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]

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?

[dirthena]

It's called the Veil. Those that are gifted with enough willpower to pull magic through it and manipulate it are the mages of Thedas. But this might be a better conversation had at your club.

( she's just saying. )

Dalish are the elves of the world who do not live in cities. They ( and her voice stops there, for a slight moment, before she continues on. ) practice the old ways, of how the elves used to live before we were pushed from the Dales.

[kingsroads]

Or we can have the conversation here and I can press you for more details at our club.

[ because Strange could spend literal hours with this nerdy magical shit, this is his jam. ]

Out of curiosity, what do non-Dalish mages think of Dalish magic?

[ because as someone who routinely got into fights with his mentor about the older ways of magic vs. trying to make magic seem respectable, this is a point of interest for Strange. ]

[dirthena]

Non-Dalish mages, for the most part, spend their lives trapped and isolated from the rest of the world. I don't think they have much of an opinion on how the Dalish use magic, except to consider it as much of an affront to their religion as they do everything else about the Dalish.

( magical politics in thedas: it's complicated. )

The ones of note who do not are the magisters of Tevinter, who use magic to rule unquestionably.

( and the dalish are different because... well. mostly because in elera's opinion they just are, and don't abuse it like the tevinter mages do. )

[kingsroads]

Isolated? Precisely how isolated do you mean?

[ said in a tone that's equal parts confused and horrified. ]

[dirthena]

They live in what are called Circles from the moment they are identified as mages until they die, under constant supervision by people who are allowed to kill them should they step out of line or succumb to the inherent dangers of magic.

( this is a very biased viewpoint. sorry strange. )

[kingsroads]

That's entirely barbaric! [ someone is also very biased ] Magic should be celebrated and explored, not restrained as one restrains a criminal or a wild animal.