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empatheias Application
Player: Kiwi
Contact:
Age: 29
Current Characters: None!
Character: Garrett Hawke
Age: 31
Canon: Dragon Age 2
Canon Point: Post-Ending, or Getting The Hell out of
Background:
The land of Thedas is your basic Sword & Sorcery, fantasy RPG world - it has magic and dragons and dwarfs and elves. And humans. Elves and humans born with magic are known as mages, and have a sensitivity and connection to the Fade, a sort of alternate-dimension dream-land where malevolent demons and benevolent spirits live. Because of this connection, mages are susceptible to coercion and corruption via demon. A mage who is corrupted by a demon becomes what is known as an abomination, a powerful, emotionless monster that has the ability and will to slaughter as many innocents as it can get its nasty goopy hands on.
Naturally, this potential for mass destruction has a tendency to make mages unpopular. There are a couple of safeguards in place in the countries of Ferelden and in the Free Marches, which concerns Our Hero, and they are thus:
The first is what is known as The Circle - each country has at least one Circle, and usually more. Part boarding house, part prison, all known mages must remain within their Circle (for their own safety and for the safety of non-mages) or face death at the hands of the templars.
Which brings us to the second of the safeguards - the templars. The templars are a religious order of non-magical humans (so far, I don't think we've ever seen an elven templar) who, through the use of mystical training and the ingestion of lyrium (a naturally-occurring ore which is inherently magical, and also horribly addictive) control the mages, and, when the situation calls for it, kill them.
A rogue mage living outside of the Circle is what is known as an apostate, and is a templar's natural enemy. And that, gentle reader, is what brings us to the topic of Our Hero.
Garrett Hawke is the oldest of three siblings. He is an apostate, as are his father and his younger sister Bethany. His other sibling, Carver, is perfectly ordinary and non-magical (although he wields a mean broadsword). Dragon Age II basically opens up with the family fleeing from the darkspawn hoard that attacked their quaint little village of Lothering. The darkspawn are nasty, twisted, blighted creatures that feed on prey and fear and death and such, and feature much more prominently in Dragon Age Origins than they do in DAII. They're basically just a plot device at the beginning of the game to get events moving.
Anyway, the family, which now consists of mother, Hawke, Carver, and Bethany - father having died of an illness some years prior - manage to escape, although the darkspawn shortly catch up to them and manage to take Bethany out before the remainder of the family (plus two other survivors they have picked up along the way, one of whom is named Avaline and is plot relevant) are rescued at the very last second by a
Personality:
× THE GUILT COMPLEX
Hawke is the product of a Romeo-and-Juliet-esque elopement. Mommy Leandra Amell was an aristocratic lady who fell in love with, got pregnant by, and ran away with, handsome apostate Papa Malcolm Hawke. Leandra and Malcolm weren't exactly ready to be parents; it could be argued that Leandra especially was not prepared for the life she found upon leaping from the lap of luxury as a member of Kirkwall's aristocracy directly into a life of running and poverty, but that's a whole different story for another application. To summarize, she was young, in love (or lust), and made a very rash decision that changed the course of her entire life, which also incidentally affected the course of her childrens' lives.
When Hawke was about seven years old, his younger siblings - twins Carver and Bethany - were born. It can be assumed that Hawke didn't exactly have a normal childhood; with an apostate father, the small family was constantly on the move, constantly hiding for fear of discovery, and rarely in one place for very long. With the addition of the twins, his childhood - such as it was - was effectively over. As the elder sibling he had to be at least as responsible as his parents, and pull his weight when it came to taking care of the twins and making sure the family remained outside the detection of the templars.
He was closer to his father than to his mother, as, once it became obvious he had inherited his father's magic, he spent a lot of time with Malcolm learning to control his abilities, and then with Bethany as well, once her own magical abilities were revealed. While this arrangement meant he was very close to both is father and sister, it also created a divide between Hawke and his mother and brother, the only non-magical members of their family.
Malcolm died of a wasting illness when Hawke was in his late teens or early twenties, leaving the burden of protecting the family not on the surviving parent's shoulders, as might be expected, but on his eldest child's. At the beginning of the game, when the family is fleeing their ravaged home, it's obvious Leandra defers to Hawke's leadership, up to and including blaming him for Bethany's death.
I'm not kidding. "This is your fault!" were her exact words. How exactly Hawke was supposed to prevent the ogre that had picked up and crushed Bethany from picking her up and crushing her Leandra didn't say. And while she did apologize later, that instant of passionate maternal blame had far more effect on Hawke than he ever let on, and continued to affect him for years afterward.
