lostcarnival | ⇨ THE LUNAR SOLSTICE

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⇨ THE LUNAR SOLSTICE

Who: Everyone!
When: Winter Breaks: Day 6 - Day 25
Where: THE MOON
What: The carnival journeys to one of its moons to celebrate the Lunar Solstice. More information here.
Warnings: Winter fun.

MOON WALKING↴

The journey to the moon only takes a blink of an eye, but it leaves the carnival far away beneath you. The second moon can be seen on the peripheral, massive compared to its usual view. At least when the holidays start out, there will be no notable wildlife on the moon, though this is something you can talk to the Ringmaster about if you think it needs a change. It sounds like this is the first time she's used it in quite a while - it probably needs some dusting off!

Claim your cabins, and proceed to... well, do whatever you want! There is no rush and little obligation, besides to enjoy yourself. For real, this time. She promises there will be no vampires. Or, at least, none that don't already work for the carnival.

► CABINS: Living arrangements are character choice for this event, and there are a variety of cabins of various sizes, mostly built to house 2-6 people, though you can fit more in if you squish. They are all made of wood and of a rustic design - no fancy modern furniture, here! Each building is housed with a fireplace and the needed amenities. You can pick up materials to cook with the private kitchens if you like. Theoretically, you could spend the whole holiday sequestered away, watching the snow fall. Some of them also have outdoor hot tubs available!

► ACTIVITIES: Activities are mostly going to be character driven, though there will be some large group games like bingo and maybe a poker tournament happening at some point in one of the festival halls. Otherwise, there is a lot to offer: skiing, snowboarding, hiking, ice sculpting, snowball fights - it goes on! If you'd like to run a winter activity, just let the mods know, and we will get the word out there for you.

► FEASTING: Every day isn't a full-out feast because that would get a bit unhealthy, but there will be a number of specific feast events over the holidays where everyone is encouraged to let out their inner hedonist and stuff themselves. There will be one big feast per week, with smaller but also delicious meals offered in between. The feast dates will be B12, B18, and B24. There's also plenty of alcohol available for anyone who wants it.

► SHOPPING: As mentioned in the planning post, there is a massive market being run by the World Walker Caravan! The Ringmaster has given everyone 1250 credits to spend on items, but there is a caveat - must spend at least 500 of those credits on gifts for other people. And it better be a good one, if you only buy one! (She will ask that you do not buy her presents, however. She appreciates the sentiment, but it seems sort of silly buying her things with her own money! If you'd like to gift her, please have it be something more personal or handmade, but you are not obligated to get her anything at all.)

► TREATMENTS: The beginning of the holidays will also be about the time that the emergency Medical Team will have finalized their treatments for the Prince's poisoning. Watch out for further information on that - and make sure to get treated if you are suffering from petrification or poison induced illness! The holidays will be a lot more fun that way.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Was...?" Of course, it's interesting in general that magic for Solas originates somewhere else entirely. It was seemingly close to the Mists, at first, but those were more of a proto-reality and... well, Syrlya's knowledge of metaphysics doesn't extend far past his magic.

"Is it gone? Did its magic permanently permeate your world, allowing you to continue to cast magic?"

It wasn't gone yet. Solas would be changing that after he returned.

"It is different here. The Fade is where those go when they sleep, but I have yet to learn fully how magic operates outside of Thedas." He wonders if dreaming holds the same meaning for those here. "While kept apart, it has always been intertwined with us. The parts where the separation is thin you can see it most."

It's interesting, hearing about these things that are as much familiar as they are different. Before the carnival, Syrlya hadn't even fathomed his different a place could revolve around something as natural and familiar as magic.

Thedas. That must be the name of his home.

"Magic appears to operate very differently between every realm. In Tyria it is a tangible force, one that has been part of the world since... likely its inception." He's mostly certain, but. They're missing any records going back that early. "What is the Fade like?"

Tyria sounded similar to theirs, in theory. The Fade had once been so ingrained in Thedas it was like breathing until he put the Veil up. What a fool he had been to rid the world of magic, but he had been short-sighted in his plans to stop the Evanuris. It was a mistake he could correct, given time. A year and day and he would have his focus back.

His gaze grows distant as he tries to put the feeling into words.

"For many, it is like walking through a dream. For those that know how to traverse it, it holds echoes of the past and wisdom beyond measure," he answers, not at all biased. "It is the source of magic and I have yet to find a feeling like it."

Syrlya nods to himself as he listens to Solas, bringing a hand to his chin. There's a spark of recognition in him, and he smiles a little.

"The Mists are the in between of reality, and your description sounds very similar. I don't believe they are the source of our magic, but they do reflect it, and everything else that is and was. You would find the realm of the dead, or spirits, or gods through them... at least, that is what I have been told."

Syrlya isn't as reverent in describing it. He wiggles his hand in a noncomittable gesture. "There are areas of it easier to reach than others. There's been a recent discovery of magic that draws directly from spirits within the Mists, but it is not my specialty."

