crystal

[wroughtamiss]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Deacon and Myrobalan
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: Confess your weird magic Inquisition
WHEN: Throughout the month
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES:
HERE is the survey sheet if you want to just fill it out that way. HERE are the assignment details. Also if you've got a rifter and/or a non-loyalist mage who'd like to be part of this please PM Deacon's journal and we'll sort it since they'd include one of each to try to get better coverage.
There's the option to self-report via npc if your character wouldn't but you'd like to. If you'd like to report on other characters please check with that player first but I know we got spies and shady folks and that's fun but let's make it fun for everyone!

Greetings Inquisition. In light of the negotiations some of your number participated in there are of course promises to be upheld on the Inquisition's end. Namely concerning magic or abilities those among you called rifters possess not native to Thedas as well as magic outside the Circle.

If you'd complete this survey, you'd have our gratitude. If you will have it, you'll have the Chantry's gratitude too: I needn't have to tell you the importance of not sitting idle, all of you.

We'll be available if you'd rather do this in person but copies of the survey are available in the Chantry Relations office.

As with the medical surveys and the information we’re keeping on the shardbearers, this will be maintained--and transferred to the Chantry--under a cipher. If you’ve further concerns about what might be done with what we’ve gathered, [and Myr’s tone says he very well knows there will be,] I’d ask you bring them to me as the new head of Chantry Relations.

[Not for him this whole formal announcement stuff; or, more likely, he’s had too much on his mind to make one. Nevertheless, a splinter of his usual humor:] I’ll be with the surveys in the office.

Comments

[heirring]

Pardon, but is there any reason someone with skills like this should be concerned?

[Wysteria, this would have been a better question to ask before you turned in your survey.]

[faithlikeaseed]

[That's not a loaded question at all and Myr answering it this quickly is nothing at all like throwing himself on a live grenade.]

Because Thedas--southern Thedas, under the Chantry's influence--is a place wary of magic, serah.

[heirring]

Yes, thank you. I know all about that actually. Do you think the Chantry intends to mistreat this information based on that wariness? And what is this information payment for, exactly? I believe Brother Deacon mentioned negotiations. Could you explain those to me?

[faithlikeaseed]

[Does he believe, well--that's a good question.]

I think, [careful, thoughtful,] that comes down to what one means by mistreat. The Chantry will act as the Chantry has acted in the past--ostensibly to protect her people, even if that means cutting mages and rifters back out of the flock once Corypheus is dealt with for good and all, and putting us away somewhere safe.

The negotiations--d'you know what a phylactery is?

[heirring]

Not at all. [Without missing a beat:] Do you expect that's likely? Even with all the effort being expended by mages and rifters to support the Inquisition's cause?

[faithlikeaseed]

Right--they're a means to track a mage through her blood. They were used to catch southern mages who'd fled the Circle and casting a spell on one hits the mage it's tied to. The Inquisition had a cache of 'em it meant to hold on to; for the most part, we thought them better destroyed. A number of the Inquisition's mages refused to work until they were and sent a delegation to negotiate terms--with the Inquisition and the Chantry--for continued service.

One of the concessions they gave up was phylacteries might be made for rifters. Needless to say, our rifters weren't well-pleased with that and organized a delegation of their own. They succeeded in doing away with mandatory phylacteries for rifters in all but a few cases, as well as winning recognition as people with rights due them--and the Chantry's own acknowledgment you aren't demons.

In turn, the Inquisition's got to yield up all our research on the rifts and rifters, including details on any magic you've brought with you. And your fates are linked to ours, when all's said and done; what happens to mages will go for rifters if the Circles return.

[Honestly,] I don't know. And I'm not opposed to some kind of separation either, you've got to understand. My Circle was--is my family; the life suited me. But it didn't so many others, and--that was the least of the trouble.

[heirring]

Oh, well that all seems to square then. I'd much rather someone had names and descriptions of our Talents than some kind of sympathetic enchanted object tied to me. [Evidently not flustered by much of anything he's said:] No, list keeping seems very sensible if done responsibly. As does some division, if you like. But I suppose the problem is for people who it doesn't suit, isn't it? It seems very cruel to be made to live in a place you don't want to be in, doing a thing you don't want to do.

Though I suppose that's neither here nor there for the time being. Does the Chantry often change its mind about these things? Deciding who has rights and is or isn't a demon, I mean. I suppose it might depend on the Divine when a new one is chosen...--

[faithlikeaseed]

[He’s a longer time replying to this one, his attention pulled away elsewhere.

