fade rift app.

[indissection]

PLAYER

Name: Rachel
Age: 26
Contact: aziraphale @ plurk, solas#2878 @ disco
Other Characters: Solas, Six, Hanzo
Interests: A noble character who actually flaunts it! Someone who is getting into battlefields and into a more non-magical kind of healing to bring that to the forefront. Someone who will be a bitch and mean it.

CHARACTER

Name: Sidony Venaras
Canon/OC: OC
Journal: indissection
Race: Human
Nationality: Nevarran
Occupation: Surgeon
Division: Research
Mage or Not: Not!
Age: 23

History

Born to a noble family in Nevarra, she is the only daughter in her family, with a younger brother being raised to take their father's place when he passes. They don't have a great deal of connections, but it's worth noting that their family has a distant relation to the Averesch family through a second cousin. While the family originally lived quite far from the capital, a need for the best education for their children urging them towards Nevarra City. They moved when Sidony was quite young and she doesn't remember much of their old home.

Her young life was simple and she grew up happy enough; she was loved by her parents, had some comfort as the daughter of someone with some measure of power, though her family was never really close to any kind real influence. As their only and most precious daughter she was a touch spoiled - she was often given whatever she wanted as long as she excelled with her tutors and her studies.

Raised and educated well, she found her passions laid in learning as much about the Mortalitasi as she could. She had been desperate to become one of them, wanting to know more about the rituals and nature behind it all, but with no magical talent she was never able to pursue it, much to her frustration. With a good education, she was able to spend her time devoting herself to learning more about the human body and the developments of medicine. While she was never able to take the path towards becoming a Mortalitasi, she was able to learn some things, seeking out non-magical doctors and surgeons who she was able to find to tutor her.

While she lacked some practical experience due to her position and the distance between herself and most intimate wars, plus the religious restrictions on dissections (due to fears of blood magic) and medical investigations, she devoured any medical texts and biological works she could get her hands on. Her parents imagined that she was studying languages and politics when in reality she had been devouring diagrams, books of remedies and anything else relating to the human body that she could find.

Eventually, her parents told her it was time for her to marry - she wasn't the heir, so her arrangement was to help further their few connections. Completely against the idea, for personal and professional reasons, knowing she would have to give up her medical dreams, Sidony packed everything she had and fled Nevarra to the Inquisition where she knew warring states were, seeking more practical developments of her skills.

Personality

Sidony is a girl who is very used to getting what she wants; she was spoiled as a young girl with parents that doted on her a little more than, perhaps, they should have, so she has grown up with the expectation of being given whatever she asks for. Should this fail then her next step is to use herself as a bargaining chip. She will attempt to flirt, and be coy with whoever she needs to be in order to get her way, especially since she's more than used to it working for her. There's very rarely any follow through but she does do what she can to try and make sure she gets what she wants.

She's also someone who doesn't appear to be particularly nice, especially towards people she doesn't know or have any kind of connection to her. She has a very set idea of what she wants for herself and her future: she's not inclined to waste her time on anyone who might stand in her way. She's capable of being diplomatic - she was raised in the nobility and was well trained in how to be polite and formal when she needs to be - but she won't do it if she thinks there's going to be no pay off, or if she won't get a result from it in the end.

Her passion is knowledge and science, though she hides it well behind her noble guise. What she wants most in the world is to be able to learn more about the body, to be able to practice the medicine she has been studying for so long and be able to prove herself. As the daughter of a noble family she imagined that there was little intelligent expectation on her shoulders and she carries that like a burden - she wants to show that she can be better than anyone else at her passions, even if it means stealing herself away to a battlefield to do it. She is constantly comparing herself to, in her mind, her favoured brother.

Her displeasure at never having magic of her own and therefore being barred from the study of the Mortalitasi is something that has been an issue for her since she first discovered what they were, though she does her best to not let anyone learn just how desperate she had once been.

Sidony doesn't want her name known: she wants to prove herself. She's not very good at expressing why that is or actually showing that she has a vulnerable side, but it's there, deep down. She'll be gentler to those who need some kind of help or offer to help her in return, but she is afraid of people finding out more about her and afraid of being sent back home. She wants to protect herself and, to do that, she makes sure that no one sees much of the 'real' her - they see the noble, flirty guise, not the surgeon she is at heat.

Opinions & Affiliations

THE CHANTRY: The only group in Thedas that Sidony finds particularly frustrating is the Chantry and their tied religious organisations; she does not agree with their disapproval when it comes to the practice of dissection. As someone non-magical she can see no reason why it might not become common practice for those without magic, as it's hardly a risk to them. She is keen to learn as much about the human body as she can and she is not very happy with the idea of being told she is not allowed to do something.

