faderift | OPEN: this will be a better year

OPEN: this will be a better year

WHO: Everyone
WHAT: First Day
WHEN: Wintermarch 1 (forward-dated)
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Scouts from both the Western Approach and Emprise du Lion are welcome (but not required) to have returned to Skyhold in time for this event.

There have been better First Day feasts, and less crowded ones, and cheerier ones. It isn't a good year for many to look back on, and this one isn't starting any better. Reports from both Eastern and Western Orlais are grim. Many in the Inquisition can't afford to take more than a few hours away from their work, if that.

But for those who can, the ambassador does her best. At lunchtime some tables, hot food, and finery are reserved for visiting nobility and wealthy pilgrims--cause for grumbling in some quarters, perhaps, but they're the people filling the Inquisition's coffers, and allowances must be made--but there's plenty of stew, bread, and ale for everyone, even with the soldiers and refugees who stay outside the fortress invited inside for the holiday. The recently repaired garden and its carefully tended plants aren't off limits, but anyone noisy and holding a drink will be stopped at the door; the battlements, with their potential for deadly falls, are blocked by Inquisition guards. But the courtyards brim with people, most of them happy despite the possibility that the world might end before another First Day arrives.

If the courtyards are too full of tipsy visitors for comfort, there's also the valley beyond the fortress, expansive, barren, and covered in snow. By the river the soldiers help the refugees make a bonfire larger than would ever be allowed inside Skyhold's walls, and some lend their shields to use as sleds down the embankments. A group of scouts start the most intense game of hide and seek Thedas has ever seen, with snowballs to the face for whoever is found first. In the camp, a refugee girl with her hand wrapped in a green scarf chases other children around the tents, shouting raaar, I'm from the rifts!

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Having had a chat about ~~French~~ Orlesian armor and the nature of fancy, fancy dresses with Vivienne, seeing people in fancy, frankly ridiculous getup isn't.... Okay it's still weird, but it's nothing to comment on.

Thankfully, she isn't wearing it out here, but now he's gotta comment on her looks. "I'm amazed you aren't a block of ice right now, even with the fire. Nobody's pelted you with snowballs yet, huh?"

"With so much snow all about us, I might have killed any who dared and left them to be discovered if and when the spring thaws come," she jokes. Not that anyone has dared and whether it's her garb, her sharp gaze or the whispers that follow her steps that have people aiming elsewhere, she couldn't say. Probably all three honestly. The party really could use a few less nobles and assorted 'important' figures swanning about. At least his words make her laugh, glancing down at herself for a moment before she looks back up. "I grew up elsewhere in what was little more than a shack in a bog, I am not some fragile flower such as the many cityfolk, indeed, I wore much the same when I crossed the Frostback mountains once and then again."

She sure does have a way of speaking. Kind of a bit more of that highbrow medieval sort of wording he expected out of, frankly, more people. But hey, he made a lady laugh! A lady whose tits he is definitely not going to risk staring at in the cold. But if he did risk looking, would anyone blame him?

"So you're saying you run like a furnace not to have all that snow and cold bother you." He hems and haws for a moment, rubbing his chin. "Orrrr magic? Maybe you magic up a little protection? I honestly have no idea if you can do that. I'm sure there are people who are just that hardy against the cold." He's learning that he's not one of those people, yet he's also doing better than some others. Out of necessity, maybe, but he's not staying indoors all the time.

She also makes it really tempting to, well, tempt fate and dump a little snow on her. He'll try not to listen to that insisting little voice.

"A barrier protects against damage, not the elements though I do not doubt there are some who have adapted in such a way, hedge mages and apostates though, Circle mages were sheltered until now. A glyph if marked the right way can burn far longer and hotter than any fire made by conventional means though the truth is likely disappointing: twas cold where I grew up and even from a young age I had to fashion my own garb. By now I am more than used to it." Although when she was younger she at least wore warmer things than this and there are serious perks to being about to shapeshift but she's not about to suddenly start strolling around as a bear or a wolf, not here. "Where do you come from, you speak unlike most I have met here and that includes some of the Dalish who were already hardly typical of their kin."

