crystal || OPEN.

[degenere]

FORM: sending crystal
SENDER: Val de Foncé
RECIPIENT: E V E R Y O N E
WHAT: researchers, meet your new boss. everyone else, give Val a high five. applications for Research Secretary now being collected.
WHEN: right now
WHERE: your ears

Research, Inquisition. [Hail and well met my dudes Val is still Orlesian. Note the accent.] If this word does not thrill you as it does me, we have very little to speak of. In fact we may not have spoken at all. In Val Royeaux, at the University, I and my friends are well known for all of the research that we have contributed to the vast stores of knowledge that are contained within our much beloved and greatly venerated University.

And I am pleased now to inform you, Inquisition, that I have been made Head of Research for this very organization that we all name as our own. A very wise choice. There are so very few that possess my credentials, experience, and charm. It is my belief that we, as a division, shall far surpass the work of all other divisions. For our purpose is not only superior: it is clearer, too.

[In a more serious tone, now:] To those lucky enough to be working on research projects for the Inquisition, I am requesting that all work you have amassed on each topic be put into the fires and burned. [And a pause before, more cheerfully:] No! Do not do that. What I mean is, we start anew, together. But you must submit your work to me for a metaphorical burning. I shall burn it with my critique. I require at the very least a written proposal for the work you are conducting. If a project has begun, let us visit it together.

I shall also require a secretary. Chief duties for this position will be, of course, reading project proposals. Please, make an introduction and submit your credentials to me in my office forthwith. You need not be a member of our research efforts, but you must have a keen interest in reading terrible handwriting.

[And generally doing all the work but that part remains unsaid.]

And! To those that might contest my selection, I shall quote the translation of a rustic proverb found engraved upon the wall of Orzammar, taught to me by my very dear Baroness Frédérique: may a demon eat your arse.

Comments

[kartereo]

There is a great trend to prioritize moving one's family forward towards the accomplishments intended by the family's lineage to refine their craft to the point of disregarding others. Magi are scholars, but frequently narrow in scope.

And as for my colleagues, that is a deeply individual question. But if I had to guess, I'd say there's a greater lean towards disinterest.

[degenere]

Disgusting. Appalling. No slight to your country, monsieur, but it is greatly distressing to me to think of any university where furthering a family comes before knowledge. In Orlais, our society does well love the elite, the royal, the titled. In our University, we strive to stand above such things, to make a name for the University by furthering our knowledge. It is to the University that we owe our greatest fealty. Such is the way that all scholars should think of their work.

A narrow scope is only useful when it is deployed as an academic focus, an edged blade by which the veil of ignorance might be sliced aside.

And I am sorry, monsieur, for the fate of scholarly magics in your world.

[kartereo]

I don't disagree with anything that you've said. It is a particular annoying quirk that the course of things took on some centuries ago, and well. It has endured.

[Waver does hate a number of parts of it, but mostly the part where his own abilities are limited due to bloodline. But that's a much more private matter, and something he is in no mood to discuss.

Then again, the problems of Clock Tower continue to sound better than how Thedas treats their mages, so there is that.]

But now that we have sidetracked completely, we might return to the original topics at hand?

[degenere]

My apologies, monsieur. There is no passion quite like my passion for the pursuit of knowledge. I find it difficult to set it aside, and can get carried away when speaking of it.

You are correct. The original topic was, as I recall, a funny sort of secrecy for projects you believe may be... perhaps we shall say, corrupted, by my knowledge of them? I assure you: you have no cause for worry.

[kartereo]

None needed. Having dozens of people from different worlds makes it hard not to get carried away when the opportunity to do so arises.

Well, I just wanted to make sure the other arms of this many headed creature won't take issue. That was all.

[degenere]

Yes, this structure is all rather confusing, isn't it. Then again, you are of a university. You must be familiar with such labyrinthine structures of institutions. Departments, department heads, specializations... But we are all united beneath a single banner, are we not?

Therefore we must keep no secrets and make plain our everything.

[which means tell him everything]

[kartereo]

I feel like any university administration would laugh about actual unity from departments, but I follow your meaning well enough.

[degenere]

Precisely, yes. You have the right of these institutions. Which means we must strive to be more than them. Our calling is higher, our cause is-- well, perhaps not greater. But just as great, at the very least.

And I will say now that I am pleased to be working with you, monsieur.

[kartereo]

I wouldn't talk too much about higher callings and greater purposes yet, you know. Just in case something decides to come bite everyone in the ass before the whole thing can gain momentum.

But you are going to make life interesting, that much is clear to me.

[degenere]

I strive always to be interesting, my friend, if nothing else. Now, when I ended my message by saying that a demon might eat the arses of naysayers, I did not mean ours, you know. Is this truly a worry?

[kartereo]

No, that part just seemed obvious expression. Lord knows there's enough variants of it back home.