faderift | Kingsway Rifter Arrival

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Kingsway Rifter Arrival

WHO: New rifters & their rescuers
WHAT: People fall out of a rift and get attacked by stuff
WHEN: Kingsway 8
WHERE: The coast of the Waking Sea in northern Orlais, just west of the mountains.
NOTES: The arrival log is open to all. Solas was able to alert the Inquisition to the general area where the new rifters would be arriving so people could be sent to pick them up.

You were asleep--deeply or fitfully, for the last time or just resting your eyes for a moment-- and then you were not. And wherever you were was not, anymore, replaced by nothing but the sensation of falling, tumbling into endless, bottomless nothing. If this were still a dream, you would wake before you hit the ground. You can't die in a dream, they say. In some worlds.

In this world, you're plunged down through warm, sticky sea air and full-body into salt water. It's shallow enough to stand and keep your head above the rolling waves--but you'll need to do more than that to live. Overhead, there's a flaring, shifting, green-lit tear in reality. Around you, there are a number of ghastly figures: some float above, hooded and rasping, poised to freeze the sea around you if you don't get out of it quickly enough, while others are spindly monstrosities that burst up from the sand and rocks beneath your feet and scream as they emerge from the water. Whatever arrived with you floats in the waves, slowly pushed toward the shore, or sinks beneath the surface. It may be wisest to leave it for now and collect it when the area is slightly less demon-infested.

To add to your troubles, there's a narrow splinter of light in the same sickly green as whatever brought you here, now glowing out of the palm of your left hand. It aches, a bone-deep pain that gnaws even through all the distractions.

But there's help, on the shore.

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She's about to ask how he can read a book with a hole in it when he tells her he's a collector and she figures that it's not meant to be read.

"My clan's name, Ashara, means 'woman who is on a journey.' So our last names are similar." It's a nice little coincidence. "I'm with a group called the Inquisition. We come to rescue those who fall from the rifts and bring them back to our base. If you've found everything you can, we could head back to camp, and from there to Skyhold."

"Skyhold? Is that a colony? A station?" he asks, pausing in thought and looking Ellana over before shaking his head. "Nevermind, no. Probably no tech like back home to be had here. That's fine. Less chance of blowing up," he muses mostly to himself, smirking at the connection she made with their names.

"Maybe I ought to smarten my name up a bit? Be more local? Probably stand out like a sore thumb regardless, hm?" he snorts, reaching up and tugging at one of his horns. He isn't sure he'll ever get used to it.

"So...what? That's all the Inquisition does? That name has a fairly negative connotation, historically speaking, where I'm from."

"It's a fortress in the mountains. The Inquisition uses it as our base of operations." Even though he says never mind, she still explains. It's such an impressive place, and she's proud that it has ancient elven origins, even if it's been added to multiple times by other cultures. The giant owl statue over the front doors and balcony is still a symbol of one of the Creators, not the Maker.

"Um, well things can blow up here," she answers with a slight wince. The Temple of Sacred Ashes exploding was probably the biggest explosion Thedas has ever seen, but the dwarves use explosives in mining and clearing out underground passages all the time. The Qunari use gunpowder too, but she doesn't know much about it.

"There are a group of rifters here already." Some have integrated better than others, and that's because they've made the effort to. "And we have people with horns at Skyhold. Only one is as short as you, though." Because Qunari/Vashoth are tall.

"I-I'm not short!" he protests, patting a hand against his chest and raising a booted foot to emphasize. "I happen to be perfectly average in height! I don't even wear lifts, look!" Not that he precisely understood that among the horned people of the realm he was small. He just thinks he's being judged and that happens a little too often for his taste.

"You still haven't said what this Inquisition is all about though," he remarks, remembering his earlier question and arching a suspicious brow Ellana's way. Not that he really thinks there's some dark ulterior motive, since she just went at some demons with the same tenacity he would have gone at the equivalent back home.

"Of course you're not short," she says in a tone of appeasement. "You're average from where you are from. I'm just saying that here, people who have horns tend to be much taller." So hopefully he won't think she's poking fun.

"Oh, it's because it's a long story." Ellana gestures that they should start walking for the camp. "The shortest I can make it is that there is a powerful being trying to take over the world as a god, and we're gathering strength in order to stop him and his army."

