a call for assistance

[lionheartedman]

Hello, Fade Rift. My name is Ophelia and I'm your new Cullen. If you want to just chat and plan new stuff, that is awesome and I am excited and I have an intro comment for it right here! In the mean time, this is a call for old CR to come give me a hand.

THIS POST IS CLOSED, AND I AM NO LONGER ACCEPTING OLD CR FOR CULLEN.

Due to the nature of his character, and the level of involvement he has with those who come to the Inquisition, adding past CR continually as it is brought to me is not a viable way of playing Cullen.

As such, from here on in, anyone who has not already commented on this post with their past CR will be treated as brand new CR. I apologize if this creates an inconvenience for anyone, but I made this post available for what I feel was an ample amount of time.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me.

So, there is obviously a bit of inherent difficulty in playing a character that has been previously played by someone else. Especially in a setting like Fade Rift where that character did not go home or leave for any length of time, and where they are not coming in as an alternate version of themselves. I'm going to ask for some help in that arena, especially since it looks like the previous Cullen was in the game since the very beginning. There must be a lot that he's already done.

Here's how you guys can help me! (And thank you so much in advance for the assist.)

If your character had any important interaction with Cullen, something that you feel helps to define their relationship, or even just something fun that you want to keep as past CR, please drop me a link to the log. That way, I can read up on what Cullen has already been up to, figure out a way to incorporate it in my own playing of him if at all possible, and have a firm grip on where he's at. This way I weed out all the interactions with characters who have dropped, or interactions that don't matter much to you guys. Anything that isn't brought to me, I'm going to assume you're fine with having it ret-conned out of his history. This will be far easier for Cullen from an IC standpoint than suddenly losing a bunch of his memories, since we all know that's been a huge looming fear of his. The fact that it won't be lyrium doing it will be a small comfort, but not much. A gaping hole in your mind is still a gaping hole in your mind.

While this is mostly a call for logs of one-on-one CR, if there was any big event that Cullen was part of that you think I should know about, please share it. You guys have been here longer than I have, and you know what's already gone down. That's the help I'm after.

I'm going to ask that you guys get these links to me within the next two weeks. This way, I can dive right in a.s.a.p. and get to playing with all the fun stuff available here. I feel like two weeks is enough time for anyone who wants to to have a chance to get things to me, enough time for me to read it all, and not so much time that I will lose my whole first month in the game to it. If you know of anyone who is on hiatus and has had significant interactions with Cullen, please give them a heads up. You can also just tell me who they are and I will PM them to make sure they know what's going on.

So, yeah, that's how you guys could really help me out. Get me your important Cullen logs by the 23rd of June so I can get to playing this fluffy little lion man with a concrete idea of his game history. Also, while I'm totally available for chatting and planning things on plurk or AIM or wherever, please contain logs for me to read to this post only. This way they are all in one place. I am going to literally be using this post as a checklist. It's just so much easier for me.

Comments

[fleurdesel]

Hello! I'm Belle and the character of mine that had the most interactions with Cullen is this one, Adelaide. They had a positive working relationship that was polite and somewhat friendly while remaining predominantly professional.

Initial meeting RE rifters and soldiers lingering a bit close
An abomination in Skyhold <- this log is incomplete but we had worked out that Adelaide was burned and injured protecting Cullen from a stray blast of fire which leads to-
Mutual WTF were you thinking where they both point out neither is exactly expendable.
A quick Dance on First Day - them being friendly
Mabari??? Adelaide mentions her family breeds mabari.

As a courtesy to Cullen's sister and an acknowledgement of them both having a habit of overworking and working through meals Adelaide also has a standing tea break with Cullen in his tower where they eat and drink and end up working anyway but hey at least there's food.

[lionheartedman]

All right, reading homework done for this batch. XD

I am assuming that the abomination was destroyed? The log cuts out pretty early. Did they get it to the mountain or defeat it in the courtyard? I'm not going to keep to any handwaved details of the fight, because it doesn't seem essential to hash them out, but I think I will need to know the broad strokes of what happened in order to keep it at all. An abomination attack is not exactly routine.

Except obviously the burn Adelaide got, because the discussion of that has its own log, so that's a detail to keep. How extensive in the burning? This one also cuts off fairly early, but I'm going to guess that it ends with Cullen admitting that she's right and that he's not just an expendable piece of all this that can be easily replaced with no major issues. Something like that?

