Welp, it happened again. A character from Ember Mercar's backstory weaseled their way into becoming a full OC. First Rion, now Sevina.
I think Ember deserves a lil toxic yuri in her backstory. For my enrichment 🙂↕️
Sevina Paratus 🩸
Sevina was Ember's handler / manager (but not her trainer) at the gladiator school in Tiberis. Her father owned the ludus and she was his second-in-command.
Ember quickly became Sevina's favorite fighter. They were close in age. Bold, competitive, hungry to prove themselves and rise above their respective stations...
Sevina played a huge role in Ember's gladiator career (and her survival). She mentored Ember, emphasizing the importance of putting on a show - not just winning in the arena. She supplied her with the best training, weapons, intel on opponents... After all, the better Ember fought, the richer and more influential Sevina got.
Her favor provided Ember with considerable protection and benefits... but it also tightened the leash. Sevina was possessive, exacting, and viewed everything as an investment.
Ember's gladiator revolt and escape was a huge blow to the Paratus name. Sevina has been working tirelessly to resurrect her family's reputation and status in the eyes of the Venatori. She's determined to bring Ember back into the fold and right the natural order of things.
Plus, a sneak peak at the Ember x Sevina aka Sever playlist because I think it's cool but I don't have a full post for it yet! ⚔️🩸
Misc. Notes...
Sevina is decently tall. 5'10"-ish
Around 33 years old by the time of Veilguard
Laetan blood mage
She holds a lot of resentment toward Altus mages for power that, in her eyes, was never earned (she conveniently ignores how she's a nepo baby and wealthy human mage in Tevinter lmao)
Her father, Arun Paratus, is a magister. One of the few non-Altus mages in the magisterium who ascended amid some very shady circumstances. Their hold on the seat is tenuous at best
Venatori cultist - the gladiator games are one way that she and her father funded the cult (and provided opportunities for Venatori to test out their experiments with lyrium tattoos, blood magic, etc. on fighters in the arena)
Peers with Zara Renata. Highly respects (and has a lowkey crush on) the other woman and is intrigued by her Ossuary experiments
She has crossed paths with Aelia, but despises her. Thinks the woman is too old-fashioned and backwards-thinking (Aelia also dismissed Sevina and her father for being Laetan non-believers, so there's that beef, too.)
Sevina also thinks puppetting is a waste of energy for anything beyond intelligence gathering. You lose too much of the host's skill and power, and it doesn't scale. She much prefers to lay some sort of blood magic network / mesh over the subject's mind to direct their energy and thoughts rather than take full control.
She is very much a racist who believes in slavery Tevinter mage supremacy even if she counts herself as more progressive Venatori compared to, say, Aelia
I might change her surname, but I don't have a better one in mind. Chose "Paratus" after seeing the name as a genus of spiders on Wikipedia (don't remember how I even got on that page). It also means "prepared" or "ready" in Latin, so it seemed fitting 🙂↕️
The Ember x Sevina ship name is Sever because I think that sounds sick and it being mostly Sevina's name tracks with their dynamic
Yes ok Sevina's nose looks very similar to Neve's but you know what? We're gonna just call that the Tevinter Nose™️ because none of the other options worked with her face!!
I am trying my best to stick to my guns at making Sevina a genuinely toxic person 😂
Sevina is still very much alive post-DATV and is a key player (well, antagonist) in Ember's personal questline
Money, Power, Glory by Lana Del Rey is SUCH a Sevina song
Plus, some bonus photos of Neve's canonical reaction to Sevina if/when she meets her 😂
Ooooh, it's gonna be ON SIGHT with that woman (Neve: *racks her scepter like a shotgun*)
