Stats
| full name: | Dorcas Thessalia Wayte |
| called by: | dorcas, dora |
| age: | 26 |
| gender: | cis woman |
| race: | eladrin/human |
| alignment: | lawful evil, pretending to be lawful neutral |
| MBTI: | estj |
| temperament: | choleric |
Personality
charismatic, bright, and magnetic. people just seem to like her, really! she does not often return the sentiment, but usually maintains a charming, polite front. naturally empathetic and sensitive, innate talent for reading people and rooms - more than occasionally using this for her own benefit. loves to gossip and slander. kind of a brat, vulnerable to criticism, quick to cry and overreact, prone to selfishness, always expects to get her way. ambitious and practical, thorough in achieving her goals. not one to forgive and forget, if she is wronged, she will take revenge. type a, neat and orderly, keeps everything in her life well organized. has a taste for the finer things, especially food and apparel. always knows the perfect gift to get someone.
Physical Details
5'1, averagely plump, very feminine build with a large chest and wide hips. dark brown eyes, dark brown curly hair down to her thighs, warm bronzey brown skin. freckles, long eyelashes, little hands with long nails, back dimples. only notable scar is a horse bite mark on the back of her right arm. smells like her custom perfume of orange and rose, and a little bit of hay and horse.
Apparel
generally, elegant and modest. well-cut, tea length dresses and skirts in the finest silks and brocades; underbust vests and waistcoats in bright colors; silk and fine linen shirts with ruffles and billowing sleeves; lace shawls and overcoats; suede and buckskin breeches, some with pearl buttons or interesting lacing; short cut jackets and vests; colorful shoes and boots of soft leathers and heavy brocades, usually with thick heels; lots of big gold buttons; contrast piping and lace or ruffle trim on everything; all either impeccably tailored or custom made for her. jewelry is less fine than the clothing, the majority being made of bronze, glass, shell, and pearls. always finds somewhere on her outfit to fit a belt with a fairly large pouch. often ties a wide white ribbon in her hair, or tucks a flower behind her ear. wears a small golden compass on a thin chain around her neck.
Family + Childhood
dorcas was born the youngest of four, to an eladrin mother and a human father. her father, penrose, is one of the most prolific textile merchants in her hometown and the surrounding area, handling fine material and haberdashery from across the region. her mother, derenna, was often resentful of life on the mortal plane and spent much of her time in her own world of poetry, art, and music. dorcas has three elder brothers, pietro, aldous, and severin. each of the children inherited one eladrin season from their mother; pietro is summer, aldous is winter, severin is spring, dorcas is autumn. pietro is a local hero, responsible in part for the defense of whitecliff port against a terrible sea monster, particularly in rescuing a group of children who had been playing along the shore when the monster struck. aldous was always the quietest of the siblings, and spent much of his time in his room playing instruments or painting. severin is gregarious and adventurous, friends with all and often doing some feat of public gymnastics or climbing. the children were mostly raised by their paternal grandmother, albertine, who unfortunately passed away before dorcas was a teenager. her parents were married for the majority of her childhood, but the duties of motherhood stressed derenna, and she fled back to the feywilds when dorcas was 14, leaving the family behind for good. while her parents were hands off, dorcas grew up rather spoiled in material goods, and gained popularity among her peers over her looks and fashion sense. her clothing served as a walking billboard for her father's business, and she became a local trendsetter. she had many acquaintances and admirers but few close friends, and even fewer romantic entanglements, despite some rumors. she was dutiful in her studies, focusing on learning languages and book-keeping, aiming to take part in her father's business. dorcas is a lover of horses, and spent much of her free time at a local stable with her beloved draft gelding abacus. the family lives in a large townhome in the heart of whitecliff, though it's just dorcas and pietro now. severin married young and lives nearby with his wife and two children; and her father and aldous have been away on business for some time.
Florianne + Whitecliff
florianne is one of three citystates, established as a result of a long-fought rebellion. the history isn't that important for the point of this page (sorry piper). florianne is a wealthy, coastal mining city with luxurious amenities. it has a university, world class art galleries, theatres of every stage persuasion, global markets, fine wineries, and more. it is home to an academy for divine attainment. florianne is governed by a council of noble families, though one house in particular is dominant above the others. the city is blanketed in a fine white dust from the mines, and intricate face masks to filter this are fashionable. whitecliff could be considered a suburb of florianne, a large town situated directly along the water. the ports are busy and many merchants of florianne make their home here. dorcas has lived in whitecliff all her life, and had not journeyed farther than florianne's other neighboring town of lucia before her time at the academy.
