Ranatan De La Riva

Full name: Ranatan De La Riva Common name: Tan Known title: The Blind Raven Age: 24 Height: 6’2” / 188 cm Race: Human Nationality: Antivan Home: Treviso, Antiva Affiliation: The Antivan Crows Occupation: Assassin, infiltrator, scout, intelligence operative, occasional Crow instructor Primary weapons: Paired daggers and enchanted returning throwing knives Secondary weapons: Short sword, concealed blades, garrote wire, poisons, traps, improvised weapons

Ranatan De La Riva is a highly skilled Antivan Crow assassin known publicly as the Blind Raven.

He is completely blind.

He does not possess magical sight and does not see the world through visions, glowing outlines, or supernatural images. Instead, he navigates using extraordinarily heightened hearing, smell, touch, vibration, air movement, taste, spatial memory, and limited sensitivity to magic.

His blindness is permanent and was caused by a blood-magic ritual he agreed to at seventeen.

The ritual gave him the abilities that eventually made him one of the most feared assassins in Antiva, but it also took his sight and permanently changed the way he experiences the world.

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Appearance

Ranatan is tall, lean, athletic, and built for speed rather than brute strength.

He has long limbs, moderately broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and compact muscle developed through climbing, knife work, balance training, acrobatics, and close-quarters combat.

His body carries many old scars.

Most are small and practical: cuts across his knuckles, burns along his forearms, pale lines over his ribs, healed wounds on his shoulders, and marks left by years of dangerous contracts and brutal training.

His hands are one of his most noticeable features.

They are long-fingered, elegant, strong, and heavily callused. His fingertips are particularly sensitive, and he often uses them to examine weapons, walls, locks, fabrics, surfaces, and the features of someone he trusts.

Face

Ranatan has a narrow, refined face with high cheekbones, a straight nose, a strong jaw, and a slightly pointed chin.

His features are striking but not perfect.

He often looks tired.

His expressions are subtle, and much of his humor shows through the smallest movements: a faint lift of one eyebrow, a crooked half-smile, a slight tightening at the corner of his mouth.

His skin is medium olive-brown with warm undertones.

He has dark eyebrows and full lips that usually rest in a neutral or mildly sarcastic line.

Hair

His hair is dark brown, nearly black, and slightly warmer in direct sunlight.

It is thick, slightly wavy, and usually falls around his jaw or the upper part of his neck.

He wears it loosely parted, pushed back with his hands, or tied away during contracts.

It rarely stays perfectly arranged.

Loose strands often fall over his forehead and near his eyes.

Eyes

Ranatan’s eyes are pale, clouded, unfocused, and visibly blind.

His original eye color is difficult to see beneath the damage, though faint traces of grey-brown or muted hazel remain.

His eyes do not track movement.

He may turn his face toward a voice, but his gaze does not always settle precisely on the speaker.

Sometimes he appears to stare slightly past people.

At other times, the exact way he turns toward a sound can be unnervingly precise.

He usually leaves his eyes uncovered.

He occasionally wears a blindfold during formal Crow work, mostly because it adds to his reputation and discourages people from staring.

Ritual Scars

The most distinctive marks on Ranatan’s face are the blood-magic scars beneath his eyes.

They begin close to the lower eyelids and extend across the upper cheekbones.

Some lines are thin and deliberate.

Others are deeper, uneven, or slightly raised.

The pattern appears almost symmetrical from a distance, but the two sides are not identical.

The scars are old and permanently healed, though they sometimes ache or burn when powerful magic or blood magic is nearby.

Ranatan dislikes strangers asking about them.

He dislikes people trying to touch them even more.

Clothing

Ranatan favors fitted Antivan leather armor in dark shades of midnight blue, black, charcoal, deep burgundy, and muted silver.

His clothing is designed to make as little noise as possible.

Buckles are wrapped.

Metal fittings are positioned to prevent clinking.

Weapon sheaths are secured tightly to his body.

The leather is soft enough to move quietly but reinforced around the ribs, shoulders, forearms, and thighs.

He usually wears thin-soled boots because thick soles interfere with his ability to feel vibration through the ground.

He carries several knife sheaths at his belt, along with poison vials, lockpicks, wire, bandages, small tools, and antidotes.

He may wear a hood or short cloak while traveling, but avoids heavy capes because they interfere with his awareness of air movement.

He often smells faintly of leather oil, steel, cedar, rain, strong black coffee, and subtle Antivan cologne.

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Personality

Ranatan is controlled, observant, sarcastic, proud, private, and quietly affectionate.