MAGES vs TEMPLARS: While she has no real opinion on mages and their Templar counterparts, Sidony is from a place where her main focus has been on people with magic and what they can do with it and her own desperation to be a part of it. She's generally more accepting of mages and their place - and their freedom - but she is quietly envious of them and their powers, of what they are allowed to do in Nevarra that she will never have, which can make her more sour towards mages in a way that might be assumed as being prejudiced.

Otherwise, generally speaking, she has very naturally traditional values when it comes to the rest of Thedas. She has a preference towards the nobility and the advantages it has given her as a person, and she accepts their role and control of her life, but she dislikes the restrictions she feels trapping her even as she gives into them. She takes no issues with the Dalish, but she finds the Qun something to be a touch more wary of, even if she is desperately curious to learn more about their medical knowledge.

Adaption Notes

N/A

Strengths & Weaknesses

STRENGTHS
+ Noble connections in Nevarra
+ Well versed in medical treatments and developments
+ Practical understanding of surgery and diagnosis illnesses
+ Can take care of herself if she needs to
+ Well educated, intelligent and well spoken
+ Can likely get herself money / resources from her parents if she speaks to them again

WEAKNESSES
- No magical or fighting training whatsoever. No magic at all, to her dismay.
- Stubborn, often painfully so
- Not very good at following orders, demands or requests
- Wants nothing more than to prove that she's right at all times
- Spoiled. Dangerously.

Inventory

A small chest / trunk with a range of formal clothing, far less than she might have had at home.

Sets of books on anatomy, herbal remedies, surgical techniques and treatments for wounds and illnesses.

Writing equipment - ink, parchment, scrolls, a wax seal with the house symbol on it.

One nice, slightly worn travelling cloak.

An unused and very decorative and therefore not useful boot dagger.

Pouch of coins, tucked into her skirts.

A servant / guard. Just one, because at least if she took one with her then maybe her parents wouldn't throw as much of a fit and drag her back.

Motivation

She wants to try and use her knowledge more practically and see if she can start to development the advancements in the understanding of medicine and treatments, and where better than a place where people are fighting and getting hurt and bringing strange creatures from Rifts?

SAMPLES

LOG

Being in a library is not so strange a thing for her - she had spent more time in them than she would care to admit, especially not if she intended to go to any formal gatherings in the same week - but being in a library with so many other people around was something of a novelty. At home, and she thinks of her small, personal library fondly, there would be herself and a handful of tutors, perhaps a brother, and that would be all. No one else to bother her as she read, as she copied diagrams, no one peering over her shoulder and questioning why she was bothering to spend her time considering the anatomy of people.

Sidony had spent a great deal of time preparing an argument, should her mother or father catch her copying out the shapes of men from medical books. She had never really found one that she thought was acceptable, but it's not something that matters much now, is it?

If anyone catches her reading here, she thinks, sliding into a chair and drawing out a small book, then she can smile at them and offer a tilt of her head. Her plan here, at least at first, is simple: find whoever might be in charge of the non-magical treatment of illnesses and coerce them into apprenticing her. She can prove herself, at least, and that means that she can show off her knowledge, but if they ask for practical experience? Her hands are far too soft, far too clean for ever having seen any kind of battlefield or danger and she knows it too well. She doesn't imagine they'd ask for her hands, but it might be best to wear gloves all the same.

Her immediate frustration is obvious as she turns a page, back straight and head tilted just so, a practiced movement. She doesn't want to appear as though she is out of place but it must be so obvious. All she wants is to read, to overhear conversation, to make sure she can learn, but she cannot do that without making herself appear as new as she is. It's a troubling situation, especially since she's used to knowing everyone that's worth knowing.

Starting all over again was not something she had imagined when she had been packing her books away.

NETWORK

It has come to my attention that the Inquisition seems to be lacking in proper medical expertise. [ A pause, almost diplomatic, but then the rest is said with a hint of a sarcastic sneer. ] Non-magical medical expertise is what I mean, of course. Certainly the Inquisition does not lack magical aid for their studies.

[ There's the turning of pages, and she would absolutely be looking bored and uninterested if anyone could see her. Better to hide her enthusiasm than have it used against her - or worse, have it taken from her. ]

I've been fortunate enough to have been learning from texts since I was quite young. My recent move has brought you the opportunity to speak with someone who is well trained and well prepared for any medical questions you might have. It is my hope that we might be able to work together to further Thedas' understanding of treatments.

[ Which is code for 'I hope I might be able to learn a lot more from a battlefield than a book', but there's no need for anyone else to know that. ]

I will not be too far if you seek help. You may ask for Sidony Venaras.