➤ Celandine Fawcett-Garrick ɪɴ ᴀɴ ᴏᴛᴏᴍᴇ ɢᴀᴍᴇ! (also open for collabs!)
howard shore
"What's the best story you've ever heard?"
- an actual line from Dinah from Aisling Academy:Battle of Hearts
For someone who doesn't have formal training at the time of entering the Academy, Dinah's magic is surprisingly strong. Throughout the playthrough it will only improve.
Because her parents are
(1) fishermen
(2) miners
(3) smiths
(4) windmill-mechanics
> 2
Because her parents are miners, a lot of her inherited earth magic focuses on rock. She can make a small area of stone give way beneath her fingertips as though it was liquid. But because she spent most of her free time in nature, particularely in the forest, she can also make flowers blossom, moss grow thicker and branches sprout extra twigs.
That last one has mostly been used to fashion make-shift keys to break into neighbors houses (without damaging their locks), doing their chores and running away before anyone noticed. Yeah, she was that kind of prankster, growing up.
As the game progresses, her powers grow. By the end, if you play your proverbial cards right, she can create golems in all kinds of shapes and from different material - and uses those golems mostly to enrich her stories. She can raise basic mud or stone walls from the ground, though more intricate designs take more thought and time. With that power, she regularely travels the kingdom, rebuilding or strengthening the houses in poorer neighborhoods and villages.
BACKGROUND
I'd like to tell you a story. But I'm going to need a little help. Okay?
> ok
ONCE UPON A TIME
Once upon a time in the outskirts of the kingdom, a couple gave birth to a beautiful daughter. They named her Celandine, for the small yellow flowers that had gathered around the house that spring. The flowers have come to see our baby, the mother would say. They have come to see her and she will grow up among them. She will play in the fields, she will taste the sea in the breeze that tangles her hair, yet she will not curse it as she sits by the fireplace and drags a brush through her locks. For it is all that we can give her.
And just so Celandine did spend the days not spent studying, though she always did say there was a lot to learn in nature, too. Her favorte place was
(1) the beach, where she arranged shells and pebbles to form pictures.
(2) a hollow tree she built a fairy house in.
(3) her own home, where she pointed out picures in the flames in the hearth.
(4) the ruins of an old watchtower atop a hill, where you could never quite tell the direction of the winds.
> 2
Because the wilderness could be dangerous at times, her parents sent the neighbor's son, Milo, with her. He was older than her by a year and had probably been asked by both their parents to watch over Dinah. No one had told him, that a lot of society thought boys weren't supposed to like the same things as girls. And so when Dinah began to carry moss and stones to a hollow tree and told him, she was building a fairy house, he began to press flowers between rocks, so that they wouldn't wilt so soon. While she did most of the decorating and actual building, he was a wonderful storyteller. It was in the pauses between his thoughtfully whispered sentences, that the forest came alive with myths and magic. Nothing could have ever stopped her listening.
SCHOOL AND STORIES
Her education was sparse. The schools for the children of the lower classes far from the cities and castles of the inner kingdom, saw her sharing a living room with thirty other kids, copying texts onto a chalkboard and wiping it clean, only to begin anew. In the summers, springs and autumns they got a square of chocolate at the end of the day - the amount of people in one room was enough to heat it and so the town saved the money usually spent on heating. And while she was taught to aspire to nothing more than a supporting role of society, her imagination soared. Like so many, her favorite part of the day was the breaks they got, when she could pester Milo to read to her from the legends and stories he had been transcribing. He would often comply, though only after rolling his eyes and smiling ruefully at his friends, as they went outside without him. The breaks were never long enough to finish any of the stories and so Dinah took it upon herself to finish the tales, when recounting them to her parents. Milo tried to correct her on occasion, but she would have none of it, talking over him until she finally got him to contribute his own idea to their made-up world.
Of course, one day, she decided, she wanted a part in local legends. And so she began to concoct hairbrain schemes to make her own stories. Usually they were rather harmless pranks on the townsfolk, or chores that were seemingly magically done before the people could get around to doing them themselves. Milo was of course enlisted in helping or standing watch - and though Dinah dubbed him the muscle of the operation, he was almost as much a mastermind as she was. He had read more, after all, and had more life-experience to draw inspiration from.
MAGIC
When Dinah was eight years old, she was finally taken to a temple, to figure out if she possessed magic. Honestly, everyone was sort of expecting her to - both her parents came from earth magic families. None too powerful, they had of course never been trained. Officially they would have been allowed into Aisling, but because there was work to be done and families to be supported back home, they didn't bother applying, as was often the case in their parts of the kingdom.
