𝒇𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒕.

[thunderproof]

PLAYER

Name: Nat
Age: 26
Contact: salvatrice
Other Characters: N/A
Interests: At this point I just want to prove to myself I can stick here!!! But more seriously, I like action scenes and learning about elf stuff, and Adalia herself likes adopting things she shouldn't (in her game she adopted a full-grown goblin, a dragon egg, and an otyugh that tried to kill her. if she doesn't adopt a nug, a deepstalker, and an abandoned half-elf in-game, i'm playing her wrong).

CHARACTER

Name: Adalia
Canon/OC: OC
Canon Point: After rescuing the dragon egg and killing Alacruun's child
Journal: candlekeep
Age: 19

Canon World

The world of Faerun is much like the world of Dragon Age — vaguely medieval setting, magic, elves, dwarves, the whole bit. It differs in a few key places, however:

Magic in the Forgotten Realms comes from the manipulation of the Weave, which can be seen as Faerun's equivalent of the Fade, though the Weave has less to do with dreams. Anyone can learn to manipulate the Weave through rigorous study, some are born with the power to manipulate it, and still others learn to tap into its power by making pacts with powerful entities. While magic is somewhat unusual in Faerun, it is not a source of fear and distrust like it is in Thedas — no mage in Faerun is more susceptible to demons than anyone else.

In Faerun, elves are much as they are in Tolkien's legendarium: ethereal, powerful beings who are longer lived than humans and have their own forest-dwelling societies away from the cities of man. If elves are ever enslaved or subjugated, it's definitely not a systemic problem. Half-elves carry features of their elven parents to a lesser degree, so a half-elf in the Forgotten Realms may have slightly pointed ears, be slightly taller than other humans, and so on.

Other than these points, the world of the Forgotten Realms will be very familiar to anyone familiar with Dragon Age; the differences are mostly cosmetic.

History

• Adalia was abandoned at Candlekeep as a child, came into her magic at seven, and left to find her family at 19.


• She joined a caravan guard in Neverwinter on the promise of an even better job to come.


• Got embroiled in a race against time with an evil dragon cult trying to resurrect their god of undeath, Alacruun.


• In the course of their travels, two of her party died, so she sold her future to Alacruun in order to save them.


• Later, she sold her soul to get their paladin access to his god, which Alacruun had cut off when he resurrected the warriors.


• After a bunch of adventuring, the party went to a mountain to find a gold dragon which the paladin's goddess assured them could help in their fight against Alacruun.


• Instead they found a clutch of dragon eggs, one of which Adalia managed to save from her infanticide-happy party, and a young black dragon.


• Adalia tried to keep the young dragon alive because he seemed as confused and angry at Alacruun as the party was, but they ended up killing him anyway.


• She distrusts most of the party, wants to keep her egg safe, and is pretty darn sure she's gonna die soon. It's at this point, shortly post-dragon fight, that she comes through the Fade and ends up in Thedas.

Personality

Curiosity could be Adalia's middle name. While in some cases her drive to seek out the truth can turn out poorly, mostly it just means that Adalia is interested in everyone and everything she comes across. She wants to know how things work, about the people she meets, and unravel the secrets of the universe. When it comes to getting information from people, Adalia can be awkward, but she's personable and genuinely interested in everyone she meets, so even so, it's in a charming enough way that she's usually able to get the information she wants.

The tendency of adventuring parties to turn into roving bands of murderhobos is well-documented, but with Adalia in tow, her party's done less of that than most. She’s got a moral compass which, though it never really points toward the law, does point toward good, and she doesn't let other people ignore her. Whatever Adalia does, whether it be saving a dragon egg or killing bandits, it's with the knowledge that she is always walking a very treacherous tightrope. More than just being concerned for herself, however, Adalia also believes that there's always a chance to be a better person. This belief in good, and in the capability of all creatures to choose good, means Adalia will give a chance to anyone she sees as deserving of it, from goblins to dragons.

Like many teenagers, Adalia suffers from arrogance and narcissism. She isn't selfish, per se — she goes out of her way to help people and will put herself in terrible positions to keep others safe. Really, Adalia's weakness is more that she thinks both that she's the only person with a viable solution to any given problem, and that everything that has happened over the course of her party's journey is her fault. Though she thinks of herself as logical and very aware of her own faults, the truth is that no matter what she says, in her head, the universe revolves around her. She doesn't let others in on her plans or ask for help, she just does without consideration for whether the people around her will approve of or appreciate her actions.

In that vein, Adalia is not very self-aware. She's never spent much time thinking about her motivations or her emotions, so she tends not to be aware of why she's doing things or how she really feels. It's a problem she's become more cognizant of lately, but she still thinks of herself as a meek librarian when she is actually very headstrong and passionate and even, on her worst days, argumentative and domineering. Similarly, she has an overestimated sense of both her intellect and her magical abilities. While she has gotten more powerful recently, she's nowhere near powerful enough to take on an ancient dragon god, much less match him in a battle of wits, but she's convinced that even if she may not have the upper hand in this situation, she has it under control.

