i've got the next one

Name: MJ
Age: oh my god i was in my twenties when we started this
Contact: unbeliever
Other Characters: Bastien, Nicola Levati
Interests: I would like to put Druffy through the Joining and eventually make her the new First Warden. (I also would like to have a Grey Warden and a dwarf for fun perspectives on inevitable lore developments.)


Name: Evka Ivo
Canon/OC: Canon (Dragon Age)
Journal: nextone
Race: Dwarf
Nationality: Orzammarian
Occupation: Grey Warden
Division: Forces
Mage or Not: Not
Age: 32ish

History

Wiki link, canon events used up to her Veilguard involvement but supplemented with hc about her childhood and adjustments for FR's timeline.

Evka is from Orzammar's noble caste. When she was only a baby, once-inconsequential House Ivo gained a sudden influx of influence under King Bhelen, to whom Frandlin Ivo served as a left hand. That Frandlin earned that role by assisting Bhelen in murdering one rival sibling and framing the third is pretty representative of the kind of politics Evka grew up around. How she wound up, at 19, alone on the wrong side of a cave-in with only an old hammer to defend herself with, ready and willing to go to the surface and never speak much of Orzammar again, is dramatic and not: it entailed schemes and betrayals and leaving people to die, but Evka wasn't involved on either end. She was just there and an acceptable collateral loss. To her own House. So, like, whatever. She has no love for Orzammar now and no family she thinks would be interested in her whereabouts.

While trying to find her way out of that situation, alone, she was rescued from darkspawn by a Grey Warden named Lawrence who was on his Calling. His determination to forestall his death long enough to get her out resulted in his possession by a Spirit of Determination who finished the job for him. Evka promised them she'd save the next one, so she went to the surface to join up herself.

Three years later, she found an elven Orlesian servant dying of the Blight and put him through the Joining to save him. She and Antoine were summoned to Weisshaupt shortly after, but they were sidetracked by werewolves in Eichweill. By the time they'd saved the village, news of coups and demons made it clear they should probably not go to Weisshaupt actually. Instead they stuck together and made their way across Thedas, detouring into opportunities to good wherever they stumbled across them, until ultimately connecting with Grey Wardens in Antiva who were largely unaffected by the corruption that had swallowed those in the Anderfels and the South. They've been there ever since. About two years ago, Evka and Antoine got married.

The group recently came across a blighted eluvian, which was both of great concern to them and a bit beyond their understanding, especially with help from the researchers or archives at Weisshaupt unavailable. So Antoine and Evka were chosen to come to Riftwatch to see what they could find out in Kirkwall.

Personality

Evka is level-headed and even-keeled; even in very dire and/or emotional situations, she's calm and dry-humored and takes most everything in stride. Stoic is fair, but it's the smiling, reserved-but-warm variety rather than straight-faced and cold. She's friendly but private about her personal life, direct to the point but kind about it, and principled despite skepticism about whether the rest of the world will follow suit. She cares a great deal without being very effusive about it. She writes her sappy love letters in code, but she does write them. And she's confident in her abilities but disinterested in praise and recognition. In some people this might be a self-esteem issue; in her it is just that it seems beside the point.

Evka is cynical enough to keep the worst in mind, if not expect it. She also doesn't expect much from other people. The Wardens' job is to handle whatever nightmarish thing is thrown at them without receiving the notice or thanks or perhaps even the cooperation of those they help, she thinks, and she is less bitter about this than matter-of-fact. Evka's introduction to the Wardens was seeing one at his worst, half-delirious from the Calling. She signed her life away to them anyway out of a desire to save others the way she had been saved. While she maintains a grounded perspective on what the Wardens are and what they are not, she's easy to rope into heroics even if they aren't technically within the Wardens' purview.

In plenty of ways she is as tough as she acts, but in others less so. She talks a big game about focusing on what matters — what has actually happened, not what could have — but she also keeps a running tally of how many times over Antoine should be dead even though he demonstrably is not. It's a love language. She lights up over birds and cares about flowers, always has a book she and Antoine are reading together chapter by chapter, can melt a tiny bit in front of a stranger when Antoine touches her cheek, tells a great spooky campfire story, and could have lopped off her hair with a sword and saved herself a lot of braiding and brushing if she didn't care about being cute. She appreciates optimism and goofiness and romanticism and chaos in other people, and though she's often playing the role of keeping those people realistic and focused, she isn't usually harried or annoyed about it. She's having a nice time!

Opinions & Affiliations

Grey Wardens: Always less starry-eyed about the Grey Wardens as an organization than Antoine is — amused by his proclamation that abandoning people isn't what Wardens do, for example, even though she doesn't want to abandon anyone either — but no less committed to the organization and to saving it from itself if need be.

