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]

"It is the truth. It is why the Avvar admire Elves who push beyond it as you have. They are aware that your people have it far worse and such a life is not easy to have." She certainly admired it herself.

"How long have the Wardens been with the Inquisition?"

[circleprodigy]

"Longer than I have been a part of it; I was something of a latecomer." Inessa smiles wryly as Garahel yawns and then plops down on the ground, watching them. "Several of us came from Weisshaupt, after the Inquisition's rescue. Before then, their Warden presence comprised of those sane enough not to follow Warden-Commander Clarel's plan."

Her tone is mild, as is her demeanor, though there's a spark of...something in her eyes as she recalls all that.

[theexile]

She saw the spark of something. It was something that spoke of deep feelings for what had taken place with the Wardens. She'd heard rumors but hadn't ever gotten the full story. Kattrin wondered if that had anything to do with matters of the Inquisition.

"Will you tell me what took place? Many things are heard in the mountains but it is not always clear to us what are truth or otherwise."

[circleprodigy]

Inessa nods, seeing no reason why she shouldn't know what is not common knowledge to everyone else. "I...can, yes. Though I hope you'll indulge my desire to settle down with some tea, first. I would prefer a calming cup to counter that tale. Does the barracks at the docks have any? Otherwise, you're welcome to join me at the Gallows."