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The Iron Bull | Dragon Age: Inquisition | Skala
PLAYER
Player Name: K
Pronouns: she/her
Are you over 18? Yep!
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
givemedragons
Current Characters: N/A
Triggers: I would like CWs provided for images of many-legged insects, general CWs for sexual assault, child abuse, eye injuries, and body horror; I can any of handle those if I have a head's up.
Invited by: I forgot to get a reserve up and just wanted to note I was invited by Cassdandymott!
Pronouns: she/her
Are you over 18? Yep!
Contact:
Current Characters: N/A
Triggers: I would like CWs provided for images of many-legged insects, general CWs for sexual assault, child abuse, eye injuries, and body horror; I can any of handle those if I have a head's up.
Invited by: I forgot to get a reserve up and just wanted to note I was invited by Cass
STATISTICS
Character Name: The Iron Bull
Character Canon: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Character Age: early 40s
Canon Point: post Demands of the Qun
Link to History: Link
Skills:
Abilities:
Curse Mark: Skala
Character Canon: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Character Age: early 40s
Canon Point: post Demands of the Qun
Link to History: Link
Skills:
- Spy: Bull has spent most of his life as a spy, in one way or another. Through both training and experience, he has become exceedingly good at reading people and situations, constantly calculating and sifting through information. Bull is observant and intelligent, and is able to form complex pictures in his mind as he weighs potential outcomes. Despite sticking out like a sore thumb no matter where he goes in the south, he somehow manages to get people to led their guard down. He's good at rolling with assumptions, able to act the way people think he should.
- Warrior & Survivor: Bull is a well-trained warrior and spy with all the skills that accompany those jobs. As a 7'6" Qunari, his physical strength is impressive and he often works with large, heavy weapons. Qunari skin is tougher than human skin but can still be cut or pierced with enough force. He spent nearly a decade fighting on the semi-tropical island of Seheron, a highly contested territory that regularly saw guerrilla warfare and open incursions. He has been trained to survive and thrive in multiple environments with limited support and has spent the last 10+ years leading a mercenary group and working for the Inquisition, fighting and treasure-hunting in all manner of places from deserts to jungles to mountain ranges. Bull's specialty class is Reaver: as the battle gets bloodier, he gets more brutal. Hurting him just makes him mad, a mistake most enemies don't live to repeat. These abilities come at a cost. When the battle is finally over, Bull is often drained and, due to his tendency to ignore and fight through his injuries, he may sustain deep wounds that need immediate care or time to recover from blood loss.
- All-Purpose: By necessity, Bull knows how to do a little bit of everything. He's intelligent and observant, and he can learn things quickly either through observation of being taught; he's a good student and a good teacher. He picks up skills and languages quickly when he's motivated to do so.
- Caretaker: From childhood, Bull has sought to take care of people. He acted as a second caregiver for the other children in his cohort, reporting to the tamassrans when someone wasn't feeling well or was about to cause trouble. When he forms his own mercenary company, Bull treats the Chargers like his family. He takes in misfits and outcasts, gives them a home, and takes care of them all as best he can. His protective nature is what led him to lose his left eye.
Abilities:
- None, really. Other than his size, strength, and training, Bull is not particularly special. However, I'm including his fighting style here because, while not supernatural, it does possibly border on it.
- Reaver - In theory this is less a superhuman ability and more of a school of training, but it gives him kind of a berserker vibe. With this specialization, Bull turns the chaos (and pain) of battle to his advantage with a series of powerful (and potentially dangerous) offensive abilities. This is a high-risk/high-reward discipline, since most of the abilities benefit the warrior when their health is low. Basically, Bull has learned how to scare the shit out of people on the battlefield and inflict even more damage when he's hurting himself.
Curse Mark: Skala
CHARACTERIZATION
FORMATIVE EXPERIENCES:
PHILOSOPHY: For his entire life, Bull has lived under the Qun. The Qun teaches that all living things have a place and a purpose, and only when they are in the correct place and in control of their self may a being attain balance. When balance is lost, suffering follows. Mastery of the self is, therefore, the first and greatest duty. Prior to breaking from his people, Bull exercised his duties with perfect devotion, understanding that he played a role and that role was essential to the rest of society. Though Bull has grown more lax about self-discipline in some ways, he still maintains strict routines whenever he can manage them to keep his mind and his body in order. When all of that is put into question, Bull suffers serious doubt and guilt. Even after breaking from the Qunari, Bull still believes that the Qun is a helpful philosophy for many people. In his new life outside of the Qun, Bull is learning how to reprioritize his concerns: first and foremost come the people in his life, not some philosophy.