This manifests most obviously in the way he sticks his neck out for his friends, as a motley handful of people he met in Kirkwall have become his surrogate family. He couldn't save Bethany; it was his fault she had died. If he had been faster, or closer, or had turned around in time, she would have lived. Probably. So he would make sure none of his other important people ever die on his watch.
× SER SASSYPANTS
Hawke takes no shit from nobody.
Well, that's not entirely true, he takes a lot of shit from his friends, but they're allowed, because they're his friends. Slap him in a situation where he has to talk to the most important people in the city, though, and he'll sass his pants off till the cows come home. Or something. Knight Commander Meredith and First Enchanter Orsino are bickering in public again? Break it up with a flippant remark about releasing sexual tension. The Viscount needs someone to rescue his son from that damn qunari that keeps "kidnapping" him? Subtly indicate that the viscount's son is an adult who is more than capable of making his own life choices. ...And then go find him anyway because Rewa~rd~
To strangers and acquaintances Hawke often appears to be a fairly vapid, shallow individual whose only concerns are coin and drink, and who appears entirely incapable of taking anything seriously, ever. The thing about Hawke, though, is that he's not a hero. Not in his own mind, at least. He never set out to make a difference in the lives of thousands of people or make a name for himself in any sense of the word. He's just this ordinary (though extraordinarily handsome~) guy who all of these big, important people have somehow decided is going to save them from corruption or blood magic or total annihilation. His method for dealing with these big, important people just happens to be sass. Maybe if he's sarcastic enough at them, they'll realize how many stupid things they're saying and figure out a way to fix their own damn problems! Not that that has ever worked so far, but he can still dream!
× THE BIG BROTHER
Hawke's relationship with his brother Carver is rocky. Carver, resentful of what he perceives as paternal favoritism (which was less favoritism and more an unfortunate necessity as Malcolm had to teach Hawke how to be a successful apostate) seems determined to be bitter and whiny about being lost in his older brother's shadow, and is resistant to Hawke's attempts to reconcile. Despite the huge chip on his shoulder and his penchant for whining, and despite the fact that he is not and never has been as close to Carver as he was to Bethany, Hawke loves his younger brother a great deal and tries to accommodate him as much as he can...which lead them both into the Deep Roads, an enormous series of vast, underground passages inhabited by darkspawn. Carver wanted to go, so Hawke brought him along!
Things didn't end so well for Carver, though. Amidst all the fighting (see: aforementioned darkspawn), the younger Hawke was infected with what is known as "The Taint," a nasty, wasting condition contracted by too much exposure to darkspawn blood. The only way to counter the taint and survive is to become a Grey Warden (the Wardens are basically an order of individuals who make a living fighting off darkspawn and occasionally warning about coming blights, who deliberately infect themselves with the Taint in a way that doesn't kill them using a sooper seekrit ritual. CONVENIENT, YES?)
LUCKILY, in addition to Varric and Carver, Hawke brought his buddy Anders - a fellow mage and 'former' Grey Warden - as the fourth member of his expedition party. Anders was able to sense the presence of a group of Wardens, and successfully lead the group to them in time to save Carver...the down side was, he had to go away to live with the Wardens, so Hawke never saw his little brother again*
Even though Carver didn't die, Hawke still feels he failed to protect him. The passive-aggressive letters Carver had sent home from time to time only served to reinforce Hawke's sense of failure; here he was, living now in the lap of luxury (the expedition was successful despite Bartrand's treachery, and Hawke was able to purchase his mother's former estate, which had been sold off by her brother shortly after the death of their parents due to a nasty penchant for gambling), and his little brother was stuck in a cold, smelly barracks presumably being yelled at by senior wardens and just generally having a shitty time of it.
Hawke has a tendency to adopt the "Big Sibling" role with children and teenagers. He's more likely to be sincere with kids, and pulls out the sass as a means to make them smile or laugh, rather than as a weapon of mass irritation. In the game he is given a quest by a smuggler acquaintance to track down some goods from a bungled job. Upon locating the goods, he discovers that the man chosen by his acquaintance for that particular mission is just a teenaged boy whose parents are dead and who has younger sisters to look after. Instead of recovering the shipment for his acquaintance, he gives it to the kid and tells him to get the hell out of Kirkwall, and to take care of his sisters. He forfeits payment for the job and lies to the woman who asked for his help about the fate of the goods, covering for the kid.
