The Hovering One
The Hovering One
Among the oldest legends of Thedas is a mysterious being known only as The Hovering One.
No one has ever seen its feet touch the ground.
Travelers describe a tall, cloaked figure that drifts inches above the earth, crossing forests, deserts, mountains, and battlefields without leaving tracks. Snow never crunches beneath it. Mud never stains it. Water parts beneath its passage as if refusing to touch it.
Some claim it is a spirit.
Others claim it is a mage.
The Chantry has debated its nature for centuries.
Appearance
The Hovering One appears as a robed traveler whose garments endlessly ripple despite the absence of wind.
Its face is rarely visible.
Witnesses report different features:
- An elderly man.
- A young woman.
- A horned giant.
- A dwarf.
- A spirit made of starlight.
Yet all agree on one detail:
It never walks.
It simply glides.
The Gift of Weightlessness
The being possesses a unique power called:
The Unburdening
The Hovering One is completely detached from the world's pull.
As a result:
- Traps fail to trigger beneath it.
- Quicksand cannot claim it.
- Thin ice never breaks.
- Pressure plates remain untouched.
- Most magical wards cannot track its movements.
Some believe it exists partially in the Fade while remaining physically present.
What Makes It Feared
Ancient soldiers once described seeing it during war.
The Hovering One would drift calmly across battlefields while arrows, spells, and siege stones flew overhead.
No attack was ever directed toward it.
Not because it was invulnerable.
Because nobody wanted to.
A strange calm surrounds the being.
Aggression weakens when directed at it.
Even darkspawn have been witnessed ignoring its presence.
Templars call this phenomenon:
The Peace Veil
An aura that suppresses hostility.
The Pilgrim Roads
Legends say The Hovering One follows invisible roads that existed before:
- The Chantry.
- The Imperium.
- The Elves.
- Even recorded history.
These pathways connect forgotten places hidden from ordinary travelers.
Those who secretly follow the being sometimes discover:
- Lost thaigs.
- Ancient elven sanctuaries.
- Spirit crossroads.
- Hidden dragon nesting grounds.
Most cannot keep pace.
The Hovering One never stops.
Companion Quest: Following the Wanderer
The player discovers reports of the same figure appearing hundreds of miles apart on the same day.
Upon investigation:
- Witnesses describe identical sightings.
- No tracks exist.
- No magical residue remains.
Eventually the player encounters the being hovering over a ruined bridge.
When spoken to, it asks only one question:
"Why do your people hurry toward endings?"
The answer determines the quest's outcome.
Secret Truth
The Hovering One is neither spirit nor mortal.
It is one of the world's original Waykeepers.
Before kingdoms existed, Waykeepers maintained the hidden paths connecting distant lands, cultures, and even parts of the Fade.
Most died long ago.
This is believed to be the last.
It continues its duty because it has forgotten how to do anything else.
Unique Ability (Companion Version)
Path of the Unbound
While in the party:
- Movement speed increases.
- Fall damage is reduced.
- Ambush chances decrease.
- Hidden locations become easier to discover.
- Enemies are slower to initiate combat.
Ultimate Ability
Horizon Drift
The Hovering One rises several feet into the air and glides across the battlefield.
All allies gain:
- Increased evasion.
- Immunity to movement impairing effects.
- Enhanced exploration senses.
Enemies experience disorientation as if the world itself briefly loses direction.
Many scholars spend their entire lives searching for The Hovering One.
Most never find it.
Yet almost everyone who travels enough eventually looks across a lonely road and swears they saw a figure silently drifting across the horizon, never walking, never stopping, and never looking back.
The Hovering One: Further Legends
As stories spread across Thedas, people begin to realize a terrifying truth:
The Hovering One is not merely traveling.
It is watching.
Not kingdoms.
Not rulers.
Not wars.
It watches roads.
Whenever a road becomes important to history, sightings of the Hovering One increase.
The Road Before Disaster
Many old records contain the same pattern.
Years before a major catastrophe, someone reports seeing the Hovering One.
Before villages vanished.
Before Blights.
Before civil wars.
Before dragon attacks.
The being never warns anyone directly.
It simply appears.