Since earth magic is the most common form and it ran in her family, it was the first room, Dinah was ushered into. It took a moment after the doors closed, before the plants and rocks began to move. Loose pebbles careened towards her and vines wrapped around her arms and although both were gentle, it was completely frightening to Dinah. She was quickly rescued, but cried through the whole ceremony anyway. Not that it was much of a ceremony. Like most lower class kids, she told an officiant her name and adress, they slapped a stamp on a document, handed that to her parents and pointed her towards the exit.
Almost everyone else in her life seemed more excited about her powers than she was, at first. Her parents were relieved, because earth powers are very helpful in the two main industries of her town: agriculture and mining. So almost any job she could choose from when she grew up, she'd be able to benefit from her magic.
Milo and her other friends were excited, because she could now really help the fairy houses come to life. Her powers, along with the other powers her friends had, opened a new realm of possibilities for games.
A YEAR AGO
A year before the events of the game, a carriage from the capital arrived in her hometown. It carried a noble man and young girl, who were travelling the countryside to learn of legends and get away from their usual lives for a while. They were quickly pointed towards Dinah and especially Milo, who had grown to be known as some sort of expert on local tales. While the girl got a tour of Dinah's favorite forest paths, the man remained in their local library with Milo. When Dinah returned, he told her, that he wouldn't have a lot of time that day. In exchange for research for the noble man, he was getting a recommendation letter to spend some time in Aisling Academy's library. She ushered him on enthusiastically and left to help with chores at home.
By the next morning, Milo was gone.
The man and the girl had also left, but no one was all too worried about that. Milo's friends and family looked everywhere, turned half the town upside down and found only a set of footprints. Leading out of the library and - after a detour through the woods - to where the noble's cart had stood. After a few days, he was declared a lost cause and it was assumed, he had abandoned small town life when offered the opportunity. Dinah was angry and dissapointe and hurt and if he had been there, she would have yelled and turned away and refused to speak to him for a while. But he wasn't there and so she decided not to give up on him.
She didn't know where he was, but she did know, that he'd been offered to see the library at Aisling. So she sent letters to the Academy, in the hopes that he got them. They were never sent back, which she took as a good sign. Every week she updated him about everything, that happened in their town and everything she'd been learning.
In one of the early letters she sent him a gem, that had fallen out of one of the carts transporting the gems away, further into the kingdom. It was a small Chrysoberyl, unpolished and in no discernable shape, but nevertheless it was a light green gem. In a probably crazy idea, she went to the town's priest and asked him to enchant it with a small bit of earth magic. Well, technically she asked, if he could enchant it with a small bit of her earth magic, but because the process of making the stones is highly secretive, that wasn't allowed. The priest agreed to have it enchanted and not tell anyone she had it, if she tended to his garden for the summer. The enchantment on the stone is tiny, probably enough to create one very small plant once, but it was the thought that counted. Really, she just wanted to send Milo something to remind him of her and their adventures. To this day he's never mentioned it, so she's unsure, if it even reached him and wasn't stolen on the way.
Five months passed, before the mailman handed her a heavy envelope. The paper inside was expensive, but Dinah wouldn't have sold the words on it for triple the price of the sheet. There was no response to anything she had written, but carefully scrawled across the page, lay a story. A brand new one, made up specially for her. Her heart was fluttering as strongly as her hair and the paper in her hands, as she ran to the his family's home. They had gotten a letter as well, one with more usual contents. Milo was well, he was the librabian at Aisling Academy now. He'd gone through a dark time and had worried, but he had caught himself again, now, and hoped they would forgive him. He promised to write weekly - he said someone dear to him had shown him, that was a good schedule.
AISLING ACADEMY
A year later, at the start of the game, Dinah gets a letter. An official looking one, with a wax seal and even more expensive paper. It's a letter offering her a scholarship to be a student at the Academy, if she passed the test. She had been recommended by someone for her work ethic, imagination and magical abilities.
It takes some convincing, that her family and the town will be fine without her and that she should really take the chance of a free education and come on, just take the test, if you don't get it, it won't matter anyway and if you do, you can still decide. So she takes the test and gets in. Not with top grades, that would have been impossible with her education. But her extensive reading and some coaching by Milo, helped her achieve good enoug scores to enter the Academy.
HEATHER CHANDLER, THE MYTHIC OR FIGHTING FIRE WITH LITERALLY NOTHING
Because this is an Otome game, that has to introduce all major characters in the first one or two days, Dinah meets her greatest bully on her first day of school. She's just gone outside to get away from the overwhelming amount of people for a moment. Roséline is passing the doors inside with some friends followers, when she sees Dinah, stops and follows her outside. She asks Dinah if everything's okay. The player gets a choice to respond with a simple yes, or to answer that they're a little overwhelmed with the whole situation. Turns out, it doesn't really matter. Roséline mocks her for being common, simple and out of place.
