Commander Cullen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
revocation) wrote2014-12-19 01:48 am
revocation) wrote2014-12-19 01:48 am
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thegames
OUT of CHARACTER
Name: Froda
Other characters: Joel | The Last of Us |aintyourdad
IN CHARACTER
Name: Cullen Stanton Rutherford.
Alias: Well, Varric calls him "Curly" but most people just call him "Cullen". Or "Commander". "Ser" (not "Sir") would also be a correct form of address, it's the title afforded to knights in the DA universe.
Fandom: Dragon Age
Canon point: About 2/3 of the way through Dragon Age: Inquisition, before the plot quest "What Pride Had Wrought".
Journal:revocation
PB: His in-game model.
Age: 30.
History: This wiki page gives a pretty good overview of his involvement, however it's important to keep in mind that some of his situation is dependent on player choices, given that Dragon Age is an RPG series. Given that, I'll note here that I play Cullen assuming a female human mage Warden in Dragon Age: Origins who sided with the mages during the Broken Circle quest, a female mage Hawke who sided with the mages in Dragon Age 2, and a female human mage Inquisitor who, uh, also sided with the mages. I am also assuming that the Inquisitor romanced him, and completed his personal quest, "Perseverance", by encouraging him to stay off lyrium. If you need or want more detail on any of this, I can provide it.
Presentation:
The personality that Cullen presents to the world is the epitome of the duty-bound soldier. He serves a cause, he serves his men, he serves his Inquisitor, he serves the Maker, he serves. He is, in his own words, "married to his work" - he takes what he does very seriously - perhaps at times too seriously, depending on who you ask - but he is determined to be the very best he can be, to serve the greater good and what he believes to be right. He's a protector by nature - he tells the Inquisitor in dialogue that he wanted to join the Templar order from a very young age for this specific purpose, suggesting his high degree of naivete about them as a child. He's the guy who physically puts himself between others and danger - his boss, his loved ones, etc. He also cares for the soldiers under his command - in the prologue of the game, he's seen coming to the aid of his wounded troops, helping them away from the battlefield. Varric later quips that he must have portraits of all the soldiers tucked into his pockets - basically a father to his men.
Cullen has high ideals, but he's also incredibly practical. He's been a soldier most of his life, and he'd generally rather be out doing things than standing around having philosophical arguments that don't help anyone. He's generally civil, but also incredibly blunt and to the point - he's not good with witty repartee, and he can't really play the "Grand Game" of noble politics worth a damn. Nor would he care to. His words are straightforward and honest - he offers his opinion, and is perfectly willing to argue if he thinks he's in the right. And if he thinks something is stupid - he will tell you so, in no uncertain terms. There almost isn't a problem he doesn't think the addition of more soldiers couldn't fix, and in general he favors hands-on sorts of help - instead of paying a contractor to do it, why not build that bridge yourself? While his position with the Inquisition means he spends most of his time at the home base of Skyhold, coordinating rather than actually doing the fighting, there are several key points where he takes the field. In the attack on Haven, and the siege at Adamant fortress, as well as during the Samson questline in which he actually accompanies the Inquisitor - we see Cullen's willingness in these situations to lead from the front, so to speak. He clearly believes that he shouldn't ask his troops to do something he's not willing to do himself, and he has no trouble putting himself in danger if he thinks it's necessary.
Cullen is good at giving orders, and he's comfortable in a position of authority. However, he's not an ideal leader and he works best when he's got others to balance him out. He lacks the charm and charisma of a true leader and sometimes has trouble seeing the forest for the trees. And beyond all that, he just doesn't like being the center of attention. He's not good with it. When he's giving orders to his troops, he does fine, but in social and formal situations, he gets flustered easily and is generally very uncomfortable. He's not the Hero - he's a logistics man, one of the people who does the grunt work that makes it possible for the Hero to be Heroic, and that's the way he likes it. He wants to be part of something bigger than himself, and would not wear the mantle of glory for his own sake.
