exsilium | [video]

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[video]

Hello, network. I am Leliana, for all the new people here and those that do not remember.

One of my favorite preoccupations is storytelling. That is, listening to stories and telling them. I've been wondering...

A lot of us come from different places, yes? Different places mean different cultures, and to get to my point, different stories. I don't know if there is a collection of some sort, or if this has been asked before, but I want to listen to fables, myths or legends of all sorts from your homelands, if you will indulge me. That way, I can spread these marvelous stories in my travels if/when I get back to Thedas.

If you're more of the listening sort, I will be more than happy to relay stories from where I came from.

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[Shelke has to think about it some more before she starts to talk.]

A corporation managed to tap into the lifestream of our planet and use it as an energy source. They build a massive city that drained all the life out of the surrounding area, and used the mako to mutate people into soldiers and build weapons and armies and robots. And they took over the world.

A group of people tried to stop them and were labeled terrorists, and while the two sides were fighting, one of the soldiers they had mutated with mako went mad and tried to destroy the world. The people who were trying to stop the corporation, and the corporation, had to work together to stop him but their city was still destroyed and thousands and thousands of people died.

[Shelke...isn't the best storyteller just yet.]

...That's awful.

[She almost looks amused. Is that a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth?]

So a tragedy then.

It looks like it.

I am... so sorry.

I missed...all of it, to be honest. I was too young to really understand Shinra's expansion, and then I was in Deepground for Meteorfall.

I suppose you could argue that it all turned out well enough for most people who survived it, at least.

Everything happens for a reason, I suppose.

...You really believe that?

I want to believe it. It gives me comfort in troubling times.

[She looks distant, and her eyes narrow.]

...I can't imagine believing that. The idea that these terrible things happen to me...to anyone...because of some higher purpose?

Whoever would be guiding that would be horrible. And I know horrible.

It's better than their deaths being pointless, I think.

Why?

It gives the people left behind strength, and if they're alive, it makes them stronger.

I...

I've been betrayed and tortured by the woman I loved. If it weren't for the thought that that instance served a higher purpose, I would be haunted by my past. Depressed. Hollow.

But I thought -- there must be a reason why this happened. And true enough, because of it -- in a way -- I met the Hero of Ferelden, one of my best friends in the whole world, and I would never have marched with her to the greatest quest in my whole life.

Does that memory still hurt? To be honest, a little. But I came out stronger and better, if not for it.

[She's quiet as she thinks this over.]

Just because something awful allowed you to do something good doesn't mean that the awful thing had to happen. It doesn't negate the fact that what happened was terrible.

It had to, I think. If that never happened, I wouldn't have seen the Maker's light. If that never happened, I would never have ended up in the Lothering cloister, where I met the Grey Wardens.

Of course it was terrible. But it served a purpose.

Maybe.

[She gets the impression arguing this point will accomplish nothing, but she doesn't agree...]

What's the Maker?

The Maker is the beloved creator of everything, the most pure and kind of all beings.

[Well...okay.]

And he's the one who's plan said you had to be tortured?

Not that... bluntly, but yes.

And you worship him.

[Congratulations, Leliana, you actually got Shelke to sound genuinely surprised.]

Well... yes?

If the people that set me on the path in my life weren't already dead, I would kill them.

And you worship yours.

[ she shakes her head ]

It's not that simple.

It looks simple.

Well, it's not. [ she huffs ] I don't want to argue about this. Keep it to yourself.

[ click oops :c ]

I-

[Hmm. And she was gone. Oh well.]

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[video] Names I can never, ever spell properly on the first try: Leliana.

[video] i have that same feel with japanese names tbh

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