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

[degenere]

Well-- [hang on now] --yes, of course you are correct. The upper echelons of Orlais are invariably human, save for those of more scandalous and thrilling birth and background, of which there are more than you might think. But this means that I have the viewpoint of education. It is not my fault if some elf of an alienage never learned to read. I would see him taught to read in an instant, if he had the mind and the wits for such a skill. But he might not. Why would you ask history of a man who can neither read nor write?

[Let's think about this, please, is in Val's tone.]

He knows only what he has been told. This is subject to opinion--and, yes, so might a text or a history. But it is in a single place, in ink, and we can question its influences and opinions. We can research to oppose it. What can we use to oppose some penniless elf in an alianage but our own opinion? It does not do.

Which is why we must see your research published. You must put what you learn and what you know to parchment so that we can make sure it is read and discussed and learned in kind. With the right backing and the correct reviews, and of course a stunning forward, we can get it sold to all the correct people.

[bookish_lioness]

You misunderstand. I never meant that you would want the average city elf to be uneducated; only that they are, by the nature of the society that's formed around them. Or, at the very least, they're widely considered to be less educated. Even if they can barely read and write your language, many elves still retain at least a fragmented knowledge of the original Elven language, which is widely thought to be fairly difficult - particularly the Dalish, whom many consider to be uncivilized simply because their civilization differs greatly from that of humans'.

And speaking of the Dalish, they're widely considered to be the experts of Elven history, are they not? And yet that history is largely passed down in the oral tradition, which may be somewhat faultier than written text, but is still knowledge. A different cultural upbringing has little bearing on how much a person may know, only on what he or she might know.

But I'm no elf, and I'm certainly not going to speak for the elves when they have their own voices, so I apologize for going off on a tangent. I was only using them as an example.

[She doesn't much like the idea of there being "correct people" to sell her work to, but she knows what he's trying to say and doesn't want to get pedantic over it.]

If I come to any conclusions or even theories worth having with my research, I'll gladly write it down and then you can do as you will with it. I don't require any formal acknowledgement from it; I'd only ask that it's known that a rifter conducted said research.