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

[motherfucking_ghost]

Church came with the note, because rifts and veils! And he was at that creepy hella abandoned town! It was awful. But when he gets there and is confronted with the map-mosaic, he looks around for a second. "Aaaaam I in the right place?"

Sometimes Leonard Church is a helpful man, and sometimes he's stupidly unhelpful. This may turn out to be the latter. "Are those like ley lines or something?"

[circleprodigy]

Inessa settles in with some tea, her gaze lingering on the recreation of the mosaic she remembers seeing before. Though her attention was more focused on the eluvian and the spirit at the time, it seems accurate to her memories. She cradles a steaming up in her hands, her lips tugging in a thoughtful frown as her eyes trace the green slashes and their shapes/intersections.

Hearing Church's entrance, she looks over and nods to his question with a welcoming smile, gesturing for him to have a seat.

"'Ley lines' is a possibility, though more context is needed. Perhaps they are locations where the Veil is especially thin or malleable. If we can pinpoint those exact locations and see them for ourselves, perhaps what we find there would give us insight." It's not a satisfying answer to her ears, but this is why they're studying it as a group, so that many can do what one or two alone cannot.

[arcaneadvisor]

Having arrived early since she came to the Inquisition as the actual expert on these matters, and since there had been a time when peering at the rifters, asking after them had been a small pet project before it had been given a name, Morrigan has some of her own notes iwth her. Not to be shared freely with the room; how would you ever translate her hand in the first place?

Ignoring Church's question comes naturally since she had years at Court, then time on the road during the Blight before that. Some things you hear without hearing.

"The ancient elves left no roads in their wake, 'twas Tevinter who left them." Said for the benefit of those who don't know the ins and outs of elven ruins, who haven't spent the ten or so years since the Fifth Blight dedicating themselves to their study. "If we are to add the Veil into this, might I suggest including sites of elven ruins. Given that the map was found in one and that they are a more known, fixed thing than the Veil is these days."

[exequy]

Kostos is here, too, standing in the back of the room with his arms clasped behind his back and frowning at the map. His default focused face is a frown. He's thinking—and not saying anything yet, because at the moment he would be talking just for the sake of participating, and that's exhausting.

He's thinking: there were ruins, there was a rift, there was red lyrium, there was an old volcano, there was apparently an eluvian and a spirit, and they wouldn't be remiss in wrapping different colored threads around the ends of pins to stick into the map so they can look for connections. If no one else says anything similar in the next fifteen minutes, he might put the effort into actually voicing it, or he might just wait until after the meeting write a note.

[meds4sale]

He was rather curious about what had been found on the trip to the ruins, having had to stay behind and nurse a swollen ankle he'd carelessly twisted when making a hasty retreat from a particularly territorial jungle cat.

He didn't offer any sort of ideas - he was too busy studying the map, and someone else had already suggested ley lines, but those tended to be marked by lines of even thickness.

He was peering at where the some of the lines crossed at their thickest, right over the island. His nose was only a few inches from the map, his cold blue eyes narrowed.

"...Something being funneled, perhaps..."

It was barely above a whisper, more to himself than to those gathered.

[motherfucking_ghost]

"Man, I dunno, but I don't like the fact we've got broken shit in the south. Pieces missing, we can't do much about, but like...if we're going with the idea it's something Fade-related, then yeah, I could see where the lines are thick, then the veil is thicker, and thinner for thinner. We might wanna put together a map of where we've had rift openings, too. But where they cross--wouldn't that make it stronger?"

[serannas]

"That was my first thought, Inessa," Ellana says, her eyes on the red lines. "That the Veil is thin where the red lines are." And then a nod to Church. "So maybe they note places where fade rifts are likely to occur, due to that thinness. Then again, this really thick one is over the island, not out in the water like the fade rift actually was, so... that may not be it after all." But she's willing to listen to some theories. It's really all they can do from their current position.

[mythalenaste]

"Maybe," Pel says, crossing her arms and leaning back against the wall. "But the Veil isn't static like that. It can be mended, or torn worse. This...why would they create such a piece of art, in such a permanent form, just to show some of the places where the Veil might be thin? Wars happen, slaughters happen, blood magic happens, so a map like that would be outdated before it was even finished."

