Post by Quinn Vilaro on Oct 22, 2014 22:38:32 GMT -5
[attr="class","main"] [attr="class","imgdiv"] [attr="class","name"]Quinn Vilaro [attr="class","race"]Antivan, Human
[attr="class","infoh"]Physical Attributes
[attr="class","infoc"]Quinn purposefully dresses and acts like a man. She is often and easily passed off as a mere boy, as she is flat-chested and looks rather androgynous with an eagle-beak nose, gaunt cheekbones, a long face and black hair which she slicks back from her forehead. She is rather short, barely standing taller than the average elf. In order to possess an air of professionalism, Quinn keeps her appearance clean and tidy, without a single speck of dirt on her person. However, her years of work have taken a toll on her, sporting a multitude of scars criss-crossing her face and body until one can hardly find a patch of skin which is unblemished. Quinn is usually dressed in her leathers, and dons a black longcoat when the weather calls for it. She carries her weapons with her at all times, and keeps a beat up red scarf on her person even during the summer heat. Countless vials of poison, acid, and other trinkets of the like are strapped across her chest and around her belt, giving her the impression of a walking arsenal.[attr="class","infoh"]Personality
[attr="class","infoc"]Quinn believes the world to be one of wolves and prey, and the only choice is to eat or be eaten. She keeps a veneer of friendliness toward any stranger or acquaintance she chances upon, since one can never know if they can be of use to her. As such, her outward appearance is usually calm and genial, and she is generally well liked by most folk. But when the chance arises, she takes no qualms in quietly stabbing someone in the back for a leg up in the world. She can also be quite persuasive, often convincing others to make a deal which ends up benefiting herself rather than them. Quinn does not have anyone she considers a friend or meaningful partner in her life, and she does not admit to wishing for one. On the other hand, she has a legitimate fondness for animals, and wishes she had a cat. Though she can be ruthless and cold, Quinn is not pointlessly cruel, nor does she take any actual enjoyment out of hurting others. Growing up in the slums of Antiva, Quinn has grown a thick skin which renders her apathetic to insults and jeers. She is also surprisingly pedantic for someone who started out in the lowest ranks of society, with a speech pattern far more sophisticated than her status suggests. Her humor is sharp but sometimes vulgar and irreverent, and when someone does manage to invoke Quinn's temper her tongue can dole out a lashing without equal. Aside from a distaste for nobility, Quinn does not hold grudges and believe them to be a waste of time. However, she harbors an intense hatred for anyone associated with the Antivan Crows, and will not hesitate to dispose of one if the opportunity is given. [attr="class","infoh"]Background [attr="class","infoc"]Quinn was born to Eliza Vilaro during a warm summer night. Her mother was a lowborn prostitute who worked in a dilapidated backstreet brothel in Antiva, and no one knew who her father was. Despite their circumstances, Eliza tried her best to raise Quinn with the little money she had, and she loved her child with all her heart. Quinn spent her early years running with a fellow band of urchins, terrorizing angry stall merchants and learning the basics of pickpocketing. When the Crows began kidnapping members of their little band to be trained as assassins, the group dispersed out of fear. When Quinn was around seven years of age, she wandered around the marketplace as usual, stealing bits of fruit and bread to help feed both herself and her mother. In the distance, she saw a noblewoman's daughter who was the same age as her, decked in beautiful silks and fabrics that shone in the sunlight. Quinn was entranced by the unimaginable splendor of the dress, and an uncontrollable curiousity made her quietly approach the girl. She has never realized before the kind of poverty she lived in, and the sight of such wealth invoked an innocent sort of wonder. The girl, however, only noticed the presence of a filthy mess of rags and dirt, and started screaming and crying at the hideous sight of a beggar's child. Quinn found herself dragged away by several city guards, who laughed at her and gave her a hard slap to the face before kicking Quinn out of the marketplace. She couldn't understand why she was to be living in the slums and the girl to be housed in a chamber with a warm bed and meals aplenty, so Quinn began harboring a bitterness which brooded and grew as the years passed. She began coveting the riches of others, and started to steal not only for food but out of a desire for anything valuable. Eliza disapproved of her stealing anything more than food and necessities, but Quinn insisted and hid a stash of stolen necklaces, rings, and other trinkets of minor value beneath her bed. Quinn's mother passed away from an unkown sickness on her thirteenth nameday, leaving her with nothing but a red scarf and a pile of debt to the brothel owner. Demanding the debt to be repaid, the brothel owner informed Quinn that she had nothing give but her body. Locked in a room within the brothel against her will, Quinn was