Post by Zabrard on Aug 30, 2014 7:15:33 GMT -6
Character Name : Victoria Semper
Age : 32
Sex : Female
Race : Human
Class : Warrior
Specializations : None to date
Favored skills : Archery skills (Crossbow) : high accuracy and pinning shots; trap making
Hobbies : Crossbows and trap-making, hiking, playing cards, free servings of fresh justice every day. Surprisingly an excellent dancer, though she’ll most likely never show it. She enjoys the occasional reading, and drawing up new mechanism designs for… whatever purpose she can think of.
Background :
When an officer of the law thinks it’s ok to beat up a suspect within an inch of his life until he finally talks, you know rights are being ignored.
When arbitrary sentences are pronounced and executed by a simple sheriff, without appeal to a Blackhaller, you know justice is being betrayed.
When a petty thief is shot dead in broad daylight without warning, under mandate of the local bann, you know power is being abused.
But when the law-enforcer is Victoria Semper, you just shut your damn mouth and keep it low.
It was perhaps prophetic that Victoria be born from a small village’s local blacksmith, as watching her father at work seared into the girl the image of what she would later become : a lady of steel, fired up by years of home-schooled martial trainings, and quenched by her sudden promotion as sheriff, after the Bann noticed her swiftness in law enforcement. Never before had the tax collector met so little resistance; never before had the Chantry had to take care of so many injured. For ten years the Kings’ blackhallers were only called upon to solve legal disputes over heirloom and land shares : problems of common criminality mysteriously took care of themselves. Drunkards were beaten to near death as soon as they started making a scene, and beggars were literally kicked out of town; thieves were hung on the marketplace and the impaled bodies of bandits, displayed as scarecrows along the road, served as warnings to the rest : law was being upheld, and Victoria and her town guards had no patience for taking prisoners.
She was an annoyance to many, and an outright danger in the eyes of others, but whenever complains were made, they would slam into the claims that she was just “doing her job” and simply “upholding the law”. Still, the bannorn enjoyed years of utter and absolute peace, and even if the inhabitants of Ferelden aren’t traditionally used to the strict enforcement of law, the freeholders were at least tough enough to appreciate the discipline, and somewhat grateful for Victoria’s unwavering integrity and honesty. This was all fine by the Bann, a stern man, much like Victoria in spirit, who was more than happy to see order so unshakably maintained. To some kids, she was a hero; to some men, she was a nuisance; to all, she was simply there, and it seemed no one could do a thing about it.
Until of course, something had to happen, when one day, before leaving for her monthly visit to outer-lying estates and farms, Victoria witnessed what little soldiers the Bann could afford to equip all assembling in the village. She was called to stay and lend a hand; she did so without even asking the questions that were burning her tongue. At any rate, the answers came by themselves, some time before high noon : a platoon of soldiers approached the town, outnumbering the defenders two to one.
Loghain was finally making his push.
A fierce battle ensued. When the assailants were finally driven back, at nightfall, Victoria was standing with a handful of militiamen in the middle of burnt-down ruins. Not a soul had been spared by these outsiders who, judging by the sound of their screams, weren’t all Fereldans. For the next hour, and for the first time without a word or purpose, Victoria wandered among the desolation, aghast. The silence was deafening, and the sickening smell of ashes and burnt flesh gave the whole scene a surreal hellish appearance. She had seen her father’s murderer, but he had managed to run away before she could react. Yet it wasn’t until she realized that both her sister and her niece, among some others, had gone missing, that things started to get really personal. But shell-shocked as she was, even that failed to get Victoria to react.
Ridden by the destruction of his lands, with the grim outlook of the civil war and the Blight closing in, the Bann offered his sheriff to take her much deserved leave, with a generous grant of forty sovereigns. Blank-minded, she mechanically refused and swore to stick by her oaths. She remained in the manor, barely speaking a word, waiting for what was next. But when the Darkspawns swarmed in, not two weeks after Loghain’s skirmish, there was nothing that could be done to hold them back, and for the second time in ten days raging fires took everything from Victoria. At long last, she found herself out of business, but unfortunately for them, all those who could have enjoyed it had been fired as well.
