01 | Open | General introduction and foundation building

[kartereo]

WHO: Waver
WHAT: Waver getting to grips with surroundings
WHEN: Post inital arrival on 8 Firstfall-End of th month
WHERE: Location
NOTES: Content warnings, OOC notes, links to other relevant posts, etc.

I. Stables
Staying near the stables so much isn't exactly a good choice, Waver knew. It meant he smelled like horse constantly, and the smell lingered in his hair most of all. Lingering also made him look just as much as a fish out of water as he felt, but such things weren't quite as important as why he insisted on frequenting the area so much: horses meant fast transport. Fast transport meant greater paths to learning outside of the immediate area. And being thrown into another world entirely, Waver wanted to learn everything he could as quickly as he could. He was at a disadvantage now, and he disliked it intensely.

So he stayed, watching tack go on and off the horses, memorizing the order of events. Observing horses and their personalities, so that he knew which ones might eventually accommodate someone who had never rode a horse before. Trying to figure out who to approach for lessons with minimizing awkwardness or needing to take up more of Iskandar's time. It was a delicate balance of observation, and one that got involving after some time. Enough involvement to ignore the rest of his surroundings, and for him to become more obvious than he'd like.

Then again, it was fairly hard to miss a strange tall man in a red coat, looking at horses like he was going to write a book on them.

II. Outside
One thing that Waver had insisted on doing, was adamant about doing, was trying to keep himself doing was walking the grounds and trying to learn them as quickly as possible. Certainty staying with and near Iskandar would be safe enough for his untrained self whose primary form of self defense was starting to dwindle, but on the off chance of something going wrong or else getting separated, Waver wanted to have some routes available to him.

But he was informed by his desire for safety as he was by Iskandar's preference for staying outside of the primary buildings, sleeping in a stable or a tent like the man was on one of his legendary campaigns. Waver had to admit, perhaps there was something there, but not something he wanted to dwell on.

So he simply walked time and again, retracing paths, a cigar sticking out of his mouth and the smoke billowing ahead of him, the acrid smell announcing his approach. From time to time, he took the thing out and examined it, before muttering, "Where can I get a steady supply of these anyway? I'm nearly out."

III. Additional
For additional prompts in and around the location!

Comments

[gatheringstorm]

"Well, I didn't participate or see any others of my kind in the running. So against humans and one bottomless pit of a dwarf, he held up pretty well. I might have joined in, but my lady has a still-mending leg and I wanted to make sure I'd remain upright to carry her back up, if need be." Korrin smirks a little, wondering how well she would have measured up against him. In a drinking contest, she's still pretty sure she would win, but the Vashoth woman has never tested her limit with pies.

[kartereo]

"Well, maybe things will change at the next holiday, whatever that is." Waver was still working on learning the calendar, and hell if he had managed to even get all the months down.

"But if I might pry for a second. The leg's still on the mend? How bad was the injury?"

[gatheringstorm]

Staring off, Korrin's eyes darken. "It was...pretty bad, and not the only injury. Araceli was among several rifters kidnapped by the Venatori for experimentation with lyrium. The Venatori are a cult of Tevinter supremacists and lackeys of Corypheus, who they think will restore the glory of old Tevinter. We rescued them, but some wounds don't heal by magic and others...well, they could have been healed but she refused for reasons that only she should share."

Korrin lifts her right forearm, which bears a jagged scar that's clearly a bite from a large animal. "One of they rifters is a werewolf and the lyrium...it did something to her mind. She didn't recognize any of us, and did this. Those are the wounds that don't heal with magic, though I was lucky. She could have bitten the entire fucking thing off."

[kartereo]

There was a moment where Waver's mouth purses in a perfect little o shape, and the need to apologize bubbled up to the surface. But the apology was shoved aside for the sake of Korrin's explanation. Not that it is anything good, and Waver felt himself chilled just a little bit more by potential risks of being in Thedas.

"Jeez," he breathed out. "Sorry to have brought up any bad memories. That's--" he stopped, looking for the right words. "That's rough."

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin nods, her frown lingering but her tone pretty calm, all things considered. She's had time to process what happened, and while the memories aren't easy to live with, she remains strong for the sake of those more shaken than her. "It is, but I'm telling you this because I'm not sure we squashed the Venatori's plans entirely. We killed off one cell, sure, but more out there could get the same idea, if it wasn't a widespread plan already. We don't know. So whatever you do out there, stay on your guard. Lyrium poisoning is fucking painful and no one needs to go through it."

[kartereo]

"Sounds like if you're using cells in the plural, you already know that another group will try something," he murmured darkly. "But that's also probably stating the painfully obvious."

