Merrill

PLAYER INFO

Name: Brantron
Contact Information: FullOfBees
Time Zone: GMT -5
Characters Played: Jinxie Tenma, Squid Girl, Chie Satonaka


CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Merrill
Character Canon: Dragon Age 2

History: Here

AU History: Merrill's people have always been in tune with nature, even farther back than anyone can remember. Long ago - before the forbidden technology that angered the Pokémon was even a thought in humanity's head - Merrill's people lived in harmony with them in a utopia called Arlathan. The details of this civilization have been lost to the ages, but what is known is that it was lost when it was invaded by another, stronger, more warlike people - the ancestors of the modern-day city of Gigas. Merrill's people were subjugated and enslaved for hundreds of years, losing much of their cultural heritage, until the empire collapsed under its own weight and the people were free once again.

With their new found freedom, Merrill's people wandered through the wilds and eventually attempted to build a second home for themselves, renaming themselves the Dalish after the lush green valley they eventually found themselves in. Once again they had isolated themselves from the rest of humanity in an attempt to live peacefully, but they were not isolated from the consequences of their actions. The second Dalish civilization fell five hundred years ago when the Pokémon rebelled and rose up against their masters, and they have been nomads ever since, wandering from place to place but never belonging anywhere.

Merrill herself was training to be the Keeper of her particular clan - the most knowledgeable and learned of the clan, both in the history of the people as well as the most talented in the ways of communing with Pokémon. As she got older, she became interested in studying the lost lore of Arlathan, and earnestly wished for a way to uncover the knowledge that had apparently been swept away by centuries of toil and strife. Her aspirations seemed impossible to achieve, and they likely would have been, had she not happened upon a certain Pokémon and accepted a certain bargain.

As it so happened, the Pokémon she found was a Spiritomb, sealed in a keystone by the Dalish themselves 500 years ago. Although it had been contained there at that time, to hear the Pokémon tell it, it had existed since long before then, gathering power by feeding upon the collective dreams of humanity. Seeing her chance, Merrill eagerly struck a bargain with the Spiritomb, promising to find a way to free it from its keystone prison if it would help her to regain her peoples' heritage. And seeing its chance, the Spiritomb took her up on this bargain, instructing Merrill to perform a ritual that would bind the two together. From that day forward, Merrill's soul joined together with the 108 malign spirits composing the Spiritomb's body, forming a bond not unlike those formed by the use of a Warp Band. And once it was fully unsealed, it promised to reveal the secrets of Arlathan in Merrill's dreams.

Unfortunately, it was not long before Merrill's clan found out about what she had done. The Keeper was especially displeased with her initiative, claiming that the Spiritomb was simply biding its time and waiting to devour her, body and soul, before moving on to destroy the rest of the camp. She had tainted herself in the eyes of her people by accepting its bargain, and no longer had the right to call herself one of them. In the end, she was banished from the camp, taking the keystone with her as they did not wish to fall under its influence should the seal weaken much more.

Without anywhere else to go, Merrill wandered into the wilds. Her clan had been camped just northeast of Union, so after several weeks on her own, she eventually saw the city in the distance and made her way toward the outer gates. She brought the keystone with her, along with a Nincada and a Murkrow she had managed to befriend along the way. Having nowhere else to belong, she felt it would be as good a place as any to try to start over.

Canon Personality: Having been raised as the First to the Keeper of the Dalish clan she hails from, Merrill is both knowledgeable in the ways of her people and terribly naive about the world that exists past the borders of where they make camp. The Dalish themselves, due to their nomadic lifestyle and distrust of other races, tend to cloister themselves away, clinging to what little is left of their heritage and the old ways. And while she is well-versed in the Dalish traditions and as much history as she was able to study under the tutelage of Marethari, Merrill has always been interested in knowing and understanding more. At first, she is afraid of humans, evidenced by her nervous rambling when Hawke and his group first show up on Sundermount to help her with the funeral rites for Flemeth's amulet.

Merrill's studies eventually led her to blood magic, which she learned from a pride demon imprisoned atop Sundermount. This demonstrates both Merrill's naivete and also her determination - she is fully willing to deal with a demon, a known source of incredible danger, for the ultimate goal of studying and restoring the history of her people. It also speaks to her resourcefulness and capability for spiritual endurance, as she was able to successfully bargain with the demon for power without showing the slightest sign of becoming an abomination herself in the process. Merrill may be somewhat shy and mousy in social interactions in general, but she is confident in her skills as far as magic and dealing with demons are concerned.

In fact, Merrill's attitude toward demons in general is what you might call some strange combination of flippancy, confidence, and (again) extreme naivete. She does not draw a line between demons and the more benevolent spirits that reside in the Fade, claiming that they are all dangerous to deal with in their own way, but also takes a more humanistic approach to it all by explaining that spirits simply have differing personalities and dispositions just as people do. Just as there are people who would trick you and murder you for power, there are spirits who would do the same. And just as there are benevolent people who only want to help, there are also spirits with this desire. And everything in between as well, of course. She manages to be very common sense about the whole thing but also rather concerning in her lightheartedness toward the whole issue at the same time.

