Clara

Clara
"Brave girl, you were made for far more beautiful things. Chaos is only understood when it is loved by the wild, not the weak."
Real World Information
Game	Dragon Age Inquisition
Biographical Information
Birth Year	9:05 Dragon
Gender	Female
Race	Human
Class	Civilian
Affiliation(s)	The Inquisition

What is there to say about miss Clara? Apparently lots, if you're a fellow resident of Skyhold that is. Clara was born three years after her older brother, the infamous Rebel Mage Anders, in a small farming village south of Crestwood called Wutherford. When her brother was taken away to the Circle, she was devastated and held a deep grudge against her father ever since. While they have not seen one another since childhood, she thinks of her brother often and had almost lost hope of ever seeing him again until the day that the Champion of Kirkwall arrives at Skyhold. Little did she know that his famed paramour, Anders, was her estranged older brother.

Overview

Physical Appearance

How do you go about describing a girl who is a gangly thing, with more limbs than body? Would you consider Clara to be a pretty girl, if only she spent more time on her appearance? That is, of course, assuming she cares. If anything, she takes pleasure in being “unmade” and “unkempt” as some of the nobles in Orlais and even Skyhold liked to whisper amongst themselves. It's not as if she has a rich pedigree to uphold. There is a sense of freedom to be found in unpinning her braids, letting her hair fall long and wild. And though it is quick to snarl and tangle and to collect all sorts of stray brush, or get caught on tree branches, she laughs and carries on, for nothing brings her more joy than to follow her whimsy. Duty in the kitchen calls for practicality, of course, but the frizz and flyways, the stains on her apron only paint a larger picture of a girl who knows herself and takes pleasure in the simple joys of life. The fair skin of her cheeks have been kissed by the sun with freckles aplenty and even when they burn after she’s sat for hours in the garden, Clara still smiles bright and wide. If you were to put her side by side with her family, their resemblance would be difficult to challenge, but at least she doesn’t have the harshness of her father’s blood - the sharp angles and rigid posture. She’s quite content to be her mother’s daughter…

No one notices the help, the little people, the ones who serve in ways that don’t involve swords and shields. Which is more than fine by Clara. She likes not standing out, being plain and practical. Simple. It’s much easier to slip in and out of places without fuss. It’s only by getting to know her that you come to remember certain things about her. Clara is just as comfortable in dresses as she is in breeches, despite the idea that such a thing does not become a young lady. From farm dresses with an apron stained by her work in the kitchen to blousy tunics and long skirts, there are very distinct personal touches to her attire that heavily suggest they are handmade in part or in whole. Truthfully, she’d almost rather run around barefoot and in her small clothes if given the opportunity, but sadly one must actually wear proper things to go out in public.

Personality

Clever, willful. blunt. Oh, did you want her to sugarcoat that? Well that’s too bad. Clara is the sort of girl to say precisely what is on her mind and tell someone off if they’ve done her wrong. She is not malicious or aggressive, she simply prefers honesty and sees little point in dancing around something just to make it more palatable. Maybe that’s why she and Sera get along so well. Not everyone is capable of fitting into a nice neat little box, and Clara is certainly one of those people. She is a bright spark, a wild spirit that many have tried to temper in the past, unsuccessfully so. That doesn't make her a delinquent, but she was never one to blindly follow either. Like her brother and mother before him, it's safe to call her something of a rebel, at least in a willful, headstrong sense. Little seems to deter the woman once she has her mind set on something. Clara also possesses a healthy curiosity for things she doesn’t understand and rather prefers the pursuit of knowledge, often through first-hand exposure.

You’ve got to be adaptable if you wish to survive the Orlesian court and live under the roof of a deeply pious Andrastian man like her father. Clara has spent plenty of time in the company of others who she admires and tries to model herself after. If she laughs at seemingly inappropriate moments, it’s because she can see the humor even in the bleakest weather. If she twists her hair until it breaks, then she is deep in thought and pondering things of greater importance than her looks.

Talents and Skills

Clara is mostly a non-combatant, however, because she spent time with the Red Jennies in Denerim she  learned some things about holding her own in a fight. She’s scrappy and quick on her feet, has good spatial awareness (when she puts her mind to it) and knows how to step lightly.

• Knives - Whether in the kitchen or on the streets, she has a multitude of experience with handling knives and typically carries one on her person for self-defense. Clara is quick and fearless and knows how to hold a blade and where to strike. She’d rather it not come down to it but still.
• Self Defense - Believe it or not, her mother was the first person to teach Clara anything about this, though the rest came from self-learning and her friends in the Jennies. If caught in a precarious situation, she knows ways to incapacitate someone who gets up close in her personal space or puts their hands on her.

