therookery | (no subject)

FORM: Sending Crystal
SENDER: Adalia (

thunderproof
RECIPIENT: Errybody with a sending crystal
WHAT: What's up with your mages, guys?
WHEN: Drakonis 12
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: N/A

I have a question for the native mages among us, if you all don't mind!

❰ adalia sounds inquisitive, curious, sort of sing-songy — she's been pondering this for a while, both in general and today specifically. ❱

Would you consider magic something you are, something you have, or something you do? A combination of those? All three? Something I haven't yet considered?

❰ a sound of shifting fabric as she sits up on her bed. ❱

See, I would consider myself magic, innately. I'm a sorcerer where I'm from — we have magic in our blood. I would be considered a mage by Thedosian standards, but to me "mage" is a very broad word. Anyone who does magic could be considered a mage where I'm from, and then there are breakdowns within the broader "mage" classification — there are sorcerers, who are magic innately; wizards, who learn magic through study; warlocks, who are granted power by others — not to mention bards, and those who are given access to divine magics for worshiping their deities.

All of these different classes of mage approach magic in a different way. What is your relationship to magic? Is it part of you, or is it merely a tool? I'm curious.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[His voice is gentle in return. He couldn't expect her to understand everything about an unfamiliar world.]

It is a gift, and I'm not ashamed. I love that I'm a mage, Adalia. I love being able to heal people, being able to shoot lightning out of my fingertips, and being able to create water at any time I or others around me need it.

If I'd a choice in the matter as a child I would not have wanted it, no. But I wouldn't trade it away for a dozen farms like the one of my childhood now. Even with all that's happened, I'd remain a mage.

You do. And I'm glad that you do! I'm not complaining about that, or... that I was wrong. I wasn't expecting so many people to agree with you, though.

I'm very glad they do. It'... heart-warming, I guess. That people could still find things to love in being sorcerers, even with the way things are here.

❰ adalia's sort of... proud, even, in a weird way. it'd sound weird to say, and probably more than a little condescending, so she's not going to, but that the sorcerers of thedas haven't had their love of their magic beaten out of them yet is good to see. ❱

They can't destroy us, no matter how they try.

[There's warmth and pride in his own voice. His people have survived so far, and they will continue to do so no matter what gets thrown at them.]

I do hope they clue into this sooner rather than later, though. I'd... I'd like so much to see mage freedom established in my lifetime. Sorcerer freedom, if we're using your breakdown.

I hope you do see it, Anders. You all deserve not to have to fear yourselves, or anyone else.

❰ privately, adalia is rather unsure of that outcome — she isn't a historian by trade, but she's read enough history books to know that such drastic change usually doesn't happen in one lifetime, and definitely not when the institutions with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo are still so powerful. the chantry would need to be dismantled entirely, either to be rebuilt or discarded, before sorcerers could have any hope of last peace.

at least, she thinks so. but what does she know? maybe it will happen, and she's just being a pessimist. ❱