fade rift.

[hornswoggle]

PLAYER

Name: eppy
Age: well
Contact: pogonophile
Other Characters: n/a
Interests: politicking, some violence, some lies and maybe a little light stabbing.

CHARACTER

Name: Long John Silver
Canon/OC: black sails
Journal: hornswoggle
Race: Human
Nationality: Unknown. John came to Nascere by way of Tevinter, and pinballed along the coast prior to that.
Occupation: Reluctant quartermaster of a pirate ship.
Division: Diplomacy
Mage or Not: yes
Age: mid to late 30's

History

canon wiki summary.

Born a mage. Whether that means he escaped from a Circle or has always been an apostate is a mystery John won't be clarifying; he's doing his utmost to hide his magic.

Whatever came before John stumbled his way onto Flint's crew was traumatic and awful and ended with John alone in the world. If pressed, he'll claim a childhood in a Fereldan orphanage.

Landed on a ship possessing the schedule of a Qunari warship ferrying an obscene amount of gatlock. When Flint's crew attacked searching for the schedule, John stole it, concealed it, then passed himself off as a cook.

Met a prostitute as wily as himself in Nascere; the pair of them struck a plan to sell the gatlock schedule.

Which blew up in their faces. To save himself, John memorized the schedule and burned the page. If Flint wanted the information, John needed to be alive to dispense it.

Allowed to stay on as cook, John painstakingly forged connections among the crew.

The plan to take the ship carrying the gatlock failed. Flint's crew mutinied, the warship carrying the gatlock wrecked. The crew leaves scouts to monitor the shipwrecked gatlock, and heads back to Nascere.

John successfully weasels his way back into the crew's good graces a second time through the power of gossip.

Some general politicking occurs when they land at Nascere. John's tasked with using his newfound popularity to rally the crew to Flint's vision.

Because he's a duplicitous fuck, John intercepts the scouts before they can inform anyone else that Qunari presence at the wreck is weakening. He tells his wily prostitute pal. She'll employ another crew to retrieve the gatlock, and they'll split the spoils.

Narrowly avoid a pirate war with Vane by embarking on a quest to return a kidnapped girl to her father, an old acquaintance of Flint's.

The pirate war follows them on their quest, and attacks their ship while Flint's ashore. John refuses to talk the crew into switching allegiances, so Vane's quartermaster takes a weighted ax to his leg.

John's leg is so mangled it must be amputated. He wakes to the news that he's been voted quartermaster.

His sneaky plan to snatch the gatlock from under Flint's nose succeeds, but John opts to give up his share to maintain his place with the Walrus crew.

Adapting to life as an amputee on a filthy pirate ship while Flint razes every Tevinter trading port and settlement they come across: 0/10 do not recommend.

Tevinter rallies to retake Nascere. The magister manages to sway enough of the island population to drive Flint and Silver into allying with maroon slaves from Sarehon's mainland and other ragtag pirate scum.

They discover that the magister controlling Nascere is loyal to Corypheus at the same time as a rift open over the island interior. Faced with a significantly larger threat than planned, Silver, along with Flint and their other allies, are driven to seek more allies to retake the island.

Personality

John's a survivor. In any given situation, John's looking to turn it to his advantage and walk away from it unscathed. He's a manipulative, charming fuck who prioritizes his own interests above most things. Surprisingly for him, his interests have shifted accidentally. His initial involvement with Flint was a means to an end, but it's become a cause John truly wants to throw his weight behind.

Blessed with high charisma, John's real power lies in his ability to persuade and captivate an audience. He's gifted at picking apart people's emotions and weaponizing them, but he's often caught off guard by his own emotional reactions. He's genuinely taken aback by the embrace of the Walrus crew, and shocks himself by sacrificing a leg for their well being. John prefers people to be invested in him; he's extremely unprepared to be deeply invested in other people. If he opens up even marginally to another person, it's when he's too valuable to them to be fucked over by it, or in possession of enough leverage to turn the tables on them if he should so choose.

Much of what John does is steeped in deception. He shrouds himself in it to cover up something unspeakably painful in his past. By necessity, he's talented at twisting conversation and directing questions away from himself. He's skilled at taking on advantageous roles, whether it's hapless cook or pirate king. John commits, especially when his success hinges on people buying into what he's projecting. Unlike some of his compatriots, John isn't driven by any particular moral imperative. He's slower to violence, but he isn't troubled by right and wrong. John's out to get his cut. He doesn't have anything to prove and he isn't invested in people's perception of him beyond the image he's hiding behind at any given moment. He likes people feeling indebted to him, but only so he can collect on it later. Very little of what he does comes solely from the goodness of his heart. Even his most altruistic deeds have a self-serving angle, however slight.

