faderiftooc | player plot | meanwhile, in orlais,

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player plot | meanwhile, in orlais,

WHAT: While the Orlesian court winters in Halamshiral, a contingent from Riftwatch has been invited to spend a week visiting a potential financial supporter (an old friend of Alexandrie, Byerly, and Bastien) and her collection of academics and artists, where they can engage in whatever combination of philosophical conversation, fancy-dress dancing, hunting for sport, and sneaking around that suits them.

WHO: Anyone. We tried to include reasons for anyone from any division to tag along. The Diplomacy angle is obvious, but for Forces there's the need for protection on the road (and in the Bard- and Chevalier- and now ghost-infested city). For Research, the Baroness is a big supporter of the University who will also have some professors &c. come around as well, so it's a chance to befriend both her and her circle of friends for nerd network reasons. And for Scouting, Halamshiral in the winter is a great place to snoop around and/or steal things.

HOW: You can go here for an open log, no sign-ups required. You can use it as a lowkey hangout log if you want to just write your character getting lost in an ice maze (non-dangerous garden variety), or you can do something more serious with the local politics and Veil situation. That's the main thing.

There are two other things you can do:

1. Reply here to receive a custom scenario for your character to have to deal with. You can incorporate it into your RP to whatever degree you want (play it out, reference it in another thread) or just reply to us OOC to tell us how your character would respond, so we can take it into account when writing the report about how Riftwatch went over with everyone during the visit. (These are closed! But feel free to invent your own scenarios of a similar kind.)

2. If your character has their own thing you want them to get up to in Halamshiral -- like if they have relatives to visit, or if you'd like them to steal an eluvian or otherwise do something of notable consequence -- and you want to use this plot as a backdrop and excuse for them to be in the area, you can! Just submit your own plot or info requests as needed. (Dropping in on a cousin to say hello: no plot request needed. Your character uncovering an enemy conspiracy in Orlais: plot request needed. If you aren't sure if what you want to do needs its own plot request you can ask us in the comments.)

WHEN: Now. No preplanning we die like men.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Player: libbitha
Character: Gwenaëlle Baudin
General Plans: Despite a general reluctance to go back to Orlais, the opportunity to visit Halamshiral for a reason other than emptying out dad's house and a genuine interest in the artists and academics will lure her into even volunteering to be part of the protection squad. She has her own fancy dress and existing connections to the Orlesian art scene, some of which may survive her disgrace better than she's catastrophically expecting.
Pre-existing Halamshiral Reputation: Lady Gwenaëlle Vauquelin was a socially exclusive and reserved heiress and noted patron of the arts — as well as a reputable art critic, often commenting on music, performance and literature — who was not, until her fall from grace as "sex scandal evidence", directly associated with prominent poet Ilde Sauvageon. She was last seen briefly in the High Quarter shortly before the death of the Comte de Vauquelin on the front lines, and hasn't set foot in high society since she was still using his name; her previous works as Ilde Sauvageon were all reprinted under Gwenaëlle Baudin to capitalise on the salaciousness of it all. Has made some reckless remarks about the Empress and Madame de Fer.

There are definitely people in Halamshiral she partied with on the dl at "everyone has signed a NDA and all the servants are deaf mutes" Eyes Wide Shut ass secret events.

(Also, Baudin was the married, not maiden, name of her elven mother. There are no surviving Baudins in Halamshiral — her sisters died in the massacre — but there may be elves who knew the family.)

Edited 2024-01-28 04:45 (UTC)

Among the art scene participants who respond better to Gwenäelle and her situation than expected will be Clarice Chapentier, a young woman who was not on the scene last time Gwen was regularly around but is currently hot among the Halamshiral set, who can't get enough of her delicate wood carvings accented by glass mosaic. She's charming not in a slick overbearing way, but the way that's quiet and humble, and she'll be kind to Gwenäelle and may use up some of her clout currency to quiet a few people who are not.