Strengths & Weaknesses

STORM SOUL — Adalia's magic comes from a connection to the elemental plane of air, which affords her a few unique talents. Before or after casting a spell, Adalia can take her version of a Fade Step — gusts of wind push her ten feet in the direction of her choosing. She's also resistant to physical damage caused by lightning or thunder. Whenever she casts a spell that deals lightning or thunder damage, sparks fly off of her, damaging enemies of her choice nearby. Coolest of all, Adalia can subtly control the weather around her. When it's raining, she can stop the rain in a 20‐foot radius centered on her, and if it's windy, she can choose the direction that the wind blows in a 100‐foot radius around her.

SORCERER — As a level 7 sorcerer, Adalia has access to a range of spells and abilities. Generally, she keeps to spells which are lightning- or thunder-based, as they are what come the most naturally to her, but there are two exceptions: Polymorph, which functions as an expanded Shapeshifter specialization, allowing Adalia to magic herself into any form comparable to hers in power, and Haste, which is a lot like the native Thedosian Haste, except it leaves people lethargic for a few seconds after it wears off. Additionally, as a sorcerer, Adalia has energy reserves she can call on to morph her spells in ways that wizards and warlocks can't, making a damaging spell hurt even more or casting the same spell on two different creatures.

FIGHTER — Though Adalia is naturally a spellcaster, she ran into the front of the fray enough that one of her party members, a fighter named Mat, took it upon himself to train her in melee combat. She is not nearly as proficient in it as she is in casting, but as a level 1 fighter she has enough knowledge that she can wear armor and wield a blade and still cast, and she can tap into adrenaline reserves to push herself through damage that might be debilitating otherwise.

HOW TO SURVIVE STORMS: A GUIDE — During her travels, Adalia came across a tome that resonates with the same energy that she embodies, which gives her access to more magic. Adalia can touch an ally and heal them slightly of any damage, or suck the air out of an enemy's lungs for a moment, doing a small amount of damage. Additionally, though not a spell she would normally have access to, Adalia can cast the spell Cure Wounds once per day to heal an ally of a significant amount of damage.

ALACRUUN'S MARKED — When Adalia agreed to work for the black dragon Alacruun in return for her companions' safety, he granted her a small degree of power as a reward. She can do more magic than she should be able to at this stage in her development of her powers, and she has an uncanny ability to sweet-talk, intimidate, or deceive anyone she talks to.

ALCHEMY — Adalia has taught herself the basics of alchemy and begun to try her hand at making different potions and alchemical items. She has a book full of alchemical recipes called Solve et Coagula.

LANGUAGES — As far as more mundane talents go, Adalia speaks six languages: Celestial, Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, and Primordial.

Suggested Nerfs

ALACRUUN'S MARKED — As per the FAQ, since this power relies on an entity that can't come with Adalia to Thedas, it's nerfed.
HOW TO SURVIVE STORMS: A GUIDE — This one I think could go either way. The DM never specified whether the book itself gave Adalia her abilities, or whether it just unlocked potential she always had. For my part, I would prefer if she was allowed to keep this one, because her desire to help and heal people has become one of the most important parts of her character. That said, as an alchemist she could work with herbalists on making healing potions to satisfy that need to help, so if it has to be nerfed, it's not a tremendous loss.

Other than that, I'm not sure any of her abilities are too far out of the realm of what's possible in Dragon Age that she'd need nerfing. If you disagree, I am open to any changes you'd like to make!

Arrival Inventory

• Her clothes.


• A single red feather, braided into Adalia's hair, which acts as her magical focus and allows her to cast at a slightly heightened level.


• Black dragon egg, hours from hatching into a silver dragon.


• How To Survive Storms: A Guide, a book with unreadable text.


• Solve et Coagula, a book of alchemical recipes.


• Dragonguard, a magical breastplate that halves damage taken from dragon breath attacks.


• Animated Shield, a magical shield that hovers around Adalia for a minute when she speaks its command word and deflects attacks.


• Broom of Flying, a... flying broomstick.

'Human'ization

Adalia is a half-elf, which in the Forgotten Realms means she has features of both her elf and human parent. Her eyes have the tapetum lucidium of the elves and her ears are slightly pointed, but in most other ways she looks like a normal human.

Fit

For Adalia, one of her biggest motivators is finding her biological family, to the point that she can estrange her found family with that fervor. Taking her away from her own world forces her to pay more attention to the people around her and make deeper bonds with them, as she has no chance of finding her "real" family and thus, if family is so important to her, she must make one. Additionally, as a mage from another world where magic is not the norm but is also not as stigmatized as it is in Thedas, she will have Very Strong Opinions about the treatment of mages in Thedas, and would be all for the mage revolution... until she sees what an abomination can really do. In essence, I think Fade Rift would challenge Adalia in ways she needs to be challenged and force her to grow up.

SAMPLES

CDC AU with Peter Nureyev
Toplevel on a TDM post

Note that in these threads, Adalia is referred to as Sarra. Because of the existence of Sera in the DA universe, and the fact that I did have another name for Sarra in mind (her real name, in fact!) I decided to switch to Adalia for the sake of not confusing people or characters.