Vanessa Valera - Human - Dancer

"Dancer, entertainer, thief... A wildflower reaching up through the cracks, willing to do whatever it takes to survive."

Name: Vanessa Race: Human

Gender:  Female Class: Dancer

Ethnicity:  Bridgeton (Norfolk)

Joins the player's starting party early in the game while still in Bridgeton.

Background Info

After Lysander's death, Marrick became a homeless orphan on the streets of Bridgeton. He eventually wound up at an orphanage where he met Vanessa, an older girl who had been living there for some time already.

Vanessa took pity on Marrick's naive nature, recognizing him as someone out of their element. They became inseparable in their childhood until the effects of puberty caused complications in their relationship, eventually resulting in the establishment of boundaries that alienated Marrick to the point of leaving the orphanage to become a thief. Neither of them were really aware of why they pushed away the other, though it effected Marrick more than it effected Vanessa. Afterwards, they went their separate ways for a time. Vanessa tried to make something of herself but could never rise above her station, eventually slipping into the Dancer profession to earn a living. Meanwhile Marrick continued working for the Syndicate. Eventually their paths crossed again when Vanessa started working for the Syndicate to spy on Imperial customers. With a healthy sense of self-respect and a tendency to always be looking forward, Vanessa wants more out of life than the hand she's been dealt. When the story begins, she is joining Marrick's party to take part in a lucrative heist that promises to finance her dreams of moving on to a more meaningful existence.

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Dev Notes on Vanessa's Character

• One year older than Marrick

• An exotic dancer with a storied past

• Wants to move on, become something more

• Fears obscurity and being left behind. Manifests in not wanting to be tied down.

• Needs to establish connection and let herself become a part of something.

Class: Dancer

The archetype fantasy class of "Dancer" seemed both obvious and appropriate for Vanessa's character. She's also scrappy and emotionally tough from her upbringing and her work as a spy with the Syndicate lends to a light sprinkling of femme fatale.

While Vanessa can handle herself in a fight, through her storied past she is very aware of the strong soft-power of feminine wiles. Vanessa is clever and sooner relies on influence, manipulation, or seduction to get out of a bad situation.

Role: Support

Vanessa's unique abilities are her Entertainment skills of dances and songs that work similar to auras, buffing the party or debuffing the enemy.

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Vanessa's Arc Notes

For a character so afraid to get tied down, she tends to stay pretty tethered to Marrick. When he dips out, she's close behind and ready to go. She relies on herself but still feels let down when Marrick isn't there for her. Vanessa's arc is supposed to continue into the 2nd game where she has to choose between accepting the interdependence of love or chasing the allure of her self-imposed responsibility to achieving success--which she attaches to her sense of self-worth.