hlif | ic/ooc: reaver training

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ic/ooc: reaver training

So I heard you wanna be a Reaver, kid.

Thanks to a wild night out on the outskirts of Nevarra, during a drinking contest, Asher drank something that happened to have the ritually prepared blood of a dragon in it. He passed out for two days and woke up a Reaver. Asher is more than happy to teach others this discipline.

This post is for anyone wanting to come to Asher for Reaver training so we can discuss it oocly and then have some ic stuff if you want to do more without it being spammed in any of the communities!

To become a Reaver will require Asher to have some sort of CR with your character - we can handwave the getting to know you parts, he hangs around the tavern and sparring ring often enough that they've probably already met. Chantry-aligned characters would take more time to convince him, if they wanted him as a teacher, because he just doesn't get on with them. Ideally it would involve going with Asher to procure dragon blood (from dragonlings unless you managed to get some from fighting a high dragon in any areas during plots) before he goes off to prepare it. (Of course he asked the guy he got it from how he made such amazing moonshine he's not a total savage.) Then you drink it, probably collapse, and Asher is proud of you.

If you want to work in obstacles, to draw out the training in the early stages or at any point, grab me here.

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Individuals expressing a desire to learn about becoming a Reaver from Asher.

[Whatever this is going to entail, Kain is prepared for it. He knows that this won't be easy, it may even be incredibly painful to undergo this training... but he's more certain than anything that it's something he wants to do. He's determined. Everything Asher has said and demonstrated makes him envious of a Reaver's skills, prepared to learn more, to enhance his own abilities with these. It certainly gives him something to focus on.]

[Kain heads out to the appointed spot where they're planning to meet, stretching and preparing himself for what's to come.]

[Asher is not a teacher or a trainer, not really. Everyone came to his company fully trained, it was only a matter of getting the pieces to work together cohesively that, and teaching Aura doesn't count because she's his baby sister and the apple of his eye. Training this - and Asher knows it, Asher found the person responsible, hunted them down and got all the knowledge he needed but he doesn't let people see, he knows how this game works after all - is something else.

There are a few prayers murmured, because Asher believes in his gods, they move through him and by the time Kain arrives he's doing drills with his axe, spinning and moving it effortlessly around and between his hands and body for the size that it is. There are few enough private spots by Skyhold but he's been lucky enough to find one, offered some coin to a few kids to give him a hand clearing it and sent them back to their folks with some food and fresh eggs.

It's a while before he says anything, watching Kain carefully. The lance is going to change it. Reavers don't jump, they're in the thick of it, they're bloodied and shouting, close enough to see the fear in the eyes of whatever poor bastard they're facing down.]

Obviously you're not going to be a proper one until or when you drink dragon's blood but I can start you down the path. What's your weapons experience outside that lance?

[Kain knows they’re not yet at the point of drinking the blood, of making that final move to becoming a Reaver in full… but he’s eager nonetheless. Every training will bring him a step closer. He’s intense and serious enough to know it will take time, it cannot be done overnight, and preparing for this will be as much mental as physical. He doubts Asher will want to let him drink it and make that transformation until he’s proven himself. It’s a good thing he’s well-trained in various forms of combat.]

I can handle swords just fine, of course, two-handed and single-handed with a shield... Of those, I much prefer two-handed. [Greatswords and the like are much more in line with his fighting style. Of course, when in a serious battle, he sticks with his greatest strength with the lance, but he will frequently practice with other weaponry just to keep his skills sharp. It’s why his training takes up so much time, he doesn’t ever want to get out of practice in case he gets in some situation where he loses his main weapon and must make do. He glances at Asher’s weapon.] I’ve used axes a fair deal, as well, if that helps any. [Really, the only thing that’s not his style as far as bladed weaponry is concerned, are what would be considered ninja-style weapons in his world, smaller knives and the like. What they refer to as rogue weapons here.] Is that what you’d favor, for this?

