To me, my Wardens.

[byblow]

Or not my Wardens. Not claiming ownership. Just quoting X-Men. And I am SO SORRY that this is so long.

This is a post for us to coordinate where everyone is and what is going on! I'm not waiting for the CR meme/plotting post to go up because folks are already RPing and I want to catch everyone in my wardencatching net as they arrive.

CANON RECAP

Not very long ago all of the Wardens in Orlais/perhaps the South in general began hearing the Calling. (For any new friends who are not super DA canon familiar, it sounds like a melancholic song in the back of your mind, and it signals your imminent death.) All of the Southern Wardens were summoned to Orlais by Warden-Commander Clarel. Because the Wardens think that they're all about to die, they're planning to wipe out the Old Gods and prevent future Blights before they go. So noble! But they want to do it by using sacrifice-fueled blood magic to bind a demon army. So crazy!

WHAT THEY KNOW

The fugitive Wardens don't know for sure that the Calling they're hearing is fake and can only speculate that Corypheus might be involved, though his recent smashing of Haven definitely makes it look more likely. All they know with complete certainty is: Calling, blood magic rituals, demon army, no, bad.

HOW IT WORKED IN CANON

In Inquisition, Alistair's (or Stroud's or Loghain's, someone please app them) deal is that he was looking into red lyrium at Hawke's request. As a result, he found out about Hawke "killing" Corypheus and started looking into that as well, a little while before the Conclave/Breach. When the whole blood magic demon army thing came up, he didn't think it was a great idea, and mentioned to Hawke that he was worried about corruption in the ranks. But the disagreement with Clarel was pretty civil until he mentioned Corypheus. Then the Grey Warden mages called him a traitor, Clarel sent guards after him, and he ran all the way back to Ferelden to meet with Hawke and the Inquisitor.

HOW IT COULD WORK HERE

The Inquisitor is dead! Hawke is "missing" (dead)! So there's a lot of room to change how things went down in Inquisition, obviously including bringing in more characters so it isn't just Alistair (and Stroud and Loghain someone please app them) doing all of this by himself. My current thoughts:

1. Warden fugitive group road trip! Everyone is invited.

2. Whoever is on the fugitive road trip can walk all the way to Skyhold, instead of hiding in a cave, and fall down frostbitten at the Inquisition's door, so we can jump right into RPing with everyone instead of being segregated at first.

3. There's a lot of room for other Wardens to have been involved in looking into Corypheus or arguing about the blood magic thing prior to running away! E.g.,

• Since Hawke is a goner, if another Warden found out about Corypheus somehow, they could have told Alistair and looked into it more together. But if no one is interested in a buddy detective background story then that's cool, I'll just say Alistair talked to Hawke before she vanished. ETA: Kaidan Alenko to the rescue!
  
  
• If anyone wants to have been an equal partner in trying to explain to Clarel and the Warden mages that they were being crazy people + subsequently being called traitors and chased out, please do. ETA: Sabriel is a helper!

4. If your Warden wouldn't have argued or investigated or anything, Alistair & Whoever Else could have grabbed them on the way out like hey let's take a walk somewhere less demony what do you say. ETA: Skip and Rafa are getting dragged by their ears.

5. Or if you don't care about any of this your Warden could just not ever have gotten the message from Clarel to come to Orlais and show up at Skyhold with Ye Olde Starbuckes.

ETA: NEW QUESTION ABOUT ARRIVING

Comments

[paperwing]

HELLO FELLOW WARDENS. This is Sabriel, she is Nevarran, she is a mage, and she has been a Grey Warden for nine months and all of those months have been pretty terrible (because Wardens) but this really takes the cake, as you know. So much bad.

Anyway, moving on to coordination! She has been in Orlais for about as long as Clarel called everyone to her (so that would be at least a month? So not long enough for full scale red lyrium investigating).

She's low rank, so she probably wouldn't have gotten every detail about the deep-roads-false-calling plan when it was first issued to the newer members, but she wouldn't have been happy about it, for a number of reasons (especially the binding thing because what can they be other than demons, that goes against her beliefs, blood magic alarm bells, etc). She wouldn't be vocal in a crowded room but she'd potentially bring it up to those she trusted/had helped her/more senior -- so I figure that could be a good point of her coming into contact with the potential fugitive group? Not even just Sabriel, it could be a good point for everyone to sort of be introduced/be aware of each other at the least, maybe. Or something. Or if other apped Wardens don't want to openly be involved against Clarel, she could just meet them on the way out but think of the shortlived underground Warden society.