Also eeeeee for puppies. Is this how Cullen got a Mabari, do you think? Maybe the last player just assumed that litter was sent? If that's the case, it means that he doesn't have it, but he could have it in the future, which still makes me happy.

[elegiaque]

sup! i didn't have any particular cr with our previous cullen but benevenuta (nevarran mortalitasi mage councilor) corresponded with him re: a mage council project here, and he would be familiar with orlesian trouble over here as her project has advisor approval from here!

welcome to the game!!

[lionheartedman]

Awesome. Thank you. I probably wouldn't have known about either of these without the links and I can definitely see how both could potentially come up at some point in the future. Someone wandering around writing down what people are doing is always a good hook for some new CR. :3

[lettersfromhome]

Sup.

[lionheartedman]

You got some links for me or what? Sitting here waiting on some sibling bonding time, sis. Got my timeline all ready to fill in.

[serannas]

I didn't have any deep CR with Cullen and any of mine, but one time Ellana and Cullen engaged in a snowball fight against children in which they lost horribly and it was super cute.

As for Christine, she's been in contact with the advisors regarding being allowed to study red lyrium, so that's a thing as well.

[lionheartedman]

That snowball fight is adorable, and I can't think of any reason why keeping it would pose a problem. Best way to start an acquaintance, I think. XD

Also, Christine, why would you want to do the thing? D: Not that he's going to stop you, but you officially make him a little bit uncomfortable. /sob

[onlyhymns]

Hey, welcome!!

Cade is sort of the problem child of the Templar Order and has had a few run-ins with Cullen after freaking out and getting violent over one thing or another. Here's the last time they spoke.

They're acquainted with each other from their time serving together in Kirkwall, but have never been close-- Cade was as quiet and weird then as he is now, and it was more or less understood that they have so little in common that they had no reason to talk at Skyhold except when disciplinary action was being taken.

Since that last log happened, several things have changed, and probably the most significant one for Cullen's knowledge is that Zevran has put himself in charge of keeping Cade in line (rather than having him supervised 100% of the time or throwing him in the dungeon).
I think that's everything!! If you have questions or need clarification I'm @eolasemah on plurk :O

[lionheartedman]

The linked log is definitely an important part of their interactions, but I also feel fairly certain I'm missing big chunks of their relationship. I could wait and see if the other person involved in that log is going to offer any links, and if Zevran's player will have links for the current situation with Cade, but right now I'm kind of lost.

Do you have logs for any of their other interactions that might help give context? Or was it all handwaved? Even logs that don't include Cade, but you think are important, I'd be happy to incorporate them if I can.

[wontforgetyou]

With Cullen being as busy as he is, Jamie hasn't had much of a chance to get to talk with him, but he was the person who Jamie approached when he wanted to help out the Inquisition way back when the rifters first showed up at Skyhold.

It's also possible that Jamie would have approached him about officially signing up once the rifters were allowed to join since he'd talked to him previously, but since the actual joining was allowed to handwaved at the time there wasn't any specific log, and if you'd prefer to not have that as a part of their CR we can certainly skip that part of things. I'm @evilgiraffe on plurk if you've got any questions, though!

[lionheartedman]

Jamie, such a little helper. Not that it has any bearing on this, but Jamie is one of my favourite old Who companions. That all seems legit. Assuming that Cullen was named as the person people were supposed to approach, or at least one of them, I'm fine with Jamie having talked to him about joining up. Provided we assume it was a very brief and basic conversation. I'm looking to avoid handwaving any serious or in depth interaction based on what the last Cullen player did. Just for my own mental health. XD

[arcaneadvisor]

I don't have any CR with Cullen but she addressed a letter to the advisors regarding her eluvian being taken; said eluvian is now in Skyhold for all the possible headaches it will no doubt cause because ancient elven artifact in Skyhold what could possibly go wrong?

[lionheartedman]

Oh, awesome. More super dangerous things waiting to kill them all. This is why he looks like he got run over by a medium sized cart! You people are going to be the death of him!

Seriously, though, thank you for the heads up. It's a good thing to know for a hook if they ever do interact in the future.

[the_effect_she_has]

Hello, I'm Wren and ... Okay ... this is probably going to be the most awkward interaction you're going to have with a player, so I'm just going to explain the situation and see if you want me to post logs, or if you just want to have our characters awkwardly avoid one another.