So of course something is off! Gwenaëlle will be able to discover – whether by accident or by snooping for something unrelated or by having a nose for bullshit artistic or otherwise, however you want it to go down – that the carvings are actually the work of Chapentier's elven attendant Adenet, while Chapentier can only carve well enough to put on a show of something being "in progress." But things are not as off as they could have been, because Adenet is not bothered by this whatsoever. He hardly seems to recognize what he does as art in the first place so much as a craft more akin to manual labor, and he'll have a shruggy "it's paying the bills" attitude about Chapentier putting her name to them.

If Gwenaëlle is satisfied with that, either in a "none of my business" way or a "i'm going to tell everyone everything, bye" way, then the experience could end there. But if she hangs out to be more curious or confrontational with them, she may also be able to get out of them that they're romantically involved and that Adenet's satisfaction comes not from the bills being paid but from the relatively unrestricted access to the nobility that this charade gets both of them. Depending on how she plays her cards she might leave with friends among Briala's network of elven spies.

Or she can blow up their spot.

Note: You can play this out in some way or just reply here within a month or so to let us know how your character handled the situation off-screen. You're free to flesh this out with your own details, add further complications, and resolve it however you want, including having it go badly!

Through her curiosity about "this seems to be working for them" (as a former noble who has had multiple relationships with elves), Gwenaëlle befriends Chapentier and Adenet, eventually leading to an invitation to meet some of Adenet's friends who recognise her surname as belonging to Alix Baudin, who had never become a spy for Briala but who would have done if she hadn't been killed in the burning of Halamshiral. She's discreet about this meeting, sneaking out one window and back in* a different one to make it, and trades on her genuine interest in what her sister was up to and any connection she can find to her in order to establish some friendly connections with actual elven spies who fondly remember her older sisters and are begrudgingly endeared to her sincerity. This may be useful in the future.

* plot in the first ten tags, nsfw after that

Player: Hope
Character: Byerly
General Plans: Byerly will be so sociable. He's here to rub elbows, charm, flirt, and generally win over whoever he can. At the same time, he's also here to suffer through a bit of cognitive dissonance, because he's revisiting the site of some of his most flagrant youthful misbehavior when he's, like, pushing forty, and sober, and in a committed loving relationship, with a three-year-old daughter (who is a dog, but that still counts). So I'm definitely thinking about playing around with that - that discomfort of remembering your past bad choices when you're, like, an adult.

Pre-existing Halamshiral Reputation: Byerly spent a good amount of time at Halamshiral in his early twenties. He was completely penniless at that time, and too proud to beg for any sort of allowance from his more generous relatives, so he was a perpetual hustler — crashing banquets he wasn't invited to so he could eat in the leaner times, being a professional sugar baby when things were a bit better.

And because he was constantly hustling, he exploited just about every tactic available to him - and, consequently, different people think of him in different ways. Depending on the people involved, he might have a reputation as:

-A crony and a bully who licked the boots of a very bad dude (i.e., Rolant de Ezoire, Alexandrie's tormentor)
-A Southern bumpkin who had no idea how to play the Game and blundered into any number of strange scenarios and who could be easily pranked
-A prankster who was always good for inventing — and executing — plans for making mischief
-A total horndog who had come to Orlais to get laid constantly

Overlaid with these remembrances is, of course, the more recent history of Byerly as the Riftwatch Ambassador. Generally, the assumption around Halamshiral was that Byerly was just a figurehead/party planner, with others pulling his strings and making the real decisions for Riftwatch.

Byerly's reputation as a horny bumpkin puppet with a history of tolerating some crueler members of society (or the entertaining and correct ones, depending on who you ask) will earn him an invitation to an exclusive dinner gathering with Katelin Boudier, untitled but wealthy, and an assortment of her closest and most terrible friends. The entire group of them, but Boudier in particular, will flirt with him and try to get a feel for his opinions or lack thereof, for how much information he's willing to give away out of carelessness, and for general confirmation that he is in fact a malleable fool. She obviously wants someone from Riftwatch, with its reputation for sticking its fingers into social causes instead of only rifts, in her pocket as an informant or ally.