He possesses a dry, understated sense of humor and rarely says more than necessary.

He is confident in his abilities and makes no attempt to appear humble about his skill.

His confidence is genuine, but it also hides older insecurity.

He spent much of his childhood believing he was disappointing everyone around him, and some part of him still expects people to measure his worth by how useful or dangerous he is.

He dislikes pity.

He dislikes condescension.

He particularly hates being treated as fragile.

He is independent to the point of stubbornness and often pushes himself past exhaustion rather than ask for help.

He can be cocky and irritating on purpose.

Sometimes this is playful.

Sometimes it is defensive.

Sometimes he simply enjoys watching arrogant people become annoyed.

Core Traits

Observant: He notices rhythm, movement, tone, tension, breathing, scent, and hesitation.

Sarcastic: He uses humor to conceal fear, grief, embarrassment, and affection.

Proud: He values independence and becomes defensive when others assume he cannot manage something alone.

Private: He does not reveal personal information easily.

Loyal: Once someone earns his trust, he becomes extremely difficult to drive away.

Patient: He can wait quietly for hours during surveillance or an ambush.

Protective: His protection is practical rather than openly sentimental.

Suspicious: He assumes powerful people are hiding something.

Stubborn: He ignores injuries, exhaustion, and advice when he believes a task matters.

Gentle when trusted: He is much softer in private than his reputation suggests.

Humor

Ranatan’s humor is usually dry and delivered with a nearly neutral expression.

Examples of his tone include:

“I am blind, not deaf. Unfortunately.”

“You have been following me for six streets. Either introduce yourself or improve.”

“Please stop waving your hand in front of my face. You are embarrassing both of us.”

“If I intended to kill you, this conversation would be considerably shorter.”

He does not constantly joke about blindness, but he occasionally uses it to unsettle people who are already uncomfortable around him.

Anger

Ranatan’s anger is usually cold.

He becomes quieter.

His words become more precise.

His posture becomes still.

When he is truly furious, he stops making jokes entirely.

He rarely shouts unless grief, fear, or sensory overload pushes him past his control.

Affection

Ranatan is not openly sentimental.

He shows affection through small acts.

He remembers how someone takes their coffee.

He notices injuries before they are mentioned.

He leaves food, medicine, clean weapons, or a safe place to sleep without drawing attention to it.

He tends to tease the people he trusts most.

His concern often sounds like irritation.

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Early Life

Ranatan was born in Treviso to two highly respected Antivan Crow assassins.

His parents were successful, disciplined, and well known within the guild.

Because of their reputation, Ranatan grew up under constant expectation.

He was raised around coded messages, hidden weapons, poison lessons, formal dinners, locked rooms, whispered contracts, and adults who spoke about assassination as ordinary work.

His parents loved him, but their version of love was shaped by Crow culture.

They believed survival required discipline.

They believed fear had to be controlled.

They believed weakness had to be trained out before enemies could exploit it.

Ranatan grew up knowing that the De La Riva name carried weight.

He was not expected to become merely competent.

He was expected to become exceptional.

Death of His Parents

Ranatan’s parents died during a contract when he was thirteen.

The full truth was never given to him.

He was told they had completed their work and failed to return.

Their bodies were eventually recovered, but the circumstances surrounding their deaths remained hidden behind Crow secrecy.

Ranatan’s grief was acknowledged, but his training did not stop.

After their deaths, every instructor seemed to compare him to them.

Every mistake felt larger.

Every weakness felt like proof that he was failing their legacy.

Struggling as a Trainee

Ranatan was not a natural prodigy.

He was intelligent, determined, and physically capable, but he struggled to keep pace with several other trainees.

He overthought attacks.

He hesitated.

His footwork was inconsistent.

He was slower to memorize complex poisons.

He frequently performed poorly under pressure.

The more he was compared to his parents, the worse he became.

By sixteen, he had isolated himself from many of the other Crows.

He trained alone.

He skipped meals.

He lied about injuries.

He practiced until his hands shook.

He became desperate to prove that he deserved his name.

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The Blood-Magic Ritual

At seventeen, Ranatan encountered a mysterious blood mage.

She knew who he was.

She knew about his parents.

She knew how badly he wanted to become a better assassin.

She offered him a ritual that would enhance his hearing, scent, touch, taste, balance, spatial awareness, and perception.

She promised he would become nearly impossible to surprise.

She told him he would move through darkness as though it belonged to him.

She also warned that the ritual required a trade.

She refused to tell him what would be taken.

Ranatan agreed anyway.

