faderift | OPEN LOG: Establishing a Base in Kirkwall

OPEN LOG: Establishing a Base in Kirkwall

WHO: Many People
WHAT: Cleaning up Kirkwall
WHEN: Cloudreach 1-21
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: This log post is for characters who go early to Kirkwall to assist in preparing it for the rest of those assigned there. We strongly encourage IC discussion of things left to character discretion—someone should definitely do a crystal post to discuss what to do with the personal belongings left behind in the Gallows or what new form the statues should take!

Kirkwall once lived on the edge of the Tevinter Imperium and was home to nearly a million slaves. Stolen from elven lands or shipped from across the sea, all slaves fed the Imperium's unquenchable thirst for expansion. They worked in massive quarries and sweltering foundries that produced stone and steel for the Empire.

The city's complicated past is not easy to forget, history having earmarked many corners of the stone city. A ship approaching the harbor spots the city's namesake: an imposing black wall. It is visible for miles, and carved into the cliff side are a pantheon of vile guardians representing the Old Gods. Over the years, the Chantry has effaced many of these profane sentinels, but it will take many more years to erase them all.

Also carved into the cliff is a channel that permits ships into the city's interior. Flanking the channel are two massive bronze statues—the Twins of Kirkwall. The statues have a practical use. Kirkwall sits next to the narrowest point of the Waking Sea, and a massive chain net can be erected between the statues and the lighthouse, closing off the only narrow navigable lane. This stranglehold on sea traffic is jealously guarded by the ever-changing rulers of the city as the net trolls taxes, tolls, and extortions in from the sea.

—From In Pursuit of Knowledge: The Travels of a Chantry Scholar, by Brother Genitivi

Establishing a presence in Kirkwall is a delicate matter. First, there's Provisional Viscount Bran Cavin—a man so used to batting back friendly offers of entirely harmless occupation of the battered city-state that his first three responses to the Inquisition's leadership appeared to be slightly personalized form letters. Proving that the Inquisition is here to work and not to conquer will be a process. The first step in that process is the second reason the move is delicate: the only building the Provisional Viscount is willing to part with is the Gallows, left quarantined and unoccupied since Knight-Commander Meredith Stannard's famous crystallization into red lyrium in the courtyard. The Gallows have since overgrown with red lyrium. If anyone is going to live and work there, there's a lot of work to do.

↠ Cloudreach 1-3: The Journey There
↠ Cloudreach 3-4: Arrival
↠ Cloudreach 4-14: Haunted
↠ Cloudreach 14-21: Spring Cleaning

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"Madness," Kirk said, coming up behind Prompto, his boots crunching across the debris left behind. God, it was going to take awhile to clean all of this up, and knowing how Thedas worked, he could bet that cleaning it would cause a whole host of problems even as it solved them.

"Most likely a lot of this damage is from the explosion I heard about," he looked around, gaze heavy. "You all right? Wandering around here on your own might not be the best idea until everything's secured."

"Yeah. 'Madness' is as good a word for it as any." But the mention of an explosion makes Prompto turn. "Is that what happened? Something exploded? That would explain all the debris."

But how, in this place that doesn't even have guns?

"Oh, yeah, I'm okay." Prompto shrugged. "Gotten strange looks, but no one's said or done anything. I'd like to think its my good looks and charm, but uh... ah, who am I kidding? People here are on edge." He doesn't plan on being out here for long. "Are we... not welcome here?"

Kirk nodded. He didn't want to give to many specifics, but he was sure that Prompto would hear a good amount of the story anyways if he just asked around. It wasn't exactly an unspoken of or even unheard of event, after all. "There were some issues here, not that long ago, with a chapter of the Chantry and the mages. Or so it was explained to me. It ended up that there was a bomb set off, and it didn't go as planned. People died and as you can see homes were destroyed or left abandoned from the damage."

The rest Prompto could find out for himself. Kirk personally didn't think it was his story to tell, and hoped that when Prompto did find out, he would go seek answers from the other half - Anders, as it were.

"Rifters in general, aren't, but I think just about any outsider is looked at sideways," he kicked at a bit of debris with a sigh. "It's just my thoughts on it, but you might want to keep your shard hidden when you're out and about, if you can. It's why I keep mine wrapped. Seems to cause less problems that way."

He's been afraid to ask the locals, honestly. He's seen war torn places back home, knows that haunted look in people's eyes. Reminding them and asking them about it only seems to hurt. Hopefully in time he'll just overhear pieces and put it together. "These poor people. I hope that's why we're here, to help rebuild."

Luckily, Prompto always has gloves on. But he nods anyway. "Yeah, a couple other people told me to keep it covered, too. So I will. Guess it wouldn't make for a really good party trick anyway, huh?"

"To a degree. I am sure the Inquisition has its reasons for coming here, but I wouldn't fool yourself into thinking it's entirely altruistic," he shook his head sadly, wishing he could think different, but he knew it just wasn't show. The Inquisition was essentially a military outfit. It wouldn't make a move without cause for its own benefit.

He chuckled dryly. "No, not really, and mine can shoot blasts of magic. From what I have understood, this place was a Chantry stronghold - that's the religion here, if you haven't already come across it. One of them, anyways, and the dominant one. The people will most likely be strong believers, especially after the bomb, and I doubt they will react well to something from the Fade. So be careful in how you speak and where you take off your glove that hides your shard for a little while at least."

