gambolshroud | application: balance rpg

	Blake Belladonna: I'll stand by myself if I have to.
	APP HMD ROGUE CHRISTINE

Player Name: Christine
Age: 30+
Contact:

necrofancy, necrofancy#5279 @ discord, PM
Timezone: GMT-5 (EST)
Other character currently in game: N/A

Character name: Blake Belladonna
Age: 18
Canon: RWBY
Canon point: Post-Volume 5
History: "I'll stand by myself if I have to."

Three key adjectives: Introverted, passionate, defiant.

Influential Events:

Choosing to remain a member of the White Fang when her parents stepped down.

Blake grew up in the ranks of the Brotherhood of the White Fang, a Faunus resistance organization that had been led by her parents for most of her young life. She considered herself to have been “born into” the organization, and was an active participant in their protests and fight for equal rights for Faunus. While her father insisted on peaceful protesting during his time as leader, the changing times began to necessitate a different course of action, and the White Fang began to use violence to fight for their freedom. Disagreeing with the new path the majority of the White Fang wished to go down, Blake’s father stepped down from his position, and a new leader was put into place. Blake, however, chose to stay, even though her parents no longer supported the organization. While her parents returned home, Blake chose to remain an active member of the White Fang, prepared to fight and shed blood for Faunus rights, and for what she thought was just. This was a defining point for her, as her passion for the cause and the strength of her convictions were so great that she thought it was worth becoming estranged from her family, despite her love for them. It was the first time she chose to stand on her own, to pursue what she believed in rather than her family’s own beliefs. She banded together with her friends within the White Fang, rising leader Adam Taurus and Ilia Amitola, sure that their path was righteous, even though she had been warned about the potential danger of their turning to violence and thus spreading fear of their own kind. Despite her own misgivings, her passion for the cause meant more to her than anything else, and winning justice for the Faunus would surely justify their means.
Leaving the White Fang to become a Huntress.

For a time, Blake continued her fight alongside her fellow members of the White Fang, engaging in what were often seen by the rest of the world as terrorist activities in order to accomplish their goals. As regrettable as she found the White Fang’s turn to violence to be, there was no denying the fact that it was working, and so she considered the organization’s fearmongering to be a necessary evil despite her growing doubts. She reached her breaking point, however, when it became obvious that Adam Taurus— her then-boyfriend and a prominent authority figure in the White Fang itself— cared nothing for innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire. It was while attacking a train full of Atlesian Knights that Blake realized just how far they had fallen, shocked by the fact that Adam was prepared to blow up the train with the human crew still onboard despite the fact that they had already accomplished their goals and would have been able to retreat without resorting to bloodshed. Though Blake stayed long enough to help Adam fight off the last of the Atlesian mechs, she also disconnected the crew-bearing train cars from those that had been set with explosives and thus let the crew coast to safety, saying her goodbyes to Adam as well. For as much as she wanted justice and freedom for her people, she could no longer bear acting in hopes that reaching those ends would justify stooping to the same level as— or lower than— those who would see the Faunus suffer.

She ran to Beacon, seeking entrance to the academy with the intention of living life as a Huntress and putting her combat skills to good use. Surely it would be better to use her abilities for good and to actively protect people than to continue to follow the new direction of the White Fang. More than the desire to simply do something that would benefit the greater good, however, Blake saw her schooling and her future as a Huntress as a sort of atonement, as if somehow hoping she could do enough good to wipe away the bad. She allowed herself to be driven by her guilt, too ashamed to go back home to see her family and tell them she had been wrong, too afraid of what Adam and the rest of the White Fang were becoming to stay with the organization she had spent her life as an integral part of. The hope that she can make up for the person she’d been in the past is just as important as her desire to make a difference in the world when it comes to what drives her.
Revealing her Faunus heritage to her teammates.

Blake quickly gained a reputation for being the “quiet one” during her time at Beacon, often preferring the company of books to her fellow students, but she did develop close friendships with the other members of Team RWBY— though it was a slow process, she began to trust in them, and later on mentions that she “loved her friends more than she thought it was possible for her to love anyone.” Despite this being the case, she kept her Faunus heritage a secret, using a black bow to hide her ears, never even letting her partner, Yang, know where she came from other than “outside the kingdoms.” While she was willing to give her friends her trust, her time in the White Fang meant she was all too aware of just how discriminatory against Faunus some people could be, and she wanted those she met now that she was starting fresh to see her for who she was rather than what.

It’s during a heated argument with Weiss that Blake reveals her heritage, provoked by Weiss’ discriminatory comments regarding the White Fang and Faunus as a whole. Blake, so often seen as being calm and collected, has a passionate outburst where she declares that the White Fang acted the way they did because “we were tired of being pushed around.” Realizing what she’s just confessed to, Blake runs away, avoiding her friends for a series of several days as she tries to sort out what it means to be honest about where she comes from, but when they finally come face to face once more and she and Weiss make amends, she sees that her teammates appreciate her for exactly who she is, and she makes an agreement not to hide or keep secrets from them any longer. This is an enormous step forward for Blake, as she finally allows herself to fully place her trust in her human friends, and comes to terms with the fact that though they come from different backgrounds, their bonds are stronger than their differences. In revealing her heritage and her dark past with the White Fang to her friends, she’s not only honest with them about who she is, but honest with herself about what kind of person she wants to be moving forward.
Leaving her team behind after the Battle of Beacon.