After a few days, she finally snapped. Without duty to hold her in place, she set herself on a quest for justice – or was it revenge? – sweeping across Ferelden’s countryside, looking for answers and ready to kill. Oblivious to the wars around her, Victoria pursued her one-track road with implacable ruthlessness and brutality. But it soon became obvious – even to her – that she had given the soldiers-murderers a critical head start and that catching them might well be near-impossible. Heartsick, she turned her attention to the world around her once more, feeling a certain need for order and protection : for a time Victoria proclaimed herself civil servant once more, dedicated to helping the innocent as she could, sniping down deserters as they fled, killing Darkspawns as they came.
When news of the Archdemon’s death reached her, the ex-sheriff managed to reunite with her remaining family in Denerim. Alas, in these new times of peace she quickly found out that her personality would fit only her late Bann : now her violence and self-righteousness was judged annoying and counter-productive, and few were willing to give her a chance. Victoria is now a bit lost, far from her hometown and her old life. Only a few things remain certain in her life, The Law, the arbitrary need to enforce it, and a burning desire for sweet, personal justice against the criminals who ravaged her lands : some unknown soldiers of unknown loyalties, and Darkspawns.
Personality :
“Break The Law, and The Law breaks you.”
At first, Victoria seems like a much nicer person than her story would lead to expect, although as thick as her former occupation would imply. She talks with ease and keeps a calm voice most of the time, she likes to crack a joke every now and then, enjoys playing cards in the evening, and taking casual strolls through the countryside. In private company, she always appears to be in a good mood, with a polite smile constantly stretching her lips, and an overall very civil attitude, extremely revealing of her former sheriff days. More thorough investigation, however, reveals a rather limited spectrum of emotions : she smiles but never grins, jokes but never laughs, talks but never says.
Far from antipathy, Victoria just has a one-track mind and a hard time getting interested in things and people. But should something catch her attention, she will show herself to be extremely dedicated, entirely focused on the task at hand, a workaholic aiming at nothing less than perfection. With the few people she grows a little bit closer to, she will be courteously obliging, loyal, and almost forgiving for the luckiest ones. Victoria believes in laws more than anything else, in her eyes mankind’s greatest achievement; as a result, she prides herself of the order and discipline she puts in everything she does.
There is one thing about her, that people quickly come to learn, and often the hard way : the ex-sheriff, as she always was, is (i]extremely authoritative[/i]. Losing her office at the hands of the war doesn’t mean she has lost her will to enforce The Law, and as always she tends to be swift, brutal, and unforgiving in its execution. To this woman of principle, there are no small infractions, and above all no excuses, so don’t let her catch you slipping an additional card during a late-evening game : you just might lose a hand. Victoria has never hurt an innocent, or at least so she claims, but then again all those who could testify are now dead.
Weapons/Armor :
Victoria manufactures her own crossbows, and she has grown pretty good at it. Taking some skills from her blacksmith father (though it’s her older brother who inherited the trade), she developed by herself a curious liking for gears, cranks, levers, and mechanisms of all kind. As a result, she designs heavy crossbows that are surprisingly easy to reload, with rewinding systems that take the best of a man’s muscle strength (Victoria’s childhood dreams actually include building catapults and ballistae). Similarly she produces her own types of bolts, which can exhibit more variety than those commonly found on markets : longer and finer for long-range shooting, diamond-tipped for absolute penetration…
As side arms, the ex-sheriff also wields a longsword, a utility knife tucked in her belt, and even an all-purpose hatchet, just for the occasional dead tree, or thief. Over the course of her people-hunting experience, she has learned to craft a variety of traps that have caught their share of runaways.
Since she forsook her uniform in the latest days of the Blight, Victoria wears whatever armor she can afford, preferring mail or scales over more imposing platings, favoring flexibility and mobility over absolute solidity. She is after all, more used to running after people than having to run from them.
Appearance : (pics incoming)
5 feet 8 inches tall (also 1.73 m in civilized countries), Victoria has a rather powerful body structure, radiating about as much femininity as her personality and demeanor. As far as strength is concerned, even though she ditched the shield early on and doesn’t use her sword that much, remember she manually reloads heavy arbalests dozens of time a day just for training; remember that in the heat of action, she can do it with one hand. If one can get past the muscles and the thick head, the woman is not unattractive, but even her large chestnut eyes seem to steer away from what lies directly before them, preferring to focus away on some distant horizon.
