Sending Crystal; Locked to Grey Wardens

[pinprick]

FORM: Sending Crystal
SENDER: Nathaniel Howe
RECIPIENT: The Wardens
WHAT: Office meeting re: the Architect and whether to tell the Inquisition about him.
WHEN: Current
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: TW: Mention of broodmothers.

[A gruff but refined voice.]

I am Senior Warden Nathaniel Howe. I was one of the Wardens personally recruited by the Hero of Ferelden after the Archdemon was killed. The others here who can say the same are Velanna and Anders. We were party to something that deserves an explanation.

[A sigh that might as well say "this is going to be a long one."] After the Archdemon was slain, the Blight...continued more than it ought. It was no matter of clearing up stray patches of darkspawn. They were organized, and marching over Amaranthine in Ferelden. Most alarmingly, some were able to talk and order themselves like had never been seen before.

The reason... [he takes a second, figuring out how to make this as short as possible] The reason was a creature known as the Architect. He was...is a darkspawn magister like Corypheus, but his aim was different. He sought peace and enlightenment, and the awakening of the darkspawn to thought and purpose entirely free from the compulsion of the Old Gods. He...thought of them as his children.

He began to experiment. As we drink darkspawn blood to change ourselves, they drank the blood of Grey Wardens to awaken, to become thinking beings with conscience. Doing so did not always produce...good results. His experiments woke the archdemon Urthemiel and began the Blight. And they created the Mother.

The Mother was a broodmother he had awakened. She was driven mad by it. It was she who organized the darkspawn after the Archdemon was slain. That was the end of the organized darkspawn attacks after the Blight.

The Architect...we spared the Architect. More than that, we allied with him against the Mother. It is his desire to rid the world of all future Blights, and so he continues his work, trying to free the darkspawn of the control of the Old Gods.

We have kept him a secret from the world. Now, the world is threatened by Corypheus, a darkspawn of independent thinking, who wields power of the Calling like an Old God. I believe that if there is a time to share our secret alliance with anyone, it is now. The Inquisition fights against Corypheus for the fate of the world. The Architect may have answers we all need.

But I wanted to ask for your opinions before meeting with the Inquisition's leaders. Is there a good enough reason for us to keep this from the Inquisition?

Comments

[pinprick]

I don't think he would start another Blight. He doesn't want to lose more darkspawn lives, strange as it sounds.

[ichaer]

And that would be all well and good if the last time anyone saw him wasn't a bloody decade ago. We have absolutely no idea what the talking darkspawn might have decided was the best way to protect his horde.

[pinprick]

You may not. Those of us who were there do. The Architect is our ally until we find out otherwise.

[ichaer]

No, no, no. It's your ally, not mine. Because I am up to here [ And you can't see Nate but she is raising her hand VERY HIGH above her head right now. ] with other Wardens deciding shit and I just have to fall in line like it isn't absolutely fucking insane.

[pinprick]

Unless you intend to form a splinter faction separately, one that is completely sane--which would necessarily be incredibly small and not very powerful--you will find it impossible to escape a chain of command with people you do not always see eye to eye with. Until the day you choose to do that, you have the allies the rest of us have.

The question you have been asked is not whether we ought to be allied with the Architect--that is something I can do nothing about. You have been asked whether we ought to alert the Inquisition about him.

[ichaer]

Shove it right up your ass with that chain of command bullshit. Clarel pulled the same shit on us before Weisshaupt because you can do something about it now. All you have to do is not carelessly call some big unknown our ally until we know more!

[ She doesn't like losing her temper. She doesn't like her emotions getting the better of her but it's all bubbling up and she hates it. ] Yes, we should tell them. Happy?

[pinprick]

Did I miss the part where I gave you an order? I believe I have asked for your opinion on a course of action. One course of action. At a later date, we might discuss what our relationship is with the Architect, and you may have a voice there. But I didn't make that alliance. The man who did has been missing for years.

[ichaer]

And did I say anything about you giving me an order? I gave you my opinion but that doesn't mean I have to sit here playing with my thumbs about everything else. I don't think it's such a shock for folks to comment on things we weren't privy too up until now because it isn't the right avenue of topic today.

Finding out our MIA Warden Commander allied with some super smart darkspawn is a something of a big shock, you know.

[pinprick]

And why is it that the chain of command comes as such a shock to you as well? You seem grossly offended by it.

[ichaer]

It's not like that. Just because I don't like something that someone superior has decided on does not make me 'grossly offended' by the chain of command. Isn't that why we're all here in the first place? Because we didn't agree with what Clarel and the others had decided in their chain of command?

Like I said it's just something of a shock. It's been a busy year to be a Warden with all these secrets coming out.

[pinprick]

I understand. [A sigh, and some of the tension goes out.] I spent most of it on the run. I grew a beard.

[He pauses to let that image sink in.]

And that's a pittance compared to what you went through, I think. You had to see it all.

I wasn't pulling rank. I was explaining why it's complicated. Every part of our lives is complicated. We have to take this one thing at a time, and look at each thing as it is. As it is, the Architect is...in an agreement with us. That may change. That is a conversation we will have, but we need to have it with our other allies. And to have that conversation with our other allies, we must agree to approach them about this. That is what this conversation is.

And for one, I'm glad you're going to be part of it. We need strong principles among the Wardens now more than ever.

[ichaer]

I just broke a lot of noses in Weisshaupt.

[ She also had to sleep with her sword because she was afraid of someone slitting her throat in the middle of the night but details... ]

I get it, I do but Jonas isn't here and just like with Clarel we don't have to uphold his alliances or agreements either. We have to do what is the best for us because isn't that why we're here? To do better and prove we Wardens are not some monsters that everyone has painted us to be lately and to save the others? That is why I believe it is best we tell the leaders here because we do need their help and the least we can give them is our trust.

Besides if it wasn't for the Inquisition then I'd probably be dead or brainwashed. Or both like some brainwashed zombie... thing. [Ew. ]

[pinprick]

You're right. There has been a change in leadership. That always calls for renegotiation.

And you're right that it is best to be honest with the Inquisition. As everything happens, I've been coming to believe that if we make a choice we feel we must hide from the world, then we have made the wrong choice. It's not enough for us to appear to the world as the stalwart heroes they need us to be. We have to be those heroes. Prove that there is honor and good out there, and someone who will always be there to save the world.

How long have you been a Warden?

[ichaer]

Which is good because I am awful at hiding.

[ Not true in the least but the point still stands. The question catches her off guard slightly and she has to pause, think back on that day. It wasn't a day she thought about often. ]

Hmm... the last day of Firstfall will mark four years since my conscription.

[byblow]

[ The words "chain of command" are giving him hives, but: ]

There's a reason we're talking about it, Ciri.

[ichaer]

[ Now she just sounds sad. ]

No, we're apparently talking about whether or not to tell the Inquisition. Not if we should still call it our ally.

[byblow]

Yes, well, first things first.

If I could go back and stop Jonas from making dodgy deals, things would be veeeery different.

For starters, we'd probably all be dead.

[ He's aiming for levity, tonewise. Chin up! ]

We could pick another word. "Tainted associate."

[ichaer]

Is Jonas' teeth as pretty as they are in all the official royal portraits of him and the Queen? Because If I ever meet him, I'm going to punch one of them out.

[ Ugh. ] "Tainted penpal"

[byblow]

Prettier.

[ Last he saw them, anyway. Eleven years ago. ]

"Estranged tainted penpal."

[ichaer]

Knocking out the two front ones.

[ She just sounds even more disgusted. ]

"Estranged tainted penpal and his kin." Since the Architect apparently has family we shouldn't forget about them either.