open | full circle pt 1

[exequy]

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.

Comments

The Problem

[tender]

[ The problem is: the College of Magi. Or, the "College of Magi," consisting only of a particularly underhanded contingent of Loyalists and conservative members of a few other fraternities. They're convening in Cumberland this very moment, without inviting anyone else, with the intention of formalizing a proposal to send to the Divine. It's not going to be a good one.

Derrica looks to Madame de Cedoux, draws herself up straighter. Clasps her hands in front of her. Begins to speak. ]

Thank you all for coming so quickly. Kostos has had a letter warning us that a group of Loyalists are gathering in Cumberland as we speak to reconvene the College. Only this group intends to be present, and they intend to put together a proposal to re-establish the Circles. They want to put this before the Divine, once they've voted on it.

They've invited no one else. Not anyone here among us, or Grand Enchanter Fiona and her mages fighting on the war front. We received this letter by chance, and the Grand Enchanter has received no notice at all. The mages convening in Cumberland now intend for the proposal to carry their voices to the Divine, and no one else's. We have seen what they intend, and it is... [ well. ] I will read it.

But before we begin, I would ask you, all of you gathered here, to bear in mind that this proposal will affect each of us if it is accepted. Some of you spoke before to Holden, when he was here, or to me of your worries about what waits for you here in Thedas, and how you might be treated by the Chantry. Know that even if you are not a mage, and have no magic but the shard in your hand, you will be bound by the outcome of this proposal the same as I will. Hold that in your mind, when we begin to speak of what action we must take.

Some Particulars

[exequy]

[ Along with notice that this is happening at all, they have a copy of the proposal the "College" intends to make. Someone's paraphrased recap of it, anyway. No one had time or inclination to make copies to pass around the room, but Derrica reads it aloud: ]

1. Resume operations – Cumberland, Val Royeaux, Antiva City, Ostwick, and Redcliffe.

2. Chantry stations Templars at Circles.

3. Consolidate books and goods from abandoned Circles into op. Circles.

4. College can investigate dangerous magic w. Templars.

5. Custody of mages who present a danger.

6. Custody of mages who have been convicted of crimes.

7. Custody of children with magic (voluntarily surrendered by parents).

8. Phylacteries for Circle residents.

9. If mages enter Circles involuntarily, Harrowings required before future free travel.

10. Tranquility or execution choice for uncontrollable mages.

11. Annulment requires preliminary investigation & report by Grand Enchanter from a second Circle.

12. Mage/Templar/Chantry committee for grievances.

[ (OOC note: feel free to have your character interrupt mid-list rather than listen to the whole thing; you can use the numbers to indicate where they're jumping in.) ]

A Plan

[exequy]

[ So, the proposal sucks. Derrica, Petrana, and the others have already decided (though protests and other ideas are welcome) that they need to go to Cumberland and do something to stop it. Kostos has every intention of walking out of the meeting and directly to the griffon eyrie to go alert the Grand Enchanter and her formerly-rebel army.

But there's more to figure out, like what stopping it will look like, who is coming and what they'll be able to do, and what compromises (if any) they're willing to make if that's what it comes to. ]

Meanwhile, In The Tower

[exequy]

[ The secret meeting and its secret subject are only so secret. The Division Heads are aware of it, one way or another, before it begins—which gives them some time to decide what they're going to say, when someone (or a pack of someones) inevitably comes upstairs to tell them that they intend to go do something about this. ]

Whatever Else

[exequy]

[ (If your characters have comments or side conversations that don't fit in the breakdown above, or if you want a place to do related conversations/threads post-meeting, you can do that here!) ]

[ipseite]

( the reminder of holden's absence is both a pang of loss and a bolstering of the point at hand— )

Internal factionalism, rifter separatism, will not serve us in this. We are in the same difficulty alongside one another, and attempting to negotiate rifted concerns separately will only weaken both our mages and, indeed, any concessions we might wring from this situation. Our often temporary nature and the continued new arrivals means no agreement reached by or with rifters directly or individually can be considered reliable or binding, as easy as it might be for a new arrival a month from now to say that they made no such commitment to abide, or for all those who did to be as lost to Thedas as the dead with far less fanfare.

