therookery | open; Speaking words of grace while spellwork delights

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Morrigan
RECIPIENT: Open
WHAT: Summary of content
WHEN: Early Wintermarch
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: A post will be linked on Morrigan's journal for research things and she has an ic/ooc contact post if further plotting is wanted, currently it'll be mostly what she would know pre-Temple of Mythal

[A message to the board was tempting but some things are best done with a more personal touch and short of visiting each and every possibility in person - and she has far more to do with her time whilst being unwilling to entrust such a thing to a messenger - and so the sending crystal it is. A new year and, once the weather clears, a new delivery for Skyhold though that can be addressed much later.]

Since the arrival of those who came through the rifts, tis more certain now than ever that much more knowledge is needed. To that end, I seek those of like minds to aid in research I have brought with me to Skyhold. Much of it is on magic so I would seek mages over any others, though so long as certain parties can keep civil tongues in their heads, I will not turn away whatever aid can be rendered. [Templars aren't strictly forbidden in the rare spirit of cooperation but well she knows Templars and ancient forbidden things.] The research I seek to carry out has a focus on elven magic and lore, as well as my own knowledge being that which is untouched by Chantry teachings. As such, my own supplies have been brought from Orlais and my former post, though if you wish to avail yourself of them, I ask that you do not remove them, they were...difficult to acquire. Some will have to wait until better weather allows safer travel up the mountain with more delicate items. Whatever tale, whatever scrap of knowledge you might hold no matter how small or foolish it may seem, it will always be valuable and I have spent a long time indeed delving into such matters.

If you wish to discuss this in person rather than a crystal, you will find me in the gardens of Skyhold, you are seeking Morrigan, if introductions are still to be made.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...Pel Ashara is our clan First, and I'm pretty sure that she's the most knowledgeable person in Skyhold, when it concerns the magic of the Elvhen. I'd recommend talking to her.

[ She thinks that Pel is far smarter than any of the shemlen concerning anything, really, but humans get so persnickety when you call them dumb. ]

She's a part of the mage council. Silver hair, freckles, Mythal's vallaslin.

Pel Ashara and I have met prior to this, she was good enough to mention her speciality in relation to the Inquisition, beyond her work with the mage council.

[The mage council is a black mark against any name, another little circle that they've all made for themselves, thinking that they're somehow doing themselves a favour.]

Do you have no tales to tell yourself? A Clan is more than just their Keeper and the Keeper's First after all.

Oh--! Good. I'm sure she'll be very helpful, she knows all kinds of things.

[ The thought occurs to suggest Sina, but Morrigan is a stranger, and Beleth would like to know someone better before she offers up the other mage, lest Morrigan give her a heart attack. There's still pride in her voice when she talks about Pel--something that fades when the subject turns to herself. ]

Oh, no. I don't know anything interesting, really. I just hunted. And traded. I guess if you ever want a deer, or to know how much a deer costs in different villages?

[ She knows more than that, but most of it boils down to gossip and intrigue--not anything that seems like it'd help Morrigan, unless the fact that Zevran and Alistair apparently share a bed would somehow contribute to magical knowledge. ]

And hunters have no tales? Andruil is the patron goddess of the hunt is she not, and the legends that one can find of her can paint her as something else entirely. [Not that she would say that yet, not when she's asking for aid because saying 'goddess of sacrifice' could be very much like slapping someone in the face. It's like Celene again only here she has more of an even footing than she did in the court because the scandal had been growing even then.]

Hunters must talk, I am sure, the road is long for anyone, I know that well enough and so are night watches by the fire. Whatever you have to tell, I would value.

[But please, do not ever tell her about Alistair and anyone in a bed, one was enough thank you very much.]

They can--? Well--They'd be wrong!

[ Even if she doesn't know what they said, the idea that someone would say that Andruil was something else completely is enough to aggrieve Beleth. You can practically hear her puff up in indignation. ]

Andruil is the goddess of the moon, who taught the elves how to respect the animals, and who gave us the Way of the Three Trees. The Way of the Arrow: Fly straight, but do not waver. The Way of the Bow: Bend, but do not break. And the Way of the Forest: We are stronger as one than apart. These are the ways of the Hunter, the one who follows the path of Andruil.

