#𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐘 ⟫ Spirit of Compassion (𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐄)

[starwrittenfates]

VERSE ;; Helping to Ease the Regrets (DAV)

☆ 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐚𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 ☆

𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚂𝙴 𝙸𝙽𝙵𝙾:

↳ NOTE: By default, my portrayal of Cole on here follows his route of sticking as a Spirit of Compassion instead of following the human route. However, I can write him as following the human one if that's what you want or if your world state mentions it.

If Cole stayed as a Spirit:

Having returned to the Fade after Tresspasser, Cole has continued on with being a Spirit of Compassion, helping others, but also watching over his friends from his time in the Inquisition. However, when Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain are released from their prison, it sends a shock wave through the Fade, prompting Cole to return to the mortal world, especially once he hears his friends from the Inquisition asking for his help in the fight against the Blight and the gods. He will help...but he wants to do what he can to save Solas. (Cole can even make an appearance/become a companion at the Lighthouse and be assigned by the Inquisitor to help Rook and their friends.)

If Cole became Human:

Same thing as above, except he's been traveling all of Thedas with Maryden and is in a relationship with her and is obviously more human.

𝚂𝙴𝚃𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶: Taking place during Dragon Age: The Veilguard

𝙴𝚇𝚃𝚁𝙰: Flexible and Adaptable to fit with writing partners. Just IM me. Feel free to message me if you wanna talk it out.

[starwrittenfates]

❝ It doesn't matter that they won't remember me. What matters is I helped. ❞

↳ 𝙿𝙾𝚃𝙴𝙽𝚃𝙸𝙰𝙻 𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙿𝚂 — To be discussed

↳ 𝚆𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙴𝙳 𝙲𝙾𝙽𝙽𝙴��𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽𝚂 — Any DA muses and OCs

↳ NOTE: By default, my portrayal of Cole on here follows his route of sticking as a Spirit of Compassion instead of following the human route. However, I can write him as following the human one if that's what you want or if your world state mentions it.

THREADS || NAVIGATION || STUDY ||

BASICS.

FULL NAME: Cole

NAME MEANING: (He took his name from the dead Apostate named Cole

NICKNAMES/TITLES: Ghost of the Spire, Spirit of Compassion, Kid (by Varric and Iron Bull)

AGE + DOB: 20s / Unknown

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Male - He/Him

ORIENTATION: Pansexual Panromantic

SPECIES / CLASS / SPECIALIZATION: Spirit of Compassion / Rogue / Assassin

OCCUPATION: Spirit of Compassion, Member of the Inquisition, Helping People

APPEARANCE.

FACECLAIM: TBA

HAIR COLOR: Blonde

EYE COLOR: Blue

SCARS:

OTHER REMARKABLE FEATURES: TBA

BACKGROUND.

BIRTHPLACE: The Fade?

CURRENT HOME: Verse Dependent

NATIONALITY/ETHNICITY: Spirit of Compassion

LANGUAGES: Common (he's a mind reader too)

PARENTS: N/A

SIBLINGS: N/A

SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Dependent

CHILDREN: N/A

OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS: N/A

PSYCHOLOGY/MIND.

MYERS-BRIGGS: INFP - The Mediator

ENNEAGRAM TYPE: Type 2 - The Helper

MORAL ALIGNMENT: Neutral Good

CHARACTER TRAITS: Empathetic, Sympathetic, Caring, Venegeful, Guilty, Honest,

LIKES: Helping Others, Animals

DISLIKES: Grey Wardens, Imprisonment

FEARS & PHOBIAS: Despair & losing his purpose by turning into a demon because of it

WISHES & DREAMS: To help others

CHARACTER TROPES: All Loving-Hero, Angst, Anti-Hero, Ass Shove, The Atoner, Badass Boast, Become a Real Boy, Been There Shaped History, Beware the Nice Ones, Big Brother Instinct, Bizarre Alien Senses, But Now I Must Go, Cannot Tell a Joke, Chaste Hero, Character Development, Child of Two Worlds, Cloudcuckoolander, The Cuckoolander Was Right, Comically Missing the Point, Creepy Blue Eyes, Creepy Good, Creepy Shadowed Undereyes, Dead Person Impersonation, Despair Event Horizon, Determinator, Devious Daggers, Dirty Mind Reading, Discard and Draw, Dual Wielding, Easily Forgiven, The Empath, Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones, Expy, Fate Worse Than Death, Foreshadowing, Foil, Freak Out, Ghost Amnesia, Guardian Angel, Hair of Gold Heart of Gold, Heart is an Awesome Power, I Was Never Here, Innocently Insensitive, 

SKILLS & ABILITIES.

