008.

[dashing]

FORM: crystal
SENDER: all
RECIPIENT: Herian Amsel
WHAT: Chantry Relations stuff, Chant of Light chats
WHEN: early Cloudreach
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: if you'd like to do an action thread feel free to have them drop into Herian's office in an action response to this post

Good morning, Inquisition. I am happy to report that the Committee have selected a design for the memorial gardens, with some modifications to make it as precisely to their satisfaction as possible, and we have progressed to its construction and landscaping.

For those Rifters freshly arrived who I have not yet had the pleasure of speaking with, my name is Knight-Enchanter Herian Amsel, and I presently serve as head of the Chantry Relations project. If there are any matters that I meant lend assistance with, or matters you require clarity on, please do not hesitate to speak with me. I am oft located in the Chantry Relations office within the former Templar tower of the Gallows, but so too can I be contacted by crystal. I am afraid what I have to speak of next may be a matter of some confusion without context.

What I wish to speak of are the Dissonant Verses. I imagine the name may be unfamiliar to most; they are not well known even amongst the faithful. They are the Canticle of Silence, the Canticle of Maferath, and the Canticle of Shartan. It is the last with which I am most concerned, this day.

Shartan the Liberator was an elf who fought alongside the Blessed Andraste, when they rebelled against the Tevinter Imperium. He was leader to the elven slaves who joined her numbers, and an essential force of her cause. When Andraste was sent to the pyre and the flames rose about her, Shartan and the elves set themselves upon the pyre in a desperate attempt to save her, but all of them were slain.

In recognition of their heroism and sacrifice, the elves were rewarded with a new homeland in the Dales, but when... with the Exalted March on the Dales in the Glory Age, Shartan's verses were removed from the Chant and deemed heretical. They were published in the New Cumberland Chant of Light six years ago, but their inclusion remains controversial, and given Divine Justinia's death, there is no guarantee that it will kept in future editions of the Chant, or even acknowledged.

I would be... interested in hearing your thoughts and feelings on the matter of the Chant of Light and the Canticle of Shartan, to gauge the Inquisition's general sentiments on this matter.

Comments

[dashing]

The elves were abused across Thedas long before the Exalted March. Humans striking against them long before were the very reason that they needed a new home granted them; that should never have been necessary, should never have been a cause for celebration. Shartan was... a light, in that respect. His existence and the other elves who fought with Andraste served as a beacon into the injustices already committed against elves, and as a foothold for progress.

Naming him a heretic was not the bringing about of a new oppression, but a reinforcing and restoration of it. Destroying his name and his honour was a vicious, calculated tactic. The actions of the Chantry in this are not... befitting the will nor the legacy of Andraste. They are a shame on our faith and our history.

[aenseidhe]

[ Iorveth listens quietly to her speech on it, and it does some to ease some of the suspicions he comes into every conversation like this with. Eases, not clears, because they're currently standing inside a city that allows the free slaughter of elven citizens, that sections off district like cattle in a pen to place them. And this is something that is normal for these people. Anything less than open rioting won't satisfy him.

It's clear he's considering it for a moment or so, Iorveth not generally in a rush to speak before thinking. ]

Then it's clear to anyone with a scholastic eye to it that the removal of these verses were an act to push back that foothold of progress. A successful one, it seems, as Shartan's descendants are cordoned off to slums now. [ doing something like restoring a religious text honoring elves in a human controlled church could do incredible things to better the lives of those in the slums, that should be clear enough to anyone, he thinks. refusing it seems to be in direct opposition of that benefit. but, this is Iorveth, and he's an extremist. ] If that's the case, how can those bringing up controversy with restoring the verses claim to have any care for Andraste's will, or be truly following her teachings?

[ he doesn't actually know her teachings well, hurr hurr, kind of bullshitting his way through this. Iorveth's only read summaries of this in the history books he's managed to dig through in the library. ] What other purpose in opposing the restoration of them would there be but to ensure the elves stay in their place?

[dashing]

You echo me, serah, and sentiments I spoke clearly.

Those who would oppose the restoration of the Canticle are the conservative majority of the Chantry. Divine Justinia the Fifth was considered aggressively progressive, and a radical, but her leadership was visionary. Her death has allowed significant pushback, but not all of the Chantry's followers feel that picking and choosing our texts and history is acceptable.

[aenseidhe]

What I'm saying is those who oppose the restoration do not belong in your Chantry. That is your issue here. Not the individual verses.

[ The people. The conservative majority. If that's who's operating the faith, the faith is corrupted at the core. Addressing technicalities is like trying to heal symptoms while ignoring the source disease. ]

If this history should teach you anything, it's that centuries of diplomacy does not open minds or hearts. Cut out the poison. Don't ask it nicely to change its mind. Otherwise it's just more indifference dressed up as an attempt to care.

[dashing]

You are not amongst the faithful, I take it. Are you of Thedas, or one who has joined us from a world beyond the Fade?