If Byerly plays along sufficiently with their bile and fantasy racism, it will become clear over the course of the evening that Boudier is murderously angry about an elf being made into a noble – in part due to her own petition to be granted a title failing to find anyone willing to ratify it – and seething with dangerous ambition. If she has any specific plans to cause trouble rather than to only complain, she won't divulge them yet. But she will reward his performance with an 'anonymous' donation to Riftwatch and a promise to be in touch and available should he ever need anything.

If he can't stomach it anymore and gives himself away, he'll be treated coldly until he can be removed from the premises with a veneer of politeness. No donation and no easy opportunities for further information, but he will at least still know that Boudier is a problem to keep an eye on and might pursue that through other channels.

Note: You can play this out in some way or just reply here within a month or so to let us know how your character handled the situation off-screen. You're free to flesh this out with your own details, add further complications, and resolve it however you want, including having it go badly!

Player: Ammmy
Character: Julius
General Plans: Julius is, presumably, on Diplomacy division duty most of the time, so he'll be wining and dining as required. If he has free time, he'd be interested in chatting up some academics for both nerd and reputation-building purposes. More likely to be dancing than hunting, but tbh he'll go where the conversation is. He reads and understands Orlesian, but (aware of his Ferelden accent, rip) probably won't try to speak it; the could lead to some eavesdropping opportunities as well.
Pre-existing Halamshiral Reputation: Julius has been doing diplomacy for Riftwatch for a long time, and for the Inquisition before that, so it's very possible his name would be known to some. That said, his established Orlesian contacts are more likely to be based in Val Royeaux and/or connected to the University, so it's also possible he doesn't have much of a reputation among those present.

During his wining and dining, a conversation that winds up a little suspicious – why is this Orlesian lord asking if mage bane has any side effects? – will end in Julius, the least alarming mage Lord Phillippot de Hauet has ever seen, being asked to accompany him back home to his apartment. Assuming he agrees, Julius will be introduced to de Hauet's eight year old daughter Joya, All He Has since the death of her mother, who recently lit her bed sheets on fire during a nightmare. (The burns are likely to scar but overall not that bad.) So can Julius, like, give her some pointers? To stop that? Maybe demon advice?

Phillippot doesn't know how these things work, but he is moderately inclined to keep it quiet and more desperately inclined to keep Joya with him rather than sending her off to the mages at the front to, as he understands it from afar, be raised in a tent with a battlefield for a classroom. But it won't be impossible to persuade him to do more than have Julius give her a 15 minute recap of mage safety practices, at least. It also won't be impossible to spook or anger him, and making Joya's "condition" public will make him furious but might be enough to pressure him into sending her off for a real education instead.

Note: You can play this out in some way or just reply here within a month or so to let us know how your character handled the situation off-screen. You're free to flesh this out with your own details, add further complications, and resolve it however you want, including having it go badly!

After a consultation with Petrana, Julius opts to encourage Phillippot not to send his daughter away but instead to journey to the Inquisition with her. In Skyhold, he can oversee any education, as well as ensuring her care and comfort. From observation, Julius can suggest that any initial objections can likely be smoothed with a reasonably sized donation to the cause. In addition to both mages' considerable persuasion skills, Petrana adds the prospect of a private code to allow Phillippot to stay in contact with herself and Julius directly. Assuming he accepts their offer, they plan to stay in touch regularly, allowing them to genuinely help Joya from afar and (coincidentally) to get a sense of how the Inquisition mages are handling education these days.

Regardless of any ongoing backtags, the course of action set at this point.