But hey, you're already less annoying than Alistair and that's actually something of an achievement because Alistair levels of dislike merit a much more waspish response.

Give him time; he's sure to become more annoying just on principle. He wonders if she went the long way around in explaining it to sound fancy or smart or just mysterious, because the whole magic thing is going to be beyond him probably forever, y'know, since he isn't a mage and there isn't magic in his world. But she doesn't know that.

"'Nother world." Well, now she knows that. "Apparently some people from different planes of existence are just dropping out of your weird rifts. It's pretty inconvenient, I gotta say. Really need to look into patching those holes in your sky. To me, you speak a little weird. Like you're from an old and fancy play."

There's a power in stories and in telling them just right, witches of the wild know just how to do it, hopefully sticking to the correct side of insufferable.

"Well, well," she has seen the rifters in passing but she hasn't had the opportunity to speak with one, until now it seems. "Tis miraculous even one of you survived such a journey, even those who are prepared can risk a great deal and with the connection to the Fade, with a piece of magic lodged within you...has anyone told you of what happened the last time souls dared to venture physically into the Fade? If that is indeed what any of you did, even I am uncertain as to the specifics of how any of you came to be here." Something she would like to look into and he has a very good point about the holes in the sky though inconvenient seems to be the very least of it. "Truly? I had more books in the wilds than aught else, though I would caution you not to bring up how Orlesians speak, much depends on the current fashion there and every word can be a game."

Church flexes his hand, a piece of the so-called Fade itself lodged in its palm. "I've been told there are 'demons' and 'spirits' and shit there. I can't say I remember seeing any of that. It was kind of more like falling in a dream. There was a lot of green. But I don't feel like I saw anything solid until I landed here." He jerks a thumb in the general direction of the Mire from here. "Or, like, over there, I mean. In a fucking swamp. With skeletons and zombies coming up out of the water. So that was a fun way to say hi."

Don't get him started on Orlesians. They're French as fuck. But nobody here has ever heard of France! "So no, I don't really know what happens if someone goes walking around in some spirit world portal. I know people are scared your wizards and witches," sorry, mages, "are gonna get hijacked by things that think magic is tasty, though."

"There are many Circle mages and Chantry sisters who will bore you with the details but the Fade is the realm of demons and spirits, touched by each mage when casting a spell, where the spirit goes when it departs the body, or when dreaming. Except for dwarves." Dwarves are weird, but because they have no magic, she's not really all that interested in dwarven things anyway. "Time and place have little meaning there, things will float as they please or they can seem very real and normal almost but for suddenly finding a rowing boat floating through the sky above you or wedged in a great hunk of rock. How any of you have survived when the Herald did not is...astounding, truly. One hopes that you did not enter it physically though, the last time that happened, if the stories are to be believed, the Blights began."

She survived a Blight, all rotting land and darkspawn, roaming ravenous corpses and if he didn't like the Mire, then she doubts he would enjoy a Blight much more.

"People are often idiots who fear things they can't understand, quick to blame all their problems on a child coming into their magic or an old woman that knows too much. Templars in particular, all of them twitching in their skirts."

"I've been warned," he grouses. "About Templars. And other...people." Why he was warned he'll keep more or less to himself. Adelaide was very insistent he never insinuate ever that this isn't his body. Head-choppingly bad things might happen. But mages seem to at least sort of be chill.

"So is that how your Herald chick died? She went waltzing into the spirit world and died?" Wait, hold on. "If we didn't pass through it physically, we, what, passed through it spiritually, and we just happen to be solid?"

“If there are Qunari who follow the Qun? I would beware them too. They stitch shut the mouths of their mages so they cannot speak a word, they bind them and give a handler to them, like a dog on a leash.” Sten...well Sten was different, and he was answering a question supposedly, never making a single move against her but she can’t speak for any others should they be encountered.

