[OOC] The Sky is Falling!

[eolasemah]

Recently a rift opened in Skyhold itself. Although nobody saw it happen, it was rumored to have been opened by a mage native to Thedas and not one of the rifters.

There are damages to the courtyard from where buildings and vegetation have been singed and frozen and dented from the resulting demon battle. It looks a mess. This is a mess.

The purpose of this post is for general opinion gathering, rumormongering, and plotting for the fallout from this fiasco. If people can just open rifts wherever they want, what does this mean for the Inquisition? Can rifters do it, can regular mages do it? Why would someone within Skyhold and ostensibly part of the Inquisition do this in the first place? Why weren't snacks provided?

If you feel so inclined, reply with your character's reaction to the news (or the sight, or the battle) and what action they might want to take, if any. Plot, make CR, do the thing!

Comments

[ombranera]

<.< right now it's all hypothetical it'll be okay there'll be no mass destruction.








Right?

[wontforgetyou]

Jamie's going to want to know what research and what he's going to have to do and if Adelaide is going to be the one doing all of it or if there's going to be others involved with this and maybe more questions as they come up.

She'll probably be able to get him to help out in the end, though.

[ombranera]

Explain how it feels when they use the shards, sit and let her examine them/the shards, most likely yes, her students will probably help take notes on their findings.


there'll be snacks.

[laurenande]

Galadriel may come to talk magical theory with Vivienne and get her opinions on Templars and how the dangers of magic are/should be dealt with.

And totally not because she's going to study this nonsense to better deal with the rifts/veil or anything.

(Our last thread sort of fell by the wayside, for entirely understandable reasons. Would you like to just establish some assumed CR and a routine of chats/tea/the game with Vivienne and Galadriel?)

[laurenande]

She wasn't planning on mass destruction. Yet.

Cassandra should be happy, if she figures out the rifts she can prevent them from occurring in or around Skyhold. Theoretically.

[stabsbooks]

It won't be pleasant, but a mixture of guilt once she remembers that she questioned the Herald the same way and they turned out to be innocent + realizing that Sina is the last person to actually do anything bad by design will mean that things won't get too out of hand.

probably.

[wontforgetyou]

Oh, well, if there's snacks...

That doesn't sound so bad then, and for Adelaide he's willing to help out. Well. And maybe a little bit for the snacks, too.

[stabsbooks]

Official Inquisition stances are still pending the other advisors' input, but Cassandra will be pushing for it at this point, tbh.

She would definitely ask for and listen attentively to Sorcery 101, asking a Hermione Granger-esque number of questions as he explains. Overall nothing he says throws up any huge red flags, but she'll be keeping an eye on him.

[gatheringstorm]

Yes, they definitely need that emergency meeting. And she'll be interested in learning Dispel for this exact purpose.

[stabsbooks]

they shouldn't be occurring in the first place

[ungovernable]

The explanation is long, complicated and involves a lot of politics and religious context divorced from Thedas - he'll explain that properly trained Elene sorcerers are exclusively from the knighthoods, militant religious orders created for the protection of the Elene nations and faith, similar to Templars if instead of 'protect mages/protect from mages', they were considered the only men trustworthy enough to wield magic at all. And, you know, just men. The title equivalent of cardinals is literally 'Patriarch', REAL SUBTLE, CHYRELLOS. Their people have no system of magic of their own; they're taught by Styric sorcerers and sorceresses, and each of the four knighthoods has a patron god in alliance with the Elene church, a representative of whom acts as the tutor to the knights. Lady Sephrenia, from whom Martel learned, has been teaching Pandion knights for several hundred years. This is probably a clue as to why a man in his forties could still, with his hair coloured, pass for a solid ten years his own junior.

Somehow the official church stance is still that Styric gods aren't real. POLITICS.

The more they talk, the clearer it'll become he actually has no beef with the Templars (recognises their similarities and respects the concept and intent), he's just fiercely independent. If she presses the babysitter thing he'll give her his schedule and tell her to knock herself out, but that he has too much work to do to pander to it.

[stabsbooks]

SURPRISE she's EVEN WORSE THAN A TEMPLAR it's your lucky day galadriel.

Cassandra will get more and more frustrated and yelly and basically this will snowball quickly into horribleness unless there's someone there to pull her back. Does Galadriel have a book? There may be book stabbing.

If Galadriel shares any knowledge of the sort though shit's gonna get real super fast. As in, if Galadriel both indicates that she can open a rift and that she has no qualms about trying (let alone actually plans to do so), Cassandra will do everything in her power to stop her, up to and including having her locked up [or attempting to do so].

so what i am asking i suppose is how much earth do we wanna scorch here

[stabsbooks]

church you're worse than varric SHUT UP

his interrogation will be very short because he is giving cassandra a migraine

[motherfucking_ghost]

SUCCESS that means less chance for her to find out he's something weird

[stabsbooks]

As a trained mage who has undergone her harrowing, Adelaide is an acceptable candidate to supervise Sina. Just don't tell Cassandra about Compassion. She might have templars check up on them occasionally at first just to make sure things are actually under control.

Mal you're almost as bad as Church, go away.

[stabsbooks]

ugh

[ombranera]

She will resent the templar check in but deal with it. If it helps them feel better, fine.

[stabsbooks]

CRUSH THE PATRIARCHY but no apart from that idiosyncrasy that all sounds...weirdly acceptable.

She'll probably push the templar thing at first but it won't last long once it becomes clear he's actually not a threat and they have bigger things to worry about (cough Galadriel).

[stabsbooks]

Cassandra wants to be present at the meeting, if only because that would probably go over better than her other idea of a templar security force Just In Case.

She wants to know what exactly Adelaide means by research and is pro-trained mages watching over rifter mages, though she would really prefer the rifters not do any magic at all at this point.

[harthad_uluithiad]

Lady Galadriel are you going to open a door for us to go back home???

[perseverances]

Cullen in certainly Not. Happy. At. All. in regards to these developments. Must he remind everyone that one of the main purposes of the Inquisition is to close rifts, not open them?

He puts a lot of trust in all of you [especially mages, when he is still wary of them himself, for lots of reasons], and this kind of event throws that trust in question. If it is brought up, he is going to side with Cassandra's motion for more mage supervision until there is something in place to prevent this from never happening again.

Dad is disappointed, guys.

[laurenande]

Yes, that is her ultimate intent.

[ombranera]

It's going to become required learning at this rate, seriously.

[ombranera]

The mage council meetings are, as ever, open to the public but like city council meetings the floor isn't open off the bat for concerns until the council members have discussed things- otherwise they don't get through the agenda and everyone's shouting at everyone else and-


Lots of tea breaks. Lots and lots of tea breaks x-x.

The research is meant to better understand what the shards are, how they interact with the body (sina's stopped her HEART when it went off that is concerning), and how they interact with the fade. Most rifters aren't inherently magical so it isn't so much a thing, but it does bear minding.

[madame_de_fer]

This is why she adores Norrington. Just sayin'.