Like it or not, our fates are hitched together. Giving the Chantry so obvious and simple a reason to devalue all agreements made will not aid any.

[tender]

Kostos can reach the Grand Enchanter by griffon, but traveling to Cumberland will take time. When we go, [ when ] we will need to stall proceedings long enough to give them all time to arrive.

I think it would be best if we tried to get the entire proposal thrown out, rather than try to decide which pieces of it we can stomach.

closed to div heads

[bouchonne]

We could just go down there and join them.

[ Byerly suggests this as he pours himself - and any other takers - a cup of coffee. He sounds a little wistful, as though he'd like nothing better. (The man does love making a group of people extremely uncomfortable.) ]

It'd be the most efficient way to go about it. The four of us lounging pointedly in the doorway, staring at them - Flint, you could do that little cheek-twitch of yours that always looks so threatening...

[ipseite]

Or, ( on that note, more expanding the thought rather than disagreeing with derrica— ) position ourselves and the Grand Enchanter to oppose it directly—

that they do not have the authority they're asserting to the Divine, to speak so broadly, and that negotiating with them would simply split efforts rather than put the matter to bed. If the Divine has reason to believe that in acting thus she would reignite the war, and I do not think that a far-fetched conclusion to draw, she might also think twice about committing her Templars to this endeavour and weakening their ability to act on the hoof.

[propulsion]

Speaking as a representative of the beleaguered minority,

[ and he swoops by to nab himself a cup of joe ]

we don't really wanna be there for the messy brainstorming session, do we?

[exequy]

[ The battle between the instinct to say whatever he thinks and the instinct to put on a united front plays out in a few clenches and unclenches of his jaw, before the first wins. ]

They will say we cannot rely on families to send their children to Skyhold, [ which is presently serving as the primary place for the last decade's worth of mage children to receive any sort of organized education, camped with the once-rebel army, ] or children who are cast out to make their own way. If we do not corral our own people, someone will do it for us, and it will be worse.

They won't be wrong. Not about that.

[exequy]

It is useful for us to have you.

[ #diplomacy ]

You have most of the anchors. You are holding the world together.

But if there is ever a time after this war, or after your anchors— [ #wysteria ] —it will be useful for you to have us.

[foolsmakeitcolder]

Can't believe they're pulling this "HOA meeting while everyone else is working" thing.

[ipseite]

It is not the first time we have been obliged to respond swiftly to the same tactic.

[foolsmakeitcolder]

Do we have someone on the inside?

[tender]

No, they won't be.

[ They all know what worse could look like. ]

But the decision of how we organize our people and reach these children, it's not for them to make alone. And we know that the way it was done, how they're proposing it to be, wouldn't be unanimously accepted.

[ipseite]

To my knowledge we do not.

3 (replies to my own comment, whatever)

[exequy]

[ He has read this several times already, but #3 still makes him snort and mutter, with the smugness of someone who knows where some of the books (and art and money and valuables) are buried, ]

They can try.

[foolsmakeitcolder]

We might want to work on that. They could tip us off to their tactics, help us prepare arguments. If we're going the diplomacy route.

[ipseite]

It is certainly not impossible and has some value, but to find someone willing, able, and unrecognisable is a narrow target indeed— that is not a needle we will thread before this meeting.

[tender]

Shouldn't we avoid this being presented to her at all?

[ipseite]

If we can, certainly, but that may not be an end we can achieve in and of itself and we will show our hand in acting on this at all.

We run the risk that when they try again, we find out about it only when it's done. If the loyalists' true desire is to gather themselves beneath her skirts, they will go to her with something, sooner or later.

[foolsmakeitcolder]

'Course not. [Apologetically.] I'm thinking out loud.

[ipseite]

Of course. And, indeed, they are not likely to be neutralized as a problem in one swoop no matter what we do in this— it is something to think on.

post-12.

[luaithre]

That there is talk of annulment, execution, custody, and none of what could guard against corruption amongst their Templars and ranked Chantry officials—

[ A sound of derision. ]

The proposal wants killing entirely.