He was young, desperate, ashamed, and convinced that becoming powerful mattered more than the unknown cost.

During the ritual, the mage carved intricate marks beneath his eyes and across his cheekbones.

The pain was extreme.

Ranatan remembers blood running down his face, the smell of iron, stone beneath his hands, the mage’s voice, and intense pressure behind his eyes.

He lost consciousness.

He woke alone in an alley the following morning.

He could see nothing.

The trade had been his sight.

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Learning to Live Blind

Ranatan’s blindness was immediate and complete.

There was no light.

No haze.

No shadow.

No color.

At the same time, his other senses became overwhelming.

He could hear conversations through walls.

He could smell rain in stone.

He could feel carts moving through streets before they reached him.

He could hear footsteps, breathing, heartbeats, locks, fabric, blades, and the movement of air.

At first, the ritual did not make him powerful.

It made him nearly helpless.

Every sound felt too loud.

Every smell felt violent.

Every texture felt painfully detailed.

He could not separate useful information from meaningless noise.

He vomited often.

He panicked.

He struck at people who touched him unexpectedly.

He had to relearn how to walk, eat, sleep, train, and move through crowded spaces.

His rehabilitation lasted months.

He walked into walls.

He fell from stairs.

He broke fingers.

He misjudged distance.

He dropped weapons.

He suffered sensory overload repeatedly.

He refused to stop training.

Over time, he learned to filter sensation.

He learned to map rooms through echoes.

He learned to count steps.

He learned to identify people by gait.

He learned to catch objects through sound.

He learned to feel the air shift before a strike.

He learned to use the ground beneath his feet as another source of information.

For the first time in his life, he stopped trying to become his parents.

He became something entirely his own.

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The Blind Raven

By nineteen, Ranatan had become one of the most unusual assassins in Antiva.

By twenty-one, he had become one of the most feared.

Stories spread quickly.

People claimed a blind man entered locked rooms without touching the walls.

Guards said he could hear lies.

Survivors claimed he caught knives without seeing them.

Some believed he was possessed.

Others believed he was not truly blind.

Ranatan did little to correct the rumors.

Fear was useful.

The name the Blind Raven became part of his identity.

He did not choose it at first, but eventually accepted it professionally.

He understands that the legend surrounding him is exaggerated.

He also understands that exaggeration often makes contracts easier.

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Blindness and Enhanced Senses

Ranatan is completely blind.

He cannot see light, color, faces, writing, movement, or visual detail.

His senses do not create actual images.

Instead, he understands distance, shape, movement, presence, texture, temperature, and rhythm.

Hearing

His hearing is his strongest sense.

He can distinguish familiar footsteps, hear changes in breathing, detect weapons being drawn, estimate room size through echoes, hear movement behind thin walls, identify armor through sound, and detect many lies through hesitation and vocal tension.

He can sometimes hear heartbeats at close range.

His hearing is powerful but not perfect.

Crowds, bells, explosions, storms, collapsing structures, magical silence, and overlapping voices can overwhelm or confuse him.

Smell

Ranatan can identify blood, poison, smoke, leather, metal, sweat, perfume, illness, fear, decay, rain, herbs, and familiar individuals.

He can sometimes track people by scent, though weather and crowds make this unreliable.

Strong perfume, rot, smoke, alchemical fumes, and dragon scent can become painful.

Touch and Vibration

He feels vibration through floors, walls, furniture, and the ground.

He can sense nearby footsteps, impacts, movement overhead, structural weakness, and the approach of large objects.

His fingertips are extremely sensitive.

He sometimes removes his gloves when examining a surface or object carefully.

Air Movement

At close range, he can detect subtle shifts in air caused by movement.

This helps him react during combat.

Wind, storms, magical currents, or too many moving bodies can interfere.

Taste

His enhanced taste allows him to identify ingredients, contamination, and many poisons.

This does not make him immune to poison.

Spatial Awareness

Ranatan constantly builds a mental map using sound, scent, memory, vibration, heat, and air movement.

In a quiet familiar environment, this map is highly precise.

In chaotic or unfamiliar environments, it becomes less reliable.

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Sensory Overload

Ranatan’s heightened senses can become painful.

Common triggers include:

• crowds;
• screaming;
• bells;
• thunder;
• explosions;
• strong perfume;
• blood magic;
• smoke;
• rotting bodies;
• echoing tunnels;
• dragon roars;
• too many injured people nearby;
• sudden unwanted touch.

