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faderiftooc2018-07-23 01:37 pm
faderifting) wrote in faderiftooc2018-07-23 01:37 pm
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Rifter Phylactery Negotiation Outcomes!
After several days of negotiation, the delegation of Rifters sent to Skyhold led by Provost Thranduil, along with representatives of the Inquisition's Templars, and the Chantry, have reached an agreement that will prevent phylacteries being created for Rifters except under specific circumstances when their behavior or history calls for extra caution.
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, and please note that the information included below about blocked proposals and demands that were made but ultimately defeated is not information that would be included in the posted agreement, which contains only the terms that were agreed to. We include it in this post to help make the context clearer OOCly. We assume there will be IC discussion by the Rifter delegation PCs about how things went, so more info about specifics of what all was on the table can be ICly learned from them.
PHYLACTERIES
As a general policy, phylacteries won’t be created for any Rifter or for other individual with an anchor solely because they're a Rifter or have an anchor—though the Templars and Chantry proposed several more-expansive plans to create phylacteries on that sort of general basis, all were ultimately blocked.
Instead, phylacteries will be created only for known supporters of Corypheus, Rifters convicted of violent crimes, and Rifters who the Division Heads (in consultation with at least one NPC Templar to keep them honest) deem unstable. The specifics of implementation, e.g. what precisely "unstable" means and how that will be determined, is a matter left to the discretion of the Division Heads. Somewhat buried in the text is the fact that the parties also agreed that phylacteries could be temporarily created for Rifters on dangerous missions, in an effort to allay concerns about Rifters being captured by the enemy again. These phylacteries would be destroyed on return from the mission. Again, how precisely this is implemented will be left to Division Head discretion, and the way it is worded in the agreement suggests that it is merely something they now can do, not something they must.
CHANTRY ACCESS
The Chantry sought access to Inquisition personnel and information related to Rifters, and proposed several means of getting it. Some of those, like allowing Chantry scholars and Loyalists to examine Rifters, or providing the Chantry with records of all damage and destruction caused by native or Rifter magic, were blocked (as was a proposal that Rifters and native mages pay reparations for that destruction).
The Chantry will, however, gain access to Inquisition records of damage caused by rifts themselves, and to a register of the magical abilities of Inquisition members and allies, including magical Rifter abilities and native magic not commonly found in Circles. The Chantry will also be allowed access to any Inquisition research about Rifters.
RIFTER RECOGNITION
The Rifters extracted some significant concessions from the Chantry, most importantly an agreement by the Chantry to acknowledge, publicly, that Rifters are not demons, and that Rifters are welcome to convert to Andrastianism and become members of the Chantry, like everyone else in Thedas. The form of this announcement remains to be seen, but it will certainly help the Inquisition's reputation to have the notion that Rifters are demons dispelled, so it's likely that there will be pressure exerted to make sure this part of the agreement is followed through in full as soon as possible.
The Inquisition has likewise agreed to support legal recognition of Rifters as people, meaning that, for instance, were a Rifter to be murdered, the Inquisition would support efforts to make sure the murderer was punished under the law the same way they would be if they murdered a native. Just for starters. It’s a big deal.
RIFTER LIMITATIONS
The parties agreed that rather than extending the initial quarantine for all Rifters (or requiring phylacteries for the first 6 months a Rifter lives in Thedas), the Division Heads would instead be given the discretion to extend the quarantine for any new Rifters they feel may require additional supervision or acclimation before being allowed out of the Gallows. Once Rifters are able to leave the Gallows on missions, those without rank (i.e. any Rifter who is not a Division Head or a Project Leader on a mission for the project they lead) will be subject to the authority of any Inquisition Templar of Knight-Lieutenant rank or higher when in the field, in the absence of someone who outranks them both.
Rifters have also agreed to link their fortunes to those of native mages--any decisions made in the future about Circles, whether to return to them, reform them, or abolish them--will apply not only to native mages but to all Rifters as well.
TEMPLAR GAINS
In exchange for agreeing to support the declaration that Rifters are not demons, but people, and to restrict phylactery creation only to specific circumstances, the Templars were granted a few additional concessions by the Inquisition, including resources to begin a training program for young people to begin building back up the Order's numbers, the right to wear Templar insignia on their Inquisition uniforms, and increased wages (though how much of a raise they'll get exactly remains to be seen).
MISCELLANEOUS
The quarantine period for all Rifters will now include mandatory education on Andrastianism, a course to be created by the Chantry Relations project and approved by local Chantry officials. Each Inquisition member will also be issued a vial of magebane along with their other standard supplies, with admonitions that this is to be carried with particular discretion by those traveling to Tevinter.
WHAT'S NEXT
How several aspects of the agreement are put into practice will depend on IC decisions and discussion, so keep an eye out for that!
As with the prior agreement regarding mages, this agreement isn’t written in stone. It won’t be changed lightly, since this was painstakingly negotiated and changing any aspect of it could anger one of the involved factions and force the whole thing to be thrown out, but everyone is always welcome to work gradually toward change through IC discussion or player plots.
THANKS
To the players who participated. We know these negotiations can be a confusing and at times stressful process particularly when there are issues like these at stake that have such a significant impact on the lives of many PCs. We know this is not a perfect system (we'll be looking to make some tweaks going forward) but it has allowed us all to have this agreement worked out directly by PCs rather than handwaving or leaving it to the mod-controlled NPC advisors, and we think that's pretty cool. We applaud everyone's effort, which helped create an agreement that not only resolves this fraught IC issue in interesting and realistically complex ways but opens up new avenues for RP and debate going forward. Special thanks also to K2 and Lark, who reprised their roles as negotiators for the NPC Templar/Chantry side.
