Fade Rift Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
faderifting) wrote2019-08-25 10:30 pm
faderifting) wrote2019-08-25 10:30 pm
Plot Requests & Suggestions
PLOT REQUESTS & SUGGESTIONS
The world of Dragon Age is big and open and many of our players know at least as much about it as the mods. We hope that Fade Rift will be a collaborative effort where players feel free to contribute and to take ownership of the setting and of the game's direction. To that end, we strongly encourage player plots. We're also always open to ideas if players have something in mind but feel for some reason that they can't run a prospective plot themselves.
In all cases, we'll get back to you as soon as we're able! (Please make sure to note if your request is urgent so we can prioritize it.) Not every idea will be viable as-written, or necessarily at all, but we will do our best to help find ways to fit the things players want to do in around setting constraints or behind-the-scenes plot considerations whenever we can.
Comments to this post are screened. And if you need to reference older plot or info requests, our previous page is here.
PLAYER PLOTS
These are plots that a player runs, which includes posting any OOC sign-ups, logs, and info, as well as GMing for other players as needed or desired. These plots can involve the plot-runner's character or not, and they can either be personal in nature ("let's go rescue my brother!") or be relevant to the war effort and mod plot ("let's go spy on an enemy!"). For more info on what sorts of activities require a plot request and what don't, please take a look at the FAQ.
Please note that “dibs” on a particular event/location/NPC for a player plot will last for approximately three months after the plot’s submission or proposed date, whichever is later. If you’re delayed longer than three months but still plan to run something, please check in with us. Otherwise we’ll allow new plot requests that may overlap with your proposal to go ahead without consulting you.
To submit a player plot, respond to the body of this post with the following form:
PROJECT PROPOSALS
IC, projects are the result of characters being put in charge of achieving a goal that's bigger than just one mission. They'll be responsible for figuring out how to achieve it, pulling people in to help as needed, and deciding how to use the funding and resources at their disposal. Our default assumption is that this goal will also be the character's idea/proposal, or at least something they're interested in and take initiative to volunteer to spearhead, so they can take the IC credit for your OOC ideas as well. But if it’s not IC for them to take initiative on it, it may be possible for the div heads to assign it to them, depending on the circumstances.)
OOC, projects are essentially a series of player plots. The difference between proposing a project and proposing a player plot is that with a project, we work with you to establish an end goal up front. Rather than doing three or five player plots that try to inch toward an achievement, hoping that we'll eventually say "you did it! you cracked it!" and let you achieve something big, we'll just all agree up front what steps need to be taken to reach the desired end point, such as: "They'll have to figure out this part through research, and they'll have to go find an artifact to help, and they'll have to convince a this mage to help, and that should do it." From there you can expand the steps into plots and be confident they're going to pay off at the end.
Outside of very unusual circumstances you'll be required to make your project open for other characters to sign on to assist. A project can't be something your character is doing alone or with a closed/preselected team. For solo or closed plot efforts, you can continue submitting info requests and player plots the usual way. (As a reminder, player plots can also be official Riftwatch missions!) Project goals must be goals that Riftwatch would realistically pursue and sign off on; "overthrow the Empress" can't be a project goal because it is both bigger and more controversial than anything they could get away with really doing.
More details and some examples can be found in the form below.
PLOT SUGGESTIONS
If there's some aspect of Thedas you think we should explore or some conflict or plot element you want to see addressed but don't want to run yourself, you can suggest them! This includes:
- Conflicts, regions, etc., you want the game to address somehow.
- War table assignment ideas that your character wouldn't propose IC, which we'll pass along to the relevant people.
- Status effect/CR-focused event ideas.
- Requests for certain types of plots/missions, like "more diplomacy opportunities suited to nonhumans.”
INFO REQUESTS
If your character is looking into something—reading books, conducting experiments, writing to ask NPCs for information, etc.—that falls short of a plot request, or you need to know what's going on somewhere we haven't mentioned lately to be able to start plotting about it, let us know here.
Please keep in mind that these requests must be specific. "My character is reading about the Fade; what will they learn?" is too broad. "My character is researching previous instances of individuals physically entering the Fade; beyond those in canon, are there any in FR's universe I should know about?" is specific.
