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I'm up for starting it next week. Can't recall if I did add the missing points or not.

I'm good to start whenever.

What everyone else said, I'm fine starting whenever.

Slightly reshuffled CASPIE (-1 str, +1 per), and edited in his affiliation--yeah, he's Ben-Hassrath, gaiz of course he is, he's Qunari, and he's a bard.

Yes I used my elfquisoner

Cool beans, my man, adding to the OP now.

Union, if you get a few minutes to spare, could you check my CS to see if I did add the missing points or not? I can't remember and just want to make sure. Unless I've finally gone fade crazy.

No, you still have 5 left. When you put them all together, they should add up to 35.

City of Starkhaven - Market Plaza

The Market Plaza of Starkhaven was the stomping ground of some of the most varied residents of Thedas, as was typical of trading centers in the Free Marches; much like the goods and services being peddled, ideas and dreams were shared by people from all walks of life.

One of these dreams, however, was being shared particularly loudly. The normally busy Market Plaza was even more packed than normal with people gathering about a mage in elegant blue robes delivering a speech. He was surrounded by men and women wearing simpler robes, some of them holding staves and others holding swords; they appeared to be forming a protective perimeter around the man.

"I warn you, citizens of Starkhaven; the mages of this world have seen oppression for far too long! I have seen the smoldering remains of the chantry of Kirkwall! I have seen the bodies of innocent mages young and old who died when they stood with the Champion of Kirkwall against the monster of a Knight Commander who held the city under her iron fist! And now the templars across Thedas tighten their grip upon us, and our leaders threaten retribution. They tip the scale, they tempt fate against the minds of more desperate individuals to perform acts of terror in the face of certain death at the hands of 'righteous' oppressors!"

The man, known to some residents of Starkhaven as Senior Enchanter Gideon Hartnell, turned his head to the western road out of the market. The stomping and clanking of armor made it clear; the templars were coming.

"And there they come now, to claim the moral high ground in the name of Andraste! What say you, good citizens? Will you allow this to stand?"

The crowd erupted into a mixture of cheers and boos as the templars drew ever closer.

Within the chaotic scene, several unique individuals stood by in witness to the rally...

Quietly occupying one corner of the plaza, Revas quietly watched and waited, as he always did. "Bas-saarebas. Maraas imekari." He muttered to himself. With a quick check, he ensured his daggers were sharp and ready, and looked about for escape routes. No telling what this crowd might do, given prodding.

Mira was amongst those in the circle protecting the senior enchanter and whilst she wanted freedom for her kind, she did not want to give Thedas another reason to hate mages. "We wish harm on no-one, good people of Starkhaven and the mages of Kirkwall were only guilty of being mages! They were children, men and woman but to the Templars, we are not people! We are nothing but burdens to watch over. We are tools to be used and cast aside." She told the crowd and hoped that the Templars were not about to resort to violence or her fellow mages would not start a fight.

Ingrid had just finished selling some animal furs to a merchant. Rua was staying close by, Ingrid didn't want to lose him in the packed market. She was going to investigate other market stalls, see if there was anything worth buying. But like so many others her attention was draw to the sound of armoured footsteps and the possibility of a conflict between mages and templars.

August Brannon had been patrolling the city when he'd caught wind of the demonstration and had immediately hurried over to the scene. However, he dared not make a move to stop it without support. Thus, he kept his hands away from his sword, so as not to poke the sleeping dragon in its collective eye. As he heard his sister shout, he became intensely grateful for the helmet which disguised his face.

"Disperse, you magi!" he shouted with as much authority and volume as he could muster, casting a grateful glance over his shoulder at his approaching comrades, "In the name of the Knight-Commander, lay down your arms and disperse!"

A grimace flashed across the Nightgust's face as he watched the rally, his voice silent. His gaze ran over. Waiting for a conflict or something more exciting to happen, words are air after all.

Cerenna had been watching the rally for the past few minutes, ever since the growing crowd had caught her eye as she was passing through the square. She now leaned back against a wall in the shade, looking on with mingled curiosity and concern. Her armour was on, and her sword was equipped, in case things got out of hand. And not to forget, she also had an unseen ally with her, as she did at all times.