He frowns a bit. Certainly not for lack of trying to get answers about it.

Edited 2017-12-11 01:14 (UTC)

"Ours contains spirits and echoes of the dead. Divinity, less so." A fact he was thankful for. No, simply those that people believed were divinity or the ones who thought their power granted them such a title. Solas has yet to meet anyone who could truly lay claim to such.

That magic draws his curiosity in more.

"Draws from them? Does it use their powers to help?" Or drain them? One is far better than the other and depending on the answer, it may be a saving grace of Syrlya's that he is not a practitioner.

"To my understanding of it," he nods. "Their power becomes his power, but I don't really know how it works beyond that."

There's been word of other people discovering the same magic, but Syrlya sure doesn't have the time to hunt them down for answers. "I know, at least, that this only started after he visited the Mists directly. Not the parts that anyone can visit, but somewhere else."

A traveler that bears similarity to him in a way. New magic then and yet untested, at least by the man before him.

"Spirits grant us aid when they are able. The separation makes it difficult for them to sustain it." Unless they take on a form like Cole has and even that had caused the poor spirit confusion. "Do you intend to learn from him when you return?"

"Perhaps if he wasn't so cagey about it!" Syrlya frowns, exasperated. Solas doesn't know who he's talking about, however, so maybe he should give a little context that doesn't make him look (as much) like a prick.

"He did not use magic before, and the Charr don't prefer it. I'm not sure he realizes the impact that discovering and entirely new practice of magic actually has." Syrlya waves his hand. "And he's stubbornly independent, he'd much rather master his abilities on his own than ask anyone else for help."

Okay, maybe he needed to get out a little of that bitterness.

A tad bit of bitterness. It's a feeling Solas gives a moment to pass. He has been the exact person Syrlya seems to be complaining about and he wonders what may have prompted such unhelpfulness from the other mage. An answer that may arise with time.

"You did claim it was a new type of magic. There is little one can do to help that would not be a hindrance," is Solas' opinion on the matter. He might be biased towards the lonely road for loners.

"Mastery comes with time and I would not expect an apprentice to teach."

"Apprentice?" Syrlya blinks slowly. They're interpreting the situation differently, he thinks.

"It is more like sharing information with your peers. There is a lot you can learn from the expertise of other's, and he's as reluctant to teach as he ever is to ask assistance... he says it is unimportant in the face of what we are already dealing with, and he'll explain 'later'."

Syrlya shrugs. He just disagrees on the level of importance it holds. "I have heard the magic is spreading, but I've yet to witness anyone else using it. The Mists are typically not so easy to access, so if it is... that may mean there is a greater shift in Tyria's magic than we thought."

Context means everything and he merely nods, letting that fall to the wayside. In the end, the other man doesn't know the magic he had described. Something in his world had prevented him learning it. Solas would have to be content with what the man did know.

What he is interested in is how Syrlya's world appears to magic becoming more prominent. Were all such barriers meant to break? Temporary fixes to a flood that was long-since coming? Rita had spoken of wanting something similar in her world. That other worlds experienced a similar phenomenon and appeared to be bypassing it only strengthened his resolve.

"Are there theories as to what could be causing that shift?" he asks, attentive.

"There's more than a theory..." He trails off, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

"In Tyria there are large creatures--natural forces, really, that consume magic called elder dragons. They go through a cycle, lying dormant as magic leaks out of them until they are drained enough that they awaken." He pauses to pop another small pastry in his mouth, taking the moment to dwell on that.

"The problem is that they proceed to destroy everything living to consume medic once more. Races are driven to extinction, history is lost," he gestures for emphasis. "So we killed two of them. We... did not realize at the time that it would release the magic within them, and how dangerous that magic really was."

Hindsight and all that. His expression twists. It's deeply troubling to talk about every time.

Dragons always made matters tricky, no matter what world they belonged in.

Solas listens as he sips at his drink, considering the other man's words. That magic was leaking and from the way the man spoke about it, it was something that troubled him greatly. That often happened when the old way of the world reared its head upon the new. Solas knows fully that his own plans would end with as much devastation and chaos, and they are not ones he intends to share willingly.

"How were you able to defeat such powerful creatures?" If they were capable of driving races to extinction, how were they suddenly killed?

"Everything has a weakness. One of them, we starved. The other we destroyed mentally." For two of the dragons, the weakness is each other. Or at least, each other's magic. He wonders what would have happened if Taimi hadn't worked out what would happen when they were both removed from the equation together.

"We formed a Pact against the dragons, the orders that already existed to fight them and all the races of Tyria." He folds his arms. "But destroying them was still... extremely costly."

The Pact was lacking strength, even more than before. Of course, Syrlya will always want to believe in what he and Trahearne worked to build... but he can't deny they need to rebuild, first, and he's worried if they have that time. He gaze drifts down briefly with a pensive frown. "I came here because I was hoping to find anything to help with a solution. We need a way to control the magic in Tyria, but we can't leave the dragons to be the ones to do it as they are."