AFTERWARDS
As a final note, if you run a plot that pertains to the war effort/larger plot, or if you submit an info request and get something back that your character should/would logically share with the rest of the organization, please file a report using the form on
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
therookery and tag the post with any relevant divisions and projects. This is to help everyone keep up with plot developments so they can be built on and acknowledged! It's also generally required to get AC bonus points for running a plot.
INFO REQUESTS
Info requests that may be of general interest/common knowledge will be unscreened when they're answered.
no subject
There's obviously details of the lady whose shard went wonky on public record. Are there any other similar reports, or further research done on the shards and their effects, etc, publicly available in RW records / the library?
Context: Mhavos volunteered to do Tony Stark's homework.
no subject
2 million years later,
2. The next in line after Gaelan would be a cousin with a more tenuous claim to the throne, but a few different people would be able to claim it was them. It would definitely make the Van Markhams' claim to all of Nevarra a little less plausible, but since they've already set up a government and claimed territory, it's unlikely they would just say never mind and fall back in line with the Pentaghasts at this point. Identifying the most likely candidates (and whether any of them would actually be an improvement) if something were to befall Gaelan would require a player plot!
3. Outside Nevarra, the general perception is that Corypheus and Tevinter were behind Nevarra City's collapse, but with a definite air of "what did they expect, keeping corpses like that" regarding the method of it. There are various conspiracy theories among those so inclined—that the Van Markhams were in league with the attackers in an attempt to unseat the Pentaghasts, that the Mortalitasi as a whole have joined Corypheus, etc.—but no general consensus of opinion behind any of them. Within Nevarra, a small minority blame the Mortalitasi for what happened, but there have been more widespread grumblings about how the order failed the people, let their dead be co-opted and misused, and didn't do enough to help stop the attack and protect the people or their ancestors.
4. Residing in Cumberland, Tylan Ostroff has fallen quiet about his own ambitions toward the throne in the wake of the attack on Nevarra City and put his support behind Aurelia Pentaghast. Some of his relatives—especially those abroad—still mumble about how he would do better, but his personal focus, given the circumstances, seems to have shifted to protecting his family and assets and, more broadly, his country from external threats.
no subject
Specifically I'd been thinking:
no subject
There are a number of Mortalitasi unaccounted for, but because of the chaos and abandonment of the city, it's not clear who defected vs who died.
There is some suspicion of the Mortalitasi, particularly in the Pentaghast court. Aurelia hasn't cut them out altogether, and on the surface it might appear that things at court continue as normal, but she has quietly been very particular in which Mortalitasi she is willing to work with and allow in positions of influence, and has not followed the late King Markus's practice of surrounding himself with Mortalitasi as his closest advisors, instead keeping a more diverse council. She attributes this simply to the need to hear advice on a wide range of subjects and ensure she is informed about the lives of all Nevarrans, but there are whispers that she distrusts the order. (The whole business with Markus having been an animated corpse for who knows how long is known only to Aurelia and her inner circle.) Within the order itself, there is suspicion that Aurelia does have agents among them investigating, but nobody knows who or if it's actually true.
Public opinion is mixed. Only a small minority blame the Mortalitasi for what happened, but there have been more widespread grumblings about how the order failed the people, let their dead be co-opted and misused, and didn't do enough to help stop the attack and protect the people or their ancestors. But in terms of overall beliefs, there hasn't been any real lasting change. There are certainly people who might be too traumatized by the attack to be comfortable resuming typical Nevarran practices, and there will be a temporary spike in pyre funerals. There will also be extra precautions taken by many to try to build more secure crypts and necropoli, and more requests for protective magical warding of some sort or practical barriers to ensure dead can't get out to attack the living again. But in general their beliefs/customs are too deeply ingrained to be permanently altered by this and people are more distressed and angry at the mistreatment of their dead.
no subject
What kind of response would she get?
Also, who is this letter addressed to? Does one write letters to the Divine??
no subject
Even the fastest response will still take a pretty long time—with the respondent's apologies, etc., it's the Exalted March—and Derrica will be told she can have her phylactery, but she has to come to Val Royeaux herself to retrieve it, so they can use her proximity to find it in the enormous, poorly-labeled collection they inherited and be sure they're giving the correct phylactery to the correct person.
