Rifts and the Veil/Elven Artifacts Meeting

[mythalenaste]

WHO: All members of the Rifts and the Veil and Elven Artifacts projects are invited to attend.
WHAT: A joint discussion, trying to solve a puzzle together.
WHEN: Early Firstfall, after Satinalia
WHERE: The Elven Artifacts laboratory in the Gallows.
NOTES: A follow-up to the island elven ruins quest. WTF was that map, anyway? Takes place after this announcement.

Tea and refreshments are offered--nothing elaborate, just something for people to gnaw on in case they get peckish while thinking. The mosaic has been drawn and painted as accurately as possible and hung on a wall for examination. It is a map of Thedas, with most of the south broken away and pieces missing, with green slashes--some straight, some curved oddly, all tapered at the ends and thicker in the middle--cutting across here and there. Where the green lines cross, they are bright red.

"All right," Pel says, pointing to one of the intersections. "Our goal for today is to reckon out what these are, or at the very least, come up with a plan for reckoning it all out. This is obviously a map, but what's it a map of?"

Comments

[exequy]

"So we aren't meant to accept any theory proposed here as fact without further evidence?" Kostos says, not quite quietly enough to count as under his breath, because he's an asshole. "Why did I even come."

Answer: to be an asshole, probably. (Exhibit B is the look he gave Melys, initially, with all the crumb-spewing, but it softened as she asked actually interesting questions.) To be an asshole and to learn way too much about magic mirrors. But, having managed that many words, he clears his throat and tries a few more, this time louder.

"Maybe it's a map of Eluvians. Maybe it's a map of what made putting an Eluvian on a small island in middle of the sea worth the trouble. There was also a rift, red lyrium, a dormant volcano, an astonishingly thin veil, signs of human and Tal-Vashoth settlements in the ruins—"

To say he trails off would be charitable. There's no trailing, just an abrupt end and new observation.

"On the ground, those intersections will cover miles."

[ ooc | the thing about the intersections covering miles seems sort of unfair for me to use because i know it but y'all, not having an actual map to look at, could not have! but i'm trying to keep things clear and help the discussion progress, so forgive me please. and if anyone wants to check visual details with us for the sake of this log (pending us having time to actually make the map, somedaaaay) you can add to the questions being asked here! xoxo ]

[mythalenaste]

"There's no geographical correlation, nothing the locations have in common that are clear from comparing it with a map of modern Thedas, nothing like that. It could be there's intent in these lines, rather than a characteristic. This is what I keep coming back to--if it was made for the purpose of the intersections alone, why not simply have points on the map? Instead, there are lines, all of different shapes. That's why I don't think it's simply a map of locations."

She waves at Ellana in acknowledgement--they'll get to a plan of action when they've reasonably analyzed the information they already possess.

[faithlikeaseed]

Morrigan's explanation neatly aborts the next question Myr would ask; he inclines his head in mute acknowledgment, lower lip between his teeth as he works to assemble what's been put forth into some kind of reasonable whole. (Damned frustrating, still, that he can't see everything written down, or the original map and what Kostos describes--)

"They'd cover miles if the map's scaled right," he observes. "It's a mosaic, so it wasn't meant for precise navigation--and they might've been freer with distances if whatever those lines depict doesn't need to be measured exactly. Or can't be, as might be the case if it's something to do with the Fade."

[arcaneadvisor]

"There are things that are enemy and his followers have shown interest in at one time or another: rifts and rifters - enough even to kidnap them, red lyrium, eluvians as I have said." With her gaze fixed on Kostos and Myr, the two with the wits in their heads to put together what Morrigan is saying without it being used to sharepn the edge of ones tongue, Morrigan continues.

"Much might make the Veil thin, 'tis thin here from the work of old Tevinter. Blood washes away sooner than what might make it, unless this is a recent thing. Corypheus believes himself a magister of old Tevinter, now," to Kostos, to Myr, intent and willing them to come up with something worth her while so as not to disappoint, "what sit that by the power of the eluvians, what might the enemy wish with it?"

[circleprodigy]

Since the matter of how to proceed is put on hold for the moment, Inessa doesn't verbally pursue the matter but she does nod at Ellana's perspective. Either approach has its merits, but they can discuss once they have determined more about this map.

She sips her tea and stares at it with a furrowed brow, silent as she ponders while everyone speaks. Kostos gets a reluctant nod; she'd been considering the same about the intersections, which hardly narrows things down. But mention of the lines has her glancing to the map and tilting her head. "I agree. The shapes of the lines has to be significant; what they imply could be just as important as the intersections. Everything on that map has purpose, or we must treat it so until proven otherwise."

Mention of Corypheus has that frown of thought returning, as she leans back in her chair. "He has a singular great purpose, one which has not been achieved. It must link to that, beyond a doubt."

[faithlikeaseed]

Corypheus believes himself a magister of old Tevinter, now, Morrigan says--and the strangest look flits across Myr's face. Part fear, part he couldn't--

But of course he would; the magisters' besetting sin was pride, and pride didn't admit to failure. "He intends return to the Black City," he says, carefully, tasting the words. "Which means tearing the Veil open wider than it's already been--and that requires a colossal amount of blood--"

He stops in the middle of that thought, head tipped a little to one side. "They're wider in the middle of the lines and narrow at the ends?" To confirm.