“The Fade often leaves one with more questions than answers, I would say that you are all here physically, else I would worry about your mortal form lying sleeping somewhere. It could be that the rift meant you passed through so quickly - and it would be a shock, something like the Fade and the spirits, the demons, the way it bends and shapes itself as it pleases and feeds on what we bring with us - that your recollections may be different to one who has studied and prepared. Mages are the ones with the best ability to shape the Fade, tis where we draw our magic from, it becomes more familiar to a mage. As for the Herald, I knew her not though it could be that having such magic thrust into your body would kill you. Or it could be the be the doing of Corypheus; ancient magisters knew much and I have faced many Darkspawn to know just how dangerous they are. Combine them, and have one be the creature that stories say lead to the other?” There’s a great deal to think about with the rift and it’s why she left Orlais, so she could study it better after all.

There’s only one way she can see to get answers, though it depends on co-operation and Thedas historically is bad at that. “There are many of you and many mages, study of it may be slow but that will be the only way to come close to answer. Assuming we don’t all die first.” You know, cheerful thoughts and optimism always help.

Who needs cheerful optimism, honestly. She's certainly a fountain of theories and information, giving him a lot to consider, even if he doesn't always get the details--it's just something he's dealing with, letting details run past him and hopefully consulting a book like a true nerd later. Or, y'know, fucking ask someone.

"When aren't we all almost going to die, or like, have death looming over us at every possible moment? Anyone who isn't used to that by now has led a pretty boring life if you ask me." He could use more boring in his life. Really! That'd be nice to be bored, especially somewhere he doesn't have to listen to Caboose trying to un-bored himself. "I mean, if any of you guys need a hunk of specimen to study, I'm sure you'll get volunteers." Not necessarily him. It's like something niggling at the back of his head that he wouldn't really like to be anyone's experiment. But surely that's nothing.

"...Seriously, they sew mouths shut? Cuz that's pretty hardcore, and not in the, y'know, cool way. Qunari, they're the big ones? Like, the big ones, horns, look like they could break you eight ways to Sunday?"

"The current age has been marked by Ferelden driving out Orlesian occupiers, a Blight that almost involved a civil war within the same country, the destruction of the Chantry in Kirkwall that triggered the mage-templar war that I suppose is at an end now, the Orlesian civil war being fought currently and the very sky tearing open." A Qunari invasion or Tevinter truly rising might be the very thing to finish them off; that the latter is most likely is almost a comfort for Tevinter hasn't threatened in anything in such a long time. "My expertise is in the ancient elven though all of this is fascinating, a rare thing to study for someone not biased by Circle and Chantry teachings." Seriously, all this wringing of hands is just ridiculous, busy appeasing Templars and everyone else instead of getting on with their lives and researching important things.

"Not all have horns, the first I met never did though I believe there is said to be something special about them, even to other Qunari. Most here would seem to fall into the Tal-Vashoth, those who have left the qun. The Qun is very strict, few here would do well under it but for their mages, they believe that even speaking would render all to be in danger."

Jesus but that's a lot of words and phrases he's not all familiar with. His map studying at least lets him mentally put Ferelden and Orlais on a map. Kirkwall is apparently an important city in Free Marches across some water north...and Qunari seem to live way, way crazy north and there's problems with them invading? But they're also everywhere.

Not that he's familiar with the Qun except to hear the word in passing, and Tal-Vashoth is new. Let's see...a chantry is a church...where The Chantry is The Church...and a circle is a place where the mages are kept for their/everyone's safety but they're hella sheltered. Blights are bad. They're just...bad.

See? It's taken a couple months, but he's starting to catch on!

"So what you're saying is you're not...y'know." He makes a general motion around them. "With anyone here. Like not from a Circle. Or you at least don't buy into what you're told about them?" She clearly doesn't hold a high opinion to claim to not be biased by them. But doesn't that make her a--a...word. That means not there. Apostle? No shit wait. Isn't that bad anyway? Maybe it doesn't matter with a fucking war on. "Do you get a lot of elves in Orlais? Or are you here because there aren't? People act like they're kind of...rare. Kind of."

Given that half the commonfolk she's ever met, particularly in Ferelden when a Blight was going on, could be mistaken for turnips, any effort to actually learn is to be commended.

"Absolutely not, I have always been free and I always will be, to be caged like some animal with swords all about me is not how I plan to spend one day of my life." Come watch the next time she goes to stare down Templars, it may or may not be one of her very favourite games to play at the moment, especially when she only listens in on the mage council from elsewhere instead of joining. "The prophet Andraste once said 'magic is made to serve man' and so the Chantry decided that at the first signs of magic, a child is taken from their family - if there are multiple children then they are sent to different Circles - and raised the way the Chantry wishes them to be raised. To be frightened of what they are, and watched. Constantly. As if they are convicted simply by being born a mage."