If she decides to go to Val Royeaux to do that, let us know, and we'll give you more info about how that process will work!
no subject
no subject
In terms of prior examples, Colin will be able to find two references to longterm magebane use.
One is an account of a single individual, a noble-born mage from several ages prior who was apparently fed magebane by her mother from the time she first began showing signs of magic in early childhood. The mother unexpectedly died when the girl was in her late teens without making arrangements for the magebane diet to continue, and a few months after she died, the girl began exhibiting signs of magic again and was taken to a Circle after she accidentally lit a romantic rival's dress on fire during a ball. (The magebane ploy was discovered via the mother's papers by the father in the aftermath of this event and confessed to the Templars etc.) The enchanter who wrote the account taught the girl afterwards and notes that she took a long time after arriving at the Circle to be able to reliably call on her magic, and that when she did successfully do so, it sometimes spiked uncontrollably. The enchanter makes allowances for the possibility that she just wasn't a very good mage, but he also believes that the prolonged repression of her magic during her childhood meant she could not develop the "mental muscles" necessary to control it once she was suddenly in full possession of her power. There's no mention of other physical side effects, but it's also only a short excerpt from a book that's focused specifically on the importance of early intervention with young mages, rather than anything meant to be comprehensive. But there's also no mention of an early death or other tragedy, and apparently neither the girl nor anyone else in the family suspected she was being dosed for the better part of a decade, so non-magical side-effects cannot have been severe.
The second account is more comprehensive, from a Circle that experimented with administering low doses of magebane to a group of post-Harrowing volunteers who weren't too concerned about demons but had difficulty controlling their magic and were interested in just not having to worry about it so much. The mages reported side effects such as mild dehydration and occasional queasiness, especially when they took their doses without food. One wound up with severe stomach ulcers, but was considered to probably be an outlier.
The mages were eventually all phased off of the magebane. Some were phased off as a control group after about a year of use. The remainder were phased off a few at a time as they began exhibiting minor symptoms of mana imbalance, similar to those experienced by mages who overuse processed lyrium to augment their spellcasting. Specifically, at varying times after the one-year mark, despite lacking access to their magic, they began to feel dizziness and sometimes hear voices while awake. The longest a mage lasted without reporting these symptoms was three years, and the author of the study notes a suspicion that the mage actually felt the symptoms earlier but lied about it due to fearing a return to full power. All mages recuperated from the mana imbalance shortly after they stopped taking the magebane, and none had such severe cases that they entered the Fade while awake.
All of the mages, once taken off magebane, took some time to regain access to their abilities. On average it took about a week for every month they had spent participating in the experiment for them to reach their previous power level. (In the study, this was initially considered a positive thing, with some hope that the effect would be permanent, followed by disappointment that it wasn't.) A few of the mages, but not all, reported more difficulty than before with controlling their power level—being unable to cast at some times, or casting spells bigger and more powerful than intended at others—for up to a year afterwards.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
- What's the current state of Val Chevin (as understood by those outside of it). A general status update would be cool since it's been a while and the state of the occupation has shifted pretty radically recently.
- Is there any hot goss I should be aware of from the allied forces' side?
- Do you have any strong feeling about what the landscape immediately surrounding Val Chevin is like?
Thank you!
no subject
no subject
no subject
2. Weisshaupt would require a big undercover mission. The archives are also part of what burned in the fortress during the coup in the Anderfels (intentionally, to prevent leaving that information in enemy hands). The destruction likely wasn't total before someone intervened, but the archives will be a lot less extensive than they might have been before that. Whether it's a mission that's worth the risk is something we'll leave up to IC leaders to decide ICly.
3. Riftwatch does have access to Inquisition records. It'd require actually going to Skyhold, but they'd be allowed, and handwaving some correspondence with Inquisition archivists is fine.
