nysalogs | locked to house #4

They weren't? [ No, wait, he's misremembering that isn't he? ]

There was that...pool, right? In the middle of everything.

[ This is really, really weird because he remembers it liek it was him there but it was a memory of Abelas's and...yes. Confusing. ]

Yes, the Vir'abelasan, the "Well of Sorrows".

[Now how to not only explain the well, but the effect it had on him as well.]

When those of my people grew weary of life, we would go into a deep slumber called uthenera. When such a time arose for the high priest of the temple they would undergo a ritual to pass their knowledge on through the well.

And those who entered Mythal's service would drink from it. In doing so we gained their knowledge, but also bound to their will to serve Mythal. Any order she gave, we would be compelled to follow.

The voices you heard is something I hear regularly. It is my predecessors sharing their knowledge with me.

Oh. That's...

[ A little creepy? That feels rude to say. I mean it sounds kind of sketchy to give away your willpower to something like an all-powerful being (if that is what Mythal is?), but the well also sounds pretty important for Abelas as a culture thing. He should probably be a little less douchey about that than he normally would be. ]

...Unique. Do you uh, still hear those voices? Or wait I guess not, since all of our universes were...

[ WAIT SHIT ]

Uhhh. Yeah.

[Fortunately he was hardly offended, while not the most difficult individual to get into an argument with, he expected very little from humans. He only raised a brow at the man in response and went about answering him all the same.]

I do still hear them, however they are far quieter. This world is as new and foreign to them as it is to me, and without Mythal to guide us, there is little reason to speak at all.

[It was strange certainly, he could truly not remember what is was like not having the guidance whispered to him. Such only really came when dealing with those from his world, or mulling over things from home.

He heaved a sigh as his gaze fell back upon the neat stack of notes.]

There was a time I once hoped to be able to pass my knowledge on through the Vir'abelasan as well. It matters not. The well was despoiled before our arrival here. The last remnant of the world I knew destroyed like the rest of it.

Despoiled?

[ Rhys doesn't actually know what that word means, but he know spoiled is bad...but de- is usually implying that something is not? So not...spoiled? That really doesn't make sense in his head, he's certain he's got this wrong. ]

Did something happen to it...?

With each invasion, the Vir'abelasan fell further from our grasp. There came a point when our numbers had become so diminished that we could no longer properly defend our temple.

[He did not bother to mask the bitterness and despair that the tale brought up in him. Granted he wasn't the most expressive of individuals, but few things got a greater reaction from him than speaking of what was lost.]

The temple became a battlefield between two forces competing for the power the Vir'abelasan would grant. One was lead by the one with vallaslin similar to mine, the other by some... creature. I did not care personally, at first I sought merely to protect the well. The child, Lavellan, and I had an agreement that he would aide in defense of the temple and we would allow him and his army to leave once it was over.

Such is not how it played out. They made their way to the Vir'abelasan just as I did. I was not granted the opportunity to destroy it, as I had hoped. Instead I left the fate of it up to the child. I had little choice. We would not be able to protect the temple against further attacks, and if nothing else the boy has a righteousness to him.

So all the knowledge left of my people, the last great legacy of our people, fell into the hands of mortals, and he let a power-hungry human witch imbibe it. The well was lost to mortals who had no hope of comprehending it, and the purpose of my Sentinels and I lost with it.

[ And again, there's one detail in particular that Rhys latches onto because not only is it someone he knows, but it's someone he likes and is currently in a fanclub with.

Or well. technically it's something about inquisitioning but Rhys is in it for the High Fantasy Club elements of it. ]

Wait you know Lavellan??

[ If Rhys should know this just pretend he forgot or didn't make some sort of logical conclusion here kjdg ]

[Dammit Rhys, just when he starts thinking you're capable of handling complex stories, you go and ruin it. He doesn't mind answering questions, but he had technically answered that one already.]

That is what I just said, yes.

Come on man don't do that--everyone's from totally different worlds, how crazy is it that you guys wound up being from the same one? I only know one other person here from my world and they're a dick.

[ Which is admittedly almost anyone in Borderlands canon. ]

Plus you guys are just so....not alike.

Then clearly not everyone is from a different world. The witch who took the Vir'abelasan's boon is here as well.

[Because he didn't have enough reasons to be bitter as it was. He did have to at least give it to Rhys that of those here from Thedas is was odd that so many came from that last invasion on his temple. None of his Sentinels, no one from previous invasions. An odd coincidence, but he has certainly seen stranger. There was likely some reason to explain it if he cared to figure it out. But he didn't.]

I am thousands of years his senior. I would assume you to be somewhat different from the children of your world.

[Well, maybe not Rhys specifically... but humans in general maybe. Or so he hoped. He had never actually encountered a human child before.]

[ How has he lived this long and never seen a human...or wait no, if he spent all his time guarding a magic puddle no one was allowed to come see that makes sense. Never mind. ]

Well yeah but like...I'm just taller? And more mature, obviously. [ That part's debatable. ] We're not that different after we grow up. It's not like we started off immortal or with...tons of culture, I guess? I guess it depends which planet you're from.

[He casts an incredulous look towards Rhys when he claims to be more mature than... anything really. Not that he even thought one could be mature before their first century of life, but such was dealing with mortals he supposed.]

The fact that I have seen countless ages pass, and was actually a part of a respectable culture, in no way explains how I might be different from some forest child not even half a century old?

[ There are plenty of wise and mature humans out there Abelas! Rhys is just not...really one of them yet. He's still working on it? Sort of. He hasn't matured anywhere near as much as the rest of the TFBL cast but he's still better than when he started out and genuinely didn't care about the people Hyperion ruined the lives of. ]

Now--okay, yes that...probably has something to do with it. [ foot + mouth OTP ] That's not what I.... What I meant was like...I don't know. It's supposed to be relative? Or something.