TELEPATHY --- (as a Spirit of Compassion, able to read thoughts and emotions of those who need help. Can also make them forget him.)

MISC.

Cole is driven by, and feels, other peoples' Angst and is thus compelled to act to end it. However, he says that feeling it doesn't have a demoralizing effect on him at all; he uses it to help people, and that's it. 

His mind-reading ability is specifically tuned to whether someone is suffering emotionally, and/or whether he can do anything to remedy it. 

Cole can 'hear' and feel magic in ways that surprise the party mages. He approves if the Inquisitor becomes a Rift Mage, as they and Solas remind him of the Fade. He's less fond of Necromancy, as it involves manipulating wisps that might become spirits. He also describes magical whispers as being so loud he can see them, to the Inquisitor's confusion.

Cole's abilities of telepathy and making people forget him are largely harmless, and he even uses them to help people. However, those same abilities can be used in battle to make him a scarily effective assassin.

PERSONALITY IN DEPTH.

Cole approves of those who go out of their way to help the helpless or the hurt. He approves of killing or punishing those who hurt people. Allow him to help but do not condone his past of killing mages nor asserting to stop him if he kills innocents as that will net disapproval. Be wary of imprisoning people in your judgments as that also nets disapproval.

A few side quests in the Hinterlands and the Exalted Plains where you help people in dire circumstances gains him moderate approval whether he is in the party or not. However, there are several instances that will yield Cole Greatly Approves:

Ally with Mages

Disband Templars

 Tell Cole to "give him a chance" when talking about the injured man in agony.

Exile the Grey Wardens

Convince all three leaders to have a public truce and work for the betterment of Orlais or reunite Briala with Celene.

Ally with Abelas and the Sentinels if Cole is in the party during the quest.

Expressing intent to rescue Solas rather than kill him.

BACKSTORY.

Cole is a unique entity, described as being caught somewhere between the realm of the Fade and the real world. He is a spirit, though there are some who believe that he may be some sort of demon pretending to be human. Cole himself is unsure of what exactly he is, and his unique set of abilities are unprecedented. Cole also has the uncanny ability to sense people who are in pain. He uses this ability to find people in the most painful moment of their lives and offers them comfort without hesitation, judgement, or expectation of thanks. He is searching for his place in the world; an ally to those who wish to help others.

Prior to his death, the mage formerly known as Cole was an apostate that befriended a spirit of compassion. When Cole was around twelve years old, his father attempted to kill him, as he had Cole's mother, for having "evil" in him. Cole hid with his younger sister Bunny, and accidentally killed her while trying to keep her quiet. Cole later killed his father by sinking a dagger into his heart. The dagger had originally belonged to his mother, the only piece of the wilder folk she'd kept.

The templars arrested Cole after the deaths of his family, and placed him in the dungeons of the White Spire, as is customary for young mages who have deliberately caused injury or death to others. The spirit would later recall that his human counterpart suffered beatings and "worse than beatings" from templars.

While an inquiry was supposed to follow his arrest, a new templar filled out the paperwork incorrectly, which resulted in Cole being placed in one of the most remote cells and forgotten. He eventually starved to death. As Knight-Commander Laroche deemed Cole "a possessed abomination waiting to happen" and the templar responsible sufficiently racked with guilt, he decided against punishing the templar and instead erased all records of Cole's existence. Unable to help the young man, the spirit instead became him, gaining his personality and memories upon his death and becoming corporeal in the process.

DRAGON AGE: ASUNDER

Cole is first encountered as the Ghost of the Spire. No one can see or remember him—none save Rhys, who goes on to form a friendship with the young man over the course of a year. Cole is also the murderer who has been stalking the corridors of the Spire, granting apprentices and newly-arrived mages a swift end rather than the eventual prospect of Tranquility or execution by the Templars. He does these so-called mercy killings because those who wish for death or are about to die are the only ones who can see and "remember" him.

Before Rhys, Wynne, Evangeline and Adrian leave for Adamant Fortress, Cole overhears Evangeline's conversation with Lord Seeker Lambert, who orders her to kill the mages should they discover that the Rite of Tranquility can be reversed. Worried, Cole follows the group in an attempt to warn Rhys and keep him safe. While in Adamant, the group, including Cole, are drawn into the Fade and face various nightmares—one of which is a memory of Cole's. It reveals that Cole came from a very poor family with a violently abusive father who thought his son cursed for having magic and tried to kill him. It is later revealed that Cole eventually killed his father. Some time after this, the Templars found him and brought him to the Spire.

