crystal

[arcaneadvisor]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Morrigan
RECIPIENT: All
WHAT: Let's talk about what god is aka so you found a troubling thing and need to address that one day
WHEN: Post-tourney
WHERE: Kirkwall/Kirkwall-adjacent
NOTES: If you want to push Morrigan on certain things you can certainly try but her finding Geldauran's Claim isn't public knowledge yet given the possibility for it to be highly inflammatory, especially with the rifter status and the Dalish in positions of power in the Inquisition

What do you believe gods are Inquisition? Do you indeed believe that there are gods? The Chantry that likes to press and to meddle might not be for all but there are many of those who will still have the name of the Maker upon their lips in a time of strife. The Dalish have the Creators. The Avvar have beliefs about spirits and gods, and the Chasind have gods of a fashion, men and women beloved of them.

Rifters need not be shy in answering, I ask about...what a god is. What it might be. If it is a thing indeed. Something far beyond the comprehension of any mortal being, shifting even beyond the Veil or Fade that we might never know what it truly is, or if it might something else. Something closer to flesh and blood fashioned long ago. Shaped in the way the world is shaped.

[That phrase turned over and over: There is only the subject and the object, the actor and the acted upon.]

Perhaps… [and well she might as well voice a possibility when they're in Kirkwall where the Veil was stretched so thin long ago] once 'twas possible to raise those of ambition and power as high as the magisters of old Tevinter, to leave terror and awe in their wake depending on the mood, the whim, the offering.

[Eventually...well eventually there will be a report, but until she can trust how to write it, can know what the reception might be when it dares to leave the small group that know even the truth of what lies deep in the Tirashan, she can't bring her hand to write it.]

Comments

[arcaneadvisor]

There are always those who twist the Chant and all around it to suit their whim.

[You wrote of their ilk, she almost says but they're doing a careful dance, and to dredge up the name of Vivienne could be to summon her for there are times when what comes is called, and now? Well better not to got tempting fate.

Celene certainly does it. Even the Divine was doing it from what Morrigan heard and saw on the margins.]

A good thing to have a Provost among them.

[If a mouthful of a name. And not entirely by accident to name him, since she has to speak to him, and it won't be pleasant and she might slip away again so tiptoeing about the apology that won't come if it all goes ill.]

[arcaneadvisor]

Corypheus would remember Tevinter in the days where the worship of the Old Gods still ran strong. I have ventured down to his prison in the mountains to where the Altar of Dumat was, and in those days there would have been slaves; elves do not have easy lives now, 'twould be far worse for what he imagines. [Truthfully, former glory is the least of it with Corypheus after all he's done thus far but for so many of them it would be a grim reality to greet if he managed it.]

That does suppose the Maker has the power to do it, if he exists at all and is not a figment dreamt up by a madwoman. Andraste who might have been but a mage only with tales coming after. The Maker did not rid himself of his first creations that disappointed him, nor did he do much no matter what has come since the Magisters set foot in the Golden City. Perhaps they shall be disappointed and he shall simply not care.

[Of all the options, it'd be that one in her book. The Great Dispassionate Shrug did the Maker grant unto the holy, and lo did they drown in their tears ad nauseam.]

[arcaneadvisor]

They believe they are part of it? How intriguing. Is it more than simply belief? Is anything at all built about it as this place on Jakku?

[If she sounds excited at the prospect, it's because it could be more proof that she's on the right track with this, more to sit down with, to spend the long dark hours with in Sundermount's shadow.

All that blood, all the screaming. It cannot have been for naught.]

[arcaneadvisor]

Sisters in villages pay coin for bones of spurious origin. Knights will be sent out to die in the quest for ashes that might heal the sick. Who is to say then that a dragon is not Andraste risen again? [The Fifth Blight was not always an entirely harrowing time, but she lifts these three because this is what happens, this is what the world is as she has seen it: chasing at loose ends to have something, and if by that logic she might exist, then why not a dragon?

There is Morrigan's own mother who lives and lives again.

Who is the dragon. (The shape of the divine, no less.) Easier to say for her when she lived it herself, when she saw Haven as it was, blood-soaked, wretched, children with their dark rhymes, daggers above the scholar in a corrupted Chantry. (Justinia as much a madwoman for having the Conclave there, and she wonders why she never thought to ask Leliana more about the whole business.)]

