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allthisshitisweird2023-05-02 05:40 pm
faderifting) wrote in allthisshitisweird2023-05-02 05:40 pm
Entry tags:
Test Drive!
TEST DRIVE MEME
While in some alternate, tidier timeline, the War against the Elder One ended years ago, you're not in that timeline. It's 9:49, and the war continues. An enemy force partially occupies Orlais and has decimated several Marcher Cities, while the Chantry, aided by the Inquisition, has marshaled Orlais and the faithful of Southern Thedas into a new Exalted March against the army of demon-bound Wardens, Red Templars, Venatori loyalists, and darkspawn Corypheus has amassed. Rifts are still scattered across the continent, periodically spitting out strangers from strange worlds with green-glowing anchors embedded in their hands. There's no Herald of Andraste to save Thedas. Someone else is going to have to do it.
You're part of (or allied with, recently hired by, imprisoned by, etc.) an organization, dubbed Riftwatch, that split off from the Inquisition several years ago. Riftwatch consists of these otherworldly new arrivals, rebels and Wardens, and other people who want to prevent the apocalypse without necessarily marching under the Chantry's banner to do it. Their headquarters is an island fortress called the Gallows—formerly a Circle of Magi, more formerly a prison for slaves, but its new occupants have done a good job removing the more grotesque reminders of that past and making the place livable. Their goal is to do what the Chantry can't or won't do, to go more directly after Corypheus and the dark magic he employs, and to keep the Veil from coming apart entirely.
Maybe you're here because you want to help. Maybe you need the money (though there isn't much of it). Maybe you acquired an anchor and sticking around is the only way to prevent your hand from killing you. Maybe you've been sent by the Chantry or some other entity to keep an eye on everyone—they're rumored to be a lot of weirdos and troublemakers. Or maybe you're a new rifter and just going where the nice people with swords tell you that you need to go.
NOTE: This is a static test drive! We post them once per year or so and continue to use them for a long time, so you're never late. Current players are encouraged to track new top-level comments.
I. THE FREE MARCHES: Hasmal, Tantervale, and most recently Starkhaven have all fallen to the Tevinter incursion, leaving Kirkwall the largest city-state in the Free Marches to remain unoccupied. For Riftwatch, that means the war is closer to home than ever, and traveling anywhere north of the mountains runs the risk of running into enemy scouting parties. Perhaps you've been sent out to find these scouts before they find the unwary, or perhaps you're just trying to pass through unnoticed to Antiva or Rivain when you run into trouble. Or maybe you're more in the thick of it: joining the Free Marches armies in harassing the occupying army as best they can from outside the city, or slipping your way into one of them to gather intelligence or meet with an ally.
II. THE WAKING SEA: When Riftwatch isn't traveling by griffon or magic mirror, it frequently travels by sea, courtesy of a small assortment of allied pirate ships. So welcome aboard. The sea is choppy and frequently violent—violent storms, violent enemy ships, or both at once—and the crew may not have much patience for incompetence, so either make yourself useful above or try not to get sick below.
III. KIRKWALL: Even when enormous evil darkspawn are trying to take over the known world and you and your colleagues might be the only ones who can truly stop him, you can't work all the time. And when you aren't working, Kirkwall is there for you with its dingy Lowtown taverns, its flashy Hightown establishments, its market stalls and street musicians and cellars hosting gamblers. (Or maybe you can work all the time, and you're in the city to do some official shopping, try to spy on a suspicious character, or show a potential financial backer a good time.)
IV. SEND A MESSAGE: Each member of Riftwatch is assigned a blue crystal, small enough to wear around the neck, that can transmit voice messages, as well as an enchanted book tied to that crystal that can be used to exchange written messages. They're secure enough to discuss the war, if you'd like to get down to business, but loosely controlled enough to ask a question or play a game with only a few rolled eyes from people who hate fun.
V. WILDCARD: From the Gallows' library to the pirate islands off the coast, from Hightown's high-priced market stalls to the bloody frontlines of the war, Thedas is yours to explore.
While in some alternate, tidier timeline, the War against the Elder One ended years ago, you're not in that timeline. It's 9:49, and the war continues. An enemy force partially occupies Orlais and has decimated several Marcher Cities, while the Chantry, aided by the Inquisition, has marshaled Orlais and the faithful of Southern Thedas into a new Exalted March against the army of demon-bound Wardens, Red Templars, Venatori loyalists, and darkspawn Corypheus has amassed. Rifts are still scattered across the continent, periodically spitting out strangers from strange worlds with green-glowing anchors embedded in their hands. There's no Herald of Andraste to save Thedas. Someone else is going to have to do it.
You're part of (or allied with, recently hired by, imprisoned by, etc.) an organization, dubbed Riftwatch, that split off from the Inquisition several years ago. Riftwatch consists of these otherworldly new arrivals, rebels and Wardens, and other people who want to prevent the apocalypse without necessarily marching under the Chantry's banner to do it. Their headquarters is an island fortress called the Gallows—formerly a Circle of Magi, more formerly a prison for slaves, but its new occupants have done a good job removing the more grotesque reminders of that past and making the place livable. Their goal is to do what the Chantry can't or won't do, to go more directly after Corypheus and the dark magic he employs, and to keep the Veil from coming apart entirely.
Maybe you're here because you want to help. Maybe you need the money (though there isn't much of it). Maybe you acquired an anchor and sticking around is the only way to prevent your hand from killing you. Maybe you've been sent by the Chantry or some other entity to keep an eye on everyone—they're rumored to be a lot of weirdos and troublemakers. Or maybe you're a new rifter and just going where the nice people with swords tell you that you need to go.
NOTE: This is a static test drive! We post them once per year or so and continue to use them for a long time, so you're never late. Current players are encouraged to track new top-level comments.