If Sabriel did get into contact with someone early enough who didn't dismiss her (and she didn't resolve to finding an escape route herself), she would want to try and talk Clarel down. She wouldn't want to do that alone, especially with the amount of "support" the idea would have thanks to the fact they're all scared witless because of the Calling (she'd want to help and point out why it's bad, but there comes a time when self preservation kicks in and diplomacy ain't gonna work and what was that about demons and mages yeah let's not). But she's gotta do something and This Isn't Right, sooo... if Alistair wanted back up from a mage who does actually know what she's talking about and these are the reasons why, she would go with him if he made it known he was, y'know, doing that If that's okay with you MJ I don't want to step on toes or whichever and with anyone else if they wanted along for that.

Obviously that wouldn't work, but points for trying?

Mostly just idea throwing/Sabriel's thoughts for now due to tired, but I'm open to other ideas!

[byblow]

HELLO.

Yes man I am all for shortlived underground Warden muttering club. I'm not sure how many Wardens we'll end up with this first round; the only ones I'm counting on for sure are me, you, and a pair of OCs who have been described to me as basically "Tulio and Miguel from The Road to El Dorado join the Wardens because they have to and would rather not be here"--so those two probably won't be very involved. I think they're probably just getting found and dragged along by their ears on the way out.

BUT: we can always assume a few more people were involved, whether more app or not, and some people had to be left behind. That would leave room for people who want to app Wardens in the app rounds between now and when the Warden plot is resolved to have their characters slip out the back door later and run to try to catch up with Alistair + Sabriel + the others.

And on that note, yes please for Sabriel coming with Alistair to talk to Clarel!!! He wouldn't force her to if she were worried about it or anything, but if she'd be willing. He's Alistair, he doesn't like doing things by himself anyway. Or, alternatively, it could have been an unplanned confrontation--if a group of dissenters were trying to talk privately and Clarel and some of the mages came to them to break up the meeting?

[paperwing]

She'd be more concerned than anything, but she definitely would want to speak to her, but a forced confrontation might make them do it rather than stalling until they have more information or a means to convince Clarel rather than just "we disagree".

So perhaps an unplanned confrontation in response to a meeting? So Alistair and Sabriel and other wardens were waiting for others to show, they were discovered, Alistair and Sabriel opt to speak to Clarel then and there, she chases them (and the rest of the discovered underground) out... which might conceptually work better with an underground, as it could explain why future Warden appers didn't go with? So on the way out they could pick up the ones that are coming with - either they just find them and take them along, the noise and mayhem and shouting alerts people, etc etc, it's not done quietly - but some of the others who were involved with the underground can either opt to stay behind as they were not "caught" and aren't associated with the traitors so can do some more digging on the inside, or they can't be reached in the kerfuffle of leaving or somesuch.

[aggregiopavali]

I'm commenting because next app round (I PROMISE) I'm gonna be bringing in Kaidan Alenko, and he's going to be a Warden. MJ, I know we've talked a little about how he'd fit in. Basically, I'm playing him as a Senior Warden, who tends to get sent on solo missions from Weisshaupt; you know the 'point at something and investigate it' kind of Warden, so it somewhat fits in with his Spectre status in his own canon.

How we use that is up to you guys, but he will eventually find his way to other Wardens who are standing against Clarel.

[byblow]

KAIDAAAAN. My original Bioware boyfriend. \**/

That sounds fantastic. Maybe he could have gotten pointed toward Corypheus' underground prison after Hawke """killed""" him, to see what had happened down there? And if you're cool with past CR, at some point Alistair could have met/known him for at least long enough to find out about Corypheus from him, so he would still be able to poke around that question and make Clarel & Company freak out by mentioning Corypheus to them in Orlais.

And then yeah!! Once he hears about Corypheus, Kaidan could come join them from Weisshaupt because he is in the Know.

[aggregiopavali]

Mine tooooooooooooo.

I'm happy to go with this, if everyone else is. I just figure he works mostly for the High Constable, going off where he's needed. Maybe he got sent there by him, maybe he wanted to investigate himself. I figure that Kaidan probably ended up passing through most places where there are wardens, so having met Alistair makes perfect sense. Maybe he was doing some investigation a while ago to what happened with Janeka or someone like that. Idk, I'm rambling...

[bunko]

shows up late with Ye Olde Starbuckes

[bunko]

JUST KIDDING. I'm speaking for Cass here but I know that would be ok, since: Scipio and Rafael want to do whatever gets them not sacrificed as part of a blood ritual. so whatever is decided, just assume that the two of them followed along.

if we were officially voting on what to do I would say PASS and let everyone else decide. I promise to be better than that usually. but I'm all for falling down frostbitten or whatever. general thumbs up.

