#hinterlands

[elluvians]

[elfcollector]

Nestled in the heart of Ferelden are the old forests and farmsteads of the Hinterlands. This rocky, rolling getway to Redcliffe has now fallen into chaos. The conflict between mages and templars forced many off their lands, demons stalk the hills, and reports of strange magic abound near Redcliffe.

[fatehbaz]

They’ve built a “Great Wheel” on the Seattle waterfront [...].

The small timber village became a military outpost in the Puget Sound War [...], [and] soon evolved into a trade gateway, with timber tailings and other industrial trash from Henry Yesler’s mill used to fill in the marshlands [...], atop which migrant laborers raised tents and shanties [...] now working to feed raw materials into the furnaces of the Second Industrial Revolution burning in the East. [...] The first nationwide strike ripped across the country’s railways in 1877, but in Seattle the unrest took on a grim character, as thousands of unemployed white workers rioted against their Chinese counterparts [...]. Meanwhile, [...] local elites rebuilt [...] downtown [...] from scratch, hosting the tallest building on the West Coast alongside other new constructs [fueled] with money gleaned from the supply chains linking eastern capital to Alaskan gold. [...] Today the city - again rebuilt [...] - is seen as one of the primary beneficiaries of the “Fifth” Industrial Revolution in information technology, outshone only by California’s Silicon Valley. [...] The digital was increasingly thought of as somehow "immaterial," sustained by intellectual labor more than physical toil [...].

Silicon Valley myths of [...] "immaterial" labor disguise a more gruesome dynamic in which growing segments of the global labor force are being deprived even of the basic brutality of the wage, instead forced out into growing rings of slums, prisons, and global wastelands. [...]

---

Perched alongside a downtown business corridor [...], Seattle's Great Wheel seems to peer out over [...] [the] prophesied “cooperative commons,” an infotech metropolis abutting the beauty of an evergreen arcadia. But travel below Seattle’s cluster of infotech industries and the image appears much the same as that of a hundred years prior - a trade gateway, squeezing value from supply chains by selling transport and logistical support. The southern stretch of the metropolis bears little resemblance to the revitalized urban core of the city proper. Instead of the “cognitive labor” of Microsoft, it is defined instead by the cold calculation of companies like UPS, founded in Seattle when the city was one link in a colonial supply chain built first for timber, then Alaskan gold, then World War. [...]

In south Seattle, this logistics empire takes the form of faceless warehouses, food processing facilities, container trucks, rail yards, and industrial parks concentrated between two seaports, an international airport, three major interstates, and railroads traveling in all directions. Meanwhile, the poor have been priced out of the old inner city, moving southward [...]. [T]hey can be found staffing the airport and the rail yards, hauling cargo in and out of two the major seaports, loading boxes in warehouses [...]. And, beyond them, the shadow stretches out to Washington’s rural hinterlands where migrant laborers staff a new boom in agriculture and raw materials [...] - and further still into America’s long-depressed interior, where the Great Wheel meets its opposite: Memphis, the FedEx logistics city, watched over by a great black pyramid [the infamous Bass Pro Shop pyramid]. [...]

Every Seattle is capable of creating an eco-friendly, “cooperative commonwealth” tended by apps and algorithms only insofar as there is a Memphis that can provide human workers to sort the packages, a Shanghai to build the containers that carry them, and a Shenzhen to solder together the circuits of the machines that govern it all.

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All text above by: Phil A. Neel. "The Great Wheel". Brooklyn Rail. April 2015. Published online at: brooklynrail.org/2015/04/field-notes/the-great-wheel. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Text within brackets added by me for clarity. Presented here for commentary, teaching, personal use, criticism purposes.]

[oldeazeroth]

Aerie Peak, Hinterlands (14,48)

[moss-flesh]

hinterlands

[daitranscripts]

Solas Conversation

Measuring the Veil

Solas Masterpost Related Location: the Hinterlands

Solas: As I explored the Fade, I felt the presence of an intriguing artifact in the Hinterlands. If you are willing, I would like to locate it. I have marked its location as best as I could determine.

The PC heads to the Hinterlands.

Solas: According to my research, the ancient elves may have set up wards near here. If we can find the artifacts they used, it may help strengthen this area against tears.

As they approach a ruin, they see and elf fighting off a demon. The party helps.

Mihris (Dalish PC): Andaran atish’an. I did not expect to see another of Dalish blood here. My name is Mihris. Mihris (non-Dalish PC): Peace. I am no danger to you. My name is Mihris.

Mihris: By your weapons, I see you come ready for battle. Perhaps we face a common enemy in these demons.

Dialogue options:

General: What are you doing out here? [1]

General: Leave. I don’t trust you. [3] +Cassandra slightly approves -Dorian slightly disapproves -Blackwall disapproves

1 - General: What are you doing out here? PC: Are you fighting demons on your own? Mihris: Fighting demons is pointless. There will always be more. And I have no means of closing the rifts. But I have heard of elven artifacts that measure the Veil. They may tell us where new rifts will appear. I was not expecting so many demons, however. I believe one of the artifacts is nearby. Can you help me reach it?

General: Yes. We’ll help. [2]

General: Leave. I don’t trust you. [3] +Cassandra slightly approves -Dorian slightly disapproves -Blackwall disapproves

2 - General: Yes. We’ll help. PC: It sounds worth investigating. Mihris: Thank you. It shouldn’t be too much farther ahead. [4]

3 - General: Leave. I don’t trust you. PC: Get out of here. Things are dangerous enough without another mad mage. Mihris: The may the Dread Wolf take you, fool. She leaves.