So my character Katniss Everdeen (au'd from Hunger Games, and clearly aged up) was in a relationship with Cullen Rutherford. Nothing more than kisses, and cuddling, so no worries there. If you want background on the relationship I'll be happy to give it to you, but otherwise I've since played them as 'taking a break' and they can continue to do so.

My other two characters are Bethany Hawke whom he knew from Kirkwall, and Knight Commander James Norrington whom he was on a friendly sort of relationship, but nothing seriously deep on either one of those CR's.

Welcome to the game and I am sorry to drop this on you! Just figured you'd want the heads up.

[lionheartedman]

If you don't have any logs you want me to look at, that's completely fine and totally up to you. I want everyone to do what they're most comfortable with, based on what will be best for them and for their characters. You are free to give me as much or as little as you'd like (or even nothing, if you prefer) to read regarding each relationship.

However, out of the necessity to get moving playing Cullen now, I am relying on things brought to me here to inform me of his history in the game as I will be playing it. It's an inherent limitation of the writing process that Cullen can't know anything that I don't know as his player. Without any logs posted here for me to incorporate, there will be no history between Cullen and Katniss, awkward or otherwise. It wouldn't be continuing to take a break from a romantic relationship. It would be never having been in any kind of relationship at all. The same is true of Bethany Hawke and James Norrington.

[liberalum]

first up, welcome!! i'm brooklyn + thrilled to have a cullen back and i don't envy your task in reorienting yourself here. i'm sure it'll work out smoothly once you get into it.

i do not have a lot of stuff to share, myself. the first interaction on game between cullen and dorian would be this moment -- the context is that the inquisition held a funeral for the herald, and it was a little tense with templars and mages. IF YOU SOMEHOW CAN'T TELL FROM DORIAN'S AMAZING DIAGRAMS, he and adelaide helped break up a brawl, and dorian reported it by way of said amazing diagrams. cn ofc provide more context but i don't want to overwhelm you with stuff cullen wasn't directly involved in, and it was a small incident.

i'm not sure what the previous cullen set up for this cr, or how far past their canon tension pre-skyhold he got, so it's honestly up to you. time has gone by and dorian hasn't performed any blood magic, and he speaks well of the advisors, so there's that. if you want to leap into chess-playing friendships, i'm down, or we can back it up and develop it ourselves. it's a blank canvas, but i'm very keen for cr either way.

my other relevant character is knight-captain marcus kane who made some diplomatic overtures upon trying to smooth templar feathers who were ruffled about anders not being immediately drawn and quartered. he is a few months new to the inquisition and he and cullen haven't spoken, but he was a free marches templar of kaiten.

[lionheartedman]

I would much rather have more to read and a full understanding of what's going on than less to read and any confusion. The drawings are lovely, but I have zero clue what's going on. No, that's not fair. I have about 7% understanding of what's going on. I recognize Iron Bull. I might possibly recognize Cassandra? I recognize that Dorian failed all his art classes. That's it. XD

The reason I'm doing this with this post and not just going back and reading everything is mostly because I don't want to bother with things from dropped characters that don't matter, and partially because there are probably things with current characters that just aren't important. Everyone has those logs where nothing ends up changing from the beginning of it to the end. You guys know the difference, I don't. So it's not that I don't want to read things, it's that I genuinely don't know what I should be reading because I don't know what's important. Can't know what's important without reading all of everything, which defeats the purpose of weeding out the important stuff. I'm rambling. No help for it. Sorry.

TL:DR, if you've got context, bring it on.

When it comes to handwaved growth, your guess would be as good as mine, which is why I'm not going to be incorporating handwaved stuff. There's just too much interpretation, too much depending on the conversations that decided on that handwaving, and I was part of none of it. It would probably be better if we did it ourselves.

As for the Anders thing... we all know how Cullen feels about what he did. That's nothing new.

[stabsbooks]

Hello and welcome!

So the only time Cassandra and Cullen have had any real interaction, I think, was during what's known as the "Civil War" event. To explain as briefly as possible: after a native Dalish with a shard (Sina) accidentally opened a rift within Skyhold, Cassandra freaked out a bit and started interrogating all the rifters/shardbearers to figure out just who had the ability to open rifts and who might decide to do so for their own nefarious purposes. The only rifter who ended up looking like a threat was Galadriel. Cassandra interrogated her and imprisoned her, then immediately went to the advisors to tell them what happened. The "Civil War" part comes in here, with a difference of opinion between (primarily) Leliana and Cassandra; Cassandra concerned and frightened about what the rifters might do/be capable of and just where their loyalties lie, and Leliana passionate about freedom and concerned about the implications of locking up an elven mage rifter (three marginalized groups in one) on mere suspicion of malicious intent. Cullen and Josephine were less involved, but Cullen did back up Cassandra's point of view and Josephine backed up Leliana.

