faderift | seeking knowledge [open]

WHO: Sansa Stark
WHAT: Settling in
WHEN: 11 Harvestmere - the end of the month
WHERE: Around Skyhold
NOTES: Feel free to find her around in another place that her log text doesn't mention, just let me know. Some implied mention of abuse/sexual assault in the Tyrion-Sansa thread but nothing explicit.

Sansa has settled into this place, so much as one can settle into a place where she's dropped from the sky. It's not a terrible one, really, and once she'd been brought to the keep called Skyhold, she'd felt a little better about things. She spends quite a lot of time in the keep. There's great libraries full of books and papers and letters and all of them have information about the place she's landed herself in; Sansa spends most of her days educating herself on the place she's wound up and reads for hours and hours until her eyes are tired and the candles have burned low.

The nights are a bit different. She has stuck close to Lord Tyrion since he's the only person she knows from Westeros, and they have found lodging close to one another. It makes her feel a bit safer, all told, and she just wants to keep close to him for the time being. If he minds it, he hasn't said anything to her, and she's happy to go on as they have.

Currently, she's curled up in a chair in one corner of the keep, one of the journals in her hands. She's trying to learn all about the politics of this place but the names and places keep running together and she doesn't know if she'll ever keep them straight. She wants, desperately, to learn them so she feels like she has a purpose but she knows it won't happen in just a few weeks or even a few moons.

"You have to be patient, Sansa," she mutters, diving back into her work.

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Inessa nods grimly, likewise disgusted though not surprised. Having grown up in Thedas, she's heard tales of Tevinter all her life, and recently seen the truth in some of them for herself.

"They would say it's always been that way and a dozen other justifications for it, when they bother to justify it at all. The first Exalted March was against Tevinter, the prophet Andraste allying with the former elven slave Shartan so that he could lead his people to freedom. He succeeded, but that only broke the hold Tevinter had over other lands, not their own."

"Well, it's an evil practice, I think, to imprison someone against their own free will," Sansa says. "For a crime, yes, but not simply to...use them."

She's had enough of that in her own short life and she's not like to take sides with anyone who does it in another world.

"I agree wholeheartedly, particularly since it's not uncommon to use slaves for blood magic rites. That is but one reason blood magic is detested, but in my opinion, a rather potent one." Inessa sighs and moves her finger away from that portion of the map. "This isn't to say that all of Tevinter is irredeemable, but it's glaring issues are often used as the reason for the way the Chantry has shaped southern Thedas. They will do anything not to create another Tevinter, even when rushing to the other extreme."

"Blood magic," Sansa says, letting the words fall off her lips. "I read about that, I think, but I didn't quite understand it all. It means sacrificing a life for magic, doesn't it? Possibly? I'm no mage."

That much, at least, is perfectly obvious.

"Blood can be given voluntarily, or in amounts not to endanger someone's life...but the more used, the more power available. So you can see how it can corrupt, how easy it could be to head down that slippery slope if you had thirst for power that overrode your morals. Lyrium can fuel such spells as well, which rather negates that necessity. And yet, such rituals persist. Blood magic is also feared because it can be used to control minds, making people slaves in another sense. I've never seen any good come out of blood magic or a reason to recommend it."

Inessa's lips form a thin line, her darkened eyes and tone indication enough of the exposure she's had to it. Even though the Grey Wardens tend to do whatever it takes to win a Blight, she's never going to feel comfortable with those who would support its use.

"I am glad that it is banned, then," Sansa says, shuddering a bit at the thought of it. Who could do such a thing to another person against their will? She asks this, of course, knowing full well just what one person can do to another.

"So, when one has the propensity to do magic...that happens at birth, doesn't it? It's not learned later?"

"The gift of magic is an inborn trait, yes, though it tends not to surface until around puberty for most. I was a bit different there, as I was four years old when I came into my magic. What one learns later is how to refine that gift, channel it towards different effects, according to the various schools of magic that exist. Primal, for the elements used in various battle magic, Creation for healing and the like, and so on. Many have an affinity for one type of magic, though that doesn't stop them from learning others."

"I wish I had something like that. I haven't ever been able to fight," Sansa says, giving Inessa a rueful little smile. It might have been useful if she had, in some ways.

"Only with words, see, and listening and politics. Never with magic or with my fists or weapons."

"Much can be done with words, listening and politics. I would suggest a meeting with Ambassador Montilyet, who always seems to be in need of people with such talents. And magic...does not solve everything. In fact, it can sometimes create issues instead." Inessa smiles wryly, stroking Garahel.

"Mages are a beacon to demons, who crave our power and our presence on the other side of the Veil. They always seek to tempt us, and though Circle mages are trained to resist them, all it takes is one moment of weakness. When that happens, when a demon possesses a mage, they become an abomination and lose their sense of self, lashing out at all. Villages have fallen to just one of these creatures. I have seen them personally, and it's a horror I would wish on no one."

She sighs, tucking back a stray strand of hair. "This isn't to say that the response to mages is often disproportionate to the threat. Stories abound in Skyhold, you have only to ask the rebel mages of what they have endured. But I think it fair to say that magic is dangerous just as fire is dangerous. Anyone who forgets that truth gets burned. Mages need education, to learn to control their gift and resist what is drawn to us, though I hesitate to say that all should return to what it once was. The Circles as they were before the war with the Templars failed many. Not myself, but I cannot ignore their perspective and only favor my own."

seeking knowledge [open]

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