"Wow. Huh, I could just be home, the way you're talking," he remarks, following along because where else should he go? He had all of his things and if Ghost was anywhere to be found, certainly they would find each other, bound as they were. If they didn't? Vacation time! No more snobby, nagging Ghost bossing him about and calling him out. Sure, he'll have to get home eventually, but fate tended to guide him where he needed to go and evidently that's--

"Wait, sorry. Hold on. I'm getting ahead of myself. We're going to Skyhold, some fortress - I get that - but like, where is this? What's this place called? Where are we going? How long will it take? What's...I don't know, a hundred klicks West of this location? Which way is West, for that matter?"

Edited 2016-09-13 21:02 (UTC)

"Well, I can show you a map once we get to camp," she begins. "I'll tell you what everything is called, but it might just confuse you." Gesturing out towards the water, she says, "That is the Waking Sea. The country we're currently in is called Orlais and this is the north-eastern part of it. Our camp is right over there. We'll be there in less than five minutes." As they're moving down a bit of a slope, the camp is more clearly in view.

"Skyhold lies in the Frostback Mountains, on the border between Orlais and Ferelden to the east. West is..." She pauses to orient herself, then points out and to the right a little. "That way. I don't know what a klick is, so I can't tell you what's a hundred klicks west. Um, did you ask anything else that I'm forgetting?"

"A klick is a kilometer...but I don't know if you use the same measurements. And you're not confusing me. This is great stuff. I mean, all Guardians do is see places other people only hear about in stories. It's just not usually quite so literal," Mac muses, smiling cheerily.

"Uh...West is that way, but how do you tell? Do you have stars you orient with? Compasses?" he asks, looking up at the sky and turning in a few short rotations, squinting up and trying to see past sea spray, clouds and everything else obstructing his vision.

"Oh, yeah and...I know you said people come through these rift things, but, that's okay, right? I'm not going to be burned at the stake or anything?"

"Oo, Guardians. Is that your race, or your title? It sounds very chivalrous, whatever it is." And similar to what she's been trying to do. She's long wished to see the world outside of her clan, and now she can. It's too bad that it's taken a war for it to happen, but she isn't taking one moment for granted.

"The stars, the sun, and knowing what's around you. For instance, I know the Waking Sea is to the north of Orlais, and it's to our backs, so we're walking south, which makes west that way."

His question is a loaded one, and she has to pause and consider what to say. Plenty of people in Thedas are suspicious sorts, prone to rushing to violence first and asking questions later, if at all. But she isn't going to lie to him either. She never lies to good people. Actually, she's never really lied in general, but given the opportunity, she'll lie to the enemy.

"There are some who believe the rifters are demons," she says slowly. "But you and the others are under the Inquisition's protection and those people know better than to start anything. To others, you're simply an unknown. People don't know what you're capable of, and that makes them nervous. But some don't care. I know of a rifter who's in a relationship with a native."

"Ooohhh, sounds very sketch and romanceishy. I like it," Mac drawled, wagging his brows at Ellana and nodding in understanding. "It's really not all that different back home so I can adapt, I think. It'll take me a little while to catch up on the local situation, history, languages and such, but I love that stuff. I think it's part and parcel of being a Warlock, really. evidently we're all a little square," he remarks, making a square shape with his hands before reaching up to grip both horns, tugging at them while he walks.

"Hmm, no. Yes? Kind of. It's not good road chat, I don't figure, but if you want me to tell you the whole story about where I'm from and all, we can do that when we get to your camp. But the short of it is that Awoken is my race, but my race was sort of...erased? Yeah, I guess that's the best way of saying it. It was erased when I became a Guardian, which is sort of both a race and a title. Or, more like a race and an occupation? Or is Guardian a title and Warlock an occupation," he mumbles to himself, tugging his head to one side he pulled so hard on a horn. Nope, on there pretty tight.

She does her best to follow along, but she thinks she might need a diagram to understand it all. Her education was a little lacking, and she's likely the first to admit that she isn't very smart, though she's been trying to improve herself.

"But there are other Guardians too? I should tell you about the races of Thedas. They'll be important for you to know."

"Oh yes! Please, please do!" Mac responds with the same excitement from earlier. He paces himself enough to at least answer her question.

"Oh sure, loads more. I mean, they don't outnumber anything else out there, but there's a small army, I suppose. Around 30 million, last count. But there's way, way more regular people. If you add up all the Awoken, Humans and Exos...well, we Guardians are definitely the minority."

She makes note of that number, showing a bit of surprise. Are there even thirty million people in the whole of Thedas? She doubts it. But who knows what lies to the north, or the west, or east of the Amaranthine Ocean?