Biography

He was twelve, and she was nine, big enough to kick and scream, but too small to stop the ironmen and their swords of steel from taking him away...

Clara is the second child born of an immigrant from the Anderfels and the daughter of a tailor from Crestwood. Whatever it was that brought her parents together had to have been magic itself, one that wore off too soon. There was never a lack of love in their home, even if her father had been strict and staunchly traditional. She was even the apple of his eye - his little schmusebacken - for a while. If the man actually cared for his eldest - his son - he had a poor way of showing it. Her father had a particular set of ideals, and, being very devout in his faith, imparted that upon his family. They were brought up as proper Andrastians, attended services once they were old enough, said their prayers, and learned the Chant. It was their mother who indulged them, who inspired her and held them close each night before bed.

There was a proper role for young girls and women in this life, according to her Da, but Clara had no interest in whatever that meant.

Being that they weren’t very far apart in age, Clara and her brother got along like two kittens born in the same litter. Anders was cut from the same cloth as Clara - bright, playful, rambunctious. They were nigh-inseparable, and she followed him like a shadow. At some point, their father stopped entertaining all of their wildness, pushing more and more for them to act accordingly, and to start thinking about the future. For better or for worse, that future never came to pass…

Her world seemed to crumble around her when she turned nine and her brother twelve. You see, he’d been hiding a secret, only ever letting her in on it at first. He had magic. He had magic and could heal things, animals mostly, but he’d figured out how to heal her scrapes and bruises after they played just so father wouldn’t be cross that they were roughhousing and that she’d torn up her knees and skirts again. Not even mother knew though they suspected she would have loved him anyway. When a fire broke out in the family barn, a complete accident set by a capricious child, their father had been horrified and the Templars came quickly to take her brother away.

Though she begged and sobbed and pleaded for them not to take him - her brother, her best friend, and playmate, just as their mother had done, father had shouted at her to go back inside the house. Clara waited by her window that night, hoping and praying to Andraste that he would come back to her. When he did not show, and all were asleep inside the house, she snuck out and headed for the dock where her father kept a rowboat. Though she was small and only a child, she somehow managed to unmoor the boat and drift across Lake Calenhad toward the big looming tower - the Circle of Magi - where they’d taken her brother. She distracted the Templars posted outside and tried pounding on the doors to be let in, only for them to return and find her in the midst of her tantrum. Despite her kicking and screaming and shouting, they managed to eventually calm her down long enough to find out where she’d come from and escorted her home where her parents had been waiting. Her father was furious to know what she’d done but her mother bickered with him in return trying to reason with him that she was only a girl and acted as anyone would in her situation.

Long after her parents stopped arguing and went to sleep in separate beds, little Clara snuck out and attempted to unmoor her father’s rowboat from the docks so she could go and rescue her brother from the tall, looming tower across Lake Calenhad. Not that she managed such a great feat before getting caught. As you might imagine, nothing was the same after that. Clara continued to shirk her father’s ideals, continued to grow and embrace her mother’s spirit, to be the girl - and woman - her brother would have been proud of.

Eventually, however, there was no more room in that house for her to stretch her wings, so something had to give. She left home, all too happy to dodge attempts to either see her married off or pushed into the Chantry. Clara didn’t stray far, she liked Ferelden. Ferelden was home, and it was all she knew, but there was more to see. Her feet hit the ground and carried her from village to village until Denerim seemed to suit her fine. She took up a trade, used the skills at her disposal to get by, made some friends, and settled in. The Red Jennies were an interesting group, and she took a shine to their work, to their creed, picked up a few more talents, and seemed content with the direction her life was taking.

Until the Blight.

And that is how she found herself in the heart of Orlais. It wasn’t the worst, but it wasn’t ideal. Had it not been for two men: Bryn Sabrae, and Nicholas (the son of the woman running the kitchens) - well, Clara would have figured out how to survive the den of snakes if for no other reason but sheer need to, but having them at her back was all the better. Still, Orlais had worn out its welcome before long, and it was time to get out before they were swallowed up in the madness of the Orlesian Court. There were rumblings of something happening on the other side of the border, in Ferelden, in a sleepy village called Haven.

Between 9:37 and 9:40, all the gossip and chatter surrounding the incident in the Marcher city of Kirkwall with the destruction of the Chantry, the subsequent rebellion and the all out war - Clara was fascinated but worried. Her brother was out there somewhere and could have easily been lost in all of this. Upon the fall of the Circles, she even wondered if she might find him somehow. She tried writing home, hoping to appeal to her father’s better nature and ask forgiveness for leaving but was met with a cold response from some soldier that her parents had perished in the Blight - father had died trying to defend their home and mother had taken ill with the sickness. Distraught that she left them behind to die, Clara headed to the Chantry - to pray, to ask forgiveness, or just be alone with her guilt. It was there she met a one Sister Nightingale, aka Leliana, who had been in Val Royeaux for the celebrations. She confided openly in Leliana, and the two spent some time in lengthy discussion over faith and other related topics, with Clara even going as far as telling her about her family, and especially her older brother. Some time later Leliana, feeling optimistic about it and what it could mean for people like her brother, encouraged and invited Clara to sit in on the Divine Conclave.