The Academy of Divine Attainment
in this setting, divinity is attainable by mortals, and sought after. while this is more often done through heroicism and virtue, many people have attempted to accelerate the process - this is where the academies come in. beacons to divine wannabes, the academies for divine attainment offer their matriculants challenges and lessons to help them along their journey towards a new purpose. applicants are numerous, but invitations and acceptances rare; you must truly have something special to attend an academy. there are a handful of them scattered across the land, dorcas presently attends the academy in the city of florianne.
The Road to Divinity
godhood was not always dorcas' dream. in fact, she believed herself happy to live a simple life - the family business, her schoolmate sweetheart, horseback riding on the weekends. very little of this turned out for her. first, her father decided aldous would inherit the business, attempting to give the boy an unwanted career path. dorcas is smart and ambitious, she could do anything she wanted to, she doesn't need to limit herself to the family! surely, but she'd been invested in their work all her life, spent extra time in school for this, and aldous doesn't even enjoy it! alas, the men left on an extended business trip and have not yet returned, traveling to their best sources for aldous to learn firsthand, while dorcas began to sulk.
her social life took a downturn as well. about a year before dorcas had finished with school, her dearest friend got married and fell pregnant, and her time was quickly consumed by family life. the baby was plenty cute and orianne seemed happy enough, but friendships are rarely the same after a child is born. most of her other friends had moved on as well - apprenticeships, moving to a larger city, simply drifting apart. dorcas found herself spending more and more time alone. the final straw: her girlfriend, harmony, got a squireship in the next city over, and thought it was time that they ended things. they'd been together since the end of their teen years, maybe it was time to grow apart for a while. things have been stale recently anyway, haven't they? dorcas was spending more time focused on herself, and harmony had been working hard to find her new position. of course harmony still loved her, but this would be a nice, clean break, okay? ...no. it wasn't okay. how could it be okay, they were supposed to get married! the only woman she'd ever loved, all of her firsts, the majority of a decade, thrown out the window, all for what? a career! dorcas was inconsolable. spiteful. furious. where had she gone so wrong? she spun into a depression, holing herself up in her room in the family home, emerging only for occasional baths and meals. pietro tried his hardest to cheer her, to little avail. dorcas' world became very dark.
Harmony
the relationship really was wonderful, back then. they met at the stable where dorcas boards her horse, harmony worked as a stablehand. they just clicked. harmony is a human woman, tall and broad and blonde and always sunburnt. not a bookish type but pragmatic and street smart. always so sweet with the horses, the initial charm point for dorcas. they were quite serious, marriage had been on the table for a while, but harmony wanted to do more than just stable work. a move was in order. sure, she could've asked her to come along, but dorcas had become so detached, and stubborn about it. she'd barely made notice of harmony going to meet potential mentors. why would she want to continue this relationship? the logic of it all hasn't occurred to dorcas, who has become downright obsessive about the breakup. it's unhealthy. she still writes to harmony, attempts to orchestrate 'accidental' run-ins to brag about herself, and ruminates on the end of things constantly.
Emer
as many might when at their lowest, dorcas found herself turning to prayer, in particular to a local deity called emer. emer had been a beloved community member, a wealthy philanthropist and lover of the arts, deified after death during her funeral. she was laid in state in the city center and people from far and wide, from every walk of life, came to pay tribute to her, tossing roses and parting gifts en masse onto her body. this pile grew so large and so dense, it collapsed! emer's body was entombed for over a day while the petals were excavated, and when they finally reached her, she had begun breathing again. emer was born anew into a higher existence, claiming to hear her followers call her soul back into her body. she is now known as the lady of the rose. she represents charity, sociability, and devotion, already a patron on dorcas' radar - she'd made a good few offerings hoping for parties to go well or a certain outcome from a confrontation. now in the depths of her depression, dorcas has been all too willing to indulge the thornier side of her goddess, garnering her full attention. emer's patronage is absolutely essential to dorcas' journey.