She sympathized with the mages, but she feared the conflict in the city escalating. If the mages got carried away, or if the templars pushed them to that point, they would only bring arcane chaos and destruction, thereby solidifying the templars' resolve against them even more. It would be an endless cycle of increased violence. There had to be a way to resolve this peacefully, she knew, but the ability to facilitate this was not hers. All she could do was hope that Starkhaven didn't erupt into total war. If she had to flee and go it alone once more, she worried that she wouldn't be as lucky as she'd been so far in finding shelter.

At any rate, though, for now her occupation was watching. And waiting.

Starkhaven Market Square

The marching increased in volume as the Templars entered the market square in their armored splendor, causing the gathered crowd to part at their approach.

The templars stood in silence in a block formation, parting as two people stepped through; one a dwarf clad in an ornate, custom-fit set of his own templar armor, and the other a very tall human in elaborate robes.

Knight-Commander Bhalinar was a well-built dwarf, tall for his own race and bursting with muscle. His unhelmeted head bore no hair but instead several tattoos, wile his face was lined in a long, well-kept black beard. With shield on his back and axe at his side, he stood accusingly before the gathered mages as he patted August as high up the back as he could. "Well done, Ser Brannon. Now, allow me."

Stepping past August, the dwarf addressed the mages, his eyes locked with Senior Enchanter Hartnell's. "In the name of the Divine, stop this madness! I'll not have demonstrations in the street, mongering fear among honest people!"

"Honest people, he says!" retorted the senior enchanter with a laugh. "A templar preaches honesty as his fellows slaughter mages across Thedas! What honesty is this, Knight-Commander?"

The tall woman stepped forward next. First Enchanter Safana Pentaghast was an older woman in her mid 50's, her once long black hair thinning and greying. She was dressed head-to-toe in purple robes with gold trimmings, and her staff was a likeness of an ebony bird spreading its wings from atop an emerald-eyed skull. "Senior Enchanter, step down. Your rantings only spur panic in a time where cooperation is our dearest ally." she accused, before her face turned softer. "I have watched you grow since you arrived as a child, Gideon. You have always been proud and fast-acting... but this is not you. Do not go down this path."

"I don't go willingly, First Enchanter." Gideon spat back, locking eyes with the woman confronting him. The conversation broke off into a tense silence, and there was time to interject if anyone saw fit to.

"Maker's balls!" Mira uttered upon hearing a Ser Brannon being mentioned as the knight commander walked towards them and proceeded to address them. "And let me guess, if we don't play the role of the good little mages who obey your commands like the burdens your kind view us as, we'll be punished, the entire circle will be punished and you know as well as anyone that if we were dumb enough to turn the good people of Starkhaven against us via fear, we would not use our tongues. We would use our gifts to do so. But fortunately, for everyone, we just want to be equals and your kind does not want to listen to any reports of abuse from your side." She retorted to the knight commander after the the Senior Enchanter useed his tongue.

"Gideon, I want to change things just as much as you do but giving the chantry's dogs a reason to restrict our rights even further along with turning the good people of starkhaven against us is not the way to do it. If you intend to show the good people of this fine city why they feel that we must be locked up, you will just be arming the dogs and give the stout one a reason to consider purging us all. Not only would you be putting us at risk, you would be putting the entire circle, including our apprentices at risk. It would undermine the cause and if the dogs have elected to kill us for daring to want to be treated as equals, all of Starkhaven will know how they view people who think for themselves in the circle that they rule." Mira hoped she could avoid a situation where violence could break out along with the knight commander being able to use reason instead of a stab, stab approach to anything with magic.

Revas found a sly grin on his face. I can work with this.

He stepped a little closer to the crowd, and put on a generic, nondescript Free Marcher accent. "Blasphemer!", he called out across the crowd, loud enough to carry, but hopefully not too loud that many people turned to look at him.

The Qunari walked over to another side of the crowd, and egged them on a little further, in a somewhat different Marcher accent. "Dogs, she calls them!"

With that done, unless he suddenly got mobbed, Revas tried to discretely make his way to a different, less populous corner of the plaza. Things were going to get messy, and he did not want to be right in the middle of it all.

August found himself moving to return the pat, but caught himself as he realized who had done it. Instead, he nodded respectfully to the Knight-Commander and fell in line behind him.