DESIRES: Bull has relatively few real desires... but he's learning to have more. Until recently, wanting things just wasn't important, or had to take a back seat to following the tenets of the Qun. He wants most to learn how to make peace with his past and move forward in a life without everything he's known before. He wants to remain stable and useful. This involves finding balance between the beliefs that governed so much of his life and freedom to pick and choose quick parts work for him and which don't.
FEARS:
- Some Notes: The Qun is a philosophy, not really a religion. It dictates most aspects of life for the Qunari. They do not have family units, children are raised in cohorts by women called tamassrans. Qunari also do not have names as most people think of them - they have job titles. Often they will give each other nicknames, but those are unofficial. Tamassrans fulfill many duties, including raising and teaching children; taking care of the infirm, sick, or elderly; and recommending their charges for future duties.
- Too Smart, Child: - Sometime in his childhood, Bull's tamassran began calling him Ashkaari. The name that means "one who seeks" or "one who thinks" and is typically reserved for scholars and scientists, or enlightened priests. Too clever for his own good, young Ashkaari surprised everyone. Given his size - big and strong for his age - the general assumption was that he would become a soldier and enter training with the army when he was old enough. But the tamassran who raised him saw his cleverness, his willingness and ability to follow the letter of orders, though not always the spirit. Such ability to transgress without breaking rules would not do in the army. This behavior as a child changed the course of his adulthood, for better or worse. His tamassrans recommended him for training in the Ben-Hassrath, a sort of secret police and spy network both among the Qunari and in foreign countries. He becomes Hissrad (keeper of illusions).
- Seheron: - "Seheron is a sack of cats." After proving himself in the Ben-Hassrath with domestic missions, Hissrad was sent to Seheron, a hotly contested island between Tevinter and the Qunari. There he faced incursions from Tevinter, marauding Tal-Vashoth (people who have abandoned the Qun), and native rebels fighting on multiple fronts. Two years of active service was generally the maximum time most agents served before the prolonged stress rendered them unable to carry out their duties, if they survived that long in the first place. Hissrad lasted there for eight years before he burned out, rising through the ranks as his superiors broke down or died. Before his last major battle, Hissrad's unit suffered heavy losses when a friendly merchant was pressured into giving Bull's men poisoned bread; the same bread was given to a group of children. Something in Hissrad broke then, and he mounted an assault on a stronghold in the jungle, losing several more men in the process. Some of his soldiers escaped, and when they came back with reinforcements, they found Bull covered in wounds, surrounded by the butchered corpses, and unmoving. In that moment, Hissrad declared himself unfit for duty and requested to be sent to the Ben-Hassrath re-educators: "Put me down or fix me."
- Orlais: - After spending time in Par Vollen to recover from Seheron and to go through the re-education process, the Ben-Hassrath reassigned Hissrad to Orlais to work undercover there. There, he took on the cover of being Tal-Vashoth, someone who has abandoned the Qunari and their way of life. As Tal-Vashoth often name themselves, that's when Hissrad became the Iron Bull. Bull used his mercenary company to gather information on Orlesian nobles and fed the intelligence back to the Ben-Hassrath. It's here that Bull starts having an identity crisis. For 30 years, he lived among other Qunari and so abiding by the Qun was easy. Here, he is a lone practitioner and must keep it a secret. He has no one to turn to when he has a crisis of faith and must weather difficult questions on his own. He's able to laze about and overindulge, clear violations of the Qun, as much as he wants to. His letters to Par Vollen become a lifeline, and he sends them with unwavering devotion. Orlais is also the place where Bull learned how to deal with everyone else staring at him - Orlais is mostly humans with dwarves and elves here and there. He stands out, people make a lot of assumptions based on bad information and hearsay about the Qunari and Tal-Vashoth. But that's fine. He can handle it. To cope with both loneliness and the demands of his job, Bull ends up making a little family out of the Chargers. They're his people, as much as they can be when he's not who he says he is.
