karteria application

[sworndevotion]

OOC INFORMATION

Name: Drew
Are you over 18?: yiss
Contact: decimalplaces, drewey.decimal on discord
Other characters: Vander, Elijah
Permissions & opt-out: Permissions, Opt-out

IC INFORMATION

Name: Dedue Molinaro
Canon: Fire Emblem: 3 Houses
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Appearance: Armor, face. Dedue is 6'8", very muscular, an absolute unit. He is a black man with white hair, shaved on the sides and longer on top, that he keeps up in a ponytail, a bun, or braided. He has many scars, including on his face, and blue-green eyes.

Canon point: Chapter 17 of the Azure Moon route, right after the battle of Eagle and Lion.

History: Here

Personality answers: Choose FOUR questions provided on the Application page. Keep it around 250 words or less per answer.

Explain which event in canon is most pivotal to your character's development, and who they are today.

The Tragedy of Duscur. When Dedue was 15, the King and Queen Consort of Faerghus were attacked and killed during a diplomatic trip to Duscur, a neighbouring land and Dedue’s homeland. The people of Duscur were blamed as scapegoats for this incident of regicide, and as a result, Faerghus enacted a violent genocide on them. Dedue’s country was essentially burned to the ground, everything was destroyed, most of the people were killed, including Dedue’s entire family. Dedue also would have been killed, were he not saved by a young Prince Dimitri. Dimitri brought Dedue back to Faerghus with him, where Dedue felt he owed the prince a life debt and became his retainer. Dedue experienced horrible racism in Fhirdiad (Faerghus’ capital city), citing people who spat on him, called him names and threw rocks. He is also subjected to racism from his castmates who are from Faerghus, such as Ingrid, who had a loved one die in the Tragedy.

This affected Dedue in a number of ways. Firstly, he was violently removed from his people, his family, and his culture. He had to learn a new language and way of life at a young age. This presumably impacted his personality and development since it happened when he was quite young but still old enough to remember his culture. Secondly, he internalized much of the racism he endured, leading to a low sense of confidence and self esteem because he felt that most people were scared of him by default. In canon he often is trying to learn how to smile and appear less intimidating, so he can be more approachable despite his huge stature and the colour of his skin. Thirdly, he pledged himself to the Prince of Faerghus, which made Faerghus both a country he hated due to how they treated his people, and a place he is firmly loyal to because of his position. His relationship with Dimitri defines much of his current identity because when he lost everything, Dimitri was truly all he had left.

What would your character say is their best trait? What is truly their best trait?

I think you would be hard pressed to get Dedue to say something good about himself. He is humble to a fault, and almost always deflects or declines praise. If you really had the proverbial gun to his head, I think he would say his loyalty is his best trait, since he values that so highly and lives by it as a principle. I would agree that loyalty is one of his best traits. He loves and cares for Dimitri so unconditionally that even when he warps into a violent, aggressive and tortured man due to his trauma and mental illness, Dedue sticks by him, fighting for and taking care of him. Patience is another, though it acts as a double-edged sword, as he is often patient with those who are cruel to him and accepts poor treatment when he shouldn’t. Kindness may be his true best trait, in my eyes- he has the pure desire to help others and see them happy. This is shown in his cooking hobby- in multiple support conversations he offers to cook for others and states plainly at times that his goal is to make them smile when they eat his food. He also often offers to help others without prompting, such as helping Annette clean the kitchen when she basically blows it up. He helps others with a complete lack of ego- he doesn’t do it so he can feel good about himself, but because it seems like the right thing to do.

What would it take to truly upset your character, enough that they would act upon their feelings? Are they the sort to forgive?

A striking observation I had when reviewing Dedue’s supports again is that he never gets upset or angry when anyone insults him. The only time we see him upset is when Dimitri is threatened or spoken poorly of. Felix even compares him to a dog, first the prince’s lapdog and then a “rabid cur”, and Dedue isn’t offended for himself, only on Dimitri’s behalf. He threatens that if Felix doesn’t stop talking poorly about his highness that Dedue will have to do something about it. In other supports, Ingrid is blatantly rude to him, but he has a patient response because he understands the root of her anger is the Tragedy.

He is very forgiving- the meanness from his peers is immediately forgiven, perhaps too soon, one might say. But if someone were to harm Dimitri, Dedue would certainly hold a grudge against them, as he does with Gilbert/Gustave. Gilbert was formerly a knight who protected the royal family, but abandoned Faerghus after the Tragedy, ashamed that he was not able to protect the King. Dedue resented him for abandoning Dimitri in a time of need, and shirking his loyalty to the Kingdom. The only other place we see Dedue upset is on the battlefield when he is defending Dimitri. So, yeah, fuck with the prince and you’re getting the axe.


What would be your character's lowest, darkest moment they've lived through? How did they respond to their troubles and face their demons?

Well, the first was the Tragedy of Duscur described above. The second would be an incident that happened during the war. Dimitri was captured and set to be executed, and Dedue swooped in and managed to get him out of that situation, but was then set to be executed in his stead. Dedue was then rescued by men of Duscur, but his injuries were severe. He was gone for so long that everyone thought he was dead, but Dedue shows back up in the midst of a battle, with scars all over his face and a renewed and much more aggressive determination to fight for his liege.

Thus ends the amount of canon information given about that. Having thought it over for a while, I think it can safely be assumed that Dimitri was captured by the Empire (who Faerghus was at war with), possibly aided by Those Who Slither, an underground secret Big Bad in the game. Dedue probably fought his way in to save Dimitri and bought him enough time to get away, but was then imprisoned as a result. From his injuries being referenced as severe, the fact that his Duscur comrades had time to come in and save him, and the fact that it took months or years (?! one Dimitri support references it as five years?! But I think that’s more of a plot hole…) for him to recover, I think he was probably held in captivity for some time and tortured by his captors. This was no doubt an extremely dark time for him, probably coupled with racism and humiliation that compounded the issues he already had with self-worth. His brothers of Duscur rescuing him is a parallel to Dimitri saving him from the Tragedy. “I knew then that a savior’s hand could reach into even the deepest darkness.”- this is what Dedue says to Dimitri about being saved by him, and I think he likely feels the same way about his people saving him. I think this amplified Dedue’s sense of loyalty, solidifying in his mind that loyalty can be a matter of life and death.

Inventory: Dedue will arrive with his armor (heavy plate armor, not special or magical), his axe (large silver axe, not magical), a bottle of spices from his homeland, and a nice china tea set.

Powers/Abilities: Dedue has no magic or supernatural powers. He is very strong and extensively trained in combat as a heavily armored unit. His current class is warmaster, and as such his weapon specialties are the axe and gauntlets (brawling/grappling/hand to hand). His more mundane abilities include gardening, needlework, and cooking/baking.

Samples: Here & Here

Player Goals: It’s been a desire of mine to play in a FE3H cast in a game since I joined dwrp, and I’ve also been really eyeing the golem soul type. Dedue is an old favourite muse of mine I am excited to dust off! I’m not gonna do too much ambitious stuff with him since he’s my third character but I think he’ll find a nice easy niche doing cooking/food stuff/gardening.

Soul Choice: Golem