It seems very sensible, she says, and he hadn’t realized he’d been braced for a fight on two fronts until then. That’s already endeared her to him.]

It does; but it was crueler still for those without magic to live under the rule of mages. Besides, [and here his voice is rueful,] it’s not that we’d have all had so many other opportunities to do as we wished outside the Circles; most elves live and die within a mile of where we’re born. [An alienage’s walls are more permeable than a Circle’s but where did you go, when you crossed outside them? Mostly back in.

He pauses a moment at her question, considers, reconsiders, and spends a moment in irritation at himself for doing so. Where's your certainty gone, Myrobalan?]

Much will depend on the Divine when she's chosen--though I'd consider also the Nevarran Accord as the closest we've got for precedent to your case. That carved out the Circles and lasted us better than eight Ages until it was broken, and not by the Chantry. A simple declaration without a Divine on the Sunburst Throne--it's not like to have such staying power, unless a woman who agreed with it is elected.

action sidebar

[wroughtamiss]

You were made leader of Chantry Relations and you speak that way as we carry out this work?

[A low contained fury in his voice as he says it, one hand curled about the back of the chair. Deacon could make the wood creak if he wanted. He's the strength for it.

Instead he anchors himself with it, turned mostly from Myr, jaw clenched, careful breaths through the nose. Stood straight. A talk man. A broad man. Aegis of the faith a solid bloody bulwark.]

[faithlikeaseed]

[Well--

Well, that answers something Myr'd wondered about in the disposition of this assignment.

He's fought larger. He's also lost to larger, nine times out of ten, without the advantage of surprise or magic and that hadn't been the kind of fight that would end with his blood all over the surveys they're collecting. Knowing exactly how this will go takes any fear out of the interaction but none of the wariness.

There is value in that fury; even blind he'd see that. So, without irony, without guile:] How would you have me speak, brother? How would the Chantry?

[wroughtamiss]

[For it to be so soon after Tevinter and to appoint who they have to the leadership of this project is somewhere between mockery and an insult.

A man. An elf. A mage. How much of the Chant, the Chantry, the founding principles does the Inquisition mean to do away with while they're without a Divine? Here he understands the fear of the Mothers better; he is here, he is amongst it, he is choking on it.

Even if Justinia had ideas outside the norm, never would she have gone this far.] The Chantry would have you speak as you know you should: the Chantry protects her people. I have lived that as you have not. I have been there when the refugees have come. When they came from a war that spread from here as a pestilence. More than thirty years ago I took my vows as a Brother of the Faith in Markham.

The Chantry is clear. The Chant is clear. You recall the Chant when it speaks of magic and mages, the Canticles that should come to mind.

[Transfigurations. Erudition when speaking with these rifters. At least to start.]

[faithlikeaseed]

[He cannot know the thoughts of another's heart, but there are patterns in the world one can guess at, and Myr knows how he falls into them: Elven mage, twice beneath contempt for the most orthodox. (Elven mage who has ideas above his station and beyond the walls of the Circle, already a heretic in his heart--oh, what they'd do with that.)

He knows--but it's still hard to suspect of anyone in particular, unprovoked, that prejudice plays a role in how he's treated because he always wants to believe better. Always tries to. Certainly in this Brother's case he'd been incautious with his words, tread around the edge of orthodoxy in a way Coupe had already dressed him down for once before--

But it doesn't mean either of them are right. Even if they're worth listening to and listen he does, to the end of what Deacon's got to say, without interruption or a flicker of anything beyond obedient interest on his face.

Quietly, then:]

When speaking of mages and magic, Brother, I keep the Chant always in mind: Those who bring harm without provocation to the least of His children are hated and accursed by the Maker.

The Chantry protects her people. The Chantry protected me and my Circle, [until it couldn't,] but came too late for Kirkwall. Evil men wrest and pervert the Chant to their own ends; they shackle the Chantry's hands and slow her work of justice, and all the while the innocent suffer and die. I would see them rooted out; to not speak of what they have done and the harm it's done the Chantry's name gives them cover. To say none have reason for concern while they remain in place--

[He realizes where this could go, how it contrasts with what he'd said and the very clear warning that he's been given. He cuts himself short, draws a breath in and lets it out before continuing,]

But I've known only the inside of a Circle for most of my life. You've fought for the folk who need it most and it isn't my ideals that will stitch the Chantry back together. I'd have you as an ally against those who would destroy her completely.

private

[rathercommon]

I expect so, yeah. You ought to be careful.

private

[heirring]

My, how mysterious. Is there a reason you think so, oh nameless voice?

private

[rathercommon]

I've got a name, Wysteria. Just cause we haven't talked before doesn't mean I haven't got one.