Being a Reaver is a warrior discipline; rogues fight with bows and daggers, mages use magic. Warriors have a greater variety but it tends to come down either favouring a style that means accepting the brunt of an attack by blocking it and charging with it before you use your weapon, or you use a two-handed approach. Two-handed you can still block obviously but you're using the whole of the weapon, hopefully turning that into an attack as well. [Asher can use anything in a pinch, that's what life is when you're a mercenary though he's never used a lance; he's seen Qunari use similar weapons, and Tal-Vashoth, great long spears that can punch clear through a man, that can pin him to the ground if it's the correct angle.

But this? His great heavy axe? That's been Asher's first choice since he was able to lift it.] You're going to have to be in the press of the fighting for this to be of any great benefit to you, that's the thing; warriors in Thedas don't do what you do, we're always the front line. Archers and pretty much all mages hang back but we don't. That's why knowing if you can handle these is going to be helpful. Sword is probably more like your own in how to use it than an axe, so I'd say I teach you with what I know, then you can see if you can actually adapt it over to your own style.

Right... and from what I've gathered about your world's fighting disciplines, it's similar in ways to my world. Not the specialized powers we have, perhaps, but the basic three classes. Dragoon is truly just a word for dragon knight, we're warriors through and through. There are other warrior styles too, and mages, of course... even something like your rogues, with what we call ninjas. [That was one of the first things he realized, when he came here, and it make the world feel less foreign to him, knowing they have these similar fighting classes.] A large, heavy weapon such as the two-handed swords feels best in my hands. I've never taken as much to shields as simply using the weapon itself in blocking.

[And another serious expression, along with a nod. Kain is taking in every word, considering it all carefully.] Ah, but despite my jumps taking me off the field and letting me dodge enemy attacks, I also spend much of my time in the thick of it, right on the front lines. I don't hang in the back at all. No true warrior would ever do such a thing. [Though he can see how it would look to an outsider. His ability is as much about evading and speed, being like the wind, as it is stabbing things. But Kain loves the thrill of battle and being right in the midst of it.] Trust me, I'll have no difficulty keeping up... I train my ground fighting skills just as much as in air. Sword it is, then.

Don't go saying dragon knight too loud around the wrong company or they'll be thinking you've got a soft spot for Tevinter, they're the ones that had the Old Gods and a Blight is no small matter. Maybe you've had a different life fighting but I'm a mercenary, I've been one for long enough to know that I have to be able to handle whatever I can get my hands on if I want to keep them and my head. It's a good exercise though, you might need it if you're going to have to deal with enemies carrying shields, plenty of those Red Templars have them; if you understand a weapon yourself, you understand how an enemy uses it.

[Not that Asher can conjure fire but you can light poles and rope, and there are other tricks to get into the minds of mages, same as rogues, same as he's taught his own crew. They're all still alive and in one piece.]

No, but here we are on the ground and up close. I'm not saying you give it up but if you want to learn from the people that know how to fight as a Reaver, you'll have to learn that first and then, once you're ready, incorporate it. I can't teach you if you're not down here with me, can I?

Right, I'd forgotten the sentiment toward dragons. [It's a shame, because he's proud of what he is and his connection to the dragons. Still, he knows better than to go around proclaiming it to the wrong people out there. Saying the wrong things to the wrong people in Thedas is a bad idea overall.] All too true, any good warrior knows more than their specialty... that makes it far easier to know your enemy in turn.

[He nods agreement, looking at once stern and somehow eager at the same time. He's forever interested in pushing himself, getting stronger. So this will be a very worthwhile challenge.]

Fine by me, I'll refrain from using my jumps during all training. That's why I came here, after all... I'm actually looking forward to trying something entirely new.

[Once he's truly got a handle on this, he'll be able to incorporate it into his typical fighting style, merging the blood powers with that of the dragoon. Powers of the dragons, combined. He's excited for it, but patient enough to know that's for the future. One step at a time.]