Fighting old magic always came at a cost. He's surprised they even managed to overcome one of the dragons much less more.

"Did you leave it up to the Ringmaster to solve your troubles?" he asks, studying Syrlya. Could the Ringmaster manage that, in a world far from her own? She had said anything could be received for the price of her contract, but the desire to control magic, to regulate it when they did not truly understand it--

The entire idea sounded foolish to him.

Syrlya smirks and shakes his head. "If I at all thought that was plausible, perhaps."

He understands better, now, how truly powerful the Fae are... but so are the dragons, and it's to their luck that their behaviors are so comparatively simple to mortal races, bent only around their hunger. "No, I asked for a replication of a conduit of magic that was once said to keep the magic in Tyria more regulated. I wanted to study it. I don't know if it is true or why they stopped working, but it was the best lead that I could think of."

He perks up. As dire as the situation back home is... "And there is a lot to learn from the way that magic exists in other worlds! Perhaps not all of it is applicable, but we really need every potential solution I can find to stabilize magic so it does not blow everything up without the elder dragons."

That, really, has made this whole ordeal already starting to look worth it. It was an unexpected boon, and he's pleased because things seem to so rarely turn out in his favor like that.

"You kept your expectations reasonable then," he replies, amused. Solas had made his request similarly. He knew what he needed to accomplish back in Thedas, there had been no need to have the Ringmaster do what Solas wanted to finish himself.

If Syrlya is hoping to find ways to manage magic, he will have to look farther than Solas who fully intends to unleash magical hell upon his own world. Not that it is obvious from the way he sips at his wine glass and calmly surveys the scene.

"If you could find worlds similarly set up," he says with a small shrug. "I would be curious to learn more of conduits meant to regulate magic." If only he could have the chance to study one too before he had to return. Alas.

"I try to," he replies back with equal amusement.

He nods, more enthusiastic. "Of course, I am more than happy to share the knowledge I find while here. Should I learn anything of note with my own experiments, I will let you know."

That's not hard at all, given the close proximity they have with each other. Of course, that request leads Syrlya to the most obvious explanation to him. "Is Thedas experiencing a similar trouble with magic?"

He nods in appreciation. That was something he would take the man up on. If he was here for a year, he would do well to use his time wisely.

"That depends on who you ask. The Veil is in place and those with an affinity for magic can reach across it to pull it from the Fade," he explains. "There are areas where it is thinner and magic and spirits wander more freely. Across Thedas there are different ways to regulate magic and demands for more or less." He would fall into the latter camp.

"Those from Thedas would call me an apostate, a mage that stays far from what regulation there is."

Syrlya's brows raise. 'Apostate' maens so little to him on its own, but what Solas said just before... "There are different ways to regulate magic in Thedas? Is the magic itself different, or is there something that can alter the state of magic within a perimeter?"

Syrlya is definitely assuming this is more literal regulation.

"It is a matter of governance," he answers. "It varies from nation, empire, and people. Mages have been confined to towers to learn with guards and executioners at an arm's length while others keep them chained. One empire is ruled by mages where they flaunt their excess and own slaves."

The qunari practiced the latter as far as he was concerned.

"Magic is often feared by those that wield it and those that do not." It's complicated. He shrugs lightly. "I imagine your nations and peoples treat magic differently."

Syrlya looks at Solas with mild surprise, but it twists into barely restrained disgust as he goes on. Whether it's mages or not, confining people, chaining them, enslaving them is abhorrent. Races that did so were in constant conflict with everyone else, and were effectively shunned as acceptable people in Tyria.

He ends up completely distracted with his disgust that something like that is commonplace that for a moment he misses Solas's follow up. He blinks rapidly, quickly smoothing out his expression as he stands straighter. "It--yes, very. Magic is the natural state of Tyria... there is no fear for magic itself, it is accessible to everyone."

He purses his lips in a barely concealed pout. "And slavery is illegal, besides."

"As it should be," he says without hesitation. They could both agree on that, Solas found nothing more detestable than slavery. He would look forward to the fall of the Tevinter Imperium for that reason for it was built on the backs of others.

"It is the natural state of your world and yet you wish to regulate it? Or the beasts that are destroying your peoples?" The two were intertwined from what Syrlya said, but the goals could be separated.

Syrlya smiles faintly at that agreement. Solas deplores it as well, and Syrlya wonders if he's one of those who moves to change the world when faced with it.

But that's the same question Strange faced Syrlya with, as well, and he shakes his head. "It is hard for me to describe how much magic is building up in Tyria right now. We have never seen so much of it before."

He waves a hand in a vague gesture. "Magic is inherently volatile, and too much of it is... toxic. A decline into sickness and death if it does not just twist and tear you apart." He bites his lip once. "People have survived the rise of Elder Dragons. We won't survive destroying our world. That's why we need another way to stabilize it."

It's a rock and a hard place. And someone has to have figured it out, right? He hasn't hard of any other world having Elder Dragons, but he has heard of volatile and dangerous magic.

⇨ THE LUNAR SOLSTICE

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