Eligia Milagros' Journal

Application, Info, OOC

ELIGIA MILAGROS

Player

Name: Ardruna
Age: 27
Contact Info: Email: ardruna@gmail.com, AIM: Mirisa Erato
Did you read the rules? You better Fexing believe it. ^_^
PB: Olivia Hussey

( Sample Roleplay )

Character

Name: Eligia Milagros
Age: 25 (born on Funalis, 9:20 Dragon)
Location: Recently arrived in Ferelden, born in Llomerryn
Race: Human
Class: Rogue
Specialization: Bard
Talents/Spells: Dual Weapon, Subterfuge

Appearance: Eligia is a very beautiful young woman with long sleek hair that is dark brown so that it almost appears black in certain lights. Her eyes are a light brown, almost hazel. Seeing as she usually protects it from the sun, her complexion is not as dark as most Rivaini, though she does look as if she has a perpetual light tan. She is roughly average height, about 5’6” and has a light but curvy build, weighing approximately 125 pounds. She has an elegant, confident bearing--some might even call it noble.

Piercings and tattoos being a sign of prestige in Rivaini culture, though she doesn’t have many of either normally visible to polite society, her ears, nipples and navel are pierced, and she has several tattoos of mystical symbols on her arms, back, chest and ankles done in several different colors of ink.

Ever the showwoman, Eligia tends to dress flamboyantly (if not seemingly practically) in brightly-colored silk gowns and heavy gold jewelry, usually including elaborate golden headdresses decorated with small coins and often wearing gossamer veils over her hair and face. A show of cleavage is not uncommon for her either. All of this is done to enhance her exotic appeal and garner attention from the masses. She is difficult to miss in a crowd most of the time, but the splashy colors and shiny jewelry are often very distracting, especially of the fact that she tends to keep a handful of small daggers hidden inside her clothes. She is right-handed, but has learned to use her left hand with decent proficiency as well.

Her voice carries a strong Rivaini accent, actually overdone far more than is natural for her in an attempt to seem more exotic and mysterious, and thus lend credence to her art to foreigners who are none the wiser, though it is warm and mellifluous. Her Ferelden is mostly fluent, although her lilting cadence makes it evident it is not her first language. She also liberally sprinkles her speech with words, phrases and endearments borrowed from her native Rivaini, Antivan, and the occasional Nevarran or Marcher sayings.

Personality: If there’s one thing that Eligia thrives on, it’s attention. Being the youngest child in a large family, and under a great deal of pressure to succeed from the get-go, she has long been determined to outshine everyone else she meets. This lends a certain intensity to her already-proud nature. She is not usually predisposed to smiling, but she does have an undeniable charisma. She often makes friends and earns the trust of strangers easily with her charm, but she is headstrong and fiercely independent, and so rarely chooses to rely on other people and doesn’t like to ask for help. Telling half-truths is second-nature to her at this point, and she is very good at playing the innocent when it suits her.

When it comes to relationships, Eligia can be rather on the needy side for attention, but often forgets to consider the wants and needs of the other person when making decisions, assuming that they’ll just be happy to go along with her. This is true for family, friends and lovers alike. She tries to be generous to her admirers, though, rewarding them with gifts and time together whenever she can. Her romantic entanglements have typically been more physical than emotional, but she usually is genuinely fond of her partners. If she likes someone, it does not take a great deal of convincing to get her into that person’s bed. She believes that she has been in love once, with her first love, and does not doubt that her lover of several years in the Free Marches was truly in love with her, though it was a bit emotionally one-sided on his end. She prefers men, but doesn’t mind the occasional tumble with another woman. She is not afraid of falling in love, but she is a bit too selfish and sex-driven to know how to make a meaningful relationship work. Still, if she must decide between them, she will choose a lover over anyone else. She gets along reasonably well with her family, though she has not actually seen them in over ten years, corresponding primarily by letter. Although they were somewhat estranged when she was a teenager, she feels confident they have now forgiven her for running away and are supportive in her current ventures.

She’s a bright young woman, with a keen and eager mind, as well as an excellent memory that borders on being eiditic. More importantly, she has a sharp, well-trained eye for detail and observations, and this is what the key to her success is. Like a Sherlock Holmes or a Patrick Jane, Eligia is able to pick up on small details in the environment around her, as well as in a person’s body language and accoutrements and use that information to convincingly appear “psychic.” It is a "sight," but of a different sort. She thirsts for knowledge, for the more she knows, the better-prepared she is when working with otherwise-unfamiliar subjects. She is generally not a violent person herself, but coming from places where violence is commonplace and often deemed a necessary evil, she has found that talent to be instrumental in a fight, enabling her to help predict her opponent’s movements and find their vulnerable spots. However, if she must kill someone, she usually prefers to do it more subtly, with poisons or the like, than to make a bloody mess. She has mastered the arts of distraction and sleight of hand, and so most people never see it coming when she pulls out a knife or a vial of poison.

