User:GabrielleduVent/4 Wardens Amarina

Name: Amarina Surana

Age: 27 as of 9:37 Dragon

Class: Battlemage, Spirit healer, Arcane Warrior

LI: None

Description: 5’5”, raven hair, silvery grey eyes. Thin frame.

Personality: Quiet, controlled, very stubborn, loyal, conscientious and honest. Has a bit of a mouth when angered or irritated. Has very little sense of money. Introverted and relies on logic when making decisions with some disregard for feelings. Tends to stick to the rules. Circle sympathizer.

The elfmaid watched as the group of students argued. She did not join the debate but merely watched, arms crossed, her mind wandering as her head picked up the snippets of conversation and cataloged them. Knowledge was power, as the adage went, and she held it to be true.

“We are cursed, and I pray for forgiveness every day,” said one of the apprentices hotly.

“But the Templars are always watching us, Jandra,” the dark-haired apprentice mage retorted. “They bind our freedom! We have power, great power at our fingertips, and they oppress us! How is that in any way right?”

“But the power in itself is a sin! How can you not see that, Jowan?”

The dark-haired young man groaned in frustration, then turned to the slight elf. “What do you think, Amarina?”

The young slip of a girl started, refocusing on the present. “What?” she said.

“Do you think the Templars are right? Don’t you think they unfairly oppress us?”

She shrugged. “Do you have any better idea?”

“We should be free. Free to practice our arts, instead of old Greagoir reciting the Chant of Light at every turn!”

Another shrug.

“Don’t you care? Don’t you hate it that they watch us everywhere? Monitor who we talk to? Check which books we read?”

“Jowan,” the girl said exasperatedly, “you’ve seen what the masters do. They can destroy entire villages with one spell. It’s no wonder regular people are terrified of us.” She continued without giving the boy a turn when he opened his mouth to interject. “How would you feel, if you were a common farmer boy, and your next door neighbor could make you explode by just pointing a finger and saying a word?”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t have rights!”

She sighed. “And what would the alternative be? Let’s say we got rid of the Circles. People will oppress us anyway for our powers, Jowan. What do you think would have happened to us if the Templars didn’t come and take us away? You said yourself that your mother hated you after you discovered the gifts. You might have been killed.”

“But I’ve heard that some apprentices got raped in the Gallows in Kirkwall!”

“I’m not saying that the system is implemented correctly.” They were really trying her patience now; why couldn’t these people see that they were lucky to be here, to have clothes on their backs and food on the table everyday, to have parchment to write on and inks to squander? Coming from the Denerim Alienage had made her see squalor, and just how lucky it was to be able to get a stomach full every night. To not be treated like an animal because one had pointy ears. To be judged by merit only. “But to deny the system because there is a case of wrong implementation is like saying that our class is entirely stupid because Jandra still can’t raise a barrier.” Laughter at that; Jandra was still not getting hang of the simple barrier spell. She seemed to be proficient only in splaying her legs whenever it struck her fancy.

Senior Enchanter Sweeney came in, and the discussion ended. Amarina concentrated on the metaphysical structure of the Fade and the defenses against its trickery, aware of Jowan’s sullen glare. She decided to push the glare out of her mind; what she had said was logical, and if Jowan could not buy that, then so be it. She hoped that Jowan would not be angry at her, but she also saw no reason to apologise when she knew she was not wrong.

One had to have principles.