How will my character arrive in Thedas?

To summarize: while asleep (or otherwise unconscious) in their homeworlds, rifters will arrive apparently from dreams—meaning they will be wearing and accompanied by things that they were dreaming about, rather than their "real" wardrobe—by falling out of a rift. They may arrive with other rifters, and they will definitely arrive with some demons, who will need to be repelled or destroyed. They'll have slivers of green, glowy magic in their hands, called an anchor. They ache a little, but that will fade once they leave with Riftwatch.

Representatives of Riftwatch will generally know that this is going to occur in advance and be present to assist the new arrival, help them close the rift, and escort them to Kirkwall. (If you want to be an exception to that, for whatever reason, please talk to us first.) New arrivals cannot close rifts on their own, but if necessary you're welcome to handwave that some unspecified other Riftwatch agents with anchors were present to assist.

Once in Kirkwall, new rifters are subject to a temporary quarantine period where they aren't permitted to leave Riftwatch's fortress, the Gallows, while they're evaluated to make sure they aren't either accidentally or intentionally dangerous. During this time they'll also be given a crash course in Thedas.

When you're setting up an intro log for your character, you can start with your character's arrival in Thedas via rift, or handwave that and start with their time in the Gallows—or, if you really want, handwave both of those things and go right to whatever else you want to do (within reason; you can't claim your character arrived more than a couple weeks ago, or was present for major game events that happened before your application was accepted).

For more details on all of these things, read on!

What is a rift?

Rifts are tears in the Veil that separates Thedas from the Fade, which is the magical/spiritual plane that exists adjacent to the physical world, where native Thedosians generally mentally go when they dream. They appear as shifting green tears in midair, which alternate between being churning and crystalline and being so still that it's possible to catch glimpses of another landscape when looking through them.

Where are these rifts?

The rifts can appear anywhere in Thedas at any time, so you have some flexibility regarding the landscape, time of day, etc. in which your character arrives. We've had rifters arrive in the middle of bodies of water, in underground ruins, in barren deserts, etc. For plot reasons, we currently don't allow arrivals to occur in Tevinter or the Anderfels, except in special circumstances that would need to be arranged and approved in advance via the mod contact page. Otherwise, you can arrive anywhere you'd like.

If you're canonblind or just not that interested in the location, we recommend saying that your character arrives in an uninhabited and unremarkable area of field/forest/cave in either Orlais or Ferelden, since those are the simplest and most common possibilities, and you won't need to do any research or look at any maps to be able to pull it off.

Demons???

Demons! Fear, despair, and pride demons are the most common company for arrivals, as well as wraiths. If you're not interested in the demons or don't want to read up on them, we recommend falling back on wraiths. Those are just ghostly humanoid figures who hang silently in one position and fling ice, fire, lightning, or nebulously harmful "spirit" energy at anything that moves.

Who's coming to get them, exactly?

Riftwatch will generally have advanced warning that the arrivals are about to happen and will send someone, or several someones, to help. So you can set up an open log for your character's arrival and recovery, and people will tag it!

You can also arrange for specific characters to come get yours, if you would prefer, or you can handwave the moment of arrival entirely if it doesn't interest you, and just vaguely say that someone from Riftwatch came to collect your character and bring them to the Gallows.

If you want to be an exception to this for some reason—to have your character lost in the woods for a while first, or to have them make their way to Kirkwall on their own somehow—check in with us first. We're not necessarily opposed, but we do need to make sure it's reasonable and that there's an explanation for Riftwatch not showing up to help, other than just forgetting about them, since they wouldn't do that.

What if they don't want to go with these people?

They ultimately won't be given a choice. Even if their anchors would allow them to run away into Thedas to make their own way (which they won't), Riftwatch can't reasonably let unknown entities with unknown abilities run loose without taking some measures to make sure they aren't going to get people killed.

If your character is going to put up a fight, that's fine! But make sure you're willing to work with people to allow them to be brought in anyway, and keep in mind that cooperating with Riftwatch enough to work with them is a basic requirement for playability in the game. It's okay if that takes some time or convincing, but if your character would ultimately run away into the woods to live alone and not talk to anyone else in the game, they might not be a good fit.

What's the quarantine about?

The quarantine started as a response to a rifter who inadvertently brought in a contagious illness from their homeworld and is intended to both make sure that new rifters aren't a danger to Thedas, and to make sure that Thedas isn't a danger to them. Someone from Riftwatch would have explained this to your character.

During the quarantine period, they won't be confined to specific rooms or cells or anything, just to the fortress as a whole. So they can still freely mix with and speak to other PCs in the Gallows.

What will they learn in the meantime?

While they're hanging out in the Gallows, they'll be given a crash course on Thedas. The topics that will generally be addressed with your character before they're allowed to leave the fortress include:

• The basics of where they are and how they got there (as far as people know).
  
• A tour of the Gallows and an introduction to Riftwatch and its work, including a "we could use your help if you're willing to join us" pitch.
  
• The basics of the war they've arrived in the midst of: who Corypheus is, that he's trying to take over Thedas and make himself a god, that he considers their anchors valuable and may be a danger to them.
  
• Anchor Care Guide, in particular the fact that they'll need to stay in the proximity of other anchor-bearers, or at least visit frequently, in order to keep the anchor from becoming debilitatingly painful and ultimately killing them.
  
• Info on etiquette, currency, laws, etc., to help them not immediately run afoul of the locals, including warnings about Thedas' general fear of magic—which means open display of supernatural abilities is generally frowned upon—and about the dangers posed by demons.
  
• An introduction to Thedas' runic alphabet, if they don't already understand it. (Some rifters do and some don't; it's entirely up to you to choose.)
  
• Lectures on lyrium, red lyrium, darkspawn/the Blight, and other inherent "don't touch these unless you want to die" dangers.
  
• An overview of the Chant of Light and Andrastianism.

You can handwave this completely if you want—especially if you already know everything OOC—or you can have your character be proactive and ask questions via crystal before someone comes around to explain things to them, or you can invite people to explain things in person in your arrival log, or whatever else!

However, if you choose to handwave it or otherwise don't get around to actually RPing it, please refrain from writing as though everyone else has been so irresponsible that none of this has been explained to your character before they were set loose. It's OK to say they didn't pay enough attention, didn't understand, or were overwhelmed by how much there was to learn, and thus don't remember everything. We're sympathetic to players who aren't familiar with the canon and, like their characters, need some time to learn what's what. But you should assume that Riftwatch made a serious effort to give your character the basic information above, and keep in mind that when it comes to things like the dangers of demons and open magical displays, ignorance will not be much of a defense.

How long is the quarantine?

From an IC perspective, it will last a few weeks.

From an OOC perspective, time is made up and we don't like it. We don't want anyone to feel like they can't RP their character visiting the city or participating in missions without first spending a month RPing them sitting around the Gallows. So if other things you want to do come up faster than a few weeks after you've apped, just do it. It's fine. But from an IC perspective, continue to act as though your character spent a few weeks confined to the Gallows first, rather than having them be like, "Oh yeah, those idiots let me loose in Thedas after two days and I don't even know what money is or that there's a war going on."

If characters do appear to be a danger to Thedas, or vice versa—if they're violent or openly murderous, if they have abilities they clearly can't control, if they seem incapable of understanding or following advice like "don't touch raw lyrium" or "don't spit in nobles' faces"—the quarantine period might be extended until they can play better with others. This isn't intended as an OOC punishment, and we try to make it fun, so if you think this will apply to your character, let us know!

I don't get it! Help!

If you have any questions, you can reply to this post to ask them, and we'll be happy to answer them!