Her sense of morality is slightly warped from her upbringing as a pirate’s daughter. She does believe that, sometimes, certain people need to be killed or deserve to be taken advantage of. Her drive to succeed means that she doesn’t particularly care about stepping on toes or bruising some feelings to get what she wants or where she wants to be. Despite the fact that she essentially makes her living as a charlatan, she doesn’t see it that way, and considers herself simply an entertainer. Should someone try to call her out as being a fraud, especially on those rare occasions when she alleges herself a real seer, although she will admit she did not use any magic, she will reason that, so long as her clients had an experience enjoyable enough to be worth the coin paid, no harm was done. This doesn’t necessarily mean she’s entirely unethical, though. Eligia does not like the idea of hurting innocents, and she will not associate with people who do unless absolutely necessary. She puts her own well-being first and is no crusader of justice, but if she witnesses a wrongdoing of that nature, she will usually intervene on the injured party’s behalf.

Growing up in Rivain, Eligia is not an Andrastian, believing instead in the Natural Order, and so doesn’t really understand all the fuss about mages and templars and the like. In her eyes, genuine mages are objects of both profound respect and envy, since she did not end up inheriting a gift for magic. She is well aware of the dangers that can befall mages, especially after watching her brother go crazy after being possessed by a desire demon, an event that frightened and saddened her as her brother, still alive, is but a shadow of his former self. Still, she does not fear them, and thinks the templars are just an overreaction on the Chantry’s behalf.

History: Although her mother's heritage is from the gypsy culture of Rivain, ever traveling throughout the land, Eligia was born in the island city of Llomerryn to a long line of female seers, with the gift for magic traceable back at least five generations through the maternal line. Her family is a very large one, with numerous siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins. Eligia’s mother, native to Rivain, was one of five children, three of which (her mother included) being seers, while her father was the youngest of seven sons born to a wealthy Antivan merchant, who turned to piracy as a young man, and eventually signed on with the infamous Felicisima Armada, better known as the Raiders of the Waking Sea. Eligia's mother had only planned to be in Llomerryn a short time before moving on with the rest of her gypsy clan, but was swept off her feet by the charming pirate, and agreed to settle down in the base of his operations. Eligia herself is the youngest of nine children, including two brothers and six sisters (in order of birth: Pietro [pirate], Mirela [pirate], Fifika [merchant's wife], Shofranka [pirate], Diego [mage], Tshilaba [mage], Vadoma [mage], Simza [merchant's wife], Eligia). Although in most places, a family headed by mages and pirates would looked down upon, the women of Eligia’s family were respected for their gifts, and her father was very successful at his career, becoming fairly wealthy in his own right from his plunder. Thus, all things considered, Eligia had a comfortable upbringing and rarely wanted for anything--even if a lot of her things were handed down from her older sisters. Most of her childhood friends were children of her father’s “business associates," though she was happy to play with anyone who seemed interesting to talk to.

Being the seventh daughter of a seventh son, Eligia’s birth was particularly anticipated by her mother and grandmother, especially when she arrived on Funalis, allegedly under a full moon. Although she had a brother and two sisters who were born mages, like the other seers in the family, Eligia was expected to outshine them all with her talents as a seer. Almost from the moment she was born, she was trained in traditional Rivaini mysticism, various forms of divination (e.g. cards, astrology, runestones, palms, geomancy, animal entrails, etc.) and herb lore by her grandmother, mother, aunts and elder sisters gifted with magic. Eligia grew up watching them converse with spirits, and even saw her mage brother eventually driven mad by a desire demon he allowed to take possession of him—-an event that drove home the point that magic definitely has its risks. All of this was done to prepare her to become the finest seer their line had ever produced, and they eagerly watched her for signs of her budding talent. Her mother had declared from her visions that Eligia would come into her gift by her thirteenth birthday, but as the momentous day drew ever nearer, Eligia had yet to exhibit so much as an iota of magical power, although she had a quick mind for learning the various methods, a keen eye for seeing the clues to meanings in the imagery, and an excellent memory for retaining signs and symbols and what they signified. Desperate under the mounting pressure, and wanting so badly to live up to the expectations of her family, the girl did the only thing she could: she faked it.

Being the youngest child in such a large and chaotic household, Eligia had developed a knack for getting attention and showing off, particularly with three siblings who went on to have notorious piracy careers, two sisters who married into wealthy merchant families, and two more sisters who were respected seers themselves. It was a lot to live up to, and so from an early age she cultivated talents for showmanship, drama and distraction, able to get away with nearly anything. When her fateful thirteenth birthday arrived, after having carefully observed such communions done by her relatives, and with the help of a tiny pinch of hallucinogenic herbs that she had “liberated” from her family’s plundered goods, she put on the performance of a lifetime in pretending to tap into the Fade to commune with a spirit and make a prediction for the future, claiming that she would go far and wide as a famous seer. The drugs made her almost believe that there really was a spirit presence talking to her, and it wore her out as much as any Harrowing or its equivalent. The real mages in the family, however, knew better, and were not amused with her fakery, nor her little theft of the drugs. Still, once tempers had wound down, they had to admit that she had quite the gift for making the unreal appear real, and determined that, if perhaps she wasn't a true seer, at least Eligia would be the best fortune-teller that the family had ever produced. They went out on the town that very day to celebrate her milestone.

