Hard on the Outside, Soft on the Inside

Generally shown to have a serious, confident, and secretive demeanor regarding personal feelings and information, which comes at the cost of emotional overflows in private now and again. This partial façade occasionally causes her to appear – or otherwise genuinely be –somewhat abrasive and distrusting on first impression, especially in situations involving sensitive topics. Despite outward appearances, however, she lacks self-confidence. Keeping her disposition and self-discipline in check becomes more difficult the longer she bottles things up. She has a reluctance to form attachments, especially to those outside of her clan; reluctance stemming both from Tamlen's disappearance and being taken away from her home. Mostly due to this, Atheya will not hesitate to push away those she thinks are getting too close, despite her desire deep, deep down not to. Those who somehow do know her well, however, are able to see past her hard exterior and may be treated to rare instances of her genuinely smiling. Surprisingly to most (and possibly even to herself), she has a special softness and patience for children of any race.

Unexpected Diplomat with Unwavering Loyalty...to a Fault

Atheya is a proud Dalish whose pride sometimes gets the best of her. Despite being raised well-mannered (especially when dealing with topics of human religion), her Dalish biases sometimes come through (usually under great stress). These instances make her appear impatient or rude at times, but do not truly reflect her care for the situation at hand or those involved. She still tries to remain diplomatic and open-minded, however, often comparing situations to her own experiences while growing up within the Sabrae clan under the leadership of Merathari. When involving herself in the affairs of others – whether through personal desire, diplomacy, or moral obligation – she often times becomes more personally attached than she realizes or would otherwise like. Feeling strong desires to protect those that need it and selfless to a fault at times, she is not afraid to sacrifice herself in any way if it means protecting or saving someone else. Sometimes she’ll even make difficult or impossible promises, but always holds herself to higher standards than anyone else. She is fiercely protective of her people (ALL elves; despite not fully understanding things) and attempts to represent them well in everything she does. While she loves and respects them the elders, however, she hates being compared to most of them (especially Ashalle), even jokingly. Out of the entire clan, she holds Tamlen, Merrill, and Feneral dearest to her. However, despite all this, she still also holds a firm belief in respect being given in the form it was shown to her.

Secretly Whimsical with Child-like Tendencies

Notwithstanding maturity level and somewhat open mindedness, Atheya possesses some naivety to things; jokes often go over her head and she has difficulty picking up on sarcasm. She also is a strong believer of all elves being able to come to understand each other with the right approach, no matter how (un)realistic that may be. She has a habit of taking certain wordings and phrases in too literal of a sense (i. e. "Ash Warriors" not actually be made of ash), and is completely oblivious to most acts of romance. In the event she does pick up on it, she is easily flustered by it and requires time to collect herself; usually this comes in the form of convincing herself it does not exist. Her softer side comes through in her interest and care of nature, animals and various elven things. When discussing animals, her inner child may come through despite her best efforts to hide it. She is not completely without personal responsibility, however, as she takes a serious interest in learning about magic due to her minor talent with it, along with her heritage. Her talents are kept hidden out of fear and self-consciousness, choosing to remain as careful as possible with it.

Weaponry & Combat Aptitude

A highly skilled Dalish warrior with a preference for the longbow (an unusual choice for warrior classes generally). In melee combat she wields a sword and back-hand style dagger, just a sword or - later on - learns to dual wield swords. She is flexible both physically and mentally and as situations arise, she uses her tactical knowledge and problem solving to overcome stressful scenarios. Atheya has a very athletic and acrobatic build, allowing flexible and dexterous movement as well as a surprising amount of durability for such a light frame and her race's physical shortcomings. If outmaneuvered in battle, however, getting hit can do some damage. Despite this, until a conclusion has been reached for the situation at hand, resilience, perseverance and Dalish stubbornness keep her going.