On the inside note, Victoria was born with a condition known as "situs inversus totalis"
Age : 32
Sex : Female
Race : Human
Class : Warrior
Specializations : None to date
Favored skills : Archery skills (Crossbow) : high accuracy and pinning shots; trap making
Hobbies : Crossbows and trap-making, hiking, playing cards, free servings of fresh justice every day. Surprisingly an excellent dancer, though she’ll most likely never show it. She enjoys the occasional reading, and drawing up new mechanism designs for… whatever purpose she can think of.
Background :
When an officer of the law thinks it’s ok to beat up a suspect within an inch of his life until he finally talks, you know rights are being ignored.
When arbitrary sentences are pronounced and executed by a simple sheriff, without appeal to a Blackhaller, you know justice is being betrayed.
When a petty thief is shot dead in broad daylight without warning, under mandate of the local bann, you know power is being abused.
But when the law-enforcer is Victoria Semper, you just shut your damn mouth and keep it low.
It was perhaps prophetic that Victoria be born from a small village’s local blacksmith, as watching her father at work seared into the girl the image of what she would later become : a lady of steel, fired up by years of home-schooled martial trainings, and quenched by her sudden promotion as sheriff, after the Bann noticed her swiftness in law enforcement. Never before had the tax collector met so little resistance; never before had the Chantry had to take care of so many injured. For ten years the Kings’ blackhallers were only called upon to solve legal disputes over heirloom and land shares : problems of common criminality mysteriously took care of themselves. Drunkards were beaten to near death as soon as they started making a scene, and beggars were literally kicked out of town; thieves were hung on the marketplace and the impaled bodies of bandits, displayed as scarecrows along the road, served as warnings to the rest : law was being upheld, and Victoria and her town guards had no patience for taking prisoners.
She was an annoyance to many, and an outright danger in the eyes of others, but whenever complains were made, they would slam into the claims that she was just “doing her job” and simply “upholding the law”. Still, the bannorn enjoyed years of utter and absolute peace, and even if the inhabitants of Ferelden aren’t traditionally used to the strict enforcement of law, the freeholders were at least tough enough to appreciate the discipline, and somewhat grateful for Victoria’s unwavering integrity and honesty. This was all fine by the Bann, a stern man, much like Victoria in spirit, who was more than happy to see order so unshakably maintained. To some kids, she was a hero; to some men, she was a nuisance; to all, she was simply there, and it seemed no one could do a thing about it.
Until of course, something had to happen, when one day, before leaving for her monthly visit to outer-lying estates and farms, Victoria witnessed what little soldiers the Bann could afford to equip all assembling in the village. She was called to stay and lend a hand; she did so without even asking the questions that were burning her tongue. At any rate, the answers came by themselves, some time before high noon : a platoon of soldiers approached the town, outnumbering the defenders two to one.
Loghain was finally making his push.
A fierce battle ensued. When the assailants were finally driven back, at nightfall, Victoria was standing with a handful of militiamen in the middle of burnt-down ruins. Not a soul had been spared by these outsiders who, judging by the sound of their screams, weren’t all Fereldans. For the next hour, and for the first time without a word or purpose, Victoria wandered among the desolation, aghast. The silence was deafening, and the sickening smell of ashes and burnt flesh gave the whole scene a surreal hellish appearance. She had seen her father’s murderer, but he had managed to run away before she could react. Yet it wasn’t until she realized that both her sister and her niece, among some others, had gone missing, that things started to get really personal. But shell-shocked as she was, even that failed to get Victoria to react.
Ridden by the destruction of his lands, with the grim outlook of the civil war and the Blight closing in, the Bann offered his sheriff to take her much deserved leave, with a generous grant of forty sovereigns. Blank-minded, she mechanically refused and swore to stick by her oaths. She remained in the manor, barely speaking a word, waiting for what was next. But when the Darkspawns swarmed in, not two weeks after Loghain’s skirmish, there was nothing that could be done to hold them back, and for the second time in ten days raging fires took everything from Victoria. At long last, she found herself out of business, but unfortunately for them, all those who could have enjoyed it had been fired as well.