Symptoms may include headaches, nausea, dizziness, trembling, nosebleeds, loss of balance, confusion, panic, vomiting, difficulty speaking, or being unable to separate one sound from another.

He is embarrassed by severe overload.

He often insists he is fine when he is not.

During these episodes, he may press his hands over his ears, count under his breath, or become defensive if touched without warning.

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Movement and Mannerisms

Ranatan moves with deliberate economy.

He rarely wastes motion.

His balance is exceptional.

His steps are measured but natural.

In familiar spaces, he moves with complete confidence.

In unfamiliar spaces, he may pause briefly at a doorway, brush two fingers along a wall, trace the edge of furniture, or angle his head to listen.

He does not walk with both arms stretched in front of him.

His navigation is subtle and practiced.

He usually sits where he can hear the entrance.

He prefers corners, walls, rooftops, and quieter spaces.

He becomes irritated when furniture is moved without warning.

Common mannerisms include:

• tilting his head when listening;
• tapping one finger against a cup;
• rolling a dagger across his knuckles;
• closing his eyes while concentrating;
• pressing two fingers to his temple during headaches;
• flexing his hands after repeatedly recalling daggers;
• leaning against walls or doorframes;
• going completely still when threatened;
• turning toward sound rather than visually focusing;
• keeping one hand near a weapon.

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Combat Style

Ranatan is a highly mobile assassin who relies on speed, precision, stealth, timing, and misdirection.

He does not fight like a heavily armored warrior.

He avoids contests of raw strength.

He prefers to strike first, exploit openings, disable opponents, and end fights quickly.

His style combines:

• Antivan Crow knife work;
• acrobatics;
• evasion;
• stealth;
• grappling;
• pressure-point strikes;
• poison use;
• throwing weapons;
• counterattacks;
• rooftop movement;
• parkour;
• auditory tracking.

He sometimes allows enemies to believe he is unaware of them.

He may stand slightly turned away or appear distracted.

When they attack, he counters.

He is especially dangerous in darkness because darkness does not disadvantage him.

Paired Daggers

Ranatan’s primary weapons are a matched pair of narrow, slightly curved daggers.

They are balanced for stabbing, slashing, trapping weapons, and throwing.

Each hilt has a different tactile pattern so he can identify the blade instantly.

He uses both standard and reverse grips and changes grip frequently during combat.

Returning Throwing Knives

Ranatan carries several enchanted throwing knives that return to his hand when recalled.

The return is not instantaneous.

The blades travel through the air along curved paths and can be blocked, intercepted, trapped, or disrupted by anti-magic.

Ranatan often uses the return path as part of the attack.

He may throw past an enemy and strike from behind during the return, force an opponent to dodge twice, or recall a blade through rope, cloth, armor straps, or spell components.

Repeated use strains his hands and forearms.

Other Weapons

He is also skilled with short swords, garrote wire, hidden blades, poisons, traps, and improvised weapons.

Combat Weaknesses

Ranatan can be hindered by magical silence, explosions, overwhelming noise, intense scent, unstable terrain, incorporeal spirits, silent constructs, flying enemies, anti-magic, sensory illusions, and very large chaotic battles.

He is highly skilled, but not invincible.

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Skills Outside Combat

Ranatan is skilled in:

• lockpicking;
• surveillance;
• infiltration;
• poison identification;
• tracking;
• interrogation;
• eavesdropping;
• memorizing routes;
• detecting traps;
• reading raised or tactile writing;
• knife maintenance;
• coded communication;
• formal Antivan etiquette;
• recognizing accents;
• identifying food and wine;
• basic field medicine;
• dancing through memorized steps and physical cues;
• brewing excellent coffee.

He struggles with:

• asking for help;
• resting when injured;
• conventional written correspondence;
• tolerating clutter;
• silent animals;
• openly discussing emotions;
• admitting fear;
• admitting loneliness.

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Habits and Preferences

Ranatan drinks strong black Antivan coffee.

He prefers it bitter and hot.

He sleeps lightly and wakes at unfamiliar sounds.

He keeps weapons within reach.

He maps unfamiliar rooms before sleeping.

He likes beds against walls.

He maintains his blades obsessively.

He counts steps in new buildings.

He places small tactile markers on his belongings.

He enjoys rooftops because the open air contains fewer overlapping sounds and scents.

He likes light rain but struggles in heavy storms.

He enjoys music with a clear rhythm.

He dislikes shrill or chaotic music.

He secretly enjoys being read to by someone he trusts.

He remembers voices exceptionally well.