I. THE FREE MARCHES: Hasmal, Tantervale, and most recently Starkhaven have all fallen to the Tevinter incursion, leaving Kirkwall the largest city-state in the Free Marches to remain unoccupied. For Riftwatch, that means the war is closer to home than ever, and traveling anywhere north of the mountains runs the risk of running into enemy scouting parties. Perhaps you've been sent out to find these scouts before they find the unwary, or perhaps you're just trying to pass through unnoticed to Antiva or Rivain when you run into trouble. Or maybe you're more in the thick of it: joining the Free Marches armies in harassing the occupying army as best they can from outside the city, or slipping your way into one of them to gather intelligence or meet with an ally.
II. THE WAKING SEA: When Riftwatch isn't traveling by griffon or magic mirror, it frequently travels by sea, courtesy of a small assortment of allied pirate ships. So welcome aboard. The sea is choppy and frequently violent—violent storms, violent enemy ships, or both at once—and the crew may not have much patience for incompetence, so either make yourself useful above or try not to get sick below.
III. KIRKWALL: Even when enormous evil darkspawn are trying to take over the known world and you and your colleagues might be the only ones who can truly stop him, you can't work all the time. And when you aren't working, Kirkwall is there for you with its dingy Lowtown taverns, its flashy Hightown establishments, its market stalls and street musicians and cellars hosting gamblers. (Or maybe you can work all the time, and you're in the city to do some official shopping, try to spy on a suspicious character, or show a potential financial backer a good time.)
IV. SEND A MESSAGE: Each member of Riftwatch is assigned a blue crystal, small enough to wear around the neck, that can transmit voice messages, as well as an enchanted book tied to that crystal that can be used to exchange written messages. They're secure enough to discuss the war, if you'd like to get down to business, but loosely controlled enough to ask a question or play a game with only a few rolled eyes from people who hate fun.
V. WILDCARD: From the Gallows' library to the pirate islands off the coast, from Hightown's high-priced market stalls to the bloody frontlines of the war, Thedas is yours to explore.
no subject
she finds it rather beautiful as it is, but alexandrie knows her well; she has a soft spot for terrible things that's never been blind to them.
it is warm and intimate and polished inside, lit with elaborately decorated hanging lanterns, and gwenaëlle bundles her directly into the gallery nearest the foyer (past the portrait of a beautiful elven woman who can only be her mother, and which must have been painted for her father), where the cushioned conversation pit takes up most of the room but for a ledge running its full exterior, the walls taken up with art pieces (some, lexie's own) interspersed by high windows. she flings her cloak carelessly, going to a latched cabinet, )
Tell me the whole of it, ( she instructs, fetching bottle, glasses, ) and you know—
you can stay, if you need.
( needn't, if she doesn't, but it's important she know. there is always a safe place for her to land. )
no subject
She is quiet until the glass is in her hands and the wine is in the glass and her gaze is in the wine, and then in Orlesian as is their wont: ]
I almost like it better, knowing there is no safety anywhere. The numbness of the Game, the unrelieved falsehood of it... It is horrible, but in comparison to pretending true honesty? I think I prefer it.
[ When she looks up her jaw is set. ]
Papa is not ill. There is a blood mage working in the household at Val Fontaine.
no subject
Not for long, ( surely. that is a danger to more than only alexandrie's family, after all, so a present threat worth riftwatch addressing, but it is alexandrie's family and so it goes without saying that she is unhesitatingly willing to get her own hands dirty right away. and her great love for her friend that prevents something like, and your sister can't find time between war crimes to do something about it herself—
nevermind what the chevalier is doing or not. she will do something. they will. obviously, this is why she's returned, and the idea of her returning empty-handed doesn't enter gwenaëlle's head even a moment.
abby had asked once, after they were all thought dead, what happened next? and it is still this, having died, and woken, and forgotten to think of speaking about her eye because it is her back that wakes her frightened in the dark,
there is work yet to do, so they get up, and they do it. )
no subject
I do not think she knows I know, and so I hope whatever hand placed her does not either.
I need to find that hand before I— [ a long breath, another little squeeze. ] We. Before we can displace her.
And I need other eyes to look; whoever is doing this knows very well how to divert—
[ Eyes. Alexandrie is far enough out of herself now, here in the embrace of this absurd perfect construction of a boat, to register more about Gwenaëlle than “friend” and “safe”. The wine glass is abandoned entirely onto whatever surface is close enough to hold it so she can lift featherlight fingers to touch the cheek beneath that golden eye.
It is not pity or concern that softens Alexandrie’s face; never those things between lionesses. Reverence, perhaps. Love. The touch itself is a question: how? ]
no subject
she breathes out. what a strange thing to have forgotten would be important. )
Fucking elf bullshit, ( she murmurs, ) it asked for one life, and when we were prepared to give it, it said, oh: good, I'll have something else.
( she had tried to volunteer hers; loxley had stepped in. flint, with his coins in his pocket, making them guess which to choose. loxley, brave, and flint, hard to read as ever. lexie doesn't need to hear about that. )
It's fine— I'm used to it, now. I have others, you know, not just this one, I have one that matches the bracelet you gave me and all.
I can still shoot a bow. I can still do my job.
no subject
[ Most of those prayers had landed. ]
Somehow I forgot, [ she says, moving her fingers from cheek to hair to separate out a curl and resettle it for no other reason than to touch, ] how fucking forsaken it is here on the front lines.
no subject
terrible, that lexie should be back here, and why. a terrible relief, too, to be reunited.
she understands iorveth better every day, she thinks, but she understands herself better, too. she could never have made the choice he did. )
We persevere.
( stubbornly, constantly. when it feels impossible. )