Application

Mar. 1st, 2015 12:53 pm
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Application [The Wake]


Personal Information
Name: Heidi
Age: 32
Personal Journal: I don’t really have one…
Email / AIM / MSN / Plurk: Plurk = Isilme-Raana
Current Character(s): N/A

Character Information
Character Name: Bard the Bowman (King of Dale, Dragon Slayer)
Fandom: The Hobbit (Movies)

Character History:
Bard is the descendant of Lord Girion of Dale and worked as a bargeman for Laketown for most his life. He dealt with all the shipping and exchange with the Elven realm in Mirkwood. Since the failure to kill the dragon when it first destroyed Dale, his family lives in a place of hard labor and scraping by. He was married, but his wife passed away leaving him with this three children (Tilda, Sigrid, and Bain). Bard has lived his life making sure they are never left wanting even if Sigrid often has to watch the younger children while he is away or working. All in all, he lived a modest life until the arrival of the dwarves.

When they approached him after escaping Mirkwood, he did not wish to help them enter Esgaroth. He knews that doing so would upset the Town Master as well as the Woodland Realm. However when they offer to pay, Bard knows that the town desperately needs money to keep them living well. Using the money they paid him, he bought fish to cover the dwarves in the barrel. Those same fish, he gives to the people that are hungry and in desperate need of food.

Upon getting the dwarves into Laketown, he provided food, shelter and tried to get them weapons as well. They refused his offer and went about their own means of getting weapons from the town by stealing them. While they are doing this, he realized the meaning of their quest, he told the people that the dwarves would bring them ruin but none listened to his words. They instead helped the dwarves and ignored his pleas for them to see reason.


Even though he knew they would wake the dragon and see them all killed in their folly, he still let the injured dwarf Kili, his brother and others back into his home to help care for the dying dwarf. He then retrieves the black arrow that was forged for the sole purpose of killing the dragon many years ago. He knew that Smaug would be coming. Though, as he made his way to ready for that battle, the Master of Laketown had him arrested and locked up.

After being locked up, Smaug rained fire down on the defenseless town. Using a rope he devised himself, he lassoed the Master as he tried to escape with the gold and it broke the bars from the window. As soon as he escaped, he got a bow and arrows and faced off with the dragon relentlessly. Every arrow failed that he shot until he had none left. In the end, his son Bain brought him the black arrow. With Bain’s help as the guide and rest for the arrow, he killed Smaug once and for all. The shot landed in the spot that he knew the original shot of a black arrow hit before when Smaug first attacked Dale.

Even still, Esgaroth lay in flames with no hope of being saved. The people fled to the shore and gathered again to Bard looking for a leader. He never wished to be a king, but he led the people to Dale for fear of the oncoming winter and his people being without a home. They needed a leader and he stepped up to care for them in their time of need.


After arriving in Dale, he guided them to do their best to revive and seal off parts of the city to make them inhabitable. They need supplies desperately, but there is nothing and nowhere they can go to find aid. It is then that Thranduil marched into the ruins of Dale and provided aid to Bard’s people. Only then did he sit with the Elven King and start talking of how they would approach the dwarves hulled up in the mountain. During their talks with Gandalf, Bilbo arrived and gave them the Arkenstone to use as leverage to deal with the dwarves. They take his offer and even go to Thorin with the precious stone, but the King Under the Mountain refused to make a deal.

Just as they would break into war with Thorin’s cousin Dain and his men, the orc hordes arrived to attack them all. Fighting alongside Dain and Thranduil, Bard led his men to battle. When a new front opened in Dale, he moved his men there to protect his men. Where he tried to send the women and children to safety, they ended up joining the fight to help save the men and have them not fight alone.

After the battle he would become the first King of New Dale and lead his people. He forged alliances with both the Dwarves of Erebor and the Elves of Mirkwood.


Character Personality:
Bard is a strong willed man that cares little for glory and everything about protecting others. He lives his life for his children and has immense pride in everything that they do. He’s humble to a fault sometimes and would put the lives of others before all else. It makes him a strong and compassionate leader of men but also fierce and unrelenting when he fights to protect others.


When he has to get something done, he will do it with his own two hands. He would never ask another to do something that he can and will do on his own. Bard will willingly and happily get to work right alongside others. He would rebuild a city side by side with the people of Esgaroth and fight with them in battle. Bard is quite literally a man of the people and puts them first. No task is too big or too small. Even if the whole city faced the dragon, Smaug, he only required himself even at the risk of orphaning his own children to do the right thing. And in the end, he even risked his beloved child to save them all.