"Well, first you should know that elves aren't looked at kindly by most people. It's a long, long story, but we're seen as lesser. There are two main groups of us. Dalish elves were those of the Dales who refused to submit to humans. We have no permanent land to call our own. We're nomads. We worship elven gods called the Creators. Those who submitted to humans had to agree to worship their deity: the Maker. They're called city elves."

Now she pauses to give him time to absorb this before she moves on to the other races.

He nods slowly, brows lofting in surprise at the mention of elves being somehow lesser compared to humans. It was a disappointment, but not nearly as crushing as Ellana might have thought it would be. Mac isn't easily swayed on his personal opinions. Elves are the shit. Point blank, period. Anyone who says otherwise is obviously an ignorant ass, sorry about it.

"I'm sorry," he says abruptly, frowning a bit and huffing a long sigh. "People can be assholes. Nobody deserves that. Back home we've got the Exos. They were treated pretty crap for a long time before anyone accepted them as equals. And way wayyyy wayyyyyyyy back in history, they actually fought over things like....skin color. People are pretty stupid on the whole, I guess. But go on, I apologize for interrupting, ma'am."

"It seems people will argue over anything if there's opportunity. I just prefer to stay away from people I can't agree with." But others have to be difficult.

"Oh, you didn't interrupt. I didn't want to throw everything at you at once without allowing you to ask questions in between. But now I'll mention humans. It's said humans came down from the north and invaded the elven empire. They conquered us and for centuries we were their slaves. Then with the rise of Andrastianism -- the worship of the Maker -- human and elven slaves managed to free themselves and elves were gifted with the Dales. But the humans kept expanding, and though the elves tried to rebuild their empire away from humans, we were conquered and scattered. Andrastianism is very important to humans. One of their teachings is that the Maker doesn't like magic and they've used it as an excuse to imprison mages. It's only been recently that those mages broke free. We Dalish aren't like that; we treasure our mages."

Ellana feels that's important for him to know because he displayed magic himself. He'll already be looked on with suspicion for being a rifter, so she wants to prepare him for this too.

He's already used to being looked at with suspicion for being a Guardian, though for vastly different reasons, but he accepts it either way, squinting at the idea of elves being reduced to slaves. Slavery existed in his world too, once, so it isn't a foreign concept, but elves as slave? That seemed akin to pissing on a flower garden instead of watering it. Everything was going to be ruined and you look like an idiot doing it, and the flowers. Come on, man.

"Eh, other Guardians look at us warlocks like we're weird an spooky so that's not new. Kinda bums me out that it's universal, but hey, whatever, I can think lightning into existence. Be jealous, plebs," he drawls, flexing a hand and wagging a brow at Ellana before shrugging.

"Does the Inquisition have a library? If I'm going to be here for more than a minute, I think I'm just going to spend a few days tearing through boo---oh. Wait...I don't even know if I'll be able to read anything here," he frowns, pouting a bit. "I hope I can."

Ellana exhales a short laugh at his expression, even if she doesn't know what a pleb is. At least he can laugh about it. She finds she likes this rifter already. He takes everything in stride.

"It does, and you should be able to understand them if they're written in Common. After all, we can understand each other talking, can't we? I know rifters have read the books here, so something connects us no matter where you come from."

"Yeah but see, I always thought Ghost was the one letting me read things or speak in other languages, so I'm a little worried is all. Though, if he's still around somewhere I guess that makes the connection solid either way. I don't really pretend to understand Traveler logic. Ghost says something works, it does, I accept it. Pretty much the way things are. You say I'm a Rifter, I'm in elf-crazy-awesome-land, okay. I'll take your word for it. I mean what would you possibly have to gain fabricating something like this?" he asks, gesturing around them at everything.

"Unless I died for real, finally, and this is some kind of sweet afterlife. Either way, I'm not complaining. It's either a temporary vacation from work or a permanent vacation from life. Can't really cry over it, either way," he shrugs dismissively, scratching the side of his nose before smirk and arching a brow.

"Elves and humans aren't all, right? You've got big-ass horned things. Do you have dragons? Oh man, tell me you have dragons. Are they good dragons or bad dragons? Or both?"

"I think you're the first rifter to mention Ghost, so the others are able to understand us without them." And she really doesn't know why, but she's grateful for it.

"I'm pretty sure you're alive," she replies with a smirk. He seems solid enough to her, and they're not in the Fade. She would know.

