ꕥ — WELCOME TO NEFE COSMIA, DOROTHEA ARNAULT. 🌓
ꕥ — OOC INFORMATION;
name / alias: meg
age: 23
pronouns: they/he
ooc contact: @myrtlenaster on twitter
other characters in xc: neptune (WKTD), saturn (HWBM), izutsumi (dunmeshi), deimos
ꕥ — IC INFORMATION;
name: dorothea arnault
age: 26
pronouns: she/her
series: fire emblem: three houses
canon point: verdant wind unrecruited; post-conclusion of the crossing road. in other words: post-death.
app triggers: discussions of homelessness, parental death, implications of child abuse, canon-typical violence (war, death, etc.), discussions of self-loathing, description of experiencing death/bleeding out, eye trauma.
personality:
on the surface level, dorothea can easily be described as flirtatious and a diva. most of her early time in garreg mach academy was spent flirting with noblemen and women- happily flaunting her charm and charisma. just looking at her makes it clear that she was once a part of the opera company, and a big part of it at that. she knows how to talk to people. she likes talking to people, in fact. some may pass off her kindness and talkative nature as shallow or an act, though there is some truth to it.
dorothea’s a kind person. she has a big heart and oh, by the goddess, does it bleed for the ones she loves. she’ll put aside as much time in the day as necessary to comfort the ones she loves. she’ll even swing her sword and bare her teeth in the face of enemies who would otherwise try to hurt them. everyone she grew up with at the academy was a friend in some way, shape, or form.
and it’s that bleeding heart of hers, that empathy, that made the five year long war she was dragged into so impossibly hard. she’s a sad, lonely woman- burdened by the guilt of the past; both recent and long gone. she wants to be loved, to be seen for who she is beneath the facade she stubbornly puts up- but in the same breath she’s terrified to let her guard down.
something your muse struggles with:
as cliche as it is to say- loving herself. dorothea struggles with loving herself, thinking of herself as someone wholly deserving of love. she struggles with wanting to be loved but being terrified that that love is shallow and insincere. she’s not sure how to love the woman who isn’t the mystical songstress, even less so the woman who lived when all of her friends fell one by one.
your muse’s greatest strength:
though that love for herself is lacking, dorothea has a surprising amount of love for the others around her. she can and will put her foot down and bare her teeth when it’s most needed if it means defending someone who means the world to her. and she’ll stick to that need to defend even if it kills her.
history / background:
you were born to a lady in waiting. you were a crestless child. you were a dead weight. and because of that, you and your mother were flung to the streets of enbarr not long after your birth. you've known only how to struggle and claw your way through life- you never knew the luxury of nobles or better-off people in fodlan. and most of those struggles you went through without the loving touch of a mother, who passed when you were impossibly young. it was through watching and learning what the other children on the street did that you survived.
you learned which restaurants were more likely to lend you a spare meal if you made big enough puppy dog eyes. you learned the difference between clean and dirty water. you learned to keep yourself warm during the harsh winter- to huddle up close to an old furnace, less you freeze to death.
those were skills you learned on your own. one of the few things you had left of your mother came in the form of song. you kept the lullabies she'd hum to you close to your heart- singing them to yourself when you needed comfort the most. though your belief in the goddess was flimsy at best, you swear she was smiling down at you when the divine songstress herself overheard your singing.
suddenly, you had a bed to sleep on of your own. you had meals to eat every night. you had a pillow beneath your head, and a supportive pillar for you to lean back on whenever you needed her. she taught you to defend yourself with more than your own teeth and your nails. she taught you to hone that natural talent into something more. you went from a worthless, throwaway urchin on the streets- to someone the very nobles who once spat and kicked around spent hundreds to see on stage.
it makes you sick now, and it made you sick then. to see men stare up at you in awe when their faces once looked down at you with a look of disgust. you stayed in the opera- making a name for yourself as the mystical songstress. and you were almost content to live out the rest of your life that way.
