading its thoughts; Hold Person paralyzes a target within 60 feet of Ness for up to a minute.

By fifth level she can make someone within 60 feet of her believe that Enemies Abound, so that they can't tell friend from foe and must choose their next target at random from among all the creatures they can see; a Hypnotic Pattern of colors appears inside a 10 foot cube within 60 feet of her for a moment which incapacitates any creature in the area which sees it.

At seventh level Confusion can assault each creature in a 10-foot-radius sphere, spawning delusions and provoking random actions; Evard's Black Tentacles fill a 10-foot square on the ground within 60 feet of Ness for up to a minute, making the area difficult to traverse and battering and attempting to restrain anyone caught within.

At ninth level Ness can attempt to Dominate Person, establishing a telepathic link with someone within 60 feet of her for up to a minute, through which she can issue commands they must do their best to obey; Rary's Telepathic Bond forges a telepathic link among up to four willing creatures within 30 feet of Ness for one hour, during which time the targets can communicate telepathically over any distance; she can cause Synaptic Static to explode in a 10-foot-radius sphere within 60 feet of her, causing psychic pain and muddled thoughts to any creature caught in the blast.

At the height of her power at level 12, Ness can attempt to plant a Mass Suggestion in the minds of up to 6 people within 60 feet of her for up to 12 hours after the casting of the spell. The suggestion must be limited to a sentence or two, and must be a reasonable course of action which does not incur any damage to the suggestees. If affected by the spell, the suggestee will follow the course of action described to the best of their ability, ending the spell on them once the appointed task is complete. If the suggested activity is not triggered before the spell ends, it is not performed. The suggestion's strength and staying power depends on her continued proximity and focus. If she or the targets leave the area or if she stops devoting active attention/energy to enforcing the suggestion, the targets could continue acting on the suggestion by rote, but it may be disrupted—for example, by someone asking the influenced person what they're doing and why and causing them to directly think about whether it makes sense.

Suggested Nerfs

Barring an adjustment and training period lasting no longer than one AC period at the beginning of her time in Thedas, which would be opt-in for any parties involved, all psychic/telepathic abilities must be turned on, so to speak—Ness would not be in anyone's head without consciously and deliberately choosing to be. For any charm/enchantment effects, they would be immediately ended if Ness or anyone allied with her attacked the target of the charm, and there would be a visual marker such as a glow or aura that surrounded her and her target so that it would be possible to connect her with the sudden debilitating headache her target is experiencing. Arms of Hadar could have the tentacles spring from her anchor shard, while Evard's Black Tentacles could function by opening a small rift through which the tentacles appear.

These abilities, while powerful, track neatly with blood magic in Thedas, which in my view is a nerf in itself and is in fact what I'm most interested in playing with: if Ness uses these abilities too much, or in front of the wrong people, she will be considered a blood mage and her life will get Much Harder. That tension between knowing she can help, and knowing what may happen to her if she helps in the wrong way or in front of the wrong person, will keep her from utilizing most of these abilities unless not doing so could mean the death of herself or someone she wants to protect. She'll primarily use her psychic abilities only with people she trusts, and wouldn't offer them up as a way to make missions easier for fear of being labeled a blood mage. The more powerful spells she could gain—Dominate Person, Rary's Telepathic Bond, and Mass Suggestion, plus any others you deemed appropriate—would be as taxing for her as mending a near-fatal wound might be for a spirit healer, and would wipe out her casting ability for hours if not days afterward while she recovered from the massive energy expenditure.

As for Mass Suggestion, I know that it affecting up to 12 people for 24 hours are both very high numbers, but I wasn't sure what more appropriate numbers would be. There is also the lower level D&D spell Suggestion, which operates on the same principles but only affects one person and only lasts for eight hours. As this would be her "capstone" ability, achieved only after years put into training her magic, I thought it would be appropriate to have the suggestion affect more than one person for a more extended period of time, but I also understand that this is a collaborative game and that may make her too powerful, so if it has to be nerfed down to plain Suggestion levels, that would be entirely fair. Were that the case, it would still remain her capstone ability.

I would also put up an opt-in page for people to consent to her telepathy being used on their characters.

Arrival Inventory

Ness will arrive with the clothes on her back and nothing else. She could, if you're feeling frisky, bring a newborn mindflayer with her for Riftwatch to kill, but other than that she's got nothing but herself.

Humanization

Ness is a half three quarter elf in Faerûn, with the attendant pointy ears. Due to her father's drow elf coloring, her skin is faintly purple, and her blonde hair is streaked with white. Her connection to aberrant, mindflayer-tinged magic turned her right eye, normally lavender, pitch black, and left a sort of creeping darkness emanating from it. In Thedas, she'll arrive as an elfblooded human, with peachy skin and two blue eyes instead of lavender, and none of the creeping darkness caused by the aberrant magic.

Fit

Ness is dead in Faerûn, and even if she wasn't, she didn't leave behind any great quest or anyone she feels obligated to. In light of this, she has no reason to want to go back, and will be very determined to make Thedas her new home. Despite being broadly progressive as far as Thedosian politics go, she'll be invested enough in assimilating and avoiding notice as a faux-blood mage that she's not willing to rock the boat by trying to effect any change in the world. She will also be fairly harsh on blood magic, as a way to divert suspicion from her own less than savory magical abilities. As far as day-to-day activities, she considers chronicling historical events for posterity one of the most important things any society can do, and will want to either start or join in on any effort to collect first-hand accounts of the events that have taken place since the Conclave. Additionally, even though her elfiness was never a large part of her identity in Faerûn, she may lean further into that elfiness in response to losing the visible markers of her heritage.

SAMPLES

TDM top-level
Midnight Texting meme tag-in