As a solider (and frankly, a religious man), he prefers discipline and order, is punctual, pragmatic and keeps to a strict schedule and training regimen.
One final thing to note about his outward presentation: Cullen is handsome. To the extent that it is commented upon quite frequently in canon, and is a running joke. The plot quest "Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts" involves a formal ball, which Cullen attends along with the Inquisitor and the other advisers. His ambient dialogue consists almost entirely of him being flirted with by other attendees, asking whether he's married, telling him he has lovely eyes, even grabbing his butt. Something about that chiseled, stubbly jaw, the warm brown eyes, the soldier's physique - he's just a very good-looking guy, much as it perturbs him.
Motivations:
Underneath the competent exterior, Cullen is a severely damaged man, suffering from PTSD for the past ten years or so. He was about twenty, and serving as a Templar in Ferelden's Circle of Magi, when one of the mages there, Uldred, effectively unleashed hell on them. Cullen bore the brunt of it - he spent days being tortured, physically and psychologically, by literal demons, who tried to break his mind. It very nearly worked, and it's implied that he was a pretty big mess for a while thereafter. To this day, he suffers from severe nightmares about the incident. He keeps that part of him buried deep, and only a very few people even know about his history.
In the ten years since, he was transferred to a new post, and his trauma, and the anger it caused against magic and mages, were manipulated and used against him by his commander, Meredith, to make sure he would never question her or investigate potential abuses she was committing. Cullen isn't proud of most of the things he did during his time with the Kirkwall Circle, and to a large extent, he is driven by a need to make up for his mistakes there. He takes full responsibility for what he did - he's not proud of it, but it largely motivates the man he is now - an attempt to remember what the greater good is, and to make sure he's doing right, rather than simply serving a dogma.
In addition to his past trauma, Cullen is a recovering addict of sorts. All Templars are made to take the magical substance lyrium - it enhances their abilities to dispel magic, but it's also both toxic and highly addictive. When he left the Templar order, he chose to stop taking lyrium altogether, in order to help further remove himself from that life. He hasn't taken lyrium for the better part of a year, and while he rarely shows it, it does cause him no small amount of pain - headaches, shakiness, nausea on occasion. The Inquisitor encouraged him to remain off the stuff, and he has - however, some days are harder than others.
One of the guiding pillars of Cullen's life is his faith. He grew up Andrastian - roughly analogous to Christianity - and in fact the Templar Order is (or was when he was a member) a branch of the Chantry (the church). His education and training were as much focused on things like memorizing scripture as they were on learning how to kill. And while he may no longer be a Templar, he is still a soldier and he is still a man of faith. His belief is a big part of what keeps him sane, even after everything he's been through. As a man who needs to find any way to feel in control of a situation, he realizes that there are some things he just can't control. For him, it's comforting to put those things in the hands of his god. He's far from a perfect model of Andrastian faith, and he is never preachy, nor would he try to convert anyone. For him, it's simply a personal thing that he keeps to himself.
Underneath the layers of tough soldier, the self-doubting, self-loathing, the trauma of torture, there lies a man with a sentimental streak a mile wide. He keeps a token of good luck that his brother gave him when he was thirteen. He likes sugar cookies. He has a gently sardonic sense of humor, and a lovely singing voice. He's shy around pretty girls he likes and blushes and stammers when he's flirted with. For the first time in a long time, he finds himself with the possibility of a future to look forward to, the ability to want things for himself. He's been through enough in his life to know not to take anything for granted.
Setting: Cullen will be simultaneously outraged and baffled by the whole thing. Outraged by what he sees as a barbaric system of blood sport (not to mention kidnapping) - and baffled by all the technology. His world has no more than medieval technology, so he'll have a hard time coming to grips with things like electric lighting, indoor plumbing, and guns. However, the politics of Panem will be relatively familiar to him, coming as he does from a highly stratified society. While he will see the arena system as barbaric, many other things will be kinda-sorta familiar to him, and probably won't bother him much - the Peacekeepers using violence to enforce Snow's edicts, the avoxes, etc. The main thing he'll find objectionable is the fact that he was kidnapped from his world to fight and kill others. His main objective will be to return to his world, but in the meantime he will do his best to protect people he thinks should be protected.