After some public outcry and a letter from the Dalish, Cassandra eventually realized that keeping Galadriel locked up indefinitely wasn't an option. When Thranduil showed up and promised to take responsibility for anything Galadriel might do against the Inquisition in the future, Cassandra agreed to release her. She has her freedom but is shadowed by Templar guards wherever she goes.

Cullen wasn't hugely involved with most of this - most of it's in the advisor discussion post linked above. He did overhear Samwise Gamgee talking about Galadriel's mind control powers and went to warn the advisors about them in their final (dropped) discussion log about Galadriel before Cassandra met with Thranduil.

Seeing as nothing was ever done with Cullen's knowledge of Galadriel's mind control powers, it might be easiest to retcon it, but if you'd like to keep it I'm perfectly happy to work with you on that - it's up to you!


I'm assuming the mods already talked to you about advisor duties/the inbox - the advisor inbox and reports post are both located here. Definitely subscribe to both posts if you haven't, and it might be a good idea to read over old reports/messages just to get an idea of some of the things the advisors have signed off on or had to deal with.


Cullen and Cassandra's personal relationship was never really explored, but I'd like them to be close and am really looking forward to playing out more of their interactions! Please hit me up if you wanna work out any headcanon about their existing relationship or if you have questions about the Inquisition's structure and history in Fade Rift, the CW event, stuff from the advisor inbox or anything else.

[lionheartedman]

This is perfectly perfect. Thank you. I feel like i have a really good handle on the circumstances surrounding the interaction Cullen has had with Cassandra from reading all the stuff you linked.

Man, shit got real. You people are going to have Cullen full grey before he's 40, poor noodle. It all looks like stuff that should be kept, because it involves so many people. I'm not sure why nothing was every done with the information that Galadriel can mind-whammy people. Was it an IC decision to sit on the information? I can't really see a reason to get rid of those logs. If the Advisors want to talk more about it IC, maybe we can do that.

We could probably do some planning in the current CR meme and figure out what we want to do with Cullen and Cassandra in the future. I'm trying to avoid getting too much stuff from the in game timeframe handwaved, since I'm already making the attempt to absorb all the stuff that happened that wasn't handwaved. There's stuff from before Fade Rift started that might be worth exploring, though.

[justice_is_blond]

Hello, Ophelia! Welcome to the game! Cullen and Anders only had one bit of interaction and that was here as part of the log wherein the issue of Anders was decided.

[lionheartedman]

That makes sense, since Cullen would have recognized his face if he'd seen him before, and it's not like he'd go seek him out. Also, I fucking love your icon. XD

[mythalenaste]

Welcome to the game!

Putting in a +1 to the Anders stuff above, which Nathaniel was present for and it's the only interaction he's had with Cullen.

Pel and Cullen weren't exactly close, so the only important stuff is here and here.

[lionheartedman]

Yup, Anders related stuff is a beautiful disaster and it's awesome.

So, Pel hangs out in his office sometimes while he works, and she suggested cold compresses for his headaches, makes sense. Did she have a crush on him or something? Some of the wording seems kind of intimate for their only real interaction. Also, the rumour that's linked to in the second log that Mia is worried about is about Norrington. So I don't really get what that has to do with Cullen. What exactly were those rumours? Were they just that Pel and Cullen were sleeping together, or was something else at play?

[extramural]

HI IT'S GADGETS u know me uh

the Outsider and Cullen have never interacted, Merrill watched him spar once but that's about it! so I'm good with whatever

[lionheartedman]

So you want to just start as a blank slate when it comes to face to face interaction in the game?

Was there anything that either of them were involved with that you think Cullen should have heard about through either reports or the rumour mill? I know Merill and trouble.

[amygdalae]

Hey there! Name's Knightblazer or just KB for short and I just play this loser right here (Bruce Banner, AU'd native).

