Fade Rift App

[offortune]

PLAYER

Name: Cass
Age: still old
Contact: pretty sure the mods know how to find me
Other Characters: Cassandra Pentaghast
Interests: With this character, I'm interested in spinning out the Warden plots, in bringing in some awareness of the less-represented nations of Thedas and the culture clash between Rivain and Orlais/Ferelden, contrasting Cassandra with someone who is more out for himself and adventure and not naturally heroic, and exploring how he operates within the Inquisition and is influenced by it and its members. / I mostly just want him and Scipio to tell people a lot of outrageous lies and hunt some treasure.

CHARACTER

Name: Rafael "Rafa" Viteri
Canon/OC: OC
Journal: offortune
Race: Human
Nationality: Rivaini
Occupation: Warden, "gentleman of fortune"
Age: ~26ish

History

Rafael was born in a dockside tavern in Llomerryn, where he was brought up by his aunt and his grandmother (allegedly; he has always harbored doubts). He never knew either of his parents, and grew up creating fantastical tales in his head about who they were and what happened to them. His imagination was fed by his grandmother, a wise woman from the Rivaini countryside who couldn't pass on her magic so made sure he learned all her stories and all her tricks for telling them.

He grew up restless and eager for adventure, chafing at the bit as an all purpose chore-doer for his aunt. After his grandmother's death he decided he'd had enough, and convinced a long-time regular to vouch for him and signed onto a ship as a cabin boy. He spent a year traveling the world, just as he'd always dreamed, and discovering that being at sea sucked. He jumped off in Antiva, and was making his bones as a thief and budding con man when he met Scipio Maravello, a ridiculous prat who dared to call him a liar in a tavern in front of a crowd containing a mark he was working and a girl he was impressing. They shouted, they duelled, they fled from the watch. They were caught, they spent the night in jail, and as the anger and the drink wore off, they realized they got along alright. By morning they were practically blood brothers, and have been inseparable ever since.

The pair spent ten years as con men, grifters, and thieves, mostly in Antiva City but occasionally elsewhere. Famous jobs include The Arriggedello Confusion, Ruby Pie, Needle in the Hey Where's My Hat, Drunken Watchmen, Drunken Watchmen Parts II-VII, Pony Express, Too Many Seals, and Sunset Slander.

Their final caper (for now) was almost literally a comedy of impossible errors, and landed them in jail, where they had the brilliant idea of claiming to be Wardens in order to avoid serious punishment. This would have been a brilliant idea had actual Wardens not been passing through conscripting prisoners at that very moment. They found themselves Joined up, and though they survived the ritual you wouldn't know it from the moaning they do about the horror of their fate. The world's two most reluctant Wardens were somehow among those few lucky enough not to get sucked into the insanity going down with Commander Clarel and the blood magic. They "just happened" to be "out for a stroll"/"on their way to patrol" when Alistair made his break for it, and they tagged along all the way to Skyhold.

Personality

Rafael has always been a dreamer, and it is both his best and worst quality. His imagination is boundless, especially when he and Scipio work together. He has always been good at thinking on his feet, figuring out ways into and out of whatever he wants, and can entertain or persuade on a dime. But he dreams very big and lavish and colorful and the world doesn't always provide opportunities. Much of what Rafa has dreamed still hasn't come true, and now it seems as though it never will. It rankles, being able to imagine a better life, feeling that you deserve it, but not being able to get it. It lends him an edge and a drive that ambitionless Scipio has never quite shared.

But they share most everything else. 90% of the time, Rafael is friendly and charming, an animated extrovert who is never happier than when he's holding an audience rapt with a tale, preferably of their most recent triumph. His humor is quick, dry most of the time but goofy when he and Skip get on a roll.

He can be impulsive and reckless but for all their improvisation, a great deal of planning and prep goes into their jobs and much of that is Rafael's influence. Luck is fun, but when it counts loading the dice is better. He's no coward, but violence is one tool among many, and almost never the first one he reaches for. Sure, sometimes someone just needs to get punched, and it's possible that people have gotten seriously hurt because of their work, but it's never been intentional.

He still views their heists and cons more as fun adventures than anything else, and the fun is more in the attempt and the story after than the reward. But the reward is important, too. He makes his living off other people, but likes to think of himself as a benevolent sort of outlaw (when he thinks about it at all), taking from the rich and redistributing to the poor, which includes himself. He's more careful with his coin than Skip, actually attempting to save for a future of wealth and luxury, but is generous with those less fortunate.

But always with that eye on his own future (his and Skip's, they are brothers for life now and all of his plans for a luxurious retirement include his bff, of course), which makes this sudden detour into the Wardens so crushing. Under the thumb of a strict, hierarchical authority, with duties and orders and uniforms and inevitable ugly death on the suddenly very near horizon…it's awful, and it's not even mitigated by making a great story, like Garahel or something. It's just tedious and restricting and he is very unhappy about it. But at least he's not alone. As long as he and Scipio are together, there remains a sliver of hope that they will find a way out of this and back on with their lives.

