public channel, forward dated a smidge to the morning of d15

[kingsroads]

Months ago, during the Celebration, a few of us got together to talk about and compare the magic from our worlds. Well, it's been a while since then and we've certainly picked up more magicians, so why not revive that little discussion group?

[ he's phrasing it as a hypothetical but as Strange keeps barging on, there's nothing hypothetical about it: he is totally reviving that discussion group. ]

I've asked around and the smaller festival hall in the building closest to the carnival portal is available for our use. Anyone who's interested should meet there tonight, just after sundown, for an informal gathering to talk about magic. There will be space inside the festival hall and outside in the snow for anyone to demonstrate their techniques.

Likewise, anyone who wishes to learn about magic should come and visit as well. [ And there's a bit of a pause like Strange is trying his hardest to choose his words carefully. ] Magicians in the carnival have different types of magic drawing upon different techniques. While one school of thought might seem incomprehensible, another might seem as clear as day. This is a chance for those of us with magic to learn from each other and develop our skills and those of us who wish to learn magic to see what practice would best fit their needs.

[ There's a pause, because Strange has no idea how to end this. ] Sound off if you're coming, I suppose. Oh, and can someone bring snacks?

( ooc: this is an ic post about mage club, an idea floated around on the cr meme a while back. I'll put up a mingle log later in the week for the actual meeting itself. as for this post, feel free to threadjack around! )

Comments

[kingsroads]

The longer you'll stay at the carnival, the more you'll realize that hoping nothing goes wrong is simple optimism.

[ says the person who makes things go wrong 3/4 of the time ]

[dirthena]

Herding cats, and nothing ever stays simple or right -- it's like I never left my own world.

[kingsroads]

Well go on then. What sort of complications are you used to? It sounds like you have a story.

[dirthena]

I was the head of a -- I'm not sure how to describe it, actually. We called it the Inquisition, and its goal was to fix a problem that no other force in my world could effectively deal with.

Purely by accident, of course.

[kingsroads]

Oh, so you're Spanish? Wonderful! I'm pleased that there's someone from the continent here, I'm just so damned tired of having to explain concepts like 'England' and 'France' to people.

[ it's entirely possible that Strange forgot what the Spanish Inquisition actually DID ]

[dirthena]

( uh. )

You've heard of the Inquisition?

( none of those words are familiar, but alright: she's curious to know what he's heard of it and why it makes him think she should know any of those words. )

[kingsroads]

I don't know many details, I'm afraid. The Inquisition was...what, at least three hundred years in my past? World history was never my strongest suit.

[ He's just taking this timeline difference like a champ. It's a thing, it's happened, Strange has been a victim of it before, talking to someone three hundred or so years in your past is no big deal! ]

[dirthena]

Three hundred years. ( well, compared to solas's thousands of years what's a middling three hundred? and at least the world still exists in some shape or another. ) It could be worse, I suppose -- I at least didn't sleep through the years.

You said you brought magic back. Did it fully disappear from your world, then?

[kingsroads]

It did. For a few hundred years, magic vanished entirely, sleeping just out of reach. I sent the birds as my messengers to shatter all the mirrors in England and bring magic back.

[ is this a metaphor? Not for Strange. Mirrors literally got busted. ]

[dirthena]

( if anything, she's even more convinced that strange should never talk to solas. ever. )

The magic was kept behind mirrors?

( of fucking course it was. )

[kingsroads]

The magic as well as other things. Entrances to other realms, for example.

[ The way that Strange is talking, he's just so in love with all of this. He adores magic and adores discoveries and that's apparent just from his voice. ]

Castles and bridges that I couldn't even guess how old they were! And roads that led you from place to place.

[dirthena]

At least two thousand years. ( she muses, attempting to do the math. the chantry had been around for a thousand, and arlathan had fallen long before that. lavellan could ask solas for an exact dates, but there wasn't really any good way to bring that up with him. )

It has a name, you know. The Crossroads.

( not that she's surprised he doesn't know that -- it didn't seem to be something wildly known. )

[kingsroads]

How interesting...we call it the king's roads in my time.

[ Strange just was refraining from using the term mostly because he's got no idea if Lavellan would know the term or not in the first place. ]

[dirthena]

The King's Roads? Does someone lay claim to them, as if they are his?

( there's a sizable part of her that is willing to start a fight if it's some shemlen king. no one else gets to lay claim to the history of the elves, especially not after they'd gotten it all wrong to begin with. )

[kingsroads]

The man who built them lays claim to them: The Raven King. Stolen away to faerie as a child, he grew up, ruled there, then came back to England to rule it as well.

[ it's straight up some shemlen king. ]

[dirthena]

And is this Raven King the sort to lay claim to building that which he did not?

( she's absolutely going to fight the raven king. )

[kingsroads]

The Raven King was the one who built them in the first place.

[ Strange is going to fight every elf. ]

[dirthena]

Then you do not know them as I do, for they were built by the People, not some shemlen stolen away.

( sorry buddy. )

[kingsroads]

Again with that word! What precisely is a shemlen?

[dirthena]

The literal translation is 'quick children', if it matters. But shemlen are humans.

[kingsroads]

If you look down on humans than what are you in the first place?

[dirthena]

To look down on them would mean being above them in the first place. ( muttered, even though she is, a little. ) An elf, one of the People.

[kingsroads]

[ a paaaaaaaaaause. ]

Well, you're certainly not Spanish in that case. My world doesn't have elves.

[dirthena]

Not unless that is what you call the Dalish in your time. ( also what sort of world doesn't have elves? ) And yet you still have roads found behind mirrors, and something that kept magic at bay.

[kingsroads]

I'm afraid I've never heard that term before—'Dalish', that is. [ though back to the mirrors... ]

What keeps magic at bay in your world?