#veilguard vault

[little-elf-wanders]

Name: Maple (Rook)

Race: Elf

Class: Rogue // Veil Ranger (watch me die immediately)

Faction: Veil Jumpers

Possible Romance: Taash or Davrin (if Effie doesn't romance him)

[little-elf-wanders]

Name: Mouse (Rook)

Race: Either a dwarf or human, undecided as of yet

Class: Warrior // Champion

Faction: Shadow Dragons

Possible Romance: Lace Harding

[little-elf-wanders]

Veilguard Vault: Character Planning

~ Warrior Role ~

Basics

Name: Marsh (Aka Rook)

Age: 29

Gender: Male/Nonbinary 

Height: Average (Note: Short for a Qunari)

Race: Qunari // Tal-Vashoth

Faction: Lords Of Fortune

Class: Warrior // Two-handed

Subclass: Reaper 

Sexuality: Closet Bisexual (He gay panics)

Possible Romance: Lucanis (He makes him feel tall)

Possible Friends: Taash, Harding, Assan, Davrin?, Emmerich, Varric, 

Possible Yikes: Solas, Neve, Davrin?

Possibly Unsure: Davrin, Bellara

Personality

Likes: Money, Loot, Breaking things, Stealing things, Shady business schemes, The ocean, Biting, Changing his hair an ungodly amount of times, Sharp teeth, Coffee, His rings, Bright colours, Adventuring, Flirting his way into and outta situations, Singing (though he won’t like comments about it).

Dislikes: Orlais, Politics, Solas, The law (sorry Neve), Slavers, Being stared at, Big statues, Long debates (he has no attention span), The Qun, Being told what to do. 

Quirks: He picks his teeth when he’s bored, He sharpens his teeth because sometimes he likes to bite people in the middle of battle, Very self conscious that he’s not as big as most Qunari so out of sheer spite he’s learned to use a battle axe, He has a big mouth that often gets him in trouble but he’s also very good at getting out of it, Really wanted to explore under the ocean but it was impossible. (He tried and nearly drowned. Twice.)

Backstory: Marsh was always a scrawnier Qunari than the other boys, which you’d think would mean he’d have more incentive to behave, obey and fit in. It had the opposite effect, as instead it spurred him to rebel and prove himself even harder – growing to quickly learn he hated being told who he was and what he should do, tension built between him and… everyone around him. Somewhere along the way, he developed behavioural issues. He was cocky, had a smart mouth, a shit eating grin and talked too much smack for the kid who got his ass handed to him by the bigger peers. Marsh wasn’t a happy kid, he was an angry kid, leading to multiple incidents in his youth that didn’t earn him any favours. “Marsh” - not his Qun name -wasn’t fit for the Qun. After one incident once he was fed up with his assigned job as a blacksmith, he got into it with his teacher when he kept pocketing materials meant for weaponry, he was caught red handed. A bad fight broke out, which cost him half his horn and earned him half an ear from his assaulter, and although deep down he knew stealing wasn't a smart move, he was too angry at everything to admit it when he had the chance. He was promptly sent to re-education which broke the final straw for him. Unable to accept the Qun or his role, or how everything he did was always wrong, bad or against the Qun, he snapped and snuck away from his home in Kont-aar, moving further into Rivain where he disappeared into trading markets. It was a long journey just to get there and it really let him experience more than he ever would with his teacher. He escaped young at the age of 15 and became a dreaded Tal-Vashoth, where he’d scrap and scavenge anything and everything he could to survive. As it turned out, he was exceptionally good at it. His life in the Qun and his breeding as a Qunari gave him more of an edge than he realised. Inside the Qun, he was weak, yet out here? He had options. So many options. Which he took full advantage of; he watched merchants, watched pirates, watched the people of Rivain and grew incredibly fascinated by their customs, their blatant acceptance and reverence of magic, and just everything he came across felt like seeing colour for the first time – it felt like life, life perfectly wrapped in sea salt air. Marsh swiftly discovered he wasn’t as bad socially as he initially thought – where he’d get pushback, chiding, scolding or flat out strict snaps with the Qun, here he was more… accepted. Some younger kids even began to look up to him when he stuck up for them, and they helped him get better accustomed to life in Dairsmuid. They welcomed his conversation, taught him their language and from there he began to network.