SAMPLES
First Person Thread: [ He feels a bit like a dragon chewed him up and spit him out - well, he can't quite be sure of that, considering he's never been chewed up by a dragon before. But something like it, anyway.
Cullen scrubs a hand over his face, sitting up and taking a quick mental stock - aside from the pounding in his head and the ghosts of aches and pains in his muscles, he seems uninjured. Almost as though it never happened. If it wasn't for the magical pictures showing the ongoing events in this so-called "arena", he might chalk the whole thing up to a bad dream, or something more insidious, demon-driven. But no, it appears to be real, and they seem to have excellent healers on hand.
Gingerly, he picks up the strange little device they've left him with, sighing. He knows enough to know they don't want his honest opinion. These people don't wear masks like the Orlesians, not literal ones, but they certainly wear all sorts of metaphorical ones. He hates the Game. ]
That was as terrible as I expected it to be. Now, am I allowed to go?
Prose: He couldn't help but wonder if this was what it felt like, to succumb to the lyrium madness. He'd seen it once or twice before – men who lost their minds, began speaking to people who weren't there, paranoid and violent or simply lost and afraid.
Cullen fought, regardless. He fought the men who brought him in, reached for skills he hadn't used in a while, even, assuming they were mages. Assuming the devices they were armed with were imbued with magic – but no. They brought him, ego bruised perhaps but otherwise no worse for wear, to a strange room with even stranger people.
He was to put on a show for them. Like an animal in a cage. Was this what it was like in Tevinter, under the rule of the magisters? He took in the room, the strange dummies – clearly training dummies, despite being made of some material he couldn't place – and the table of weapons. With a grimace, he strode over to it, thanking Andraste that at least there was a sword.
Cullen pictured himself back at Skyhold, on the training field with some new recruits. He always tried to train with them as much as he could, no matter how busy he got with other things. He firmly believed that the troops should know their commander, know the sort of man he was, and that he, in turn, should know them. Know the people who had agreed to risk their lives for their cause.
Ignoring the people behind the magical barrier, Cullen hefted the sword in his hand, testing its weight and balance. It was solid enough, perhaps not ideal, but it wasn't the worst sword he'd ever had to work with. His left side felt terribly exposed without a shield, as always, but that was neither here nor there. As though demonstrating for his new recruits, he swung the sword expertly, his movements efficient, angling it in such a way to deflect blows from a much larger weapon – a staff. The Templar style of combat.
Swinging around the dummy, he landed blows at various points – low on the belly, the neck, the underarms, the back of what would've been a knee – all points of vulnerability in most armor. It wasn't flashy, it looked very little like a dance – it was ruthlessly practical and when he was done, his breath came a little short, and a light sheen of sweat was starting to appear on his brow. Only then did he look at the people holding him captive, his eyes hard and angry as he sketched a small bow.
“If that will be all, messeres.”
What is your character scored: I would score him as a 9, or possibly even 10. Cullen was trained as a soldier from the age of thirteen - so over half his life now. Not only that, but Templar training is specifically geared towards teaching baseline humans how to fight and kill magically-imbued superhumans, so he is exceedingly equipped for that sort of combat. He will, however, only kill in self-defense (or in defense of others weaker than himself). His major mental weaknesses are the trauma of his torture (particularly the psychological/emotional torture he underwent) and his lyrium addiction - these have the most potential for being exploited in the arena environment and used against him. In terms of crowd likeability, he's very introverted and won't like the attention at all, but he's likely to attract a strong fan following regardless, just because, well, he's really damn handsome. And a nice guy with a troubled past, basically he's got a good narrative to spin that will draw the ladies in droves. He is quite literally a knight in shining armor. Super romantic.
