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KALLIAN ENDRIS

Player

Name: Ardruna
Age: 26
Contact Info: email: ardruna@gmail.com, AIM: Mirisa Erato
Did you read the rules? Do the Fex hail from Par Vollen? Yes, of course.
PB: Michelle Ryan
Examples: ( Sample Roleplay )

Character

Name: Kallian Endris
Age: 26 (Born 30 Parvulis/Kingsway 9:19 Dragon)
Location: Denerim
Race: Elf
Class: Mage (apostate)
Specialization: Spirit Healer
Talents/Spells: Creation, Spirit

Appearance: At first glance, Kallian will often appear entirely unremarkable, easily forgettable as just another elf in the city—which is exactly what she intends.

Kallian has long, brown hair that she prefers to wear styled in a simple fashion. Her clothes are typically similarly plain dresses, as befits an elf in a menial position. Now and then, she does wear more fashionable dress (though nothing too rich), but typically only when she is acting as a representative for her employer, such as when picking up inventory from a vendor or running the business in her boss’s absence. She has never worn true mage robes in an effort to keep her magic secret. Seeing as most city elves are not permitted to be armed, Kallian carries no weapon except her own two hands and occasionally a small, blunt knife that she uses in her work.

Her posture is often slightly slouched, and she generally avoids direct eye contact, the result of a lifetime of trying to appear unworthy of notice. Even when standing straight, she remains rather on the petite side at a mere 5’2” in height, though she has a slim, well-formed body at the weight of 105 lbs. Years of hard work have made her stronger than she looks, and if she were ever to be recruited by the Grey Wardens, she would stand a decent chance of surviving the Joining. She has a few scars from her work, and a few from spells she didn’t get quite right, but nothing distinctive. She is right-handed.

Get Kallian to look at someone directly, and it is revealed that she has intense blue eyes that glitter with intelligence and vigilance, as well as a pretty face and porcelain skin. She sees and pays attention to much more than she lets on.

Kallian is typically soft-spoken, and her speech quick but clearly enunciated. She tries to avoid saying anything more than is necessary. She is decidedly Ferelden in her accent on the whole. However, she knows some Orlesian, taught to her by her mother, which she pronounces almost like a native speaker, and the few bits of Elvish she knows are also flavored with an Orlesian lilt.

Personality: Kallian is a kind young woman with a gentle heart. She would never purposely hurt anyone, except in self-defense or in defense of someone important to her. She loves stories and songs, and is a bit of a romantic, in love with the idea of chivalry and courtly love (though she does not believe she will ever experience it herself). She enjoys reading anything she can get her hands on, has a bright, intelligent mind, and is an eager learner—in some ways, it’s almost too bad that she fears the Circle of Magi, as she would likely thrive in such an environment. She sometimes has a tendency to get lost in daydreams if she is doing mindless work.

However, years of trying to convince the world at large that she is no one worth noticing have taken their toll on her. She is frequently self-deprecating and suffers regular bouts of self-doubt. Although she is certainly capable of many things, and isn’t afraid to do them, per se, it isn’t uncommon for her confidence in her ability to succeed to fail her when the time comes for her to act. She “chickens out” at the last moment almost as often as not. Despite this, she possesses a surprising reserve of inner strength that she uses to get through the rough times. In her attempts to be entirely forgettable, she often comes across as nice, but very reserved, even shy. She keeps displaying her emotions to a minimum, and will rarely allow anyone to see her angry or crying, or much of anything beyond being rather blandly cheerful and helpful.

Her magic is her most treasured and greatest-kept secret, and her worst fear is that someone will discover she is an apostate and turn her over to either the Chantry or the Circle. This has made her distrustful of strangers, particularly humans (and she is downright skittish when it comes to templars), and guarded even among people she knows. This is not to say that she is cold or rude to them—often, quite the opposite. She is usually polite and pleasant in her demeanor, although she seems utterly incapable of relaxing. Secretly, she is terribly lonely and would dearly love to have someone to confide in, but she is terrified of getting too close to people lest they find out her secret and betray her. People she has considered “friends” are few and far between, and she has never had a lover, nor even considered the possibility of taking one, as she falls on the asexual spectrum and is most likely demisexual. Kallian’s trust is hard-won, but once earned, she is unswervingly loyal to those she cares about.

Kallian doesn’t often pay much attention to the political goings-on around her as they only very rarely affect her personally. She knows enough that she could probably name some of the key figures in Ferelden (the queen, the arl of Denerim, the Grand Cleric, the First Enchanter, etc.), but she largely ignores the gossip about the court. Of greater interest to her is any news regarding the development of the on-going struggles of the Chantry, Circle and the dealings with mages. She is not a very pious Andrastian, and keeps a sliver of hope that one day her choice to remain a free mage will not be likely to result in her death upon being discovered. Rumors about the Dalish are also likely to pique her interest. Though never outspoken about it, Kallian is a staunch believer in the rights and freedoms of both elves and mages.

History: Kallian’s mother, Alavda Endris, was an elven journeyman bard originally from Orlais. Not yet of skill enough to play for the Orlesian nobles and take part in the Grand Game, she decided to go to the less-cultured Denerim court in Ferelden with the hopes of playing for King Maric. While traveling, she encountered a clan of Dalish moving in the same direction, and she accompanied them for a time. Most of the clan treated her with a measure of derision and pity, scorning her as a "flat ear," except one, a handsome young hunter who went by the name of Theron. He was curious instead, asking her to teach him her songs and stories, and, in exchange, he taught her what he knew about Dalish lore. Kallian's mother was quite lovely, and she seduced him one evening, an event he called a "young man's grievous lapse in judgment" the following morning. Theron offered to marry her in an effort to put things right, assuring her that someone who could tell the stories and sing the songs would be of value to his people, but Kallian's mother refused him, as he was unwilling to abandon his clan and she had no desire to spend the rest of her life wandering the wilderness away from civilization as she knew it. She left the clan the next day, and did not realize she was pregnant until after her arrival in the capital.

Her mother believing that a young elven mother would seem easy prey on the road, Kallian herself was born in the Denerim alienage, raised there by her mother, and never knowing her father. Like most elves in the alienage, her life was a simple one of poverty. Her mother did her best to earn a living with her songs, but the pay was rarely good, and, more often than not, if she was summoned from the alienage, it was to serve as a plaything for the wealthy human nobles.

Kallian loved hearing the songs and stories her mother told her, and often dreamed of the possibility of a better life. Her mother never married nor entertained suitors, claiming she didn't wish to be tied down to a Ferelden husband, as she would promise her daughter that one day, when Kallian was older and they could save enough to get there, she would take her back to Orlais and find them a home in the service of a noble family where they could have a fine life surrounded by luxuries most alienage elves never dreamed of. Even more, Kallian was fascinated by the tales of the Dalish, and found herself wondering about her father, though her mother could only tell Kallian his name, and did not know where his clan might be found. Deep down, Kallian harbored a secret wish to meet him and his people one day. Such ideas, however, were dismissed as mere pipe dreams by the other elves in the alienage, and, while she got along reasonably well with the other children, Kallian found it difficult to find friends who genuinely understood her. It served as an early lesson in keeping things to herself and not saying more than she needed to. Her best friend in childhood was an orphan girl named Asiel who was a few years younger than Kallian, but she was among those slaughtered when a demonic presence overtook the orphanage. Kallian often found it easier to have imaginary friends growing up, though they always seemed real to her.

Not all of her mother’s stories were pretty, though. Kallian was raised with a healthy distrust of humans, one that was frequently reinforced by their regular abuse of the alienage elves, and Kallian generally did her best to try and remain unnoticed whenever they came looking for “fun.” She would hide in her home, out of sight, most of the time, or find a quiet game where she could blend in with other children, and was careful to keep her face turned away and downward so they wouldn't notice that she was pretty. Luckily, pretty face or no, the rowdy young human men paid no attention to a single little girl among many. Sometimes, it even felt like they were looking through her, rather than at her, but Kallian never dared question providence, no matter how odd it might seem. As long as they left her alone, that was all that mattered to her.

Kallian’s talent for magic didn’t begin to manifest until right around the Elven Uprising that took place during the Fifth Blight. When the strange sickness began to take hold, her mother was among those that fell ill. Kallian had noticed that whoever went for "treatment" never came back, but she was only a frightened young girl and didn't know what to do to keep them safe or cure her mother's rapidly deteriorating condition. She was desperate, and wished with all her might that something--anything--would happen to make sure they were protected. Exactly what happened then, Kallian has never been entirely certain. She thought she felt a strange (though oddly comforting) presence that she never saw. Kallian would like to think it was perhaps the encouragement of some benevolent spirit or another, but it disappeared almost immediately, so she has never been sure if it was even real, or just her imagination. More than likely, it was just the feeling of her first rush of magic, since the next thing she knew, she felt herself become filled with an unfamiliar feeling of power. It all happened so quickly that she couldn't hold it and it ignited a fire. While they were able to contain it before it could do any serious damage, the ruckus attracted the attention of both elves and humans there in the alienage, and soon their home was all but swarmed with people. In the resulting chaos, Kallian's mother, weakened by her illness, was taken by the humans, and it was the last Kallian saw of her.