4. The Wardens don't have any reliable methods for dealing with corruption. Cleansing runes are a known entity that can hold back the spread of corruption on surfaces, discourage red lyrium growth, etc., but would not necessarily outright cleanse anything that was already corrupted. There are also a few odd incidents in canon and game history that Ellis could find out about:
magic gun: for real this time
I'm doing my homework that I've neglected to do for LITERALLY OVER TWO YEARS oops because I am only now realizing I never got you a finalized write-up for magic gun. Puts thumb over the part where when I reviewed things earlier today I went 'Oh shit, I never did the AC point spend for this' and only now at midnight continued my re-read farther to 'Oh shit, I never gave cass and mj full details to review'. BUT UHHHH IN SUMMARY:
Magic gun is styled like a slightly comically long heavy musket (or arquebus) similar to THIS; it requires a balancing fork and generally is a little unwieldy in an effort to work in some additional nerfs. Designed for aimed shots, not volley fire (which is good because I doubt they have the budget to make a bunch of them).
The two important pieces that make it work:
- The "sparklock"; magic gun's equivalent of a flintlock. Cocking the gun charges a lighting rune; firing it causes an electrical current to pass through the parallel rails inside the gun's rifle, which magnetically propels the ammunition rather than relying on an explosive charge.
- The "spindle"; On the outside of the gun's casement, the spindle resembles the top of a drop spindle or any turning dial of your choice if you have a preference for, idk, egg timers. In this example image, please replace the cute sheep with some appropriately ghoulish rune enchantments (flame? electricity? paralysis?). The settings on the spindle determines the effect that the ammunition is enchanted with; turning the spindle locks a particular rune into place so that when the gun is fired, the ammunition that passes through is etched with the appropriate runic enchantment.
The spindle is loosely based on Tony's thedas!arc reactor. Charging the gun activates the crystalized lyrium core, which enables the gun to enchant the ammunition as it's fired.
Some notable pitfalls:
- The sparklock works in tandem with the spindle and vice versa. Damage to the spindle may cause the gun to be jammed and even in the best case scenarios would lessen the distance and accuracy with which the gun can be fired. Something something something enchantments working in tandem and having a reciprocal relationship; the spindle can't be activated without the sparklock's initial charge.
- In theory, the spindle allows for multiple ammunition types (so you don't have to have two separate guns, one for Fire Ammo and one for Lightning Ammo); in practice, this means the more things can go wrong. Prone to misfires, jams, miscellaneous uh-ohs.
- While the spindle itself relies on charges the crystalized lyrium core and is unlikely to require 'refreshing' so long as the core remains intact, the initial enchanting is expensive and the crystalized lyrium is rare. Damage to a particular rune on the spindle would render that rune unusable. Damage to the core would render the spindle nonfunctional. In theory, this is hard because the actual important parts of the spindle and housed inside a casement. But accidents happen.
Meanwhile, the sparklock functions as any traditionally enchanted object, and will need periodic refreshing depending on the frequency of use. tl;dr it's fussy, maybe try not to drop it
That is more a less an accurate summary of my General Thoughts and Feelings, but despite the fact that I've been faffing around with this for ages absolutely nothing is actually set in stone. Feel free to say Definitely Not to any/all of this and I'm happy to go back to the drawing board. Otherwise, so sorry to have just????? Spaced on not, you know, actually having my ducks in a row.
no subject
Before I get too far along spinning up ideas, I wanted to do a temp check to see if there were any guidelines or loose sense of trajectory you had in mind since I have a tendency to spitball first and then submit player plot requests later (oops).
no subject
In Antiva, the Chantry is as political as it is in Orlais, with a lot of ties between important Chantry figures and different Merchant houses. Chantry figures within Antiva are more likely than their secular counterparts to want more involvement in the Exalted March and war effort, but how vocal anyone is about it depends on who is paying for their local Chantry. So you're very free to make things up within Antiva—there might be some people speaking up passionately, others somehow turning Antivan neutrality into a religious position—but the overall vibe is cautious fence-sitting.
The Divine, being Antivan herself, understands the situation in Antiva enough to not be surprised by it, but she is growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of support. The main focus in Orlais, however, is what to do about the Orlesian border and whether to divert the Exalted March into the Free Marches or not. Their other option is continuing to focus on Val Chevin, then turning north to deal with Perendale and push forward into Tevinter as originally planned. There is a lot of quiet concern that if the Exalted March leaves Orlais, Orlesian support will dwindle and deprive the effort of both money and boots on the ground. The Divine also has some personal concerns that diverting the Orlesian force to protect land closer to her own home would be perceived as a personal rather than strategic choice. Nobody wants any of these concerns to get out, though, since that could cause problems itself, so the party line right now is that preparations for the March's next steps are underway and will be announced in due time, everything is fine and normal it's just a big job, etc.
