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faderiftooc2018-05-06 09:11 pm
exequy) wrote in faderiftooc2018-05-06 09:11 pm
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Phylactery Plot Update: Negotiation Outcomes!
After ~5 days of negotiations among representatives of the Inquisition, striking mages, Templars, and the Chantry, an agreement has been reached. The Inquisition has agreed to destroy many of the phylacteries in its possession, but in order to make that agreement without unduly angering the allied Templars and the Chantry, the Inquisition has also agreed to a number of other demands made by them.
There will be a backdated IC announcement (or multiple announcements) about this soon, but as of the current IC date you can assume your characters have heard the general gist of the specific terms laid out below via either formal announcement or gossip.
EDIT: Since this is causing more discussion and excitement than we expected, new plan! The written terms of this agreement have been finalized and provided in publicly available written form effective now. They won't be posted all over the walls, but Division Heads and Project Leaders will be given the full text, and an abbreviated version will be posted on the Gallows' central announcement board. Participants in the negotiation will have been under a gag order pending the Inquisition actually nailing down how it would implement the agreement in practical terms, so responses won't need to be backdated and everybody can react in real time starting now.
We aren't going to actually write the agreement or announcement out, but the things we say will be vague and quiet in this post, like endorsing mage rights, will be vague and buried in the IC written agreement as well, etc.
PHYLACTERIES
All phylacteries currently in the Inquisition's possession that belong to any identified mage—except those who are known supporters of Corypheus—will be destroyed. In the future, new phylacteries may be created for mages convicted of violent crimes by the Inquisition, enemy prisoners, and rifters.
In the case of rifters, the Inquisition has only agreed to look into the possibility of creating phylacteries. The Rifts & the Veil project will be charged with finding out whether or not it's even possible to create phylacteries for rifters, and if it is, there will be additional discussions—ones that rifters can contribute to themselves—of how to implement it. This also means that rifters have time to voice their concerns and push back against this aspect of the agreement if they want to do so. Whether phylacteries are ultimately created for rifters or not will depend on how that plays out.
For Circle mages with existing phylacteries, since the Inquisition is only destroying phylacteries whose owners can be identified, rather than destroying all of them wholesale, this will be a more prolonged process. If your character's phylactery is in the Inquisition's custody and they would prefer that it be returned to them or to the Chantry instead, they have time to make that request. There's a comment below for you to let us know what your character wants done with theirs.
The Chantry will keep records of the names and related identifying information of mages whose phylacteries are destroyed and retain custody of phylacteries in general. This means the Inquisition's cache of phylacteries for unidentified mages will be returned to them, and any additional caches of phylacteries recovered in the future will be returned to them as well once those belonging to identifiable mages have been destroyed. The Inquisition will be able to request access to those phylacteries if a particular mage's is needed for the war effort—such as if someone is identified as a Corypheus supporter—and mages who join the Inquisition or otherwise come forward to identify themselves in the future can ask for theirs to be destroyed or returned to them at that time. Phylacteries the Inquisition does have active need for, such as those for prisoners in its custody, will be kept by the Inquisition until after the war.
TEMPLARS
In exchange for their cooperation on the issue of phylacteries, the Inquisition's Templar allies bargained for the right to establish their own independent lyrium contracts, with neither the Chantry nor Inquisition serving as a middle-man.
The Templars will also be given more resources in general to support their work on the Inquisition's behalf, including additional funding for equipment and training and permission to more actively recruit and to train personnel from among the Inquisition's ranks. To that end, characters who are recruited and trained in Templar abilities can now purchase the Templar specialization at a discount. (Note: this doesn't necessarily mean your character has to join the Templar Order as a separate organization; like the Inquisitor, they can serve the Inquisition directly utilizing Templar abilities.)