A silent omen.
This has earned it another title:
The Road-Mourned
Because wherever it lingers, history is about to change.
The Bridge of Echoes
One of the most famous stories concerns a stone bridge in the Anderfels.
A caravan crossing the bridge encountered the Hovering One suspended above the center arch.
The merchants attempted to pass.
The being raised a single hand.
Nothing happened.
The merchants laughed and continued.
Hours later, an earthquake destroyed the bridge.
The only survivors were the merchants who had stopped.
Since then, many travelers view the Hovering One as a protector.
Others see it as a harbinger.
Strange Companions
The Hovering One is rarely alone.
Animals often follow it.
Not domesticated creatures.
Wild ones.
Reports include:
- Wolves walking peacefully beside deer.
- Ravens circling silently overhead.
- Bears sitting calmly nearby.
- Halla approaching without fear.
- Even darkspawn creatures staring from a distance.
These animals never attack one another while near it.
Natural enemies simply coexist.
Scholars have no explanation.
The Silent Crossing
A legendary event occurred during a war between rival lords.
Thousands of soldiers prepared for battle.
As dawn broke, the Hovering One drifted directly between both armies.
No guards stopped it.
No archers fired.
No commanders spoke.
The entire battlefield fell silent.
For nearly ten minutes, nobody moved.
The being crossed the field.
Then continued into the distance.
Many veterans later claimed that silence felt more powerful than any spell they had ever experienced.
Hidden Ability: The Weight of Ages
Most assume the Hovering One has no combat abilities.
They are wrong.
The being avoids violence because it dislikes violence.
Not because it cannot fight.
When forced into battle:
Weight of Ages
The Hovering One can suddenly transfer the burden of centuries onto an enemy.
Victims experience:
- Exhaustion.
- Regret.
- Memories that are not their own.
- The sensation of carrying impossible weight.
Powerful enemies often collapse without understanding why.
The effect causes no physical wounds.
Yet few recover completely.
The Lost Waykeeper City
A forgotten quest reveals clues about an ancient civilization.
Long before modern nations existed, the Waykeepers built settlements that never appeared on maps.
These cities existed between places.
Travelers could only reach them by following secret paths.
The last of these cities was called:
Aethrun
The City Between Journeys.
According to legend:
- Nobody owned property.
- Nobody ruled.
- Travelers from every culture were welcome.
- Spirits and mortals occasionally met peacefully.
Aethrun vanished thousands of years ago.
The Hovering One may be its final citizen.
A Personal Mystery
Companions who spend enough time near the Hovering One notice something unsettling.
The being always knows where everyone is.
Not through magic.
Not through scouting.
It simply knows.
One companion eventually asks:
"How do you always know where people are?"
The Hovering One replies:
"Because everyone is on a road."
When asked what that means, it refuses to elaborate.
The Final Secret
Near the end of its storyline, an ancient spirit recognizes the being.
The spirit bows.
Not out of fear.
Out of respect.
It reveals a forgotten truth:
The Waykeepers were created before the Veil existed.
They once guided both spirits and mortals across a united world.
When the Veil was formed, nearly all perished.
The Hovering One survived because it was already traveling when the world changed.
It has been journeying ever since.
Not searching for power.
Not seeking revenge.
Simply trying to finish a journey that began thousands of years before any kingdom of Thedas was born.
And according to the oldest prophecy:
"When the Last Waykeeper finally stops moving, a road unseen since the beginning of the world shall open once more."
The Hovering One: The King of No Kingdom
As centuries pass, stories about the Hovering One become stranger.
People begin discovering something impossible.
The being has existed during every age of recorded history.
Not merely alive during them.
Present.
Witnesses place it near the fall of empires, the rise of nations, the founding of cities, and the deaths of legends.
Yet it never takes sides.
It never rules.
It never stays.
The Crown It Refused
Hidden beneath a ruined fortress in the Free Marches lies a forgotten chamber.
Within rests a magnificent crown made of silver-white metal.
No rust.
No dust.
No decay.
An inscription beneath it reads:
"Offered to the One Who Walks Above the World."
Ancient records reveal a coalition of kings once begged the Hovering One to unite the continent.