After a few days, she finally snapped. Without duty to hold her in place, she set herself on a quest for justice – or was it revenge? – sweeping across Ferelden’s countryside, looking for answers and ready to kill. Oblivious to the wars around her, Victoria pursued her one-track road with implacable ruthlessness and brutality. But it soon became obvious – even to her – that she had given the soldiers-murderers a critical head start and that catching them might well be near-impossible. Heartsick, she turned her attention to the world around her once more, feeling a certain need for order and protection : for a time Victoria proclaimed herself civil servant once more, dedicated to helping the innocent as she could, sniping down deserters as they fled, killing Darkspawns as they came.
When news of the Archdemon’s death reached her, the ex-sheriff managed to reunite with her remaining family in Denerim. Alas, in these new times of peace she quickly found out that her personality would fit only her late Bann : now her violence and self-righteousness was judged annoying and counter-productive, and few were willing to give her a chance. Victoria is now a bit lost, far from her hometown and her old life. Only a few things remain certain in her life, The Law, the arbitrary need to enforce it, and a burning desire for sweet, personal justice against the criminals who ravaged her lands : some unknown soldiers of unknown loyalties, and Darkspawns.
Personality :
“Break The Law, and The Law breaks you.”
At first, Victoria seems like a much nicer person than her story would lead to expect, although as thick as her former occupation would imply. She talks with ease and keeps a calm voice most of the time, she likes to crack a joke every now and then, enjoys playing cards in the evening, and taking casual strolls through the countryside. In private company, she always appears to be in a good mood, with a polite smile constantly stretching her lips, and an overall very civil attitude, extremely revealing of her former sheriff days. More thorough investigation, however, reveals a rather limited spectrum of emotions : she smiles but never grins, jokes but never laughs, talks but never says.
Far from antipathy, Victoria just has a one-track mind and a hard time getting interested in things and people. But should something catch her attention, she will show herself to be extremely dedicated, entirely focused on the task at hand, a workaholic aiming at nothing less than perfection. With the few people she grows a little bit closer to, she will be courteously obliging, loyal, and almost forgiving for the luckiest ones. Victoria believes in laws more than anything else, in her eyes mankind’s greatest achievement; as a result, she prides herself of the order and discipline she puts in everything she does.
There is one thing about her, that people quickly come to learn, and often the hard way : the ex-sheriff, as she always was, is (i]extremely authoritative[/i]. Losing her office at the hands of the war doesn’t mean she has lost her will to enforce The Law, and as always she tends to be swift, brutal, and unforgiving in its execution. To this woman of principle, there are no small infractions, and above all no excuses, so don’t let her catch you slipping an additional card during a late-evening game : you just might lose a hand. Victoria has never hurt an innocent, or at least so she claims, but then again all those who could testify are now dead.
Weapons/Armor :
Victoria manufactures her own crossbows, and she has grown pretty good at it. Taking some skills from her blacksmith father (though it’s her older brother who inherited the trade), she developed by herself a curious liking for gears, cranks, levers, and mechanisms of all kind. As a result, she designs heavy crossbows that are surprisingly easy to reload, with rewinding systems that take the best of a man’s muscle strength (Victoria’s childhood dreams actually include building catapults and ballistae). Similarly she produces her own types of bolts, which can exhibit more variety than those commonly found on markets : longer and finer for long-range shooting, diamond-tipped for absolute penetration…
As side arms, the ex-sheriff also wields a longsword, a utility knife tucked in her belt, and even an all-purpose hatchet, just for the occasional dead tree, or thief. Over the course of her people-hunting experience, she has learned to craft a variety of traps that have caught their share of runaways.
Since she forsook her uniform in the latest days of the Blight, Victoria wears whatever armor she can afford, preferring mail or scales over more imposing platings, favoring flexibility and mobility over absolute solidity. She is after all, more used to running after people than having to run from them.
Appearance : (pics incoming)
{Head}
{Armor}
5 feet 8 inches tall (also 1.73 m in civilized countries), Victoria has a rather powerful body structure, radiating about as much femininity as her personality and demeanor. As far as strength is concerned, even though she ditched the shield early on and doesn’t use her sword that much, remember she manually reloads heavy arbalests dozens of time a day just for training; remember that in the heat of action, she can do it with one hand. If one can get past the muscles and the thick head, the woman is not unattractive, but even her large chestnut eyes seem to steer away from what lies directly before them, preferring to focus away on some distant horizon.
On the inside note, Victoria was born with a condition known as "situs inversus totalis"