Player: Cass
Character: Evelyn
General Plans: Her two main goals are (1) to scope out the homes of the wealthy for artifacts that deserve to be liberated (or at least re-homed to her personal benefit), and (2) to try to talk to some academics of the historical rather than scientific variety, if possible. And to watch nobles look horrified as she eats their fancy cream puffs while being elven. Three main goals. Once they arrive, she'll discover she also is very interested in hearing all about Maren's work and will probably spend a fair bit of time on the details of that.
Pre-existing Halamshiral Reputation: N/A, unless we want to say they stole something from here once, mj

Edited 2024-01-28 18:59 (UTC)

While scoping out wealthy homes and eating cream puffs, Evelyn will have the opportunity to observe a murder in progress. Specifically the murder of Climent Astier, an untitled wealthy merchant who's resplendently racist, critical of everything including Riftwatch's presence and politics, and all-around unpleasant. No one likes him! But does that mean he deserves to be strangled to death by a clown?

The choice is Evelyn's (plus or minus her companions if she brings anyone along). If Evelyn chooses to intervene, stopping the murder can be as easy or as difficult as you like – the killer clown can run away when she clears her throat, if you want, or try to put up a fight, or not actually be stopped from killing Climent. Notably, the assassin will go out of his way to avoid killing Evelyn even if he does fight her for the ability to continue killing Astier, and given the opportunity might say something to her about humans being trash. (Paraphrased.)

If she saves Climent Astier, he will attempt to thank her but be remarkable insulting about it. If she doesn't, she'll have the opportunity to either alert someone to the location of his body or slip away and pretend nothing ever happened.

Note: You can play this out in some way or just reply here within a month or so to let us know how your character handled the situation off-screen. You're free to flesh this out with your own details, add further complications, and resolve it however you want, including having it go badly!

Player: Mini
Character: Jayce
General Plans:
- Sociable, networking with University personnel -- probably a few days at most.
- Shade and other demon eradication (he will put the mace of nightmare slaying to good use here), offering help around the streets, and snowball fights -- he'll end up using most of his time here.
- At some point, he will propose returning to aid in the rebuilding efforts for another week or so -- as simple as crafting tools for use or teaching smithing skills or more Fade creature clearing work, if the Baronness accepts it; this offer is also meant to curry the Baronness' favor.
- He will not be participating in the hunt, and unlikely in games unless he cannot socially avoid them (because he is at best mediocre at card games like Wicked Grace). He can and will dance and chat amiably.

Pre-existing Halamshiral Reputation: None.

In the midst of juggling his various more admirable activities, Jayce will run into a problem in the form of an Antivan noble visiting Halamshiral. This Antivan is engaged to marry an Orlesian marquis/e, a union a lot of people are financially and politically invested in seeing happen. But Jayce – specifically, his face and his arms – will complicate this, as the Antivan is apparently instantly smitten, up to and including trying to lure him into closets for private conversations.

(We're being vague about the names of the Antivan and Orlesian involved because you can swap the genders around however you please. It can be either Lady Ghita di Fiorelli of Antiva and Lord Guibert Cordonnier of Orlais, or Lord Feo di Fiorelli of Antiva and Lady Avicia Cordonnier of Orlais. Either way the facts remain the same.)

The Orlesian half of this betrothed couple is known to be jealous and the sort of person who would either call the engagement off, try to have a rival killed, or both. (It is extremely possible that wanting to cause this kind of drama is part of the Antivan's motivation. Some people just want to see the world burn.) Additionally, if Jayce is publicly known to be the reason for the marriage plans falling apart, everyone invested in it will be pissed at him or at Riftwatch generally for interfering. Good luck Jayce!

Note: You can play this out in some way or just reply here within a month or so to let us know how your character handled the situation off-screen. You're free to flesh this out with your own details, add further complications, and resolve it however you want, including having it go badly!

Very late, apologies!
- Lady Ghita di Fiorelli of Antiva and Lord Guibert Cordonnier of Orlais
- Ghita did this purely to incite chaos (respect)
- Guibert sent an assassin who poisoned Jayce (nonlethal) in order to kill him in a courtyard or summat
- assassination attempt was thwarted by Loki and his wolf, Elsy
- thereafter, Jayce stayed the fuck away from all future gatherings and spent the rest of his time in the ruined part of Halamshiral, because fighting demons and shades is in fact less scary than dealing with Orlesian politics
- Guibert was apparently satisfied with this retreat
- no further bard-bards were sent
- congrats to the soon to be wedded couple, good-bye forever(?)

Edited 2024-04-07 22:47 (UTC)

Player: Cami
Character: Barrow
General Plans: Mostly dumb muscle/protection, but also a bit of hobnobbing with the elite because I think it would be entertaining. His strategy in a fancy setting is to be quiet and stand by the snack table and not say anything that would out him as a Big Dumb Hick, but he cleans up nice when required to.
Pre-existing Halamshiral Reputation: who's this fuckin guy (unless there's someone involved in the Circle of Magi who recognizes him as an ex-Templar, but that's not specific to Halamshiral)

Edited 2024-01-28 23:16 (UTC)

Barrow – either out in the city or in a secluded corner of the High Quarter, your choice – will stumble upon a Chevalier who's bullying an elven servant (named Alardin, if it comes up) for being lippy. Depending on how much attention he's paid, he may or may not recognize the Chevalier as Marshall Remon Levett, but regardless he will be able to tell that he's a Chevalier and possibly that he's one of the higher ranking ones based on his uniform.

It isn't the kind of bullying that looks likely to end in a death; the physical violence part will max out at a backhand. But the verbal onslaught will show no signs of letting up, continued non-deadly petty violence is likely, and Barrow will be the only human present, so if anyone is going to step in it will have to be him. Will he stick his neck out and make a powerful enemy or have to live with being a person who doesn't intervene in these things? Find out tonight on HAL AM SHA RAL! (Say it like WHEEL OF FOR TUNE!)

If Barrow does either intervene or wait it out long enough for the Marshall to tire himself out and leave Alardin alone so Barrow can check on him, he'll find Alardin sullen but maybe grudgingly grateful.

If he does intervene, the Marshall will have it out for him for the duration of the visit, possibly including making up something entirely different he did to offend him and writing a letter to Commander Flint to complain about Barrow's conduct.

Note: You can play this out in some way or just reply here within a month or so to let us know how your character handled the situation off-screen. You're free to flesh this out with your own details, add further complications, and resolve it however you want, including having it go badly!

Edited (tired himself off? what? ) 2024-02-02 15:58 (UTC)

Barrow doesn't recognize the Chevalier as anyone other than a Chevalier, but he does intervene: first by trying to defuse the situation, a la "come on dude he's smaller than you", and when that doesn't work, by physically placing himself between the elf and his tormentor. An ill-thought-out calming pat on the Chevalier's shoulder immediately escalates to blows, and Barrow clocks him right in the nose, incapacitating him long enough to escort Alardin to safety.

What an asshole. It'll probably be fine.

Player: abby
Character: wysteria
General Plans: Wysteria is a social butterfly, and will be traipsing around the various parties and social events. Vibe is very 'being the spectator at all the social spectator sports'. Sipping hot chocolate on the fancy sidelines tents while the jocks hunt wyvern, etc. Schmoozing with university nerds.

She might use her sleight of hand magic to cheat at card tournaments if there's money involved. Her house needs new wallpaper.
Pre-existing Halamshiral Reputation: She's married to the disinherited de Foncé. But does that really count as a reputation??? Ugh one day her very smart research won't be under war act NDAs.

Over the course of Wysteria's traipsing, she will be POISONED!

But in a fun way?

The exact circumstances can be adjusted to your preferences, but for example: while sipping her hot chocolate on the fancy sidelines, after a moment when drinks might be set down unattended for a moment or accidentally swapped, Wysteria will find herself experiencing odd tingling and numbness – not really even that unpleasant – that progresses along into vertigo and minor hallucinations.

Someone – Wysteria herself, an adjacent NPC, or a PC if you want to rope someone in – will be able to recognize the symptoms and the very subtle purple sheen on the surface of what remains of her drink as l'epine violette, a popular poison at the crossroads of easy availability, swift action, and subtlety, for which someone in the area or in a nearby house will be able to produce an antidote before Wysteria actually dies, and/or perhaps she did not have enough to cause her death in the first place.

The effects will be much more pronounced in nearby Orlesian Lord Guymart Cazal, who imbibed much more of the poison than her and whose awareness that something is wrong will be stalled by how much alcohol he's had in the meantime. You can have him drop dead before help can be found or also be saved, whichever is more fun for you.

By default, Guymart will be the actual target of this attempt and Wysteria caught in it inadvertently, but if you would prefer that someone want her dead – for inventions that have slipped into someone's notice, or a problem with a rifter/Thedosian marriage on principle, or she overheard something dangerous, or whatever else – it can easily be the other way around.

Note: You can play this out in some way or just reply here within a month or so to let us know how your character handled the situation off-screen. You're free to flesh this out with your own details, add further complications, and resolve it however you want, including having it go badly!

Player: k2
Character: Lazar
General Plans:

Lazar is currently trying to avoid anyone who might be trying to kill him, which means he’ll spook at musicians and volunteer (?!) for anything that puts him outdoors, where it’s easier to run. He came with explicitly to try and weasel out word of how his wife might be doing from the rumour mill.

Pre-existing Halamshiral Reputation:

Lazar is currently married to Madame de Cygne, a common born new-money broker with involvement on the Northern front (weapons, it’s weapons). She recently took out a contract on his life, but that was in Val Royeaux. That’s like, all the way over there.

Until about five years ago, he was involved in artifact retrieval and sales with a C-tier (for criminal) academic. If anyone remembers them, it’s probably not fondly.

Alternately, if it fits, I think it’d be funny if no one had any idea who this Ander rando was. I’m just here for that sweet, sweet customized background tag flavour. TY.

Despite spooking at musicians, Lazar will be able to pick out one in particular who he encounters multiple times – a bard named Emelot, frequently on the arm of young and brawny Lord Joest Strox (here visiting cousins from Nevarra). Emelot is is multitasking and will be thwarted in her several attempts, which may at first seem possibly only Lazar's imagination, by her inability to get close or to get him alone at any point and by the demands Strox is placing on her time and attention. Maybe he swoops in to find her for a try in the ice maze just as she's about to successfully sneak up behind Lazar somewhere. That sort of thing.

Near the end of the visit, however, Lazar will (barring an uncanny dodge) find himself with an arrow in some nonvital body part, for whatever definition of nonvital accounts for your preferred availability of magical healers at the time. Arriving on the scene close behind the arrow will be Lord Strox and Emelot, who he was "teaching" to shoot and who will be extremely apologetic about her clumsiness and poor aim.

At this point Lazar can level accusations – which will be badly received by Lord Strox, who's smitten and credulous so far as Emelot is concerned, but may be met with sympathy and some measure of protection or warning to leave him alone from more Game-familiar bystanders – or try not to cause a scene. Emelot will be visibly pissed off whenever Strox isn't looking at her, either way.

Note: You can play this out in some way or just reply here within a month or so to let us know how your character handled the situation off-screen. You're free to flesh this out with your own details, add further complications, and resolve it however you want, including having it go badly!

Player: MJ
Character: Bastien
General Plans: Hanging out on the edges of action being lowkey charming and collecting info about people who forget to ask what his name is. Chilling out with the servants for cards/afterparties. On the watch for bard antics. Small apology tour with old artist friends who he cut off like 10 years ago and allowed to wonder if he was dead (though word will have already gotten back that he isn’t; it’s not a surprise resurrection, just an old dick move).

Mainly indoors and mainly in the High Quarter, but he'll go into the city proper sometimes to have a break from all these damn rich people and could be bullied (asked politely with no obvious excuse available) into anything else.

