untranquil | EACHDRAIDH APP

( CHARACTER INFORMATION )

- ★ NAME: Anders

- ★ AGE: Early 30s

- ★ CANON POINT: Post-DA2

- ★ CANON INFORMATION: Game wiki is here. Anders is the same person regardless of player choices, but his history can change. This Anders was on friendly terms with both the Warden-Commander and Hawke. He didn't "die" defending the Keep. He knew Bethany rather than Carver, as well as all of Hawke's optional companions. He didn't kill Ella, which means he spent the years after Act 2 trying in vain to find a way to end his possession before abruptly returning to the cause of mage rights in Act 3. Hawke sided with the mages and spared Anders' life. Anders is arriving in the Drabwurld soon after fleeing Kirkwall in the wake of the rebellion and separating from his companions. ("Friends" is probably too strong a word, at this point.)

- ★ PERSONALITY: Anders is what happens when a mouthy fugitive mage with repressed anger issues decides that allowing himself to be possessed by an uncompromising Spirit of Justice is a good idea.

To be fair, he meant well. Even before his possession overrode his natural tendencies to be self-centered and a bit lazy, Anders had a kinder heart than he liked to let on. He traded a chance at freedom to help the Grey Wardens, protested the tactical destruction of a city because there were people within it who might still have been saved, and spent years studying to be a spirit healer, which required at least some strength of character in addition to a desire to aid others. That desire is what drove him to agree to possession: he wanted to free his fellow mages and to rescue Justice, who he considered a friend, from inhabiting a rotting cadaver.

Anders believed his good intentions and the spirit's virtuous nature made his bargain with Justice different from the deals mages were trained never to make with Pride or Desire—and they might have, if his terrible puns and good cheer had been masking a little less resentment and buried rage. But the better angels of Anders' nature were fairly matched by his hatred for the Circle and the Templars Order. Once they'd merged, Justice felt Anders' fury, Anders felt Justice's singleminded drive, and their first act together was a small bloodbath. Their most recent act was a large bloodbath. They don't call them abominations for nothing.

That isn't to say Anders is an irrationally violent monster. Not all the time. On a day-to-day basis he manages to temper Justice's least prudent impulses, and in many ways possession has made him a better person, or at least a much more selfless one. Terrorism was never Plan A: he spent the better part of his six years in Kirkwall trying in vain to use words instead of violence, providing free health care to refugees, helping mages escape the Circle, and feeding stray cats. He has an excellent bedside manner. He inspired enough loyalty among Darktown's population that no one ever sold him out, even though they could have used the coin, and several were willing to die for him. He has an enormous capacity for passionate conviction and belief. (He even still believes in the basic tenants of the religion that's oppressing him—all of his arguments for mage freedom were grounded in Andraste's teachings, not a rejection of them.) He's sincerely romantic to the extent of causing me some secondhand embarrassment and still charming, a bit, if you're into the whole angry scruffy rebel thing. He enjoys attention as much as ever. On a good day he'll even have flashes of his old humor, although it's a lot sharper and grimmer than it used to be.

But when it comes to matters of ideology Anders is obsessive, confrontational, and unassailably resolute, driven by a spirit that doesn't understand things like "patience" or "compromise." He might be more lighthearted about it on some days than on others. He might even take a break from insulting everyone who disagrees with him long enough to lose to them at cards. But it's never permanent. He's incapable of agreeing to disagree, and he doesn't believe in the silent treatment. He's also frustratingly difficult to pin down, slipping between self-righteous severity and snarky flippancy with such ease and unpredictability that forcing him into some sort of coherent, reasoned debate is often more trouble than it's worth.

Anders is also sometimes just an asshole. He picks fights with people who would rather leave well enough alone, resents authority even when that authority hasn't wronged him, and has gradually developed a rather concerning "you're either with me or evil" outlook. Fenris was never returned to Danarius in Anders' timeline, but that doesn't change the fact that Anders could have cavalierly approved of returning an escaped slave to his abusive master just because they disagreed about mage rights. Maybe he wouldn't have the capacity for that level of spite if he weren't possessed, but he is what he is. Wherever the fault technically lies, by the end of his six years in Kirkwall Anders had managed to alienate or annoy pretty much everyone he knew. Had Hawke elected to kill him for what he did to the Chantry, no one would have been particularly concerned.

On the upside, Anders isn't crying himself to sleep wondering why people don't like him. He's aware of how he comes across. He just doesn't care. There's no room, in his view, for someone to care about him without caring about what he stands for.

He doesn't regret what he did in Kirkwall, but he does regret what he did with Justice. Anders believes that he's destroyed his friend and fundamentally, irreversibly changed his own soul. That isn't entirely true. For the most part, he and Justice act as one: they think one another's thoughts, feel one another's emotions, and Anders is very rarely either entirely himself or entirely not. But there's a division there, even if Anders doesn't always feel it. He can still tell the difference between some of Justice's desires and his own. Had they been rivals rather than friends, Hawke could have drawn out those incongruences and pushed Anders to fight Justice instead of cooperating him. It wouldn't have changed anything—Anders would have begun having blackouts while Justice carried out the plan to destroy the Chantry on its own—but their interests can diverge enough to create a schism. It's also within the realm of possibility for their connection to be severed or for Justice to take a new host. As far as Anders knows, though, they're stuck together until he dies.

- ★ COURT ALLIANCE: Unseelie. Prior to his possession, Anders was firmly in the chaotic neutral camp: he was interested in his own freedom and willing to do just about anything to secure it, but he was admittedly too lazy and afraid to do anything about the freedom of others. Justice has broadened his focus to include his fellow mages, but he’s still willing to lie, betray, and kill—on an even grander scale, now including people he knows are innocent—in pursuit of freedom for freedom’s sake, regardless of the consequences, even though he acknowledges that mages are dangerous. He’s proof of it.

- ★ ABILITIES: Anders is a mage. For the sake of my own sanity, I'm limiting his build to the two areas of magic mentioned in his dialogue and cutscenes: primal magic, namely the abilities to generate and manipulate fire and electricity, and spirit healing. His DA2 specialization mostly involves talents that speak to his personality rather than any supernatural abilities: channeling his rage, sacrificing his own health to keep fighting past his normal limits—fighting like a man possessed, heh heh, etc. With all magic, he's constrained by distance (5–30 yards depending on the spell), his line of sight, and the availability of his own energy.

He's also a Grey Warden, but without darkspawn to fight, that's not good for much. Mostly it means he's constantly hungry, plagued by nightmares, and very slowly turning into a ghoul. He had about twenty years left before the Drabwurld's exciting life expectancy extension thing. As for non-supernatural abilities, he's a talented escape artist, a moderately skilled herbalist (although he'd have to relearn in accordance with the local flora), and—like all Thedas mages—among the better educated of his people.

Justice, as a separate entity, has only the ability to possess other beings and use whatever abilities are at their disposal. It cannot be killed in the traditional sense; were Anders killed, Justice would either continue animating his corpse or take another body. In the absence of a physical host, however, it would eventually die/cease to exist.

- ★ INVENTORY: His clothes, all old, dirty, and held together with bad stitching and/or bandages, including a boot with broken laces he hasn't bothered to replace; his entire get-up should probably be burned ASAP, but good luck getting him to part with that coat. A staff that's useful for magic, stabbing, and smacking. A small knife. A belt, a ring worn on a chain, and a Tevinter Chantry amulet. Stale bread and some dried elfroot wrapped in cloth. Four copper coins.