![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crimsonxiphosOOC INFORMATION
Name: Sue
Contact: gay mergirl on Skype, crimsonxiphos on Dreamwidth
Other Characters: None
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Athena
Age: Late 20s to early 30s, not canonically specified
Canon: The Borderlands series
Canon Point: Shortly after the events of the Claptastic Voyage DLC
Character Information: As a young child, a Pandoran girl of now-unknown name and ancestry was “recruited” by a military force known as the Crimson Lance to be trained as an assassin. Like all assassin recruits, she was forced to kill her parents and take on a new name – she was given the name Athena, after the goddess of wisdom and just war. The girl’s sister, Jess, escaped before she too could be killed as part of the initiation.
The newly-named Athena was raised to be a ruthless and efficient killer, utterly devoted to the Crimson Lance’s sponsor, a war-profiteering corporation known as Atlas. After years of training and brutal conditioning, Athena was given the title of official Lance Assassin. Noted for her skill and dedication to the mission, she was soon given command of Omega Squad, known to be the best of the best of the assassins. However, unbeknownst to Atlas command, Athena harbored plans to find her lost sister and escape with her from Pandora and the Lance. Unfortunately, Athena made the mistake of revealing her plan to General Knoxx, her trusted superior officer, and through him, Atlas command found out about her dreams of escape. Unwilling to lose one of their best operatives, Atlas arranged for Athena to unknowingly wipe out the village where her sister lived, severing her remaining familial ties and crushing any future plans of escape.
However, this plan ended up backfiring horribly for Atlas. Realizing she had been tricked into killing her own sister, Athena turned on the Crimson Lance forces, cutting down many soldiers and fellow Lance Assassins alike before being subdued. General Knoxx, the officer who she had trusted with her plan, was now responsible for shipping her back to Atlas HQ as a prisoner. Fortunately, Athena managed to escape before this could happen, once again gruesomely cutting through any Lance forces that stood in her way.
Soon afterwards, Athena teamed up with the Vault Hunters Lilith, Roland, Mordecai, and Brick to wipe out what remained of the Atlas Corporation on Pandora. Together, they destroyed one of the last bastions of the Crimson Lance and killed General Knoxx.
Following this, Athena became a wandering gun for hire, splitting her time between taking missions and hunting down the remnants of Atlas's forces on Pandora, and often living on the edge of poverty and starvation. Thus, when she was offered an extremely well-paying job as a Vault Hunter for a Hyperion programmer named Jack, she jumped at the opportunity, despite her wariness of corporations. Though she quickly realized that the man she was working for was a sadist and tyrant in the making, she continued to obey his orders and facilitate his rise to power, driven by the deeply-ingrained need to finish the mission at all costs. Though she left Jack’s employ immediately after the mission’s completion, it wasn’t long before her funds once again ran dry and she reluctantly returned to the now-CEO of Hyperion for further orders.
With her latest mission for Jack now complete, Athena lives in the Pandoran city of Hollowpoint with her girlfriend Janey Springs, a junk dealer who she met while working for Jack on Elpis. She is considering giving up bounty-hunting to live a more peaceful life with Janey, but with their unstable financial situation, Athena’s complete lack of experience with a civilian lifestyle, and her continuing hatred towards all things Atlas, it remains to be seen whether she will succeed in this endeavor.
The canon point will be taken roughly a month after she has finished her final mission for Jack and returned to Hollowpoint.
Personality: While she was an assassin under Atlas, Athena embodied many of the ideals they had instilled in her since childhood; obedient, unsentimental, and uncompromisingly ruthless, Athena was seen as an exemplary assassin and soldier. However, since she has gained her freedom, Athena’s personality has begun to shift away from the mold she was forced into under Atlas. She has developed something of a compassionate streak, sparing the lives of surrendering soldiers and expressing revulsion at the thought of killing civilians. In fact, it is Jack’s murder of a group of civilian scientists that sparks Athena’s disgust towards him, even though his actions are seemingly for the greater good.
However, that is not to say that Athena is a good person. She very clearly does not include anybody associated with Atlas as a "civilian," and in fact revels in killing them, even if they are not part of Atlas's military branch; to her, an Atlas botanist is just as bad as an Atlas general. When she finds an Atlas facility, regardless of its purpose or the actual culpability of its personnel, she will systematically kill everyone inside and reduce the structure to rubble.
