faderift | open | full circle pt 1

WHO: Concerned mages/rifters/others
WHAT: An emergency meeting!
WHEN: Solace 20
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: Explanation in the OOC post. Please tag this like a network post. There are top-level comments to provide a little chronology/structure, but threadjack to your heart's content.

Before and during dinner on an otherwise unremarkable Wednesday, there's a chain of whispers (or notes, or perfectly audible comments from the particularly unsubtle) about an emergency meeting, at an evening hour, in a basement room, regarding a matter of concern to rifters and mages.

The basement part is probably unnecessary. It's certainly ineffective; the organization is too small, the Gallows too contained, and the halls too echoey for something arranged with this much finesse-wrecking haste to truly remain a secret. They could have done it in an empty office or the recreational dining hall, probably, and sat on chairs instead of storage crates. But Kostos picked the location, and he's dramatic. If nothing else it signals a clear intention to do this as unofficially as necessary.

Anyone who accepts the invitation (or just decides to come see what the fuss is about) will first encounter Marcus Rowntree, posted up outside the door like a bouncer, letting mages and rifters move through undisturbed but stepping in to question and likely bar the arrival of anyone else. Inside, Kostos is nothing but a dark scowl in the room's far corner, picking at a splinter of wood on a crate and not mustering a word of greeting for anyone who comes in. Derrica has parked herself within arm's reach of Kostos, a long gold-edged shawl spilling over one shoulder. Her diplomacy pin gleams from the front of her tunic. The worried pinch to her brow is the only outward sign of anxiety; otherwise, she is tightly contained, watching people enter. Julius–notably not in robes–is serious but calm as people come in, standing next to the ever-composed Madame de Cedoux.

Once as many people have arrived as seem likely to, Marcus closes the door, remaining beside it, and they explain what the problem is.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Are you in the right room, buddy?

Unless there's a second ostensibly secret meeting happening in another basement.

Maybe you ought to go and start one, and clear out of here.

Mages shouldn't get handled.

[Is taken in stride, without blinking. In another life, Laurentius is an excellent dragon hunter. Or a very dead one.]

You're fighting a war against an awfully large number of them. Do the Venatori not warrant address?

[Matthias, much less collected and showing all his emotions in his face, could only maybe be used as some sort of burning beacon to get a dragon's attention.]

Oh, I'll address some Venatori, mate. Don't worry about that.

I've no doubt. My question is what makes one of those Venatori distinct from a Fereldan who elects to practice magic against his neighbors?

You're really sitting here asking what makes somebody who's part of Corypheus's fucking death cult different. With a straight face.

[ wow rude to death cults-- ]

I believe Brother Vesperus is asking where the line is drawn, and how else you suggest it be enforced. Unless you anticipate only one organization's members being capable of misconduct for the rest of time.

I feel like there's a whole fuckload of space for nuance in between "let anybody the people in charge decide is dangerous choose how to be executed" and "let any old asshole do whatever they like and nobody's allowed to do anything about it", but that's just me.

How's Riftwatch deal with our internal bullshit? How do the mages at Skyhold do it? There's a place to start.

We're not gonna work out a whole system of laws at this meeting. We're stopping a power grab.

One that's being orchestrated by other mages. At least in part.

[His face is indeed very straight.]

Lady Nonagesimus and I are only asking the same questions they will. You'll be harder to dismiss with an answer.

Yeah, and I had one. Skyhold and Riftwatch are a starting point for shit that works.

We're doing the work to make something better. We aren't the ones they get to dismiss.

How do Skyhold and Riftwatch approach mages who abuse others with their magic?

[It seems to be a genuine, if relentless, question.]

Gee, that feels a whole lot like a question that should be asked before they bring this shit to the people in charge, doesn't it?

I'm not asking hypothetically. I don't know the answer.

Imprisonment, the same as any other person who committed a criminal act. And mage bane, until they are deemed safe once more.

[ Brief interjection, hand reaching out for Ellie's arm as she speaks. ]

[The anger in Ellie’s eyes doesn’t leave, but it changes to something more wary and settled, now that she sees the angle he’s coming from. She lays her hand briefly over Derrica’s, going quiet to let her handle the questions.]

[That's fine. He's been glared at skeptically before.]

For all crimes—Torture? Murder? Exploiting another's bodily autonomy? I imagine the Guard in Kirkwall would hang [soporati] anyone who wasn't a mage for those things.

Are southern mages thought to be uniquely different to other criminals, deserving of lesser punishments for equal or worse crimes?

( or worse,

they are not altus, the vesperii, but they are more than well enough positioned to be quite familiar with the creativity allowed to the criminal mind with magic at its disposal. )

Or is it the position of the south that we Tevene are uniquely terrible.

( because no one is hesitating because the venatori are mages, yes. )

I'm not a southern mage. [ for clarity's sake.

(seinfeld voice: not that there's anything wrong with ~~that~~ being a southern mage.) ]

And I said, the same as anyone else who has committed a criminal act. We are fortunate within Riftwatch to be able to dictate what that looks like, and for punishment to be meted out justly. Southern attitudes towards mages make that kind of objectivity difficult. I think you are both aware of that.

[ Regardless— ]

The proposal doesn't specify, as Brother Vesperus does. The proposal talks of uncontrollable mages. Not dangerous. Not criminal. Uncontrollable.

And you're concerned this College will, what? Ally too closely with the southern sect of the Chantry and allow them to define what 'uncontrollable' means.

What good would surrendering so much do this acting College?

Power. Influence.

[ Hands spreading, space between filled with so many benefits to capitulation, but mostly— ]

It may never be defined. You see the usefulness of a word like that left unchecked.

(no subject)

glossator - 2022-07-10 05:52 (UTC) - Expand

inkindled - 2022-07-10 22:20 (UTC) - Expand

[They are being Stared At with a rather nauseated look, but at least a silent one.]

[It's just like home!]

[ The slightest dip of a chin — Now there's an idea. ]

[Later, when not laser focused on discussing how to properly execute mages, Laurent will raise his eyebrows very slightly in Harrow's direction. Boy, the South is weird.]