The Battle of Beacon wrought significant and sudden change for every student at Beacon Academy, and is easily one of the most influential events in Blake’s life, as well as her that of her teammates. While the school being besieged by Grimm and hijacked Atlesian technology was harrowing in its own right, Adam Taurus’ presence during the attack added an unfortunately personal touch. Blake was quick to put herself between Adam and a student to give the latter time to flee to safety, showing her growth and her decided opposition to what the White Fang now stood for, but was struck down by Adam himself. When she became aware that Yang was searching for her, she made every effort not to draw Adam’s attention to her in the interest of keeping her safe, having decided that the safety of her friends was more important than whatever happened to her. Yang assaulted Adam and lost her arm, and would have lost more if not for Blake using her Semblance to create a decoy of herself— one Adam attempted to execute only to find that it was a fake, allowing Blake to escape while carrying Yang’s unconscious body to safety.

Blake didn’t wait until Yang regained consciousness to leave. After apologizing to her while they both received medical attention, Blake chose to flee, leaving the rest of her team behind. She had taken the burden of what had happened to Yang upon herself, and afraid that anyone who remained close to her would only continue to get hurt, she felt it was easier to run. She convinced herself that it was selfless, that it was better for her to leave and potentially draw Adam away now that he had sworn to destroy everything she loved while she watched, and truly believed that distance was the only thing that could protect her friends despite the fact that it broke her heart to leave them. They had become her family, but protecting them was more important than being able to stay with them, and so she set out on her own to return to Menagerie with hopes of sorting herself out and, perhaps eventually, finding a way to stop Adam for good.
Helping to found the new Brotherhood of the White Fang.

Blake’s time at home is spent both mending her relationship with her parents and discovering just how deep the corruption within the White Fang runs. Though she initially plans on using her time in Menagerie to rest and spend time with her family, it becomes impossible for her to ignore just how far the White Fang has strayed from what they once stood for. There are a series of false starts as she and Sun Wukong put forth an effort to recruit other Faunus to stand against the likes of the Albain brothers and Adam Taurus, but it takes a near-tragedy for anyone to listen. The Albain brothers, along with Ilia Amitola, Blake’s former friend, attack the Belladonna home in an attempt to put an end to the family’s influence, with Ilia having referred to the Belladonnas as being the “worst kind of Faunus” as they want their people to be able to live alongside humans instead of conquering them. Blake and Sun both do their part to help her parents fight back, though the house is destroyed in the process, with the Albain brothers as casualties.

The incident gives Blake an opportunity to address her fellow Faunus, revealing the crimes of those they would follow and giving a passionate speech in which she tells them that Faunus are just as capable of hate and violence as humans. This moment marks an enormous turning point for the Faunus and for Blake herself, as she is able to persuade the crowd that Adam Taurus and his crusade will continue to ruin their reputation as a people. She finally decides that standing by or running away because she doesn’t agree with his methods is no better than helping him in the first place— that standing against him and those who would follow him is the only way to achieve a better life for the Faunus. She realizes she is tired of hiding, tired of running away from her problems instead of facing them head on, and in forgiving Ilia for her crimes against her fellow Faunus, Blake also finally absolves herself of her past actions— perhaps they cannot be made up for, but it’s no longer about trying to atone or wipe the slate clean. All that matters is what’s ahead, and she knows she can’t protect anyone by simply standing by. With the aid and support of her parents, Blake enlists Sun and Ilia to go with her to Haven Academy to stop Adam from committing genocide in the name of the Faunus. As a group, they reclaim the name of the White Fang, Blake as passionate as she ever was about justice for her people, and determined to find a way for them to build a peaceful coexistence with humans rather than to allow hate and fear to continue to divide them.

Link to Samples: One; Two

Chosen path: Rogue
3 Abilities:

○ Shadow Clones (Semblance): Blake's canonical ability allows her to use her Aura (energy that is inherent in all creatures with a soul in her home world of Remnant) to create Shadow Clones of herself. These primarily serve as decoys, and she can erect them quickly to take a hit in order to give herself an opportunity to dodge out of the way. While they cannot actively attack or interact with anything on their own, she has been seen to exert force on them to use them as a jumping-off point or to propel herself during combat, though they vanish shortly afterwards. In canon, she is able to use Dust (raw elemental energy) to give her clones different elemental properties (for example, fire-infused clones are explosive or ice clones can encase and trap enemies), but as there is no Dust in Faerun, this will be unavailable to her.

○ Impostor

○ Mage Hand

Why this path?: Rogue is a natural choice for Blake given her combat style and the way she’s grown up. As a member of the White Fang, she relied strongly on stealth, subterfuge and guerrilla tactics in order to survive, and only continued to do so as she grew up to become a freedom fighter in her own right. Even as a Huntress, she employs this same style of fighting, depending on agility and being able to exploit a foe’s weaknesses. She fights with precision and relies on her own reflexes and momentum to support her, rather than brute strength.