As an empire of dead men leave their graves

[whatisright]

Who: Justice and YOU
Broadcast: Yes
Action: Blameless and Iskaulit
When: After the glitches kick in.

[Video & Blameless Action, Day 1 of glitching]

--Gone, vile thing. [The communicator turns on as it's thrown against the wall. Loyalty the pygmy snow leopard paces in front of the camera, making loud unhappy noises and largely obscuring the vision of what's going on inside Justice's room (for it has to be Justice's room with Loyalty, right?). Justice's voice sounds different, so much so that it's not immediately recognizable, but it echoes strangely. When the camera can see past the pacing legs of Loyalty, it doesn't focus properly on the person standing in the room. It's like the camera can't quite register that there's a person there at all, but there's definitely an outline there, and it's definitely glowing blue.]

Muire! What did you do?

[Iskaulit Action, Day 3 of glitching]

[For those who don't know much about Justice, it's not clear that this is Justice. The spirit glows blue all over, and it wears ancient Tevinter armor that obscures its face entirely. Looking at it directly may provoke a headache--there's something about it that seems fundamentally wrong, like it's not supposed to be there, and if one looks at it long enough, it may start changing shape to better reflect the observer's vision of justice.

It is also incredibly tense, and its sword is drawn. It turns to the observer quickly, and in an androgynous voice, it says,] Speak, mortal, and tell me where I am.

[Iskaulit Action, Day 5 of glitching]

[It's official. Loyalty is literally the only indication that this is the same person anymore.

Justice walks the Iskaulit with Loyalty at heel, but this Justice looks nothing like people are used to. For one, this Justice appears to be a woman. For two, she has different armor, one that's older and sleek and resembles elven work with a long hood over her head instead of a helmet. Long, pointy ears are occasionally visible under the hood, but she's hidden her face with a scarf that hides everything except her eyes, which seem too sharp to be entirely human or elven. Her skin still glows blue, and she walks with a sword at her hip, and when she speaks, her voice still echoes, though it's considerably more feminine than usual.] Where have the dreamers gone?

[Some may recognize that she's speaking in Ancient Elvish, but the augments automatically translate her into Common, so does it matter?]

[Wildcard - Meet Justice on any day]

Comments

[bryces_pup]

[Just.... trying not to freak out over here at the additional info. She thought the titans were dead, and the lyrium was essentially being mined from their corpses. But if they're just asleep...]

Elves do not have the immortality that they once did. They live as long as humans now. [That got taken from them, too.] But you mention Evanuris. What is that? And - how do you mean the Veil will fray? It's held for this long.

[And that scares her about as much, if not more than these titans. If the Veil breaks down, there's nothing that'll stop the demons from pouring into the world. Abominations will run rampant, and countless people killed.]

[whatisright]

Then they are shemlen as well. [Justice pauses for a moment, as if reminding herself that she needs to explain every little thing to this woman.] 'Shemlen' does not mean 'human.' It means 'quick children.' It means one who dies quickly. If your elves live only as long as you, then they are shemlen.

[Justice considers once more, thinking on whether she can talk about this or if she needs to show it.]

The Evanuris rule the elves. The elves call them gods. [Justice waves a hand, frowning.] It seems obvious that the barrier would fray, does it not? It is not natural. Someone must have created it. If you did not know of any of these things, then whoever created the barrier is gone, perhaps asleep. So the magic is left to degrade with no one powerful enough to reinforce it. I do not know how long it would take for magic like that to fray, but tell me, are there ever tears in the barrier? Ways for people to pass between the realm of dreaming and waking consciously?

[bryces_pup]

[That... doesn't sit well with her. It seems wrong. But as a non-elf, Riona's not sure if it's her place to fight that battle. Better to let Cyril or Leilani argue or agree. They'd know the finer points of it far better than she.]

...like Mythal? And - and Falon'Din? They were real? [SHE'S REALLY, REALLY NOT SURE WHAT TO MAKE OF THAT. REALLY SHE ISN'T AND EVEN HER THOUGHTS ARE KIND OF SCREAMING IN BLIND CONFUSION AND PANIC BECAUSE SHE'S PRETTY SURE THAT MIGHT NOT BE GOOD.] I don't know if the person who did it is around or not. We were taught the Maker created it long, long ago, but if it wasn't always around, then it wasn't Him. [Had the Chantry just attributed it to the Maker, not knowing how else it could have come to be?] There are ways, yes, but it's very difficult to do so consciously. It takes a lot of lyrium, or blood, to send someone awake into the Fade.

[whatisright]

Of course they were. [Justice says it dismissively, like she can't believe she even has to explain it.] They still are, most likely. Their kind do not easily die, if they die at all. They were the ones who won the war against the earthshakers. If you do not know of them, then they are asleep, or perhaps hidden away and plotting how to restore their world.

Does passage through the barrier ever leave a mark? On the barrier, or perhaps on the land of the physical or the dreams?

[bryces_pup]

[If it weren't for the fact that A) she's rather overwhelmed and B) this was Justice, she'd probably be considering punting the spirit out the airlock for the attitude.] But why would they have all fallen asleep or disappeared at the same time?

I'm not sure. To do so physically might, but that's only been done twice.

[whatisright]

I can only speculate. Perhaps there was a rebellion among the elves, and the people exhausted their leaders. Perhaps the titans awoke and attacked. Perhaps the Evanuris fought amongst themselves until they were tired enough to sleep for thousands of years. [Justice pauses for a moment, brow furrowed.] ...I would guess that one. The Evanuris are known to disagree, and where there is much power and conflict, there is eventually violence.

[No one ever said that power gives people the ability to get along all the time.]

If it has been done twice, it will be done twice more. Then twice again. Do your people know how to repair that kind of damage to the barrier?

[bryces_pup]

[And Riona can only nod along. She's in no position to refute any of the speculations. But it certainly unsettles her the more she thinks about it. With nothing to be done about it here, she decides to leave it as is.]

There was a breach that happened rather recently, and it sparked other rifts throughout the south. Luckily someone is able to close them and are doing so. Nothing like that has happened before, and it wasn't caused by normal means. I believe mages have ways of being able to mend smaller tears in the Fade, but I'm not the best person to ask.

[whatisright]

If you do not know how it happened, perhaps the being that created the barrier between worlds has returned.

[She says it casually, like it's just the natural way of things and it was going to happen eventually. Justice hasn't quite grasped how momentous that would be to someone who's only just learned of what the world is meant to be.]