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

[foxsays]

Martel was a better teacher for this than Araceli could ever hope to be. Martel understood magic, Martel had the easy confidence, the way of just taking hold of her wrist out in the desert and pointing her hand just so. Araceli's words aren't for things that she can't understand properly but her head turns, hand still outstretched as the mark does as it should.

"Just focus, let it happen. Let it draw deep," she repeats again with an edge in her voice from trying to keep her own concentration on things that don't really have actual concrete thoughts to go with them. "Don't fight it, we're almost there!"

[crowncitizen]

Ow. Ow, ow, ow, ow. Oh, did he mention ow?

His breaths come out in pants and huffs, arm shaking from the effort. By the Six, Prompto's almost sure his hand will explode. But finally, mercifully, the Rift closes, a burst of green and sparks before the air stills. Prompto sinks to his knees, lungs still heaving as he tries to catch his breath. "Th - Thanks," he manages.

[foxsays]

"De-- It's nothing."

Use the right language, she remembers. Digs out a cloth to give her weapons a quick cursory wipe so she can stow them before making her way to him, her right hand on his shoulder as she bends at the waist to catch her own breath better, managing a smile.

"It gets easier, usually? Not so many as there have been in Kirkwall, they say the Veil was always very thin here. This was good, you did very well. The people here? They will have fewer demons prowling, maybe we will all sleep better into the bargain too, no?"

[crowncitizen]

Prompto nods, quiet for the moment as he waits for his heartrate to return to normal levels and for his breathing to even out a little. He's no stranger to battles, but it's a whole different ball game to have a glowing hand that can close Rifts.

"Scary to think of those things opening up here, in a city. Bad enough to happen in the countryside, but it's way worse to have them in a city full of people. But yeah, you're right. I hope some people will go to bed knowing it's safer here tonight." He lifts up the rapier Araceli let him borrow and hands it over to her. "Thanks for letting me use that. Probably didn't have proper form and all, but at least it's sharp."