( application )

[ironmadame]

 

 

[OOC]

 

Your Name: Era

Contact: outofsequences @ outlook.com / a_new_era @ plurk.com

Are you at least 16 years of age or older?: Yes

Current Characters(s): n/a

Reserve Link: theatlas_ooc | Reserves

 

[IC]

 

Is this a re-app?: No.

Character Name: Vivienne, no last name given. Often called Madame de Fer.

Journal: ironmadame | Recent Entries 

Canon: Dragon Age: Inquisition

Canon Point: End of the main game, before any DLCs

Species: Human, Mage

Age: CANON NEVER STATES DIRECTLY but the Wiki has amazing dates for things and she is 45 at the time of the game.

 

History: One Iron Lady, coming up: Vivienne | Dragon Age Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia

 

Personality: 

To understand Vivienne and her motivations, one has to understand the political climate she came to navigate so well. Orlesian politics specifically (though of course, politics being politics, what happens in Orlais does not stay in Orlais) is effectively known as the Game, and the Game is something that Vivienne has learned to play exceptionally well, from the age of 19 to now. 

 

Cole: How do you make a Game that you always win?

Vivienne: Practice.

 

Part of the Game, she explains to Dorian, is that one never sees your true visage. For Vivienne this means that she carefully controls and manipulates the impressions of those she has to deal with, be it in person or not. She tells the Inquisitor that she is never truly out of her element, and Vivienne embodies this concept with every breath and every machination. Thus, she is not one to react visually or viscerally. She is not one to be shocked, or even openly angered; her venom is layered with honey, meant to sting all the same but sting sweetly. She plays the Game so well that she cannot stop playing it, leading some to consider her cold.

 

Vivienne: Orlais is selfish. But that ambition you decry breeds its own strengths. Those who rule Orlais never fear treachery from the rest of the world. They have already faced far worse.

Iron Bull: Well, that's one way to train your leaders.

 

She’s fine with that, really. In fact, Sera calls Vivienne a bitch but says “she knows it” and Vivienne knows it very well, thank you very much. If there was ever a Thedosian urban dictionary, Vivienne’s face would accompany the definition for HBIC. 

 

Vivienne is a proactive sort of woman, who fought very hard for her current position of power, and she fought from within that system of power as opposed to against it. She is very big picture; while her own goals are always at the head of her considerations, she is also concerned with others, and one does not become well-versed in politics without also being well-versed in understanding the needs and motivations of others. As petty as they often are. She is concerned with power, naturally, but also with appearances and how that power works, behind and in front of the scenes. She is not afraid to fight for what she believes in, and most of all?  Vivienne believes in herself.

 

Sera: Those nobs in Orlais. They barely like their own kin. And you're a mage.

Vivienne: Your failing-- among many-- is that you presume I desire approval. Power does not require that I be "liked."

 

Vivienne acts the way she does because she believes in power. She believes in the strength of it, and she is aware of the dangers that lie within it’s misuse; but more so than that, she craves both power and control for herself. Some would call it vanity, others hubris, but Vivienne believes that absolute power and control are essential to both politics and Mages surviving in Thedas. Being a politically-minded Mage in Thedas, she sees this as vital to her own livelihood and takes it to extremes, insisting on becoming the best at whatever power structure she finds herself in.

 

Solas: You so often come out on top. You play the political games brilliantly.

Vivienne: A compliment? Although you speak it as a curse.

Solas: You could use those skills to improve the lives of your fellow mages. Instead you have done nothing, save consolidate your own power.

Vivienne: What if keeping my power might in fact improve the lives of my fellow mages?

Solas: You honestly believe the world is better off with you setting its course?

Vivienne: I need not be in spotlight. But after watching others try and fail, why should I not have a turn?

 

As a young mage, in the Circle at Ostwick, Vivienne was one of the youngest in Circle history to pass her Harrowing. By the time she was transferred to Montsimmard at 19, she was already engaged with the Game and a noted scholar. From there, she caught the attention of Duke Bastien and used his interest in her to further her own causes - not to say that she didn’t care for him in return, (she does say, after he dies, that she will cherish their years together) but anything she found unpleasant about him she ignored in favor of the power and position he represented and offered her through being his mistress. 

 

Four years later, she was appointed as court enchanter to the new Empress Celene in Orlais. Vivienne took a position which had historically been little more than court jester and turned it into one wielding - you guessed it - power. She became an advisor to the Empress, despite there being an official ban on Mages holding a political seat. 

 

Cole tells Vivienne that she believes that caring makes her seem weak (and also promises not to tell anyone). This comes through, a bit, in her interactions with other companions. If Dorian is in a relationship with the Inquisitor, Vivienne is sent a letter from Tevinter asking her about it; in a move that surprises Dorian, she denies there is anything “disturbing” going on, thus squashing the rumors that have crossed borders. It is less that caring is a weakness and more that it isn’t directly useful. Caring does not immediately lead towards power, or control, but in fact can lead to the opposite; thus, Vivienne is wary about showing that she cares, and flat out refuses to say as much, but she is capable. 