[circleprodigy]

Inessa nods, frowning in thought as her tea cools a little. "That's my concern as well, that the span of time from its creation may be great enough where the information it reveals may be largely irrelevant. But if even a portion of it is not, and could be of use to us...." Well. They have to try, don't they? "Perhaps it refers to items stored which affect the Veil somehow. That would certainly not be the first instance." She thinks back to the artifacts Solas found, the ones which stabilized the Veil. Though it still seems a stretch, something doesn't quite sit right with her.

[faithlikeaseed]

Myr is late to the party--quite unlike himself--but then from the way he's yawning, the message got him out of bed. It's the nocturnal part of his month.

He installs himself in the back of the room beside Kostos and shortly has a frown to match the Nevarran's--a lot's being said about the map but not enough for him to piece together what the thing looks like. "What are we looking at, here?" he mutters to the other man.

Pride won't quite let him say that any louder and interrupt the ongoing conversation. Not when there's someone else standing over there not participating who might help.

[exequy]

Some elf bullshit, Kostos does not say, because the man who's joined him is an elf, and the project heads are elves, and he doesn't have anything against elves in general. Elves are fine. Some of the colleagues who least made him want to die every time they spoke to him have been elves. Etc. But their ancient weirdness and its frequent proximity to the sort of weirdness that makes him uncomfortable, though, he could live without.

He does look sideways to confirm the impression from his first quick glance gave him when Myr first appeared, that the man is blind (or wearing a blindfold for fun, who knows), and thus has a semi-legitimate reason for asking and shouldn't just be ignored for being an idiot.

"It's Thedas," he says, quiet and sounding a bit grudging even though he's determined Myr is not an idiot, "with lines on it. Two cross over the island we visited. Most of the south is missing."

[mythalenaste]

"Not all of the lines cross," Pel says, frowning thoughtfully. "It might be there's no way to know for certain what this means until we know what to expect at each red spot. Scrying for eluvians in the areas showed no correlation, so they're not likely eluvian paths. Eluvians can be moved, at any rate, so making a mosaic map would have little purpose. But the green clearly evokes the Fade."

[arcaneadvisor]

"Throw a knife, see where it lands then open a book; that is where you will find battle if memory records them at all." Morrigan's look is for Pel who found a spirit in a ruin, alike but not like a phylactery recalling so little of anything but what it had been in the purest sense.

The Crossroads however…

There are older things than these wars. Older than Arlathan. "There are places where it may be broken. Intentionally done," carefully said, even for her. "But I know Merrill's eluvian came from the Brecilian Forest, not the ruins your party went to, and of another in the Dragonbone Wastes. Mine will not fit neatly on your map given 'tis crafted."

While the rest have been speaking, she'd drawn a copy for herself; she tears out the page below for Myr, the lines drawn heavily enough above to be followed with fingers.

[mythalenaste]

"I can find broken ones. I can't look very far with the Lights--it's dangerous, and prone to attracting demons, and I'm not exactly an expert at using them. But I did find three, none of which came close to the lines on the map. I--"

Pel huffs out a breath, as if briefly internally frustrated, then she suddenly moves, pulling the linen table cover off the refreshment table (carefully, taking everything off and replacing it as she goes) and tacking it up on the wall. Out comes a thick piece of charcoal.

"Never mind," she says as she goes. "Forget I said anything. We're not going to rule out anything yet. Eluvians are an option. So are elven ruins. We're going to make a list of possibilities, and discuss them all."

She begins to write out a list.

Eluvians
Elven Ruins
Ley Lines
Weakened Veil

"Everyone just...start coming up with ideas. Doesn't matter how crazy it seems at the moment, we just need ideas flowing."

[exequy]

"Why would eluvians be on lines?" Kostos cuts in, which is not an idea, not what he'd been instructed to do, but. Sorry. He's gleaned enough to know that the eluvians matter because they allow for some sort of communication, and that's why anyone gives a damn, but he's clearly a but behind here. "If they could only use them to talk to people on the other end of one line—that would be a pain the ass."

[circleprodigy]

Inessa smiles a bit as Myr joins them, even though he can't see it. She'd been hoping for his insight on this matter and is certain he'll have some once he's caught up to speed. Speaking of which....

"There is more to eluvians than merely communication. They were also used as a means of transport." They still are, though she'll leave that for their resident eluvian expert to elaborate. She's not going to talk over one who has studied them to an extent she has not.

[faithlikeaseed]

"Huh," to Kostos' explanation, and: "Thank you--" when the page is put into his hands, the latter a little befuddled until he feels the lines upon it. Oh. He promptly sets to feeling it out, listening as he does to the rest of the conversation with half an ear.