On a personal level, he is calm and intelligent. Bard picks up on details and is quick in putting the different events together and seeing the big picture. He stays calm even in the most dire of circumstances and thinks on his feet about the problems he is facing. Instead of panicking, he stays level headed so others can and do rely on him. It aided him well in working and negotiating even with the Elves of Mirkwood. Where he may not wish to be king, he is a great peace keeper that forges an alliance in the end with both dwarves and elves.


Most of all, he is loving. The bowman may be rough around the edges, but he loves deeply as only a father and a leader can. He would sacrifice all he is to keep his children safe. They are first on his mind at all times. He loves his town and the people, even defying the Lord of Laketown frequently to make sure the people do not starve or suffer when he can. This compassion is his strength and his weakness. By giving so much, he sometimes lets his empathy cloud the truth of the situation as it did with the dwarves when he took them up to keep them safe, fed and cared for.

Often times he is soft spoken, knowing when to be blunt and to the point and when to be gentle and speak with care. He may not be ‘eloquent’ in his wording, but he is thoughtful before speaking. Bard is a peacekeeper, so he often balances emotions in a room instead of jumping on a side. His humor is a bit on the dry side and he will make jesting comments without breaking into a smile. He can and will laugh easily. He is a simple man and enjoys humor for what it is.

Bard does not feel adequate to be a king because he does lack that eloquence and upbringing that shows refinery. Where he can speak well, it is not that of a politician or a noble. He speaks from the heart, but he speaks wisely as well. He prefers to wear clothes that are well worn and of equal stature to the people even if he would make attempts to be cordial when put in the position of a king.
Where he does not lack in self-confidence, he knows his limitations. He may not be the perfect noble born to be a king, but he knows his strengths and when he should ask for help. He is not so proud that he would not ask for help if he knew the situation became too much or beyond him.

Loyal and honest, he is the best and truest of friends. Should he fall in love he would love with every fiber of his being and devote himself to the truest sense of the word to that person.


Powers and Abilities:
Bard had no powers. He is simply a mortal man. But he does hold a strength of cunning and amazing archery skills. He can use a sword and any other weapon. He thinks fast and can get out of tight situations this way.

Samples

Network:
[The video pans and turns till it shows the floor and muddy boots followed by muttering.] What… is this thing? Is it even a wood? Metal? Glass?

I know I am supposed to… communicate, but… [It pans again sharply until it swims past his image and then to the roof above his head in quick succession.] Hello? I am in need of some assistance. If this is something actually important, it would be best to know how to use this, this… message plank.

[When it flips this time it gets a clear image of his chest.] Right, this… this looks better. I am unsure how this… ‘machine’ is supposed to work. Are they truly necessary? This is… [The picture moves again and suddenly goes dark.]


Third Person:
Calloused fingers ran slowly over the smoothed out wood of his bow. He had spent much time with his son sanding it down and carving in details after the bow maker in Dale finished it. Bard preferred to work with his hands, create and mold things on his own however he could. Making the bow his own with the aid of his son made it invaluable and rich in memories. Catching the string, he tugged in a way that it gave a soft ‘twang’ and slowly stilled again.

Dark lashes closed as he recounted his time in this strange place. Nautilus. A place of magic and wonder that should be fascinating and even arouse the curiosity, but not for Bard. No, he could not go even an hour without the images of his children arising in his mind. Each face flickered in his mind’s eye and made his heart ache dully in his chest. How he wished to be home to tuck Tilda in and kiss her forehead so that she would feel safe in her slumber.

How he wished he could glean through Sigrid’s suitors and help her choose the right partner for life. No amount of will would give him his son or teach him all the lessons he wished to teach Bain. “What good is a world of will when all that my heart desires is not here?”

Bard’s fingers tightened sharply against the curved wood until the knuckled whitened sharply in contrast to his dark fingerless gloves. “What is a world where you have nothing you wish to protect?” His city, his people and his children were not here. How then could he rest or enjoy the mysteries of this place? To do such would be like a betrayal in his heart even if time stopped for those outside waiting for him.

What if he did not stop aging? What if he grew old and died while they stayed forever frozen in time alone?

No, he worried like a fool over such things. “Give me the wind through the mountains, cold and swift over the lake before this world of the mind.” Muttering softly, he knew if he could not find a way back he would have to succumb to the inevitable. But today was not that day… and he felt the melancholy harsh on his heart as it whispered tomorrow would not be that day either.

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Bard the Bowman

March 2015

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