And God help you if you are one of the people she believes deserves to die. No longer constrained by the stoicism of the Lance, Athena is an absolute terror in battle, laughing and shouting out gleeful quips as she cuts down enemies with her sword, or shreds them to pieces with her saw-bladed shield, expressing special appreciation for killing by dismemberment. She usually maintains this same enthusiasm and informality when interacting with teammates, cheering them on in battle, shouting at them to watch her when she pulls off an especially impressive kill, and eagerly challenging them to sparring matches (not to mention boasting when she wins). However, she very quickly switches back to a colder, more professional demeanor when dealing with her employer or people she doesn't know very well.
Still, there are moments besides combat that can cause Athena to break her professional veneer, including but not limited to: cute cat pictures (which will elicit a rather girlish “awwww!” from the bounty hunter), catchy pop songs (which she will likely sing along to and possibly embellish with a guitar solo), and people offering to paint her nails (which she will happily accept even if said people are technically holding her for ransom). So while Athena is no doubt disciplined and often comes off as frigid, she is proving to be far less serious and detached than she was while she was a Lance Assassin.
Despite these relatively new developments in her character, Athena still retains some aspects of the personality imposed on her by the Lance. Most notably is her almost compulsive need to finish whatever mission is given to her, to the point where she will continue to obey orders even after she has realized that the results of doing so will likely be catastrophic. When questioned as to her motivations, she will only insist that she never leaves a mission half-finished. This dedication however, only extends to her orders, not necessarily the person giving them. Athena herself explains that she is “loyal to the mission,” not “loyal to people."
Her time in the Lance has also left her somewhat stunted socially, to the point where she expresses confusion when somebody casually asks her how she’s doing and misinterprets the question as a request for a mission status report. That said, she is gradually learning to be more sociable as she spends time with Janey, who is very friendly and talkative in contrast.
In sum, Athena is a conflicted character, ostensibly striving to be a better person in her freedom, but struggling with this due to her ingrained affinity for violence and obedience.
5-10 Key Character Traits:
Proud
Excitable
Obedient
Vengeful
Blunt
Fearless
Impatient
Protective
Morally-conflicted
Disciplined
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, or EITHER? Fits!
Opt-Outs: Troll, Arachne, Werebear, Minotaur, Werewolf
Roleplay Sample: Sample from tumblr
Name: Sue
Contact: gay mergirl on Skype, crimsonxiphos on Dreamwidth
Other Characters: None
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Athena
Age: Late 20s to early 30s, not canonically specified
Canon: The Borderlands series
Canon Point: Shortly after the events of the Claptastic Voyage DLC
Character Information: As a young child, a Pandoran girl of now-unknown name and ancestry was “recruited” by a military force known as the Crimson Lance to be trained as an assassin. Like all assassin recruits, she was forced to kill her parents and take on a new name – she was given the name Athena, after the goddess of wisdom and just war. The girl’s sister, Jess, escaped before she too could be killed as part of the initiation.
The newly-named Athena was raised to be a ruthless and efficient killer, utterly devoted to the Crimson Lance’s sponsor, a war-profiteering corporation known as Atlas. After years of training and brutal conditioning, Athena was given the title of official Lance Assassin. Noted for her skill and dedication to the mission, she was soon given command of Omega Squad, known to be the best of the best of the assassins. However, unbeknownst to Atlas command, Athena harbored plans to find her lost sister and escape with her from Pandora and the Lance. Unfortunately, Athena made the mistake of revealing her plan to General Knoxx, her trusted superior officer, and through him, Atlas command found out about her dreams of escape. Unwilling to lose one of their best operatives, Atlas arranged for Athena to unknowingly wipe out the village where her sister lived, severing her remaining familial ties and crushing any future plans of escape.
However, this plan ended up backfiring horribly for Atlas. Realizing she had been tricked into killing her own sister, Athena turned on the Crimson Lance forces, cutting down many soldiers and fellow Lance Assassins alike before being subdued. General Knoxx, the officer who she had trusted with her plan, was now responsible for shipping her back to Atlas HQ as a prisoner. Fortunately, Athena managed to escape before this could happen, once again gruesomely cutting through any Lance forces that stood in her way.
Soon afterwards, Athena teamed up with the Vault Hunters Lilith, Roland, Mordecai, and Brick to wipe out what remained of the Atlas Corporation on Pandora. Together, they destroyed one of the last bastions of the Crimson Lance and killed General Knoxx.
