faithlikeaseed | [IC/OOC] Fade Rift Inbox & Contact

"No, it's all right. You know, you're the second city elf to ask me that," she answers good-naturedly. "I know my vallaslin will always mark me as one, but I've left my clan and just consider myself an elf in general." Plus, Dalish as a term tends to put city elves on edge, like she's coming to lord over her superiority or something. It's not always the case, of course. Stereotyping the city elves would be just as bad as them stereotyping her.

"Fire came to me naturally. I was made hearthkeeper since I wasn't First or even Second to the Keeper. So fire magic helped light the fires and keep them going much easier. As for storm... I don't know, really. No one's ever asked me that before." No one's ever seemed interested. "It slows enemies down? Maybe that's why. Battle is too fast-paced for me. Having a moment to hold the enemy in place and just breathe helps."

Huh. Myr chews at his lower lip as he turns this over in his mind, before volunteering, "S'pose I'm used to thinking it matters a lot where we grew up--city or Circle or out in the forests." But there's more to being Dalish than a childhood among the trees, he knows. "D'you still worship the Creators?"

It's a little bit of an intrusive question, but she's seemed amenable to answering so far--and her explanation of her magic is worth a bright smile out of him. "Huh! That's practical--both of those are. I admit, I've gotten used to hearing someone's really gotten into the primal schools because she likes the power behind 'em--or she's really fond of explosions. Not bad reasons, either, but definitely more common.

"Are you called out to battle very often, then?"

"I do, yes. For some, that's enough to still call me Dalish, but I don't agree. After all, the Avvar have their own gods, don't they? And they're just as human as Andrastians." There's no need to let who they worship divide them.

"That's funny," she says with a chuckle. "I've never really considered myself to be practical. But now that I look at it, I guess those reasons are. And I used to be in battles, yes. I was an Inquisition soldier. But since they reorganized all the divisions I've switched to Scouting. I stay out of the front line that way since battle just wasn't for me. I would get hurt and be a weak link... stealth is better."

"That's so," he concedes, thoughtful. "Though there's more to being Avvar than worshipping their gods--and you could be Avvar and Andrastian; there's a few as have converted. Turning to the Maker doesn't erase someone's past." Though it does--or should--make it matter less to her co-religionists, he thinks, and frowns for the thought.

...But now he's quibbling over what someone calls herself and he shakes his head to snap himself out of it. "Still, if you say you're not Dalish any longer, that's that, isn't it?"

Magic's a less fraught subject anyhow. "Good to learn that one early, before you get into too much trouble," is his amiable-enough assessment of her decision to keep out of battle. (He wonders, briefly, what he'd've done in the same situation--if he'd had the chance to realize he'd no taste for battle, after years of training to it-- Set that aside.) "...All right, but. You've got to tell me how you've worked the stealth in, since I don't think I've ever met another mage who was particularly sneaky."

"Yes, that's that." It's said in a way that suggests finality too, because no one but her can make the call on who she is, so they might as well move on.

"Oh, that. I created a special grouping of spells to make me more stealthy. A way to make myself invisible, a way to silence the area I'm in; things like that."

That hauls him up short. "Truly?" he asks, tipping his face toward her with an expression suddenly rapt. "How? What'd you start from? How long have you been at it?"

That's done it, Ellana, you've unleashed the floodgates.

At first she's surprised at his interest, but then she realizes that few have actually witnessed her using these spells in person, and that there would be some questions about how it all came about.

"Well, it started at Skyhold. The library there has these positively ancient books, and there were some detailing how to build your own spells for specific purposes. First you have to find a sort of... category that the thing you want to do can fall under. So like, for example, I wanted to become invisible, and to do that I found I needed Fade energy to surround me. It's actually similar to Fade Cloak, so I used that as a starting point, and built the spell up from there. I added the ability to be completely silent while invisible, and I can create a Fade copy of myself to distract enemies."

