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

[el_tybs]

"That makes two of us." He had been lucky that he had landed in the Ostwick Circle, met James and the others, but it still had been a Circle. Granted he had learned much, but that still didn't change being taken from his family, kept behind stone walls, or the choices he had when his Harrowing came due. The pros did not outweigh the cons.

But he had been lucky.

"Based on what I've heard of the Kirkwall Circle... are you really surprised so many mages took that route? That kind of environment... being backed into a corner makes people panic. Are you even sure the numbers are correct? It sounded like every mage was being accused of being a blood mage or abomination."

[judgemewhole]

Now that had brought a troubling look to his face - something that he had not considered before now. If the Kirkwall Templars had been as mad as they said - and it was clear that they were in many, many cases, then how many mages had they been sent to hunt down who were not blood mages at all?

"Maker forgive me - I don't know." Was his stricken reply. "I don't know how many were or were not. We were given a name - we hunted them. Usually they made themselves clear as a blood mage but what if ..."

[el_tybs]

Sam blinks when he sees the expression, holding his breath a bit when he realizes James had not even considered these things until now. His whole intention of coming over here was to help his brother become less anxious about their new location, and here he was probably making it worse.

Letting out a sigh, he reaches over and puts a hand on James's shoulder. "Hey. Don't do that- this to yourself. This has never and will never be an easy thing to deal with. It's what you do now that matters."

[judgemewhole]

James still looks stricken, before he looks down at his hands. "I will ... have to pray on this. For guidance."

All of his life he had a strict moral code - and to think he had broken it? For that mad woman? It troubled him, down to the core of everything he was.

[el_tybs]

He wants to say more, seeing how shaken up James is, but it is probably best that he leave it at that, afraid that he might make it worse. Sighing, Sam pats James's shoulder and nods slightly.

"Alright. Just... don't do anything crazy, ok James? It isn't like you're dealing with issues that are pure black and white."

[judgemewhole]

Crazy? Crazy is killing innocent people without checking to see if they are, in fact, innocent or not. What he is thinking now is - protocol. Orders. He closed his eyes again, before he breathed in sharply.

"I am not entirely certain this isn't - but yes. Nothing insane."

[el_tybs]

Hopefully James realizes that it is protocol and orders that got him into this mess in the first place, and that he shouldn't follow them blindly.

"I'll hold you to that then. Just... remember I'm here if you need to talk." He squeezes James's shoulder at that point to quietly express that he was there indeed there for him.

[judgemewhole]

James sucked in a long and and painful breath, but he did finally nod. "I will come to you. When I need you. That is ... that is what friends are for, yes?"

[el_tybs]

"Yes. And brothers," he adds with a small smile. For a long moment he continues to stare at James before nodding with a sigh before getting up. "I better go check on some of the others. Some don't quite have their sea legs just yet."