"How much can you move through an eluvian at once? I mean--why does it have to be just one of these things we're discussing, and not both? --Or however many more you've got up there," Myr amends. "But wouldn't it make a kind of sense the ruins might be around eluvian sites? Since I'm assuming they're better, safer transport than just walking from one spot to another, and that's how I'd want to move to settle somewhere new."

[motherfucking_ghost]

"Maybe they're places with other old, cursed as fuck civilizations? I mean, that village we found was definitely older than the dead people we found there, right? And it was stupid cursed. People being lured to stay, seeing shit from home, people--" Church shudders. "Maybe there are other places like it. Is it possible we can send a scouting party or two to some of the approximate locations, see if anything's there worth seeing?"

[mythalenaste]

Pel adds to the list on the wall:

Other old, cursed as fuck civilizations

[arcaneadvisor]

When she had thought of the eluvians being revealed, it hadn't been like this. There had been letters exchanged with Merrill about it being kept close to the chest. (Skyhold had advantages Kirkwall does not, that both eluvians are there, safe behind a heavy locked door set with spells with staff paid well for the trouble of keeping them that way is about as much as she might hope for.)

To Myr and Kostos she turns since they asked but well, since it's out of the bag now she sets her jaw. "Long ago, and seldom now they were a means for the ancient elves to move from place to place. I must emphasise that this was kept from most given the fascination the enemy has - Venatori sought to claim eluvians. Imagine, should word spread too easily." Imagine too what a shapeshifter might do if this is the next gossip flying free through Kirkwall when it's Kirkwall. "Most of the eluvians are damaged beyond repair. My own I had to craft myself to be certain that it might be of use. The other the Inquisition possesses belonged to Merrill's and she had to rid it of the Blight."

Let your imaginations run wild but well, she saw the Blight. Corypheus is a magister risen again. Caution doesn't need to be said so loudly, does it?

As for why they might be on lines, she turns her attention to Kostos alone, pointing to Myr's map since it's probably closer. "There were ways to move from one to the next yet now they are shut. Eluvians shattered. Lost. Darkened. Beyond reach. The dragonbone wastes would certainly count as a cursed place."

[aforethought]

Melys showed late, shuffled into the back, and by the power of a lingering hangover has thus far managed the minor miracle of shutting up as it all goes flying past her aching head.

Miracles don't last. She squints to the front and lifts her voice:

"Reckon that's all dead useful, but what's this elf --" A last minute check on the profanity; skull's ringing too much at the moment for a fight. "Stuff, these. Eluvian things. What've they got to do with the bloody rifts?"

She's collected a croissant, and punctuates her words with curt, crumb-spraying gestures.

"And how's a door get the fu -- th'Blight?"

[serannas]

There's a moment after Inessa speaks where Ellana glances towards Morrigan, wondering if she missed a big announcement going out about the eluvians, because the last she remembered, Morrigan had told her to kept the transportation part a secret after their journey through one to Kirkwall. But it seems she hadn't missed anything after all, and she picks up with the conversation.

"I think it's worth sending out scouts to see what's at these red lines. Then we might be able to narrow down our theories on what this map represents."

[youwonscience]

Cosima was on time (or close enough, at least, that the meeting hadn't properly started), but she's been quiet. She settled next to Church, as one of the people she knows best, but she hasn't had anything to add thus far. She has, however, been listening intently.

"Discreet scouts sound like a good idea," she finally offers, though. "Because the question isn't whether we need more data. Obviously we do. It's what kind of data and how best to get it. But whatever we decide we're looking for, this smacks of field work."

[mythalenaste]

"I'd rather question locals for rumors than send people straight into the heart of it, not knowing what's there." Pel looks up and down the list, then turns back to the meeting. "Questioning the locals, then proceeding further if things look promising. If the rumors are about, I don't know, people coming back in pieces or not coming back at all, we'll know to play it safe. What do the rest of you think?"

[circleprodigy]

For her part, Inessa listens intently to all that's said while sipping her tea. She doesn't seem apologetic about her revelation; this is a meeting where that topic is relevant, and she won't leave any stone unturned. Besides, she trusts in her own people to be professionals, as well as Pel's.

She nods at Ellana's mention of scouts, but also pauses thoughtfully at Pel's suggestion. "That is a fair point; I don't mind risk, but I would prefer knowing just what we are walking into, if possible. We can send in some low-profile agents, those that are most likely to have the locals open up to them. We do have a Diplomacy division, after all. Let's make use of it."