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allthisshitisweird2017-09-30 08:13 pm
faderifting) wrote in allthisshitisweird2017-09-30 08:13 pm
Entry tags:
TEST DRIVE MEME!
TEST DRIVE MEME
Maybe you’ve been around for a while, or maybe you’re new to the Inquisition. Maybe you’re new to Thedas, having recently fallen from a tear in reality and been collected by uniformed rescuers. Whoever you are, you’ve been sent to Kirkwall, to an outpost where many of the Inquisition’s members and allies work on some of the biggest mysteries and problems the organization must solve if it’d like to keep the world from ending, where “ending” means “falling under the power of an ancient powerful corrupted being who wants everyone to bow to him as a god.”
And just to be clear, it would like that. It would like that a lot.
I. THE GALLOWS: The Gallows is an island fortress in Kirkwall’s harbor. It’s been home to, in order: Tevinter slaves, a Circle of Magi, a lot of creepy red lyrium, and now the Inquisition, which has occupied the fortress with the provisional Viscount’s blessing. There are walls that still need rebuilding and corners that still need dusting, but for the most part the Inquisition has gotten down to business. There’s space in the stone-floored courtyards to train or spar; or, if your skills don’t lie in the realm of hitting things, there’s a large library and several offices supporting the Inquisition’s areas of research and diplomatic efforts. If you don’t know what to do with yourself, then by all means, ask; someone will definitely be able to put you to work.
II. KIRKWALL: A quick row across the harbor will take you to Kirkwall proper. The city is built into the cliffs, from exclusive and wealthy Hightown at the top to impoverished Darktown in the abandoned mining tunnels below. In the middle is Lowtown, home to taverns, merchants, and plenty of trouble to keep anyone looking for it happy. You’re welcome to spend your free time and your money here—but try not to annoy the locals too much, please, in case their welcome runs out. It’d be a shame to have to pack again so soon after arriving.
III. QUESTING: Barely had time to make yourself at home, did you, before you were sent away from Kirkwall again—but this time on a mission. There’s a rift outside of Markham, pouring demons into the fields, and the Inquisition has been asked to lend a hand. Maybe literally. If you have an anchor embedded in your palm, you’re needed to close the damn thing. If not, maybe you’re here to fight demons or guard against bandits on the road, or to gather samples and take notes on the rift’s location once its closed, or to speak to Markham’s nobility afterwards to make sure that they fully appreciate the Inquisition’s efforts. Regardless, it’s a long trip, so we hope you like campfire cooking and sharing a tent.
IV. SENDING CRYSTAL: Joining the Inquisition gets you access to the very latest in barely-understood magical communication devices—namely, a crystal, small enough to wear around your neck, that will allow you to communicate verbally with anyone else who has one. Or everyone else who has one. Say hello.
V. WILDCARD: The whole of Thedas is yours to explore, from coast to uncharted wilderness filled with bears. Choose your own adventure!
Maybe you’ve been around for a while, or maybe you’re new to the Inquisition. Maybe you’re new to Thedas, having recently fallen from a tear in reality and been collected by uniformed rescuers. Whoever you are, you’ve been sent to Kirkwall, to an outpost where many of the Inquisition’s members and allies work on some of the biggest mysteries and problems the organization must solve if it’d like to keep the world from ending, where “ending” means “falling under the power of an ancient powerful corrupted being who wants everyone to bow to him as a god.”
And just to be clear, it would like that. It would like that a lot.
I. THE GALLOWS: The Gallows is an island fortress in Kirkwall’s harbor. It’s been home to, in order: Tevinter slaves, a Circle of Magi, a lot of creepy red lyrium, and now the Inquisition, which has occupied the fortress with the provisional Viscount’s blessing. There are walls that still need rebuilding and corners that still need dusting, but for the most part the Inquisition has gotten down to business. There’s space in the stone-floored courtyards to train or spar; or, if your skills don’t lie in the realm of hitting things, there’s a large library and several offices supporting the Inquisition’s areas of research and diplomatic efforts. If you don’t know what to do with yourself, then by all means, ask; someone will definitely be able to put you to work.
II. KIRKWALL: A quick row across the harbor will take you to Kirkwall proper. The city is built into the cliffs, from exclusive and wealthy Hightown at the top to impoverished Darktown in the abandoned mining tunnels below. In the middle is Lowtown, home to taverns, merchants, and plenty of trouble to keep anyone looking for it happy. You’re welcome to spend your free time and your money here—but try not to annoy the locals too much, please, in case their welcome runs out. It’d be a shame to have to pack again so soon after arriving.
III. QUESTING: Barely had time to make yourself at home, did you, before you were sent away from Kirkwall again—but this time on a mission. There’s a rift outside of Markham, pouring demons into the fields, and the Inquisition has been asked to lend a hand. Maybe literally. If you have an anchor embedded in your palm, you’re needed to close the damn thing. If not, maybe you’re here to fight demons or guard against bandits on the road, or to gather samples and take notes on the rift’s location once its closed, or to speak to Markham’s nobility afterwards to make sure that they fully appreciate the Inquisition’s efforts. Regardless, it’s a long trip, so we hope you like campfire cooking and sharing a tent.
