#*hands u pan di stelle*

[ndostairlyrium]

Right back at you! >:D

How did Ankh take the news "Hi the gods you believed in are taking a walk up North and leaving Blight in their wake"? (also some snippets of her and Ellie-bimbo-bellissimo please?)

Oh nooo, toccherà rispondere! Ma che seccatura :C (GRASIE <33)

Long boi ahead :'D will cut it after a couple of paragraphs, no worries!

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She's pissed off and mad about it.

Mainly for the same reason as Aisling's. Everyone would blame it on the elves and after all the work she's done to secure a place for them at the table, that's a débâcle.

The most infuriating part is that she knows she's part of the problem, as in: she was the Inquisitor, one of the most influential players in southern Thedas for a while, a dangerous rival to queens, religious leaders and emperors, even the ones who she contributed to put in a position of power.

Since the first weeks in Haven, she's known that every mistake she'd make could endanger her people further, because no matter how much good she would bring to the world, for those in power she's just a knife-ear, and every single one of her moves is going to be twisted in favor of political convenience.

And now she's partially responsible for what's going on because she sheltered the guy who allowed the gods, her gods, to roam free and unleash chaos. And that does not only fall onto her shoulders, it falls onto her people's, as if they aren't suffering enough as it is.

Her first thought when she meets with the other leaders of the south after the Blight starts is "We'll never win. We'll never survive in this world, no matter how hard we try"

She tried to reason with Solas, she left messages begging him to consider the impact that his actions would have on their people, to honor their friendship by giving her the benefit of the doubt, but did he listen?

She promised to reedem him but when she sees the Blight, she second guesses herself. What's redeemable then? Not only did he fail, he doomed the world. How does one begin to fix *gestures wildly* the woman has four arms, man. FOUR. And the power of the plague. Ankh has one hand left, a degree (del CEPU) in engineering, and politics. No fucking chance she can win this.

Again, she's left with Solas' failures to clean up and, again, she has to sacrifice part of her soul to cope. Redemption for Solas at this point seems childish, and fucking disrespectul for those he hurt, herself included.

In this, she's trying so hard to respect Varric's last wish to trust Rook, but she doesn't know the kid, even if he has Harding's endorsement - she's family, her husband's maid of honor.

But the moment she reaches for Ellie, to reassure him that the south is in good hands so that he can focus on the important tasks ahead, she gets blamed for the "mess" she's made. By another elf. One that should know how precarious her position is.

I haven't got to define the logistics yet, but I think she just stops Harding mid sentence when she begins to defend her, and reads Ellie to filth. "That's cute. Harding, let us discuss the situation. The boy can wait outside." lol

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Now, for the religious aspect. She's disappointed but not surprised about the gods' identity; she's fucking livid that she can't be on the first lines to kick their ass flat.

Her mystical crisis started in the Arbor Wilds (she's still processing the "pools of blood" thing) and now all those suspicions that she carried upon her gods being frauds are confirmed.

The moment she felt the most empowered in her adolescence, dealing with abandonment, was to entrust herself, her soul, to a god that she was absolutely certain wouldn't abandon his people willingly. She felt a connection with him, and she felt like she needed to take on his duties and be this kind of follower: a guide in life (a hunter) and death (a carrier of last words). Kind and compassionate as him, who loved his people altruistically, so much that he accompanied them wherever he knew they would get lost.

...and then, 20 years later, one of her best friends goes "guy's a tyrant" Ankh: "can you elaborate?" Solas: "can it wait for a bit? I'm in the middle of some chiaroscuro"

Left alone with more questions than answers, she researches Falon'Din, then the others, until she speaks with Mythal and oh boy, she sucks. Hard. The holier than thou attitude? Nope. Let's keep everything we could salvage from the ye olde days and just ditch the worshipping. Maybe Solas was right.

Anyway she starts comparing notes with Shaan and all the Keepers she can find about lore and legends. The sum she makes of all the parts she could gather is that there's a 90% chance that her gods are some crazy egocentric power-hungry assholes, identical to those people in power she despises but she has to deal with on a daily. And they marked their people like cattle - Mythal included.

I do have the thing written so I'll just sum it up briefly: when she finds out that Solas can remove her Vallaslin, she fully goes for it. Doing so, she entrusts another big shot with her faith in a very fragile moment. Ironic, I would say, but she doesn't regret her decision.

Sometimes her face itches, as if something was gently pulling her skin where her Vallaslin were.

Anyway! Back to the hic et nunc:

When Ankh finds out about the gods' escape, they have to physically keep her from jumping through Morrigan's eluvian as she wants to take the matter onto her hands. Especially after Harding (hurt during the ritual) sends in the first reports.

She manages to calm down when all the allies that she managed to gather during the events of Inquisition turn to her for advice. Realizing that she's needed the most in the south (and that she's acting not so logical), she decides to trust Harding's judgment and focus on what matters the most.

Thank goodness Falon'Din isn't involved. That would have broken her for good :'D nobody would stop her if he was the one causing havoc.

And also, she can give it to Ghilan'nain because yeah, she's deranged, but she doesn't need a mask or excuses to doing whatever the fuck she's doing. She asks Harding to relay this message to Solas.

...

I um, don't think she's reacting very well to the situation.