MAGES
Likewise, mages secured permission, time, and minimal funding for organizing mage-led policing and discipline of other mages. As a caveat, though, the Templars secured the Inquisition's assurances that "agitators" would not be involved in this effort. Since the vast majority of the Inquisition's NPC mages belong to Fiona's rebel force, and well over half of them went on strike, this will not extend to missions involving the Venatori or other mages tied to Corypheus, because that would cripple the war effort. What it will mean is that Inquisition missions or plots to handle domestic mage problems—suspected blood mages, abominations, scary forest witches, Circle problems, rebel cells continuing to cause havoc, etc.—must be led either by a Templar/Seeker or by a mage who was a Loyalist, Aequitarian, or well-behaved non-fraternity-affiliated Circle mage with no known history of causing a ruckus, including striking.
People playing characters who don't meet that definition can still run plots about domestic mage problems, but you'll have to find a non-agitator mage to be nominally in charge and probably get the credit. (You can use an NPC Loyalist visiting from Skyhold for this if you can't find or fit in a Loyalist PC.) It's fine for your characters—whether they're non-mages who can no longer do this work without a mage bossing them around, or mages who can no longer do it without a Loyalist bossing them around—to be angry about it. This also only applies to official Inquisition missions and things that require the Inquisition's permission; if Brenda the Libertarian receives a letter from her blood mage boyfriend asking for help, she can still ask for "time off" and go handle him on her own or with her rebel buddies off the record.
The Inquisition also agreed to two less immediately practical pro-mage terms. First, it agreed to make a statement of support for mages' legal rights to hold land and title, inherit, marry, and so on. Given the inflammatory nature of that possibility, the statement of support will be very quiet and vague. But while restoring these rights is not a goal the Inquisition is specifically pursuing or will intentionally dedicate any of its increasingly tight budget to supporting, if future plots involve choices or opportunities to support mages who are seeking those rights, it will at least not refuse outright.
Second, the Inquisition agreed that any Circle property that is recovered by the Inquisition will revert to the mages after the war against Corypheus. There will also be no loud and public announcement of this, and who knows how long the war will last, but in theory, all those books will be theirs.
WHAT'S NEXT
As of Cloureach 20, all striking mages (who aren't stoners) returned to work. As a term of the agreement, the Inquisition has ordered that the strikers are not to be disciplined, so all striking Project Leaders will retain their positions and there will be no general repercussions for the strike. Striking mages holding internal Gallows positions that are less official and not appointed by Skyhold may still be relieved of their posts without advisor approval at any time for any reason, since they're serving at the pleasure of whoever appointed them, but it will generally be considered bad form to blatantly remove them because of the strike.
OOCly, this is, finally, the end of our plot! Our characters might still work on some of these issues, but we don't have definite future plans beyond this point, so if there are aspects of this agreement that you want to pursue further or spin into another plot with your own characters, you can submit plot requests over here. Off the top of our heads...
• Someone, and especially someone with the Rifts & the Veil project, needs to find out whether creating phylacteries for rifters is even possible. (This could also be a good time to investigate whether it's possible to put a rifter through a Harrowing, since it's definitely possible for them to be possessed, and more thoroughly examine the effects magebane or Templar abilities have on them.)
• Templars can now negotiate their own lyrium contracts or purchase lyrium directly with Orzammar, so someone facilitating and organizing that would be cool.
• One or two Circle mages who would count as Not Agitators—so those who didn't participate in the strike, were Loyalists or Aequitarians (or unaffiliated but well-behaved) before the war, and have no known history of causing a ruckus—can spearhead the Gallows' portion of mage-led policing and discipline. Since this does have to be limited to just one or two people, hit us up here if you're interested, and we'll put on our mod hats instead of our player hats to discuss it with you more.
• Whatever else! This agreement, while serious and not likely to change lightly, is not set in stone forever and ever, and it's fine for characters to be upset about any portion of it and take steps to try to undo or correct that, as long as you make sure to submit plot requests!