Pre-existing Halamshiral Reputation: With a few circumstance-based exceptions (hiring him, sleeping with him, being harmed by him, etc.) the nobility have no idea who he is. But he knows who they are. :)

Servants and staff may be more likely to remember him as a friendly musician who was a regular in Halamshiral and elsewhere for 15 years. Probably was up to something, but who isn’t.

Artists/academics who are old enough to have been around 10+ years ago are likely as not to have been his friends, for real. Or for as real as it got back then. Reputation as a good listener and above-average musician and fun time at parties and debates. But then he cut them off so he has some apologizing to do.

Bards will definitely know him by reputation — specifically that he’s Ines’ old partner and they’ll be in trouble with her if they fuck with him too much. Doesn’t mean they wouldn't, if required, but she's scary and that would factor into the equation.

Sorry, did you say "his status as Ines' old partner will keep people from fucking with him" or "his status as Ines' old partner will MAKE people fuck with him to send her a message"? Because it's the latter that's going to happen.

When Bastien is out with his artist friends, he will be ambushed by three young-and-hungry Bards who want to make a name for themselves by drawing out and murdering Ines. To this end, they attempt to kidnap Bastien to then hold him in a most dastardly fashion and send his toes to Ines until she either shows up to rescue him or proves that she's a toothless coward, etc.

Whether you want this kidnapping to succeed or not is up to you! You can either go the hijinks route and have Bastien rally his artist friends to stand against the Bardly onslaught (with no one killed because that would make it sad rather than hijink-y and justified by the fact that these Bards quite value the artistic output of this circle) OR you can go the drama route and have Bastien's friends have to rescue him.

up to you. dRAMA.

Unique among Orlesian cities, Halamshiral has always been majority elven, built on the ruins of the Dalish capital after it was conquered. Here the elves were never confined to an alienage, but occupied most of the city, while it was humans who confined themselves to a smaller area. A decade ago now, Halamshiral was the location of an elven rebellion. The rebellion ended in Empress Celene's forces setting fire to the slums–which were most of the city, really. Only a few years later, thanks to the intervention of the Inquisition, the Empress' elven handmaid Briala was elevated to Marquise of the Dales, of which Halamshiral remains the seat. The Empress and the bulk of the Orlesian court spend each winter there; the Empress has insisted that practice continue, despite prominent and pervasive grumbling about the new Marquise.

The Halamshiral that Riftwatch arrives in now is not a ruin, but it isn't without scars, either. Between the dead and the exodus in the immediate aftermath of the purge, the elven population depleted significantly. And while the governance of Marquise Briala has drawn some elves back–including elves from elsewhere in Thedas, drawn to immigrate by the idea of an elven noble even if it means building a hut on top of ashes–even more have opted to settle elsewhere in her domain, in smaller villages further from the bad memories and human nobility and throngs of Chevaliers.

Two notable things have happened as a result. First, rebuilding has been slow. Especially given the war, there are few resources to spare for reconstructing burnt-out streets that have no one to live in them, and those few have been dedicated to the streets visitors are most likely to pass through on their way to and from the High Quarter–which has also expanded, as the nobility grabbed up some of the vacated land to expand their own homes or build new ones. And second, poorer Orlesian humans and foreign war refugees have begun moving into what were once exclusively elven neighborhoods to fill labor gaps and take advantage of cheap housing, though the demographic breakdown there is noticeably light on people (and men in particular) of fighting age. Those of them who brought their prejudices along with them are a source of tension with the elven population.

The Chevaliers who once terrorized the elves (and commoners of any race) now exercise a modicum of restraint–enough that even the worst bullies among them will try to make sure someone is doing something actually wrong, or that witnesses will at least claim they were, before they lash out. There are young graduates of the Academie who didn't have to go running around drunkenly killing elves as a graduation ritual and might even be the kind of people who wouldn't have done it if told to. Still: acab. The vibe in the city is noticeably better than it once was, in that regard, but the fact that a large percentage of Orlais' Chevaliers are engaged with the war rather than milling around with the citizenry is likely the primary reason.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

player plot | meanwhile, in orlais,

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HISTORICAL CONTEXT