He acts similarly in the interest of other children he encounters throughout the game - notably, by rescuing a kidnapped elven girl from the insane son of a very rich and powerful aristocrat. While the aristocrat who initially hired him to "bring the man in alive" was set to pay him a handsome amount of money for doing so, when Hawke learned that the criminal in question had a history of kidnapping, molesting, and ultimately murdering elven children, he elected to bring the man to justice upon confrontation, instead of allowing him to pass into the hands of the courts where he would ultimately receive nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
× THE CHAMPION
Thedas is kind of full of racist douchebags. These racist douchebags are mostly human, and get their jollies or whatever from oppressing elves. Elves in the Thedas we have been shown thus far either live in slums known as alienages within human cities, or in nomadic clans out in the wilderness. Elves living in human cities are often employed as servants, though depending on the country they might be slaves instead.
Somewhat in the same vein are the mages living in various Circle towers. Objectively, mages are not as bad off as elves, because they are at least clothed, housed, and fed, and are allowed very basic autonomy within the Circle walls, which is a lot more than many elves have.
The point here is not to argue who is more oppressed, however - both of these groups have pretty shitty living situations that are imposed upon them by the Powers That Be - in this case, the Andrastean Chantry, the major religious force in Thedas.
Hawke, probably by virtue of growing up under the care of an apostate father, is not - as a general rule - a racist douchebag. Two of his closest friends happen to be elves...which would not actually be all that remarkable, as human/elven friendships aren't that unheard of, but as one of these elves is an escaped slave whose former master is actively searching for him, and as the other is a practicing blood mage living in Kirkwall's alienage, these friendships are a bit more unconventional than most.
Most citizens of Kirkwall with a greater sense of self-preservation that Hawke appears to have would report both of these elves to the proper authorities and get their dangerous elven asses off the streets where more honest human and dwarven thugs are trying to make a dishonest living. Not only does Hawke fail to do that, he strikes up a friendship with each of these dangerous elven hoodlums, and consistently has their backs when they need his help.
Actually, Hawke pretty consistently has the backs of all of his close friends throughout the game. He'll lend a hand with pretty much anything he's asked to do...from helping the romantically inept Aveline snag the man she's had her eye on, to slogging through the sewers at another friend's request collecting crystallized rat urine.
Speaking of urine, Hawke is also kind of a raging alcoholic. If he has a problem he doesn't feel emotionally equipped to deal with and there is a tavern available, chances are very good that he will be in that tavern and he will be wasted. On the plus side, he's generally a happy drunk! While he's not picky about his drink as a general rule, since his move to Kirkwall he has cultivated an unfortunate passion for ale that tastes as though it's been watered down with dog piss.
Lastly, completely unrelated to urine (probably), Hawke is kind of a lot vain. He spends a ridiculous amount of time on his personal appearance every morning, fluffing his hair and styling his beard just so. He's delightfully easy to tease, especially in regards to his beard. Even an offhand suggestion that it might be uneven can send him running to the closest mirror to investigate, and suggestions that he shave all or part of it or try styling it differently are usually met with sulking and pouting.
He's an adult, I swear!
So, to summarize, Hawke is one sassypants asshole who is loyal, forthright, and upstanding. When you need someone to get shit done and look good doing it, and don't mind a pile of sarcasm, Hawke is your man. Unless you want to oppress people (be they mages or slaves), in which case, you're probably dead already. Oops.
*Until the end of Act II for like five minutes.
Abilities:
Hawke is a mage! He can set shit on fire with his mind and crush his enemies with crushing...force! I have a list of the spells he can cast and what they do here. He gets into a lot of fights in-game (since that's...the nature of the game...) and is quite the magical powerhouse. In addition to flinging offensive spells at the bad guys, he also wields a staff, which is enchanted to enhance his magical abilities and also doubles as an excellent club in the instance an enemy gets too close.
In canon, he doesn't use his magic aggressively unless provoked (in game mechanics this means him stumbling across an invisible trigger that causes the game to throw hordes of enemy NPCs at the player party against which Hawke and Co. must defend themselves) and this follows in how I play him in RP settings. He might use magic to light a campfire or to heal an injury, but he doesn't set people's hair on fire for fun (for example). He grew up keeping his abilities a secret from everyone he met, and while his few close friends know he's a mage, it's not something he advertises.
Other:
Hawke has a dog - a mabari warhound, to be precise. They're ugly as sin, smarter than your average dog, and loyal as very loyal things. Hawke has had his for several years. His name is Champion. If possible, I'd like to bring Champion along for the fun. :3
First Person Sample:
Thread #1: In which Hawke is a troll (Text style)
Thread #2: In which Hawke makes some new friends (Video style)
Thread #3: In which Hawke flirts shamelessly (Action-bracket style)
Third Person Sample:
Log #1: In which Hawke has an Encounter with some Mermaids
Log #2: In Which Hawke has an Encounter with an Assassin
Questions: None!