At 17, he established many groups or... gangs, might be the better word, networking with his own little group of troublemakers. Finding information, items, lost things... it all became his talent, of course backed up by his teeth and battle axe. He especially learned of his love of trade through those years. Money, shiny things, bright fabrics, unique items, you name it he got it. He got a hunger for it and a passion for finding things people wanted, things he was never allowed to touch before. 

This led him right into the arms of the Lords Of Fortune, whom he worked with for a good sum of years, and eventually that brought Varric. 

[Image was made on picrew]

[little-elf-wanders]

It's interesting when you recycle characters you have for games because they can change so drastically.

For instance, Marsh is originally a merman character I write in roleplay - a supernatural urban fantasy type deal, he's a barracuda merman who's whole schtick is that he can find people things and has a whole business surrounding it but he's also sort of a conman on the side. He's got ties in both the deep ocean cities and the land cities. And barracuda's are exceptional ambushers, they're the type of fish to steal fish right off human's catches so I tried to find a suitable... build. To me a warrior reaper sounds about on brand. (he'd be a reaver if we had them but I think reaper might be close to reaver? Who knows! but he's a warrior anyway because Lucanis is a rogue and I'm wanting the synergy to match in game since you can combo abilities) The fortune faction also lines up incredibly perfect for that.

The appearance is where I found the most issue. I looked over all the dragon age universe races and had to try to link Marsh to one of them. Elf was out because I already have an idea set in stone for Effie (another completely different recycled character), human would suit him due to his human alter ego but I find humans pretty boring in fantasy games, dwarf just wouldn't fit him, and the only one that made any sense was Qunari. (which I haven't fully committed to ever playing before so this should be a fun step out my comfort zone. I've never been able to be happy with designing one anyway) But he isn't super bulky so it had me scratching my head. The news on the character creation really saved my ass because I thought I'd need to make another elf, but since the sliders are pretty in depth, I'm hoping I can make a twinky Qunari. I doubt I'll get to add his nose bridge piercings, though, but height is also adjustable so I can make him more in line with his merman alter ego. His greyish/silverish skin will also work because he has two forms as a merman; human disguise, where he's definitely more on the tan side, then his medium dark grey and silver scales as a merman, the shades for qunari typically line up with silver and grey so I can match that up. I'm keeping the sharp teef. Even if we can't make teeth like that, canonically, he'll have them in my heart.

Trying to actually design him as a qunari is a nightmare only when I think about the adjustments I need to make, because he has brown hair in human form, and tealish/blue in merman form. So I think settling on the ability to change it a lot will be better, I can also just let him experiment in game with colours to see what might fight better. I have the basic concept in my head but finalising it might need to wait until I see what I can toy with in character creator. The image I do have in my head? I love him, he's a disaster.

So! Basically, what I have so far is;

Qunari

Grey skin - light or dark, as long is it's more grey I'm not picky

Sharp teef

Any piercings the game will allow (facial and ears) Ideally nose bridge spikes or something for the lip or eyebrow

Broken horn

POSSIBLE chipped ear or one being a cauliflower ear - just evidence he's been scrappy

Not a beefcake, he's supposed to be still barracudaish and have a hidden lethality

Short for a Qunari but realistically he'd be about 6'' or 5'10

Tattoo's

Hair can be brown or teal (dyed regularly is also fun) Unsure what his natural hair would have been - white is the typical colour so maybe that. Hairstyle wise I'm picky and stuck. Either something with an undercut or he's got long hair he ties back.

Eyes were supposed to be green but research shows they have more vivid tones, soooo, likely the final concept of him will be yellow or silver eyes, red only if it fits better

Scars - I envision him with an eye scar and a cheek scar in this world

I won't know fully until cc but hey, it's a start!