satinet | side character app.

PLAYER

Name: Abby
Other Characters: Flint, Wysteria, Miriam, Fitcher (side character)

CHARACTER

Name: Cassius Black
Race: Human
Nationality: Nevarran. (Or Orlesian? Who can say for certain.)
Mage?: Yes
Age: 50
Affiliation: Riftwatch, he GUESSES; Loyalist mages.
Occupation: Senior Enchanter giving First Enchanter a spin; Social Climber with a heart of What's In It For Me.
Goal: Voice testing; may bring him on full time if it works out.
About: Cassius is a Loyalist mage and Senior Enchanter from the Perendale Circle. Born to field laborers, Cassius has always understood life in the Circle as being a marked improvement over whatever circumstances he would have found himself in otherwise. The Perendale Circle was strict but not cruel, and with hard work and the right relationships it afforded an education and the sort of social mobility that would have been alien to him outside it.

Having endeared himself to the First Enchanter in Perendale, Cassius fully anticipated one day inheriting the role. When the events of White Spire occurred and the First Enchanter disappeared into the rebellion, Cassius kindly took it upon himself to rally the Circle from splintering (give or take; don't let the door hit you on the way out, Petronella) and find a third path through the war by appealing directly to the Chantry and bolstering the ranks (spiritually or otherwise; Cassius certainly didn't take up arms though he did write a great many letters) of other Loyalists such as the esteemed Madame de Fer.

In the aftermath of the Conclave, Perendale itself became untenable. Cassius and the other remaining mages were delicately extricated and recruited to the Inquisition where he has been making the most of it ever since. Which isn't to say his service has been wholly self-serving. At his core, he fundamentally believes in the security and opportunity afforded by the Circles and is adamant about restoring the reputation of mages in the eyes of the general populace. He works very hard to see that the sympathy Divine Justinia had for mages' treatment within the Circle system is a sentiment which her successor (or those surrounding her) be encouraged to share. If that work just so happens to make him a few friends who might send him extravagant Satinalia gifts or recall his name when it comes to selecting who gets to be in the room where decisions get made, then that's just how the cookie crumbles baby.

So when his close personal friend, a prominent Mother in Montsimmard, let slip that an escort request submitted to the Inquisition would in fact be accompanying a cadre of Chantry officials and one or two Wardens bound for Val Royeaux to discuss the next stages of the war, Cassius saw an opportunity and snatched it. Did this involve casually forging some very minor paperwork and playing the equivalent of the shell game between himself and someone more equipped for combat? Yes. Was everyone very surprised to see him ride out to adventure? Maybe, but these are strange times. Does he regret it? Well, he would have said no only it all went poorly when a rift opened above them while en route, one or two people being mortally wounded, and him catching an anchor shard before being dragged to safety by a few industrious Chantry Mothers.

So yes, a little. But no one needs to know the exact details.