After foiling her foul attempt to blow us all up, we didn’t want to keep the Viddasala waiting, so we went back through the eluvian into the Crossroads. It initially looked like we were stuck, as the only paths available were ones we’d already taken. But, something new had appeared, several extremely out-of-place looking orange and gold egg-like objects. When we touched them, new pathways appeared that connected the columns together and allowed us to move forward. I’m still not sure if the paths were always there, and we just couldn’t see them, or if they were actually not physically there until we activated the eggs and moved along the path. Weird and unsettling either way. But, so was everything else in and about the Crossroads, really, so it was just another adventure to us.
I am really getting tired of glowy floating things.
The new floating paths led us to what we were looking for, an eluvian near some bookshelves. We stepped through and found, well, more bookshelves. Just in the Fade this time. We had wandered into a dilapidated library of the ancient elves, who had congregated there from across the entire continent via the magic mirrors to share knowledge. A spirit archivist, whose knowledge of my people was as tragically shattered as the landscape around us, informed us that the Viddasala was indeed there, seeking knowledge about the Veil. Which was just a spectacular bit of information, considering all of the fun we’d had with people messing with the Veil already. The spirit also warned us that someone distinctly not Qunari had been there, and to watch out for the “librarians” that the not Qunari person had awoken. The Qunari themselves were ahead of us, on a separate island. That was upside down. Well, based on our point of view, at least. Because the Fade, I guess. Fortunately, there was an upside-down eluvian that we presumed led to the upside-down island. Unfortunately, there was no path between us and said magic mirror, so we had to literally make our own.
Okay, I’m definitely calling this part of the Fade the Upside Down.
Forging our own path meant working our way around the surrounding, thankfully right-side-up, islands, using more short-range eluvians. While doing so, we encountered several odd objects that glowed with the same green light as my glowy hand, and made my glowy hand hurt when I was near them. Rather annoying, but they eventually imparted new powers to me, oddly enough. Enough about me, though, it’s time for another rousing round of history-shattering revelations. Remember how the idea of the elven gods had been smashed back in that valley? Well, now the pieces were being crunched into gravel, along with the general knowledge of how our world was fundamentally formed. Those archivist spirits that littered the library told us the final words of the elves who had died there, centuries ago, and they further elucidated the actual history of the fall of the ancient elven empire. Namely, that it fell due to the elves’ magic power, particularly that of their so-called gods, being taken away. Magic, if you recall, comes from the Fade, but has to be squeezed through the Veil to get into our world. The Veil that’s always been there to separate the two realms, and keep demons and spirits from roaming our side of things freely, as far as anyone knew. Except, apparently, it wasn’t. These ancient voices claimed that Fen’Harel had created the Veil in order to cut off the power source of the “gods” that ruled over his people with an iron fist. While it was obviously not entirely successful, my own abilities to hurl fire around serving as an example, it had worked well enough. And since the elves’ civilization had been intrinsically intertwined with magic, taking it away caused a catastrophic collapse. So, that not only meant that our world and the Fade used to be one and the same, but the Veil was another self-inflicted factor in the fall of elven civilization. It was not a natural barrier between phases of reality, it was the artificial creation of an elf trying to free his people from being oppressed by other elves. As more and more information comes to light, my ancestors are continuing to look worse and worse.
I would have to wait to reconcile these new revelations, however, as the Qunari were still roaming the area. Well, some of them were, but we also found ones that looked like they had been scared. To death. Logically, this was the handiwork of the librarians we’d been warned about, and, sure enough, they eventually came for us. They looked remarkably like the Aspect of Fear we’d fought what seemed like a lifetime ago in Nightmare’s domain in the Fade after invading Adamant Fortress. These ones were just more see-through. And, scary as they may have been, they still burned like anything else. After checking the librarians out of existence, we had manipulated the Fade and moved enough landscape around to arrive at the upside-down eluvian and continue pursuing the Qunari. This time, I did find the Viddasala in the flesh, and she confirmed herself as a villain when she proceeded to monologue most of her plan. Apparently, the Qunari were appalled at the state of magic in our lands, and they were going to have to intervene before things got worse. They were in the library researching how to strengthen the Veil, which was actually a welcome change after a very long conflict centering on a Tevinter nutter trying to tear the Veil down. The rest of the plan was far less agreeable, however. Long story short, the Qunari don’t like magic, felt like the people of Thedas, and me and my glowy hand in particular, were abusing it, and were going to invade and subjugate or kill us all. Which they were going to need to get better at if they wanted to succeed, because she ordered her soldiers to attack us, and it didn’t go very well for them. Vid had left before the fight, but not before helpfully telling us where she was going next: someplace called the Darvaarad.
You know, I just realized that I’m not entirely sure I’ve ever seen a female Qunari before this one. I’ve definitely never spoken to one.
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