Survivalist Leader

Atheya is skilled in hunting, gathering and general preservation of herself and others. Has a wide knowledge of flora and fauna habitats/behaviors. Human settlements interfere with her innate abilities somewhat, but she is capable of adapting as needed. She posesses heightened senses, especially sight and sound (due to her upbringing and heritage) and the unexpected skill of sewing and skillfulness with her hands to do various tasks requiring a nimble approach. She is also a natural born charismatic leader with no knowledge of her own ability, but her intuitive nature is overshadowed by her cautious skepticism towards others. Generally she is non-reactive to social pokes directed at herself, serious or otherwise (though jabs at her people or race are more likely to get a reaction).

Minor Magical Talent*

Given her parentage (her father having been the keeper of the Sabrae clan before Merathari and her mother being “one of the finest” hunters of another clan), Atheya possesses a minor magical talent. which can channeled through enchanted arrows. Effects range from elements of ice, fire, or nature to physical effects of knockback/extreme force, piercing/severing or explosions. With proper training, the ability to channel through other weapons may be possible. While this talent is primarily meant for combative purposes, certain effects can also be used for utility (i.e. using fire on a sword for a makeshift torch, or electricity for a battery) as long as she is able to uphold it. Note that the abilities used are active and cannot be used as to buff or debuff. Their duration is highly dependent on her own stamina and concentration, but their length of use is generally short to match her combat style. These talents can only be channeled through weapons - without something to channel it through, she will be unable to utilize any magical ability.

After Atheya was born she was left by her mother in the care of the Sabrae clan – namely under Ashalle’s embrace – upon her father’s passing and Merathari’s ascension to Keeper. Any and all who had witnessed the event discuss the ordeal in secrecy in order to avoid bringing deep sadness upon Atheya, saying that her mother “simply walked into the moonlight and never returned;” unable to bear her broken heart and carrying on without the love of her life. From this Atheya was only ever made aware that Ashalle was her guardian and her parents were deceased – an explanation she deemed mostly satisfactory for the majority of her life up until 9:30 Dragon.

Before this and while growing up, Atheya’s earliest memories were those first of hushed whispers and prejudice that fortunately did not last long. Even as a child she was able to influence the opinions about her and her parents that other people had, allowing them to come around and accept not only her, but also her parents’ existence and influence. She had a natural charisma and air of leadership to her that made it both easy for her to make friends, but also effortless for her to demand respect and attention, despite remaining largely unaware of these qualities she possessed (even to this day). She made fast and deep friendships with Tamlen, Merrill, and Fenarel with the former quickly becoming her best friend. Despite such a title, however, Atheya was not one to show favoritism amongst her group and was equal parts compassionate and protective of all of them, often foregoing her own self-preservation (a quality that would eventually follow her into adulthood). This quality and the depths of her friendship with Tamlen would first shine through their brightest during Arlathven (the gathering of the Dalish clans once every decade) where an incident between her friends and elven children from their sister clans would occur.

Bonds of Friendship

During Arlathven, children from other clans had begun to bully Merrill after word had spread throughout the meeting that she had been chosen to be the Keeper’s First (especially at such a young age). Fenarel – who was already present at Merrill’s side – did his best to fend off the bullies which eventually caught the attention of the perpetually rambunctious Tamlen who joined in an attempt to help as well. When nothing was working to resolve the situation and things only seemed to be getting worse, Tamlen made the decision to go and recruit Atheya to try and settle things. After retrieving her from the sides of Merathari and Ashalle (a request of theirs as a means to help in their update to the other clans about her parents and re-strengthening her bonds with the other clans) with an arguably believable excuse requiring her assistance, Tamlen and Atheya returned to the scene together. Upon their arrival, Atheya immediately began asserting authority and working on getting the bullies to stand down. While things seemed to have begun to shift to their favor, the interaction took a sudden turn when one of the opposing elven boys – assumed to be the “leader” of their group – swung at Tamlen out of frustration. The attempt had barely grazed him as Atheya was able to pull him out of the way fast enough to keep the brunt of the attack from hitting him, but also allowing her to intercept and counter the swing. Following this defensive action, Atheya, Tamlen, and Fenarel found themselves in a “schoolyard brawl” with the other elven children. Before the brawl could escalate past anything too serious or severe, the event was immediately broken up after the emergence of Keeper Merathari from beyond the small clearing, causing all the children to scatter in many directions. While Atheya initially argued with Tamlen to allow her to talk to Merathari about the ordeal, he eventually managed to convince Fenarel and Merrill to drag her away from the situation with an assurance that he would be right behind them. During their escape, however, he was inevitably caught by Merathari after he had managed to give them enough time to run and hide away, causing Merathari to become furious with him after he refused to give up any names of any of the children involved. It took a great deal of effort from Fenarel and Merrill to keep Atheya from running out from their hiding place to intervene in Tamlen’s capture, but eventually Merathari led Tamlen away to begin the punishment she deemed appropriate for him much to the dismay of the four friends.