AND LASTLY
A huge thank you to the players who participated as negotiators, both on the mage side and the faceless NPC Templar side: Ammmy, Anna, Bella, K2, Lark, and Libby. The spreadsheet linked at the top of this post summarizes weeks of brainstorming, debating, and strategizing the best way to screw the other side by both groups—they did a lot of work, we think they came out with something that reflects the priorities and positions of both groups in some cool and unexpected ways and will hopefully provide a lot of interesting conflict and advancement for everyone to RP about going forward. Basically they're heroes. And thanks to everyone else who participated in any capacity.
EDIT: Since this is causing more discussion and excitement than we expected, new plan! The written terms of this agreement have been finalized and provided in publicly available written form effective now. They won't be posted all over the walls, but Division Heads and Project Leaders will be given the full text, and an abbreviated version will be posted on the Gallows' central announcement board. Participants in the negotiation will have been under a gag order pending the Inquisition actually nailing down how it would implement the agreement in practical terms, so responses won't need to be backdated and everybody can react in real time starting now.
We aren't going to actually write the agreement or announcement out, but the things we say will be vague and quiet in this post, like endorsing mage rights, will be vague and buried in the IC written agreement as well, etc.
PHYLACTERIES
All phylacteries currently in the Inquisition's possession that belong to any identified mage—except those who are known supporters of Corypheus—will be destroyed. In the future, new phylacteries may be created for mages convicted of violent crimes by the Inquisition, enemy prisoners, and rifters.
In the case of rifters, the Inquisition has only agreed to look into the possibility of creating phylacteries. The Rifts & the Veil project will be charged with finding out whether or not it's even possible to create phylacteries for rifters, and if it is, there will be additional discussions—ones that rifters can contribute to themselves—of how to implement it. This also means that rifters have time to voice their concerns and push back against this aspect of the agreement if they want to do so. Whether phylacteries are ultimately created for rifters or not will depend on how that plays out.
For Circle mages with existing phylacteries, since the Inquisition is only destroying phylacteries whose owners can be identified, rather than destroying all of them wholesale, this will be a more prolonged process. If your character's phylactery is in the Inquisition's custody and they would prefer that it be returned to them or to the Chantry instead, they have time to make that request. There's a comment below for you to let us know what your character wants done with theirs.
The Chantry will keep records of the names and related identifying information of mages whose phylacteries are destroyed and retain custody of phylacteries in general. This means the Inquisition's cache of phylacteries for unidentified mages will be returned to them, and any additional caches of phylacteries recovered in the future will be returned to them as well once those belonging to identifiable mages have been destroyed. The Inquisition will be able to request access to those phylacteries if a particular mage's is needed for the war effort—such as if someone is identified as a Corypheus supporter—and mages who join the Inquisition or otherwise come forward to identify themselves in the future can ask for theirs to be destroyed or returned to them at that time. Phylacteries the Inquisition does have active need for, such as those for prisoners in its custody, will be kept by the Inquisition until after the war.
TEMPLARS
In exchange for their cooperation on the issue of phylacteries, the Inquisition's Templar allies bargained for the right to establish their own independent lyrium contracts, with neither the Chantry nor Inquisition serving as a middle-man.
The Templars will also be given more resources in general to support their work on the Inquisition's behalf, including additional funding for equipment and training and permission to more actively recruit and to train personnel from among the Inquisition's ranks. To that end, characters who are recruited and trained in Templar abilities can now purchase the Templar specialization at a discount. (Note: this doesn't necessarily mean your character has to join the Templar Order as a separate organization; like the Inquisitor, they can serve the Inquisition directly utilizing Templar abilities.)
MAGES
Likewise, mages secured permission, time, and minimal funding for organizing mage-led policing and discipline of other mages. As a caveat, though, the Templars secured the Inquisition's assurances that "agitators" would not be involved in this effort. Since the vast majority of the Inquisition's NPC mages belong to Fiona's rebel force, and well over half of them went on strike, this will not extend to missions involving the Venatori or other mages tied to Corypheus, because that would cripple the war effort. What it will mean is that Inquisition missions or plots to handle domestic mage problems—suspected blood mages, abominations, scary forest witches, Circle problems, rebel cells continuing to cause havoc, etc.—must be led either by a Templar/Seeker or by a mage who was a Loyalist, Aequitarian, or well-behaved non-fraternity-affiliated Circle mage with no known history of causing a ruckus, including striking.
