The Chantry - Tumblr Posts
Hello, dear! You've been visited by the random character question fairy! :D ~☆
How jumpy is your character? Do they get upset when startled?
this is a good question 👀 we'll branch out to my DA oc this time too!
tharya, my ldb is pretty jumpy - loud or sudden noises when she isn't paying attention (or even sometimes when she is) make her flinch or jump. not because she's actually scared of them, but because her brain is so used to hearing loud noises and immediately needing to get up and run or defend herself, they make her body jump into action. she very rarely gets upset by it, but it definitely ups her heartbeat. (being easily startled is a small symptom of PTSD iirc)
bhijirio, another skyrim oc, is somewhat similar to tharya. he's khajiit and a bounty hunter, so he's accustomed to listening for small noises and paying close attention to his surroundings. that way he doesn't really flinch, per se, (though his ears almost always flick in some way when he hears odd noises), but usually he will look up & look around to see if he can pinpoint the source of said noise. he never really is upset by it.
miraak, though, is pretty hard to ruffle. he usually jumps "internally", lets himself be startled by things on the inside, but never lets it show on the outside. sometimes his eyebrow or shoulder will jump if he's less alert - and specific noises will always make him leap away (i.e. anything that sounds like something falling behind him, explosions, or even whispering close by, most are reminders of herma-mora). miraak gets grumpy about it and will gripe if he feels it necessary.
azriel, my inquisitor, is a healthy, normal amount of jumpy. she will flinch at unexpected loud sounds, etc, mostly out of habit or a natural reflex. most things don't scare her, but she'll still react to them anyway. as a warrior she's very accustomed to taking constant survey of the land around her and reacting immediately, both in fights and to noises around her. she doesn't bother to hide it and usually gets a good chuckle out of it.
sebastian, though technically not an oc, i felt right to include bc of some personal headcanons. his hearing in his left ear had been damaged by the chantry explosion, so on his left side he can't hear small noises, etc. things like explosions will obv come through, but the sound of a glass dropping and breaking will likely be distant enough that he won't jump, just look around to see what it was. that aside, he jumps at very big, unexpected noises and explosions especially - he's somewhat paranoid of being caught in another since the chantry. he rarely gets upset and instead will want to know what happened and if everyone/thing is okay.
thinking again about how fucked up it is that bioware revealed that the evanuris aren't actually gods but rather murderers and slavers - but they said they're not gonna confirm anything about whether the maker exists.
the chantry gets so much slack in-game imo as a parallel to the catholic church, especially when you compare it to how the other religions/spiritual beliefs are portrayed.
you get so many companions and sympathetic npcs who follow the chant and believe in the maker and aside from the templars as an institution and a cleric or two they're basically made out to be good when they're... colonizing, forcing assimilation, and demonizing other groups.
outside of velanna and merrill there aren't really any proud dalish characters, solas and abelas make a point of distancing themselves from a dalish pc.
sten is the only qunari companion who continues to follow the qun regardless of player choices.
the avvar are portrayed as basically wild, uncivilized barbarians.
it just seems like most if not all the chantry-aligned characters either have their faith confirmed or held up as the best option despite its flaws. the tone is so often like, "yes the chantry committed genocide but look! mother gisele is helping both the refugee mages and the church-appointed supersoldiers hunting them down and executing them. it's equality! not everyone in the chantry is a bad person!"