Lyrium shenanigans
1a. Dick and Wysteria want to test to see if Rifters react to lyrium the same way natives do. Do Rifters injected with refined lyrium react to it the same way that a normal person aka a Templar would - does it have the same anti-magic abilities and addictive/withdrawal side effects (and for the latter, do y'all have thoughts on how long it takes that to manifest and symptoms for it? I don't want to make assumptions and under- or overstate the drawbacks of lyrium).
1b. I don't think we have any dwarf Rifters currently so this is more a hypothetical OOC question so I don't have to bother you later if it comes up, but say we did. Would the above apply to them in the same fashion?
I don't really get how dwarves handle lyrium safely and at this point I'm too afraid to ask.2. THEORETICALLY SPEAKING, what would happen if a Rifter interacted with raw lyrium? This is mostly for our ooc edification and wanting to know the Consequences before we make anyone's character touch a radioactive rock.
3, but lower priority. If a Rifter (with an anchor) chops off a finger, would they grow a new lyrium one back, or are the anchor's regenerative abilities only triggered when it's completely disconnected from the host?
no subject
1a. Giving normal processed lyrium to rifters will have mostly the same effect as giving it to mages—those with abilities will find them enhanced, those without will find that the anchors become more powerful. Like mages, rifters can overdose on lyrium. This will cause the same effects as in mages (including conscious dreams in the Fade such as those experienced during the Harrowing, periods of dizziness, and hearing voices), but Rifters will also experience additional short-term effects that muddle their reality. This includes very brief flashes of the memories belonging to nearby people, or of things taking place in their home world that are from beyond the point at which they came to Thedas or beyond their own experience of the world (i.e., conversations they weren't present for, events they didn't witness firsthand). These will be disconnected flashes rather than full coherent scenes, like disjointed scraps of old memories. They are all but indistinguishable from a character's own memories; it will require considerable thought and effort to establish with confidence that they are not actually remembered. These effects will be temporary unless the overdose is truly massive, which would require an amount of lyrium we don't think even Wysteria would consider a reasonable experiment.
1b. Too many layers of made-up magical biology for something that might continue to remain hypothetical forever! If someone ever apps a rifter dwarf, come back and we will nail it down.
2. THEORETICALLY SPEAKING it would not cause insta-death the way it does for mages, even for rifters who have magic-esque abilities. Instead, the effects will be more similar to those experienced by dwarves. Initial exposure can cause some nausea, blistering of the skin, and mild dementia of the sort suffered by rifters who overdose. Repeated exposure will lessen those effects, but can lead to deafness and memory loss, both mild and temporary (though dwarven sources will indicate that over many years of daily exposure these often become permanent in miners).
However, unlike dwarves, rifters will also experience physical mutations. These will be non-lethal but otherwise unpredictable, taking the form of things like growing horns, webs between digits, nubs of new limbs, and similar. They won't last—a couple weeks without lyrium exposure will see these crumble and fall off. This all assumes that at worst they're handling raw lyrium with their bare hands. Direct exposure of raw lyrium to open cuts, inhalation of raw lyrium dust, or contact through the eyes or mouth will increase the speed and severity of both the side effects and these mutations, though this will all still be non-lethal so long as the amount of lyrium and frequency of invasive exposure is minimal.
3. Nope, the regenerative abilities appear to only be triggered by disconnection from the host. The physical mutations associated with raw lyrium exposure won't regrow a missing limb, though it might replace it with a flipper or horn or something.
no subject
no subject
no subject
The info I got was: "If you throw a nug into the rift, it will disappear. And possibly you will incur judgment for animal cruelty."
What we didn't account for was that the nug will be in a harness on the end of a stick. So my question is, would only the nug disappear, or would Teren lose the whole end of the stick that goes into the rift?
All this to say, if she put in the non-nug end first to test it, would that be enough to conclude that things put into the rift will vanish? Or does it only apply to living things?
no subject
no subject
phylacteries, rifters and anchor-shards oh my
Gwenaëlle and Wysteria want to experiment with the creation of phylacteries! Per Thranduil having successfully had one made for him about two years ago, and with there now being both multiple non-mage native anchorshards and one shiny, anchor-free real girl rifter, they would like to test whether or not phylacteries can be successfully made for either of those kinds of people. They have the permission of Research to pursue this, and secured the assistance of Enchanter Julius, who was trained in how to make phylacteries for Kinloch Hold.
