FORM: sending crystal
SENDER: the Baroness Freddie Durfort-Lacapalette & Val de Foncé
RECIPIENT: everyone with a sending crystal
WHAT: some Orlesians meet talking darkspawn in a Temple of Dumat
WHEN: backdated to a few days before the invasion of Minrathous
WHERE: the Silent Plains. underground. literally.
NOTES: we still love threadjacking should the opportunity arise and we’ll be threadjacking YOU. merci beaucoup. Val is this color and Freddie is this color
Inquisition. [Val: Orlesian accent, very serious. As always, this is of dire importance.] Darkspawn. They can talk.
Now, they say nothing of consequence. Indeed, they barely say at all. And yet, they speak. They wear clothing.
Nothing of consequence! Don't mislead them, Valentine, it--he?--the darkspawn, it was repeating a verse about Silence, and this must be a temple to Dumat! Darkspawn worshipping the Old Gods makes quite a bit of sense, one must admit, but reciting prayers! Extraordinary!
Well--yes. [A little annoyed at being corrected, but not very, as it is Freddie who did the correcting.] When it is put that way, of course it all becomes consequential. Perhaps that is the wrong word to use, to discuss such a-- do we call such a thing a feat?
I could hardly guess without more information. We can't eliminate the possibility that they have always been able to speak and have simply never bothered. Or perhaps this is something Corypheus has somehow done to them. It might also--oh look, Val! These scrolls look ancient!
Oh, shit. [But a wondering shit] Tevene, yes? Ancient Tevene, for ancient scrolls. We must take care, to preserve these, carry them back to Kirkwall, for-- Oh, but the research team. We were sent to join them, but alas: to a man, they are dead. Sacrificed, by our best guess, unless they chose to cut their own throats. I hope they were not beloved by anyone of the Inquisition, as they are quite past loving now. Yet in their death, they have led us--de Foncé and Durfort-Lacapalette--to such discovery. Ancient scrolls! A temple! Darkspawn that talk. The sacrifice of these lives has not been in vain. [Well.] Though veins were cut, in the sacrificing.
Sweet Maker, do not start punning. They were fellow seekers of knowledge even if they were Tevinters, we ought to show at least a pinch of respect. [ That to Val, this to their audience: ] Alas, they are quite gone, as Val has said, but this place is marvelous--in a dreadful macabre way, of course, but what a discovery! We may even find something here of interest in combating Corypheus. It's unlikely to be coincidence after all, all this darkspawn and Dumat just now.
Of course, without evidence, we cannot say for certain. Will there be evidence? Only careful excavation and exhaustive research of this ruin will tell.
[Oh, wait--]
And before anyone should be so pedantic as to make the claim that Corypheus is a talking darkspawn, I will disprove this easily and say on the record: that does not count. A corrupted magister may talk. A true darkspawn may not. Until now. Apparently.
Just so. A talking hurlock is an entirely different proposition.
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