OPEN LOG: Establishing a Base in Kirkwall

[faderifting]

WHO: Many People
WHAT: Cleaning up Kirkwall
WHEN: Cloudreach 1-21
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: This log post is for characters who go early to Kirkwall to assist in preparing it for the rest of those assigned there. We strongly encourage IC discussion of things left to character discretion—someone should definitely do a crystal post to discuss what to do with the personal belongings left behind in the Gallows or what new form the statues should take!

Kirkwall once lived on the edge of the Tevinter Imperium and was home to nearly a million slaves. Stolen from elven lands or shipped from across the sea, all slaves fed the Imperium's unquenchable thirst for expansion. They worked in massive quarries and sweltering foundries that produced stone and steel for the Empire.

The city's complicated past is not easy to forget, history having earmarked many corners of the stone city. A ship approaching the harbor spots the city's namesake: an imposing black wall. It is visible for miles, and carved into the cliff side are a pantheon of vile guardians representing the Old Gods. Over the years, the Chantry has effaced many of these profane sentinels, but it will take many more years to erase them all.

Also carved into the cliff is a channel that permits ships into the city's interior. Flanking the channel are two massive bronze statues—the Twins of Kirkwall. The statues have a practical use. Kirkwall sits next to the narrowest point of the Waking Sea, and a massive chain net can be erected between the statues and the lighthouse, closing off the only narrow navigable lane. This stranglehold on sea traffic is jealously guarded by the ever-changing rulers of the city as the net trolls taxes, tolls, and extortions in from the sea.

—From In Pursuit of Knowledge: The Travels of a Chantry Scholar, by Brother Genitivi

---

Establishing a presence in Kirkwall is a delicate matter. First, there's Provisional Viscount Bran Cavin—a man so used to batting back friendly offers of entirely harmless occupation of the battered city-state that his first three responses to the Inquisition's leadership appeared to be slightly personalized form letters. Proving that the Inquisition is here to work and not to conquer will be a process. The first step in that process is the second reason the move is delicate: the only building the Provisional Viscount is willing to part with is the Gallows, left quarantined and unoccupied since Knight-Commander Meredith Stannard's famous crystallization into red lyrium in the courtyard. The Gallows have since overgrown with red lyrium. If anyone is going to live and work there, there's a lot of work to do.

↠ Cloudreach 1-3: The Journey There
↠ Cloudreach 3-4: Arrival
↠ Cloudreach 4-14: Haunted
↠ Cloudreach 14-21: Spring Cleaning

Comments

[theexile]

There were enough here that let her treat then that she was able to do plenty. Though she wasn't expecting conversation with another healer once she finished with someone she was helping. Blinking a little, she tilted her head and noted the staff. A mage. Magical healing then.

"I am Kattrin. I would say all Avvar are travelers though I would also say I have no hold." She was as exile now, after all. "You are Inquisition?"

A fair enough assumption she figured.

[aceso]

"Oh, I see." How surprising! She knows Asher's mother left the hold, but most Avvar don't, or there wouldn't be any left now, would there? "I am. I have been with the organization for well over a year. I could most likely help you, if you have any questions about us or with healing here in particular."

[theexile]

That last part gave her pause. With healing here in particular? She wasn't sure what to make of that but she certainly wasn't going to be doing any of the odd Circle practices for magic if that was what she meant. In fact she was pretty sure she couldn't learn that now.

"I am already learned in healing. I would need no teaching past what my teacher gave to me."

[aceso]

"Oh, I did not mean to imply I would be teaching you," she begins. "I know an augur myself and know how Avvar mages are trained. I do not doubt your skills. I simply meant if you had questions about our supplies, or the general... atmosphere within the Inquisition." She clasps her hands together and leans in a little, lowering her voice. "Some people refuse magical healing, and are quite vocal about it."

[theexile]

She was actually already aware of that. Some had already refused her magic which was when she'd offered herbal treatments instead. And if they still said no then it was out of her hands. "Does it surprise you that they would? Not all can be like the Avvar to know it is like all things in this with world with dangers and kindness."

[aceso]

"No, I thought it might surprise you," Christine clarified. "The Avvar have much different views on magic and spirits than we who live under the Chantry have been taught. I had hoped to warn you, but it seems you already know." Perhaps Kattrin has been out in the lowlands for awhile now, and doesn't need any help after all.