She is the mother of hares and hawks, sister of the moon. The lover of Ghilan'nain, who was once of the People, but came to be the mother of Halla when her beloved turned her into a Creator.

[ Andruil wasn't even her patron goddess, but as a hunter, she felt agitated that anyone would dare speak lies about her. After she said her piece, she closed her eyes, willing herself to be calm. No use in babbling to a shemlen. ]

But I suspect you already know those tales.

I was not referring to humans angered by clans encroaching too close to their villages, town and cities. [A good thing that the sending crystal only allows for her voice to be heard so the way she rolls her eyes goes unnoticed. This was the reaction she expected but simply because it was expected doesn't mean she has to like it.]

You are aware though of how those things could all be applied to sacrifice too? Deliver your what must be offered without hesitation, do as is asked but even if the price is high do not let it change you, and well, often sacrifice is said to be for the many. Whether it is knowledge you gain or great reward that can be used to help your fellows. The hawk is a true hunter, and I believe the owl is important to Andruil too but a hare? How easily can a hare be offered up to another, hands outstretched, waiting.

[ Well, now Beleth felt a twinge of irritation herself. She, like Morrigan, resists giving any verbal cues to this fact. Her voice is, instead, very even, very patient. ]

You can twist the general ideas to be about anything, if you have a mind for it. I could use them as an analogy for Andruil being the patron goddess of poorly timed jokes, if I had the inclination.

Andruil is the goddess of the hunt, and she is represented by both predators and prey. Any animal can be offered as sacrifice easily enough, once they are dead, and a hare will put up as much of a fight for that life as any other. I could go out and kill a bogfisher right now and offer it to Andruil, it does not mean that bogfishers represent sacrifices.

And the tale that most associates Andruil with hares tells of her sending rabbits down to free Ghilan'nain from where she had been bound by a cruel hunter.

There are things one learns when they study enough tales side by side, stripping out the superfluous and the variants to that which does not change. There are clans little different to bandits who will tell stories that appeal to them, much in the way your clan seems more...no, moderate is not the right word, not so involved perhaps, to send or allow for so many to venture so far from it into something so unknown as this.

[There was Zathrian who could put on civility for all the world but who had gone too far in his vengeance, to allow his own to be hurt so when all words to the contrary say that a Keeper is to lead, to look after them.]

I suspect that none will ever know the true nature now, too much is gone, scattered like all the ruins flung so far throughout all Thedas.

[Desperate things, trying to hold on somewhere in the world, waiting for the right eyes to know them, the right hand to wake them and bring them to life even for but a moment.]

And you truly believe that is how it was?

[ For a moment, Beleth contemplates rewriting that notice she'd made all that time ago about the Dalish. Even if it had gotten plenty of ire, she stopped hearing 'I can't believe so many of you stepped out of your clans!!!' for at least a month. She grits her teeth. ]

My Keeper is a wise woman, who realized that the Breach and Corypheus were matters that effected all of Thedas, even us. No Dalish wants to see a Tevinter Magister of old rise again, I assure you. Many Dalish of different clans and different outlooks are here, even some from clans that are far less...amicable to humans.

[ Sometimes, she can empathize. ]

I choose to believe in my faith. In what I know, and what I feel. Even if all we have are scraps of tales, I won't let go of them. Then they would all be gone. I don't believe in Andruil and the rest of the Creators because I can show you concrete evidence--That wouldn't be faith. That would be like saying that I have faith in nugs.

Edited 2016-01-24 14:38 (UTC)

[It's clan singular that intrigues her. For every other Dalish elf she's met, there has been one from clan Ashara mentioned, enough that another of the Dalish (well, former Dalish but he was a First so he counts a little more than another might) has commented upon it too.]

The wise look to their own borders too.

[There are lots of demons out there, lots of angry people looking for a scapegoat too.]

And if those scraps of tales are added to in a direction that is not to your pleasing? The past is old, much of the history from before a time when the Chantry even existed making reliable dates hard to come by but it may be that we have a need to go to such places. What Corypheus has at his disposal means we shall have to delve deep into the past if we hope to defeat him.

open; Speaking words of grace while spellwork delights

[sending crystal]

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