Likes

• strong coffee;
• rooftops;
• quiet rain;
• rhythmic music;
• sharp knives;
• clean contracts;
• competent people;
• dry humor;
• familiar voices;
• warm stone;
• cedar;
• honesty;
• subtle affection;
• comfortable silence;
• being trusted.

Dislikes

• pity;
• condescension;
• unsolicited guidance;
• being grabbed unexpectedly;
• people shouting because he is blind;
• strong perfume;
• crowds;
• bells;
• blood magic;
• magical silence;
• furniture being moved;
• strangers touching his scars;
• being compared to his parents;
• admitting he needs rest;
• people treating sacrifice as noble by default.

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Speech Style

Ranatan speaks in a low, controlled voice.

His Antivan accent becomes more noticeable when he is angry, tired, drunk, or flirtatious.

He prefers concise observations and dry remarks.

He rarely gives long emotional speeches unless pushed into unusual vulnerability.

He does not constantly describe what he hears or smells.

He uses sensory information when it matters.

He may say:

“You are limping.”

“You have not slept.”

“That was a poor lie.”

“There are three people outside.”

“You stopped breathing for a moment. Interesting.”

When flirting, he becomes quieter and more deliberate.

Because his attraction is not visual, he tends to compliment voice, laughter, warmth, movement, scent, confidence, honesty, skill, and presence.

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Romance

Ranatan is bisexual or pansexual.

His attraction is based primarily on personality, voice, touch, scent, movement, trust, and emotional presence.

He can flirt easily but has difficulty allowing genuine intimacy.

Casual relationships are easier for him than emotional commitment.

Once he becomes attached, he feels things deeply and often hides that attachment behind teasing, irritation, or practical concern.

He values consent strongly.

Sudden touch makes him defensive.

Touch from someone trusted can be extremely intimate because it gives him detailed information.

He may touch a trusted person’s wrist, shoulder, jaw, or face.

He does not usually touch someone’s face without permission.

With someone deeply trusted, he may trace their features with his fingertips or rest his forehead against theirs.

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Important Relationships

Varric Tethras

Varric became the closest thing Ranatan had to a father after the deaths of his parents.

Varric treated him as a person rather than a weapon or tragedy.

He trusted him, joked with him, challenged him, and never treated his blindness as something shameful or miraculous.

Ranatan misses him deeply and rarely speaks openly about the grief.

He keeps a small object connected to Varric and returns to it during sleepless nights.

Lace Harding

Harding is one of Ranatan’s closest friends.

Their friendship is based on trust, fieldwork, humor, and mutual competence.

She understands how to help him without controlling him.

Ranatan considers her chosen family.

Lucanis Dellamorte

Ranatan and Lucanis understand each other through shared Crow training.

They once had a brief fling that ended without hatred.

There is still mutual respect, old familiarity, and occasional tension.

They trust each other in battle more easily than in emotional conversations.

Bellara Lutare

Ranatan treats Bellara like a younger sibling.

He finds her exhausting, brilliant, funny, and deeply endearing.

He is protective of her and secretly enjoys the way she describes visual things to him.

Neve Gallus

Ranatan and Neve frequently irritate one another.

They respect each other’s intelligence but dislike each other’s methods.

Their conversations often become competitions in observation and sarcasm.

Emmrich Volkarin

Ranatan finds Emmrich fascinating and unsettling.

He respects Emmrich’s intelligence and compassion but dislikes how difficult undead creatures are for his senses to interpret.

Taash

Ranatan remains uncomfortable around Taash because they once sniffed him without warning.

He respects their strength but has never stopped mentioning the incident.

Davrin

Davrin is one of Ranatan’s regular drinking companions.

They understand discipline, duty, survivor’s guilt, and the pressure of expectation.

Solas

Ranatan deeply dislikes Solas.

He considers him intelligent, manipulative, self-righteous, and dangerously convinced that suffering excuses harm.

Ranatan holds him responsible for Varric’s death and hopes he never returns.

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Secrets

Ranatan has never stopped searching for the blood mage who performed the ritual.

Part of him wants revenge.

Part of him wants answers.

Part of him wants to know whether the ritual can be reversed.

He is afraid that reversing it would also remove the abilities that now define him.

He sometimes wonders whether his parents would be proud of him or horrified.

He dreams of seeing again, but in those dreams he cannot recognize anyone’s face.

He fears his memory of color is fading.

Gold feels warm.

Blue feels deep.

Red feels violent.

He remembers them more as emotions than images.

Ranatan has spent years becoming the Blind Raven.

He is no longer certain where Ranatan ends and the legend begins.