Post by Macha on Sept 20, 2014 14:59:39 GMT -6
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Character Name: Caterina Caelestis
Age:
27
Sex:
Female
Race:
Human
Class:
Rogue
Specializations:
Assassin
Favored skills:
Backstabbing and thievery
Hobbies: Buying clothes, drinking, laughing, listening to stories
Background:
Caterina grew up as many children without parents do in Antiva; faced with one of two options, she took the lesser of two evils and began a life living on the streets, stealing for a living. Until she was about 14, she was allowed to live in the village orphanage, and, poor as it was, they kept her relatively happy, warm, and fed as best they could. It was there that Caterina began to form her current personality. She started life as a jaded, angry child, but when surrounded by the younger children in the orphanage, she felt like she had to protect them. So, she put on a brave, cocky face, and took on a big-sister role to all of them. In that time, she honed her thieving skills (and her running skills, because she was never very good at fighting back), and tried to provide for the orphanage that took care of her.
Despite being happy at the orphanage, by the time she was 14 she could see the strain that her presence was having on the scant funds the caretaker had, and despite the orphanage-woman's protests, Caterina left to live on her own. It was now that she realized she'd have to learn to fight to stay alive. Living on the street, she had no formal training- she simply did whatever worked. She began to take larger targets (rather than petty pickpocketing), and soon she was stealing from the rich to facilitate her own fantasy lifestyle. She stole expensive clothes, jewelery, expensive weapons, and keep a practice of giving half of her 'earnings' to the orphanage where she grew up.
But living of life of petty criminality has a way of catching up with you. By the time she was 18, the Crows were on her. Apparently, one too many nobles had taken offense at having their luxuries stolen by upstart thieves. It occured to her, facing down a Crow she couldn't hope to defeat in an alley way, that calling in the Crows was a spot of overkill—a decent bodyguard or mercenary would have done the job, if they could have caught her. Knowing but not accepting that she had no way of winning, she fell to her knees in front of the assassin and his blade, and begged only one thing: let me join you.
Joining the Crows is no simple process, but she had skills. She was not the deadliest assassin, but she was the sneakiest, and in such a world, the two were almost the same thing. Soon she was taking contracts instead of stealing for her own pleasure. Her skills peaked; her confidence grew. An assassin must not be famous, but she was a Crow well worth the gold it took to buy her. There were times when she would stop by the orphanage on her free time, paying back what she felt she'd owed them in bits and pieces. But soon, she began to feel unworthy of returning. These were slum children, looked down upon by all the rich and beautiful nobles of Antiva, but they were worth more than an assassin who killed for coin. When she stopped coming as frequenelt, the children asked her why she would not come. After that, she stopped returning entirely.
That period was a dark time for her, but she pushed herself through it. The passionate and impulsive and vain-tempered Caterina had all the wealth she needed to live in comfort, and all the Crows of the flock are feared and respected. She would tell herself at night, over and again, that this was something she could do, something she was good at. She could ask for nothing else, a child born without a family or a future.
But Crows, clever as they are, are not invincible. An informant gone missing, a few lines of a report omitted or altered, and she found herself in too far over her head. In perhaps an act of divine irony, she found herself wounded and cornered in an alley much the same as the one she had knelt in eight years before. She did not think that kneeling would save her now. A prayer to Andraste was on her lips when her assailant was handily dispatched by a figure from behind. A hand was extended to her, and waited patiently for her decision. She took it without hesitation.
Her savior introduced himself as a Grey Warden, a lone recruiter for that ancient and noble order. Caterina wasn't so certain how noble wandering the countryside in old, weather-worn clothes, waiting for a Blight that might never come might be. It was, however, a better option than the shame of staying in Antiva as a disgraced Crow. Crows did not leave loose ends, and they did not tolerate failure. Without the Warden, she could be dead within a fortnight.
That Blight that might never come to be, in the end, came to be. As a newly made Grey Warden, there was little she could offer in the way of support, and it wouldn't have mattered anyway. The Hero of Ferelden, a shining example of sacrifice and vigilance in distant Ferelden, had defeated the Archdemon all on her own, and had survived to tell the tale. Caterina travels now to Ferelden, hoping to aid them in their Warden shortage while also hoping to see some more of the world, a remnant of a long-forgotten childhood dream.
Personality:
Caterina can come off as vain and impulsive most of the time, and that is certainly true. She's simply very passionate about everything she does, and sometimes gets carried away. For the people she cares about, she would go to the ends of the earth, and one can always depend on her, even if some of her methods are... strange. She enjoys the finer things in life, there's no dispute about that, but she knows that necessity comes before want (even if she'll complain about it in the interim). She might not be considered the smartest of people, but she has a common sense that comes with living a life on the streets, and her own particular brand of inherent wisdom. She's really very much like an annoying big sister, who will tease you until the cows come home, but who will never fail to defend you and keep your secrets safe. One of her greatest passions is listening to stories and having debates on all kinds of subjects, especially as a way of keeping the boredom of the road at bay.
Weapons/Armor: Being a rogue, Caterina doesn't carry any heavy armor, nor does she keep any large weapons. She prefers to keep a multitude of daggers and knives; because sentimentality is impractical, she doesn't keep any weapons with sentimental value.
