Fade Rift App

PLAYER

Name: Kel
Age: 41
Contact:
Other Characters: N/A
Interests: I just need more of Emmrich in Thedas, and while it will be very different for him to come in solo rather than being with a team, I want him pushing himself past his fears to help out (so action!) but also there's something so powerful about a very compassionate man in a world that is often incredibly cruel so maybe not rescuing lost animals but lost people for sure.

CHARACTER

Name: Emmrich Volkarin
Canon/OC: Canon
Journal: this one, corpsestuff
Race: Human
Nationality: Nevarran
Occupation: Professor, Necromancer
Division: Research
Mage or Not: Mage
Age: 58

History

https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Emmrich_Volkarin

Other fill-in headcanon notes:
-Orphaned around the age of six.
-Magic manifested around when he was 12, and he was taken in by the Necropolis then.
-Several months into his time in the Necropolis he met Johanna Hezenkoss, who got pissed off that someone as smart as him was being shoved into the Thedas equivalent of lockers. She bullied his bullies and they became friends, bonding over all the nerdy things as she taught him how to grow something resembling a backbone.
-Started teaching students around the age of 20.
-Has worked with Manfred for about 10 years now, and Manfred has had his body for about 9 years.
-Since the undead uprising he's been working near-tirelessly on helping fix that, and now that the work is nearing completion the Mourn Watch can consider some reassignments.


Personality

Emmrich is compassionate and kind, taking people as they are and giving the benefit of the doubt for as long as he can, especially demonstrated in how he treats Hezenkoss. It does sometimes mean he's taken advantage of, see the fake charms seller in Minrathous, and then he can sometimes be petty in getting revenge, see also the fake charms seller in Minrathous. He is also a romantic.

His greatest joy is learning whether it's information or getting to know people. That's what drew the curiosity wisp to him in the first place, and why it stuck around. He's excited by new discoveries, adores putting information together, and even more than that utterly enjoys when he gets to share it with people. Education is a gift, something that was made very clear to him by his poor childhood. He is a teacher and a lifelong learner, more than happy to burrow his way through a library or spend an abundance of time studying an artifact, and then break it down for anyone else who needs to know.

Due to his focusing, studying, and work, he's known as a respected expert on the Fade and spirits outside of the Necropolis, through lectures and also books he's authored. Due to his relationship with the spirits he can even pick up on their presence and hear them when others can't, as evidenced by him knowing about Spite without being told and then hearing when Spite is talking with Lucanis.

At all times, though, Emmrich is afraid. He is terrified of dying. That means he's also incredibly brave in the way he leaves the safety of the Necropolis to go fight gods. He doesn't consider it bravery because he's still scared. He worries and frets. He overthinks, and he overprotects. Some of the overprotection is unconscious, demonstrated by how he worries about Manfred's patella bones and thinks nothing of how he shelters his ward. Sometimes, though, he's very aware of how his fears are influencing him which is why he speaks of both his fear of death and his plan of lichdom to Rook. He knows being scared has an impact on his life. He knows it holds him back.

Emmrich is heavily motivated by emotions. He's incredibly intelligent and utilizes it well, so there's thought behind what he does, but he's never going to be impartial or objective. That's not to say the emotions are the biggest factor or that it's always obvious he's being emotional. He's very good at rationalizing his actions and there's always reason and logic involved at least somewhat, but one doesn't jump to lichdom to avoid death for purely educated reasons, nor does one take in the skull of someone who tried to kill him and did kill his ward with a realistic chance of rehabilitating them. That's all hope. He can look collected and hold his own in a debate or on the battlefield, but Emmrich is feeling a whole lot, all the time.

Opinions & Affiliations

Emmrich is with the Mourn Watch, an elite group in the already-elite mortalitasi of Nevarra. He serves in the Necropolis with the dead, undead, and spirits. He does not believe in the concept of demons, only spirits who have had their purpose altered.

He's vaguely religious, in that he'd call himself Andrastian, but it doesn't have much impact on his life particularly as a Nevarran necromancer. He comforts Harding when she's worried about Veilguard revelations having implications for the Chant while seeming unbothered. He isn't a huge fan of the Chantry as an institution (as seen by how he's dismissive about Templars) and isn't worried about 'magic ruling over man' because he knows full well that (in canon) King Markus has been dead with mages in power in Nevarra for a time now. He's also not fond of nobles in general

He's very aware of how lucky he is to have been a mage in the Necropolis, and not placed in one of the many Circles across southern Thedas, and supports mage equality and freedom. While he'd question some of the actions taken in the war on the part of the mages, he also doesn't know what options were there so refrains from judging. He also supports Dalish equality and is passionately anti-slavery.

Emmrich loves Nevarra and thinks of Ferelden as a storied kingdom. While he's interested in qunari funerary practices, it's unthinkable that he'd be fine with the Qun due to how it depersonalizes people and treats people in general poorly but mages specifically like things and tortures them.