People playing characters who don't meet that definition can still run plots about domestic mage problems, but you'll have to find a non-agitator mage to be nominally in charge and probably get the credit. (You can use an NPC Loyalist visiting from Skyhold for this if you can't find or fit in a Loyalist PC.) It's fine for your characters—whether they're non-mages who can no longer do this work without a mage bossing them around, or mages who can no longer do it without a Loyalist bossing them around—to be angry about it. This also only applies to official Inquisition missions and things that require the Inquisition's permission; if Brenda the Libertarian receives a letter from her blood mage boyfriend asking for help, she can still ask for "time off" and go handle him on her own or with her rebel buddies off the record.
The Inquisition also agreed to two less immediately practical pro-mage terms. First, it agreed to make a statement of support for mages' legal rights to hold land and title, inherit, marry, and so on. Given the inflammatory nature of that possibility, the statement of support will be very quiet and vague. But while restoring these rights is not a goal the Inquisition is specifically pursuing or will intentionally dedicate any of its increasingly tight budget to supporting, if future plots involve choices or opportunities to support mages who are seeking those rights, it will at least not refuse outright.
Second, the Inquisition agreed that any Circle property that is recovered by the Inquisition will revert to the mages after the war against Corypheus. There will also be no loud and public announcement of this, and who knows how long the war will last, but in theory, all those books will be theirs.
WHAT'S NEXT
As of Cloureach 20, all striking mages (who aren't stoners) returned to work. As a term of the agreement, the Inquisition has ordered that the strikers are not to be disciplined, so all striking Project Leaders will retain their positions and there will be no general repercussions for the strike. Striking mages holding internal Gallows positions that are less official and not appointed by Skyhold may still be relieved of their posts without advisor approval at any time for any reason, since they're serving at the pleasure of whoever appointed them, but it will generally be considered bad form to blatantly remove them because of the strike.
OOCly, this is, finally, the end of our plot! Our characters might still work on some of these issues, but we don't have definite future plans beyond this point, so if there are aspects of this agreement that you want to pursue further or spin into another plot with your own characters, you can submit plot requests over here. Off the top of our heads...
• Someone, and especially someone with the Rifts & the Veil project, needs to find out whether creating phylacteries for rifters is even possible. (This could also be a good time to investigate whether it's possible to put a rifter through a Harrowing, since it's definitely possible for them to be possessed, and more thoroughly examine the effects magebane or Templar abilities have on them.)
• Templars can now negotiate their own lyrium contracts or purchase lyrium directly with Orzammar, so someone facilitating and organizing that would be cool.
• One or two Circle mages who would count as Not Agitators—so those who didn't participate in the strike, were Loyalists or Aequitarians (or unaffiliated but well-behaved) before the war, and have no known history of causing a ruckus—can spearhead the Gallows' portion of mage-led policing and discipline. Since this does have to be limited to just one or two people, hit us up here if you're interested, and we'll put on our mod hats instead of our player hats to discuss it with you more.
• Whatever else! This agreement, while serious and not likely to change lightly, is not set in stone forever and ever, and it's fine for characters to be upset about any portion of it and take steps to try to undo or correct that, as long as you make sure to submit plot requests!
AND LASTLY
A huge thank you to the players who participated as negotiators, both on the mage side and the faceless NPC Templar side: Ammmy, Anna, Bella, K2, Lark, and Libby. The spreadsheet linked at the top of this post summarizes weeks of brainstorming, debating, and strategizing the best way to screw the other side by both groups—they did a lot of work, we think they came out with something that reflects the priorities and positions of both groups in some cool and unexpected ways and will hopefully provide a lot of interesting conflict and advancement for everyone to RP about going forward. Basically they're heroes. And thanks to everyone else who participated in any capacity.
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