NEWS UPDATES

[faderifting]

FORM: Written posts and the general grapevine
WHAT: The results of the statue poll, updates about post-war Orlais, and announcement of the new Division Heads and Project Leaders
WHEN: Now
WHERE: Around the Gallows
NOTES: Content warning for destruction of historical artifacts, Orlesian scholars avert your eyes

Statue Poll Results

The advance team sent to prepare the Gallows for Inquisition use was polled on what to do with the iconic bronze statues of beleaguered slaves, and they voted overwhelmingly to remove the statues and melt them down. The bronze will be shaped into ingots and sold, with the proceeds returned to Viscount Bran as a donation for the benefit of the city.

As for the bronze murals on the walls, they will also be removed, and half of them will be melted down and sold like the statues. The other half, however, will be auctioned off to scholars and collectors to ensure they are preserved for posterity. The proceeds of both these sales will also be donated to Kirkwall.

This work begins immediately, with several teams assigned to removal duty and others asked to pitch in overseeing the disposal as things come down, or preservation of the murals historians have chosen and tagged to be saved.

The team also opted to leave what might replace the murals, if anything, up to Kirkwall's citizens. Members of the Diplomacy division may be asked to poll the locals in the following weeks.

Orlesian Update

Things in Orlais have begun to return to normal after the events at the Winter Palace put an end to the War of the Lions for good. There have been scattered reports of looting and marauding along the former front by discharged soldiers, but on the whole both armies have disbanded and returned home with little trouble or fanfare. The general mood is relief, and Celene has dispensed with the usual triumphal celebrations, instead returning to business as usual. This has played well with those from most factions -- hardline supporters seeing it as a statement that Gaspard's revolt had no impact at all, beleaguered citizens pleased not to have years of their suffering celebrated by feasts for the nobility, and Gaspard's supporters mollified not to see the ignoble death of an honorable man celebrated.

Of course, unrest remains. The Orlesian economy stagnated during the war, and it will take time to return to its former power, to rebuild homes and business, repopulate destroyed towns, restore decimated farmland. Rumors remain regarding the attack in Halamshiral, with many quietly finding it too convenient that it could be pinned on Gaspard by his own man like that.

And then there is the matter of the elves. Celene's ennoblement of Briala and her investiture as Marquise of the Dales is obviously a joke which no one in Orlais is taking seriously, but even as just a token gesture to an acknowledged lover it is a radical statement. Elven lovers have suddenly become something of a trend among the nobility, but unlike other fads a significant majority remains disdainful at best. Though public expressions of their disgust are rare, sales of bawdy broadsheets, sanctimonious pamphlets, and tickets to satirical plays about the empress and her "marquise" are through the roof.

There have also been more-troubling incidents. The Comte of Harbeau, when ordered to pull down the walls of the alienage, instead pulled down the entire district in his small city, and turned all the elves out into the forest. There have been reports from several cities of smiths and armorers being beaten and their shops vandalized and boycotted for allegedly selling weapons to elves. At present only a minority see Briala's sudden elevation--coupled with Celene's strengthening of legal protections for elves--as a true threat rather than a novelty, but the situation remains delicate.

Leadership Appointments

A notice is posted in the Gallows announcing, effective immediately, the Division Heads and Project Leaders for the Kirkwall base:

Division Heads
Diplomacy: Gweddyn Trask*
Forces: Lord Rourke Harlungin*
Scouting: Beleth Ashara
Research: Valentine Nicasius Maxence Mérovée Olivier de Foncé

Project Leaders
Base Operations: Sucretio Casoferrazza*
Chantry Relations: Knight-Lieutenant Ser Luwenna Coupe
Corypheus' History: Frédérique Durfort-Lacapalette, Baroness Haut-Brion
Elven Artifacts: Pel
Naval Presence: Araceli Bonaventura y Castell
Northern Powers: Lord Conrad Baerendorf*
Other Powers: Javin Mazurak*
Red Lyrium: Knight-Enchanter Christine Delacroix
Rifts & the Veil: Clarke Griffin


*NPCs
We've filled in the empty positions with NPCs and provided brief sketches of them on their respective project and division pages so that you know what your character is dealing with and can use this info in RP as needed. As you'll see from their write-ups, each of these NPCs is an understandable choice by the advisors (we don't want to make them look incompetent for picking these people to begin with!) but they'll also prove to be flawed enough that it will be easy to write them out in the future when we have a PC applicant for the position, even if that PC is not themselves particularly qualified. So if you're interested in taking one of those spots currently occupied by an NPC, take a look at the Leadership page for info about the next app round!