[byblow]

you better be kidding

But yes good, thank you for your thumbs.

NEW QUESTION

[byblow]

About arriving! I was planning/hoping to put up a log for when they showed up at Skyhold that everyone could top-level under. Is that okay with y'all?

Second question: how would you feel about a group "we just got here, we're cold, who's in charge, what do you mean you haven't decided yet" thread? Not in place of individual top-levels if you want them, but something set right as they walk in the doors, then individual top-levels for after they've dispersed a little. There are five of us + whoever else would respond to it, so it could get pretty crazy, but I also think if we don't set a tag order and people are free to wander in and out or sit down in the background and shiver instead of talking for a few rounds--like threadjacky network conversations happen sometimes--it could be fun. I'm just not sure on the crazy vs. fun balance. Opinions?

[offortune]

Works for me! We should maybe hash out some OOC basics amongst ourselves too if they've been hiking around together for a while.

[byblow]

We could do that on the CR MEME. Or I could make us all a pplurk. Or we could do that here. What do you think?

[paperwing]

My opinion is yes!

re: group "just arrived" thread, it might be worthwhile suggesting that if a lot of people want in on chatting with frozen wardens that if there hasn't been a warden response in say, three comments, to hold fire until one does to keep things moving along and with some semblance of structure and so it doesn't get too crazy?? Or something.

[byblow]

Yeah that's a good idea. I'll write something up with some guidance like that and share it with y'all before I post it!!

[bunko]

I second the above agreements to all of the proposed! crazy and fun I like it.

[byblow]

stop with that face please it is causing me problems

ROAD TRIP!

[byblow]

Our characters have apparently been walking and hiding together for quite a while now, so comment below to tell us how your character would have behaved on the journey, what they would have whined about the most, etc.

In terms of logistics, I think we can probably say they left from the Warden fortress in Montsimmard--that's a more reasonable distance for them to travel on foot than other known Orlesian Warden outposts out west, and it allows them to have less information right off the bat concerning where the other Wardens have gone. They could have stuck near the Imperial Highway as far as Lydes--since they were being followed, I imagine it was slow going, lots of traveling at night and ducking into shady places to avoid notice--then received news of Haven falling to Corypheus and cut off the beaten path to go straight through the mountains to Skyhold. If anyone disagrees, SPEAK NOW.

[roguishpast]

Sigrun would have tried to keep morale up as best she could. Lots of quips, lots of questions about parts of the surface world she has yet to experience, lots of cheery smiles prefacing statements that do not warrant them. She tries to be friendly, so she would attempt to get to know any of the wardens that would let her, lest they try her patience too much. And maybe even then, because what else do they have to do hiding in caves and mountains for days on end? Her manners aren’t great and her curiosity leads to overstepping boundaries sometimes, but she tries, guys. Really.

(Also, maybe talking to the conmen about thieving? Maybe instigating thieving/prank wars that catch everyone else in the crossfire? This is a thing I have thought about.)

As for whining, most of Sigrun’s would be about having to go so long without killing darkspawn. It is totally worse than the snow, what are you talking about.

[paperwing]

I can actually see Sabriel and Sigrun getting on rather well! She'd definitely talk back at length just to fill the silence if nothing else, and she's pretty chill with dwarves having spent a lot of her childhood around them.

As for thieving/prank wars Sigrun pls don't encourage

[paperwing]

The route sounds good to me!

Sabriel would have been very diligent about getting to wherever they were going (or just figuring out where they should go in the first place), but at the same time, intermittently gotten sidetracked if they passed by someone/place on the road that needed help and probably needed talking out of just leaving them be the first few times because, y'know, on the run. Her death sense likely also helped out with places that just felt... bad and you probably shouldn't camp there, even for a few hours, so that's handy. Less so if it's a cave full of bears, but you can't have everything.

She'd seem very together, mostly to try to keep some semblance of normality and that everything is fine, or everything will be fine later, but her behavior would be erratic outside of that focus. She'd flip between pushing herself too hard and not calling for a rest to calling them too frequently, she'd go quiet for very, very long periods, stuff like that. She'd also be very exhausted because she's never walked this far in her life, because Circle.

Generally though she'd turn into team mom which is ironic considering she's the youngest and also lead, volunteer for watches, or help make decisions where necessary. Also Mage Things.

As for whining she'd probably just lay awake at night missing the ability, to, y'know, sleep. And also whining at/about Skip and Rafa, probably.

