idk my bff minor vandalism

[aenseidhe]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Iorveth
RECIPIENT: All erry1
WHAT: Reacting to this, specifically the part about Rifter phylactaries.
WHEN: Right meow.
WHERE: Kirkwall, the Gallows announcement board
NOTES: Rudeness and vandalism. Open to crystal chatting and action!! Though he'll be storming off pretty fast after this.

[ For a long several moments, silence broadcasts over the crystal, Iorveth having just activated it after reading the announcement on negotiations results posted, lost for words. When they do come, it's like they're being spoken through a snarl. ]

You left to end the blood leashing.

Not push it off on the next lesser group.

[ there is a deafening thud that sounds before Iorveth's voice goes out, and anyone physically standing by the Gallows announcement board will have just witnessed Iorveth pull a dagger (with at least a foot worth of blade on it) free, and slam it through the notice and into the board, metal and splinters jutting out the opposite side, before walking away.

He mad. (And he'll come fix the board later, leave him alone) ]

Comments

[aenseidhe]

My world already welcomed humans to our shores from beyond the veil with open arms. Despite their greed and their bloodthrist brought with them, we never sank so low as to catalog and tag them like livestock. Humanity, they call it.

[ the word spat out like it's poison on his tongue. ]

I understand from whom the proposal came. [ pissed and grating as he is, he doesn't actually blame the mages. they're too soft-spoken and peaceful here, not like the Sorceresses from the Continent. Bizarre that he actually misses a couple of them right now. ] I've no quarrel with your mages, save that none found it in them to set the aspiring slave-master Templar or priestess to a bonfire the moment the thought was voiced.

[exequy]

[ Kostos, being both completely reasonable and completely charming and completely, safely out of anyone's sight, rolls his eyes elaborately at these details about this world he still does not believe actually exists. Less believable than frappuccinos.

As for soft-spoken and peaceful—well. Kostos is soft-spoken, at least, in an even, focused way that sometimes serves well for making people think he might murder them and use their corpses as possessed personal minions. Sometimes, but not right now. Not particularly. ]

You do know what a Templar is.

[aenseidhe]

[ some day the rifts will bless you with starbucks, kostos, and then you will see the light. there there.

also, that would actually be cool. murder the templars and then do that with them. it would at least satisfy iorveth long enough to get some peace, probably. ]

Master of mage slaves, yes, I'm aware. How ordinary men in tin suits managed to put mages on leashes in the first place is beyond my understanding, but again - things called civility here.

private, because he has a little bit of a sense.

[exequy]

They are not ordinary men, anymore. They can put out our fires as easily as we light them, they can cut us from casting entirely, they can—I do not know what they call it, but it fucking hurts. And when we are without magic, their tin suits and their swords put them at a small [ teensy, minuscule ] advantage. We were at war, before Corypheus arrived, and we were losing. If we return to war tomorrow, we will return to losing.

[ A lecture. He used to teach. He was pretty shitty at it. But, with that out of the way, and Iorveth's assurances he knows who deserves to be lit on fire in this situation, he is left feeling somewhat more charitable. ]

You would lose a war, too. And that is not what any of us wanted. Be careful.

private ;

[aenseidhe]

Some wars you fight for the integrity of it, not the guarantee of victory.

[ his was a losing war as well, but better die standing than live with a boot to his back, face in the mud. but even Iorveth knew different tactics were needed to save his people. Kostos is right in that they have too little advantage to just throw themselves at templar shields. ]

Your mages need to learn archery. And probably acquire armor that's thicker than dresses.

[ there's several thoughts that run through his head - dalish are good archers, dalish have melee warriors, city elves are blank books waiting to be filled with combat training. nothing that ought to be mentioned right now, but perhaps later. if anyone's willing to attempt a loss for freedom. ]

There are more ways to fight a war than broadswords and fireballs across a field. Regardless, I don't intend this to reach that point.

private ;

[exequy]

[ The only immediate response is a vague huffing noise. Agreement, maybe. Equally possibly it's skepticism.

Less immediately, after a day or two to identify which rifter exactly he'd been speaking to and where that rifter stays, Kostos leaves a tattered book wrapped in throwaway cloth outside his door—a detailed and Chantry-sanctioned account of each time the Right of Annullment has been invoked, with its dispassionate accounts of the executed broken down to clarify how many were enchanters, mages, adolescent apprentices, totaling far more than thirty-eight, and the justification each time being demons, forbidden magic, demons, demons.

Just so he knows what world he's dealing with. ]

[aenseidhe]

[ the room iorveth keeps in the templar tower is more a means of storage than frequent housing, given the man often sleeps in trees, rooftops or hiding places instead, but he does come to find it some days later.

The information is appreciated, as all information is to him. High spirits are useful and powerful, but making a success from the position of an outnumbered and under supplied group takes much, much more than a few pissed off people.

But, if he was willing to burn down guard barracks, have ferry assassins to cut of kings' heads, and place soldiers heads on pikes around a forest with only 100 men at his back, against armies in the thousands, a history of injustice and heinous executions won't dissuade him.

Especially not when it goes to prove a point - executed mages have immediately ready and guaranteed replacements. The total of 37 rifters in Thedas do not. Not until another rift crops up fortunate enough to spit out more. He's hoping they'll be able to make use of that. ]