- Demands of the Qun: - Some time after the Bull and his Chargers join the Inquisition forces, the Inquisitor receives a letter from the Ben-Hassrath offering an alliance. Politically, this is unheard of: the Qunari don't ally with anyone. The mission the Ben-Hassrath request help with involves the Inquisition - and by extension, Bull's Chargers - clearing a beach so a Qunari dreadnought ship can make it in. The Chargers hold one hill while Bull, the Inquistior, and a few other Ben-Hassrath agents go to hold another. From their hill, Bull can see enemy forces closing in on the Chargers and must make a decision: attack the enemy and give away their position, which would endanger the dreadnought, or let the Chargers hold the hill - and likely die doing it. In this tense moment, Bull has his former comrade Gatt reminding him who he is and what he stands for, what the Qun demands. Bull turns to the Inquisitor and for a few seconds he looks helpless to make this decision. Betray the Qun, or let his family die. Ultimately, the Inquisitor makes the call to rescue the Chargers and Bull commits to it without hesitation. The dreadnought, no longer protected from enemy forces, is unable to make landfall and is destroyed. In the aftermath, Gatt accuses Bull of abandoning the Qun and his people, of betraying them all, and leaves. Bull must reconcile what he's done with the life he's lived until now. This single act has made him anathema to the Qunari and he will not be welcomed back. He can never go home again. For most of his life he has been afraid of what he might become without the Qun. Now he has to find out.
PHILOSOPHY: For his entire life, Bull has lived under the Qun. The Qun teaches that all living things have a place and a purpose, and only when they are in the correct place and in control of their self may a being attain balance. When balance is lost, suffering follows. Mastery of the self is, therefore, the first and greatest duty. Prior to breaking from his people, Bull exercised his duties with perfect devotion, understanding that he played a role and that role was essential to the rest of society. Though Bull has grown more lax about self-discipline in some ways, he still maintains strict routines whenever he can manage them to keep his mind and his body in order. When all of that is put into question, Bull suffers serious doubt and guilt. Even after breaking from the Qunari, Bull still believes that the Qun is a helpful philosophy for many people. In his new life outside of the Qun, Bull is learning how to reprioritize his concerns: first and foremost come the people in his life, not some philosophy.
DESIRES: Bull has relatively few real desires... but he's learning to have more. Until recently, wanting things just wasn't important, or had to take a back seat to following the tenets of the Qun. He wants most to learn how to make peace with his past and move forward in a life without everything he's known before. He wants to remain stable and useful. This involves finding balance between the beliefs that governed so much of his life and freedom to pick and choose quick parts work for him and which don't.
FEARS:
- Losing Control: Bull has a deep and abiding fear of madness and losing control, of something terrible inside him that will try to come out. He's afraid of being a danger to himself and others. This fear is born of his mental break in Seheron, when he became a mindless, frenzied killing thing that could not stop until there was nothing left alive. Bull is afraid of losing control of himself, of having his mind taken from him. Every other fear Bull has ultimately leads back to this.
- Demons: And demons. Demons are fucking scary. This still leads back to losing control, as Bull has been afraid of being possessed by a demon from a young age - in his world, this can sometimes happen and while unlikely, is a valid fear. He doesn't want anything to be able to wield power through him.
GAMEPLAY
SUITABILITY: On the one hand, Bull won the application roulette. On the other, I think there's a lot about him that fit here. The general themes of the game are ones I enjoy playing and Bull lends himself to both sex and monstrosity. He's being put into a situation that yanks him from all the support structures he'd typically have, people and routines that he kind of depends on to help him keep it together. That's not to say he's going to break - he's strong and stubborn, but he also tends to carry a lot more weight than he should. With the possibility of becoming a monster - something he has feared for the better part of his life - he will be inclined to do what he can to avoid it. But maybe that won't always be possible. Or preferable.
Though Bull doesn't preach, he will probably lean more into the Qun for the sake of some kind of familiar structure. This won't necessarily cause conflict, but it could with other characters depending on what he reveals/what they learn.
Until recently, the Iron Bull viewed sexual relationships and emotionally intimate relationships as generally mutually exclusive. He comes from a culture that does not put any value on the idea of building family units (parents + offspring), and so the idea of sex being used as something to build relationships and intimate ties is just not something he's ever done. Sex is sex; emotional intimacy is emotional intimacy. Qunari do not have sex with their friends, that's what designated tamassrans are for. This will either help or hinder his relationships in town, we'll find out.
That being said, his view of sex is actually pretty healthy. He is a shameless pansexual and is not particularly thrown by other people's sexual proclivities unless they do not value consent, and consent is a big deal to the Bull. He has been known to end sexual encounters if he thinks a partner is being too reckless with themselves, and he is insistent on having consent before clothes come off, and often several times after. The fact that this could possibly be compromised by events or anything else just means Bull is going to have to do a lot of soul-searching if he hurts someone.