In terms of CR with Cullen Bruce hasn't had much with him - just these two logs that didn't go off much since the player was busy. But the general assumption that had been made is that Bruce sort of worked with/reported to Cullen in terms of non-magical healing department things (how many currently injured, soldiers that need more attention, etc.) since up to this point he had been hiding the fact that he was a mage from pretty much everyone in the Inquisition (save for a few, due to circumstances and CR).

If you want we can totally start from scratch since Bruce is just outed as a mage due to the last mod event, or have something general to base off and continue from there? I'm fine either way, so whatever works for you is best! Of course, if you have more questions, feel free to bring it up as well.

[lionheartedman]

It's totally your call. We can start from scratch or build off of what's already there to have a little bit of conflict and a reason for them to have a serious talk. It also potentially gives us a reason for them to have not talked lately, because Cullen finds out that Bruce was keeping secrets, and maybe Bruce feels uncomfortable about it?

I have a similar thing currently going on with Cassandra. I personally feel that light conflict leads to the potential for really good solid conversations, because characters have to dig down and be invested. So I definitely don't mind keeping it if you'd like to. Since the two logs, short though they are, establish a very firm precedent for Bruce writing up reports, it seems legit. Especially since it's the sort of thing that doesn't necessarily need to be done in person. Bruce could have been sending the written out reports to Cullen's office to help him keep on top of troop availability.

[shieldwalls]

hey hey, welcome Ophelia! I'm Corie and I play Aveline here. Just her.

I didn't get a chance to play with our last Cullen but they know one another obviously and I sort of run with the idea that they worked closely together in rebuilding Kirkwall and were on good terms before he left for the Inqusition. I never actually brought this up in game, so if it's not okay for you I can scrape it no problem.

Anyways looking forward to playing with you. C:

[lionheartedman]

I am 1000% down for Cullen and Aveline having a good working relationship. She is fabulous, and he needs more fabulous people in his life.

[theproperglove]

Hello! Thought I would drop an official line here. Josie hasn't interacted with Cullen outside of the group advisor threads which I believe Buttercup, the Cassandra player, has linked to you. Please let me know if there's anything particular you'd want to hash out, but I am otherwise more than happy to simply continue building off their canon relationship. :~)

[lionheartedman]

I think it'll be easier for both of us if we just build new. They start off in canon having to build a relationship from scratch, and it's not ridiculous to think that things have been so busy that they haven't had the time to get to really know one another. Rifters make everything more difficult, dude.

[fightingale]

Helllooooooo

So hey hi hello I'm Bella, I play Leliana, Ruby from OUaT (rifter) & Herc Hansen from PacRim who is an AU warden and was involved in the Anders reveal purely bc he was the nominated warden leader guy of the time.

Ruby has zero interaction with Cullen, so that's easy.

Leliana's main interaction with him was to do with the Civil War stuff, which I see you have already been linked to, and I think this brief interaction is the only thing I have to add in, which is just before they were going to talk with Solas and he was going to bring up Galadriel's powers, but that got a bit mired in IRL (as I think Buttercup has already mentioned) and sort of fizzled out.
One thing that it is only fair to give you a heads up on (assuming you've not already read about it in the advisor discussion post) is this assassination plot against Leliana, which obviously hasn't happened yet but will be unfolding later this month.

Herc hasn't really interacted with Cullen beyond his peripheral involvement in the Anders reveal and being the guy to go talk with the Advisors re: Anders, but there wasn't a specific Cullen thread there. However, it might be useful to know that in a skirmish in the Western Approach Herc was captured and held by Erimond's minions for about a month, and when he escaped and returned brought to the attention of the Advisors. It's not a Cullen thread, but just so you're aware of the information that was handed over, here it is.

UM... I... I don't think there is anything else 8|a....

[lionheartedman]

Do you know what actual date that sending crystal conversation took place? I believe the meeting was on 5 February. Did the conversation happen on the same day?

I have heard about the assassination plot, yes. Very excited to be involved however you guys end up needing, or just to be on the fringe watching the shit go down and reacting in his own way.

Everything looks good, though. Can't wait for them to interact more. :D

[sandsofhell]

Hello! Late to the party as usual, sorry I'm still stuck doing summer finals. But yes, hi I'm Alex and I play Martin Walker here. These two have had a brief interaction with one another before. Nothing too major, but probably somewhat notable?

idk. Anyway if you have any questions feel free to ask!

[lionheartedman]

I assume that he's been doing this job that Cullen gave him. What exactly does it entail? Is he just helping with the training?