009.

[dashing]

FORM: crystal
SENDER: Herian
RECIPIENT: ALL
WHAT: new location unlocked
WHEN: sometime after the proposed rifter phylactery research announcement & Thranduil's post
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: Chantry memorial is complete! IC post from a while back, a location information post and visual reference.

Good morrow, Inquisition.

( Herian always sounds even and controlled. It's her own personal cliche, on par with "it was a dark and stormy night." Now, however, it takes on a new dimension, a suggestion of flatness that could be tiredness, or could be... something else. )

I bring good tidings. Though there were those who felt the loss of the Hightown forest keenly, the fire cleared the way for work to begin on the memorial, the progress of which had been stymied for some time. Working with a committee of Kirkwallers, the families of the lost and survivors, and members of the Chantry, the Chantry Relations project and the Inquisition has aided with the design and construction of the memorial gardens. The gardens were designed as a place of reflection and to commemorate all those who lost their lives in the Chantry explosion of the thirty-seventh year of the Dragon Age, and its aftermath. However... as a place of peace for all those who have lost people and who seek succour, all are welcome.

It would be remiss to speak of the memorial gardens without acknowledging, in particular, the work of Siuona and Nahariel of Clan Dahlasanor. For all that feeling was much divided on it, the current growth and fertility of the gardens would have been impossible without the efforts and Sina and those who aided her in raising the forest. It was their shared vision of a peaceful place for the coming together of people in remembrance that allowed Andraste's Grove to come into being, and Narahiel's work that gave us the statue that has become an icon for so many. Though the fire destroyed much, all that survived it - the trees, the flowers, the ground of that grove as well as the statue of Andraste - are sacred. It has become a place of peace, and of pilgrimage. Knowing all the injuries that the Chantry has inflicted in the past, it seems... it seems all the more fitting that a place of healing and reconciliation be the result of Dalish idealism.

( Her own feelings on the Dalish are not warm, or perhaps much better than frosty, but her sentiment is genuine.

There follows a bit of a pause. )

I hope that... even with all the adversity that faces us now, new challenges arising alongside the old, that when it comes to protecting this world and standing against Corypheus, we can do so together. That... that animosity might be saved for those who stand as a threat to us all, and that breaches between us, allies even when it be... through circumstance rather than choice, might be settled peacefully whenever possible.

Easy words to say, I know, and I cannot claim that I have stood by that ideal anywhere near so well as I ought in times past. I wish to do better, on that count. If you should wish to find me, I am most often in the Chantry Relations office. Doubtless there is much to discuss, in light of recent developments and proposals.

Comments

[gottakeeponejumpahead]

Excellent.

[A beat.]

We needed more meat shields anyways.

[degenere]

Did all the Fereldans pack up and leave? A pity.

[gottakeeponejumpahead]

Nah they just decided Orlesians were more expendable. Even more than the dogs!

[degenere]

Do Fereldans not love their dogs to nearly obscene degrees? Would it not be said that to a Fereldan, all men would be more expendable than his dog?