IV. SENDING CRYSTAL: Joining the Inquisition gets you access to the very latest in barely-understood magical communication devices—namely, a crystal, small enough to wear around your neck, that will allow you to communicate verbally with anyone else who has one. Or everyone else who has one. Say hello.
V. WILDCARD: The whole of Thedas is yours to explore, from coast to uncharted wilderness filled with bears. Choose your own adventure!
no subject
( Mm. )
-ran its course in that form, ( see, she isn't totally incapable of being diplomatic. ) I'm still writing a great deal on the Inquisition, but more in the vein of...I think it will be important, later. To remember.
If you're new to mages, though.
Has anyone talked to you about their war?
no subject
He made mention that the enemies of the Inquisition were the Tevinter Imperium and the Qun, along with Corypheus. [He has no idea if it's relevant, he's yet to find out why they're enemies in the first place.]
no subject
She lets it lie. Her objections to Anders are personal, not political. )
True enough. We aren't technically at war with Tevinter - a damned slim technicality with Corypheus swanning about the place talking about the glory of old Tevinter - or for that matter the Qun, but it might well be a matter of time.
I was speaking of the war between mages and Templars. You might have noticed things are a little tense in the Gallows. And anywhere Anders is.
( That doesn't count as a rude thing, it's a factual observation. )
no subject
It was presumed that any hostility was directed at a newly arrived rifter. [And he'd failed to mention the war. Interesting.
It helped having two accounts of the relations with Tevinter and Qun. Easier to see where their accounts agreed and where they did not, as well as who mentioned different issues.] But tell me of this war; what are mages and Templars fighting over? It cannot be land.
no subject
( Maker's breath, what has she got herself into, trying to explain this- the moment it occurs to her what a task she's taken on is hard to miss, the twist of her mouth as she orders her thoughts, tries to shear them off her own editorial remarks for at least long enough to know what she means to say. What is fair to say, what is true. Resist the impulse to make jibes that might be misleading, when he won't know the context-
No small task in itself, with a tongue like hers. )
Mages are...
Mages have always been confined to the Circles. The Chantry teaches us that magic was made to serve man, not rule over him - and mages are dangerous. Their connection to the Fade attracts demons to them, they're susceptible to possession - even aside from demons, Tevinter isn't exactly a wonderful example to follow of mage rule. They're capable of things I can't even imagine.
So, in the south at least, they've been responsibility of the Chantry. And of Templars, whose role is to protect mages, and to protect the rest of us from mages. They're taken to the Circles to be properly educated in their gifts and to ensure that they pose no threat, that their magic is used in the correct way.
( It all sounds so sensible. It's so easy to parrot back, too, what she'd been taught for years - things that for almost all of her years she'd never questioned. )
Apostate mages are those that flee the Chantry, that escape - they go on the run, they live in secret. Templars hunt them, too. All mages are apostates now, technically speaking.
( She worries at the edge of her sleeve, the words careful and deliberate and the birdlike way she can't quite be still betraying the delicacy of the subject. )
We passed on our way here quite a lovely little forest, sprung up in the midst of Hightown. You might have noticed it's under guard. Up until not so very long ago, it was a sad crater where the Kirkwall Chantry used to be - until it was blown to bits, along with everyone in it. By Anders. Before the Gallows was an Inquisition outpost, it was the site of some of the most horrendous abuses of the Chantry perpetrated upon the mages in its care. And to some minds, the birthplace of the mage rebellion. Something started and it couldn't be contained - the Circles fell, the Templars broke with the Chantry. Divine Justinia, the most holy, tried to broker a peace between them. That was when all of this,
( gesturing to their anchor-shards, )
began. The Temple of Sacred Ashes fucking exploded as well, with all of the highest representatives of the Chantry, the Templars, the mages, but this time it was Corypheus, creating the Breach. That war isn't over. It's- tabled. While we deal with the other one.
no subject
He listens attentively, tries to commit to memory as much as he can. It doesn't help that he still struggles to accept that mages even exist, and his first response is to agree that these Templars ought have done whatever they could to keep mages under control. He would do the same, if a witch was ever brought before him.
But mages here were not like witches, necessarily. It was the Fade they drew power from, not Lucifer.]
Outside Tevinter, would most have sided with the Templars against the mages? [This would likely be another dimension of politics here, that he has no trouble understanding.]
no subject
( More along the lines of the sort of Lucifer-worshiping witchcraft he's envisioning, probably, only still with less Lucifer. )
As many Templars are responsible for death and destruction and making the roads unsafe and the people frightened. They broke with the Chantry, they have no mandate or proper leadership. ( A shake of her head; ) Nobody looks like a hero any more.
no subject
[Look, branding is very important and right now Louis can tell that the Inquisition has a major branding problem. They need to fight demons, yes, but they also need everyone to think they do a great job of it and to give them more support...