Try not to. You already might have enough going against you when you've come through a rift; demons come through those, spirits too, and even though folk generally think spirits are good, right now you don't really want anyone to get twitchy around you. [One day he'll explain the Avvar ways but that'd be information overload and when even other natives to Thedas tend not to understand it, he doubts someone else from another world will stand much of a chance of getting it right, and it's something he actually holds dear to his heart.]

One of the first things you'll learn to do is easy enough to practice now; it's marking the battlefield as yours, gets called ring of pain. Once you're actually a Reaver proper then you'll really notice it but there's a way of holding yourself anyway.

[Most of the time, Asher doesn't hold himself like a big guy. He doesn't slouch, not exactly, but he draws himself up, shoulders back and axe at the ready; the wolf's grin creeps across his face and the air seems charged about him, his axe swinging in lazy circles through the air as he paces.]

There's a lot that's to do with commanding. With being good at it, at taking charge and leading the fight and drawing the focus. I'm a battlemaster and have been since I was twenty and not a single person under my command has ever died, I like to think that contributes to being good at being a Reaver.

I know… and believe me, dragons are feared and just as powerful back home, but… it’s part of my legacy. Even so, my world’s dragons aren’t these dragons, I understand that. I’ve been looking into it. [Researching more about dragons has started getting him a clearer picture on the varieties, and even the interesting bits of information such as the high dragons only being female I certainly don’t care to be lumped in with demons and similar horrors, though I know the rift doesn’t help matters.

[Anyway, Reaver training, yes please. Kain listens intently to this explanation, it’s a different way of looking at the battlefield… which is incredibly fascinating to him. Yes, good, he needs this. Something new which he’ll incorporate with his usual style, and strengthen himself in the process.]

Marking it as mine… I like the sound of that. [That and the intense confidence that goes into it, these are things Kain was made for. Things which he already does, he’ll just be channeling it a little differently.] And it ought to help that I’ve been Commander of the Dragoons for some time, myself. I’ve led battles. I can bring forth that experience to this as well. [It might be easy to overlook that fact, here everyone is just another Inquisition soldier, and same in Cosmos’ small band of warriors. But he has that background and can draw on it for this training.]

Good, I don't have to teach you that bit because the less time I need to spend in the library, the better. I've got a reputation to maintain. [Not that Asher is an idiot but it counts against him to look like an educated man outside of battle experience because for him, that's the only place it counts. Let him look the way he does to people and rake in the money, he'll teach Kain what he needs to if he's willing to handle the extra research on his own so Asher can take care of his other business in the Inquisition too.]

Makes it easier if the party has one warrior willing to draw the attention like that to allow mages and archers to hang back, for the other rogues to dart in and out, and for other warriors to defend the others; pull all the attention, take hits. The training isn't going to be easy. You're going to hurt. You're going to be bloodied and bruised before you've even sniffed the dragon's blood too, I started at the bottom of the rung when I joined my first mercenary crew as a lady, working my way up. [This is going to be a reflection on Asher too, for better or worse, since Reaver isn't one of the most common warrior disciplines about and if he does well, Asher'll say something because it'll look good for him.]

Then I promise you, you may keep that reputation intact. [Kain isn’t the sort one might expect as a regular in the library either, he’s much more a hands on and “learn by experience” type. But, well, there are times when the information is beyond him, and even back home he’d always had time for studying dragons and dragon lore. As a boy he used to disregard all other studies so he could learn about the scaly beasts. Well… and anything relating to battles and battle tactics of course. There was a lot to be said for learning from wars of the past.]

More and more, this is sounding like it’s truly the right path for me. Believe me, I can take some hits and keep going, even as I am now. It’s not a true challenge without some pain involved… and if it lets me defend others, all the better. [The war of the gods had made him even more reckless, even more the sort to push through his aches and pains to keep going. He may have been starting down something of a Reaver path already without entirely realizing it… Not intentionally and not purposefully before now, of course. But now that he has a focus, and a purpose for why he pushes himself like this… he feels fulfilled somehow. This is meant for him.] I certainly wouldn’t want to do this if it was easy, either.

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ic/ooc: reaver training

prospective students;

LET'S DO THIS THING

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