faderift | OPEN: The Western Approach

OPEN: The Western Approach

WHO: Everyone!
WHAT: The Western Approach is a terrible place. You should definitely go there.
WHEN: Bloomingtide 15 onward
WHERE: The Western Approach
NOTES: This is open to everyone. Characters who would not happily go to the hell desert probably have to go anyway; it's a war, not a vacation.

Once these wastes were a land of plenty. Can you believe it? The rain came north over the Gamordan Peaks, turning the plains green and verdant for three months of the year. Eight hundred years ago, that changed. During the Second Blight, darkspawn spilled out of an enormous crack in the earth, corrupting it with their foul blood... and it never recovered, even after they were driven back underground. The Grey Wardens built Adamant Fortress to stand watch over that chasm, but eventually even they abandoned it to the wind and the biting sand.

What few of us eke out a living in this Maker-forsaken place do so knowing that any number of deaths await us: darkspawn raids, dragons, bandits—not to mention starvation from the lack of water and game. If we stay, it is because we know there are treasures buried in the bones of this place, ruins from the time when Tevinter ruled, and even earlier. We pass tales around our campfires of the things we have seen shrouded in the dust storms. My favorites are the ones about relics that could restore the Western Approach once more... but I don't believe them. Truth be told, on nights when the wind is calm, I can stand on a hilltop and see for miles in the moonlight over a stark beauty of which no other Orlesian can claim to know the equal. On those nights, I hope it will never change.

—From Lands of the Abyss by Magistrate Gilles de Sancriste

I. THE DESERT

When Scout Harding calls somewhere the worst place in Thedas, that's probably a bad sign. Even when nothing in the Western Approach is deliberately trying to kill you, there's nothing kind or forgiving about the landscape: bare and arid, carved through by sharp-dropped canyons, dotted with abandoned mines and signs of the deaths of lost travelers. Winds sweeping through to whip stinging sand into uncovered faces, and periodic dust storms obscure visibility entirely. It's warm enough to be dangerous but not so hot, at this time of year, that heat exhaustion and dehydration can't creep up on you while you aren't paying attention.

And at any given moment, something probably is deliberately trying to kill you. The food chain in the region is top-heavy, with quillbacks, phoenixes, hyenas, and varghests roaming hungrily and as likely to attack one another as the sparse local prey population. Compared to their natural competitors, the Inquisition's forces look like easy marks. The camps the Inquisition scatters at lookout points throughout the region require constant watch, and going anywhere alone is inadvisable. Not only because of the hostile local everything, but also because it is incredibly easy to get lost. One rock formation looks much like another after hours in the sun or bathed in shifting moonlit shadows, and good luck finding many other landmarks. There are a few: chunks of pillars or arches from some ruined structure, or the occasional odd pillar that might, if someone investigates, prove to mark a trail of sorts.

Plus: the only people who seem determined to survive out here are cutthroat bandits and stray Venatori. Double-plus: a high dragon makes occasional fly-bys, scouring the ground below for anything edible, armored or not.

Some reprieve comes at night, relief from both the sun and the area's primarily diurnal predators. But that's when the darkspawn come out.

II. GRIFFON WING KEEP

Bloomingtide 16-17: Taking the Keep

Only a small force of Tevinter cultists remains in Griffon Wing Keep when the Inquisition arrives, seemingly on their way out the door already, but the sight of Inquisition banners is enough to make them stay and fight. There's no need for siege equipment, but there is call for a little bit of patience. With it, a small battalion is able to evade the mages and archers on the walls and storm the doors with few casualties. Fewer than three dozen warriors wait inside. It's a quick, brutal fight; it only takes a night.

Bloomingtide 18 Onward: Home Away From Home

Once the Keep is cleared of occupants, it's ripe for the Inquisition to… occupy… But with implicit permission, at least. Those who aren't needed for fights elsewhere may be put to work clearing out debris and small animals and the remnants left by the cultists, and within a few days the fortress is a serviceable outpost, much more hospitable than the camps out in the sand. Barracks mean even those who don't have beds at Skyhold may have one here, and it takes less than a week for an enterprising merchant to arrive with ale.

III. THE STILL RUINS

Despite signs of recent activity, the lavish Tevinter palace tucked incongruously into the canyons is quiet and still, when the Inquisition discovers it—quiet, still, but not empty. The ancient ruin is brimming with demons and Tevinters in incredibly outdated fashions, all frozen in place, as they have been for hundreds of years. No one breathes or blinks, but their skin is still warm and alive to the touch.