[gatheringstorm]

"The Venatori are always up to something; but yeah, I don't expect one bout of charging to the rescue is going to make them stop. They'll do anything to raise Tevinter and damn whatever happens to anyone else. The Red Templars aren't any better; red lyrium is far worse than the normal stuff, and it's corrupted them beyond repair. Whatever's left of them, it isn't human."

[kartereo]

"Seems to me that they have to give up on this restoring the empire thing on their own," he said, gently tapping one finger to his chin. "Because if you destroy one group, another sparks up. A mass execution would make those involved martyrs to the cause and--hold up. Red lyrium, and regular lyrium being--?"

Waver was certain Korrin must have mentioned it in passing, but not gotten in the particulars. Or else his memory really was going.

[gatheringstorm]

"Lyrium is a mineral that in its raw form is dangerous -and deadly to mages- but when refined is used to boost the power of both mages and Templars, and is used in enchanting. So, it's vital to all of Thedas in one way or another. That said, even when it's processed, long-term exposure will wear a person down. Any Templar who's been one for a while is addicted to the substance. The older Templars grow disoriented, lose their memories, have a bunch of physical symptoms that aren't pretty. Even mages can suffer if they take too much at a time, and get side-effects like dizziness or hallucinations, but unlike Templars we can actually recuperate from them."

Korrin crosses her arms and sighs. "...and then there's red lyrium, which is what happens when normal lyrium is tainted. It's more powerful...and far more addicting and dangerous. Following the Breach, it began appearing all over southern Thedas, in crystalline spikes that exude heat and thin the Veil. Which, as you might have guessed, means more demons in the area. It's grown over the land like an infection and seems extremely difficult -and dangerous- to remove.

Normal lyrium is like red lyrium like a lizard is to a high dragon. Unlike the normal stuff, red lyrium doesn't need a dwarf to mine it or require anything other than people being near it to affect them. Stay near it and soon it messes with you. It's been known to drive people crazy, and the Red Templars I was talking about? They actually ingest the shit, which turns them one and all into crystalline behemoths, eventually. But it also boosts their power, gives them new ones and makes them nearly unstoppable. I've fought my fair share of the bastards, and they have strength and stamina to match even my kind.

What I basically mean is: when you see those red spikes out in the countryside? Stay the fuck away from them. It's not worth it."

[kartereo]

Waver nodded along to show that he was listening, but as Korrin spoke, his face soured more and more. Performance enhancing material with what he saw as a little pay off. But then, not his world. He didn't get to dismiss something automatically, that simply made him come off as a jackass with a superiority complex.

"Interesting," he said at the conclusion of it all. "The connection between more red lyrium, the Breach, and demons. Sounds like some time of a feedback loop, just from hearing about the matter on the surface." He knew, however, that a surface look was only that. The surface, nothing substantial. Besides, there were probably twenty million hypotheses that attempted to explain the web of connections.

"But I'll keep away, promise. There's no proven way to destroy the stuff, is there?"

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin mimes punching it, then shrugs. "Realistically, no. People have shattered those red spikes, but I doubt that does anything other than scatter the red lyrium, not to mention it does nothing below the surface, where it's infecting the ground. Red lyrium existed before the Breach but it being this widespread is a very new problem, and there isn't much research towards it yet. That said, we do have people working on it. One of those is Christine Delacroix, a spirit healer and former Circle mage. She's the one you'll want to speak with if you want the most updated information."

[kartereo]

"I'll make a note to." The prospect of having a research project was a welcome one, even if the substance involved was perhaps more dangerous than he'd normally accept working with. It'd also be something to do, and Waver's hands were itching for that.

"Goodness knows it haven't had a good research project in a while, to the point where it is a hair embarrassing."

[gatheringstorm]

That gets a soft chuckle from her. "I won't tell anyone, promise. And hey, that can always change here. As long as it as a practical bent, something that can help us out against what we're fighting, you'll likely have as much support as can possibly be spared. Not that we have endless resources at our fingertips, but still."

[kartereo]

"If nothing, I'm good at practical," Waver said. From anyone else, it would have been a boast. From Waver's lips, it sounded more like something he begrudged, a thing born out of always having to be sneaky to make up for not having raw magical abilities.

"And I assume that while your resources aren't endless, you probably have far better access than most. Unless there are competing institutions?"

[gatheringstorm]

She frowns in thought. "Well, the Circles don't exist right now, and the only other ones who know about blighted crap are the Grey Wardens. We have some of those in a camp nearby, but the rest of their order is holed up in the north. Maybe the University of Orlais would be interested, but their education is secular rather than magical and with Orlais' civil war, who knows when they'd ever make it here. So, no. I think we're it...which has its good and bad points. We don't have much to fall back on, after all."