WHAT WILL THEY DISCOVER :V????
(This may be put on hold if Wysteria is gone before they ICly get their ducks in a row, but oocly the ducks are in a row and Gwenaëlle is prepared to try and convince someone else to cut off their arm, or at least half test the theory and then swoop in if someone else happens to lose an arm.)
no subject
Creating one for Gwenaëlle will have a hitch. Unless they begin immediately with drawing the blood from near the anchor site, early attempts will fail until they get around to trying that. Furthermore, the first attempt using blood from her anchor hand/arm will shatter or lightly explode during the creation process, at a moment that coincides with one of the anchor's mild brighter pulses. Maybe the second and third attempts to, if you want. However, with some trial and error and minor magic-nerd modifications to the process to account for the instability of the energy, Julius should be able to successfully create one for her as well. Her phylactery will behave differently than a mage's, with the glow that brightens or dims to enable tracking her also brightening and dimming in time with any pulses or flares from the anchor, but it will work.
no subject
So at some point, we should really take a basic map and some scouts and see how far this goes. Does this require people taking naps in turns every mile? Probably! Does it extend out to sea, too, and if so, how far? Let's talk to ship captains and crews when they dock.
With some effort in talking to ship-people and making some outings out of the bounds of Kirkwall's proper walls (for science/research purposes), is it feasible to discover the general bounds of the nightmare field? At least as far as 'approximately how far in the cardinal directions' goes.
no subject
Either way characters will be able to discern that the whole of the Free Marches seem affected. There aren't hard boundaries; people as far north as the southern Antivan countryside and as far south as Fereldan's northern coast might report their sleep being a little worse than normal, though not on the scale being experienced in the central Marches. Sailors coming off the Amaranthine Ocean will report bad dreams in the area
The effects also won't be uniformly distributed. Kirkwall seems harder-hit than a lot of places, for example, even though it isn't perfectly in the center of the affected geographic area.
Someone looking at the collected information and a map might be able to correctly analogize it to a river–shallower/milder on the banks, deeper/worse in the central channel, with some sinuosity and tributaries and places (like Kirkwall) where the water seems to be pooling particularly deep.
no subject
Ellie's going to be flying in with Fiona on tow for Full Circle, and she didn't spend that flight in silence. Aside from friendly greetings and a thanks for coming with them, she'll ask about the situation for the mages fighting on the warfront, how they're being treated by others around them, if they have any kind of autonomy, and what kind of help they need. She doesn't have the authority to promise any help, but it's clear that she wants to.
She'll express that her interest in this effects her as both a Rifter and as a magic user (even if she wasn't born to it) and if Fiona asks, she'll fill her in on Rifters.
She'll ask about Fiona's personal experiences since the mage-templar war. Her goals generally are:
- Develop a semi-personal connection with Fiona, at least enough for familiarity with her and her character, on a first-name basis
- Find out whether the mages are getting fucked over or treated otherwise badly at the front by those around them, or just as regular soldiers that can make a guy explode
- Find out what her vision of the mages' future looks like. How would she want to deal with abominations? How would she want to deal with lawbreakers? What does she think of the setup for mage kids at Skyhold? What are the flaws in that? (Basically, if they were going to do their own proposal, what would she want it to look like?)
- What does she think her group wants? Would they agree with Fiona?
She'll be happy to answer most questions about herself, etc.
no subject
Info request: Cumberland/The Diamond Lass
John asked her to pick up local opinions about the war, how things have changed lately for them, and how it's effected trade. She'll try not to give personal opinions about it, will not confess to being a Rifter, and will lean into asking about local news and happenings.
no subject
In fact, in some respects the war's effect on Cumberland has been a net positive. With many places ceasing trade with Tevinter, Nevarra has become the main supplier of things like silk and gems and is benefitting from the rising prices as Tevinter's exports are removed from the market. The difficulties of trading on the Minanter are a problem, but they're less of a problem in Cumberland than anywhere else in Nevarra, since merchants avoiding the river are more likely to move goods on the Waking Sea. Like everywhere else, there are shortages of certain products largely produced by the Tantervale/Starkhaven region (particularly wax products, wool and cotton, paper) or in Tevinter (metal goods, luxury products, sugar). And sea-going merchants and sailors are more somewhat more concerned about piracy and Tevinter attack than previously, though pirates have always been a problem.
