ɪᴛ’s ʟᴏᴜᴅᴇʀ ᴛʜɪs ᴄʟᴏsᴇ, ᴡɪᴛʜ sᴏ ᴍᴀɴʏ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇᴍ.

As a Spirit of Compassion, Cole has a form of telepathy in which he can reads the minds of others — more specifically their hurts, worries, and traumas. He is drawn to those hurts, in a wish to help them. He can deal with this in handfuls of ways: often offering words of encouragement, or gentle nudging to people to act, or perhaps revealing information the person does not know. Other times he can simply take the hurt away and make a person forget it. Sometimes it may a case be reminding a person of something comforting, like reminding a dying soldier of a soup his mother made to comfort him in his last moments.

Often, Cole comments on those hurts — speaks them out loud as he comes to him, often in cryptic ways. Here are a few examples of such within canon.

"She is bare-faced, embarrassed, and she doesn't know. She thinks it's because of her. He hurts, an old pain from before, when everything sang the same. You're real, and it means everyone could be real. It changes everything, but it can't."
— Cole's comments on a Inquisitor Lavellan romance with Solas, had he removed her vallaslin and then broke off the relationship with her.

"An old name burns inside armor that shouldn't fit, lit by faces of the children he couldn't save."
— Cole's comments on Blackwall and his past actions.

"He sounds right again with the chains in place, but the music makes him sad."
— Cole's comments on Cullen, if he is told to resume taking Lyrium.

"A breath-caught smile from the Enchanter as the candle lights. The walls are safe; she will never be hungry again."
— Cole's comments on Vivienne's relationship with Duke Bastien.

For the sake of sanity/rp purposes, I've included a little fill out form for Cole's abilities to help me write out these pains, due to Cole's nature of speaking them aloud often — or him offering solutions/comfort to others, considering a character's pain doesn't need be something they're actively thinking about for Cole to sense it. Basically, give me food to work with! Please fill out for threads!

For Deer Country players: please feel free to add in game-specific hurts/memories /things in game that would comfort them, as well as canon ones.

NOTE: Player plays Cole as becoming more Spirit, following the events of Subjected To His Will. In Deer Country: Player is playing Cole before his personal quest is completed.

⇓in character⇓

PHYSICAL AFFECTION: Cole is good at giving physical affection, especially if it means helping another person. He is less inclined to receive it from others, but appreciates verbal affection/encouragement/comfort.

PHYSICAL VIOLENCE: Choose to hurt him, he will hurt you back. Cole is a fighter (rogue, dual-wielding assassin specialisation), and would not hesitate to kill people. He does find it difficult, but reasons if someone chose to hurt first then it helps him solidify his choice to fight back.

ROMANCE/FLIRTING: It would fly over his head, really.

SEXUAL CONTENT: He has zero interest.

PSYCHIC ABILITIES: Due to his nature as being a Spirit, Cole has a form of telepathy in which he can reads the minds of others — more specifically their hurts, worries, and traumas. Cole also has the ability to make others forget him after interacting with him, which he can choose to do. This is a defence mechanism of spirits meant to protect all parties. Mortals wouldn't remember or see spirits and so would not attack them out of fear or anger, and spirits would not dwell on the opinions and feelings that mortals would have about them. This routine amnesia keeps the spirits pure but stifles any learning or growing as a person — and thus prevents any complex problem-solving.

MAGIC INFORMATION: Cole is a bit of a unique case in canon, having come from the Fade, where Spirits exist, into the real world. Initially, he came to comfort a dying mage (the "real Cole") but when he realised he could not help him as he died, he chose to take Cole's form and name (without possessing him) and exists within the real world. It's highly unusual, considering Spirits and Demons can usually only possess people in order to be within the real world.

Within canon, Spirits and Demons are considered one and the same. A spirit becomes a demon when denied its original purpose. This denial occurs when a spirit is forced to do something that greatly conflicts with its original nature. Cole could become a demon if he is denied his original nature — his greatest fear being despair. This is not the only way a Spirit can become a demon.

Like any Spirit in his canon, Cole can be bound with blood magic (though this becomes null while wearing his special amulet). Not even Corphyshit can get his claws in him with the amulet.

MEDICAL INFORMATION: Appears as a somewhat bedraggled young man somewhere in his late teens or early twenties. While he looks and sounds human, due to Cole being a Spirit, he does not function much like a human does. He does not require sustenance nor sleep, nor has much in the way of other basic human needs. He does bleed, however.

OFFENSIVE SUBJECTS OR TRIGGERS: As a Spirit of Compassion, Cole abhors those who hurt or cause pain to others. Due to the imprisonment and death of the "real Cole", the mage who he took the form and name of, Cole also strongly offended/triggered by the imprisonment of others.

⇓out of character⇓

BACKTAGGING: Always, being the slow bean I am. I prefer to finish/drop threads within three months however, unless they're heavily related to plot-points. I'd rather finish them over dropping them, but sometimes dropping may happen.


FOURTH WALLING: I'm pretty comfortable with fourth-walling. I would like to discuss things if it were to come up, since Cole does not know he's a video-game character.

THREADHOPPING: Generally fine, but please ask / give a heads up!

CONTENT I ABSOLUTELY NEED WARNINGS FOR, BUT CAN STILL PLAY: I do get uncomfortable / upset with images of crawling / swarming bugs (ie. masses of ants, maggots, spiders) and would prefer images of this are hidden behind links. Written descriptions are fine, but cw warnings would be appreciated.

CONTENT I ABSOLUTELY NEED WARNINGS FOR AND THAT I CAN'T PLAY: Nothing comes to mind. I'm fine with horror / dark themes in general.