"Mira... please." he spoke uncertainly, stepping back as his sister approached and looking as bashful as a knight in full armor possibly could.

"Please behave like the good little mage that we mages are supposed to be?" Mira asked her brother. "Or would you prefer for me to not stand up for what is right and be a good little mage that is sometimes given a treat by the chantry for fetching their wine?" She inquired and at the same time, felt a little bit guilty as the result of her answer.

Ingrid continued to watch things unfold. She heard someone call out 'Blasphemer.' If they think she's a blasphemer I wonder what they'd think of me.

Solen kept watching, his finger curled and placed on his lips, the very idea of thinking augmented by his posture and his gaze looked between the brother and the sister. More words, more air, but more tension was coming.

"Good." He said simply to himself, not loud but not quiet.

"Enough! I will have order! Templars, at the ready!" shouted Knight-Commander Forender. The Templars accompanying him raised their shields with a vigorous "hoo-ah!". "Stand down, Senior Enchanter, or we will do what is necessary!"

First Enchanter Pentaghast looked at Gideon with a pained look. "Gideon, please..."

Gideon looked troubled for a moment, as if fighting back some terrible thought from within. Then he looked up with a grin and pounded his staff into the ground. Atop the staff sat an odd figurine, a cross-legged, fat man with a devilish expression. "No! No, we will not be coddled, and we will not be controlled! I had prepared for the Templars to overstep their bounds and blot out the light of our words, and now it will come to fruition! See now the magic you fear so much!" he shouted, slamming the base of his staff into the ground again.

A wave of force rippled outwards, knocking down everyone in the plaza. It was a prepared spell enforced by wards, made to stun the templars long enough for Gideon to cast his next spell without interruption. "See now what we must do! See now the burden we carry! Welcome to my world!"

Crimson red streams of blood began siphoning out of some of the mages standing alongside the Senior Enchanter. Mira was spared of this fate. Some of the mages looked shocked as they were bled dry, while others died with wicked smiles on their faces. In an instant, the blood pooled in a sphere above the Senior Enchanter's staff, and then exploded into a sickly green wave of energy that washed over the Starkhaven Market Square.

Everyone within the Market Square soon lost consciousness.

____________

Those gathered in the square woke up soon after; or was it long after? It was difficult to tell. Their vision dulled and blurred for a moment as they got adjusted to the reality, or the lack thereof, or where they were. A sickly green tint to the sky, twisted landscapes uncraftable by man, an ominous black island floating in the distance.... they were in the Fade, whether they were dreamers or not.

Each unique individual saw themselves in rooms familiar to them; their childhood bedrooms, whether it be a Circle Tower dormitory or the common house under the care of the Qunari Tamassrans.

MIRA: A Mage full of regret?

"All we want is to be treated as equals! Not as weapons, not as darkspawn but as equals! We are elves and humans with a wonderful gift and you all refuse to give us a [&@%!] chance!" Mira shouted at the commander of the Starkhaven Templars. "Gideon, think about what you are doing. If we can't even sort out disagreements ourselves, how are we going to rule ourselves?" She asked the Senior Enchanter.

"YOU MORON!" Mira screamed at Gideon for starting a goddamn fight with the goddamn templars and the innocent citizens, who, the mages needed the support of. "BLOOD MAGIC!?" Mira felt fear fill within her. Blood magic, the foulest of all magics. Demons were attracted to blood mages and it was blood mages that gave all mages a bad name. "Oh [&@%!]!" She exclaimed as some of her fellow mages started to bleed. She was never one to feel completely useless due to her gift of magic but for once, she was useless. What magic could she cast to counter act it? What magic would save her and her brother? Would the circle be annulled because of this?

These were questions that ran through her mind as she passed out.

She moaned as she regain conciousness and found herself back in the apprentice dorm of the Starkhaven Circle. "How did i get here?" She felt like this was right but at the same time, it felt rather odd. As if, she was not meant to be here. "August?" She called out with fear in her voice.

Trying to scramble out of the square as the Senior Enchanter worked his vile magic, Revas accomplished nothing, save hitting his head on the wall as he lost consciousness.

Waking up in the Fade, Revas wore an expression somewhere between anger and terror. "Vashedan! ...Bas-saarebas...defransdim ebadim." He walked around the common room, trying to figure out his situation.