Fade Rift App

[faithshield]

NATIVE APPLICATION

PLAYER

Name: Ri
Age: 26
Contact: ResplendentRi, or by PM
Other Characters: none
Interests:
Honestly I'm really just here for general Dragon Age shenanigans. Action, drama, monsters, moral dilemmas and grey areas, thinly veiled analogues for real-world controversies, all of it.

CHARACTER

Name: Norton "North" Brandt
Canon/OC: Red vs Blue (Native AU)
Journal: faithshield
Race: Human (Elf-blooded)
Nationality: Ferelden
Occupation: Spirit Healer
Mage or Non-Mage: Mage
Age: 33

History

Canon wiki page

North's magic manifested when he was fairly young, only 7 years old. His father, a Dalish mage a City Elf (more of a Town Elf, really, in a small village too remote to have its own alienage), trained him and kept his magic hidden for the next two years, until he was killed. A year after the death of his father, North's magic was revealed in front of the small town that he and his mother and twin were living in, and their neighbors called the Templars.

Despite his twin's attempts to fight off the Templars, North himself went quietly. He was stoic and brave for most of the trip to Kinloch Hold, but when he was sitting in the boat between two Templars the full gravity of the situation hit him, and he finally began to cry because he would never see his mother or his twin again.

North was a skilled student, with a slant toward Arcane and Creation magic, but as he became a teenager he grew cocky and a little bit reckless. It was all well and good, until the time came for his Harrowing. He almost got his shit kicked in by a powerful Pride Demon, and tried to call on his magic for one last blow, when he felt an unfamiliar answer as he drew on the energy of the Fade. A spirit manifested in front of him and lent him its power to push back the demon and defeat it, saving his life from the Templars standing over his prone body. The spirit called itself Trust, and from then on followed North when he walked the Fade in his dreams, peppering him with questions about what it was like on the mortal side of the veil, what it was like to be mortal.

North gradually earned the loyalty of Trust, and when his magic became stronger as a result, he was sent away to a Circle in Orlais to be trained as a Spirit Healer. (He later heard about the bullet he dodged at Kinloch Hold, and wondered if he and Trust could have saved anyone if they had been there.)

North tried to play devil's advocate as much as he could, when it came to the mage rebellion. He himself had never had a bad experience in a Circle, but he didn't dismiss the opinions of those who had. But ultimately, the Circles were dissolved and suddenly North was an apostate with nowhere to go. He thought about finding the twin he'd always held close in his memory, but even the most well-loved memories don't hold up well to time, and it had been 23 years since he had been taken to the Circle. So when he heard about the Inquisition, heard that they were reccruiting mages, he started his pilgrimage to Skyhold, instead.

Personality

North is very much the Team Dad. Ever since he was old enough that most of the children who came to the Circle were younger than him, he's been a warm, friendly guardian. At the Circle in Orlais where he went through his specialized training, he especially looked after the younger mages, and when the Circles were dissolved he tried to protect and reassure them. He considers Trust, the spirit who chose him to lend its power to, to be like a younger brother, and he's not shy about his bond with Trust.

As much as he is protective and nurturing, he also has a sense for the flashy and dramatic. In combat and training, he can come off as cocky, because he knows his own skill and he has faith in his bond with Trust to help him. Still, despite this streak, he's very down to earth (especially, as he puts it, for somebody who's spent their life in a tower). He knows his own strength and his own limits, and even when he pushes his magic and his bond with Trust, it's never to the point that he risks damaging that fragile bond. He is dependable and trustworthy, and he is loyal to any cause that he throws himself into.

North's greatest flaws are how trusting and forgiving he is, although he realizes that these are flaws, he just normally fails to act with real caution. He wants to believe the best of people, no matter their race or magical status. He tries to play devil's advocate and see all sides of a conflict, and as a result has a hard time taking sides at all. The only exception is when there's a truly reprehensible enemy to point at, and then he will throw himself into fighting 100%.

Something that deserves its own mention purely because of how much it makes him different from his canon counterpart, is his relationship with his twin. In canon, they've been inseparable their entire lives, and as a result South harbors a resentment toward North that North ignores to deadly effect. Since his AU counterpart has been separated from South since they were young, this tunnel vision when it comes to his twin would take the form of being completely blind to any changes or mistakes she's made, because he'll always see her as the 10-year-old who tried to toe up with a Templar to save him.

Opinions & Affiliations

The Chantry: North isn't devoutly faithful, but he listens to the Chant and considers the images beautiful and the words moving. He has no strong feelings against Chantry officials or the Templars who bay at the end of their lead, no matter what problems they have with him, but he will also treat them no differently if they are trying to kill him than anyone else.

The Qun: He only has problems with the Qun and Qunari if they're enforcing their beliefs at the cost of the freedom of others.

The Mage/Templar War: As a Circle Mage, he was obviously affected by the war. He largely considers the actions that led up to it (the Chantry explosion in Kirkwall, the annulment of Dairsmuid's circle, etc) to be extremism on both sides, but he views it the way a moderate views something that was probably inevitable. He acknowledges the need for change, but wishes that it hadn't come at so great a cost.