Extremely perceptive, John's good at reading situations and individuals. He knows how to hold a crowd in his hand. He knows how to spin out a story and tip popular opinion to his advantage. Better than most, John understands the power of being well-liked and how to harness that in service of a particular goal, rather than relying solely upon fear as a motivator. And while initially he was content with simply allowing popularity to carry him towards smaller, furtive end points, he's found himself elevated onto a very different playing field than he'd intended. Worlds away from absconding with a disgusting payoff, he's working towards winning a very daunting war. It's a testament to John's adaptability, but despite his seeming commitment he's always a step away from some sort of escape.

Opinions & Affiliations

MAGIC: nice, extremely useful, but not worth dying over. John has no mage pride, and he prefers his own magic kept out of sight.

TEMPLARS: bad news.

THE CHANTRY: unsurprisingly, John is not a devout practitioner. it's hard to throw support behind a belief system that deems his magical nature a corrupting influence on the world. that being said, the basic tenets still hold some sway for him. he can go through the motions, and he's likely taken advantage of the services local chantries offer, but he won't be cleansing his sins through fire anytime soon.

MAGES VS. TEMPLARS: it would be preferable if the mages win out, since templars automatically make John's life more complicated, but he's not going to actually try to involve himself in any active way.

THE QUN: hard fucking pass. their belief system is completely beyond John's comprehension, and his plans post-Inquisition are entirely "how do we avoid getting hammered by them for taking their fucking gatlock?"

CIRCLE MAGES: pitiable, tbh.

Adaptation Notes

A major feature of John Silver's character is that he's been severed and displaced from his past, and there's a great deal of undefined trauma there. John never talks about his past, apart from offering a single anecdote that's later heavily implied to have been a lie. To me, this is truly the essence of his character. John's an outsider who has to continually make space for himself in another person's story. He's very much set apart and carrying a fair amount of secrets at any given moment. Making him an apostate is a way to do justice to that, I believe, and really underscore how John has been on his own in the world even among the people he's chosen to momentarily pledge allegiance to. John choosing to hide his magic and his past mirrors much of his canon journey, where he deliberately obscures the truth about himself and what he's capable of as he navigates the world.

Strengths & Weaknesses

+/- MAGE: Whatever formal training John received, if any, came to an abrupt stop. Consequently, John's more of a hedge mage than anything else. He's capable of a smattering of spells from the formal disciplines, ie fade step, some basic barrier spells, some illusion and sleight of hand, some minor elemental invocation spell work, the majority of what he can do stems from charms and rituals that he's soaked up while bouncing his way across Thedas. It's all very grimy and gritty and painful for him, channeling his magic through bones and feathers and what have you.

+/- SILVER TONGUE: John's a charismatic and eloquent speaker. You need someone to convince a crowd? He's your man. That being said, John's always working his own angle. His ability to talk people in and out of things isn't always guaranteed to work in the Inquisition's favor. (Or John's favor, lbr.)

+/- SWORDWORK: He's mediocre at best with blades. Sure, he can get the job done, but there's always a little bit of luck involved. If you're looking for someone to back you up in a fight it's probably better to pick anyone else before John.

+/- PIRACY: He's familiar with the inner workings of a ship and how to raid, but how useful is that really going to be at this point?

+ PETTY THIEVERY: If you want a pocket picked, he's your man.

- SQUEAMISH: Weirdly, John's not a huge murder fan. He balks at taking most kinds of extreme solutions, which arguably is a detriment to him in the long run.

- I REALLY HAVE TO FIGHT HIM?: Combat is not John's strong suit. He's vastly improved during all the time spent with pirates, but between his first instinct always being "get the fuck out of dodge" and that his baseline ability was "pitiful" he's got bad odds in any hand to hand altercation.

Inventory

Salt-soaked pirate outfit

Assorted ill-gotten jewelry

Crutch

A couple knives

A small purse with some coins and a handful of miscellaneous spell components. Nothing too exciting.

Motivation

Corypheus. John hasn't spent all this time being dragged into a fucking war over this stupid island to have it swallowed up by a rift or stepped on by ancient darkspawn.

SAMPLES

grimy au musebox thread w. flint.
tdm w. max