Her Riftwatch affiliation will draw questions more than reactions. She'll probably hear more than a few people mentioning or asking about Riftwatch's involvement in the infamous Satinalia Attack or even the earlier Grand Necropolis fire back in Inquisition days. Some will clearly be suspicious of Riftwatch, not for the usual reasons (mages, elves, various radical nonsense) but because they seem like reckless troublemakers who only bring problems with them. But these things were all a couple years ago, so few will react with any serious animosity. Most will just want gossip.
no subject
Given all the other lyrium investigations: Can Rifters enchant stuff (given the proper training/protective equipment/purchasing a specialization) since interacting with raw lyrium isn't a death sentence? Seems like long term memory loss might still be a factor but maybe to a similar extent as dwarves, so weighing hand gesture??
no subject
Acquiring the skill to enchant won't change our previous rules about enchanted objects. We'll still need to sign off on innovations (but complex multi-rune innovations like the magic gun can be signed off on as one thing, rather than every individual rune needing to be explained and approved). And characters will still need to buy runes or enchanted objects through the rewards system, but they can say the enchanter character made the rune/object rather than finding it in a chest in a cave or something. Prototypes and things that belong to Riftwatch as a whole won't need to be purchased as character rewards (though obvs we still need to hear about and approve it via mod contact), only things that individual characters want to have at all times. E.g., the magic gun didn't need to be purchased, but if someone wants their own magic gun for keeps rather than the prototype being passed around, they'll have to buy it.
Footnote: This might be contradicting things we have said elsewhere in the past. Previously our inclination was to keep enchanting exclusive to dwarves and Tranquil in case people wanted to play native enchanters. Since we're eight years in and that's never really been a thing, we're going to loosen up about it. There may be some IC response/consequence for dwarves losing their near-exclusivity (now that most of the Formari are dead) if they become aware of it.
no subject
Thank you, all this info is terrific. I'll probably be incorporating the theorizing into Wysteria's lyrium study report so that folks know it's an option.
Thank you!
no subject
Would Riftwatch anticipate a positive/negative response from the dwarves for this endeavor? If so, what sort of warning would be given to the characters that are seeking to learn rune enchantment? What sort of difficulty might it be to find dwarves willing to train them?
no subject
However, they absolutely would be able to find dwarven smiths willing to train them. They would be people who needed to be dug up specifically for being weird or egalitarian or vocal about sharing knowledge, is all. If you wanted to use a canon NPC for this, they would have no problem convincing Dagna (off in Skyhold still) to assist them, as an example. You could also make up your own NPC for it, including someone who's already in Kirkwall, and have them be as excited or as reluctant and grouchy as you want. But regardless of personality, the vibe will be that whoever is teaching them is a bit of a renegade for doing so.
Once they do know how to enchant, that in itself wouldn't necessarily be considered a serious threat, especially because there are so few rifters compared to dwarves and no way for their output of basic enchanted goods to ever match those of the dwarves and hurt them financially. It's more that among the dwarves they would encounter a lot of skepticism and wariness about their abilities and skill.
But they may run into stronger opposition if/when they begin publicly using or showing off really cool new inventions, like airships for example, that didn't go through dwarven smiths and that the Smiths and Merchant's Guild can't claim some responsibility for the success of. In that case there would likely be some attacks on their credibility. They would also experience things like people trying to steal and reproduce their work for mass (or at least more) production and public sale, or sabotage attempts to hurt their credibility, or assassination attempts to nip the problem in the bud. You'd have some control over when and how these things occurred–basically, we hope it'd be fun to RP about, not punishing, so you could use those occurrences as player plot proposals (or parts of larger player plot proposals) and create circumstances that are fun for you, rather than us telling you when and where and how it has to happen. But it would ultimately definitely happen.
no subject
(I know from an OOC POV, this will still be viable in some manner, but what's the IC stance?)
no subject