"Right." It's hard for him not to see the similarities between the Inquisition and what remains of the Lucian resistance back home, but there ARE differences. And being too trusting has landed them all in hot water before. It's how Insomnia fell, essentially.

"Really??" Oh that's kind of cool! He kind of wants to ask, but Kirk moves on and really, it's probably for the best Prompto doesn't learn how just yet. "I heard a bit about it, yeah. Weird to be in a place that has different religions. I mean, these guys don't have someone who can commune with their gods? Or, god, in this case."

"Hmm, well, I think in terms of the Chantry, it would the Divine, if I understand it right," he said after a moment's thought. "But I don't think they have one right now, which is part of the issues this world is having. As for me? My world has no gods. People believe in all sorts, but there are no beings of higher power, as it were." He gave a shrug about it all, never having been one for religion.

Prompto nods, though he then adds with a frown, "If they don't have one right now - how do they decide who's Divine? In my world, there's a family that descended from the first Oracle. I think if the current Oracle dies, then the next woman in line takes over? If she's old enough." Honestly, he's not sure how that exactly works. And it could be totally different here.

"Really? Then how was your world created?"

"That I am not quite sure," he admitted. He didn't much care for religion as a whole, though he bore no grudges to those who sought its comfort. Never mind that the history of the Chantry was convoluted on its own and didn't endear the institution to him in the least (especially given his mage lover).

He glanced at Prompto and let out a soft sound that could have been a laugh, or just a puff of air as he decided on what to say.

"Hardly as fantastic as how the gods make things," he said. "It's call The Big Bang by scientists, but all that means is that a bunch of dust and gas that was in a high density, high temperature state suddenly expanded outwards, creating the known universe. It is just a theory though. It happened far to long ago for us to have seen it."

Something to bear in mind and ask about. Better to ask a friendly native, maybe one in the Inquisition who won't be confused by someone asking about that. And hopefully is friendly to rifters.

"Oh. Huh. All by itself?" Prompto's never been super religious himself, but it's different in his world. They know about the gods. He's seen a few in action. There's really no faith involved, aside from the hope that the world will survive the darkness the old prophecies foretold. "

It would be a good idea. Kirk could recommend a few people if Prompto asked - the benefits of having been there a year.

"More or less," he gave a shrug. He was not opposed to the idea of some diving intervention somehow, but he absolutely believed in the big bang and evolution over millennia. Gods had simply never sat well with him, is all. "Life formed over the course of millions of millennia, a long change of survival of the fittest and adaptation."

He glanced at Prompto and chuckled. "Sorry. It's not exactly a theory that makes for good story telling."

Prompto listens, curious as to how a world came to be without gods intervening to do all the work themselves. It seems so strange for life to just... come to be on its own, but he doesn't want to discredit it, just because it's not like how things went in Eos. "Yeah, a bit. But maybe that's a good thing you don't have gods and everything else involved. They make things... complicated."

"Heh, kind of my thoughts too," his lips twisted up in a slight smile. "Humans are complicated without throwing in the capriciousness of beings on high. Besides, I like the idea of not being - well, I won't say pawn, but I believe in my own choices, and that I make my own destiny."

A short pause, the heavy silence of the place sinking in.

"Some complicated god things happening in your world, I take it?"

Oh Kirk, be grateful you get to choose your destiny and don't have gods and scourges and crazy immortal, revenge-bent men ruining your day.

Prompto snorts, almost bitterly. But not quite. He doesn't know this man well enough to let that side show. "That's putting it lightly. Lots of crazy stuff going on, all because of a prophecy from a long time ago. And I... it's gonna be a bumpy road to get to the end." If they get there at all.

He is, every single day. Gods suck. That is what he has learned here, and to an extent in his own world. Gods can just dance right off into the sunset, thank you.

"You know the thing about prophecies and futures?" he said to him. "They aren't set in stone. Even if a god may say so, it's you making the choices, right? So I'm sure you'll reach the end that you want." He reached out and gave him a pat on the shoulder followed by a soft squeeze.

"I hope you're right." Not for his sake, but for Noctis'. He smiles at the gesture. "We... have to see it through. There's no other way. World's in big trouble if my friend doesn't do what he has to. I just... not sure what's gonna happen afterwards. Maybe it'll be all right. Nothing's gonna be the same, but, so long as the world keeps spinning, right?"

"It's all right to think of what comes next. Sometimes, that's what can determine the decision you make. They have consequences, after all. But if not doing the thing means it all ends, well, no, doesn't sound like you have much of a choice," he said, not bothering to try and make it sounder nicer or more pleasant. Prompto deserved that kind of honesty.

"But let's be honest. If everything just stayed the same - life would be kind of boring, you know?"

"Yeah, that's true. I mean, despite how awful a lot of it's been, we have had some good times on the road. I hardly left Insomnia - ah, the city I lived in - for most of my life. Then I got to go with my friends on a big road trip." Which would have been so fantastic and great, if it hadn't been for the Empire being a bag of dicks and ruining it. "Didn't go the way we thought it would, but still."

"The city that never sleeps?" he asked, and he means at a joke, only to realize the other probably doesn't get the reference. But it made him chuckle on the inside just a little.

"You'll work it out - you and your friends," Kirk said with a surprising amount of confidence. Prompto's shoulder received another squeeze and a short pat on the back. "Just - a feeling I have about you. You seem like 'get it done and see it through' type."

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OPEN LOG: Establishing a Base in Kirkwall

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