The group escapes the Fade and manages to free Pharamond from the demonic possession. They leave Adamant with the knowledge that it's possible to reverse the Rite of Tranquility. On the way back to Val Royeaux, Pharamond has to be repeatedly reintroduced to Cole due to the latter's ability to make people forget him. Pharamond takes interest in Cole and speculates that he's a hedge mage, though Cole denies any ability to do magic. Pharamond explains the concept of "arcanist derangement", thinking that it might be applicable to Cole.

After Rhys is imprisoned for the apparent murder of Pharamond, everyone suspects Cole to be the culprit. However, when confronted by Wynne and Evangeline, Cole reveals that although Pharamond begged him for death, he refused. Cole then joins Leliana in storming the Spire's cells and freeing the imprisoned mages. Cole goes to locate Rhys and frees him. They attempt to escape the Spire through the sewers, but are discovered by Lambert. Lambert reveals he used Rhys' phylactery, which he had kept on his person to prevent it from being destroyed. Cole tries to murder Lambert, but the Lord Seeker is able to disrupt Cole's invisibility using the Litany of Adralla, revealing that Cole is in fact a spirit or demon with the ability to keep people from remembering him, or even noticing him at all. The Lord Seeker relentlessly assaults Cole, accusing him of using Rhys to commit murder. Cole slowly realizes that Lambert is correct about what he is, and with that knowledge, fades away.

After Lambert has dictated a letter, declaring the independence of the Templars and Seekers from Chantry oversight, he retires to his quarters for the evening but finds himself confronted by Cole with a dagger to his throat. The Lord Seeker is surprised, but Cole explains that there was in fact a human mage named Cole who had been brought to the dungeons of the Spire and was subsequently forgotten and left to starve by the Templars. His cries had attracted the spirit now posing as Cole, who had stayed with him to console him until the very end. Lambert demands to know what Cole wants, to which Cole replies to Lord Seeker Lambert that he wants him to "look into [his] eyes", the same thing he told all his victims before killing them.

DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION

When you first get to Skyhold he will be down in the bottom courtyard. It is also here where a small cut scene will take place, where Cole is sensing the pain of a dying soldier. The Inquisitor has the option to allow Cole to grant the man peace by death, or to tell Cole to let the man try and recover.

After this Cole moves to the upstairs in the tavern. Cole begins doing odd things around Skyhold, such as burning turnips or hoarding daggers.

After the Inquisition confront the Grey Wardens at the Adament Fortress, Cole begs Solas to bind him in order to prevent him from being controlled like the demons. Solas initially refuses and the Inquisitor can go to retrieve an amulet which can prevent spirits from being controlled, even through blood magic. Once the amulet is retrieved, Solas finds that something is blocking its magic from effecting Cole.

Cole senses the location of the thing preventing amulet from working. The Inquisitor, Cole, Solas, and Varric Tethras go to the location to find the Templar that left the original "Cole" to die in the cell at the White Spire. Cole goes into a rage and attacks the Templar, chasing him away. Solas suggests Cole embrace his essence as a spirit of compassion and forgive the Templar, while Varric suggests Cole to face his offender head on and come to terms with what happened.

If the Inquisitor chooses to have Cole forgive the Templar, Solas and Cole confront the Templar and Solas advises Cole to feel the Templar's regret for his actions. Cole accepts himself as a spirit of compassion and the amulet works so he can never be bond or controlled by others. He feels everyone's pain but he can approach them, unseen and whisper words to them to ease their pain.

If the Inquisitor sides with Varric, Varric and Cole confront the Templar and Varric gives Bianca to Cole to kill the Templar. Cole points the weapon at the Templar but chooses to spare the Templar. Solas says the amulet will never work on Cole and Varric insists it is because Cole is now more human and is no longer vulnerable to being controlled because of it. Cole can still feel people's pain, but he could now be seen and remembered by people and begins to feel things he had never felt prior.

Trespasser

Two years after Corypheus' defeat, the Inquisitor can meet Cole before meeting the Exalted Council after he subtly has an Orlesian noble relinquish his table so that a bird may feast on his left over bread crumbs. He then joins the Inquisitor as a companion as they uncover a Qunari plot in the midst of Exalted Council's negotiations with the Inquisition.

Cole is more human

If Cole was made more Human, it is revealed that he and Maryden Halewell have become a couple, and in the end, the two will travel together across Thedas, where Cole and Maryden work together to ease the pain of many people.

Cole is more of a spirit

If Cole was made more Spirit, he will subtly play matchmaker between Maryden Halewell and Krem (if the Chargers are alive) or Zither (if the Chargers are dead).

In the end, Cole will return to the Fade because he senses that will be where he will be most needed to ease pain as a Spirit of Compassion, but he promises his friends in the Inquisition will not forget him.