[ A huff. Honestly. ]

And yeah. The reason is that when people learn of new types of power, more often than not, they want to learn how they can use it and exploit it. 'Cause that's how people work.

permaprivate

[heirring]

Well I hardly doubt your parents forgot to name you. That was meant as an invitation for you to introduce yourself.

[Thank you very much. Also, pardon you. That first name is for particular friends only. Nevermind the rest of it (as: obviously; what does she sound like, a complete imbecile?).]

[rathercommon]

[ She purses her lips. ]

Kitty. I'm in research.

[heirring]

Oh, [Well. Not at all contrite, but certainly reconsidering being so tart:] I'm the same.

[Rally, Wysteria, rally!]

Are you a rifter as well, Kitty?

[rathercommon]

Yeah, I am. Been here a few months longer than you.

[ But, a bit impatient with these pleasantries - ]

You're not telling 'em anything, right?

[wroughtamiss]

[Mages are generally hysterical, probably worse with a taste of freedom, why should rifters be any different?]

The Chantry and it's position on magic is well-known to those native to Thedas. That it is a corrupting influence that must not rule man, only serve it.

The people of Thedas have suffered at the hands of mages throughout history as I believe I explained previously-- [Myr we're having words later son the fuck is this?] and through the actions of Anders, the Mage-Templar war and then to have so many mages with a body they understand little with those from through the Fade? Where only demons and spirits reside? It is their duty to act to safeguard the flock which is the whole of Thedas.

People have been hostile to even the idea of the Chant and mages to much. These are simple questions to comply with what came of negotiations.

[heirring]

Oh certainly. I know all that. I really have been paying attention, truly, and I don't know that my information is really of much consequence at all given the current state of-- well, everything. It only seemed as if our dear Head of Chantry Relations thought there might be cause for concern. Or thought there might be certain parties with cause for concern, which naturally should inspire a certain type of curiosity.

[She can hear herself, how silly and witless she sounds. But there can be no harm in discussing a thing frankly, including one's own ignorance.]

You will have no argument from me. It's true that there seems to be good reason for the Chantry's concern and it's true that I seem to have come through the Fade - though I think it must have been a very short visit, for what it's worth. Something like passing a needle through fabric. And so it seems strange to be concerned about whether the needle is actually thread. --Does that make sense?

[wroughtamiss]

How certain are you that it was a visit?

[Wysteria that smacks of demon talk, he has no time for demon talk especially with a mage in the room.]

All information is something the Chantry would gladly hear of but perhaps I should tell you more of the Fade, of spirits and demons. The Canticle of Erudition says the following:

The first of the Maker's children watched across the Veil
And grew jealous of the life
They could not feel, could not touch.
In blackest envy were the demons born.

So it is said that the Maker created the Fade long ago and that it is His first world populated by His First Children who we call spirits, but the spirits could not create. He turned from them as they lacked a soul. They imitated things they had seen. They could not imagine. They could alter their world at will but that was all so He left that world to create Thedas, and between them he put the Veil, though He didn't realise that his First Children could see this new world. They watched. They watched us, the new children of the Maker, and they grew envious of us.

This is why we are concerned. There are places where the Veil grows thin and spirits pass through: they have watched, they have observed, they will be by battlefields and pick up weapons, possessing corpses, and they attack because this is what they've seen. This is before we touch on demons.

[They have reason to be concerned. To be afraid. History has given Thedas and her people every reason to exercise all due caution.]

[heirring]

[Very certain. So certain that she can recall no detail of it; certainly if she'd been there for any length of time, she might at least do that. But--]

Is that what people think I am> What rifters are, I mean. Spirits imitating things. Good gods. I would if that was what I was trying to do that I'd be slightly better at it, don't you?

[wroughtamiss]

I cannot speak for all [he has his failings but pride isn't one of them] but that's the most obvious way to look at it in light of the evidence we have. That or demons seeking to gain a foothold in this world. What do you believe you would be better at?

[Just...trying to play it calm here and not immediately leap to his concerns.]

[heirring]

Well. [Said slowly and with all the thought in the world, a pause to give her more time to consider the question.] Well, I would expect I might know more about Thedas, for one. If I had spent my entire existence staring at it. And I think I wouldn't be quite so obvious about being a stranger in this place. If my goal is to trick someone into thinking I'm harmless or that I belong here, I seem to be doing a very bad job of it thus far. All rifters seem to be, I mean. Not that I'm specifically going around bathing in blood or anything.