OPEN ↠ FALSE GODS, GREAT DEMONS (OPEN LOG 1)

[faderifting]

WHO: Living Residents of the Horrible Future
WHAT: Ah ha ha ha stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
WHEN: ALTERNATE FUTURE, 1-15 Cloudreach 9:48
WHERE: Anywhere, but especially Orzammar
NOTES: This is the first open log for False Gods, Great Demons. Anything that happened prior to Cloudreach 9:48 should go on the flashback meme. Most members of the TTT and their friends in Kirkwall will be arriving in Orzammar on approximately Cloudreach 7. In the meantime, feel free to make your own adventures. If you want to blow up an bridge, assassinate an NPC of your own invention, steal supplies, or anything else--it's all yours, go for it!

SOUTHERN THEDAS is a wasteland. The Blight crawling across the Orleian countryside and into Ferelden leaves nothing alive in its wake, scarring the land like an insatiable fire until no birds sing and the only things that grows is the Red Lyrium that speckles cliff sides and crawls up dying trees until they look like rows of jagged bloody teeth. And where it's still green, where people can still survive, the atmosphere is nearly as stifling. Every city and settlement is watched over by a Venatori or trustworthy collaborator. Those who don't keep their heads down and their dissent a whisper may vanish without warning. They may take their whole families with them. There are flashes of hope--an assassinated lordling here, a village rousing itself to brief and doomed rebellion there--but for every man the Imperium loses, they seem to find two to take his place.

NORTHERN THEDAS is at war. The worst of it doesn't reach west into Tevinter or the Anderfels; the line between the Qunari and the Imperium is drawn straight through Antiva, with Nevarra and Rivain on either side quiet and calm as only lands under martial law can be. The Free Marches vary between complacency and rebellion, but the rebellious ones risk ruin--there are murmurs it won't be long before a whole city is made an example. A steady stream of desperate refugees is fleeing north to the Qun, but plenty are picked off and punished as traitors before they can cross into Qunari-controlled territory. Your best best for a clean escape are the pirates who still hold Llomerynn free from both sides of the conflict.

ORZAMMAR is the only kingdom in Thedas that looks much the same--and Kal-Sharok, but they're not accepting outsiders. The heavy doors at Orzammar's entrance are sealed and guarded, as much against the steady flow of refugees asking for help as against the Venatori. The refugees are turned away. There's no way to know who can be trusted, and even if there were, there's not food enough for people who can't fight. Orzammar Thaig is still the dwarves' home--though with stealing shrinking numbers and poor prospects, King Bhelen has been amenable to allowing casteless surfacers some leeway--but the once-abandoned Ortan Thaig is the Inquisition's. Quietly. The only things stopping a full assault on Orzammar is the Venatori's need for dwarf-mined lyrium and the plausible deniability that the Inquisition's remaining rebel bands are using the Deep Roads with Bhelen's consent.

An hour's walk through caves and deepstalker swarms, Ortan is a city in its own right. A crammed city, one where cots and bunk beds crammed into shared housing are the norm no matter how important someone is and you occasionally have to protect your dinner from a restless, swooping griffon, but one where you can still find a pint of ale or a game of cards if you've time to waste on them. It's just that not many people do. There's the watch to keep; the tunnels that creep further into the deep teem with darkspawn who are held back at barricades, while the hidden, narrow tunnels that lead to the surface are watched at all hours so anyone coming or going can be identified. There are weapons to forge and sharpen. Plans to make. Bands to lead. Maybe you weren't a leader five years ago, but these days, there aren't that many people with more than five years' experience still alive to give orders. Fewer every week.

And so we burned. We raised nations, we waged wars,
We dreamed up false gods, great demons
Who could cross the Veil into the waking world,
Turned our devotion upon them, and forgot you.
Threnodies 1:8

Comments

[arlathvhen]

Beleth wasn't sure what she expected, when they came to Orzammar. She was hoping that they would fix him, that they had dealt with enough red lyrium they could bring him out of this fog. But no matter how much progress they've made, what happens to the Red Templars is a different matter altogether. The only thing they can give her is their best wishes.

She walks back to the shared house, feeling her heart sinking more and more. She immediately heads to Cade, and as soon as she finds him, pulls him into a tight embrace. Hugging is...more physical contact than they usually engage in. But she needs to hold onto him, as if she can keep him from slipping through her fingers, if she just clutches him tight enough.