Had he been left to a peaceful life in Hasmal Circle--were Thedas a peaceful kind of place that didn't need the service of knight-enchanters--Myr would've gone into spell development in a heartbeat. Where his theoretical rigor might be lacking (at least by the standards of a Circle mage), he's got ideas for days; hearing how others put their own into practical use is always a treat. He inevitably learns something new--

"Who were the authors? Are the books still at Skyhold or have they been transported here?" --like the fact the Inquisition's got ancient texts on spell creation. Ancient texts the Chantry probably banned, or at least restricted. Ancient texts he'd really, really like to read--but, well.

He'd make it work. "--But--no, that's good, that's how I'd do it if you asked me to come up with something like that, though--" There's at least three questions he wants to ask her immediately; he's got to stop and sort that out to keep himself from tripping over his own tongue in his enthusiasm. "--all right, first: Where'd you learn the root spell? Have the Dalish got their own version?" Damn it, that was an extra question he hadn't meant; he bites his lower lip to keep the rest from spilling out so she's got space to answer.

"Mm, let's see." Ellana rattles off the names and titles she remembers before adding, "They're still at Skyhold as far as I know. I returned them once I had all my spell set sorted out. But I'm sure you could easily request them and they could be delivered." It doesn't fly over her head that he can't read them, but she isn't going to question him about that. Maybe he has someone willing to read things out to him. She could even do it if he has a real interest.

"Oh, no. At least, I don't think so? I hardly got the full Dalish magical education, but that's a whole... thing. I figured it out through my staff. See, I found it while out exploring, and based on the circumstances and the design, I was pretty sure it was Tevinter in origin." What she means, more delicately put, is she found it on a dead Tevinter guy in an elven ruin. Finders keepers and all that. "So I had to do some research until I found out what it was. It's called the Scepter of Razikale, and it has the ability to Fade Cloak built into it. Once I had that information, it was just a matter of doing some magical experimentation on the staff to understand the spell and rework it to suit what I wanted. I call it True Stealth."

A few of those Myr recognizes, from the way he brightens at the mention of them. The others he doesn't--but that's all to the good, because he'll never turn down an opportunity for new knowledge. "I'll send for them, in that case. Hopefully Skyhold's librarians are less defensive of their charges than ours here."

He's attentive to her explanation of how she came by her fade cloak, making an appreciative noise here and there. (And noting down that whole thing, for later queries. Or perhaps never queries--curious as he is about the way the Dalish manage their mages, it's not precisely polite in a first meeting.) Pulling something like that out of an artifact isn't the easiest task; she's initiative and skill worth admiring. "And d'you still step into the Fade when you use it? So you can pass through things in your path? Or is it just hiding yourself from anyone who might be watching?"

Edited 2018-01-02 10:31 (UTC)

"It's just hiding, actually. I can still be touched or hit, so I've been practicing my stealth and pickpocketing so I can slip past people without them noticing. Not that I actually take anything. It's just practice to see if they know I'm near." A thoughtful tone comes to her voice. "It's interesting: people never move the way you expect them too. Reading people is an important part of it."

"Tell me about it." There's a note of rueful humor in Myr's voice; he's a whole litany of awkward collisions with sighted people he'd anticipated wrong he could talk about. "Still, that's quite something you've done there. After that, the practical skills seem almost like they'd be easier.

"What else have you got in your toolkit? If--you don't mind me asking, that is." Enchanters in the Circle could get defensive about proprietary spells, feeling that too much discussion might lead to someone recreating what they'd done and usurping their rightful fame. But she's been game to talk about it so far...

While Ellana is happy to talk about it, she has no plans to teach it to others. It's her hard work put into something, and she values that a lot. Not for the fame, because few people know what she can do, but because her self-confidence has always been a shaky thing, especially when it comes to her education. This Spellcloak thing has helped her blossom into a more confident person.

"Well, I figured Sleep would be good to know in case I was caught. I didn't know it before I started putting all this together. I've created a Silence Field too. I used Disruption Field for inspiration, but instead of blocking projectiles, it blocks sound so you can be stealthy inside it. It's also invisible, while I read Disruption Field isn't. And then I worked on a spell that uses repulsive energy to push people away on a wave of that energy."

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