[At this point he has probably hit all the stages of grief and has finally made it to acceptance. He's just got to remember to keep the bar low for Rhys, that's all. He's a human, Abelas should know better by now.

So he continues with a sigh, and enough resignation to indulge hearing out Rhys' logic on this.]

Relative how?

Like... Actually I guess I should ask when you guys technically become adults? Is it a staggered thing where you live a really long time or do your bodies age normal and then you're an adult?

[ That clarification will probably help keep him from sticking his foot too far into his mouth. ]

I cannot speak for the shemlen as I have never seen one age, but Elvhen physically reach maturity within their first two to three decades of life. However, it is a few centuries before we considered them mature adults.

[Before that they were impatient and their judgement considered irrational like a child's. Adjusting to an immortal lifespan took time after all.]

So for you guys it's less about when your body is mature nd more about how long you live?

[ Just to make sure he's got it. ]

Tis about when one's mind is mature. The young are impatient, the novelty of their lives causes them to act irrationally while they chase fleeting desires.

[So basically similar to those he referred to as "shemlen". Might explain some of his irritation, seeing as he was surrounded by the equivalent of Elvhen teenager for his foreseeable future.]

It takes a few centuries for one to see past such petty things and start to focus on something worthwhile.

Okay well...humans obviously don't live that long, so we sort of go by age. You're technically an adult when you hit eighteen and after that you can do whatever you want. Before that is a lot of going to school and listening to your parents.

[ Being perpetually surrounded by teenagers would suck a whole lot, Rhys agrees. ]

On average I think you've got until you're between seventy and your late eighties which is a lot shorter than elves apparently.

Not even two decades of age and you are considered wise enough to forge your own future?

[He shook his head in disbelief. Not even two decades and they are forging their own life on their own. A part of him found it sad, to live such a short life and perish in ignorance, while another part of him was envious. His lifespan had become more of a curse than a boon.]

Yours is a race of children. [he heaves a sigh.] It took my people countless years before becoming elderly enough to show frailty, and even then time would not claim their lives.

You could just call us short-lived you know. [ Abelas doesn't have to call them children he is clearly a grown man here. ]

But that's sort of what I meant with my original point which I...definitely did not forget at all. Humans when they're young aren't much different than when we grow up. But you're like....all immortal and stuff and apparently really different while Senren's not? Apparently?

That's a pretty big difference.

Senren is closer to your kind than he is mine.

[But he suspected he was gathering what Rhys was attempting to ask. It was not what made them different as individuals, but as a race. Aside from the immortality he supposed.]

There was... a cataclysm during the time of Elvhenan. At one point their was no barrier between the realm from which we draw magic and the realm which we exist in now. Imagine an empire built and shaped with the malleability of a dream, but the permanence of this world as you know it. Entire cities could sit perched in the sky, and one could walk the clouds as if they were solid ground. One's reality could be sculpted as an art. It was as beautiful and wondrous as it could be cruel and hideous.

Then, there was a sundering between realms: the realm of magic torn from the realm of the waking. Our empire was literally split in half. Cities fell to the ground, our people were separated from the magic that was much apart of them as your eyes are to you.

Many lost their immortality, many were enslaved. The humans stole what scraps of knowledge and power that remained of the empire, and destroyed the rest. The boy, Senren, is the child born of those that lost everything, and thus were forced to become human. He inherited the ignorance of a slave, not the magic and wisdom that should have been his birthright.

In short, I am the last of the race that came before, he is what has been shaped by those forced to live in a world broken.

[ Admittedly that isn't the easiest thing for Rhys to imagine. The closest he can get is some sort of High Fantasy concept cranked up to the max, but even then he's not sure he gets it.

What he does get is that something like that must've been catastrophic (and not just because Abelas uses the word "cataclysm" okay) and fundamentally changed...everything about elves he supposes. Some of the Elves lost the magic that used to live with them, and some of them didn't. The ones that did became mortal like humans and supposedly had no access to their culture of history because of...well. Humans.

Rhys deflates a little, that secondhand guilt cropping up again. ]

And the...cataclysm. How'd that happen? Was it...humans?

[He scoffed at the very idea of humans creating such a thing. The very idea was almost humorous.]

Hardly, humans were a race still in its infancy. Most lived in little barbaric tribes scattered across the land, very few actually managed to put together the bare scrapings of a civilization. It was not until they scavenged our knowledge that they could be considered remotely formidable.

No, my people warred upon themselves. I know not what caused it exactly, but after the Goddess I served under was slain the rest of our Gods let their lust for power drive them. I suspect it was of their doing, as none were seen or heard from since. [Not that he was complaining.] I did not see it personally, I only felt it as we defended our Temple from their forces. We retreated behind our Temple's walls not long after, where we remained. We were fortunate in that the Vir'abelasan provided us the knowledge to retain some of our magic. Without it we likely would have shared the unfortunate fates as the rest of our people. Though even our magic waned in strength, it does not come as readily as it once did.

Oh...

[ Well, that is a weight off his shoulders. He's pretty sure it would be dickish to say he's relieved but...well, he is? It's not great that Abelas's people did it instead for sure, he definitely wouldn't say that. It's just...good...that it wasn't people, you know?

Man that still sounds bad, he's just not going to comment on that. ]

Wait no hold up--back up there Abelas, you said your Goddess died? How? Isn't that what Gods are supposed to be all about? Not dying because they're impossible to kill?

locked to house #4

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