4 - Scene continues.

Mihris: Thank you for joining me. I do not think I could have done this alone.

Dialogue options:

Investigate (Dalish PC): Why did you leave your clan? [5]

Investigate (non-Dalish PC): How did you end up here? [6]

General: Let’s keep moving. [7]

5 - Investigate: Why did you leave your clan? PC: What took you away from your clan? Mihris: They were all killed… by a demon that our Keeper was foolish enough to summon. I am the only survivor of clan Virnehn. I was searching for another clan that would take me in when the Breach appeared. Now, I am doing whatever I can to help with this madness. [8]

6 - Investigate: How did you end up here? PC: How did you come to be here? Mihris: I was—am—First of Clan Virnehn. I left in service of my clan and saw that great tear in the Veil on my journey. I know more of magic and the Veil than any shemlen, so I hoped to help. Solas: Ma harel, da’len. Mihris: I… We should keep moving. [8]

7 - General: Let’s keep moving. PC: Come on. Mihris: Of course. [8]

8 - Scene continues.

The approach a barrier at the front of the ruin.

Mihris: We need focused magical energy to get by.

Dalish mage PC Mihris: You likely have more power than I do. My clan taught me little of such magic.

Non-Dalish mage PC Mihris: Can you manage it?

Solas in party Mihris: You, flat-ear. Can you manage it? Sola: Na nuvenin, da’len.

Dorian in party Mihris: You, human. Can you manage it? Dorian: Oh, I don’t know. We humans are so preoccupied by our inadequacies.

Vivienne in party Mihris: You, human. Can you manage it? Vivienne: Better than you can, apparently.

No mage in party Mihris: Give me a moment.

They head inside, fighting demons along the way.

Mihris: There. If we activate that crystal, it should react to the strength of the Veil.

The PC activates the artifact.

Solas: Yes, the wards are helping to strengthen the Veil. This area should be safer for travelers now.

Mihris: Well, that should prove useful. And it seems the ancestors left something for me as well. Interesting. I believe our alliance is concluded. Go in peace, stranger.

Dialogue options:

Special: Solas? [9] +Solas approves

Special (Dalish PC): Please, I need that. [10] -Sera slightly disapproves

Arcane: I can use that. [11]

General: I want what you found. [12] -Cassandra slightly disapproves

General: Goodbye. [13]

9 - Special: Solas? Solas: Ma halani, ma glandival. Vir enasalin. Mihris: I… perhaps you’re right. Here. Take it. [14]

10 - Special: Please, I need that. PC: Mana. Ma halani. There are few in this world I can trust without my own people turning against me. Have I not proven myself? I’m of your blood, and I may be able to use what you’ve found. Mihris: I… perhaps you’re right. Here. Take it. [14]

11 - Arcane: I can use that. PC: Do you even know what you’re holding? How it will interact with the Veil, the Breach, the demons? I have the knowledge to use what you’ve found safely. you don’t. Mihris: I… perhaps you’re right. Here. Take it. [14]

12 - General: I want what you found. PC: Give me whatever it is you found there. Mihris: I should have expected this. May the Dread Wolf take you. They fight, and the PC must kill her for the amulet.

13 - General: Goodbye. PC: Farewell to you. [14]

14 - Scene continues.

Mihris: Go with Mythal’s blessing.

—

As the PC comes across other artifacts across Thedas:

Solas: I believe I sense one of the atrifacts of my people.

Solas: I can sense elven magic somewhere nearby.

Solas: I can feel another of the elven artifacts.

Solas: There’s an elven artifact nearby.

Solas: We’re near another artifact.

When the PC activates an artifact:

Solas: The ward are working. It should be harder for tears to form here.

Solas: Good. That should help strengthen the Veil.

Solas: Excellent. The wards are functioning again.

Solas: That should help ward off demons.

Solas: The wards are working.

[Fun fact! Mihris is from the clan that summoned Imshael in The Masked Empire. She plays a rather large role in the book and I recommend giving it a read for a number of different reasons.]

[fieriframes]

[Pines surround me like moths to a flame. And the wind whispers the Other's name. Requiem roads and infinite searches. Archways hidden among the bones and the birches. Mountebanks of the hinterlands. Subservient only to the water's plans.]

[avalon-of-babylon]

"Alright boys, we fight the winner, and by winner, I obviously mean the bear" - All Dragon Age Inquisiton players when two enemies are fighting in the Hinterlands

[feykrorovaan]

Cassandra:"We are not apostates!"

Solas:"I don't think they're listening."

Also Solas, not even a solid minute later:

"We are not your enemy!"

Varric:"I don't think they care."

I'm paraphrasing here, but when this happened all I could think was "Man, I missed this game."

[dangerouscakes]

[lvl2druid]

Im in the minority, but I love the Hinterlands.

I'm a dilly-dallier. I love to lolly-gag. Yes, I want to find Lord Woolsley and get a little lost on the way. I don't mind- I can find MORE lil' errands on the way and get more crafting supplies.

Corypeheus who I gotta fill out requisitions BABY

[twwistedwwonderland]

Eridan model: nozomii12 Grim Model: nagamu Azul model: ゆそ(yuso) Jamil model: くむ Malleus model: hoge Skully J Graves model: ありた葵 Stage: whitepaopu Pose: entzminger500

[wowscenery]

[oldeazeroth]

Seradane, Hinterlands (63,29)

[azerothtravel]

Through The Hinterlands, June 25, 2005.