[hider=Shiathari][center][h1][color=darkseagreen]The Snake of Ansburg[/color][/h1]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/isbSBAK.png[/img][/center]
[color=darkseagreen][b]|[u] {Full Name} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Shiathari [/indent]
[color=darkseagreen][b]|[u] {Age} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]32[/indent]
[color=darkseagreen][b]|[u] {Species} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Elf[/indent]
[color=darkseagreen][b]|[u] {Gender} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Female[/indent]
[color=darkseagreen][b]|[u] {Class/subclass} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Rogue | Ranger[/indent]
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[color=darkseagreen][b]|[u] {Appearance} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Like most of her kind, Shia is short next to a human and tall next to a dwarf. She is slim and lithe, but with a surprising layer of firm muscle from years of manual labor and then hard training. She’s scarred, less than many, more than some. The healed wounds were inevitable even before joining the Wardens. While it’s not the most practical, she has been resistant to cutting her long, dark brown hair. A sentimentality to it that she can’t explain, but she opts to braid and twist into flat buns to fit beneath a helmet. 

There is a harshness to her, even when she smiles. Some mistake it for haughtiness and even at rest, a gaze from her light brown eyes feels full of judgement. Shia carries herself with a lightness in her movements, nearly a dance, and her footsteps quiet as a mouse. She has jump-scared more than one hulking warrior in her time with the Wardens.  
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[color=darkseagreen][b]|[u] {Equipment and Personal Belongings} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent][list][*] Warden Light Armor: Standard Warden scouting kit - [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/dragonage/images/6/66/Crafted_Warden_Battlemage_Armor.png/revision/latest?cb=20200515110138]Similar to this, minus the unnecessary cape and shoulder ornamentation[/url]
[*]2 obsidian daggers
[*]Spiked Longbow + arrows 
[*]Mother’s journal: Shia’s mother kept a journal, largely of recipes for potions and tonics, also notes of people’s ailments, what worked/didn’t, etc. [/list][/indent]
[color=darkseagreen][b]|[u] {Skills} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent][list][*]Sneaking: Adept at getting in and out of places unseen, better suited for it in natural environments or forests than urban 
[*]Trap-making: Can make and deploy simple traps - for battle or for survival 
[*]Animal Companion: Can tame wild animals with ease, good at reading animal behaviors even with previously unmet creatures; currently has a small wolf that seeks her out when she leaves the fortress
[*]Foraging[/list][/indent]
[color=darkseagreen][b]|[u] {Talents} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent][list][*]Archery: Primary and default option for fighting, Shia prefers to attack from a distance where she can control the ground 
[*]Dual-wield: When necessary, she’ll fight up close
[*]Evade: Her preference though is to get away, whether to circle back and flank the enemy who’d found her, get help, or just live to fight another day 
[/list][/indent]
[color=darkseagreen][b]|[u] {Spells} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]N/A[/indent]
[color=darkseagreen][b]|[u] {Home/Family} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Shia’s family originally hails from Tevinter, her mother an escaped slave that made it to Hasmal with her three young children. Their father was never spoken of, but Shia assumes he remained in Tevinter for reasons either sad or enraging. Her mother was a mage of weak talent, not useful to her masters beyond menial tasks. In Hasmal, it became apparent that the eldest child, Shia’s brother, was a mage and so he was sent to the Kirkwall Circle. After that, Shia, her mother, and her sister, made their way east before finally settling in the backwaters of Ansburg. Shia’s mother passed away a few years later, and the sister ran away to “find her people.” Shia has not heard from sister nor brother in many, many years. [/indent]
[color=darkseagreen][b]|[u] {Flaws and limits} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent][list][*]Shallow: Shia prefers the obvious, without a deep or philosophical approach to life or the greater mysteries of the world. This extends to her interactions with others, while she can be friendly and does not hide away from others, her relationships tend to be surface level. 
[*]Prejudice: Shia distrusts Tevinters and anyone who she considers a zealot (for her, defined as a devout believer in their religion)[/list][/indent]
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[color=darkseagreen][b]|[u] {Personality} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent]Shia has never felt at home anywhere, a fact that her extended time at Weisshaupt has not completely inverted. Still, her restlessness and lack of anchor to any one place has not made her resentful of company, comradery, or companionship. Once others see past the harshness and occasional indifference, they find a woman who does know how to laugh and enjoy the fleeting good times. 

While she does not distrust all humans as a whole, her views on any Tevinters is heavily jaded. The Dalish confound her more than anything else, and other “city” elves often had a much harder life than her. Magic does worry her, even though she left Tevinter with barely any memories of it, what she does remember was awful. Her time in the Free Marches only seemed to show her what a lack of overt magic could offer, and certainly for her, that was a better life, for the most part. While she often feels like she doesn’t quite fit in to any group, she has found something nearing family with the Wardens - warts and all, if the stories she had heard had any hint of truth to them. 

The one thing that she cannot tolerate for any length of time is a religious zealot. Shia loudly, and sometimes obnoxiously, is vehemently an unbeliever in any god or gods. The Maker? Pah. Andraste? She seemed like a good woman, a shame the religion grew and flourished as it did. The Dalish pantheon of gods? Clearly useless. The old gods? Humans would invent anything to justify their atrocities. Ancestor worship and holy stone? Shia finds it less outrageous but will still roll her eyes at a dwarf going on about it. The Blight, darkspawn, and archdemons? Well, Shia knows the darkspawn are real and that they’re lead by [i]something[/i], but that doesn’t mean it’s an old god waking to wreak destruction. Some things are just evil without any greater meaning behind it. 

