[Open] Mage Lyfe 101

[justice_is_blond]

WHO: OPEN, Anders
WHAT: Mage conferece on practical magic
WHEN: Kingsway 24th, all day
WHERE: Just outside Skyhold
NOTES: Plotting post and IC announcement.

The tables and chairs are set up, there's some parchment and a few quills for note-taking, and a table on the side has pitchers of water as well as a motley assortment of cups. He's done what he can, done the footwork and talking, and now has to hope it catches and spreads.

And hope Purrelden doesn't tangle herself around something with her leash again.

[ooc: hop on in, put up a header! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them on the ooc post or ping me on Plurk at Nadat!]

Comments

let's hang out

[amygdalae]

"So, what do you think?"

Bruce asks that question after the lesson they had been sitting it had finished up. The others that had come were already breaking up and dispersing, a flurry of activity around them that Bruce ignores for now as he glances towards Velanna, curious as to hear her response.

wet blanket party /o/

[failedfirst]

Were Velanna the type of person to blow a raspberry and give something a thumbs down, she would do that right now. As it is she just frowns and shakes her head.

"I fail to see how lighting candles is something that needs to be demonstrated. Do they really teach you so little in Circles? What is the point, beyond keeping mages all contained in one area?" This is probably not the first time today she's made a dig at the crappy education received in Circles.

awwww yeah

[amygdalae]

Bruce can't help but laugh at the question - the laugh was more of a chuckle, but still. It was a laugh all the same for Bruce.

"I can't speak for my own experiences, but some Circles do tend to take the 'sheltering' part to the extreme." And in a way he could understand why it was done, but... well. It definitely wasn't something that was going to impress anybody. "Though, I can give some credit for making an attempt." It was, at least, progress in its own way. Though he mostly did agree with Velanna's opinion.

[failedfirst]

"Yes, it was certainly an attempt," Velanna replies with another slight shake of her head. She sighs after a beat, tilting her head to the side in something that could almost be a nod.

"I suppose it's important that they're open to learning new things. Regardless of how small they might seem."

[amygdalae]

Another quiet laugh from Bruce at her response, and he gives a small shake of his head after that, idly shifting himself and the bag that he always carries with him.

"Better than forever sticking to nothing but their Circle education." It's not that he couldn't relate - even Bruce too had a period where he clung onto what he knew, refusing to take in anything else - but at least he got over that bump quicker than most others. He had to, if he were to manage surviving out of them when he had fled. "Even small progresses will eventually compound together into something noticeable, given time."

[failedfirst]

Velanna presses her lips into a thin smile at the thought, inclining her head again.

"There is hope for the future of mages, yet." She knows in concept that the Circles had their merits, but the Dalish handled magic in such a way that the way that so many circle mages reined themselves in so tightly is, in her opinion, a failing of the institutions. Magic is meant to be used for more than just the occasional Blight or war. "Though really lighting a candle. That was the first thing I learned to do."

[amygdalae]

"Progress always takes a while. Forcing it is usually how things get to escalate." And they have no better example than Kirkwall and Anders. Not that those were any topics that Bruce was going to touch any time soon. Better to just never think about them, really.

He hums quietly at the next part. "I don't quite remember what the first thing I learned was." A pause as he racks his mind, trying to recall, but its too far back in the past for him to be able to call up the memory so easily. "it's been a long time, after all." More than twenty years ago now, to be precise.

[failedfirst]

She nods at his statement, not really needing embellishment on that subject. She's seen enough of the escalating to know that as much as she dislikes the Circles, pushing all mages out of them had been a poor move.

Looking over at him curiously, it's odd to her he doesn't remember the first thing he learned. Of course, their circumstances had likely been quite different.

"My magic manifested when I was nine. I had been longing to be a mage for a time before that, so I remember the moment when something caught on fire by my will alone quite vividly." She knows it's an unusual concept, even among the Dalish she was a bit of an odd duck. Most were perfectly content being hunters or gatherers, but she had felt that magic would tie her to the old ways.

