faderift | OPEN LOG: Establishing a Base in Kirkwall

OPEN LOG: Establishing a Base in Kirkwall

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"There's always an argument to be made for outsiders being free of bias. Most nations will have an ambassador to another land to represent their interests to some degree, being able to see things more clearly for not having a vital stake could be an advantage. And a disadvantage, since we won't have a stake in this future so we could likely find ourselves accused of who knows what." She rolls her eyes, a memory of innumerable council sessions replaying in the back of her mind but a challenge is a challenge.

Still, there's so much to fix before they can even tackle that. So many rifts before they can touch Corypheus. Probably making sure they've hunted down as many of his supporters as possible too.

"When you run out of candles in the middle of something important or interesting and sometimes it's the mad dash to get more? Or the wind blows the flame out. Or the rain." There are magical options but those aren't always available, affordable or practical so usually? Candles. "I hope it's less drafty here than parts of Skyhold."

"Honestly, I don't think we're free of bias. I think we just lack particular baggage which means that when we ask basic questions, it indicates a certain level of problems with a given approach." It is something he had been thinking about a lot lately. "And that is a problem, but if people are intending to stay, that should count." People may well be.

"Mmm, exactly sow. And candles are limited in how much light they can cast as well," Waver's tone immediately becomes the tone people used for taking issue with the weather. "I've been squinting to read so much more since I got here."

He pauses, taking in their surroundings. "The drafty part depends on our handiwork, I think."

"It depends how you sell it." That could be her mother or father talking, but it feels more like her mother in her mind. "But I've been in Thedas a long time now and even compared to a lot of people here, I've had an education and opportunities they haven't. What I chose to study in Thedas required having to learn much more but I can look at it as someone who had none of it - magic was only in stories, there were no elves or dwarves, no Qunari or Tal-Vashoth or Vashoth, none of the sorts of religions that Thedas has." So again, she sees it differently but Araceli has had practice knowing how to talk around a problem if she wants to or needs to. Waver's name is worth passing on to Church if they haven't spoken or he doesn't seek him out himself so she makes a note of it. Even if she isn't involved, she's still involved by virtue of being here.

And Church is a dear friend, she wants him to do well.

"You'd think these," she nods to her hand, "would be a little better for having something to see by. But no. Now we're here in Kirkwall, it might be easier to get hold of a lantern even if it's only oil. Better light, doesn't blow out, I might even be able to adjust it." She's not holding out much hope but it'd be nice to have something like that to work with sometimes, maybe on the desk she imagines having in her future.

"Korrin and I are hoping we can live somewhere in the docks. She doesn't want to live in the Gallows given the history it has and I understand that. I miss living by the sea so if we have a chance? That's what we're doing. Right now we've just hung the fur blankets we brought with us up to see if that helps a little." Actually it's to see if it muffles the noise so people won't complain about them but it's also for that too since they're at least not going to freeze like they would in the frozen shithole that was Skyhold.

"I can see that argument," Waver agrees. Perspective was an easier thing to see from various angles here. It was freeing, in a way. "The only thing I've realized that I have strong feelings on is how this treats magi, and that's only because of my own background."

Waver can pretty easily picture how he might've survived, or not survived, as a mage. It isn't something he likes.

"It says everything that you say oil lantern and I go oooo excitedly," he says with a low laugh, directed at himself. "I'd try and get a thick wick, so that there's maximum light"

If there was only a spell for light amplification.

"If you guys find a place, let me know. Iskandar'll probably want to do the same, but for different reasons." The man wanted to see the ocean at the end of the world. This will have to do for now. "Stupid me I listened to him talking about wanting to build a place in the forest around Skyhold and tried to do some mapping, but then," he snaps his fingers. "Nope, moving time. I spent hours washing spring mud out of my hair because of all that work."

And now she knows where he has a stake though they did discuss mages and magic before, it's still good to hear it. "You would have a different perspective to many, having lived a life unlike any of them had. What you offer, should you choose whenever the time may come, could prove to be incredibly valuable when a path must be chosen."

Because Araceli wants to volunteer her own services to that, in places where mages can't go quite so easily, doing things that are best left to bards instead.

"Wouldn't it be so nice though?" A real working lantern? She's going to have to go poke around the markets and if she honestly has to, she'll deal with the shadier folk since she had no qualms doing that before when it was actually her job. They need to be aware of the criminal element anyway and it might be a good test to see what gets in and out, starting with something so innocuous as a lantern.

"If we get a good deal, I'll try to get you one as well, hopefully the rates will be more reasonable in the docks when they have bodies willing to live in them. He was the one crowned at the one of the festivities?" Araceli had been limping around with a cane, still gritting her teeth through most of it to carry out her duties in front of the nobilities, eager to pretend to be normal in front of her friends at the other party. Paying attention to some of the other parts hadn't been high on her list of things to do.

Waver laughed nervously at that point. "I'd probably be best at going well that'll lead to this terrible thing that magi do back home." At heart, Waver was a critic. Useful for poking holes in plans, but it was something that could turn off a great many people rather than endear him. "Truthfuly, I'd worry that my cynicism might take over any helpful critique. But if given plans, I could likely identify the potential errors and offer ways to deal with them as they arise."