"Yes." Ellana nearly says It's complicated, but she's said that about everything she's revealed so far. It's becoming clear to her that nothing in Thedas is simple.

"They're either called Qunari, which means a follower of the Qun, or a Tal-Vashoth or Vashoth. They get touchy about which you call them too, so it's good to have someone tell you in advance. As for dragons, yes we have them, and no there aren't any good ones. They destroy farmland and villages, and eat livestock. They always need to be killed before they spread their destruction."

"Aw really? That's lame," he mumbles with a sigh, arching a brow slowly before hedging, "Maybe someone could like, train a baby one? Anyways," he shrugs it off.

"Okay is the Qun a person or a religion? What's Tal-Vashoth mean? Because if it means 'big horned asshole' I think I'll need something else to use. You know. In the vernacular or whatever," Mac rambles good-naturedly, accepting everything without much fuss. Life is ever so strange for Guardians already; accepting more strangeness is hardly complicated.

If anything it's all the best news he's had since rising.

"I wonder why I ended up here though. If there is a why, and it wasn't just some kind of happy accident. I don't mind one way or another, but I'm not terribly prone to avoiding Destiny. Guardians that do that...well. It never ends up very good for anyone."

"All right," she says, taking a deep breath. "The Qun is a religion, but it completely governs the lives of those who practice it, so it's more like a... societal structure?" She isn't sure she's using the right terms. She's read up on politics, but it's still mostly nonsense to her. She's pretty sure she's going to drop it as an area of study. "Nearly every horned person belongs to the Qun, because they were born into it. If they leave, they're called Tal-Vashoth. I was told that means 'True Grey' in their language. The descendants of those people are called Vashoth. Now, here's where it gets complicated."

Oh, yes. Even more than it is already. Are you ready, Mac?

"The Qun wants to convert everyone to their way of life. So far, they haven't gotten too far south, but their goal is to invade and convert, so that everyone belongs to the Qun. For now, they take in those who want to convert, no matter what race they are. There are elves who have joined, because they feel they get a better life there than anywhere else. So elves can also be called Qunari. Any race can, if they've converted."

Now she stops, leaving it at that. She's open to more questions, but she doesn't want to miss out on asking about him in return.

"So I take it a Guardian guards something or someone?"

He nods, accepting what Ellana says about the Qun fairly easily. Not a hard pill to swallow - plenty of religions like that back home before the Last Golden Age. Nothing he wanted to live through, but it was bound to be a very important learning experience, regardless.

But now she's asked about him and Mac's eyes light up like-- well, whatever a reasonably bright and cheery holiday is in Thedas.

"Oh, geez. Everything. We Guard everything, really. We protect the Light," he answers with an air of importance placed on the word making it less of a scientific thing and more of a concept. "Guardians are the warriors who fight for the whole universe. Granted we don't get out of our core system much, but we've been hampered by the Darkness, so...not a lot of Guardians moonlighting as explorers," he shrugs, tugging the tunic of his armor with a smile.

"We're kind of like knights, but we don't protect one kingdom, we protect all kingdoms. Doesn't matter where or who, only that we are the Light standing against the Darkness."

"It sounds very important," she says, though she can't help thinking of the Templars, and how they had served the Divine, supposedly to protect mages and protect the world from hostile mages. It may be that his role is one in which he truly believes he's doing good (how can he not be, if it's the Light vs the Darkness?) but the truth is something else entirely. But Ellana doesn't like these cynical thoughts. Taking him at his word would feel a lot better in her gut, so she smiles and says, "I hope we can discover the way back so you can return to your duties."

He opens his mouth, prepared to respond in kind before pondering the answer more fully. He was never one to shirk responsibility - though groan about it he would, as any young man with a will of his own might. The nature of Guardians is quite specific; without a cause to champion, what is he, precisely?

An aimless warrior at best, a useless undead at worst. Well, so far as he's able to understand the mechanics of what he himself is.

And there are people back home. Not that any of them would miss him in particular. Then again...

"I can attend my duties anywhere. There is always a battle between forces somewhere, and anywhere I protect those in need is still carrying the Light. Dimensions don't matter anymore to the Darkness than time or distance, so wherever evil thrives, it's my reason for existing to cast it out, I should think."

Sounds right to him, anyways. Without Ghost there to argue, he's free to make his own choices, really.

"So you consider yourself a Guardian of this world too?" she asks, a bit surprised. Yet she does give him a smile all the same.

"We are fighting a great evil right now, and I think we could always use another set of hands to do it."

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