006.

[dashing]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Herian
RECIPIENT: Everyone, part filtered to Chantry Relations
WHAT: the forest & Chantry Relations things
WHEN: once everyone is cured
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: There’s an OOC post regarding Chantry Relations and with a form to involved parties to fill in over here.

Members of the Inquisition, this is Knight Enchanter Amsel. I apologise for demanding your time once again, so soon after my last communication.

Now all are recovered from the sickness, there is an important matter to address. The Chantry Relations project was seeing to the matters regarding the forest grown over the Chantry ruin, and I have been engaging with local Chantry officials to determine its fate. Now it is almost gone in its entirety, we must take a different tact.

I well understand the attachment a number of Inquisition members had to the forest, especially in the wake of losing Dahlasanor, but this is a matter of some delicacy and importance to both locals and the Chantry, so I would beg your patience as we deal with the site and the few trees that remain.

( And for Chantry Relations Project Members only: )

Project members, I think it would be prudent to meet to refocus our efforts and consider what our areas of priority might be; though our particular political alignments and personal opinions differ, we are all of us bound to the Inquisition, and securing the favour of the Chantry will allow us to make use of an influential political ally, and leave our efforts unhampered by the repercussions of their poor opinions. With the sickness now passed, I think it best we press on with our duties.

If you would like to speak with me individually prior to our meeting as a group, that is entirely welcome. Gauging our respective talents and to what methods we are most suited is worth consideration, as well.

Before we get to that, however, I believe it is imperative that we address the matter of the forest that was growing in the ruins of the Chantry, and has since been burned down.

I— ( Where to start? This is a complex matter, contentious, by some counts, and incredibly straightforward for others. )

As stated before, with Knight-Lieutenant Coupe's approval I had taken initial steps to speaking with Chantry leaders in Kirkwall to see how the forest might be dealt with to best suit as a memorial, but now the forest has been largely destroyed we should move quickly before some other unexpected event come to pass. If this matter is of particular interest to you or you’ve suggestions on how we might work with the Chantry to create a fitting memorial and curry favour, I’d be glad of your time and insights.

Comments

[tactical_alert]

If yourself and Knight Enchanter Voss would care to draw up a design to present to be considered, I would suggest it not be done in an official Inquisition capacity, as that alone might sway opinion, but rather your own as concerned citizens with a proposal. Once their decision is made, then we may officially offer our assistance in funding, securing materials, construction, and so on.

[dashing]

The entire purpose of the exercise is to show the Inquisition's willingness to support; multiple designs would be offered, so that the committee could make a definitive choice, with the guarantee that the Inquisition will provide manpower and materials to see it done.

( Her tone is curious, rather than sharp or condemning. ) What are you concerns with designs being offered by the Inquisition? Perhaps we can address those particular worries.

[tactical_alert]

To be quite frank, I think we've done enough damage to this particular project as it is, even if the initial forest problem was not as such sanctioned by us. And I think attaching the Inquisition name to any design might unfairly sway a vote--whether it be for our designs or against them.

As much as we try to help, Knight Enchanter, we are far from the most beloved organization here in the city, and I think in a sense of more general diplomacy and good will, it may be in our best interest to be hands off about it until our help is asked for. The Kirkwallers knew what they wanted before we showed up; they simply had not the funds. They tend to be contentious and split, but perhaps putting trust and faith in them to come up with and agree upon their own designs would be a step forward, rather than us assisting and babying them the whole way.

...Forgive me, perhaps I am overthinking the situation.

[dashing]

The choice remains theirs, Seeker. Our designs would not be requirements, only offerings, taking into account what they have communicated to be their desires, when they have previously not had the means to progress to this stage.

I have been advised that the committee was dealing with indecision and that had been part of the difficulty in ensuring funding previously; this is simply an effort to ensure progress is made, and the committee and the Chantry can have the satisfaction of moving forward rather than the memorial floundering. You are correct that the Inquisition damaged this project; showing our full willingness to see it move forward as swiftly as possible seems a necessity.

[faithlikeaseed]

The Seeker's got a point about that, though--we might offer them designs in the spirit of helping them past their impasse, but would they take it in that spirit? Or be seen as condescension on our part, after a member of the Inquisition took things out of their hands once before?

[He's succeeding mostly in keeping his voice level, staying dispassionate about this. Think about the people of Kirkwall, not of Sina or her forest.

After a moment's thought, he adds,] Though if we take Knight-Enchanter Voss' suggestion and commission designs from native Kirkwallers, it might lessen the impression we're intruding on the process.

[dashing]

( Calmly, but with a certain crispness, )

Mage Shivana, do you imagine that these designs would be put together without the permission of the committee, and their wishes and requests taken into account?

[faithlikeaseed]

Not at all, knight-enchanter; pardon me for playing Maferath's advocate, but I'm thinking through how the offer itself might sound. Though I realize now I'd done you the disservice of assuming the offer of designs would be baldly presented as a solution to their prior indecision--so forgive me that.

[dashing]

No matter. ( She needs to get better at laying out every detail, it seems, but that is something she has known for a long time. ) I had been speaking with members of the committee prior to taking on this new role. Doing the right thing for the people of Kirkwall matters much.

[faithlikeaseed]

[He's silent for a long moment, running back through his memory of all that has been said on the topic. Quietly, then,] So you'd said, and I'd not listened. In that case, much of my concern is ill-founded.

[A slow breath out.]

You'd mentioned the people of Darktown and the alienage not having much of a say in this. Is there some way they might be brought in, too, without causing too much upset?

[dashing]

I would like, at least, to try and incorporate a means to acknowledge their losses, even if the committee is reluctant to work with them. The ideal scenario would be to get them involved, I suspect there has been reluctance on both sides.

[faithlikeaseed]

And one side more justified in it than the other. [The words could be bitter from anyone else; from Myr they're merely sad, resigned.]

It might work to consult them--the hahren, at least, and whoever speaks for the people of Darktown--before the designs are commissioned. Knowing that, someone [Herian, probably, but he'd not like to volunteer her into it tacitly,] could act as their advocate on the committee.