Token: This letter, from his older sister. It's the most recent letter he received from her.
Name: Froda
Other characters: Joel | The Last of Us |
aintyourdadIN CHARACTER
Name: Cullen Stanton Rutherford.
Alias: Well, Varric calls him "Curly" but most people just call him "Cullen". Or "Commander". "Ser" (not "Sir") would also be a correct form of address, it's the title afforded to knights in the DA universe.
Fandom: Dragon Age
Canon point: About 2/3 of the way through Dragon Age: Inquisition, before the plot quest "What Pride Had Wrought".
Journal:
revocationPB: His in-game model.
Age: 30.
History: This wiki page gives a pretty good overview of his involvement, however it's important to keep in mind that some of his situation is dependent on player choices, given that Dragon Age is an RPG series. Given that, I'll note here that I play Cullen assuming a female human mage Warden in Dragon Age: Origins who sided with the mages during the Broken Circle quest, a female mage Hawke who sided with the mages in Dragon Age 2, and a female human mage Inquisitor who, uh, also sided with the mages. I am also assuming that the Inquisitor romanced him, and completed his personal quest, "Perseverance", by encouraging him to stay off lyrium. If you need or want more detail on any of this, I can provide it.
Presentation:
The personality that Cullen presents to the world is the epitome of the duty-bound soldier. He serves a cause, he serves his men, he serves his Inquisitor, he serves the Maker, he serves. He is, in his own words, "married to his work" - he takes what he does very seriously - perhaps at times too seriously, depending on who you ask - but he is determined to be the very best he can be, to serve the greater good and what he believes to be right. He's a protector by nature - he tells the Inquisitor in dialogue that he wanted to join the Templar order from a very young age for this specific purpose, suggesting his high degree of naivete about them as a child. He's the guy who physically puts himself between others and danger - his boss, his loved ones, etc. He also cares for the soldiers under his command - in the prologue of the game, he's seen coming to the aid of his wounded troops, helping them away from the battlefield. Varric later quips that he must have portraits of all the soldiers tucked into his pockets - basically a father to his men.
Cullen has high ideals, but he's also incredibly practical. He's been a soldier most of his life, and he'd generally rather be out doing things than standing around having philosophical arguments that don't help anyone. He's generally civil, but also incredibly blunt and to the point - he's not good with witty repartee, and he can't really play the "Grand Game" of noble politics worth a damn. Nor would he care to. His words are straightforward and honest - he offers his opinion, and is perfectly willing to argue if he thinks he's in the right. And if he thinks something is stupid - he will tell you so, in no uncertain terms. There almost isn't a problem he doesn't think the addition of more soldiers couldn't fix, and in general he favors hands-on sorts of help - instead of paying a contractor to do it, why not build that bridge yourself? While his position with the Inquisition means he spends most of his time at the home base of Skyhold, coordinating rather than actually doing the fighting, there are several key points where he takes the field. In the attack on Haven, and the siege at Adamant fortress, as well as during the Samson questline in which he actually accompanies the Inquisitor - we see Cullen's willingness in these situations to lead from the front, so to speak. He clearly believes that he shouldn't ask his troops to do something he's not willing to do himself, and he has no trouble putting himself in danger if he thinks it's necessary.
Cullen is good at giving orders, and he's comfortable in a position of authority. However, he's not an ideal leader and he works best when he's got others to balance him out. He lacks the charm and charisma of a true leader and sometimes has trouble seeing the forest for the trees. And beyond all that, he just doesn't like being the center of attention. He's not good with it. When he's giving orders to his troops, he does fine, but in social and formal situations, he gets flustered easily and is generally very uncomfortable. He's not the Hero - he's a logistics man, one of the people who does the grunt work that makes it possible for the Hero to be Heroic, and that's the way he likes it. He wants to be part of something bigger than himself, and would not wear the mantle of glory for his own sake.
As a solider (and frankly, a religious man), he prefers discipline and order, is punctual, pragmatic and keeps to a strict schedule and training regimen.