Other Races: North's father was an elf, and he was responsible for North's early magical training. one of the Dalish mages who are sent away from their clans because there can only be so many mages at once As a result, he's respectful of elves. He has no strong opinion on dwarves, and his opinion on Qunari is tied to his opinion of the Qun.

North was a Circle Mage for most of his life, so his opinions in that regard are more justified. He is largely pro-Circles, as far as Circles being a center for learning and education goes. He knows that he wouldn't be half as powerful a mage as he is if he hadn't been educated at a Circle, even if his father had lived long enough to train him. Personally, he hopes that he'll live to see the Circles reestablished, with heed to the feedback of those who had suffered at the hands of unjust prejudice.

Adaptation

There are only a couple concrete things that we know about North's story in RvB canon: he has a twin sister with whom he was at one point inseparable, and who came to resent him for being favored over her. He was assigned an Artificial Intelligence AI, the AI Theta who represented the fragment of Trust, who became like a son to him and who was a major source of friction between him and South.

Norton is a mage for two reasons related to the points above. First, because like in canon it makes the friction point between him and his twin an external source. The twins' father in the AU had to favor Norton more when he showed magic, because it was something that they had in common and that South didn't have, something that Norton needed to be trained in so that he wouldn't be dangerous. In canon, North is arbitrarily bumped up above South on the leaderboard, in what arguably sparks the one-sided rivalry that ultimately kills them both. In the AU, Norton is then taken away to a Circle, putting him permanently out of South's reach, which parallels both when North is given Theta and South is left without an AI, and also the fact that North dies before South and leaves her behind.

The other big thing to justify is his bond with the spirit of Trust. Obviously Trust (who is likely closest to a Faith spirit, but not quite as powerful) is an analog to Theta, the AI fragment who was implanted in North's head in canon. As in canon, Norton's bond with Trust comes from an external source (he was assigned Theta in canon, and he met Trust during his Harrowing in the AU).

One thing that's present in canon that I'm subtracting from his backstory (or at least diminishing) is Project Freelancer itself. The things in his story that happen because of Project Freelancer (receiving Theta, the dissolution of his sibling bond) have been translated into other aspects of the AU. Rather than stretch DA canon into something that could be similar, I would prefer to just stretch the big changes out over other aspects of the AU and leave it open to other potential Freelancer AU-mates to figure out how they could have met.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Basically, what are they best at, and what are they worst at? Where can they help and where will they be a liability? It is not necessary to pick a class or to provide lists of specific Dragon Age skills or skill trees. It's sufficient to give us a general idea of areas and level of ability but please make sure you cover any magical ability or significant skill/resource/connection you hope to rely on in-game.

North has a surprising amount of physical strength, for a mage. He's incredibly tall, and therefore was put to work from a relatively young age shelving books in the Circle libraries and getting things down off of high shelves. Magically, his skills are by and large in the Arcane and Creation trees. His bond with Trust strengthens these two trees the most, making him able to conjure nigh-impenetrable shields as well as all of the natural buffs that he can do because of his spirit healing training. Of course, his greatest asset to the Inquisition will be his Spirit Healing, which is probably one of those talents that an organization fighting against an insurmountable evil can't get enough of.

His magical weaknesses are in most other fields. While he received a well-rounded magical education as a child, after his Harrowing and subsequent bond with Trust he was primarily railroaded into becoming a Spirit Healer. Another weakness that he has is that he's lived in a Circle since he was 10 years old, and therefore has very few survival skills for camping and being outside in general.

He's also very, very pale and will probably get a nice crispy sunburn up in that thin mountain air.

Inventory

Please list any notable objects your character will be bringing with them.

Violet Orlesian mage robes
His staff, made of Veridium
Assorted health potions
A compass necklace
(being a mage he doesn't have much to his name)

Motivation

First and foremost, North feels like the Inquisition will provide him a chance to be safe and somewhat return to the sheltered life he had in the Circle. It's not a great time to be a Mage, and especially not a mage who's barely been out of a Circle since he was 10 years old.

Secondly, however, he couldn't tell you why but he knows: if his twin is still alive, the Inquisition will be just as attractive an option to South as it is to him.

SAMPLES

1. Sample Post

2.
My name is Norton Brandt
I am a Mage from the Circle of Magi at Ghislain

South, it's me

If you are or know someone by the name of Sutton Brandt, your brother is looking for you. He is working with the Inquisition. He wants to see you again. He wants to know how Mother is. He wants to make sure you've been well.

He still loves you, Sutton.

If you can't come to Skyhold, at least send a letter. A lot of things have happened, but even in the bad we can find something to bring us together. I wish I had been allowed to keep in touch with you, but I hope you understand why I couldn't.

Yours always,
Your brother North

[He rewrites the letter on fresh paper and sends it out with the next batch of scouts headed for something resembling civilization. He had to call in a few favors, it seems. He hopes it pays off, at least.]