Of course Tevinter kind of took that to an extreme but bringing Tevinter into a conversation right now might derail it, especially if there's been any sort of lurid talk.

"Elves in Orlais are either servants or citizens in the alienages, walled off from the rest, looked down upon and treated poorly at best most of the time. They lost their homeland once, and then they lost their homeland again. To see so many of them walking freely here is very rare, especially with all the many Dalish present, usually they keep to their clans and on the move so as not to draw the ire of humans who would run them off as soon as they overstayed their welcome."

"I heard about the whole 'might get taken over by demons' thing, but like, if the whole thing that people believe is that magic's supposed to serve man, thennnn doesn't it follow that you'd want to power up your mages as much as possible? Like, dude, why go stand up and walk over to get a glass of water when you could keep sitting there and magic that shit over to you."

Is it more complicated than that? Obviously. But the point for the moment stands, according to what he knows.

As for the elves... "Shit, man, why are people so racist against elves? Guess it's no wonder sometimes they're kinda...skittish if I talk to them. Some of them. Definitely not all of them." Like that Spanish bard dude. What a horndog.

"Last time mages 'powered up'," and what an odd turn of phrase that is, "then we ended up with a world where those with magic must live in the shadow of the Tevinter magisters, as if they too share the blame for the horrors of the past. Though that would explain why the Chantry says mages must serve man in much the same way a prisoner serves a sentence when in the Circles. I do wonder what Andraste would think of them were she alive to see it."

At least out here in the world, the mages can actually do something a hell of a lot better than anyone save Grey Wardens; magic is best for fighting demons, something more able to match them and there are certainly plenty of them out there now.

"What happened to the elves is that after losing one home to Tevinter, they gained another and then Orlais felt threatened. There were skirmishes, battles, the elves prayed to their ancestors and not the Maker so they were regarded as heathens and then the Chantry called down an Exalted March of the faithful to crush them. Ever since the elves have remained in their alienages, impoverished and in service to humans, or roaming constantly as the Dalish do. Though here they may make something new for themselves, only time will tell." Try camping with Zevran as he waxes poetically about and old woman's bosom, it's a wonder they all survived the Blight.

Ooookay really starting to get outside his frame of reference here. "There's a big difference between saying magic should serve man and mages should serve man. You guys, or those guys, need to sort out their translation issues." He's not one to make any comments on religion, but that always seems to be a thing. Translation errors taken way out of proportion.

Exalted March from a church (or a Church) sounds a lot like a Crusade, which, huh, maybe that's what Templars are all about...this is getting weird... "So elves are either indentured servants or less than that, or they're roaming around trying to find another place. Wow. That's fucking racist as hell. Sounds like the Chantry needs to bring it down a bit and stop being such aggressive dickbags before they make elves to fucking extinct."

“Alas, we have had such strife since the very beginning, so unless the Inquisition presents an option not yet seen, then we will resume all of this once the war has ended. And if we can keep factions from fighting within themselves, that was always another problem with Circles and their fraternities.” Because by all means, give people the right to an opinion but don’t just sit on your hands fighting with each other instead of actually arguing with the ones in a position to change things.

“The Chantry says they have turned further from the Maker and He will not look upon us until the Chant rings out throughout the whole world.” So passive-aggressive bag of dicks and you’re right on the money there Church. “I suspect some would love nothing more though they would have to pay human servants far better to do the jobs elves do, and abusing them wouldn’t go unnoticed as such things do now.”

"And that's what we call zealotry, ladies and gentlemen. Textbook definition right there. I'd say the solution sounds like taking down the Chantry a couple notches if not take it out completely, but given that it seems like a lot of people are kinda into the whole Chantry thing, that...would be hard." No fucking fake. "And would start a war that anyone opposite the Chantry would probably lose."

...Do not start thinking of what would happen if various rifters started spreading their religions...

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OPEN: this will be a better year

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