Beyond the entryway and halls and through the courtyard, there are signs of research and experimentation, and one man stood unmoving with his hand clasped around something unseen.

Perhaps someone will discover the cause. Perhaps someone will undo the spell that's been cast over the palace. Perhaps, if someone does, someone will take the opportunity to not immediately murder all of these valuable sources of ancient information, and instead only murder most of them. In the meantime, however, it is unlikely that anyone will ever be able to get this close to a rage demon without receiving a face full of fire. Take advantage.

IV. CORACAVUS

Signs of the Venatori point upward: up the hills, up ladders and towers, and into the ancient Tevinter prison, Coracavus, that was built into the mountainside. The ruin is filled with sand now, with half-collapsed walls and anything not made of stone worn away by winds, and the Venatori are long gone, their hunt for relics from the glory days of the Imperium abandoned when an excavation attempt opened the prison to darkspawn, instead. The darkspawn have retreated as well, but there are signs of their presence. Namely the smell and the half-eaten corpses of slaves—primarily elven and dwarven—who were left behind to their fates when the Tevinters fled.

There's no sign of them now, but digging through their abandoned camps may turn up a name, if anyone would like to see that he pays.

V. ADAMANT FORTRESS

A day's determined walk from the nearest Inquisition camp, Adamant Fortress overlooks the vast chasm—dubbed the Abyssal Rift—from which darkspawn poured during the Second Blight. It stood abandoned for nearly 150 years before the Grey Wardens' recent reoccupation, and it's abandoned again now, emptied out well before the Inquisition's forces arrive. There are signs that the retreat was a hasty one: scattered belongings, opened doors, abandoned meals, and no fewer than fifty bodies left on a mass pyre that only half-burned without anyone to tend it.

The Veil has always been thin here, and it's thinner now, where demons have been pulled through from the Fade. Rifts hang over the battlements and in the corridors, and escaped shades lurk in the dark corridors, siphoning away the willpower of those who linger until they come close enough to attack. Those who visit the Fortress set up camp outside of it rather than within it, wisely.

There are clear signs of blood sacrifice, for those who look: the bodies, blood stains on the stone floors, neat lists of names systemically crossed through. Sorting through documents left behind may turn up vague notes in a mage's runic shorthand or the journal of a trepidatious new recruit (Lourde, a pickpocket, crossed through on the registers). Behind a locked door in the lowest rooms are the bodies of sixteen mages, still in their Circle robes, left lying where they fell when the Joining took them. Mages who were among the rebels in Redcliffe may recognize a face or two as belonging to the hardliners who left with the Tevinters.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ellana contemplates the answer carefully. It's hard to come at the discussion without any bias, but she wants to sound neutral for Hermione's benefit. She's not of this world and any information she gathered can be skewed based on who is giving it.

"I think... as a whole, it would be very difficult right now. The way Templars treat mages -- as I understand it -- has shifted over centuries to get to the point where the mages felt they had to break away and govern themselves. With rifters, I think Templars use the same wariness they've been trained to use around mages. Perhaps they're even more wary, because with mages, they've trained to purge their magic. That gives them a sense of control. With rifters, they don't know what you're capable of, and I don't think that the group overall would be very trusting. Maybe one on one, as you say."

Hermione's already used to hearing a bias, since finding a book in Skyhold's library that hadn't been written with a strong opinion of one group or another is nigh impossible. So at Ellana's explanation, Hermione hums softly, looking down in thought.

"I met a woman here shortly after I'd arrived. She calls herself a Seeker. She was very insistent that I go through a Harrowing, and though I'd agreed easily enough, now that I actually know what that is... well, I don't think it would have had the sort of effect she clearly thought it would have, and it probably would have made things much worse. I can understand wanting to handle things the way they've always been handled, but-.... Not to sound insensitive, but rifters aren't the only ones who need to get acclimated to change. And some people are just better at that than others, on both sides."

Reacting to the word 'Harrowing,' Ellana's eyes widen. Her face would probably pale if it wasn't so sunburned. Of course it would be Cassandra who would demand such a thing. After her handling of Galadriel's imprisonment, Ellana has gotten the sense that the Seeker hides behind harsh methods of control in the name of safety.