One final thing to note about his outward presentation: Cullen is handsome. To the extent that it is commented upon quite frequently in canon, and is a running joke. The plot quest "Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts" involves a formal ball, which Cullen attends along with the Inquisitor and the other advisers. His ambient dialogue consists almost entirely of him being flirted with by other attendees, asking whether he's married, telling him he has lovely eyes, even grabbing his butt. Something about that chiseled, stubbly jaw, the warm brown eyes, the soldier's physique - he's just a very good-looking guy, much as it perturbs him.
Motivations:
Underneath the competent exterior, Cullen is a severely damaged man, suffering from PTSD for the past ten years or so. He was about twenty, and serving as a Templar in Ferelden's Circle of Magi, when one of the mages there, Uldred, effectively unleashed hell on them. Cullen bore the brunt of it - he spent days being tortured, physically and psychologically, by literal demons, who tried to break his mind. It very nearly worked, and it's implied that he was a pretty big mess for a while thereafter. To this day, he suffers from severe nightmares about the incident. He keeps that part of him buried deep, and only a very few people even know about his history.
In the ten years since, he was transferred to a new post, and his trauma, and the anger it caused against magic and mages, were manipulated and used against him by his commander, Meredith, to make sure he would never question her or investigate potential abuses she was committing. Cullen isn't proud of most of the things he did during his time with the Kirkwall Circle, and to a large extent, he is driven by a need to make up for his mistakes there. He takes full responsibility for what he did - he's not proud of it, but it largely motivates the man he is now - an attempt to remember what the greater good is, and to make sure he's doing right, rather than simply serving a dogma.
In addition to his past trauma, Cullen is a recovering addict of sorts. All Templars are made to take the magical substance lyrium - it enhances their abilities to dispel magic, but it's also both toxic and highly addictive. When he left the Templar order, he chose to stop taking lyrium altogether, in order to help further remove himself from that life. He hasn't taken lyrium for the better part of a year, and while he rarely shows it, it does cause him no small amount of pain - headaches, shakiness, nausea on occasion. The Inquisitor encouraged him to remain off the stuff, and he has - however, some days are harder than others.
One of the guiding pillars of Cullen's life is his faith. He grew up Andrastian - roughly analogous to Christianity - and in fact the Templar Order is (or was when he was a member) a branch of the Chantry (the church). His education and training were as much focused on things like memorizing scripture as they were on learning how to kill. And while he may no longer be a Templar, he is still a soldier and he is still a man of faith. His belief is a big part of what keeps him sane, even after everything he's been through. As a man who needs to find any way to feel in control of a situation, he realizes that there are some things he just can't control. For him, it's comforting to put those things in the hands of his god. He's far from a perfect model of Andrastian faith, and he is never preachy, nor would he try to convert anyone. For him, it's simply a personal thing that he keeps to himself.
Underneath the layers of tough soldier, the self-doubting, self-loathing, the trauma of torture, there lies a man with a sentimental streak a mile wide. He keeps a token of good luck that his brother gave him when he was thirteen. He likes sugar cookies. He has a gently sardonic sense of humor, and a lovely singing voice. He's shy around pretty girls he likes and blushes and stammers when he's flirted with. For the first time in a long time, he finds himself with the possibility of a future to look forward to, the ability to want things for himself. He's been through enough in his life to know not to take anything for granted.
Setting: Cullen will be simultaneously outraged and baffled by the whole thing. Outraged by what he sees as a barbaric system of blood sport (not to mention kidnapping) - and baffled by all the technology. His world has no more than medieval technology, so he'll have a hard time coming to grips with things like electric lighting, indoor plumbing, and guns. However, the politics of Panem will be relatively familiar to him, coming as he does from a highly stratified society. While he will see the arena system as barbaric, many other things will be kinda-sorta familiar to him, and probably won't bother him much - the Peacekeepers using violence to enforce Snow's edicts, the avoxes, etc. The main thing he'll find objectionable is the fact that he was kidnapped from his world to fight and kill others. His main objective will be to return to his world, but in the meantime he will do his best to protect people he thinks should be protected.