forced into prostitution in order to settle the debt. A commotion was heard a month later within the room, and when the door was unlocked there was only darkness and a dead client with a hole in his guts. As the brothel owner peered into the lightless room, Quinn sprang out from the shadows and stabbed him in the leg with a shiv improvised from a piece of wood pried off the bedframe. She ran into the streets, injured from the struggle with the client, and wandered the winter city with only rags and her mother's scarf. Succumbing to the cold, Quinn passed out against the wall of a dark alleyway. When she woke, it was on a clean straw bed with a blanket over her. Quinn found herself reluctantly under the care of an elven thief by the name of Maris, who found Quinn unconscious near her doorstep. Taking pity on the child, she took Quinn in as an apprentice, teaching her the skills of stealth and how to defend herself. Most importantly, Maris taught Quinn the art of deceit. Quinn learned of the tricks used to sway opinions one way or another, and to don masks that concealed the nature underneath. Quinn's abilities grew quickly under Maris's guidance, and the apprenticeship blossomed into a close partnership over the course of several years. Determined to rise in society and make a name for herself, Quinn eventually left Maris's guidance to seek greater wealth. She began dabbling with freelance assassinations at the risk of angering the Antivan Crows, and also used her skills in manipulation to broker sensitive information to interested parties. Even as her status slowly rose, Quinn's thirst for power and riches could not be satisfied, and she began taking more and more dangerous targets. Quinn was eventually contacted to kill a Crow guildmaster at the promise of a thousand sovereigns. When she told Maris of her plan, her old mentor tried to convince Quinn not to take the offer, sensing something fishy with the contract. But Quinn went against both Maris's and her own judgment and took the job. And with that, Quinn walked into a trap. The contract turned out to be a ruse, used to lure the Crow's prey into the open. As Quinn entered the Guildmaster's house, she was immediately beset by several Crows. It was there that Quinn received many of the scars which now mark her person. Quinn barely escaped with her life, and when she temporarily found safe shelter, she used her network of information gatherers to discover that after she sold out some incriminating information concerning a family of high nobility, they paid the Crows a hefty sum to have her killed. Knowing there cannot be a contract if the client is dead, Quinn hunted down the nobleman who ordered her assassination. Believing herself to be safe, Quinn visited Maris to tell her the news. When she opened the door to her apartment, it appeared ransacked. On the table was a note with the address of an abandoned warehouse inscribed on it. Believing it to be another trap, Quinn nonetheless arrived at the warehouse. Instead of an ambush, Quinn stepped into the warehouse only to find Maris tied to a chair, the guildmaster, and a crossbow loaded with a single bolt. The Crows, it seems, have been quite impressed. Quinn was given an offer, a test of sorts, for a chance to join the Antivan Crows despite her age. She was to shoot Maris, thus concluding her only emotional tie to the world and enabling her to become a part of the Crows. Refuse, and she will be killed with ease. The guildmaster promised prestige and status, of everything Quinn dreamed up as a child. She held the crossbow unsteadily in her hands, and Maris only looked at her with a pained expression. When the bolt pierced Maris's heart, Quinn was instantly filled with regret and a bitterness over what she had become. The guildmaster had an amused smile on his face as he walked toward Quinn, but what he did not expect was a knife in the chest as he offered congratulations. Maddened by a sense of rage she didn't quite understand, Quinn stabbed the off-guard guildmaster several times. As he bled out on the floor beside Quinn, she knew her career in Antiva was over now that the Antivan Crows will have their sights set on her head. She wasn't sure what prompted her to kill the guildmaster when Maris is already dead by her hand, but Quinn did find a red hot hatred for what the organization has done to her. Gathering what belongings she could bring, Quinn fled the country, with the Crows hounding her footsteps as she ran south to the Free Marches. As a last resort, Quinn used the last of her fortune to board a ship from Kirkwall to Highever of Fereldan, a land she only knew as a peasant-infested country of dog lovers. Since then, she has heard little from the Crows, who seemed to have ceased their hunt after she escaped to the occupied state. Still, Quinn never dares to stay in one place for too long for fear that the Crows will find out her whereabouts and resume the chase. She takes jobs as a mercenary or assassin when she can, and steals when she can't. Information is harder to gather without her network or a stable place of operation, but she sells what she has. Determined to return to her homeland one day and regain the wealth she lost, Quinn is quietly building her influence in Ferelden as she patiently waits for the storm to pass over. |