( Her tone is not judgmental, just that same calm steadiness as before. There are a few matters to be unpacked. )

[aenseidhe]

Not your faithful, no.

My faith does not require texts or hold so many principles. Just that we honor the land that gives us life, remain deserving of it, and protect it from ruin. [ And, generally, don't be an asshole, because the Queen of the Fields will literally show up and slap you for it herself. Anyway. ]

I'm from a world beyond here, where the elven people are nearing extinction due to humans who think the way your conservative majority does. There are those that preach caring, acceptance and love, but it is all they do. Preach.

[dashing]

I am not elven, though... my father was, and my mother was a human of elven blood. I grew up in an alienage, and it was... horrifying, at times. ( The endless cycles of dust and damp, the air that carried the scent of rot and waves of sickness that could burn through the population. )

Before I came to the Inquisition, I spent some years traveling Orlais and doing what I could to lend aid to the elves of alienages, or those who were in need in assistance. I like to think myself separate from those who do naught but preach, and capable of stirring those who might have done so in the past to action. At times the steps are small, but progress is being made. That does not mean I intend to satisfy myself with small steps.

( A pause. Words are not easy for her. For someone heading a diplomatic project, she sure has to wrestle with them. ) I will not... insult you by presuming knowledge or understanding of your homeland, but I am very sorry for the abuses visited upon your people. I hope the majorities of both our worlds can be... made to understand the cruelty and the injustice in their prejudices, and learn better of it. I hope we see both improve.

[aenseidhe]

[ So this is what half-elf looks like in Thedas. Human. It's a disheartening thing - though the elves in this world don't have the problem of being long lived but slow to reproduce, humanity is literally erasing them by means of breeding alone. Iorveth's expression doesn't shift much, but there's a silence that speaks of sorrow. Saskia's goals for the Pontar Valley seems like a foolish daydream, seeing another full world heading to the same damning end as theirs. Hopeless.

He swallows, clearing his throat, and eventually speaking up to respond to her sentiments. Kind and sweet as they are, and as much as he hates to be a doomsayer, dreams and ideal do not keep a people alive. It's a hard, hard lesson his people have learned time and time again. ]

We had thought that too. A millennium and a half ago. We gave up on it far too late for it to mean anything but a death rattle of a people who've lost more than humanity will ever learn. [ By the time they took up the mantle of 'push humans back into the sea', by the time they learned just ceding land and waiting for humanity to be satisfied with what they had shared with them would never reach an end, their numbers were too diminished. Skilled warriors as they were, they couldn't reproduce and multiply as fast as man did. ]

For the elves here, I pray whatever blood trait man seems to have that urges them to conquer all things around them isn't shared here. But what I've seen of this world in just the few weeks I've been here is a haunting echo, like the prequel to the Aen Seidhe's doom. [ There's a real sincerity in his voice, because even if this girl likely doesn't walk through a market and hear 'knife-ear' or have merchants watch her too closely while she passes by their wares, she's lived in their slums. She's seen the truth of it, even if she can hide in plain sight from it. It's with a sadness in his voice that he tells her, but also with an earnest truth. ]

For your vision, you'll need many more of you. In every faith, in every nation, in every government, and your people don't have the time to wait on progress for it. [ A beat, and he shrugs, adding - ] Or a separate continent your elves can flee from humanity to.

[dashing]

A separate land had been the Dales, before the Chantry declared the elves... treacherous, and unwilling to aid in the Second Blight. At least, that is what Chantry history has taught us, but the fact of histories altered are undeniable.

( Unseen, she shakes her head. )

I am not alone. There are others eager to see the Chantry re-shaped into a force that truly reflects Andraste's goodness, and to see elves granted... agency, rather than charity. Our world is made a crucible; I hope that we might see its emerge the better for it.

[aenseidhe]

[ Iorveth lets a dryly incredulous snort out before he can manage to keep it in. ] Treacherous, off in their own nation? I assume of their own religion?

[ He's trying very hard not to say 'typical fucking human, deciding their principles are everyone's principles'. There's been a lot of things Iorveth's been trying very hard not to say since arriving in this place, feeling like he's sitting at the center of a viper's nest in this human city, alienage only so far away because he'd incidentally showed up with a shard of magic in his palm. He understands that this woman genuinely means well, and maybe he's just too old and too cynical, but it seems like far too little. ]

I don't mean a few of those like you, or even a hundred. [ Not even a full city worth, not in comparison to the rest of the world. ] I mean an army. A group with speeches and signs on soap boxes doesn't cost a ruling class a thing, so why should they change? Ignoring you is as easy as closing a window.

[ And if they don't have a reason to change, they won't. Humans don't give up comfort and fortune for no reason. A rich man may donate to charity, but you won't see him give away his estate to a pauper. ] If you want something done in time to truly mean anything to saving these people from misery, you must be unavoidable, and you must come with consequences. Nothing less will move an entire world.