[kartereo]

"Does secular include natural history, or are they mostly in law, mathematics, and the humanities?" It had been some time since Waver had to remember what universities originally covered, and he was certain he was wrong. "I mean I am excluding the war factor here, which apparently I've picked a hell of a time to arrive."

Not having a lot to fall back on though does make Waver frown. "The organization here doesn't happen to write down final results of missions and such, do they?"

[gatheringstorm]

"You mean mission reports? Yeah, one person per team has to send one in to the advisors, though they don't make them available to the public as far as I'm aware. But, say, if the Mage Council asked them to share some insight into whatever branch of research needs it, I assume that's possible." Assuming because she's never needed to petition for such herself.

"As for the university, more or less. It's not as though they'd ever let anyone but a human noble study there, let alone a Vashoth mage. I only know of them since my company was contracted by professors of theirs from time to time for retrieval or bodyguarding jobs. You wouldn't believe how little common sense some of them have among ruins and the like."

[kartereo]

"Those kinds of reports are probably useful for tracking and analyzing the spread of things like the red lyrium, that's the only reason I ask. It makes sense to keep that sort of thing classified though." It was probably a security matter, and Waver couldn't begrudge a decision like that. They were business records, of a sort, after all.

"Ah, lovely, a university with insane restrictions and a love of hierarchy!" Waver snorted. That was the most familiar ground he had encountered so far. "And actually, I bet I could if any of them are akin to my own colleagues."

[gatheringstorm]

Waver's response gets a small smirk from Korrin, who always enjoys it when others match her distaste. "Fair enough, I'm sure those types exist everywhere. Strangely enough, despite those restrictions, there's actually some friction between the Chantry and the University, because the latter seems to be more interested in wherever their research takes them rather than butt-kissing and pretending the Chantry has done no wrong. More times than I can count, we've had to be careful so as not to attract Chantry attention towards them.

As for red lyrium's spread...Christine might be monitoring that. I haven't talked to her about such things in a while, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if she has some records on it. I'll have to catch up with her sooner than later."

[kartereo]

"I'd call it an inter-universal constant." Academics and elites had common ground everywhere. It was strangely comforting to be on some element of familiar ground. "I'm actually pleasantly surprised they'd be willing to take that kind of risk. Not that I don't doubt there's ulterior motives for it, something like that has to be there."

It was a guess, but a reasonable one. "If you have that conversation, could you let me know what comes of it?"

[gatheringstorm]

"It's Orlais. They have ulterior motives for everything." Well, it's true and as long as it remains true, Korrin will never stop giving her (low) opinion of the empire. "And sure, though if you beat me to it, I wouldn't be surprised. We're not often in the same area, especially since I'm away from here half the time."

[kartereo]

"Sounds more like if all my co-workers were allowed to openly run a country," Waver said with a snort. It was bad enough they ran a university, in his opinion.

"Is the traveling by choice or simply a part of the job?"

[gatheringstorm]

"...yes?" Korrin chuckles and shrugs. "I've been on the road all my life. Staying in one place for too long, even Skyhold, is weird. I get too restless otherwise, not that there's a lot of downtime. So, I go where I'm needed and get to stretch my legs a bit. Everyone wins. What about you? How long will it take you to get bored and need to see something other than mountains?"

[kartereo]

"Well, that's not a fair question," Waver countered. "For me, everything is new, so I could probably stay in one place for a lifetime trying to learn about it and still die ignorant, or else I can go somewhere for a few days, learn the surface, then go on to the next location."

"Usually back home, I'll travel a little when I'm not working. So the question here is less when will I get bored and more what will grab my interest. After I figure out how to ride a horse, mind you."

[gatheringstorm]

"Alright, fair enough. When there's so much to explore either way, I guess the question is moot. Still, if you get tired of the cold and snow, I'm sure there's work up north that the Inquisition can pass on. I've already been to Antiva and Rivain a few times on their behalf."

She really ought to just start having a map handy, for these rifter encounters. Explaining with a visual aid makes it so much easier. Making a mental note to do something but that later, she nods. "Horse riding can take some getting used to, especially when you have to do it for hours on end, but it's the most common means of transportation and there's no getting around it. And I ought to warn that what will work for a horse won't necessarily win over another kind of mount. Dracolisks can be finicky and nuggalopes are stubborn as hell." Challenge accepted, for her, but Korrin knows not everyone else wants to spend their time on that.