Having been raised almost exclusively by the Dalish, Merrill is terminally awkward when dealing with unfamiliar situations, races, and societies - which, in Dragon Age 2, is basically everything she deals with after you recruit her into the party. She still peppers much of her speech with phrases from her native tongue, misses jokes and double entendres constantly, takes sarcasm utterly at face value, and is slow on the uptake when it comes to deliberate deception. She babbles when she is nervous, and also has a slight tendency toward self-deprecation. She can also come off as distant and lonely at times, frequently becoming homesick for her clan or holding in her worries about whether she is really doing the right thing for them. It can take her a while to truly open up to someone, but once she does, they have a friend for life.

AU Deviation: Merrill is somewhat less withdrawn than her canon counterpart, owing to two factors. First, her people are simply another tribe of humans rather than a different race entirely, so there's at least a common ancestry to follow when she comes to Union. Second, dealing with Dark type Pokemon isn't nearly as big of a stigma or even half as dangerous in this world as blood magic and consorting with demons are in the world of Dragon Age 2. It's still taboo among her people and was enough to get her banished from the clan, but it's not likely to be looked upon all that oddly anywhere else, and there's no social structure like the Chantry or the Templars in place to oppress her for her views or actions in Union as there was in Kirkwall.

She's still carting around a potentially dangerous artifact with her in the keystone as a counterpart to the Eluvian, but the Spiritomb that will come out as a result of repairing it is far less likely to devour her soul and murder half the city than the pride demon that was imprisoned at Sundermount. Having dealt with it before and speaking with it periodically in her dreams, Merrill knows this, and is both more confident about what she's doing and will also be less secretive about it once she finds people in Union that she feels she can trust. Building that trust will also most likely be a faster process than it was for Hawke and his group in the events of the actual game.

Merrill will be slightly more worldly in BNW as well, considering her closer relationship to other groups of humans. While I still plan to have her employ some phrases from the Dalish tongue from Dragon Age, she will not use quite as many of them, and she will probably only miss roughly half of the lies and jokes she encounters instead of ninety percent of them.

Canon Abilities: Depending on where Merrill's level up points are placed in DA2, she can learn lots of different sorts of spells. For purposes of this application, I'm going to be assuming a Merrill with her points in Entropy and Dalish Pariah. Entropy spells are mostly status effects and debuffs, and Dalish Pariah is Merrill's blood magic, comprising both nature effects as well as sacrificing her own health to power up her magic.

Enlightened Abilities:
Merrill will have the Child of the Verdant Forest ability, and be aligned with the Fairy and Dark types. For ease of icons, her types will manifest in the slightly pointed ears and tattoos she has in Dragon Age 2. Upon her first evolution, they will glow with a faint purplish light resembling that of a Spiritomb's body when she activates her abilities. At her second evolution, one of her eyes will permanently take on a spiral pattern to the iris, and small green orbs of light will periodically orbit her body while using her powers. These gradual changes are due to her deepening bond with the Spiritomb she bargained with to get most of her abilities in the first place.

Starting Abilities: Hex of Torment, Horror, and Sleep as seen above on the Entropy spell list; Blood of the First from Dalish Pariah.
First Evolution: Hex of Torment upgrades to Death Hex, 2Horror Upgrades to Despair; learns Misdirection Hex and Entropic Cloud from Entropy and Wrath of the Elvhen from Dalish Pariah.
Second Evolution: Misdirection Hex upgrades to Shackling Hex, Entropic Cloud upgrades to Death Cloud; learns Wounds of the Past and Arlathan's Grace from Dalish Pariah.

In terms of type affinity, here's how I'm breaking her spells down:
Dark Type: Hex of Torment, Death Hex, Horror, Despair, Blood of the First, Entropic Cloud, Death Cloud, Wounds of the Past
Fairy Type: Sleep, Misdirection Hex, Shackling Hex, Wrath of the Elvhen, Arlathan's Grace

In addition, Merrill will start out with a staff from her time with the Dalish. This weapon is aligned with the Ground type and is capable of reproducing the effects of the move Mud-Slap.

Starter Pokémon: Nincada and Murkrow

Notes/Special Considerations: I'd like to have Merrill's first evolution at level 30 coincide with the unsealing of the Spiritomb she's carting around inside the keystone she keeps with her, with the end result being bonding with it as another of her Warp Band Pokémon. I assume this will require a player plot of some variety to either collect materials for the ritual or weaken the seal on the keystone, but if it's fine to just have it happen when she evolves as a result of gaining more power, just let me know and I'll roll it into her development.

SAMPLES
(NOTE: You may link a previous entry or thread, including testrun or musebox threads (but NOT Dear Mun), for one or both samples. However, we want to see the character in the setting of Brave New World and specifically in their AU for at least one sample.)

First-Person: Test run thread with Calcifer

Third-Person:
-What do you feel your role in Union is? Oh, it would be nice to have a role. I'm not sure that I really do. None that I know about, anyway. How do you find out if you've got one?

-What do you seek for humanity's future? To learn more about our past.

-What does the story of the Savior mean to you? I've only just heard the Savior's story, but it was very inspiring. I think it means that no matter how frightening or violent a Pokémon is, there's always a way to befriend them if you know how to talk to them.

-You are alone and bereft of your Pokémon allies, upon what strengths do you rely on to see yourself safely home? Couldn't I just befriend some new Pokémon to help me get home?

-What would you say is your greatest duty, and why? My greatest duty is to discover and preserve the history of my people... even if they don't agree with how I've chosen to go about it.

-In your eyes, what is absolutely unforgivable? Slavery. Destroying knowledge. They're both pretty terrible.