"No, you shouldn't. No one should be forced to take a Harrowing. Dalish mages don't do it at all. It's foolish to throw mages at a demon, especially when we have so few mages to begin with. To me, it feels like a way to kill mages and hide behind the excuse that they weren't strong enough and would have caused trouble anyway. No one can know such a thing until it happens, and it doesn't explain the mages who have passed their Harrowings only to summon demons later."

Hermione had read about Harrowings after her meeting with Cassandra. While they certainly sounded much more dangerous than she'd initially thought, Ellana's reaction pretty much confirms that, and she's glad that Cassandra had never gotten around to actually putting her through that.

"The Dalish don't do it?" Hermione asks, surprised. "I suppose it does seem like the sort of cultural difference that would be colored by Chantry influence, but there is some small logic in it, if possession is a real concern. But I agree, it can be easily manipulated so that anyone who has issues with mages can use that against them. Hopefully it's something that gets revamped or gotten rid of completely as more reform happens."

Ellana nods along and moves a hand up to her itchy forehead to scratch at it absently, before she winces and lowers her hand. Of course scratching a sunburn hurts. She knows that, but isn't thinking on it right now, which led to her forgetting.

"I've read all about them, to better understand the issue. A test to determine if you can resist possession isn't inherently bad, but the mage is given such little preparation for what they'll face, and the demon is deliberately summoned to meet the mage. It makes such little sense to me. Templars claim the mage can't have prior knowledge of what the Harrowing is, to replicate what they may face on their own someday, and yet summoning a demon deliberately isn't replicating what the average mage will face on their own. We see demons on our dreams when they seek us out; not because they're called."

"Considering that I'd been encouraged to undertake a Harrowing despite the Seeker knowing that I had no understanding of what it was, I'm inclined to believe you," Hermione murmurs bitterly. She understands that Cassandra more likely than not simply had the best interests of the majority of Skyhold in mind. But throwing a young woman to the wolves while telling her she'll be playing with dogs isn't exactly helpful.

"I had simply thought that I hadn't known what one was because of my status as a rifter. Do they really not tell any mage what they're about to face, despite the fact that they are willfully calling a dangerous demon to come and try to possess them?" She'd heard of surprise tests, but they usually wouldn't result in possession or death.

Such a thing is no revelation, seeing the kind of person the Seeker is, and Ellana gets a sick feeling in her stomach because of it. Has Cassandra said the same to other rifters who have landed in Thedas and told her they have magic? If so, have they agreed to undertake a Harrowing?

"So I have heard. Since the Circles fell, mages have been talking about it, but back when they all lived locked in their Towers? No. The apprentices knew there was a test before they could become full mages. They also knew that some nights their fellow apprentices would vanish without a trace. As I said, I had to learn about this because Dalish mages don't go through it, but I'm on the Mage Council and I needed to know all about it. Apparently they're told right before they do it."

Hermione lets that sink in for a few moments, thinking over everything she's learned about Harrowings. It, admittedly, hasn't been much, and it's such a grim topic that she'd read just enough about it to get the basic idea of it, but that doesn't really make what Ellana has to say sound much better.

"So... if mages live in a Circle, growing up with other mages and becoming friends - even more than friends, if it so happens - they might end up losing people they care about and never knowing what happened to them? Are they-... are they told what has happened to their friends once they've completed their Harrowing?" Because really, in some ways, that sounds like an even worse idea. If she'd lost Ron or Harry because of some stupid tradition at Hogwarts that she'd never known about, and was later told that they'd been killed because they hadn't studied enough... well, she can see why most mages are no friends of the Chantry.

"I think they must know. A mage's only choices are to successfully complete the Harrowing, be possessed by a demon and therefore killed by Templars, or to become Tranquil." And here a sudden thought comes to Ellana's mind.

"I know some volunteer for Tranquility and others have it forced upon them, but I never considered what happens to them after. If they stay in the same Circle, then their friends obviously see them. Maybe the apprentices thought that was the result of failing a Harrowing: you became Tranquil."

The idea of Tranquility makes her stomach lurch. She has nothing against the Tranquil themselves, of course. They're victims in all of this, and any who would choose such a thing for themselves clearly either had the wrong impression of it, or must have been so badly off that they'd thought it something of an improvement. She can't imagine what it must be like to have that sort of thing be a choice, never mind having it forced upon her.

"Do you know any Tranquil?" she asks softly. "It sounds, in some ways, a fate worse than death; almost like a Dementor's Kiss, though I think Tranquility is even kinder than that. But I wouldn't know, having never met any."