[bunko]

hi this is Sir Whines-The-Second-Most reporting for the road trip
or he'll say that he whines the second most anyways

Scipio is pretty cheerful and it's hard to shake that but he also hates being cold. he really really hates being cold. six pairs of socks. borrowing everyone's cloaks. this is awful. but he can turn off his whining at the drop of a hat (that he also borrowed from someone). he's really good at navigating shady places which might have proved useful. and he's super fun around a campfire if he can unfreeze his fingers enough to play everyone campfire songs (do we have time for campfire songs? we're making time for campfire songs!)

he is very ill-suited to camp life and is bad at setting up tents and cooking. he is also susceptible to being coaxed out of sulking and quick to make friends with people, until a strong wind blows, and then he's frozen solid again.

[byblow]

Answering my own questions: Alistair does not like being in charge and refuses to be Team Dad, because Dads are Disappointing, but he likely did wind up leading them to the extent leadership was required. He knows the terrain and he has seniority and whatever. Wardens are big on seniority. But his ""leadership"" style consists of asking people for their input a lot, people in this case being Sabriel and Sigrun.

He's a very chatty person and he tells a lot of jokes of varying quality, but he does have an off switch. For the first stretch of the journey he had his grim, worried face on and was probably pretty upset about, you know, everything. He loves the Wardens. He doesn't want them to be stupid or evil or dead. :C Plus not having a clear plan, due to the rushed departure, would have stressed him out. Once they had a plan and a few days' distance from Clarel, though, he lightened up considerably--not 100% light, but probably like 55% or even 60%--and he spent the cold, mountainy parts talking forever and trying to keep everyone from despairing or running away to Antiva.

Rafael

[offortune]

This is Sir Whines-The-Third-Most because there is no way that he whines more than Scipio. Also he doesn't whine, he grumbles, which is entirely different and not nearly as high-pitched.

He is more the brooding sourly and silently and then being sarcastic about things type rather than just straight-up whining about how cold he is, though he probably did a bit of that, mostly on purpose to needle people because if he and Skip are being forced to be unhappy everyone else gets to be unhappy, too. He isn't totally heartless and if someone along the way was in real distress he would've been ok with helping, but he probably also did some 'oh my god ANOTHER KITTEN IN ANOTHER WELL FOR FUCK'S SAKE' foot-stamping shivering impatience at some points, too. Let's just get on with it and get this stupid "mission" over with if it's so important and remind him again why they can't just get on a ship and go hide out far away in, say, Antiva??

He's very slightly more useful around a camp than Skip, because while he can't set up a tent he's actually not a bad cook, especially with meager ingredients like whatever wardens can hunt up for themselves along the way. And the pair of them do a decent duet. When in a less shirty mood he's a great story-teller, and there were probably plenty of yarns told along the road and around the fire. As much as he hates having been trapped into this warden thing and now this even more ridiculous warden thing, he's still generally a people person and would've been happy to do a lot of talking with the others along the way, wanting to hear all about their lives and where they've been and what they've seen and done.

[roguishpast]

So! Given how Sigrun reacts to sparing the Architect, I think it is safe to say that she would have been very vocal about her disapproval of the demon army plan. In fact, she probably brought up the Architect in her long list of reasons why it was a horrible idea. "The last time someone tried to stop the Blights they literally started a Blight?? This is awful???" THAT SAID— Her knowledge of this sounds like something that might be classified to some degree. The being responsible for the Fifth Blight thing, at least, if not the Architect's entire existence. So I'm not sure how many people she would tell, exactly? Clarel, Alistair, other high-ranking Wardens and/or protesters? I could use input on this.

She would probably be there for the big confrontation thing if she could help it, but as it has been talked about to be unplanned, it’s fully possible she wasn’t. If she was, someone might have had to hold her back from picking a fight with Clarel outright when things went south. Just saying. I am open for things going either way, depending on the preferences of those that were a part of the confrontation for sure. Regardless of that decision, she definitely winds up with the fugitive group sooner rather than later.

[byblow]

I'M SO TIRED I'M FALLING ASLEEP I'M SORRY if this is incoherent but I wanted to square you away some by saying YES PLEASE to Sigrun being there for confrontation and frantic departure, Alistair has muscles he could have drug her away if necessary, and I'm as ??? about Warden ranks and secrecy as you are and totally fine if you want to say she told no one or everyone or any number of people in between. She could have kept it to herself until the confrontation and then pulled it out if you want! Sigrun like BUT THE ARCHITECT and Alistair like ALSO, CORYPHEUS? and Clarel & Co. freak out double.