Pre-triage for problems, really. It wasn't going to change Thedas, it'd just be useful for whoever came next that had to deal with the previous generation's decisions.

"If only there were little pieces of household magic to amplify light, or make it endure," he said with a sigh. Waver hated the little changes the most. Back home he could enchant his own cigars to provide protective fields around him when he lit up. Here, well, that wasn't possible.

"Yes, that'd be him," Waver confirmed. "Big redhead, loud, built like a house. Conquered the known world back home when he was alive." Never mind the time difference between when Waver lived and Iskandar lived. Magecraft had filled in that gap.

"Every angle has to be considered. They might overlook something and if you point out this terrible thing then they can already try to plan, to have the counterargument for it. There are people where I come from who argue against an education being made available to everyone because it will lead to all these terrible things, each time the person arguing back has to be quick enough to get to the root of it." Usually that person has been Araceli in some manner, on the queensguard or through Leandra's ear if it's a venue where she isn't permitted to speak but that isn't something she's going to just divulge.

She knows the fight. She hasn't lived it long enough for it to leave marks in her girlhood or to steal it away from her. She still has her enthusiasm and will to see it all done intact.

"Look, I honestly just want my pistols but I can confidently predict what happens if those or waterproof powder are even vaguely common knowledge among anyone in Thedas." Things blow up again, fingers point Araceli's direction, it looks bad on all counts. She'll mourn them quietly for the most.

It's practice at hearing insults hurled her way or others slipped on the sly as if she's stupid that keeps her from starting. "Conquered the known world?" She does have to clarify that part because that...well she might need to do some investigating at some point. She doesn't make it her business to plunge herself into rifter affairs but worrying about the reputation of the Inquisition is her business. "Is he styled and introduced in such a fashion to all?"

Waver's face contorted in distaste when the mention of education came up. He'd be pouncing on anyone who tried to argue against universal education. "Well, if you'd believe it to be an asset, all you need to do is let me know when the discussion occurs and I'll come to it with pins in order to poke holes."

That sounded far better in Waver's head than out loud.

"Oof," waver cringed. Thedas definitely didn't need firearms, and really, really didn't need to scapegoat anyone for applied technology. "Point taken."

"No it's more, hm," Waver paused, trying to figuring out the best way to explain it. "After he died, other historians examined his military career and made this observation. How we met is odd, I confess." The man had been dead for over 2,000 years, and he and Iskandar only met in the 1990s.

"You're saying that to the person who purchased a map of Thedas and three sits of actual pins to track where I've been, where Korrin's been, and where we've both been." It's not quite the same but Araceli believes in doing the actual work so that it's getting done. She appreciates that there are people who do it, who are willing to do it. Too many times in her life she's run into the mindset of it being someone else's problem that's lead her on a merry song and dance until you end up just dealing with it yourself.

But that's for another day. When she doesn't have paperwork chasing her everywhere. And more on the horizon since not everyone in the Inquisition is here yet. And they haven't really decided where everyone is going to live long term. And perhaps because Waver's just neatly taken the legs out from under her with that.

"Siento." A pause just to try and examine that, for the sake of politeness if nothing else. "He passed. And rose. And is living currently. I don't know if I've ever been so glad that understanding the rifts and how they bring any of us here isn't one of my jobs."

"Hm, yes," Waver agreed, lightly touching his forefinger to his chin and tapping gently. "I'd say something about another point, but I'm afraid you'd take that as a very bad pun." Which wouldn't be intended, but now it just needed to be avoided. "I'd like to see that map one day though."

It sounded ;ike an impressive thing to see. Waver knows how pitiful his own map would look like.

"There was magic involved with it back home," he explained. No need to get into the nitty gritty of Grail Wars. "The rest is a story better told when I have had too many drinks."

If there was a memory of the woman she had been in the time so few of them recall, there would be routes mapped out in black. (Araceli doesn't know. Would want to know because that's the trouble when you like a challenge and a secret. It's better this way.)

She'd say more but a runner clatters in through the door, haggard and harassed. One of her hands slips automatically to her rapier without thinking before they call out her name, a half-hearted apology with it. "Serah Bonaventura? Need you to come look over something."

"And I'll have to take you up on the drink another time but thank you so much for the herbs, I will take good care of them. And get advice to take good care. Stay and get some food here, everything is cooked well and it's warm, you can tell me the story perhaps when we're toasting living arrangements?" But she has to run because someone is tapping their feet by the door and the sooner she does it, the greater the chance she might an extra few minutes to sleep tonight.

Waver watches the scene unfold with a small amount of unhappiness, but that was mostly because he was enjoying the conversation. But making the Gallows livable is far more important, and all the work that comes with it.

Knowing things are at the close, he nods understandingly. "I'll say yes to food and an even more enthusiastic yes to drinks in the future. If you have cause to take a break, I'll be in the garden areas for at least today and tomorrow."

Speaking of gardens, he should go clean up where he was working. He gives a brief wave farewell to both Araceli and the runner, then departs.

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OPEN LOG: Establishing a Base in Kirkwall

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