Following this, Athena became a wandering gun for hire, splitting her time between taking missions and hunting down the remnants of Atlas's forces on Pandora, and often living on the edge of poverty and starvation. Thus, when she was offered an extremely well-paying job as a Vault Hunter for a Hyperion programmer named Jack, she jumped at the opportunity, despite her wariness of corporations. Though she quickly realized that the man she was working for was a sadist and tyrant in the making, she continued to obey his orders and facilitate his rise to power, driven by the deeply-ingrained need to finish the mission at all costs. Though she left Jack’s employ immediately after the mission’s completion, it wasn’t long before her funds once again ran dry and she reluctantly returned to the now-CEO of Hyperion for further orders.
With her latest mission for Jack now complete, Athena lives in the Pandoran city of Hollowpoint with her girlfriend Janey Springs, a junk dealer who she met while working for Jack on Elpis. She is considering giving up bounty-hunting to live a more peaceful life with Janey, but with their unstable financial situation, Athena’s complete lack of experience with a civilian lifestyle, and her continuing hatred towards all things Atlas, it remains to be seen whether she will succeed in this endeavor.
The canon point will be taken roughly a month after she has finished her final mission for Jack and returned to Hollowpoint.
Personality: While she was an assassin under Atlas, Athena embodied many of the ideals they had instilled in her since childhood; obedient, unsentimental, and uncompromisingly ruthless, Athena was seen as an exemplary assassin and soldier. However, since she has gained her freedom, Athena’s personality has begun to shift away from the mold she was forced into under Atlas. She has developed something of a compassionate streak, sparing the lives of surrendering soldiers and expressing revulsion at the thought of killing civilians. In fact, it is Jack’s murder of a group of civilian scientists that sparks Athena’s disgust towards him, even though his actions are seemingly for the greater good.
However, that is not to say that Athena is a good person. She very clearly does not include anybody associated with Atlas as a "civilian," and in fact revels in killing them, even if they are not part of Atlas's military branch; to her, an Atlas botanist is just as bad as an Atlas general. When she finds an Atlas facility, regardless of its purpose or the actual culpability of its personnel, she will systematically kill everyone inside and reduce the structure to rubble.
And God help you if you are one of the people she believes deserves to die. No longer constrained by the stoicism of the Lance, Athena is an absolute terror in battle, laughing and shouting out gleeful quips as she cuts down enemies with her sword, or shreds them to pieces with her saw-bladed shield, expressing special appreciation for killing by dismemberment. She usually maintains this same enthusiasm and informality when interacting with teammates, cheering them on in battle, shouting at them to watch her when she pulls off an especially impressive kill, and eagerly challenging them to sparring matches (not to mention boasting when she wins). However, she very quickly switches back to a colder, more professional demeanor when dealing with her employer or people she doesn't know very well.
Still, there are moments besides combat that can cause Athena to break her professional veneer, including but not limited to: cute cat pictures (which will elicit a rather girlish “awwww!” from the bounty hunter), catchy pop songs (which she will likely sing along to and possibly embellish with a guitar solo), and people offering to paint her nails (which she will happily accept even if said people are technically holding her for ransom). So while Athena is no doubt disciplined and often comes off as frigid, she is proving to be far less serious and detached than she was while she was a Lance Assassin.
Despite these relatively new developments in her character, Athena still retains some aspects of the personality imposed on her by the Lance. Most notably is her almost compulsive need to finish whatever mission is given to her, to the point where she will continue to obey orders even after she has realized that the results of doing so will likely be catastrophic. When questioned as to her motivations, she will only insist that she never leaves a mission half-finished. This dedication however, only extends to her orders, not necessarily the person giving them. Athena herself explains that she is “loyal to the mission,” not “loyal to people."
Her time in the Lance has also left her somewhat stunted socially, to the point where she expresses confusion when somebody casually asks her how she’s doing and misinterprets the question as a request for a mission status report. That said, she is gradually learning to be more sociable as she spends time with Janey, who is very friendly and talkative in contrast.
In sum, Athena is a conflicted character, ostensibly striving to be a better person in her freedom, but struggling with this due to her ingrained affinity for violence and obedience.
5-10 Key Character Traits:
Proud
Excitable
Obedient
Vengeful
Blunt
Fearless
Impatient
Protective
Morally-conflicted
Disciplined
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, or EITHER? Fits!
Opt-Outs: Troll, Arachne, Werebear, Minotaur, Werewolf
Roleplay Sample: Sample from tumblr