After this and as time passed the four friends grew – and so did their bonds of friendship. Their connections with each other would eventually strengthen and benefit them in many different avenues in life, but most notably in combat and survival situations. Merrill continued to prove herself a prodigy and worthy of her title as the Keeper’s First while Atheya, Tamlen, and Fenarel worked their hardest for their clan, eventually becoming fully recognized hunters and scouts (Fenarel being the first by a year as he is the eldest, and Atheya and Tamlen the year after – Tamlen succeeding status only after some involved assistance from Atheya). It was also during this stretch of time that Atheya’s gift would slowly make itself known. As they caught notice, it was properly catered to and kept secret by not only the Sabrae clan as a whole, but especially by Merathari, Merrill, Fenarel, and of course, Tamlen. While many in the clan admitted it was odd that a warrior would have any hint of magical talent, most were non-judgmental about it and embraced Atheya and her growing abilities. As accepting as they were, however, they did their due diligence to keep this on-going development a secret not only from the other clans, but from the world as a whole. This was done with the intention so as not to potentially disrupt the flow of life in unintended ways, but this proved to have more of an impact on Atheya than any of them, including herself, would realize. She would become significantly self-conscious both about herself and her gift, going through the motions of learning about it and how to use it (the only ways she could as a warrior) from Merathari and Merrill. It was stressed to her how important it was that it remained at least nothing more than a hushed whisper in the guise of a passing rumor despite their sentiments that these lessons were not meant to be harsh, strict, or overly serious. Regardless, Atheya took them quite seriously and developed conflicting feelings about her gift as well as discomfort at addressing it in any way with anyone aside from Merathari or Merrill. Eventually, however, Tamlen would grow close enough to her to the point where she would be able to tolerate the topic in the event it was brought up between them.

Twist of Fate

As evident in this, Atheya and Tamlen had an especially close relationship with each other to the point they could almost be considered a singular unit. They often spent their time together, rarely seen without the company of the other and many clan members – completely unbeknownst to Atheya – secretly hoped the two would end up as a couple one day soon. Instead of the prospect of happiness and celebration, however, they would experience grief and sadness after that fateful day the pair happened upon and cornered a group of three panicked and lost humans running through the forest too close to camp. So begins Atheya’s life in modern-day Ferelden: broken, tainted, misplaced, and thrown into a cruel, unforgiving world on a quest larger than herself and everything she has ever known in her life.

Mostly out of idle habit, Atheya will braid any malleable object she can get her hands on (hair, rope, cloth, etc.). This is especially apparent when she is fidgety for something to do, during long periods of inactivity, or while in unusual and uncomfortable situations.

When extremely flustered, agitated, overwhelmed, or otherwise some form of upset, Atheya will occasionally and unintentionally mix Dalish terms and phrases in with regular language without realizing it.

Atheya is greatly intrigued by facial and body hair given that elves aren’t capable of growing hair anywhere else on their bodies (aside from the tops of their heads and eyebrows) and does not see it very often if she has at all.