Roséline quickly establishes herself as queen bee of the school, the typically beautiful, popular girl, who holds as much power in the school, as her parents do on the outside. Scare tactics and well-placed flames keep her in that position. After all, no one's going to report burned homework and accuse the crown prince's fiancée of sabotage, now, are they. Dinah dislikes this reign of terror, but mostly keeps her head down and tries to do her thing. True to high school movie clichées, though, she spends her first few lunches not in a bathroom stall, but the library with Milo. After a few days of this, she is invited to sit at the love interests' tables at lunch and where she sits is the first love route-related choice. That's when the threats start and Roséline starts actively targeting her.
APPEARANCE
The fact that Dinah comes from a poor family is written all over her appearance. The hair immediately next to her face is usually braided back, as she is used to the swooping winds of the countryside. Yet other than that, it is left open, she isn't used to dressing like the upper class. The only time all her hair is tucked away, is during the night, when she braids it completely to go to sleep. That only makes her naturally wavey hair fall in stronger curls, that get weighed down more and more during the day.
Because she can't affort a lot of clothes, she's only ever really seen in one outfit: a multi-layerd dress and coat combo, that ends just below the knees - far too high to be very fashionable. At least it makes her already tiny stature of 157 cm look a little taller. To help with that, she also invested in some boots with somewhat high heels, when she was accepted into the academy. She isn't entirely used to walking in them yet, which is a great excuse for the game devs to have her cutely stumble, only to be caught by a love interest. Really, if she needs to hurry somewhere, or thinks she's alone or with trusted friends, she just takes her shoes off and wanders around in stockings.
During the princes' paths, she is of course suddenly expected to dress like a lady. Her chosen love interest will gift her a gown, marking the beginning of the last chapter of the game. The outer layers of the gown are coded to the color of her magic: a burnt sienna for fire, a cobalt blue for water, a smokey grey for wind, or - in this case - an emerald green for earth. The inner layers are an off-white in a hue of the same color family. Whatever shoes she is (or isn't) wearing are obscured by the floor-length skirts, although judging by her height it's safe to assume that she's done with the heels for now. Her hair will also be braided into a more intricate half-up hairdo, she doesn't quite want to do away with her own style.
(The first picture is meant to show her face and hairstyle. Please ignore the haircolors being wrong in the next two pictures lmao
The second picture is her everyday outfit, minus the ear-muffs.
The third picture is her late-game outfit during the royals' routes. Please imagine the dress in different colors.)
FC: Emilia Clarke
Backup: Zoe Deutch, Amandla Stenberg
PERSONALITY
"Have you seen the new girl?"
"I heard she's on scholarship."
"Eww. I still can't believe they let commoners come here."
"You know, she's talking to everyone. Doesn't know her place at all. Or doesn't care."
"Roséline will make sure she does."
Always on the lookout for interesting people and new stories, Dinah is outgoing and happy to get to know anyone. Although she has her reservations about the upper class and the way they tend to treat commoners, she is still open to introducing herself and having a conversation. After all, you never know, who might turn out to be nice and she does need allies in a school, that doesn't welcome her.
The animosity that she recieves at the hands of the Rose Club, cut her down, though. The entire situation is so foreign to her. Sure, she knows the upper class often treat commoners badly, but it's one thing to feel the outreach of that influence when your parents come home from work and cough the soot out of their lungs and tell you about gems you will never be able to afford. It's quite another thing, to look someone in the eye, as they threaten to burn you, because you were born into a less priveliged family.
Because she loves stories so much and wants to be a part of them as much as she can, she is prone to mischief and sticking her nose in places, it doesn't belong. This leads her to finding a lot of secrets about the Academy and it's inhabitants.
TRIVIA
➤ Because Celandines are a medicinal flower, she was originally meant to have light magic. But that would mean that she would end up joining the church - or breaking it's conventions and honestly, that was a bit too political for the dev's liking. Also, it would restrict player choice, so they settled for a choice of elemental magic.
➤ Her birthday is May 22.
➤ She trusts the Holy Church is good, though it is up to player choice whether she is actively religious.
If she is, it worries her, that Milo doesn't seem to be so sure about the Church being good anymore, though. She prays for him, but also thinks that he would never lose faith for no reason and hopes he'll talk to her about it someday, because she would be perfectly willing to hear him out.
If she isn't actively religous, she worries less.
➤ She chills in the library a lot. Home of the stories, working grounds of the one person from home.
ETYMOLOGY
➤ While the player does have the option to change her first name, the recommended one is Celandine, shortened to Dinah.
➤ Her full first name Celandine is the name of a medicinal flower, though that is not where the dev's got it. Instead, the character reminded them of the protagonist of the second book in Steve Augarde's Touchstone Trilogy. A mischevious girl, bullied in her boarding school, finds uneasy refuge and a purpose with the clans of faries that live secretly in the forest by her home.
➤ They decided to give her a nickname as her most used name, though, because Celandine Fawcett-Garrick is quite a mouthful.