"I can't say I'm friends with any," Ellana shrugs, "But I don't think the Tranquil even think about making friends. I know there's Helisma. She researches creatures, mostly. You can see her in the library all the time. What's a Dementor's Kiss?"

Hermione doesn't know Helisma, but it still bothers her to think that she's come across someone who's had something so horrible done to her and hadn't even known it. But then, most wouldn't have thought that Hermione had withstood half of what she had, so who is she to say?

"In my world, there are Dark creatures known as Dementors. They look like little more than walking ragged cloaks; almost like despair demons. Their presence is enough to steal the warmth and happiness and hope from their general vicinity, and if you let them get close enough to you, they can clamp their jaws over your mouth and suck out your soul. It still leaves the victim alive, but they're in a vegetative state, not thinking or feeling or doing anything until their body gives out. And with no soul, even death isn't an escape. It's terrible, and it's used as the highest punishment for only the worst crimes, but I don't think we should use it even for that. Hopefully that's one of the changes our new Minister implements."

Even though Ellana adores getting to hear about other worlds, it isn't long before she's clutching a hand to her chest, horrified at what she's hearing. To be alive with no soul... yes, that sounds similar to what the Tranquil suffer: unable to feel emotions, unable to dream, unable to truly be themselves ever again.

"Used as punishment? Do you mean these Dementors work for jailers?"

"They did," Hermione admits. "The Ministry of Magic used them in Azkaban, our wizarding prison. When Voldemort - our version of Corypheus - briefly gained power, he found more uses for them. Unethical uses. But he's gone now, and our new Minister of Magic is much too good of a person to allow them to continue running rampantly. Or at all."

She pauses for a moment before looking at Ellana again. "Despair demons... they can't perform the equivalent of a Dementor's Kiss?" That would make them so much less disturbing, honestly.

"Minister of Magic," she says, sounding intrigued. Obviously with the way magic is treated in Thedas, they have nothing like that. Being a Councilor on Skyhold's Mage Council doesn't mean she helps make decisions that affects the world's mages. They don't even hold authority over Skyhold's mages. They're just a group who bands together to represent those mages who want to be represented.

Ellana shakes her head no. "The ones who fall from rifts blast you with ice to freeze you. The ones that visit mages in dreams try to make you lose hope and give in to them."

"He works very closely with Britain's Muggle Prime Minister," Hermione offers. "Muggles don't know about magic, of course, and the only way to make sure it stays that way is to work with the Muggles in positions of high enough power to provide very safe, mundane explanations for any of the larger magical goings-on. I can only imagine the sort of conversations they'd had during the Second Wizarding War." She's sort of surprised it hadn't incited a war with the Muggles, considering that there'd been a few Muggle casualties.

Hermione's silent for a moment as she takes this into consideration. She keeps hearing about mages being at risk for possession, but as that sort of thing doesn't exactly happen where she's from (or, at least, not in quite such a cut-and-dry sort of way).... "Do you think anyone with magic would run the risk of possession? Whether they're connected to the Fade or not?"

Muggles is such a funny word to Ellana's ear that she has to suppress a smile on hearing it. She wonders if Hermione sees that a lot: people here trying not to smile when she says the word.

The question has Ellana thinking hard, and finally she shakes her head no. "You have to be connected to the Fade. That's why a demon can't possess a Tranquil: their connection is severed."

Hermione's very aware that a lot of the words from her world sound funny - as a child, she'd had difficulty that Professor McGonagall was anything other than a crazy old woman when she'd come to the Granger home to explain the magical situation to Hermione and her parents. But if it works... well, she's come to ignore the strangeness of most of the vocabulary, since she's spent nearly half of her life in the wizarding world already.

Nodding at Ellana's reply, Hermione nonetheless keeps in mind to pose that question to other mages, just to be sure she gets a consistent response. "That's good to hear, then. At least I don't have to worry about demons. Other than being eaten by them, that is."

"There is that risk for everyone, now that there are rifts everywhere." But she doesn't want to go into demons anymore tonight. She moves to fluff her pillow into a semi-comfortable shape.

"It's getting late. I've enjoyed talking -- even if the subjects we touched on weren't the cheeriest -- but I think I should turn in now."

"Sorry," Hermione immediately says upon noticing that Ellana seems tired. "I seem to have a habit of doing that to most of my conversations around here. I'll leave you be for now." Managing a small smile, she gives her a slight wave and tells her, "Sleep well, Ellana."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

OPEN: The Western Approach

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject