greetings from a fellow skeleton cultist i mean mourn watcher! i'm (very slowly) watching your DAV archive as time allows, but i'm so eager to learn more about your crypt baby. how did Kata end up in the necropolis as a baby? did she have a special area of study or particular passion? how did being a non-mage in a necromancer order impact her? i'm just making all the grabby hands, basically, i love learning about peoples' Ingellvars.
βgirlwonderers
Do you know, I had no idea that it was weird to play a non-mage Mourn Watcher until @jadesabre301 was watching me do character creation, and she was like, "a rogue Mourn Watcher? Whatβhow does that even work?" And then it became a personal challenge to figure that out, nyeh. (I also have sooo many screenshots of Kata I need to share, but that'll be separate!) Just one for now!
I also (because this is the way I play RPGs) am only just now getting her into a coherent shape now that I've finished the game. My PCs are always such blank blocks of marble when they start; I don't really know who they are until the details of the narrative shape them, and then I work backwards from there to figure out what kind of person would have made this or that choice, and then what events in their past might have contributed to that personality. Here's what I know so far!
Kata is short for Katakombe, which is where they found her
bright and bouncy personality, very cavalier, very lighthearted
I like to think she made a joke when she met Varric that reminded him so much of Hawke that he just had to take her under his wing
always a little sleepy (got them heavy-lidded eyes)
have also just had the thought that she cat-naps everywhere and anywhere she can as a result, which I think is another cute contrast to Lucanis, I'm running with this
the word I leaned into during CC was "gaunt," though she fills out a little in armor
by complete accident, she is also max height for a human female, so.....a real string bean I guess
pretty blase about threats to her life but deeply intimidated by powerful women (Adahla, Ghilan'nain, Myrna, Taash in that first "smell" cutscene before they come out)
comes off as pretty dumb & spacey on first impression, had a hard time making friends as a kid
does think everyone thinks she's dumb, questions it herself occasionally (she's not dumb though! she just doesn't know it!!)
is convinced Myrna hates her as a result, though Myrna actually likes her just fine & has pleasant chats about her with Vorgoth after she leaves
was devastated to leave the Mourn Watch but adored Varric; she really thrived with him & blossomed from a competent rogue to an excellent one
I think Varric was the first person in her life to really see who she was & could be, and she loved him for that
I think she was found a little older than a baby (maybe early toddler? don't ask me how she stayed alive between baby>then, I don't know yet) and Vorgoth basically raised her; even when she had that "roaming the streets of Nevarra" phase, Vorgoth was Dad
navigated the Necropolis very easily all her life as a result, and was recognized for that skill early on; when she didn't end up a mage, she was still useful in their protection/potential combat situations, so would often go out as a bodyguard-type detail once she got through schoolβI think this is why she stuck around as long as she did
(gets lost constantly in Lucanis's mansions as a result; she's not used to the labyrinth not helping her)
still didn't have many deep friendships, thoughβwhile she wasn't bullied, she never quite made the same connections as everyone else, so she also spent a LOT of time in the gardens & with wisps & became quite good at those
has some musical knowledge and was in the Necropolis orphaned children's choir, which was guest-conducted once by Emmrich
had a handful of flings, all pretty superficial summer romances
I think she's actually quite good at meditation/rituals/forcefully clearing her mind when she wants to, even though she's otherwise impatient and restless. I think she initially clung to rituals as a method of ensuring social acceptance (if I'm doing this ritual right & with all the other kids, then I'm not doing Something Wrong and I won't be shunned), and over time she grew to enjoy them for their own sake
Andrastian but weird about it (no burning, freakishly into reliquaries, looooves the old High Church stuff where all the architecture is made out of a million bones), idolizes Divine Cassandra
has never asked "why" in her lifeβhas absolutely zero interest in wondering why things are the way they are (a major and hilarious source of friction with Solas)
may or may not be a trifle clumsy when she's not paying attention
has a very high tolerance for the monstrous, which is why she likes Solas (sometimes)
my gosh this list got long when I wasn't looking, I know more than I thought!