➤ Some fans of the game joke, that she should have water powers, because her last name sounds like the word faucet.
➤ If Dinah couldn't have a noble long name, they decided, she should have a double name. Fawcett was the maiden-name of one of the dev's wives. Garrick is the name of a bard in the Baldur's Gate franchise, who sometimes quotes Shakespeare - so it seemed fitting for a storyteller.
(SCROLL DOWN FOR DETAILS)
Because the love routes depend on who gets chosen, I'll flesh this out later.
At first she's attracted to the Crown Prince, because of his popularity. After a while, she realises she actually really likes him for who he is.
Because the love routes depend on who gets chosen, I'll flesh this out later.
Being a commoner, Dinah can relate to growing up in someone's shadow. She understands his frustration with the system he was born into all too well.
Even though they bond over rather serious topics, there's enough chemistry there to have light-hearted conversations, too.
Because the love routes depend on who gets chosen, I'll flesh this out later.
She is quickly attracted to his loyalty and bravery. And she thinks it's a little funny, that he's so flusterd when she smiles at him.
Because the love routes depend on who gets chosen, I'll flesh this out later.
The Childhood Friend worries her at first, because they're so close to Roséline, but after a while, she learns to trust them.
Are you not gonna ask why I'm spending lunch in the library?
- Nah. Obviously you missed me so much you just had to come say hi.
...
Milo? Thank you.
- Hey. Anytime. I'd give you a key, completely against protocol by the way, but I know you can make one out of a twig.
It was Milo's adoration for stories and Dinah's awe of Milo, that kickstarted her own love of stories way back when. They were easily the closest friend the other had, so it hit her pretty hard when he up and left without saying goodbye a year ago. She kept writing to where she believed he was and refused to give up on him, even though it took five months to get a response.
When she got a letter from the Academy, saying she had been recommended, he helped convince her to accept. Seeing Milo again was wonderful. She does know that he's changed and he does talk less and chooses his words more carefully, but she doesn't mind.
She hopes he'll tell her what happened to him, one day.
After all, he is her safe space, too. When something's bothering her, he does ask about it, but gently and takes the time to remind her, that she doesn't have to answer. If she wants to talk, he's there and if she doesn't, he's still not going anywhere.
So he is one of the people that she can spill her heart to about the bullying she endures - as a naturally empathic person and fellow commoner, he gets it. He listens and she knows there's not too much he can do to help, but she does get the feeling he's trying to pull some strings in the backgroud to make Roséline less untouchable.
Roséline is everything, that Dinah has always thought was wrong with the upper class. Snobby and powerful and all too ready to pick on anyone she thinks is below her.
If they had met on Dinah's home turf, she'd stand up to her like no tomorrow. But as it is, Dinah is new to high society and would much rather just keep her head down and get on with learning as much as she can, meeting nice people and exploring the school grounds with Milo. And so, in order to not draw too much negative attention to herself, she keeps shut and endures the bullying.
And it does get to her. It takes a lot of encouragement from the friends she makes, the friends she already had and whoever is her love interest that playthrough, to finally stand up to Roséline.
The change in Roséline confuses her a lot. The fact, that she's now also pushing a ton of boys her way, is only adding to feeling overwhelmed. But, if she's learned anything from Milo, it's this: Where understanding ends, a story begins and Dinah is determined to find out what happened to her former Nemesis.
Most people don't really question, where enchanted stones come from, which is good for the Holy Church, as their process is secret. However, the actual gems have to be mined somewhere and one of the places that is done is the town of Naomhan. A village on the outskirts of the kingdom, only a mountain range seperates it from what lies beyond the borders. That mountain range is rich in gems and all sorts of things, that would usually make a town very rich. Instead, anything they find goes straight to the church, which predictably has a very strong presence in the town. As such, it's not surprising, that the name is an irish word for little saint, which was selected by the devs not only for the town, but also as a joke about the protagonist of otome games usually being sweet and innocent.
Dinah's parents are miners and although they were at work for most of the day, most days of the week, they were decent parents. Dinah does still write them letters quite regularely.
She also signs some on Milo's letters to his family and stays in contact with a few other friends.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Scene requests:
➤ Dinah and Milo going full detective mode because of Roseline being weird/any other mystery elements of the plot.
➤ Some kind of heist scene, where they need to get into a locked room and everyone is starting to make complicated plans. And this cinnamon roll of a human casually makes a fake key out of a twig like yeah, i used to do this all the time at home, while everyone else just stands there like whaaat.
Comments:
➤ I didn't want to give Dinah fire magic, because most of the apps so far have fire magic and it is meant to be the rarest kind of elemental magic :) but I also didn't want to give her water magic, because picking the direct opposite to Roséline seemed too obvious somehow lmao
Password:
How Far We've Come by Matchbox Twenty
Ghost Towns by Radical Face
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