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, and please note that the information included below about blocked proposals and demands that were made but ultimately defeated is not information that would be included in the posted agreement, which contains only the terms that were agreed to. We include it in this post to help make the context clearer OOCly. We assume there will be IC discussion by the Rifter delegation PCs about how things went, so more info about specifics of what all was on the table can be ICly learned from them.
PHYLACTERIES
As a general policy, phylacteries won’t be created for any Rifter or for other individual with an anchor solely because they're a Rifter or have an anchor—though the Templars and Chantry proposed several more-expansive plans to create phylacteries on that sort of general basis, all were ultimately blocked.
Instead, phylacteries will be created only for known supporters of Corypheus, Rifters convicted of violent crimes, and Rifters who the Division Heads (in consultation with at least one NPC Templar to keep them honest) deem unstable. The specifics of implementation, e.g. what precisely "unstable" means and how that will be determined, is a matter left to the discretion of the Division Heads. Somewhat buried in the text is the fact that the parties also agreed that phylacteries could be temporarily created for Rifters on dangerous missions, in an effort to allay concerns about Rifters being captured by the enemy again. These phylacteries would be destroyed on return from the mission. Again, how precisely this is implemented will be left to Division Head discretion, and the way it is worded in the agreement suggests that it is merely something they now can do, not something they must.
CHANTRY ACCESS
The Chantry sought access to Inquisition personnel and information related to Rifters, and proposed several means of getting it. Some of those, like allowing Chantry scholars and Loyalists to examine Rifters, or providing the Chantry with records of all damage and destruction caused by native or Rifter magic, were blocked (as was a proposal that Rifters and native mages pay reparations for that destruction).
The Chantry will, however, gain access to Inquisition records of damage caused by rifts themselves, and to a register of the magical abilities of Inquisition members and allies, including magical Rifter abilities and native magic not commonly found in Circles. The Chantry will also be allowed access to any Inquisition research about Rifters.
RIFTER RECOGNITION
The Rifters extracted some significant concessions from the Chantry, most importantly an agreement by the Chantry to acknowledge, publicly, that Rifters are not demons, and that Rifters are welcome to convert to Andrastianism and become members of the Chantry, like everyone else in Thedas. The form of this announcement remains to be seen, but it will certainly help the Inquisition's reputation to have the notion that Rifters are demons dispelled, so it's likely that there will be pressure exerted to make sure this part of the agreement is followed through in full as soon as possible.
The Inquisition has likewise agreed to support legal recognition of Rifters as people, meaning that, for instance, were a Rifter to be murdered, the Inquisition would support efforts to make sure the murderer was punished under the law the same way they would be if they murdered a native. Just for starters. It’s a big deal.
RIFTER LIMITATIONS
The parties agreed that rather than extending the initial quarantine for all Rifters (or requiring phylacteries for the first 6 months a Rifter lives in Thedas), the Division Heads would instead be given the discretion to extend the quarantine for any new Rifters they feel may require additional supervision or acclimation before being allowed out of the Gallows. Once Rifters are able to leave the Gallows on missions, those without rank (i.e. any Rifter who is not a Division Head or a Project Leader on a mission for the project they lead) will be subject to the authority of any Inquisition Templar of Knight-Lieutenant rank or higher when in the field, in the absence of someone who outranks them both.
Rifters have also agreed to link their fortunes to those of native mages--any decisions made in the future about Circles, whether to return to them, reform them, or abolish them--will apply not only to native mages but to all Rifters as well.
TEMPLAR GAINS
In exchange for agreeing to support the declaration that Rifters are not demons, but people, and to restrict phylactery creation only to specific circumstances, the Templars were granted a few additional concessions by the Inquisition, including resources to begin a training program for young people to begin building back up the Order's numbers, the right to wear Templar insignia on their Inquisition uniforms, and increased wages (though how much of a raise they'll get exactly remains to be seen).
MISCELLANEOUS
The quarantine period for all Rifters will now include mandatory education on Andrastianism, a course to be created by the Chantry Relations project and approved by local Chantry officials. Each Inquisition member will also be issued a vial of magebane along with their other standard supplies, with admonitions that this is to be carried with particular discretion by those traveling to Tevinter.
WHAT'S NEXT
How several aspects of the agreement are put into practice will depend on IC decisions and discussion, so keep an eye out for that!
As with the prior agreement regarding mages, this agreement isn’t written in stone. It won’t be changed lightly, since this was painstakingly negotiated and changing any aspect of it could anger one of the involved factions and force the whole thing to be thrown out, but everyone is always welcome to work gradually toward change through IC discussion or player plots.
THANKS
To the players who participated. We know these negotiations can be a confusing and at times stressful process particularly when there are issues like these at stake that have such a significant impact on the lives of many PCs. We know this is not a perfect system (we'll be looking to make some tweaks going forward) but it has allowed us all to have this agreement worked out directly by PCs rather than handwaving or leaving it to the mod-controlled NPC advisors, and we think that's pretty cool. We applaud everyone's effort, which helped create an agreement that not only resolves this fraught IC issue in interesting and realistically complex ways but opens up new avenues for RP and debate going forward. Special thanks also to K2 and Lark, who reprised their roles as negotiators for the NPC Templar/Chantry side.
QUESTIONS