[meds4sale]

"Perhaps a little like a map of a train system," he muttered softly to himself, finally looking up from whatever long contemplation he'd been having.

"Morrigan," he said, his voice no longer a whisper, "may I ask - when one passes through an eluvian. Do they simply come out the other? or is there more to it?"

[mythalenaste]

"They are thick in the middle and tapered at the ends. If that is Corypheus' purpose, and we have reason to believe he has a use for this map, that does lend credibility to the hypothesis that they are places where the Veil is especially thin. Somewhere where he can tear through to the other side." Pel considers for a moment, then looks back at the list.

Eluvians
Elven Ruins
Ley Lines
Weakened Veil
Other old, cursed as fuck civilizations

"Don't they look like tears in the map?" she muses. "Isn't that exactly how you would portray a giant tear in the Veil, if you could? Although they don't look anything like the Breach. But they don't look all that much like each other, either."

[motherfucking_ghost]

"Hey, uh, so this is probably a stupid question, but that's what I'm here for. Shouldn't we also consider who made this? Like, okay, it was in some creepy elf ruins, right? But to just say 'elves made it' doesn't help...super a lot? I mean, they help us think maybe it's to do with these transporter doors."

Listen, if he ever goes through an eluvian and comes out covered in black stuff on the other side, he's quitting Thedas forever.

"But I mean like societies make different things for different reasons. One group of elves isn't gonna have the same ideas and ideals as another. For all we know, this could just be like...a big map of trade roads. I know it's not, but I'm just saying. What do we really know about the people that might have made this, and how does that influence the possibilities of what it could mean?"

[arcaneadvisor]

In response to the Medicine Seller (what is a train?) she shakes her head slightly. He'd put the puzzle of the eluvians together far faster than any other from them talking together previously but there's still more to discuss. "A door requires a key. So does an eluvian, if you have the key then yes you will proceed as you will but if not, if you choose blindly, there is every chance to become trapped. So many are sealed. Gone dark."

Church if you go through an eluvian and come out covered in black stuff you might have to talk very nicely to your local Grey Wardens but that's still not a guarantee about not leaving Thedas forever.

"As for the maker, the ancient elves have a-- poetic vagueness to anything written that makes it near impossible to interpret meaning. I have studied long years through ruins but never have I come across something such as this. Whereas elves after the fall of Arlathan then the Dales have tales that overlap then change in the telling." The look of irritation on her face isn't directed towards the question, more an older thing, remembering long days and nights poring over the same phrases to find a meaning lost to time. "If there were those who did recall the eluvians perhaps they attempted to repair one. 'Tis no small task, let me assure you, and to attempt to find the way back..."

Had they tried to find the Crossroads? Somewhere else? Had their doorway been sealed shut behind them?

[aforethought]

This is all out of her league, not that she's about to admit as much. Melys slouches in stubborn place, tries to play catchup —

"D’you get stuck in the Fade? Or in," Her face screws up, "Void?"

She finally offers, for lack of better word. It falls a little flat. Who understands elves today? Let alone dead ones. Church's point seems half-reasonable:

"What purpose is there t’opening the Veil if you ain’t Corypheus?" Why would they care about weak spots? Maker, all this magic nonsense. They'd be welcome to keep it for themselves, if it didn't go messing up life for the rest. "An' if we're worried on him using them, why not just. Seal the ones what still work?"

[motherfucking_ghost]

"It's all just guesswork." Church slumps back a little, rubbing his chin. "God damn I miss the internet and crowdsourcing information. Okay, so end of the day, we can do whatever booklearning research we can, but we still have to send people out and see if they can physically see anything. Maybe some mages, a Rifter or two? The most likely people who could sense a disturbance in the force. Or the veil, or the fade, or the whatever."

[faithlikeaseed]

"The Magisters can't be the only ones who wanted the power opening the Veil would bring them," Myr observes to Melys' question, before turning a puzzled expression toward Church's voice.

Only about 35% of that was in Trade. He's certain of it. "Someday," he says to no one in particular, "we're going to start a rifter phrasebook. --A couple of shardbearers wouldn't be so bad an idea, either, if there's Veil tears present. The ones we encountered in the thin spot around the Blackmarsh only tore wider the first time someone tried closing 'em. Like new rips in rotted cloth when you try to mend the old."

If the intersections are thin places in the Veil, it stands to reason the rules would apply there, too.

[aforethought]

Guesswork. Melys feels a surge of frustration bubble up, and maybe that's what they've all got to be feeling at the answer. Somehow, that just makes it harder to swallow. There’s a line, isn’t there? A line where you should really know what you're talking on. She’s never walked it, folks have done their part before to make that clear. Just always figured someone else was.

A flicker of small, instinctive panic. Loud as she’ll object to the idea of some lofty, intellectual elite —

Well. Not so easy to give up on the things you’ve been told to believe in. Frightening now, to reckon they’re all standing in place. The talk of the Blackmarsh finally does it:

A muttered excuse, she makes her way out.