Marian Hawke

History
Hawke @ the Dragon Age wiki. Hawke's background is the same no matter how s/he is played, but decisions made during the course of the game can be quite different. Hawke as I play her is a mage, which means that in the flight from Lothering, her sister Bethany was killed by an ogre. A few other major choices made that affect this Hawke's history:


 * Deep Roads Expedition - Hawke brought her brother Carver along, as well as Anders. Carver contracted the Blight, and Anders was able to save his life by handing him over to the Grey Wardens.
 * Took the friendship path with all companions except Fenris, with whom she had a rivalry.
 * Earned the Arishok's respect, and fought and killed him in single combat to save Isabela and end the attack on Kirkwall.
 * An apostate mage herself, Hawke made a few key pro-mage decisions through the course of the game, ending ultimately in siding with the mage rebellion. After defeating Orsino and Meredith, she was forced to flee the city.
 * Spared Anders, lost Sebastian as a result.
 * Romanced Fenris

Boomtown History
Hawke arrived at New Dodge in March, 2013. She arranged hunting parties for the settlement.

Personality
Hawke is probably the last person one would expect to be a great hero, the Champion of Kirkwall and the instigator of a religious war. For one thing, she never seems to take anything seriously. Sarcasm and a rapier-sharp wit are her bread and butter, they're what she primarily faces the world with. This means that, while she can be quite charming, not everyone is going to like her much. There are some people who find her annoying and obnoxious at best, and outright offensive at worst. She's great at parties, but probably not a good choice to give a eulogy or comfort a young widow. As of the end of the game, her sarcasm is as much a defense mechanism (and occasionally a weapon) as it is a sign of genuine good humor. Hawke has seen a lot of terrible tragedy in her life, she's seen and done a lot of horrendous violence, and as such she doesn't take a terribly rosy view of the world at large. Her sarcasm helps her deal with things - or, rather, not deal with things that might otherwise be deeply emotionally scarring.

However, under the brittle, sarcastic exterior, Hawke is a genuinely good-hearted woman, with a lot of compassion. She's got a soft spot for underdogs, which likely explains how she managed to take up with such a motley collection of misfits and castoffs, and at least partly explains why she sided with the mages in the end, aside from the fact that she is one, herself. She may be cynical, but that won't stop her from trying to help people when she can, even if she's occasionally putting her foot in her mouth from making tasteless jokes. She gets particularly vicious with people who are slavers, who hurt children or generally prey on those who are weaker than themselves. And there's no doubt that she's a damn good fighter - the multitudes of corpses left in her wake over the years can attest to that.

Family is important to Hawke. She's never been particularly ambitious for herself, but she was highly motivated to take care of her family (she was often the primary breadwinner back in the bad old days when they were poor refugees) and protect them. She doesn't have much actual family anymore, so the ties of friendship have become just as important to her. She is loyal - sometimes to a fault - and will pretty much do anything asked of her by those she trusts. Case in point, when Anders asked for her help sneaking into the Chantry. He refused to say why he needed to sneak in, and despite her misgivings about the situation, Hawke agreed to help him, because she trusted him. That action quite literally blew up in her face. It may take a while to initially earn her trust, but once earned, that trust is complete.

While she may often joke about how much she likes money and power, it's really people Hawke cares most for. The individuals closest to her are always her number one priority, and she's most focused on helping people on an individual level, rather than being overly concerned with the "big picture". She'd much rather keep a handful of innocent apostates safe, for instance, than sacrifice a bunch of lives in a rebellion against the system oppressing them.

Hawke is also good at inspiring loyalty. For purposes of my headcanon at this point, I am going to assume that Hawke followed the friendship path with all companions, except Fenris, with whom she had a rather more tension-filled relationship. Despite the fact that many of them have deeply opposed beliefs regarding politics, religion, mage rights, etc, somehow Hawke managed to bring them all together through loyalty to her, often getting them to fight together against common enemies. The most obvious case in point here would be Fenris and Anders who, while deeply opposed to each other ideologically, are able to eventually at least tolerate each other's presence for Hawke's sake. Aveline and Isabela have a similar dynamic, and eventually reach a point of something like friendship. Hawke's chosen companions are essentially her family, and she is the glue that tends to hold people together.

As far as religion, politics, and all of that, Hawke has never had very strong beliefs one way or the other. She's not exactly a churchgoer (that would be kind of disastrous given that she's an apostate) and she generally believes that mages should be free from the Circle, though she's never subscribed to Anders' extreme stance on the matter. She does fall very strongly into the anti-blood mage camp, however. Her father, Malcolm, had a very strong sense of morality and instilled that in his daughter, especially regarding making deals with demons. Hawke has never dabbled in blood magic, and never will. The only blood mage Hawke has ever had any patience for is Merrill, and that stems primarily from the fact that Merrill reminds Hawke rather strongly of her dead sister, Bethany at times.

Hawke is often blunt and straightforward, and is pretty much the farthest thing from "ladylike" that she can be while still self-identifying as female. She's never acted like the other noblewomen of Kirkwall - it's not a life she was born to, and even if it had been, she's always been perfectly willing to ignore social convention when it suits her. Even at a fancy party, you won't see her wearing a dress. She keeps her hair short and never wears makeup, though when she isn't sweaty, covered in mud, slime or blood, she's rather attractive. Not that she's ever paid any attention to it - she's not the kind of person who uses her looks or "feminine wiles" to get ahead in life. Frankly, the thought just doesn't cross her mind.

The things that Hawke values most are her own freedom and independence, and the freedom and safety of her loved ones. Threaten those things, and Hawke will make sure you regret it.

Post-canon, Hawke will be on the run, looking for somewhere new to start again. The prospect of New Dodge, a place she can start over and not have to hide her abilities, in addition to her adventurous streak, will be very, very appealing to her.

Appearance
Hawke is lithe and slim, though she's strong enough to haul around a big-ass staff. She's got short, unruly black hair, pale skin, and strikingly bright blue eyes that are sort of the hallmarks of her appearance. She has a smattering of scars over her body, but none of those are immediately visible. She tends to carry herself and walk like she's someone important - part of that is because back home she was, and part of that is just her putting on a show of confidence and bravado.

Links

 * Permission Post