"Is this my fault?" Her voice is small, more vulnerable than she shows anyone else. It's okay though, if it's just him. "Did I just get you hurt again?"

[onlyhymns]

He doesn't even flinch anymore-- if nothing else, even if the red lyrium has him in constant pain, his other tactile senses have been dulled. No wonder they fight so well, for so long. He's honestly amazed he's been allowed to stay here, looking the way he does. It makes people nervous, with good reason.

"No," he says, his voice gravelly, "there's nothing you can do." Aside from continue to fuss, and to worry about him, which is the opposite of what he wants. They're out of harm's way, for the time being. His use to her is dwindling.

[arlathvhen]

Nothing she can do. It's a reoccurring theme in Beleth's life, and it stings, every time. This instance is an agony she isn't sure she'll be able to survive, not without him by her side.

"It was so stupid of me, huh?" Beleth doesn't let go, forehead pressed to his chest. Her voice is bitter amusement. "Believing that they could just pull out some miracle from their hats, and you'd be completely cured. That we would be able to live here, like normal people. Together."

Then, she looks up at him, with that same sad smile she wore more often than not, around him. She reaches up, running her fingers through his hair, before resting her hand on the side of his face that was still him. But then, she suddenly lifts herself up on to her toes, and leans up to press her lips softly, gently against his. It is...not the way Beleth had imagined it going. She hadn't imagined that they could be in this overcrowded dirt hovel, surrounded by people who hate them. She hadn't imagined there would be red lyrium pressing into her cheek.

She certainly hadn't imagined that she would be this close to crying. But that is what the situation is, and it's not going to get any better.

The kiss lingers for a few moments, before Beleth pulls away, hand still on his cheek. This time, even with misty eyes, the smile she gives Cade is one of whole-hearted and genuine affection. "...I wish that we could have had something normal. But I want you to know that I am so grateful that I've had you with me for all these years. You have been the best part of my life for all of them, and--"

She can't do it. She can't. She blinks rapidly, takes a shaky breath, but the tears come anyway. "--I can't do this without you, Cade. I can't do anything without you."

[onlyhymns]

It wasn't too long ago that Cade might've enjoyed this, had feelings about it one way or the other. More likely he'd have been scared, afraid of doing it wrong, but he's gone beyond fear in his quest for nothingness. He closes his eyes, keeping still and fighting back the small, wilted part of his mind that suddenly tries to blossom. It's his first kiss, with someone he'd give the world for-- and not only that, but they're in a place and time of turmoil, power struggles, drama. Just like his books, the ones he used to read before.
But those are fiction, and pain is superficial. The ending is always happy, the heroes gallop off into the sunset and the story concludes before they can be attacked by bandits or stricken by plague.

He watches Beleth silently as she starts to cry, and it takes him a moment to react, stiffly resting a hand on her arm, perhaps the first touch he's ever personally initiated.
"You did before," he points out, "...and better."

[arlathvhen]

The hand is more comforting coming from him, than it would have been from anybody else. But despite her hiccuping sniffles and dabbing at her eyes with her sleeve, the tears don't stop. It's just not fair, none of this has been fair, and even at the end of it all, there's no fairness to be found.

"That was a different time, a different world." She insists. "And--I was a different person." It certainly feels different. Remembering the woman she used to be, and the world that woman belonged to--it felt more like Beleth was recalling a story she'd read somewhere, rather than her own past.

But what can either of them do about it. Her tears won't save him, nor will her entreaties. Cade already said it: There's nothing she can do. After a few moments, her forehead pressed against his chest, she whispers to him. "I am not alone. Even as I stumble on the path with my eyes closed, yet I see the Light is here." It certainly doesn't feel like it right now. But she supposes that's what faith is about.

[onlyhymns]

There was a time when Cade would have been surprised to hear Beleth utter a phrase from the Chant of Light-- and in fact, being that to do so now is treason, it should be more surprising. But in a way it seems strangely as though it was meant to happen, even if what little hope he has left is cloaked so thinly in the faith he hasn't stamped out. It's the one thing the Red Templars haven't taken from him: he was indoctrinated too well. Andraste is the Light, and all others are false.
"You have walked beside me," he says quietly, "down the paths where a thousand arrows sought my flesh. You have stood with me..." He has to pause and take a breath, which he sighs out with a small wince of pain. "...when all others have forsaken me." Whether he's continuing the prayer or simply talking to Beleth, he hasn't made it clear. And perhaps won't.