Original Sin
her greatest secret - her entry into the academy was not earned. in fact, she didn't even apply. one day, pietro had been out to market and dorcas was home alone, when the mail arrived. at the top of the stack was a gilded envelope addressed to pietro: an invitation to tour the academy. his past heroicism had earned him the favor of a few local deities, all happy to vouch for his worthiness. it could work out for him. dorcas' hands shook terribly as she cut the envelope with her letter opener, nicking her palm in the process. as she read over the neat calligraphy, envy and fury and desperation flushing in her chest, the thick cardstock sapped up her blood. she rushed to hide the letter, not wanting to lose her brother, the only person she had left, to be completely alone in her childhood home with the phantoms of her fragmented family, no dream left to speak of. no, she couldn't bear it at all. dorcas managed dinner and evening leisure with the envelope stuffed under her mattress, but by nightfall, it was torturing her, and it must be destroyed. her shrine's candles were already burning and convenient, and as she tore the letter to shreds and incinerated each, she prayed with more fervor than ever. please, please, don't let me be left alone, i have nothing left, i will do anything to make people stop leaving me! she begged, to emer, to anyone. as the final pieces, saturated with dried blood and tears, burnt and crumbled, the ashes littered around the base of the candle began to glimmer. a peal of bells and sweet laughter rang through the air, and emer herself manifested in a cloud of fragrant petals. the shining remnants of the letter swirled into the air, reforming in the goddess' hands to a nearly identical letter, now bearing dorcas' name instead. her salvation. to live is to lose, my little blossom, said the goddess, even this shall be no guarantee. this would be her own journey to undertake, emer informed her, and a perilous one - if she fails, there will be no second chance. the academy would challenge every facet of her being, and will require sacrifices to be made, both in tribute and through self-winnowing. besides that, it would be best if no one knew about any divine interference. she will need a convincing story for her ascendance, a good reason to be there. of course, none of this would dissuade dorcas. she will succeed or kill herself trying.
Time at the Academy
perilous, indeed. the game only got to about a month's worth of story time, and you'd need both hands to count dorcas' brushes with death. their very first night in the dorms, someone was murdered during dinner, and the party was banished to the woods while the school covered up the incident. it was a bad trip full of fallen suns and vengeful gods, but more importantly, it was cold and wet and dorcas was miserable. upon their return, she was graced with one smooth week of classes, a budding friendship with her only sane partymate, and enjoying the city's shopping and amenities, but it wasn't to last. the group was challenged with navigating a pocket dimension, all the while tormented with their own memories, and this sent dorcas into a bit of a tailspin.
soon after, some efficient snooping by the others triggered a dorm shutdown, and it was discovered their portal out was no longer connected. the group figured their way out of their floating tower to find themselves in a walled city, bleak and gray, difficult to navigate. they discovered this place was key to their journey: upon ascension, the parts of themselves unsuitable for divinity had to go somewhere. this was somewhere. while the others were horrified by the idea of these shells of themselves, dorcas was quietly elated. it made sense to her. she immediately began thinking of what she would flay from herself - her temper, her propensity for emotional weeping, her need for romance and affection. every opposite to the qualities she wished to project. dorcas imagined the creature, forming it in her mind, bilious and stringy-haired and repellent and needy, thinking of it only as a beast, sequestered in the tightest corner of this disgusting place. she thrilled at the idea of removing such terrible flaws. she would be glorious.
Paloma
can i just tell you how hard i laughed when piper passed out roommate assignments and gave me someone so similar to her ex that i hadn't told them about yet. we are geniuses and share half a brain. anyway, miss paloma is dorcas' favorite disciple. we didn't get much further than establishing loyalty in game, but over time she has developed into a wonderful little sick in the head dog-knight-supplicant-thrall and i love the dynamic. it turns out that paloma has accidentally sworn herself to a sea hag instead of the god she intended, and this creature has been sapping her life force, leaving her vulnerable to dorcas' sway. dorcas has felt rather empowered with how easy it's been to control her. does she truly care for paloma? good question. she values her fealty, and would go far to keep it. every god needs their first follower.
Continuing Education
well if you ask me after the game imploded everyone except for paloma and dorcas died <3 i imagine she spends some years at the academy gathering more little disciples - it was easy enough to get paloma on board, there must be more sheep making it through applications. she needs a few more instances of growth. she might not realize it yet, but she won't ascend with her mortal ties, especially to harmony, and it will get messy. i have imagined a lot of scenarios in which harmony must die and haven't decided on the truth yet. it could be an emotional accident, a test of faith for paloma, something cruel and slow. i think dorcas has been imagining it, too. what she hasn't been imagining is facing pietro and her betrayal of him. he lives close enough to visit the school, and has, on occasion mentioning what he might do if he were there. he really has no idea that he would've had a chance, but it may need to surface before dorcas can move on.
to-do list: gallery, playlists, dress up game, moodboard/aesthetic, memes