Strengths & Weaknesses

+ Great at tale-spinning, story-selling, lying, swindling, cheating, wheedling, conning, and duping. Ten years of heist experience and a criminal career of fairly great (sometimes exaggerated) renown (in Antiva City and a few other places, but not as many as he claims). Excellent drinker. Good gambler. Brave, courageous, risk-taking swashbuckler. Handful of other necessary skills that he has picked up over the years (sailing, lock picking, card tricks, sketching, sleight of hand, pickpocketing, gem appraisal, pastry baking, impersonating chantry brothers, the pipes, scaling walls, heraldry, tumbling, wig accessorizing, minor tailoring and haberdashery (haberdashing?), anything to do with wine, carriage driving, Ansburg's several courtly dances, et cetera).

+ Since he was a little boy growing up in a dockside tavern in the shady melting pot of Llomerryn, Rafael has been good at picking up on and remembering what he hears, whether it's a story, a secret, a language, an accent. He speaks bits and pieces of half a dozen tongues, and can flawlessly mimic the accents of many more. He can alter his bearing and mannerisms to match people from all different walks of life and is a convincing actor. He knows tons of stories, myths, legends, rumors, gossip, card games, drinking games, shanties, etc. and can make up more on the off chance he ever runs out.

+ He's got a notebook and a brain packed full of details from every job they've ever pulled, planned, or considered. Floorplans, schematics, routes, guard rotations, susceptible marks, rumors of treasures, etc.

+/- Violence isn't their MO, but occasionally Rafael and Scipio need to get out of a tight spot. He's a decent swordsman, mostly in the showier styles of fencing though the Wardens have required drilling in more serious techniques, is a great shot with a thrown knife, and can hold his own in a bar brawl or dagger fight. In actual battle with trained warriors he's a sitting duck, especially with this armor he's only just getting used to.

+/- Warden skills, but also the taint and the calling.

+/- Rafael knows people, many of varying degrees of shadiness. Most are in Antiva, but some are scattered about, and he could call on them for information if he needed to. Of course, he is also a criminal, and there are plenty of places he's not welcome if recognized and people who would be happy to get revenge. A lot of his connections were made with various aliases, which could be awkward.

+/- He keeps most people at arm's length, though he's good at pretending he doesn't. Scipio is the only person he really thoroughly trusts and is loyal to and honest with, which is good from a 'being careful' perspective, but less so from a 'making genuine connections' perspective.

- While he can talk a good game and impersonate people of all sorts of backgrounds and pretend knowledge in any number of subjects, Rafael's actual education has been pretty limited. He learned to read and write because it was useful and Skip didn't have the attention span for it, and it's still a skill that takes some effort, especially writing, which is mostly reserved for careful forgery. Other sorts of book-learning are pretty foreign. His knowledge has odd gaps in it sometimes, like he doesn't actually know that much about the mage/templar war because it hasn't really affected him. He has no mechanical aptitude or scientific knowledge beyond basic theatrical effects like fake blood, smoke bombs, etc.

- Very squishy.

- People generally like him less when they find out what a liar he is. Which makes him less inclined to be honest. You see the vicious cycle here. Why is the world so hard and judgmental.


Inventory

2 normal decks of cards
1 deck of his grandmother's fortune-telling cards
1 set lockpicks
1 well-hidden notebook containing precious information about jobs past and future
1 set clothes, serviceable
1 pair boots, good
1 cloak, ugly and not nearly warm enough for all this snow
1 Warden sword
1 Warden shield
1 set Warden light armor
1 Warden dagger
1 better dagger
1 gem of better than average size and quality sewn into his clothes against direst emergency

Motivation

He'd prefer not to get used as fodder for blood magic rituals, and Alistair was the only train out of town. He'd planned to make a run for it with Skip once they were on the road, but he's heard unpleasant stories of Warden deserters, and the Inquisition actually sounds pretty interesting. A new power that's letting all sorts of people join up seems like a place that two enterprising gentlemen such as themselves might find opportunities to their interest.

SAMPLES

"And you're sure they said it was a castle? A castle IN the Frostbacks? Not just NEAR the Frostbacks?"

Rafael is eyeing Alistair very skeptically indeed, which would be a lot more effective if he weren't behind the senior warden, trudging up this very steep hill that is at least as much ice as rock. But the tone of his voice helps, innocence so patently false it's like he's trying to be annoying. (He is. His feet are soaked and frozen, he cut his hand on a rock when he slipped a couple miles ago and it aches, and there is this infernal [literally! literally infernal!] singing in the back of his mind that he can. not. stamp. out. He should be in a warm tavern in sunny Antiva, drinking a glass of Consiglini's fourth-finest vintage and counting out their latest winnings, not trekking halfway across Thedas to try to die a little differently. He can't blame Scipio, and he's never found blaming deities particularly satisfying, and the Warden who "recruited" them just got his throat slit for a dark ritual, and there is literally not another soul for miles in any direction, so that leaves Alistair.)

"Because this doesn't seem like a road to me. Maybe this is what passes for roads in Ferelden, but I pity you all if that's the case. Bumping around. You must have arses of steel and all your wine is bubbly. In Antiva we have actual roads, you know, with edges, and flat surfaces. Pavers, most times. Cobbles. Remember cobbles, Skip? I can't remember the last time we saw a cobble."

Sample 2