"The Commander and I came to Kirkwall out of the North," is not exactly the answer to Loki's question. "From an island that is regrettably no longer in existence."

What's left of Nascere cannot rightly be called an island. But it might be visibly, broken and drenched in spirits and more or less uninhabitable. John does not invoke it.

"But I can comport myself well in a roomful of Orlesians, if that's what you mean to ask."