[amygdalae]

Bruce was silent for a while, something in Velanna's words recalling old memories that he had kept hidden. A picture of himself when he was five, surrounded by books in his father's library, his tiny palms cupped together as he tried and tried--remembering the moment when he summoned up the flame in his hands. How excited he had been then, naive to the life he was destined to have at this point. Unknowing until the moment his father stepped in, roared his name, crushing his wrists in a bruising grip and calling him names that stick with him until now.

(Magic. Mage. Monster.)

Unconsciously Bruce rubbed his wrists as he replies, voice softer now. "I was... five. When it happened." Another pause. "My father didn't take very kindly to it." ...the rest of that story was something he was never really going to speak out loud. At least not in this moment. Velanna and anybody else didn't need to know that kind of story.

[failedfirst]

He might not tell the rest of the story, but it's one Velanna has heard before. At least a similar one. She's met many mages since leaving the Dalish and becoming a warden. Most of them have stories varying on the same beginnings, families that were taught to fear magic by the Chantry, shunning or abusing children with the gift.

"Magic is considered a gift among the Dalish," she replies quietly after a moment, absently folding her hands in her lap. "Unfortunately many humans are not of a similar mindset."

[amygdalae]

"Honestly, I don't blame them for thinking that way." Magic was dangerous, especially in the wrong hands. The nature of magic itself already opened up windows to so many things, both good and bad. As much as Bruce tried to see the good... more often than not it was the bad that really stuck on. His whole life had been a series of events showing why magic was generally not a good idea. "Magic is not something to be taken so lightly, regardless of who or what is using it."

Magic was--it was unpredictable, volatile, dangerous. It hurt just as much as it could help and from what Bruce has seen, more often than not humans did more of the former than the latter. In his own opinion, maybe humans weren't quite ready for magic just yet. "There's still so much of it that we don't understand about magic. And without that understanding is where the fear and distrust begins."

[failedfirst]

Velanna knows well the dangers of magic. She's been burned of course, but the fear she sees in the young apprentices in Skyhold, the fear she has seen in so many who knew she was a Dalish mage, that is behavior taught with Circles.

"I do agree, but without allowing growth, forcing mages all to fit into some... box, that is what creates dangerous mages. I have said this before, it is rare for a Dalish mage to become an abomination, because we are not taught to never explore the reach our power has, but to do it with caution." That and the Dalish generally don't deal with Spirits because they're considered bad news, regardless of origin. Velanna's friendship with Justice made her question that train of thought, and went to show that even the Dalish don't know all there is to know about magic.

[amygdalae]

Bruce hums quietly as he mulls over her words. He can see the point that she's making, but what the Dalish do and what humans do were very different. Could humans actually do what the Dalish have practiced? Could humans be trusted to that degree? In his experience, that was--hard. Very hard.

"I suppose I'm not really the best judge for what is right or what is wrong," he admits after a few moments. "I've had too many experiences that show me all the negatives that magic has to really appreciate the good parts of it." Summon fire and you get burned. Call forth a storm and you might get zapped. Ice brings the risk of frostbite when you were not prepared for it, and spirits--

Well. Spirits.

Bruce shrugs. "Maybe one day in the far future we'll finally find the best way to use magic without it becoming an uncertain threat."

[failedfirst]

Once upon a time Velanna would have said that humans and elves could never exercise the same kind of restraints. Ten years with humans has shown her that they're not so different, really. There's assholes in both societies, and while humans grossly overestimated their worth, ultimately they weren't all terrible.

She exhales, leaning back in her chair and threading her fingers together, tilting her head back.

"The help mages have provided here may very well be a good start to that. Mages helping to save Thedas despite the uncertainty we are all living now will not so easily be removed from the history books." Especially considering there seem to be far more mages than templars, these days.

[amygdalae]

"It is a start." That Bruce can agree on. But as to how effective it'll be is another matter entirely... and not one to really think about now. Now what did matter was Corypheus and the threat that he posed. "I just hope it'll be enough for most people."

Most, because there'll always be people who feel otherwise, people who think otherwise, people who desire otherwise. He's not going to be so naive as to assume that everyone will actually agree on something. It's just a matter of how well the balance can be maintained.