Player Plot: I will call you home

[arlathvhen]

WHO: Beleth, Cyril, Merrick, and Ellana Ashara, Thranduil, Sina Dahlasanor, Metaari, Sam Gareth, Kallian Endris, Alistair and Ruby i think??? whoever wants to go
WHAT: Keeping Up With The Asharas, the reality tv show
WHEN: Backdatedish, around mid-kingsway
WHERE: The Heartlands of Orlais
NOTES: OOC post

Tel'enfenim, da'len Irassal ma ghilas Ma garas mir renan Ara ma'athlan vhenas Ara ma'athlan vhenas	Never fear, little one, Wherever you shall go. Follow my voice-- I will call you home. I will call you home.

Clan Ashara currently resides in a small valley nestled into the mountains, that seems idyllic for a Dalish clan. A stream runs through the valley, descending into a waterfall with the steep cliffs on one side, and sheer mountain walls going straight up on two other sides. The only way in and out is through a gap big enough to lead several aravels through. It's a defensible position, safe from any threats. Except the fade rift that has opened up just a little ways from the gap. The hunters can handle the demons spewing from it well enough, and there are always a couple stationed there to pick off whatever appears. But it's too dangerous to lead the aravels and noncombatants through, and thus, they are forced to wait. To compound the issue, there's a village close to where they're currently staying, and while both sides have kept to themselves, neither are pleased with the current situation. They've helped get a message to the Inquisition in hopes that someone will come take care of the problem, and now both are tensely waiting for something to happen to change the situation, for better or worse. And so the members of Clan Ashara, with their friends in tow, return back to their clan.

Comments

[rowancrowned]

"Not wholly." They had elements of what ought to be- the long life, the art, the connection to the land. But other pieces disgusted him. His expression stays light, polite, his hands still around the cup. He's moved beyond the problem of how they wed so freely and frequently, but the violence, the cruelty, the kinslaying- that sticks, and makes him think that perhaps what was ought to be released. A better future can be built.

"Which you have no interest in begetting." Ah. This makes it much more simple. He sets the cup down, off to the side, and takes Cyril's hand in his own, warm from the heat of the cup. "And they have this same... attitude towards an elf who might have been injured in some way and is also unable to beget children?"

[samahl]

Cyril raised his brow a bit. "You mean pity?" he asked. "It's not that I have no interest in children, it's that I have no interest in women. Many in the Clan have been accepting of that, as long as I eventually settle down and continue the blood line."

[rowancrowned]

"The same disappointment." No better word for it than the one Cyril himself used, after all. What a wretched world, to need to beget elflings for the need to keep elves as a people alive, rather than simply out of love. A world with death breathing down your neck, no promise of Mandos, no promise of a someday-soon reunion.

"Is this common?" He looks over the rest of the clan now, wondering to himself how many are like Cyril, male or female. "Then they expect you to put yourself out to stud."

Like an animal.

[samahl]

Cyril watches Thranduil carefully, taking in his expression and the way he responds to the whole idea of this. He himself is careful not to have too much emotion on his own face. "Each Clan is different," he explains. "We're too separate from each other to be completely unified in all matters." The thought, briefly, of Twisted Fate and his Clan and how different things had seemed when they went there. "But in general, there is a sense that if you are Dalish and choose not to have children you are failing, in some way, to be true to the bloodline. We are not immortal anymore. We need children if we are to live on."

Then, after a moment. "I haven't had it nearly as hard as our Keeper's son, Sorrel. I've been allowed my reckless dalliances, while he has been held on a tight leash. I'm not even sure his mother realizes he has no romantic interest in women. I don't think she'd care if she knew." But Cyril had realized and had known since they were all very young. It had been everything in him not to fall in love with Sorrel because of that. "He has magic, you see. His blood is more precious."

[rowancrowned]

He has schooled his expression into careful neutrality, if a fairly warm one. It always seems that just when he's managed to discover the depths of this world that another makes itself know. Thranduil's only comfort is that once all is made right, Cyril will think less of this time. He's so young- it will seem less important once eternity rolls out before him.

"Would you wed him if you were free to?" he asks, and then clarifies. "Sorrel."

Perhaps he's being insensitive, but given how both Cyril and Sorrel both prefered males, and had been in such a small clan- their paths must have crossed.

[samahl]

Cyril blinked at the idea. There's a hint in his expression that his path had indeed crossed with Sorrel and there had been a hint of longing there. They had never acted on it. Sorrel was strictly off limits.

Still, the idea of it was intriguing. "I might, if he wanted me that way," he admitted after a moment. The idea seemed so unobtainable that admitting he'd consider it seemed harmless.

[rowancrowned]

Harmless enough. "How do engagements and wedding go, among the Dalish?" Thranduil asked, genuinely curious. It wasn't as if he'd have as neat of a movement to this topic again.

[samahl]

"In general? Usually two of age elves decide to bond. There's a token of affection, sometimes a ring, and then they let the Keeper now. It gets more complicated when it's cross Clans, though, as they need to figure out which Clan the couple will stay with. Other times, it's arranged. For example, a Keeper might arrange a marriage with another Clan to help with relations. We don't really see much of each other though, so you need to be ready to say good bye to your family."

internal screaming about how dalish life sucks

[rowancrowned]

"There is no happy median, is there? No state of life between being trapped in an alienage and roaming the woods?" He's staring off into some middle distance, some point beyond the fire. These are thoughts he really shouldn't be voicing to Cyril. He should keep them to the side with all the other things saved for Galadriel and the Outsider. "Ah, forgive me. My thoughts wander. Tell me of the rings you exchange?"

[samahl]

"It varies," he explains, but his eyes are narrowed a bit when he thinks about what Thranduil has said. "It depends on the Clan, the elf, and what gods they feel most close to. Usually there's some design to the thing to help make it unique. I've never really seen one up close, I'm afraid."

Then, after a moment, "In Tevinter, elves are more often slaves or servants. The Dalish refused to bow to masters and reclaimed the woods as a statement that we will never submit to the humans." He takes a breath and considers his words for a moment. "I'm very proud of that heritage, but at the same time I've always wondered if there wasn't some other way - some better way to live. At times I feel like we're shadows trying to hold onto air."