The wars of the era were endless.
The rulers believed only the mysterious traveler possessed enough wisdom to bring peace.
The Hovering One's answer was simple:
"A road belongs to everyone.
A throne belongs to one."
It refused.
The crown remains untouched.
The City That Followed
One of the strangest legends concerns an entire settlement.
A group of pilgrims became fascinated with the Hovering One and began following it.
Days became weeks.
Weeks became months.
More travelers joined.
Merchants followed.
Builders followed.
Families followed.
Eventually a moving town formed behind it.
Tents became wagons.
Wagons became structures.
Structures became a traveling city.
For nearly twenty years the city wandered Thedas behind the Hovering One.
The being never encouraged it.
Never acknowledged it.
Yet never abandoned it.
The settlement became known as:
Driftwall
The City That Never Stopped.
Eventually one morning the Hovering One changed direction and entered a mountain pass too narrow for the city.
When the people emerged on the other side, it was gone.
Driftwall eventually settled permanently.
Many of its descendants still tell stories of the silent guardian they followed.
The Library of Unwritten Journeys
During a rare companion quest, the player discovers a hidden sanctuary.
Inside are shelves stretching beyond sight.
The books contain no words.
Only blank pages.
The Hovering One explains:
"These are journeys not yet taken."
Every choice creates possible roads.
Some are walked.
Others remain empty forever.
The library records them all.
Scholars who enter often leave shaken.
Some discover entire futures they narrowly avoided.
Others find paths they wish they had chosen.
The One Thing It Cannot Do
The Hovering One possesses many abilities.
It can cross impossible terrain.
Find forgotten places.
Remember vanished roads.
Navigate between worlds.
Yet there is one thing it cannot do.
It cannot return the dead.
Not because it lacks power.
Because death itself is a road.
And every road must continue forward.
This belief forms the core of its philosophy.
When companions lose loved ones and seek answers, the being offers neither comfort nor false hope.
Instead it says:
"The road does not end.
It only leaves your sight."
The Forgotten Titan
Ancient dwarven records describe a sleeping titan deep beneath the earth.
When the Hovering One reached its resting place, something extraordinary happened.
The titan awakened.
Not fully.
Only enough to speak.
Its voice shook mountains.
The ancient being recognized the Waykeeper immediately.
It addressed the Hovering One as:
Bridge-Maker
A title never recorded elsewhere.
This revelation suggests the Waykeepers may have once connected not only people and places, but entire forms of existence.
The Night It Laughed
For thousands of years, nobody had ever heard the Hovering One laugh.
Not once.
Then a group of children found it resting beside a river.
Unlike adults, they weren't afraid.
They threw stones.
Asked ridiculous questions.
Tried to race it.
One child demanded:
"Can you float upside down?"
To everyone's astonishment, the Hovering One slowly rotated upside down in midair.
The children erupted with laughter.
Moments later, the being laughed too.
A genuine laugh.
Witnesses described it as one of the most beautiful sounds they had ever heard.
For generations afterward, locals celebrated a festival commemorating the event.
The Last Waykeeper's Fear
Despite all its wisdom, the Hovering One does fear something.
Not death.
Not demons.
Not dragons.
Not oblivion.
Its greatest fear is becoming the last thing that remembers.
It carries roads.
Memories.
Histories.
Cultures.
Lives.
Entire civilizations.
If it vanishes, countless forgotten stories may disappear forever.
This fear drives its endless wandering.
Every journey shared with another traveler is one less memory carried alone.
The End of the Journey
In the final chapter of its tale, the player reaches the Last Horizon.
The silver mist parts.
The ancient road finally appears.
For the first time in thousands of years, the Hovering One hesitates.
Not because it is afraid.
Because the journey that defined its existence is ending.
The player is offered a final choice:
- Walk the road with it.
- Convince it to remain.
- Let it continue alone.
No matter the choice, the Hovering One speaks its final words:
"Every road begins with a question.
Every road ends with another.
The wise continue walking."
Then the ancient traveler glides forward into the unknown.
And for the first time since the dawn of history...
The Last Waykeeper disappears beyond the horizon.
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