He focuses again on the topic at hand.] How many mages and templars are in the Inquisition?
no subject
New champions. Yes. He catches on quickly. )
I suppose 'too many' is an unfair answer.
( To both sides. And not enough is probably closer to the truth, shorthanded as they remain, hardly in a position to turn down any able help- )
Much of it is mages and Templars. And every other sort of person, and rifters, as well, though you make up a quite small number. A very visible small number.
no subject
[But that tended to be the case as soon as you had two people gathered to try to reach common purpose.] From whom can I learn about those already in the Inquisition? There must be records.
no subject
( Particularly given the tendency for people to speak in a rather unguarded fashion there-
She is guilty enough of that, having been drawn on more than one occasion to speak out of turn. )
Archives and records will be available in the library, or else restricted to division heads...but the crystals, people talk. Constantly. All you've got to do is listen.
no subject
It seems strange that some would be so unguarded knowing that any can hear them. [He's not calling her a liar... he's just. Unsure.]
no subject
( Like, at all. )
And they did give me one, for all I've never joined. But I promise you, there was a rousing evening where half of Skyhold seemed to be playing bed, wed and behead on the crystals.
I won.
( 'But Gwenaëlle, that literally isn't a game you can win.'
No, she definitely won it. )
no subject
That sounds a diverting pasttime, madame.
no subject
Yes. Someone chooses three names, and you decide which of them you would, and why. If by the end of it no one is slightly horrified or alarmed, you've played it wrong.
( Plowing through the choices Zevran had given her with a ruthless streak emboldened by liquor had made for a very diverting evening. )
no subject
And you won, madame. I must congratulate you. [Reserve is all well and good, but you don't need to be honest with someone to flirt with them.]
no subject
It's never dull. It's not always ideal, but it's never dull, and her laugh now is easy, easier than talking about mage fucking freedom- )
After a few glasses of wine, every game is a good game. Which, I suppose, is rather the point- we are under a great deal of pressure, here. Sometimes, the crystals are the release of it. For as much professional discussion of the business of the day, there's banter and play and knockout rows. Much of that could stand to be private - it isn't as if there's not the means of privately contacting who you'd speak to - but if you want to ask the entire Inquisition to stop what they're doing to decide which of their compatriots looks most fetching in the bath houses-
( She spreads her hands. )
Even the most joyless among us will at least answer to scold everyone else for answering.
no subject
And what is your opinion, madame? Which of my new compatriots looks the most fetching?
no subject
( Gwenaëlle being comfortably of the opinion that she is the prettiest thing Kirkwall has seen in some time, period, )
but in the absence of an oath of loyalty, without presuming your proclivities and regrettably having seen neither of them undressed, I'd have to say...Enchanter Julius, or perhaps Herian Amsel.
Of course, you only need go as far as my library for a better view.
( It's only a bit of harmless flirting, and Thranduil enjoys that painting as much as the next person. )
no subject
[He stands, offering her his arm.] The view your library offers must content me, if you will acquaint me with it.
no subject
and her pert bottom, a full length portrait of the lady of the house hanging above the fireplace. In oils she glances back over her shoulder, gaze lowered rather than looking directly at either the artist or the viewer, a soft robe she must have been wearing moments before she assumed the pose hanging from one hand, one foot slightly arched. It depicts in detail the scars she sustained from the claws of the rage demon, scraping around her torso and down the back of her left thigh; it is both beautiful and a testament to what brutality she's already survived.
Just think what she might do next, now that the worst has happened and she knows how much she is and is not still afraid of. )
My grandfather's natural son is an artist, ( she says, conversationally. ) He's painted all of my portraits,
( clothed and unclothed alike, )
and all of them before I was sent to Skyhold, after the rift I was caught by, but he was very understanding when this one arrived there and I wished to have my scars added to the finished work. It was supposed to be a gift, but I changed my mind.
( Keep it. Hang it up. Remind herself that she's still beautiful, that she survived, that there's not a single thing in all of Thedas that can make her less than herself, thank you.
And it's occasionally entertaining, seeing people turn poker faced when they walk in. )
no subject
His expression doesn't turn pokefaced when he sees the portrait and realises what it is, because the appreciative expression already is the poker face. Instead, his smile widens a fraction, he blinks, and... laughs.
It's delighted, impressed, and the most honest expression he's shown her since they met.] Is it a good likeness, madame?
no subject
( With which she is quite pleased, to judge by the trace of smugness in her sunny smile upon his reaction. )
I did consider donating it to the Inquisition to be hung in Skyhold when we left for Kirkwall, ( thoughtfully, ) as a gesture of goodwill for my time there.
no subject
[Amusement still plays about his lips. Why had he never thought to have his loves commemorated in such a way?]