Adaptation Notes
N/A

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths:
Necromancy: Emmrich has studied necromancy for 46 years. He's an expert at calling and controlling the dead and undead (and sending specters to haunt scammers,) putting the unrested to rest, and knowing a bunch of different rituals to help with dead and undead alike. He protects against the cryptid horrors that go bump in the Necropolis night, and knows about hands of glory, liches, and the importance of lighting the right candle in the right place with the right words.

Healing: Limited magic-wise, but he's an expert at anatomy and knows some botany so if a bone is broken or dislocated he can at least attend to those and he can make some medicinal blends to combine with his knowledge of how the body is supposed to work. He's also got great sewing skills.

Agility/Combat: He does flips, he can fling people in the air and crush their bones before dropping them, and he's great at aiming rocks. Emmrich's got great reflexes from dealing with bitey or ornery undead and spirits who have become twisted. He's an expert with magical staves.

Corpse Stuff: Emmrich is a corpse whisperer, someone with a rare gift that enables them to speak with the dead and ask them a few questions. Dead who would have been hostile toward him in life are more challenging, but he can often get at least hints from the strongest. He can also feel where someone's died long after it's happened if the event had enough resonance in the Fade.

Spirit stuff: A flicker of a spirit can give him hints into the context of what's going on, such as when a spirit of devotion shows up near a romanced Taash. He can summon wisps to help guide someone, he can placate upset spirits, and he can hold conversations with possessing spirits (Spite.) The amount he cares about and respects them is reflected in his relationship and abilities with them.

Fade stuff: He's a renowned expert, able to theorize on the fly and work out how to do things like open a prison in the Fade. He can see magic flow, and can even show a receptive audience with a skull and some focus. When trapped in the Fade temporarily by Johanna he stays calm because he knows how the place works and how to get back out.

Research/resourcefulness: He's in academia so this probably goes without saying, but he's also pretty decent at connecting the dots. I'm also using this to note other things that don't deserve a whole category like magical locks (he can sort them out in endgame,) fluent in Nevarran, Tevene, Trade, and the Tomb Language used in the Necropolis.


Weaknesses:
Primal/elemental magic: It's the opposite of spirit magic. Sure, he can do your basic static/sparklefingers stuff, but if you want a lightning bolt he is not your man unless you also want him fried. No stonefisting either. He can light a candle or heat water but there won't be fireballs or walls of fire or even blizzards for that matter.

Emotions: Emmrich is a man of a lot of feelings, all the time. This can lead to anxiety, second-guessing, and self-sabotage. He's also not great at being alone, as evidenced by him befriending a wisp of Curiosity, naming it, and building it a body. He's definitely a bit sensitive. He also can't lie for anything, and constantly wears his heart on his sleeve.

Too trusting: He likes to have faith. He still has faith in Veilguard that Johanna can be redeemed, and even tries until she attacks to get through to her. He has faith that Bellara/Neve can be rescued after Tearstone Island even though there's no reason to believe that. He trusts a random charm seller on the street because Nevarran systems taught him to believe he's safe buying charms. Even after Solas imprisons Rook he still thinks there's a chance to talk him down. Sometimes he's right. Sometimes he's wrong. Regardless, he's very trusting in a world full of people who are often not trustworthy.

Melee/range weapons: Sure, he knows which bit is the pointy bit and that said pointy bit shouldn't go into him or allies. But he's not gonna be effective at hitting anything other than a stationery target with a sword, he's useless with a shield bash (the shield might even weigh more than this stick figure of a man) and forget figuring out how to fire an arrow. He's accurate with a thrown heavy blunt object (aka rocks) but nothing that's the traditional realm of warriors and rogues.

Animals: He doesn't know how to mount a horse, forget how to ride it, would give even the happiest of mabari a wide berth, and knows full well he'd lose a limb trying to groom a griffon. He was good with one (1) animal when he was five years old and that was a pig named Lucy.

Inventory

MANFRED - A wisp of curiosity housed inside a custom-built corpse, Manfred is an intelligent little companion who understands language and can do a lot of basic tasks from finding specific books to brewing tea, washing laundry to mixing inks. He wears boots and carries a backpack.

Guardian of the Abyss staff and Staff of Incessant Gaze (second staff because he should have one that he can pretend maybe isn't a skull. It's totally a snake. Serpentine.)

Funeral Finery and Researcher's Robes

Grim Grinning Visage - a golden necklace enchanted to cast a glamor of a glowing green skull with green flames and green flaming eyes over the wearer's head when activated.

Mom's tea set

Dad's butcher knife

Shaving ki--okay sorry, I'm kidding and won't list out all the stuff. But he's bringing some luxuries, a metric ton of jewelry, a few skulls, and oh boy is he bringing books.

Motivation

Relations between Nevarra and the Riftwatch are... complicated. The mortalitasi and Mourn Watch would like one of their active members to join in the efforts to fight Corypheus while also helping avoid more disasters.

SAMPLES

Sample 1

Sample 2 (does go NSFW about 50 comments in)