It was on this day as well that she met a handsome young man by the name of Miguel, a fifteen-year-old Antivan lad who had come to Llomerryn as a deckhand on a trading vessel. By this time, Eligia, always a pretty child, was beginning to show the first blush of becoming an exquisite young woman, and the two were quickly smitten with each other. A popular and lovely girl, although Eligia’s grandmother and parents were making plans find her an advantageous match willing to pay a fine bride price for her, Eligia was only interested in spending time with Miguel. He was her first kiss, and the young man to whom she would give her virginity. Unfortunately, he had almost no coin of his own to his name, and her father tried to forbid her from seeing him. Ever a precocious girl, at the age of fourteen, Eligia defied her family and ran off with Miguel to Antiva, fancying it as an elopement, though they were never formally married, and, as luck would prove fortuitous, they had no children together. But, as is so common with teenage romances, they ultimately had a falling out two years later and went their separate ways.

Eligia, now sixteen, wasn’t daunted. Taking matters into her own hands, she set out to fulfill her own prediction. She didn’t return home, fearing that her family would still be angry at her, but she did begin to write letters back to her family, telling them of her ventures and how she was fulfilling her own prediction in her own right. She got her tattoos during this time, and began her career as a travelling fortune-teller, in the tradition of her lineage. The novelty of a “genuine Rivaini gypsy” was usually enough to garner people’s attention long enough for her to earn some coin by telling fortunes or selling various tinctures alleged to bring good fortune, love, health or whatever else tradition dictated. Of course, it was pure chicanery, but she considered it a form of performance entertainment, and didn’t figure that she was hurting anyone doing it. Sometimes she would incorporate music, singing, dancing and the like along with her mystic readings and predictions, making elaborate productions of her shows. When she thought she could get away with it, though she only dared in places where there was fairly lax authority over mages, she would try to pass herself off as an actual seer, as it lent her an additional air of mystery. In these cases, only very rarely would she use the hallucinogenic herbs, preferring to rely more on her skills as a performer than risk becoming dependent on them, but she would always keep some with her, just in case. But, any time there was a threat of templars or other significant danger to making such claims, Eligia only plied her trade as a harmless gypsy fortune-teller. Growing up in Llomerryn had taught her that she could never be too careful in taking care of herself, and to always be prepared to defend herself, especially since she was anything but inconspicuous. So, while in Antiva, she took it upon herself to learn how to wield daggers with deadly precision, building on the basics she had learned from her family and Miguel, as well as the art of making poisons with which to coat them. Though it wasn’t easy, she did her best to seek out mages and wise women there and learn some new Antivan practices and lore to add to her repertoire of mysticism. She had a few lovers during this time, though they were brief, passionate affairs that ended as quickly as they began.

At the age of twenty, Eligia, now beginning to make something of a reputation for herself, left Antiva in search of new traditions and knowledge—and new people to fleece with her trade, traveling through Nevarra and the Free Marches by the time she was 22. It was here that she crossed paths with a handsome and well-traveled bard named Marnin, who told fascinating stories about places Eligia had yet to see, including tales of the intricate courts of Orlais, the Great Game, and the famous bardic tradition there. Eligia was delighted by the idea, and begged him to teach her what he knew, offering to warm his bed in repayment for this knowledge. Already versed in subtleties, deceptions and performances, she took her talents to new levels in learning the skills of the bards. Eligia thoroughly enjoyed the power it granted her, coming as close to real magic as any other ability she had. Marnin was equally pleased by Eligia's eagerness, and enchanted by her own traditions, and especially her beauty. They carried on an affair lasting nearly three years, and did some traveling around the Marches and Nevarra together, but Marnin eventually caught the eye of a spoiled young Marcher woman who was determined to have him for herself. She (falsely) claimed that he had bedded her, and so her father forced Marnin to wed his daughter in order to make "an honest woman" of her. Marnin went through with it reluctantly, but continued to see Eligia whenever he could. Well, his new bride wouldn't stand for him having his exotic foreign mistress around, and she demanded that he send Eligia away, which he eventually did with a heavy heart.

Spurned, Eligia began to consider the possibility of Ferelden. Not many Rivaini went that far south. The dog country seemed intriguingly exotic, and the tales that came out of it were various, particularly concerning the Hero and the Blight. She knows very little about the Blights or the darkspawn, but thinks that they make for an exciting adventure story. Fereldens, based on the accounts she heard—many of which were flavored with more continental prejudices—were unlike any other people in Thedas. They were practical, not particularly superstitious, though a largely uncultured lot in comparison to the other nations. She wondered what the Fereldens would make of her and her fortunes, and made her way there, spending short bits of time in Gwaren, Highever, and the Bannorn, trying to amuse the local nobles. Eventually, she made her way to Denerim, and tried to earn a place among the court entertainers, but found little reception. Ultimately, she headed for Amaranthine, to see what she could do to brighten up the culture of the so-called jewel city, and perhaps even see if the Grey Wardens, so steeped in legend themselves, were willing to make use of her various skills as she strives to forge her own legend.