Spirits are the same to the Chasind, more with animalistic or the seasons personified but given the splitting off from the Alamarri, well, we know the history. [And ah, the Seeker who knows more than a Templar would. Who has done his reading. Who has learnt his lessons.] Somniari whispering in the ears, sowing enough discord perhaps, or bending those to their will as needed; could you imagine, Seeker? To be faced by one with such might? If you possessed but a shadow or nothing at all compared to their power? What do you think you would feel like in the face of that? Small, one imagines. Unworthy, perhaps? Or as a Seeker it may be impossible, I know there are Templars who would find themselves incapable of seeing themselves as anything but superior to all once in their charge even now. Magic comes from the Fade so if you believe in the Maker, then the Maker did indeed make them.

Or... [And this is where she must pause, must lean close with that coy smile on her face] it comes from the elves. They had Uthenera after all. They were first. They had great skills and power beyond comprehension. Some part of me does wonder if they were the very first to possess that power in those days for I have seen what they have left behind, what they constructed that goes beyond what any mage is capable of now.

[And if ancient elves have created such things...well, they have created them. They have created them without being taught for they required no teacher but themselves, time, effort, failure. She is alarmed and intrigued in equal measure.]

I have spent near a year in the attempt to find my mother, a woman the Dalish name Asha'bellanar, the Chasind Mother of Vengeance. 'Tis a quest that has sent me places I thought not to return nor venture to, yet I have gone to find things...I am uncertain what to make of. They leave even a Witch of the Wilds with questions.

[coiledscales]

Ah.

[ That's a missing piece of the puzzle. And an interesting one. He's not all that horrified, but he is intrigued. ]

I admit, I would feel much the same were I in your shoes. I enjoy my body and being in control of it.

[provenforce]

It is more. I've seen- [ She hesitates, not sure how to describe this. ]

I've seen people who have no awareness of the Force surrounding them stand up to impossible odds and survive. The Force is there with them, even if they can't truly sense it. It's still there, helping them along. It wants to help, but it doesn't always know how. Some- Some people who are sensitive to it are given visions. But they don't always make sense, and they don't always show us a clear path.

There's sacred villages on Jakku of people who worship The Force, too. I never really knew much about them. The Jedi built temples on other worlds, too.

[periastron]

Most churches don't offer a by your leave. Most people don't. Usually the more of an ignorant, empathy-lacking sack of flaccid dicks they are, the more eager they are to start dishing out opinions.

( Maybe that's her reticence. Maybe that's why she shoots off with her own opinions to be more a dick, sometimes. )

It's— complicated. Part of his story is that he was conceived immaculately and was the Son of God. So for some people, I guess, he's just a man. And for other people he is the Son of God. And I think, I think— I think it's not as simple as succession. I mean, for one it was thousands of years ago that he was born, and it's not clear cut. I guess it comes down to faith and— I don't know. There's nuances, yeah?

( She is deeply out of her depth, wowza. )

But I mean, uh. I get what you're saying, and talk about unhealthy obsessive shit being spun as romantic in literature and shit, I mean. Nah.

( She exhales in a huff of breath. ) There are celebrities that are so huge and so iconic that they have millions and millions of followers who are fans and idealise them and I guess, believe what they believe and want to align themselves with that celebrity, but they aren't perceived as a god. They're still pretty much worshipped, but. Being a god, that'd be different. Divine powers, and stuff.

[arcaneadvisor]

[The accents couldn't be more different, but Morrigan has to wonder if Alexandra and Jester know one another. Something in the phrasing.]

Immaculate conception? [Do you hear her voice climbing Alexandra? Do you hear the laughter almost threatening to escape? Dearest Alistair, a rifter proposes near a decade and a half too late a solution to a dreaded night, imagine that! It has to be swallowed. That takes too long a moment but she's done all of that so the idea of it--] And what squeamish rabble invented that part? The Chantry likely thrashes about with its own face or what mask it puts on, and there are...well, there is whatever this is. What it happens to be. How deep does it run in the nature of beings such as us to worship or to look for a thing, if we might understand any part of it.

