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[bigfinish]

OOC
Player/Contact: Laura jojoveller
Other Characters: none

IC
Name: Carver Hawke
Canon: Dragon Age 2
Canon Point: end of game incl. DLCs
Age: 25

History/Personality: Here, and since Dragon Age is a Choices Canon, those that impact Carver specifically are:

▪ Hawke is Marian Hawke, a mage with a diplomatic/"blue" personality; twin sister Bethany dies in the prologue
▪ all of the companions are recruited, none of them are romanced
▪ Carver goes on the Deep Roads mission and gets infected, then leaves Kirkwall to become a Grey Warden
▪ he is present for the Legacy DLC and recovers his father's memories/items
▪ also present for the Mark of the Assassin DLC
▪ also ALSO present for the final battle of DA2 in Kirkwall as a member of Hawke's party; the siblings more or less reconcile their differences, then Carver leaves with the Wardens again

And since the wiki does not have a strictly defined Personality Section, here:

Headstrong: Like all members of the Hawke family, Carver is willful and stubborn about what he believes is right. He will pick a fight or at least an argument when he disagrees with something and he won't couch his more judgmental opinions of people or things in polite silence-- he's just going to say out loud in the middle of an Orlesian party that Orlesians are all pretentious twits, for example. Carver has a set of beliefs about the world and how it works, what he and others should be doing in it, and the result is that he doesn't take kindly to being shut down or told he's going about it incorrectly. Some of it is just middle child fussiness; he's the non-mage kid in a mage family, being shut down is his biggest peeve already, but much of it is a strong desire to be taken seriously about his ideals and actions. He's used to having to fight to be taken seriously and so he assumes he always will.

Loyal: That said, for the people Carver loves, he will do anything and everything to keep them safe. Primarily his family, especially considering how dangerous it is to be an apostate mage in Thedas and his family was three mages and a defenseless mother, growing up-- much as Carver will butt heads with his older sibling or argue against chasing the lost status of his mother's family, he's still firmly on their team before anyone else's. He hasn't had an opportunity to make his own group of people until a few years ago because of his family's situation, but it applies to them (the Grey Wardens) and any people Carver might become close to as well: he will be in their corner come hell or high water, even if he doesn't necessarily agree. The bond comes first, it's Carver and pals against the world (or the end of it, in the case of the Wardens, hence his serious devotion), the details can come later.

Hot-headed: Perhaps obviously by now, Carver has a temper. He has a tendency to get angry when he shouldn't, particularly when it comes to perceived mockery-- he's gotten much better at it since coming into his own as a Warden, but some old habits die hard and sometimes, he will snap at someone undeservedly for "mocking" him, for example. He also tends to leap to fighting, believing physical strength to be his primary strength above, say, diplomacy; he was a soldier at 17/18 and has been fighting darkspawn monsters for ~6 years, his go-to solution to problems is usually to hit them with a sword. He likes things straightforward and so when they aren't, it gets under his skin, and whether it's with grumbling some creative insults or just coming in swinging, he's going to make his problems known.

Sensitive: That said, he is... a tender young man. He cares deeply for the people closest to him and goes out of his way to check up on them, to make jokes, to do silly jigs just to make his sister smile-- he's got a warm heart under the prickliness and the tendency to expect the worst from the world. He moons over nice, pretty girls and can barely string a sentence together around people he carries genuine romantic affections for, even if he can make innuendo with the best of them. It's different all around with tender feelings involved, and even for platonic feelings he gets notably gentler and calmer when expressing himself. But only for so long, because if he's perceived as sensitive for too long he'll revert back to being extra surly, just in case too many people see his soft center.

Forward-thinking: Overall, it's a drive to survive into the next day or week or year that encapsulates Carver's mindset. He's lived day-by-day with the same constant stressors - templars first, then darkspawn - for his entire life, and while it stresses him out and contributes to his bad temper and some of his prickly attitude, at his core he wants to come out the other side alive and whole with his loved ones just as safe. He hates dwelling on the past or stagnating in the moment, and has shown both in his own words and in actions that he wants, constantly, to move forward and make something better of himself-- not only for his own sake, but for the sake of the people he loves. He'll do what needs to be done to keep moving, whether or not the path available to him is an easy one, because to stand still even once is to never step forward again.

Would you consider your character to be heroic? Why or why not?: Absolutely, although Carver himself would consider his "heroics" to be acts of obligation: to his family, to his comrades, to his fellow Wardens— even to the whole world. One of Carver's most persistent concerns is how he can be useful, how he's needed in any given situation, and so he has a tendency to throw in his entire self in times of crisis, like a darkspawn invasion during a Blight, or his new duties when he becomes a Warden. He will complain until he's blue in the face, but his determination to make a difference (if only to feel relevant, 'cause he's got self worth issues) defines a lot of his life. So, while he might be motivated by neurosis sometimes, his willingness to charge head first into danger and not stop trying to save people until he has to be physically pulled away is fairly heroic. His life is dotted with huge acts of selfless heroism, he is a fundamentally good dude who believes the world deserves saving no matter how hard it is, but he would never in a million years call himself A Hero.

Powers/Abilities: Here, he isn't magical, so in summary:
✔ good at swords
✔ as a Warden he is generally stronger/has more stamina than your average warrior
✔ he can sense other Wardens and also Darkspawn, irrelevant here but worth mentioning
Inventory: His clothes, his Warden armor, a big ol' greatsword, a ring.

Coterie: Eagles! He's a certified jock but he's got a complex about tangible, lasting improvement, so basically-mapmaking will be good for him.

Samples: one: different game tdm, two: tdm from here