but the little buzz in the back of your mind- the on that insisted your youth and beauty would wither, and you'd be left all alone again- convinced you to step away from the company. you decided, you had to settle down with someone. someone who had money. someone who had status. someone who could at least pretend to love you, and make sure you were taken care of when your beauty withered and wilted.
so you wrapped a nobleman around your finger, and managed to enroll yourself at garreg mach monastery. you were sorted into the black eagles, standing among the children of nobles as the sole commoner in your class. it grated on you, at first, being near all of them. seeing familiar faces that now smiled at you, when they once scorned you. somehow, against all odds, the rest of your class became close friends to you. you found yourself... comfortable around them. students from other classes, too.
and just as quickly as you began to discover more about yourself, began to become comfortable where you were- everything was thrust into a downward spiral. a strange professor arrived one day, assigned to the golden deer house. and then things began to spiral from there. their father was killed during an encounter with the flame emperor’s lackeys. flayn was kidnapped. disaster after disaster fell one after the other, leading up to the reveal that someone you'd considered a close friend was behind everything all along.
you felt hurt, at first. until she began to explain why she did what she had done. until she told you she wanted to dismantle the very system that had shaken up your life and taken most everything from you. until she promised that somehow, some way, she'd make things right in fodlan.
though you never could have been prepared for the carnage that would follow. five long years of war ended in friends dropping one by one. and somehow, for some reason, you were meant to be one of the last one’s standing. though you knew you were losing; and you’re sure edelgard knew too. you’re pretty sure edelgard could see your faith in her was waning, too. you were beginning to question why she still did what she did- why she didn’t pull back.
why she had to wait until everyone was dead around her. maybe in the beginning, you’d respect that- that push and drive to do what was right. you did respect it, up until bernadetta came back dead. those bodies kept piling up higher and higher. before you knew it, you were flung into the pile yourself. it was a blow from the sword of the creator to your ribs that knocked the life out of you- though of course it wasn’t quick.
(and to think, you’d ask them so nicely to give you a dignified one.)
and part of you wishes it had been quick. because as you lay bleeding out on the ground- awaiting the final blow to put you out of your misery, edelgard stepped in front of you. you saw- no, you felt blood from her splatter across your face. you heard the sword of the creator strike a killing blow to her face.
you’re not sure when either of you died- but you died together. there was that at least.
powers / abilities:
REASON magic.
THUNDER - the bog-standard lightning spell. very basic, but effective.
THORON - a concentrated blast of lightning-based magic.
SAGITTAE - a spell that summons a wave of multiple arrows, which are flung en mass at an enemy.
METEOR - [roxanne by the police plays] ... Rocks! a powerful dark magic spell. dorothea summons a meteor from the sky to drop on her enemies.
AGNEA'S ARROW - an extremely powerful black magic spell that summons an arrow of light from the sky.
FAITH magic.
HEAL - what it says on the tin! this is her only concrete healing skill.
SONGSTRESS - an ability unique to dorothea. if you’re close to her in combat, you feel revitalized. small wounds are healed up.
DANCE - a skill where dorothea… literally dances. it lets you take an additional turn in combat.
inherent abilities:
SINGING - song is what brought her from zero to one hundred; dorothea has a voice and she knows how to use it. she’s particularly talented in operas.
SWORD FIGHTING - dorothea’s become proficient in wielding blades over her time in the war. it’s nothing compared to other combatants, but good enough.
items / weapons:
SWORD OF ZOLTAN - an ancient sword forged by a legendary artisan. it almost appears to look like a bolt of lightning.
GAY LITTLE HAT - an old hat dorothea used to wear in her youth. now, it's more for sentimental value than anything.
SONGBOOK - a personal songbook full of half-written songs and operas. it's been untouched since the war began.
starting ability: reason magic!
starting item: gay little hat!
extra:
dorothea arnault is in desperate need of therapy. please give her therapy.
she’s a bisexual woman with a preference for women / non-binary individuals!
in canon she’s like 5’7” but i’m making her 5’11” because,, i want to.
hold her hand and treat her nicely please and thank you
she’ll be running as the dancer class!
discord id: dorothea.xaracosmia