His smile grows. "And here you are, ready and willing to play savior."
Thranduil regrets the state of Thedas. More truthfully, he regrets not being here. Not being able to stem the tide of blood and ruin and loss- if not since the fall of Elvhenan, then from at least the Dales, where he might have helped. But he is not there. He is here, with what he can do now-
And what right does Herian have to try her hand at improving the lot of a people she has no claim to? A people her kind have enslaved and led to ruin?
If safety and rebirth of the elves in Thedas comes, it will not be by Mannish hands. It will only come from within.
"I am not your Lord," he begins, settling into a more neutral expression as he watches her, makes eye contact when she cares to. (When has he ever been the Lord of a Mortal?) "And the order I have lived with all my long life is based upon tenets the Seeker does not hold, for moral purposes or simply that they are not considered important, here in Thedas. Justice is applied differently here, though understand I have my own rules. The Freemarchers in the Inquisition-" yes, he knows her accent. "- are not held to the letter of the Orlesian law, though they reside there. Though, of course, we speak of shemlen Freemarchers."
Elves are held seemingly to a universal elven law of heads and eyes down.
His brows raise, he humors her. "Go on, please. I would very much enjoy a lecture from a Man on the savage ways of all the Dalish elves. Please, enlighten me."
(She is, in the end, a Man pass the age when they are considered to be adults. He will not, as the Orlesians say, treat her with kidskin gloves.)
i'm sorry for him
Thranduil regrets the state of Thedas. More truthfully, he regrets not being here. Not being able to stem the tide of blood and ruin and loss- if not since the fall of Elvhenan, then from at least the Dales, where he might have helped. But he is not there. He is here, with what he can do now-
And what right does Herian have to try her hand at improving the lot of a people she has no claim to? A people her kind have enslaved and led to ruin?
If safety and rebirth of the elves in Thedas comes, it will not be by Mannish hands. It will only come from within.
"I am not your Lord," he begins, settling into a more neutral expression as he watches her, makes eye contact when she cares to. (When has he ever been the Lord of a Mortal?) "And the order I have lived with all my long life is based upon tenets the Seeker does not hold, for moral purposes or simply that they are not considered important, here in Thedas. Justice is applied differently here, though understand I have my own rules. The Freemarchers in the Inquisition-" yes, he knows her accent. "- are not held to the letter of the Orlesian law, though they reside there. Though, of course, we speak of shemlen Freemarchers."
Elves are held seemingly to a universal elven law of heads and eyes down.
His brows raise, he humors her. "Go on, please. I would very much enjoy a lecture from a Man on the savage ways of all the Dalish elves. Please, enlighten me."
(She is, in the end, a Man pass the age when they are considered to be adults. He will not, as the Orlesians say, treat her with kidskin gloves.)