In all the confusion, little Kallian herself was pulled away from the commotion by an elderly female elf named Niella who lived in the alienage and, once they were at a safe distance behind closed doors, asked Kallian what had happened. When Kallian tried (unsuccessfully) to come up with a coherent explanation, the old woman simply nodded. As it turned out, the old woman was an apostate who had escaped the Circle Tower years before, and found the alienage an ideal place to hide, as it gave her the opportunity to work her magic for small acts of good and made a good cover, since the human templars rarely spent many resources scouring out mages from amongst a bunch of elves. She said she had noticed some potential signs in Kallian over the previous months as she had played with the other children and done her best to avoid any visiting humans, though exactly what she saw, Kallian never knew, as her mentor never elaborated on the subject. As she grew older, Kallian suspected it may have had something to do with the otherwise-inexplicable occurrences which had kept her from being seen. Nonetheless, the old woman took young Kallian under her wing, teaching the child what she could: how to control and hide her powers, the powers of herbs and how to use them, as well as how to use magic to heal, to enhance or (if necessary) to destroy a body from within. Shortly after beginning her lessons, Kallian had what she thought at first was a particularly vivid dream, where she was approached by an unfamiliar woman who kept offering wondrous things to her, but there was something unsettling about the woman that frightened Kallian, so she just kept saying “no” until the woman finally went away. Her mentor assured her later that it was no true dream, and that the woman was actually a demon seeking to possess her. Her mentor made sure to teach Kallian how to protect herself from other demons who might try the same. Kallian especially made sure to practice these exercises after what happened at the orphanage. Though there was no way of knowing for certain what had caused the slaughter, her mentor warned her that such things could happen if a mage became careless. The old woman also would be the one to introduce Kallian to the Mages' Collective, as a resource of people who could be trusted to help her.

Kallian's mentor did not speak well of her days in the Circle. Based on these accounts, it seemed to Kallian that mages in Thedas were scarcely any better off than elves. Being an elven mage seemed to her a double curse. Thus, though she trusted her fellows in the alienage well enough to let unusual occurrences pass without question, Kallian was terrified of the humans finding out about her magic and locking her away in the Circle. All of her practice was done when she was absolutely sure no one else besides Kallian and her mentor would know about it, and much of it conducted on animal subjects when the need arose. So did Kallian begin a secret life as an apostate. After that point, though she had no one she considered a good friend aside from her teacher, Kallian was especially careful not to let anyone get close enough to her to learn her secret. Keeping to herself as often as possible, she remained cordial to her neighbors, but an acquaintance at best. She never dared to so much as consider a romance with any of the local boys, and made it clear that she was not in the market to have a match arranged for her by the elders. It got lonely, yes, but Kallian felt it a necessary sacrifice to protect herself. It became even worse when Kallian's mentor passed away when Kallian was 23, after twelve years of training, but Kallian was used to relying on herself by then, and she managed to carry on and continued to practice her magic in secret.

When it was revealed that the epidemic in the alienage had been used as a tactic by Tevinter slavers, Kallian felt oddly relieved. Of course, she was angry that they had been allowed to commit such crimes against the elves, but human abuse of elves was nothing new. More importantly, it gave Kallian hope that, somewhere, her mother might yet be alive and well. That relief was short-lived, however, when the darkspawn reached the capital. Although the siege itself was too chaotic for young Kallian to remember it clearly beyond a scattering of images and emotions, she remembers her terror during the attack, the horror of the darkspawn and her gratitude to the Grey Wardens who defended the alienage. She sincerely hopes to never be that close to the darkspawn again, if she can help it, but Kallian would rather face a darkspawn horde than stand by and do nothing to prevent them from destroying her homeland.

To support herself, after the death of the Archdemon, Kallian found a job as an assistant to a merchant in the Denerim market district, typically performing menial tasks like cleaning, sorting invoices and stocking the inventory. Kallian made a point of learning as much as she could about the various items they carried so as to be knowledgable anytime a customer had questions about them. Over the years, her employer had come to trust her more and more with greater duties, including occasionally running things whenever her boss couldn’t be there, or going to pick up new inventory from vendors from outside Denerim.

Unfortunately, all that time spent doing one job for one person meant that she was starting to become a recognizable fixture in the business. Some regular customers even began to call Kallian by name. At that rate, her anonymity as just another faceless city elf was sure to be lost, and if that happened, there was no telling how long it would be before the templars found her. Meanwhile, she had saved every copper she could, with the hope of someday leaving to go in search of her parents, wherever they might be found, so she took her savings and left Denerim with hardly a goodbye. She traveled to Amaranthine, hoping to find opportunity, and maybe even passage to begin seeking out her family, in the port city.

Sadly, the pickings for opportunities for elves were slim when she arrived, and Kallian was worried she would have to take up begging on the streets to survive. As luck would have it, though, the Wardens were holding a tournament, and Kallian signed on to be a companion. It was surely the best opportunity in the city, especially since she had heard rumor that free mages could be safe from the Circle and Chantry both if they were among the company of Grey Wardens. Admittedly, the prospect of coming face-to-face with more darkspawn makes her nervous, but she trusts that the Wardens would protect her if they could. After all, they had done so once before, and if it meant that she might find some small way to repay the Wardens for their kindness toward the elves in the Denerim alienage along the way, so much the better. Not to mention it would surely be better to die fighting darkspawn for the betterment of the world than of starvation in some gutter or at the hands of the templars.