TEST DRIVE MEME!

[faderifting]

I ROLL TO SEDUCE THE BEAR

Tucked between the massive Lake Calenhad and the icy Frostback Mountains in Ferelden’s chilly, hilly south, the Hinterlands are a region covered in patchy forests, small farms, and a bustling fishing village called Redcliffe. The region was recently the frontline of a war between mages and Templars, but the Inquisition’s military presence has restored order and is now focused on helping the locals and influx of refugees rebuild their lives. Whether you’re a recent recruit or a hardened veteran, a Fereldan local or someone who recently fell out of a rift from another world, you may be asked to go lend a hand.

I. FLOODS

A burst of unseasonably warm weather (in no way inspired by real life events) is initially greeted with relief, gloves discarded and scarves unwrapped—but followed within the week by severe flooding across the region. Maybe you’re sent out to help debris from a road or collect the bodies of those swept away. Or maybe you’re less lucky and instead there when the waters come, shepherding refugees to higher ground, or caught riding in the flow on a dislodged roof or log. Maybe there’s a bear on the roof with you.

II. TREASURE HUNTS

Given the lack of banks and lockboxes, when the people here have something they value, they often hide it—under the ground, in a tree, behind a waterfall. So here you are, with a sketch of some landmarks found on a body, trying to find… something. If you find it, it might be useful: weapons, runes, a stash of supplies. Or it might be someone’s box of racy letters and a request to deliver them to a now-married woman who will slap you on delivery.

III. BEARS

You have turned the wrong corner, forded the wrong stream, crested the wrong hill, entered the wrong cave. Maybe you are far from camp. Maybe you are in camp. Whatever has happened, wherever you are: you are being chased by bears. Did you provoke the bears? Are they huge? Babies? Fade-touched? Mage-controlled? What are they chasing you away from? What are they chasing you into? What do you plan to make out of their hide if you kill them? What do you think they'll craft out of your hide if they kill you?

IV. CRYSTALS

Members and trusted agents of the Inquisition are given access to one of the Inquisition's stores of ancient, mysterious sending crystals, allowing them to communicate instantaneously by voice. It's magic. And a magical excuse to ask everyone what their favorite constellation is in the middle of the night.

Or to call for help because you've been treed by bears.

Either way.

V. MISCELLANEOUS

Choose your own adventure! Hunt game, kill demons, gather herbs, track bandits, haggle over the price of armor, fall off a deceptively tall rock, get lost circling the same hill ten times trying to find a way up to the weird glowing skull on a stick you can see is up there, climb trees or abandoned towers, rummage around in empty homes, run from a dragon, cry over how cute that fennec fox you just shot was, set up camp and chat around the fire, knock yourself out (figuratively, or even literally if that's more your speed)—the Hinterlands are your Frostback Mountain oyster.

Comments

[circleprodigy]

Three times as long...that's quite a trade. Elves were supposedly immortal in ancient times, but now they match the lifespan of every other race native to Thedas. Supposedly, that diminishing is the fault of the humans as well; I cannot say for certain, given that was well before my time.

Are you their ruler? It's a strange trend, but more than a few rifters we have encountered seem to be kings or queens.

[mistifying]

How can one's mortality be so drastically impacted by humes unless there was a source for immortality I wonder? [she doesn't expect to receive an answer, it is more rhetorical than anything else.]

Not I, far from it. I went against the Green Word and left the Wood of my people to become a sky pirate - I am viera only by the identification of my race now. My elder sister Jote is the leader of our clan, however. Viera are few and spaced out into clans, there are clans for the male of our species and clans for the female of our species and we remain separate.

[circleprodigy]

Why do you remain separate? And what is the Green Word, exactly? Why can you not leave the Wood?

[So many questions, but that's what happens when terms pop up that Inessa doesn't recognize.]

[mistifying]

Male viera are secretive, aggressive occasionally, and quite territorial...even amongst themselves. So we avoid their company until we've need of them. [Not very often considering the lifespan of a viera.]

The Green Word is the law of our people that forbids outside contact with others and forbids viera from leaving the Wood in which they were born. Those who break this law are considered outcasts...they can no longer communicate with the Wood. The voices of the trees no longer reach their ears. [There is a note of sadness to her voice, there is isolation in not being able to hear the trees.] I suppose this answers your last question as well? We can leave the Wood, but it goes against our laws and comes with it a set of consequences.

[circleprodigy]

The voices of the trees...you mean spirits? [The Brecilian Forest comes to mind, with its thin Veil and plethora of spirits crossing over as a consequence.] Are viera mages?

It seems unkind, to reject kin based on whether or not they wish to live elsewhere. Or even to speak with outsiders. Who set this law into place, and do all within the Wood follow it so strictly? Are none who remain within curious of what is beyond?

...forgive me, it must seem that I am passing judgment and that is not my place. I have difficulty understanding what it must take to lead such a life. The closest we have to that is probably the Dalish elves, but the sexes are integrated and they are not bound to one place, traveling constantly to keep Templars and other humans at bay.

[mistifying]

No, not spirits, the actual forest...we can hear it and it lives, protects. [It is vastly different from a spirit, but if one wanted to think of the forest in and of itself a spirit then perhaps.] Can we use magicks you mean? Most anyone can where I come from.

[It is not an inborn skill, but one that could be attained through practice and control.]

It has been this way for as long as any of us know, but the laws are so austere as to preserve our way of life. Leaving the Wood finds our senses dulled, losing our ability to communicate with the Wood is akin to losing an appendage. Given the destructive nature of other species the viera choose to interact as little with the outside world as possible, but not all feel this way.

[Fran for instance and her younger sister and a few viera here and there can be found outside of their Wood.]

I mind this not, it is only natural that you would be curious and I would be telling a lie if I said I did not have any regrets. Fortunately the viera find protection under the boughs of the trees, the Wood itself protects them like a jealous mother.

[circleprodigy]

And yet, you chose otherwise. What made you seek the sky over the Wood, enough to leave all you knew behind? That must have been a very strong urge, knowing you would lose that connection.

[If she sounds sympathetic, well, she is. Something similar has happened in her life, though she was fortunate enough not to have similar social consequences.]

...a world where most have magic. That is a sharp contrast to Thedas, where magic is the province of those born with such traits. Whether or not we are revered or feared depends strongly on the region in which we are raised, but the latter is far more common.