[theexile]

"The holds are more aware than they might seem to lowlander feelings." She looked around at those here. Nothing terrible but she imagined after a battle would be different. "I will not hide what I am but I will not give to those who refuse. If they will not accept what I can offer that is their path."

Avvar ways could seem harsh at times.

[aceso]

"Indeed," Christine replies, knowing that there is little that can be done for those who refuse to be helped. And Kattrin's words don't faze her much. Gjurd spoke to her of the harsh life in the mountains, and the idea that nothing has permanence in the hold. Not marriages, or food sources, or anything else. It's an accepted part of life there, and they take joy in what they have while they have them.

"Well, let me know if I can be of any help if you think of anything."

[theexile]

She realized she did have one question. It just came to her and she looked to the woman again. "Is it common among lowlanders to answer questions freely?"

She meant no insult with this. Rather she was used to the ideas of working hard to warn something. Trust or information being included in that.

[aceso]

"Common? I am not quite sure," she replies, head tilting slightly in thought. Though she's been a great many place with the Inquisition, she can't profess to know the answer to this.

"Some will surely wish for payment in exchange for information, but not all. And among the Inquisition, we are often more helpful."

[theexile]

"Things are done differently among the Avvar. Such easily won openness is still strange to me." She didn't apologize though for she did not believe in offering such things unless she truly meant it. This had been more a lack of understanding of customs. After all being familiar hardly meant it would stop being unusual in her eyes.

"It was strange to be approached so when we do not know each other. It is something I will come to grow used to one day."

[aceso]

"Then how do you ever get to know anyone if people who do not know each other never approach?" It seems strange to her, and she's beginning to see that Asher's hold is quite different. She was approached by the augur of the hold while she was there for Asher's funeral, after all.

[theexile]

"To approach is not the same as approaching to offer without that person having earned it. I do not have your trust and have not proven myself worthy. It is not the Avvar way to give so much so easily." Especially to outsiders but that went without saying.

[aceso]

"Proving yourself worthy of a helping hand is not a requirement for me," she replies, though a note is made in her head about the Avvar way. If she's going to live among them someday, she will need to know how they do things, and what they look at as guidelines and as requirements. She won't be changing her entire personality in order to fit in with them, but she can give up some things in order to be a part of the hold.

"But if you would be more comfortable, the next time you have questions, I can set you up with a few healers' tasks to help me with in exchange for information."

[theexile]

So freely given this trust. It was going to be very strange for her to deal with. Many could get hurt from such a thing but she supposed that as long as she was careful it could work. "If that is your wish. I may need to become more used to the ways of the lowlands for I am no longer Avvar."

[aceso]

"Is that so?" she asks, rather intrigued as to why. "Is that your choice?" She doesn't know how the Avvar deal with members of the hold who misbehave.

[theexile]

"The exile is my choice. In doing so the Kattrin that was Avvar will be viewed as dead. As such I am no longer Avvar and no one in any hold will recognize me as such." At least not after learning of her status. Basically she'd cut herself from her entire people and that was something she would have to live with for the rest of her life.

[aceso]

"Well," Christine begins, trying to reply to this delicately, "No one here will care that you are an exile. As long as you contribute to the Inquisition's cause, all will be well." Now she wonders if she shouldn't ask questions about Avvar life since Kattrin no longer considers herself to be one. At least Christine can still write to Gjurd and ask him.

"What do you think of Kirkwall so far?"

[theexile]

"It is...chaotic." That was probably the best way to put it honestly. Kattrin as used to places being busy for the Holds always kept up with work. To prepare for harsh winters, to make sure all were fed, to make sure all were clothed. Working hard was key to survival in the Frostbacks.

"Crowded."

[aceso]

"That it is." She suppresses the sigh that wants to burst forth. This city has very few positives in her eyes, and at times it feels like it's smothering her enough that she can't breath.

"I suppose the area the Inquisition has claimed gives us some respite from the chaos of the rest of the city."

[theexile]

"That is what my gathering of plants is used for. This respite you speak of." After all even here it could be a bit much. Perhaps it wasn't as busy in these areas that she kept to but it hardly meant it was perfect. Not when she was used to another life entirely.