 

As I said before, Vivienne is a big picture kind of person. She evaluates power structures and how best to thrive within them, and the Vivienne gives it all she’s got. Her greatest fear is to be irrelevant - that is, without power or control. When she took up with Duke Bastien as his mistress, there were bards sent after her; she either sent them back or convinced them to work for her. She became First Enchanter of Montsimmard at a young age. She leads the Loyalists after the fall of the Circle and has a hand in rebuilding it no matter who becomes the next Divine. She could even become Divine herself, based on the choices of the Inquisition. 

 

In short, she is driven by a desire for power, is terrified of being unimportant, and is frighteningly good at politics - especially large-scale politics. Vivienne is also skilled at giving backhanded compliments and refusing to allow others past the version of her she allows them to see. Her ultimate goal is ultimate power, that she will obtain not through force but through wit and the acclimation of power that is recognized by others; she would never consider becoming an Apostate, for instance, or leaving for Tevinter where Mages have outright political power, because that power would not be recognized by others playing the Game in Orlais.  

 

Powers & Abilities: 

MAGE ABILITIES: Vivienne is a knight enchanter and comes from the end of the main game, so she's a bit of a magical powerhouse. Obviously I am fine with any of these abilities being nerfed! 

 

Below are her abilities, with descriptions from the Dragon Age Wiki:

 

Spirit Blade : You create a blade of solid magic to make melee attacks against nearby enemies, bypassing their guard and barriers.

Fade Cloak : You surround yourself with the magic of the Veil itself. You are briefly invulnerable and can pass through enemies unharmed.

Decloaking Blast : If you rematerialize inside an enemy, the foe is blasted back with massive force.

Combat Clarity : The chaos of combat frightens some, but for you, its a comfortable rhythm. Your mana regenerates faster when you're near hostile enemies.

Fade Shield : You draw back the energy released by your enemies in your attacks against them. Any successful attack strengthens your barrier. The more damage you do, the more powerful your barrier grows.

Barrier : A barrier provides an additional health bar that must be destroyed before the target will take any damage. Barrier is vulnerable to dispel effects.

Guardian Spirit : A protective barrier springs into place around you automatically when you are badly injured.

Frost Step : Passing through enemies hurts them and leaves them chilled.

Immolate : You unleash a massive explosion, leaving enemies in the area burning in agony.

Chaotic Focus : When you cast a Fire spell, the spell consumes half of your barrier to empower it. The larger the barrier consumed, the greater the bonus to the spell's damage.

Ice Armor : You draw on cold magic near you to protect you from all attacks. Standing near a frozen enemy or a persistent cold spell reduces all damage you take.

Blizzard : You summon a freezing blizzard to chill and damage enemies caught in the area.

 

Misc: 

 

Sample: 

She had wanted the Conclave to go well, beyond the reasons that were obvious. Mages were her people, their cause also hers, no matter what those in their limited experience of the Game while within the walls of their Circle might have decided. There had been no hesitation to consider Grand Enchanter Fiona's actions foolish, considering the political climate, and people's fear of Mages after what happened in Kirkwall - it was, in Vivienne's mind, utter idiocy to still continue with the dissolution of the Circles - just as there had been no hesitation to hope that this Conclave would be the necessary hallmark, the first step in ending the war between the Templars and Mages. 

 

Vivienne held trust and faith in Divine Justinia V, in the Divine's ability to pay attention to more than just what was best for the Chantry as an institution. The woman had been well skilled in dealing with assassinators and bards (whether or not they were one and the same), the Game...much like herself, in Vivienne's opinion, which had given her all the more edge in handling the incredibly delicate situation between the Mages and Templars. Structure and leadership were needed, and it wasn't coming from Fiona calling herself as the leader of the "Rebel Mages", certainly.

 

However it would seem Fate and the Maker were uninterested in such a resolution to the fighting, political split, and divisions amongst the people regarding Mages and Templars. When word reached Vivienne of the explosion, of the Divine's death, of the tear in the Fade taking over the sky, she did not immediately send a vocal prayer to the Maker that they might all be saved. Vivienne, instead, took a breath, squared her shoulders, and began planning. 

 

With so many of Justinia’s closest now gone, the Chantry would be a veritable disaster politically; the current balance of power was certain to swing between the Hands of the Divine, herself, Grand Enchanter Fiona, Lord Seeker Lucius, and either Gaspard or Celene if the Orlesian civil war managed to end anytime soon. 

 

It wasn’t going to be easy, Maker knew, but Vivienne was determined to have her hand in ending this warfare between Mages and Templars. She was not one to sit back and hope for the best in the face of the worst, and there was work, still, to be done.