SAMPLES
First Person Thread: [ He feels a bit like a dragon chewed him up and spit him out - well, he can't quite be sure of that, considering he's never been chewed up by a dragon before. But something like it, anyway.
Cullen scrubs a hand over his face, sitting up and taking a quick mental stock - aside from the pounding in his head and the ghosts of aches and pains in his muscles, he seems uninjured. Almost as though it never happened. If it wasn't for the magical pictures showing the ongoing events in this so-called "arena", he might chalk the whole thing up to a bad dream, or something more insidious, demon-driven. But no, it appears to be real, and they seem to have excellent healers on hand.
Gingerly, he picks up the strange little device they've left him with, sighing. He knows enough to know they don't want his honest opinion. These people don't wear masks like the Orlesians, not literal ones, but they certainly wear all sorts of metaphorical ones. He hates the Game. ]
That was as terrible as I expected it to be. Now, am I allowed to go?
Prose: He couldn't help but wonder if this was what it felt like, to succumb to the lyrium madness. He'd seen it once or twice before – men who lost their minds, began speaking to people who weren't there, paranoid and violent or simply lost and afraid.
Cullen fought, regardless. He fought the men who brought him in, reached for skills he hadn't used in a while, even, assuming they were mages. Assuming the devices they were armed with were imbued with magic – but no. They brought him, ego bruised perhaps but otherwise no worse for wear, to a strange room with even stranger people.
He was to put on a show for them. Like an animal in a cage. Was this what it was like in Tevinter, under the rule of the magisters? He took in the room, the strange dummies – clearly training dummies, despite being made of some material he couldn't place – and the table of weapons. With a grimace, he strode over to it, thanking Andraste that at least there was a sword.
Cullen pictured himself back at Skyhold, on the training field with some new recruits. He always tried to train with them as much as he could, no matter how busy he got with other things. He firmly believed that the troops should know their commander, know the sort of man he was, and that he, in turn, should know them. Know the people who had agreed to risk their lives for their cause.
Ignoring the people behind the magical barrier, Cullen hefted the sword in his hand, testing its weight and balance. It was solid enough, perhaps not ideal, but it wasn't the worst sword he'd ever had to work with. His left side felt terribly exposed without a shield, as always, but that was neither here nor there. As though demonstrating for his new recruits, he swung the sword expertly, his movements efficient, angling it in such a way to deflect blows from a much larger weapon – a staff. The Templar style of combat.
Swinging around the dummy, he landed blows at various points – low on the belly, the neck, the underarms, the back of what would've been a knee – all points of vulnerability in most armor. It wasn't flashy, it looked very little like a dance – it was ruthlessly practical and when he was done, his breath came a little short, and a light sheen of sweat was starting to appear on his brow. Only then did he look at the people holding him captive, his eyes hard and angry as he sketched a small bow.
“If that will be all, messeres.”
What is your character scored: I would score him as a 9, or possibly even 10. Cullen was trained as a soldier from the age of thirteen - so over half his life now. Not only that, but Templar training is specifically geared towards teaching baseline humans how to fight and kill magically-imbued superhumans, so he is exceedingly equipped for that sort of combat. He will, however, only kill in self-defense (or in defense of others weaker than himself). His major mental weaknesses are the trauma of his torture (particularly the psychological/emotional torture he underwent) and his lyrium addiction - these have the most potential for being exploited in the arena environment and used against him. In terms of crowd likeability, he's very introverted and won't like the attention at all, but he's likely to attract a strong fan following regardless, just because, well, he's really damn handsome. And a nice guy with a troubled past, basically he's got a good narrative to spin that will draw the ladies in droves. He is quite literally a knight in shining armor. Super romantic.
Token: This letter, from his older sister. It's the most recent letter he received from her.