Orzammar: Not her problem anymore. Except for when there are darkspawn. Which is always. How about: except for when there are darkspawn and they ask for her specifically by name. (She grew up in the era of King Aeducan's reforms in a House that supported them, so as of her teens, she thought things were not great but improving; if she went back now that opinion might not hold.)

Religion: She grew up around typical dwarven faith in the Stone, but she's about as invested in it as an Andrastian who only attends services on holidays. She's aware of the Chant of Light insofar as it affects her work and people she cares about.

Races: All more or less the same to her; if Orzammar's insularity and caste system is good for nothing else, it's good for making someone aware of how much more an elf and a serf have in common than a serf and a nobleman. Plus the Wardens are all egalitarian about stuff. Thanks Grey Wardens! And thanks dwarves for reserving most of their vitriol for their own people.

Magic: Everybody stop yelling.

Rain: Unfair and inappropriate.

Sparrows: (,,◕.◕,,)

Strengths & Weaknesses

Warrior: Evka was a skilled fighter before ever becoming a Warden — House Ivo rose to influence on the backs of the Provings and military expeditions in addition to betrayals, so as she was growing up it was a whole thing. She's primarily a close-quarters fighter and skilled with both two-handed weapons (most notably a maul/hammer) and dual-wielding a short axe with an offhand blade or throwing knives. Probably some other things, too, but she's more of a dps brawler than a tank and dresses to move quickly rather than to take a hit well, and ranged weapons and stealth are not really her thing. Even if the plan as a whole is sneaky, her role in it will usually be to stand out in the open to draw something out. She's at her best against darkspawn; unable to sense people or other beings coming, she's more prone to being caught off guard or in her blindspots.

Leader: She's level-headed in a crisis, good at military tactics on the fly, and quick to take charge when it needs taking, generally to positive effect. In Veilguard she comes up with the plan for successfully defending Lavendell, and despite her prior status being "in trouble and assigned to the middle of nowhere," the Wardens at Weisshaupt are quick to fall in line behind her when the First Warden is incapacitated. Her tactical strengths tend to fall on the more conventional "enough manpower for field-level maneuvers" side of things, however; if we're trying to hold down the fort with two guys and some shoestrings, she's happy to defer to someone else.

Research Assistant: She and Antoine have a joint reputation for sticking their noses into weird shit, but Evka's less of a nerd about it. She's more about finding the weird thing — she's a good tracker — and killing whatever dangerous thing is in the way than about what happens once the weirdness is in glass vials. Antoine is the experimenter. But Evka's interested and involved in his work, and she'll chime in with suggestions and insights when she has them.

Misc: She speaks Orzammarian and Trade fluently, understands a fair amount of Orlesian now but would hesitate to speak it herself, and has picked up a little Antivan, in particular the Antivan that Antivans might use when too rushed to translate mid-fight, like "wait" and "behind you" and "shit." As a dwarf she has some inherent resistance to magic and good night vision, but living on the surface for this long has weakened her Stone sense to a faint and often unhelpful Stone tickle.

Inventory

• Hammer
• Axe
• A few other smaller sharp objects
• The latest book
• Husband

Motivation

Look at all this weird stuff you have.


One:

The sun never shines in Orzammar, but it's never really dark, either, until someone ventures out beyond the lava-lit city and the eternally illuminated roads, into the dark caverns that nature carved on its own or the mining tunnels that have been cleared of lyrium veins. Maybe thirteen years should be enough time for the novelty to wear off — but no, it isn't, and especially not the novelty of this, a rare night when both Luna and Satina are dark, the sky is clear of clouds, and nothing but the weak lamplight of the city competes with the stars. Evka's neck would have cricked any minute now, if approaching footfalls didn't bring her attention swiftly back to the ground.

"Bad timing," she says with some sympathy.

The night ferryman is halfway across the harbor, en route to pick up someone who's lit the lantern to signal they're waiting on the docks. Stumbling back from the taverns or some dalliance, probably, but Evka's good enough at not being nosy about these things that she barely wonders.

It'll be a few minutes before they're brought back, though, which leaves her plenty of time to wonder at the more novel question of why someone would be leaving at this hour. She doesn't rouse from her lean against the wall for a sideways examination of the company, though, and she doesn't ask where they're going.

She asks, "What do you think they're made of?" instead, nodding her head up to gesture toward the stars with her nose.

Two:

Hello,

[ marks her immediately as a newcomer, and not only for her possibly-unfamiliar voice. There's also the faintly amused, faintly bemused tone of someone for the very first time speaking to a rock, having to trust it to reach people's ears, and feeling mildly ridiculous about it. ]

Warden Evka. I've read what you have written down, but if anyone who's still here went to Adamant Fortress or to Weisshaupt, I'd like to hear about it. [ A pause here, long enough to wonder if someone might answer right away, then decide they won't. ] Thanks.

Do I just —

[ Stop transmitting, yes, just like that. ]