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

permaprivate

[dashing]

( Her immediate response to hearing Dahlasanor's voice is to tense. It is not an easily visible thing, just a rising of tension up her back, a sort of painful apprehension gripping her chest. She steadies herself, as she always must.

It's Dalish history might be enough to make her jaw set, if the tone were not conciliatory, if they were not in agreement on this. )

I am surprised to hear that it might move the hearts of any Dalish at all. I had thought they believed themselves far above and removed from the Chant to pay it any mind.

( Her tone is also careful, respectful. She is not gifted with words or their selection, but her intention is to voice genuine surprise, not parry with spiteful derision. )

∞

[nadasharillen]

[The back prickles are mutual, but... it wouldn't do to give the lie to what she'd just said about remembering ties. There might be no love lost between the two women, but the careful respect is real.]

Removed from the Chant is... well. That's exactly what it is. No mention of an elvhen champion, no mention of the bravery of the People or the faith and love that drove them to sacrifice themselves, no mention of the gift of the Dales after which the Dalish are called. [not that they should have had to be gifted their own land but that's neither here nor there] For what reason should we feel connected, if the only thing we hear in "the Maker is with us, His Light shall be our banner," and "blessed are they who stand before the corrupt and the wicked and do not falter," [the verses roll off her tongue smoothly] is echoes of slaughter?

Shartan's Canticle returns, and... there's the very least a mirror we can look into to see ourselves. If you can't see yourself in a thing... if it isn't for you...

[she's lost the thread of her thought, but has followed it down enough to sound a little tired and sad.]

Without any of that, why would we ever even think to reach for the Maker or his Bride that they dedicated their victories to when they came to kill us and take our home?

[yeah, Nahariel, why would you.]

[dashing]

( If you can't see yourself in a thing... if it isn't for you...

It stings, sharply. She is human, and for all that she grew up in an Alienage, for all that she prays at the vhenadahl and leaves offerings whenever she is able, for all that she has spent so many of her free moments labouring in the Alienage, in so many Alienages, that she has tried to help—

she is still a human. Still evidence of human hurts against the elven people, even generations on from that hurt. She is evidence of injuries done, she is one easily judged as traitor for how easily she could hide away and disappear. The Amsels were known through Circles as elven mages of great talent, and then there was her. The human exception.

It is not the same. She can see other elfbloods in Alienages, but others do not see the elfblood in her, and they despise her for it. They have murdered for it, in the past.

It is not for you. )

What do you know of the histories perpetuated by the Chantry? I not dispute the brutality of the Exalted March - I take no joy in it. However, there are those who claim that it came to pass because the Dalish refused to take up arms with the rest of Thedas to fight the Second Blight.

[nadasharillen]

Nothing. [Frank and simple. It's about the same amount that she suspects the other woman knows about the Dalish histories; but Nari isn't in her own world anymore, and they're so separate as to make the entirety of her life irrelevant.] I've only what was passed down to me by our Keepers, and was never given reason to believe them lies.

...Rather the opposite.

[Unbidden memory: fire, the death of more than half the clan--the old, the young, friends she'd played with in the tall grasses unblinking--the loss of home, all born of human greed. It had made her anger impenetrable, something hard and polished that shone in the sun until her years in the Inquisition had pitted it. Truth had gotten so slippery. It makes her heart pound to try to grab at it. Any of it.

Too much. Suddenly too much.]

I should resume my duties. [Weak. You look weak. You are weak.]

Thank you. For talking to the Inquisition about this. I hope you find it well supported.

[The connection severs.]

[dashing]

( Herian holds the crystal, and exhales an uncomfortable breath that comes in a rasp.

There is no window to reply, whether to question or to discuss. She flexes her hands, and sets the crystal down. Typical, that the Dalish dismiss history as lies.

But then, the Chantry had been eager to dismiss segments of history for convenience, as well. What sources, then, might be trusted? )