The elven rogue retains a soft spot for animals of almost any kind. It has not been uncommon for her commander to find her asleep in her griffin’s stall. She’s been known to capture and relocate creepy crawlies from tents, and tends a small menagerie of injured critters in her room.[/indent]
[color=darkseagreen][b]|[u] {Background} [/u]|[/b][/color]
[indent] Shia was born in Tevinter, her mother a slave to a minor magister of Perivantium. She was the youngest of three children, and has few memories of what life was like in Tevinter other than stories from her mother and older siblings. Shia’s mother fled with them to when Shia was barely six years old. They arrived in Hasmal, a common destination for escaped slaves and refugees, in 9:25 DA. But their time there was not easy or peaceful. 

Shia’s mother had been gifted with a weak ability for magic. Small enough that she was able to easily hide it and did not miss using it beyond small acts as a village healer. Her only son, Shia’s eldest sibling, though, began to show signs less than a year after arriving in Hasmal. He was quickly found out and Templars removed him swiftly to take to the Kirkwall Circle. The family, now Shia, her mother, and elder sister, chose to move on from Hasmal lest they draw more attention to themselves. 

Eventually they settled in Ansburg, the backwater Free City that few had reason to linger in or seek out, a bustling city for agricultural trade but little else. Eleven years old now, her sister fourteen, the girls helped their mother as she settled into the role of village healer and potion-maker. Shia would spend her days in the wilderness outside of the city, collecting herbs, foraging, and hunting. Sometimes she’d spend her nights out there too, to enjoy a life away from the crowds and smells of a city, even one like Ansburg. 

They remained largely unbothered, outside of the expected prejudices and treatment. The semi-peaceful life ended when Shia’s mother unexpectedly died a few years later in 9:33. She grew ill, and no matter that she had helped so many, the aid was not returned. She wasted away in a painful death. A few days after she was laid to rest, Shia’s sister ran away. She had left a note explaining that living among the shemlen would kill them all, that she had gone to find their “real” people. Shia knew a Dalish clan had gone by recently, her sister had begged that they join them together but Shia had refused. What were they to these nomads?

She was alone now though, only fifteen. Her time spent in the forests had trained her for something she had never thought would be useful. She signed on with a small group that offered trade caravans protection into and out of the city. She was decent with a bow, better with setting traps, and unafraid of having to get in close. Shia also proved to have a way with animals. She tamed a large wolf to accompany her on her longer journeys and would stay with her in the forests around Ansburg. 

Eventually she had made a bit of a name for herself within the city. In some ways this was literal, when the name “the snake” stuck, for her ability to get in and out of places nearly unseen and unheard. She had an uncanny ability of being able to ambush her ambushers as well. With notoriety came its own set of problems. Not everyone cared for an elf making such strides for herself. And the elves of the city did not care for her lack of interest in furthering their own causes. 

Still, it all gave her an opportunity to grow a good safety net of coin for herself. As that net grew, she formed plans for going somewhere else. And then the damn world fell apart, again. 

When news had originally arrived of the troubles in Kirkwall, Shia had wanted to go there, to find her brother. But she hadn’t heard from him since their mother died. A letter had arrived very delayed, a few small sentiments scrawled in shaky handwriting. Her return letters had gone unanswered, she assumed he died in the chaos. News from the south never seemed to bring anything good with it.

In 9:40, as she was again preparing to leave Ansburg due to some unfortunate [i]disagreements[/i] with local guild leaders. She had been coming back to her city after completing an escort to Wycome and was nearly home when sounds of a scuffle caught her attention. Though she nearly convinced herself it wasn’t her problem, she instead snuck towards the sound. Though she had never seen one in person, she immediately recognized a small group of Grey Wardens facing off against one of the gangs that plagued Ansburg. In smaller numbers, she was certain the Wardens would not have needed aid. But one was already down and the remaining two seemed to have been at it for some time. Shia joined their fight from the outskirts, setting their cart ablaze and then picking one off with her bow before charging in with daggers. The distraction was enough that the Wardens were able to recover and dispatch the remaining attackers. 

She had not planned to join them beyond traveling with them back to Ansburg for supplies. As she traveled the last two days with them though, the leader of the group asked if she would consider it. Shia was caught off guard, but though she had made something for herself in her corner of the Free Marches, there were no guarantees. When the trio were done restocking in Ansburg, Shia was waiting for them, her meager belongings tied in a pack, a wild dog at her side. 

Her joining did not take place for nearly a year as they traveled west, back to Hasmal, to the border of Tevinter. The wardens had found three other recruits along the way, another elf, and two humans. The four of them went through the ritual together. Shia survived it as well as one of the humans. It was 9:41 and the news that the group of now five Grey Wardens received in their travels gave them pause. They had originally intended to go south but instead set off through Nevarra and towards the Anderfels. 

It was not a direct path, there was no reason for them to return to Weisshaupt directly, and it provided ample training for the two new recruits. But it still was not an easy time. One of the senior recruits disappeared one night, only leaving behind a note that it was her time. The other eventually broke away to head south with reasons left unexplained to the new wardens, but it was clear to Shia that the remaining senior warden was uneasy about it. 

The trio carried on, though the refugees they encountered along the way carried with them horrific and mostly unbelievable stories from elsewhere. They avoided direct involvement, busying themselves with small excursions along the borders of Nevarra, Orlais, and Tevinter. When word finally reached them towards the end of 9:45 to return to Weisshaupt, Shia was more than ready to see what the Warden fortress was like with her own eyes - even if the stories about what the Orlesian Wardens had done gave her pause. 

Her natural talent for animals made her an immediate choice to work with the griffins, though her designation as a scout has meant she has not formally bonded one herself. She helps the warriors who have been bonded and is a keeper for hatchlings and young ones until they can be bonded. She’s also participated in smaller excursions outside of Weisshaupt from time to time. Until recently, when she was selected to accompany the expedition into the deep roads. 

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