SAMPLE: The Iron Bull meets Leah Shaw; cw: paranoia, description of scars
MONSTER: Dragon. Loose reference.
Bull's dragon self will resemble an Abyssal High Dragon from his world, a beast that has horns very similar to Bull's own. Rather than the typical red scales, Bull will have deep grey scales with cracks of red throughout like molten rock. This dragon form will also be missing its left eye. The dragon has wings and will be able to fly and breathe fire. He is intelligent, cunning, and aggressive. His body is well-muscled with a long tail for balance.
Quari are rumored to have somehow introduced dragon blood into their stock many, many generations ago. It's only a rumor now, but the fact is that the Qunari bear little resemblance to the people they claim as ancestors (the Kossith). The style and structure of their horns often bears resemblance to those seen on high dragons in Thedas. The bestiary tells us that dragons are feared for their power, ferocity, and how dangerous they can be when they lose control: this is exactly what most other people in Thedas think of the Qunari, and it's how the Qunari think of themselves. They follow the Qun, a philosophy that rules their lives, in order to hold back what they believe is a savage, base nature living inside themselves. The Qunari, and the Iron Bull in particular, also revere dragons for their raw power. They call them ataashi, glorious ones, and Bull waxes poetic about them on a few occasions. Bull talks about their wild power with reverence, but he also says that they are destructive and need to be put down: this reflects his beliefs about what he will become should he ever give in to the savage part he believes is inside him. Transforming into a dragon would be both terrifying and potentially liberating for him: he has to face his fears regarding control and violence and he might be able to embrace part of himself that he has always tried to keep at arm's length, no matter what destruction that might cause.
Though Bull doesn't preach, he will probably lean more into the Qun for the sake of some kind of familiar structure. This won't necessarily cause conflict, but it could with other characters depending on what he reveals/what they learn.
Until recently, the Iron Bull viewed sexual relationships and emotionally intimate relationships as generally mutually exclusive. He comes from a culture that does not put any value on the idea of building family units (parents + offspring), and so the idea of sex being used as something to build relationships and intimate ties is just not something he's ever done. Sex is sex; emotional intimacy is emotional intimacy. Qunari do not have sex with their friends, that's what designated tamassrans are for. This will either help or hinder his relationships in town, we'll find out.
That being said, his view of sex is actually pretty healthy. He is a shameless pansexual and is not particularly thrown by other people's sexual proclivities unless they do not value consent, and consent is a big deal to the Bull. He has been known to end sexual encounters if he thinks a partner is being too reckless with themselves, and he is insistent on having consent before clothes come off, and often several times after. The fact that this could possibly be compromised by events or anything else just means Bull is going to have to do a lot of soul-searching if he hurts someone.
SAMPLE: The Iron Bull meets Leah Shaw; cw: paranoia, description of scars
MONSTER: Dragon. Loose reference.
Bull's dragon self will resemble an Abyssal High Dragon from his world, a beast that has horns very similar to Bull's own. Rather than the typical red scales, Bull will have deep grey scales with cracks of red throughout like molten rock. This dragon form will also be missing its left eye. The dragon has wings and will be able to fly and breathe fire. He is intelligent, cunning, and aggressive. His body is well-muscled with a long tail for balance.
Quari are rumored to have somehow introduced dragon blood into their stock many, many generations ago. It's only a rumor now, but the fact is that the Qunari bear little resemblance to the people they claim as ancestors (the Kossith). The style and structure of their horns often bears resemblance to those seen on high dragons in Thedas. The bestiary tells us that dragons are feared for their power, ferocity, and how dangerous they can be when they lose control: this is exactly what most other people in Thedas think of the Qunari, and it's how the Qunari think of themselves. They follow the Qun, a philosophy that rules their lives, in order to hold back what they believe is a savage, base nature living inside themselves. The Qunari, and the Iron Bull in particular, also revere dragons for their raw power. They call them ataashi, glorious ones, and Bull waxes poetic about them on a few occasions. Bull talks about their wild power with reverence, but he also says that they are destructive and need to be put down: this reflects his beliefs about what he will become should he ever give in to the savage part he believes is inside him. Transforming into a dragon would be both terrifying and potentially liberating for him: he has to face his fears regarding control and violence and he might be able to embrace part of himself that he has always tried to keep at arm's length, no matter what destruction that might cause.