therookery | A SURVEY

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Baroness Frédérique Durfort-Lacapalette, Brother Jehan Mercier, and Valentine Nicasius Maxence Mérovée Olivier de Foncé
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: Important questions
WHEN: Now
WHERE: Everywhere
NOTES: Please threadjack

Inquisition, we have a question for you.

[ DO NOT SILENCE YOUR CRYSTALS. That is an Orlesian voice, but it is not Val de Foncé's voice. Instead, it is the voice of a woman, which makes it immediately superior. You are probably safe. Maybe. Keep listening. ]

You see, we are scholars. The best of scholars! And this Inquisition, it offers the most magnifique opportunities to learn more of this world and we, my friends, we are here to take on that most noble challenge!

We are conducting a study. [ From the tavern. ] Which of Thedas' nations is your favorite? Le plus fantastique? [ A pause, some murmuring reminder while the crystal is covered with a hand. ] You may not say Orlais, and you must explain why, pour l'étude.

[ HERE is Val’s voice. Please keep listening. ]

You may not say Orlais because we already know that it is Orlais. We have been to Orlais, many times. [ A voice cuts in, dry: ] We are even from Orlais, in case you had not guessed. [ From, you know. The really obvious accents. ] For this, we seek other answers. Answers that are more diverse. Perhaps it is better to say second best? Second favorite? With, naturally, Orlais being the favorite. We are, you see, all in disagreement.

It is threatening to tear us apart, when we have only just been brought back together.

Yes, because you are wrong. If you would cease to be so wrong, we would not be torn apart!

No, you are-- Ah, courage, my friends! We must not be torn apart. [ There is some shuffling and oofing. It is possible that arms are being thrown about shoulders and necks are being squeezed. ] Inquisition, we turn to you, on behalf of our reunion, and the great Baroness Haut-Brion.

If you answer our question we will permit you to call her Freddie.

You will permit nothing, but I may permit it, if your answers are particularly clever.

Also, for a bet-- [ Should Chantry Brothers make bets? Shh. Should Chantry Brothers pause while speaking to drink wine? Shhhhh. ] How many times per day is it reasonable to pray? Suppose that you are also reasonably faithful.

Suppose that you are a madman, a holy madman--

And that you desire nothing more than to be Andraste's second husband and like Maferath to be cuckolded by the Maker himself--

[ Should Chantry brothers dump wine over the heads of their friends? Shhhhhhhhh. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Indeed I have not, nor am I likely to do so, but I hardly see how faith comes into the matter. We must apply logic and logistics even to metaphor. An individual person is the smallest possible unit of personhood, as mere pieces of a person cannot survive independent if sundered. If the Marches are one man then they must be one man at all times. If they are ever separate and independent, then they must each be an individual person unto themselves, or else they would perish.

A man can be one man, but he can be of many different minds. He can see different points of view, he can accept different truths. He can doubt, he can argue with himself, he can see the larger picture but continue to get weighed down in small details and petty personal jealousies. It is maddening, and mad, but then we would not be the Free Marches if we were not both.

Any man of thought and reason might debate within himself at times, but if the Marches were a man, Knight-Commander, they should be a madman, and it is here that we must dispense with metaphor and look at history. [ Now you've done it. ]

Never since their foundings have the city-states of the Free Marches acted as one for longer than the span of a single war or Blight. They act together only to dispel threats against their independence or against humanity as a whole, and as soon as those threats have passed, they return to being their own nations, sharing neither government nor culture. They have never come together to wage war on another nation except that first they were threatened with unification and loss of that independence which they so clearly cherish.

Look at Fyruss in the Glory Age! The common enemy that they fought against together was the very unity that you claim they have embraced! And you surely would not argue that merely because Orlais and Nevarra and the Anderfels all fought together against the Blight or against Tevinter's efforts at conquest that these alliances mean that we are in fact all a single nation, would you?

[Here's where, in the tavern, Jehan and Val give Freddie applause, a standing ovation, and order another round of drinks so they can have a toast.

Freddie, you are so very clever, and they missed you so much.]

[You have, alas, stepped into his wheelhouse as well.]

Ah, but if we are going to argue the fact that since we are completely separate cities that we should be different nations - then since Val Royeaux and Montesimmard are so different, should they not be separate nations? Just because we do not act as one all the time, that does not mean we are not on each other's side when it matters. Yes, we have no king, no central government, and yes we are made of chaos most of all ...but we all see ourselves as Free Marchers. We do not call ourselves 'Kirkwallers' or 'Tantervalers'. We are Free Marchers, for we are free of kings and queens and empresses and all the rest -- but we still know we can count on one another. I have yet to see a sibling relationship that was so symbiotic as we do.

Monsieur. May I make a suggestion?

Is it to stop being dull?

No, monsieur, you can hardly help that. My suggestion to you is: stop, before you are destroyed.

He can no sooner stop this than that, I am afraid.

Perhaps. And I will confess that I do love watching you work. The spirit of fairness tells me that the man deserves a fighting chance, but...

[ She scoffs while listening, but when she replies her tone takes a turn for the gentle and polite. ]

I am not sure where you have come by your information, sir, but I am afraid you build your argument on quicksand. Val Royeaux and Montsimmard are more alike than they are different. They share a common government, societal structure, culture, currency, people, and history, as well as a constant awareness that they are part of the same empire and the conscious desire to remain so. In short, all the marks of an actual country.

Your city-states share none of these, and nothing else. Indeed the only thing in your favor is that it is more common to say "Marcher" than "Tantervaler" or "Kaitener" and I cannot help but think that is more likely caused by the awkwardness of the other terms than any claim to nationhood.

Were we to accept your definition of a country all of Thedas could be deemed one, even Tevinter, simply because we have occasionally all fought Blights together when it mattered and all would call ourselves Thedosians. While Serah Luther has advanced some interesting suggestions as to a future in which this might be possible, it would be patently absurd to claim it to be the present, and so it is with your assertions, which you will find disputed not only by scholars but by every individual ruler of each of your Free Marcher states. There are several texts on this subject you might consult that I believe would assist, and I would be happy to dig up a list of them I prepared for several of my students last term if you would like.

We're only called Marchers by people who aren't. As a point of interest.

While you make some valid points, I will grant you that, I will then gesture you towards the Grand Tourney, where all Marchers gleefully participate and share a common societal agreement that as Marchers, we stand separate -- but united against outsiders. All a Marcher really needs to be a Marcher is a common enemy, and we have plenty of those.

And while I appreciate the use of your reading list, I think I will decline, as I am afraid I do not have the time to pursue volumes that you will tell me that you have assigned, no doubt, to ten year olds.

Now, your ladyship - [All stress put on politely and serenely] - I realize that you are simply trying to educate me on why the Marchers are not their own nation but separate nations. Your arguments are intelligent and well-thought out, and by the ream of quiet scoffing I can hear in the background, strongly held by you and your fellow ... scholars. I would simply state this - we will never agree.

Which is fine by me. Do you find that acceptable as well?

Willful error is never acceptable, Knight-Commander, but it is also not my duty to expend myself any further where my efforts are so clearly hopeless. Carry on as you please.

Ah, heeding my advice, I see. You are wiser than I would have immediately guessed, monsieur.

A SURVEY

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject