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

[utulien_aure]

I will not pretend to entirely understand the importance the Chant of Light holds in Thedas.

[Organized religion is...just. Odd.]

But people have the right to know their history. That includes the elves of Thedas... and its men as well. Living under a lie is no blessing, even when one does not know the lie exists.

[dashing]

I make no protest of the destructive nature of lies. There is no honour in falsehood, and it can bring no joy.

The Chant of Light... it is the song of our Lady Andraste, who sought to liberate all from the shackles of slavery. A woman of great bravery ad compassion.

[utulien_aure]

And yet that is often not so apparent to those enmeshed in with them. How fierce do you expect the resistance to these Verses to be?

She seems a valiant woman indeed, and well worthy of song.

[dashing]

Shartan's image has been defiled in art and the man himself labelled a heretic for some seven hundred years. I cannot predict the resistance, but well can I imagine being.... reticent to acknowledge mistakes and misdeeds committed by something so important to them.

I believe so. Shartan was one of her closest allies.... I think it better he is acknowledged as such.

[utulien_aure]

That is... unsurprising. But acts of healing cause pain all too often; that does not mean they are not necessary.

Then were I you, Knight-Enchanter, I would hold to his defense- now more than ever. It may make things more difficult, in the fight against Corypheus. But compromises made for expediency are harder to take back than we imagine at the time.