[Morrigan has to parse Alexandra's...well whatever that was. Has to look to Celene who is perhaps the greatest example or closest (perhaps before now, not so popular these days, shunned at parties, clutching with fingernails with the varnish chipping, for the best that she dons a mask) she might come up with.] Would it? You spoke of nuance. We have no celebrities, perhaps some rulers with popularity, but what makes these celebrities so popular? If we changed those things about, they might make it here. They could become a god. Given time. Given the right circumstance.

[arcaneadvisor]

I know not if any part of me would have remained, trapped behind glass to pound on it with my fists or if all would be lost to Flemeth. I have no intention of finding out.

[Let one of these others take her place. If they exist.]

Should you ever hear anyone foolish enough to wonder oh where is Flemeth when she aided the Hero and the Champion, perhaps remember that. [And that witches seldom do shit for free but Morrigan doubts someone like him needs to be told that, the rest of the rabble alas...]

[arcaneadvisor]

[Morrigan--

Morrigan has to wonder at that. At things she has seen of men and women going off to fight against terrible odds, at Redcliffe where they wished for blessings against the undead charging once more in the night at them, how even if the Maker were with them they needed a symbol yet some who do need only their faith.

(Again, she thinks of Leliana who has had her faith, who has stood with her bow in her hand in the dark, an arrow fired out to strike down demons, Darkspawn, men, women, beast, all that come--)]

There are some who have had visions. Or one. I know one. Who said the Maker sent her to aid the Hero. Even if the Maker is gone from this world, his back turned, then perhaps 'twas her faith that in some way same as this Force that allowed for all that came after. Of all I have ever met who have been a part of the Chantry, she is the only one I would trust with any part of it.

To build though, that is to make a statement. To put down a place of power. The ancient elves had temples to their Creators, their gods, whatever they were. One thing feeds another.

[provenforce]

The Jedi built temples on places where the Force was already strong, supposedly. I've only been to one place, and I admit I don't know much of the history, but the place I visited was the first ever built. It was more alive than any place I've ever been to before.

The Force existed there long before the temple. I don't know much about the elves and their gods, but it could have been the same.

[coiledscales]

Sensible. I'd not want to risk such, either. I put far too much value on being free in my own body.

[ Or, uh, someone else's, but he's quietly not mentioning that and it's mostly irrelevant to the discussion since it's beyond his powers here, anyway. ]

If I ever meet your mother, I'll be sure to remember that note of caution.

[tactical_alert]

...You take a certain joy in twisting expectations and threatening to shake the very roots of what people think they know from the ground. [Not admonition. He's impressed. But then, such is something a Witch of the Wilds would do.

Hard to comment on the whole 'my mother is an immortal dragon elven god' thing, though, if he's honest. Because how do you argue against that?

Her thoughts and musings are challenging, and while he has traveled far and wide, they have been for less than religious reasons, no out of finding artifacts, not searching for a strange family member. He hasn't sought out the obscure places she must have, places that would not be on any map or mentioned in any history book (none approved by the Chantry, at any rate). He feels the urge to go rooting around in less than approved books.

His faith, though, however twisted the words may have become, gives him comfort. As any faith should. Instead of picking apart her theories, he instead ventures thus:]

I'll not suggest that there are questions that cannot be answered. I do suggest there may be some that one would be better of not knowing the answers to. I don't know where this one lies, but...if you do find an answer, one that satisfies you. What a god is. What would you even do with that information?

[arcaneadvisor]

Something called to them then, or there was a power at the very least. Ancient elven sites are, as the name would suggest, ancient. Much is lost, and the language is...damned near impossible to understand when reading it. [Her frustration leaks out into her voice; all the years of study yet still so much eludes her.] There are places though where the very air has felt altered somehow. Magic upon the skin almost. To know that 'tis not so dissimilar elsewhere is a comfort.

[Is something to measure against the eluvians, the Crossroads too.]

No one knows much of them, Arlathan was sunk long ago and the people left no roads. Far flung ruins. Fragments. Wonders. Things such as eluvians and the what connects them, a magic far beyond comprehension, constructed entirely by them that slowly collapses without what created it.