It was fortunate that Clara hesitated, both uncertain if she could slip away from her duties and what it would accomplish by her going, for she was not there when the Temple of Sacred Ashes erupted and the sky tore open. However, once she heard of the formation of the Inquisition and the pilgrimage to Haven in Ferelden, she decided to venture forth. Upon arrival in Haven, she approached Leliana and pledged herself to aid the Inquisition however she could - leading to her joining Leliana’s team of agents, all the while taking on a cover as one of the kitchen servants. Clara was fortunate to have been amongst the survivors upon the fall of haven and made the trek to discover Skyhold Fortress...

Relationships

Leliana - Even though she is the spymaster and right hand to the Divine, Clara does not fear Sister Nightingale. She met the woman when Clara had been at her most vulnerable and regarded her as kind and warm, but a little bit sad. Leliana was good to her and helped her find her strength again. She sometimes sneaks up to the Rookery sometimes to feed and talk to the birds.

Sera - Since Clara had spent time with the Jennies, she got to know Sera a little even though they are quite far apart in age. She thoroughly enjoys the young elf’s chaotic energy and her penchant for pranks. At the same time she regards Sera as something like a younger sister and tries to look out for her best she can. Clara was proud to see her become part of the Inquisition’s inner circle.

Anders - Her estranged brother. As children, they were very close and she regarded him as her best friend. Clara never stopped thinking about him, especially not when she heard about the Kirkwall rebellion and how a mage was fighting for freedom on behalf of people just like her brother. It never occurred to her that they might be one in the same. Though she doesn’t know his current whereabouts, she still believes there is a chance they will be reunited someday.

Miscellaneous

Likes

• Food - she spends most of her time in kitchens but she never gets tired of the different kinds of foods, treats and consumables. She is the sort of person who just likes to snack.
• Cooking: Naturally, she not only enjoys eating food but making it too. Clara is quite the whiz in the kitchen and learned much from her mother at a young age.
• People watching - As most other servants, it’s easy for Clara to basically go amongst the general populace unnoticed and she uses that to her advantage and takes the opportunity to observe others in their daily lives. If for no other reason than just to sate her natural curiosity.

Dislikes

• Unnecessary frills - Clara is not a girl who likes to dress in pretty frocks, or to be dripping in jewels and frilly petticoats. She’s a simple, practical girl who doesn’t want for much, and would feel rather awkward all dressed up like some kind of doll.
• Authority - She’s not quite the rebel her brother is, of course, but perhaps it’s a family trait that she doesn’t much care for authority figures or playing by anyone else’s rules. She still demonstrates respect to those who earned it like the Inquisitor and the other kitchen staff, and she won’t be outright rude to anyone unless they’ve wronged her. However, Clara maintains her own ideals and won’t truly answer to anyone who she feels goes against those.
• The Chantry/Faith - She was inundated by these things almost her entire young life and they are the reason her brother was taken from her. Her father was a pious man and had she not left home when she did, Clara knows she’d have wound up miserable as a sister in the Chantry. Again, she will not be blatantly unkind to individual people, but she has no love for the Chantry as a whole or the Faith from which it draws its values.

Hobbies

• Reading: When she’s not working, she has a fair amount of time on her hands and so you’ll usually find her nose stuck in a book. No genre is off limits to her, she has a healthy curiosity and thirst for knowledge so if she’s bored, she’ll grab any old thing off the shelf and start pouring over it.
• Playing Cards - Clara has met an assortment of people over the years and she has picked up all sorts of skills and tricks. Card games with her brother and later with her fellow servants in Orlais and in the Inquisition were a common thing and she fancies herself to be pretty good at a few different games.
• Kuchen - When she first arrived in Haven and started to work in the tavern, Clara discovered a stray cat had been stealing food from the kitchen. When she finally caught the scruffy little kitten, she named him Kuchen - the Ander word for cake - and has kept him and looked after him ever since.

Habits: Humming, rocking on her feet, rambling, twisting her hair until it frays, laughing at inappropriate moments (nerves), climbing things (trees, counters, etc.)

Links

Off-site links (AO3, DeviantArt, Tumblr):

None

Gallery

• Six of Cups
• Clara done by me in Artbreeder and edited with photoshop

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