application - fade rift

PLAYER

Name: Rock
Age: 3∞
Contact: hackfraud @ plurk
Other Characters: Richard Dickerson
Interests: Still love intrigue but aiming to get involved in more nitty gritty day to day conflict in addition to plot conflict with this one.

CHARACTER

Name: Sylvester Dumas
Canon/OC: OC
Journal: bignasty
Race: Human
Nationality: Marcher
Occupation: Guardsman (previously, possibly currently as well)
Division: Forces
Mage or Not: No
Age: 52

History

Born to a very minimally successful merchant family in Kirkwall 8:94 Blessed.

Worked from a young age. 2 siblings, a brother and a sister. Father accrued gambling debts, resulting in the entire family having to slum it for months or years at a time.

Did whatever odd work that was arranged for him. His father’s mercantile business gradually transitioned into more of a smuggling operation. Learned his letters to better assist. Father began to drink and became more overtly abusive.

Got very tall.

Joined the city guard in 9:15 Dragon, because he was large and because he’d be better positioned to facilitate the family business from a position of abusable authority.

Eventually became involved with and married an Antivan smuggler named Ariana looking to get her hooks in Kirkwall who he met at the Hanged Man. She was in direct competition with his father. His siblings were grown and his mother had long left; Sylvester dipped on his dad and gave Ariana the assistance she needed to get traction instead.

Quit the guard in 9:21 after the Viscount was thrown in jail. Took up travelling mercenary work for nearly a decade. Separated from and got back together with Ariana several times in that span.

Threw down his sword and went back to Kirkwall in 9:30 when news of the 5th blight broke -- no thank you. Rejoined the guard. Also cleaned up his act -- all that drama with Jeven, again, no thank you -- leaving Ariana’s business to Ariana and supplying only very occasional counsel. Their relationship improved greatly.

Settled into routine, was promoted to lieutenant by virtue of being old enough to have accrued experience and developed critical thinking skills. In addition to being large he was also very loud, and moved on into training new recruits in 9:34 -- a role he remained in until very recently.

Fought in the Qunari in 9:34 and the mage rebellion in 9:37, what a mess, very dramatic, really felt like they were living out history. Did well for himself for another few years telling war stories and shouting at young people.

Increasingly jaded as the worldstate continued to falter. Not thrilled about the Inquisition establishing roots in Kirkwall, making it a target and turning Rifters into locals at the same time. Even worse after they split off into Riftwatch, ugh.

War makes smuggling even more profitable (and more dangerous) than it is normally; Sylvester and Ariana debated how long it would be worth it for her to keep it going.

He received word in 9:45 that Ariana was slain in a Venatori ambush outside of Val Chevin in Orlais after putting in a personal appearance to reconnect with a contact there.

Sad.

Sad.

Sad.

Angry.

Riftwatch.

Personality

Sylvester is loud, brash, and cares very little for diplomacy in social or political settings, but is also reliably assertive in positions of responsibility and has great dad reflexes. In spite of his shady start with the guard and wife of crime, over the course of 30 years he’s grown into a sense of duty and loyalty to the city that he’s now hard-pressed to shake. He would have a reputation for standing his ground in defense of cityfolk and other guardsmen in times Kirkwall has been under attack, and has the respect of guards he’s helped train. On duty, he would also have a reputation for not wanting to bother with small infarctions unless he’s temperamental or holding a grudge and looking for someone to test him. All before going home to have a meal with his professional smuggler of a spouse.

He would have a reputation for that too, although mostly in the form of convincing rumor, as she’d’ve partnered with the coterie to establish a “legitimate” process for herself in trade by the time he returned in 9:30.

He can find anything wrong with anything -- a skill honed sharp through years of inspections of new recruits -- and loves to screw with people, particularly young people. He is both very social and very irreverent, particularly where alcohol is involved; he trends towards having very laid back friends and very hostile enemies accordingly.

News of Ariana’s passing affected him deeply. He’ll just now be coming back from an unexpectedly prolonged leave, through which he will have assured anyone concerned that all was well. BUT ALL HAS NOT BEEN WELL. He’s lost purpose, and hasn’t made much effort to fight off cloying depression. Instead he’s decided to join Riftwatch, because it is here in Kirkwall, the war isn’t going well, team Corypheus took his wife, and this seems as good and noble a way to eventually get himself killed as anything.

Opinions & Affiliations

City Guard: something like 20+ years with the guard (with a several year break in the middle), spent most of the last decade training recruits as a primary duty, in addition to other duties. Reliable, dutiful, not a fan of paperwork, often pawned it off on new recruits as "part of their training."

Chantry: positively incredible that the Maker’s will is to blow them up all the time

Mages: grenades with feet and the ability to self-detonate which they are CONSTANTLY doing, doesn’t matter if they’re standing in a circle or not

Templars: self-important blowhards who act on Chantry orders rather than sense, can’t even get that right, make every bad thing they touch worse

Qunari: war cattle, big, why don’t they wear shirts

Coterie: necessary and normal, so long as they stay in their lane

Refugees: have historically provided him with lots of easy crimes to solve

Tevinter: doesn’t even pretend not to be completely evil

Orlais: ooh la la oui oui

Nevarra: corpse fuckers

Other places: do a better job of minding their own business generally

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths:

Big, strong, tanky, intimidating, capable of being very ASSERTIVE, will get things done that superiors haven’t wanted to deal with without getting hung up on how sad or angry or put out people are about it. Experienced and comfortable with rank and file type organization in general.

Capable warrior, proficient with heavy armor, prefers a polearm or greatsword but also very handy with a longsword, which is what was most often used in training.

Weaknesses:

Lazy if he’s allowed to be, will bully other people into doing menial tasks that he was told to do but doesn’t want to.

Unhappy, rude, and predisposed not to care much for people who are not normal denizens of Kirkwall. Mages, Templars, Grey Wardens, elves, dwarves, qunari and Rifters are not normal.

Not much of a sprinter, no ranged combat unless throwing a sword counts and he can only do that once.

Little bit of a death wish.

Inventory

Heavy Armor
Great Sword
Long Sword
Shield

Motivation

Aimless and unmotivated to continue as he has after the death of his wife, expects his odds of being snuffed out by a weird red lyrium monster or demons will go up exponentially if he moves over to Riftwatch, which is conveniently very local. He’s not trying to go out easy or for nothing, either -- he’s pretty pissed at the Vints.

SAMPLES

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