Closed to Circle Mages

[keenly]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Colin
RECIPIENT: All Circle mages
WHAT: A lively debate about Divine candidates
WHEN: Current
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: This will be followed, hopefully, by a formal vote as to which candidate the mages throw in with.

I was thinking--oh, um, it's Colin--I was thinking if mages don't unite behind a candidate, we're likely to get one that doesn't have our interests at heart. I think if we voted to rebel, we can vote to stand together behind one of the candidates and do what we can to get them elected. Unofficially, I mean. Of course unofficially.

So let's talk about it, argue about it very loudly, and then vote on it. Who should be Divine?

Comments

[justice_is_blond]

Elise.

[The shortest of pauses.]

Going by halves may make progress... or it may not. She's ill, yes, she's older, but she's got the better ideas and even if she dies before long at least things will be started in the right direction. She'll elect people of similar minds to better positions, and we can see other candidates who are her allies.

[libratus]

[ Mildly, ]

The better ideas being which, exactly?

[faithlikeaseed]

Starts in the right direction don't always end that way, [quietly.]

[wythersake]

If she even lives through the election, she still has no chance of winning. Those allies of hers might be diverted somewhere more useful.

[exequy]

If people notice mages preferring someone—

[ Hypothetically. ]

—they may choose the opposite on principle.

[justice_is_blond]

We can scheme after we've discussed, but "because there might be repercussions" is not a reason to not see if we as mages can find some unity. Colin has an excellent idea.

[wythersake]

We could use that.

[wythersake]

We may be approaching this from the wrong end. Focusing on a single face, and not a single issue.

I don't imagine that we agree upon the details of our shining, future utopia — but we've all enjoyed certain privileges of our presence in the Inquisition. It's the Inquisition's pressure that may allow us to preserve them. Which are most important?

[faithlikeaseed]

Self-determination. Redress against injury or abuse.

[pause.] And judging from how many of us have done it, freedom to form romantic attachments.

[foundmyselfagain]

Pina coladas on the beach.

[sarcophage]

And those who didn't vote to rebel?

[faithlikeaseed]

Oh, damn, was I not entitled to my opinion here? [dry.]

[galvanising]

Maker, it's been ten minutes and you've already all given up and started talking about how to make the Circles slightly less awful when they come back. What, because a couple of Loyalists who miss their cushy life told you it's impossible to do any better? Bullshit. We've spent four years saving the world while the Chantry faffed about wringing its hands, we are not going back under anybody's thumb.

We don't even know if the rumors about Elise are true. Calling someone senile because they don't want to lock up mages seems about right for Grand Clerics, don't you think? And even if she is on her last legs, who cares? Get her in the door, get a few precedents on paper, let her pick a successor who feels the same. We don't need twenty years of slow careful growth when we've already moved leaps and bounds in the last five. We just need what's already true ratified by an actual Divine so it's harder to take back once we've won this war for them.

[sarcophage]

Well said.

[keenly]

That's...true. I wonder if we could get anywhere by claiming the rumors about her health are lies. Especially if we "prove" it somehow.

I just. Don't want to lose everything just because we were too wistful.

[faithlikeaseed]

Right--and we'll do exactly as well as we did in Ghislain when we open that war on a few more fronts. [it's not as sarcastic as it could be; the anderfels are down one (1) king due to present company.]

Who are you volunteering to be her Hand and see that all shakes out exactly as planned?

[justice_is_blond]

Senility does sound like an easily made accusation. So how do we increase Elise's support and make her more likely to take the hat? Without entirely alienating the couple of loyalists who are still mages.

[wythersake]

Whether something's true, and whether it's plausible to stick, are two different discussions. If handful of mages go 'we cross our hearts, she's sharp as a tack' — what does it practically change?

[foundmyselfagain]

This is why you’re the smart one.

[ 😎 ]

[circleprodigy]

Elise's stances are commendable, but between her reported issues and vast amount of detractors, her chances are virtually nil. Agathe seems a much more viable candidate, by comparison. She is progressive, her mind is sharp...and her shortcomings are more surmountable. Unless those rumors about Elise are proven to be unfounded, I think the latter is a better bet.

[justice_is_blond]

Maybe it shouldn't be about safe bets. Maybe it should be about what we dream it could be.

[foundmyselfagain]

I fail to see why we should be so eager to elect the head jailer to a prison we've just escaped from. The reason we're enjoying this grey area is because the snake lacks a head to direct its fangs.

I'm not saying we should ignore the whole situation, obviously. They'll go about this with or without our input—and they'd probably prefer without. But surely there are options besides having to pick the lesser evil out of a whole host of them?

[wythersake]

You'd look splendid in a gown, but I do believe they check.

[keenly]

Pick up everything and flee to the most obscure island we can find?

[overharrowed]

[Julius strongly considers just listening and not contributing anything at all. He might have done it, too, had he not been able to perfectly the picture the pointed look he would get after summarizing the high points and promptly being asked And what did you say. Still, he listens a fair amount before he chimes in, his tone mild.]

An unofficial vote is well and good, but as we've aptly demonstrated, no vote is going to be unanimous. Unlike rebellion, though, I'm not sure what the stakes are, exactly. Are we going to require adherence? Is it enough not to outright oppose the majority choice, or must we make no moves to support any of the others? Must we outright work against someone we think best, if she's not winner of a straight up and down vote?

As someone who spent a very trying few days at Skyhold hammering out negotiations not that long ago, I'd remind everyone that nothing about mages and templars has been won, it's suspended. But even so, I don't think there is sufficient evidence to imagine that all but one of the present candidates will just throw all of our negotiations onto the fire the moment she's elected. And while those gains are fragile, if we don't believe they were real, I don't know why we spent so much effort securing them in the first place.

[justice_is_blond]

[His voice is equally gentle.]

They didn't give us any gains that couldn't be easily reversed. They didn't destroy the phylacteries, only gave tenuous rights that can be revoked. The Inquisition had a chance to make a stand and it chose to be wishy-washy. It did not inspire any faith.

It's not on you. I've full confidence that you did everything you could. But more parties than just the mage party would have to work toward a better future for mages, and our people had no true allies at that table.

And to move on from here, I'd suggest no moves to support more conservative candidates. If you cannot support Elise, at least don't through your weight behind the ones who want us all caged again. And without the option to form relationships.

[How's Petrana?]