The overarching mod plot for this cycle will focus on the upcoming Grand Consensus, which will select a new Divine in Cloudreach. The candidates being considered by the Chantry, along with some biographical notes and other information about their sources of support, can be found in this spreadsheet.

The Inquisition's official, public stance is one of neutrality, because openly manipulating the outcome of the election would not win it any friends in the long run and would potentially make an enemy of the new Divine if she didn’t turn out to be their favored candidate.

Unofficially, the Inquisition's secret orders are to ensure that Grand Cleric Clorentine isn't selected—she's too broadly connected, too changeable, too easy to manipulate and thus too open to corruption. A candidate with firmer principles and a shrewder mind will be easier to work with to bring down Corypheus regardless of her politics.

Beyond that, Skyhold hasn't settled on any one particular candidate, and there are some gossipy whispers that this "neutrality" is really the result of disagreement between the advisors. Whatever its cause, what this means in practice is that there is some flexibility for individuals who want to influence the outcome of the Divine Election to do so, quietly, before a candidate is elected at the Grand Consensus at the end of Cloudreach (April). (Note that the spreadsheet info about advisor opinions is provided for color; none of them are ICly making their opinions public. But you can assume some gossip from Skyhold guessing at their favorites has made its way to Kirkwall.)

OOC, this arc will take place primarily through player plots and Inquisition missions. There will be a log in April that includes the announcement of the new Divine and some other stuff, but it will serve mostly as a capstone. Until that event in April, players can propose player plots that will directly determine the final result. Details below!




When we dig into project- and division-based work later this month, some of that work will (we expect, unless the IC leaders refuse) focus on fulfilling the confidential goal of preventing Clorentine's election, and some might also underhandedly support or hurt other candidates. We'll all find out together!


You can also propose your own plots to help or hinder a given candidate’s chances of selection. Exactly what your characters do is up to you—we want you to be able to use this to do the types of plots that you’re interested in RPing. You can propose a plot to blackmail an influential Chantry bureaucrat to support one of the candidates, make up the bureaucrat in question yourself, and make acquiring that blackmail require characters to seduce him. Or you can propose a plot to go to Val Royeaux in plainclothes and spread honest information, like an angel, about why one of the candidates is an amazing person. Or you can be more roundabout and propose a plot to distract one of the candidates’ sources of support from the election so they spend less time pressing for her selection. Or (last one) you can take something your character is already working on or pursuing for another plot reason and look for a way to tie it into the Divine election. And in all cases, you can focus on the parts of your plot that appeal to you most, use it to force characters to make choices that interest you, etc.

The caveat is that the Inquisition is not officially supporting or denouncing any of the candidates and needs to remain apparently neutral so as not to make an enemy of whoever is ultimately successful, so all plots will, to some extent, need to be a little shady and below-board. And aside from efforts to prevent Clorentine from winning, no one is going to have even secret approval from Skyhold to meddle. Everybody has to put their subtlety pants on and get ready to plausibly deny.


Any plots with these types of goals, whether they're official Inquisition work or PCs' extracurricular activities, will be assigned point values—either positive values when a plot is supporting a candidate, or negative ones when a plot is hampering a specific candidate. (You can also choose to divide points in half between two candidates, if you’re promoting or hurting two at once or want to promote one at another’s expense, but two is the limit.) High-influence plots will requiring rolling for success and proof that the plot was actually RPed for the points to count.

Some things will be obviously high or low impact. You can't submit a plot to persuade one elf in Starkhaven to like Grand Cleric Elise and say it's a high impact plot, for example, or submit one to manufacture proof that a candidate had a torrid affair and say it's low impact. But if something could plausibly be either low or medium, or either medium or high, you can choose which category you want it to fall into, and we'll discuss it with you if we think an idea needs to be re-categorized for some reason.

Low Impact: Plots to bring about minor gains, worth 15 points each (pre-modifier). There's no mandated chance of failure, and proof that the plot was RPed can come in any form, including inbox discussions occurring before or after the actual event/action.

Medium Impact: Plots for moderate gains, worth 30 points each (pre-modifier). You have to roll for success, with a ¼ chance of failure (so rolling a 1 out of 4, a 5 out of 20, etc. will count as failure), and the plot must be RPed about in some way somewhere on the network or log comms.

High Impact: Plots for significant gains, worth 60 points each (pre-modifier). You have to roll for success, with at least a ½ chance of failure. Failing the roll will result in an inverse effect—losing 15 points for the candidate if you wanted to help them, or gaining 15 points for the candidate if you wanted to hurt them. Successfully rolled plots must be RPed about directly for at least the length of an AC proof. That doesn't mean you have to log out actual diplomatic talks or the moment of blackmailing a cleric, but you do have have a log or a rookery post occurring adjacent to and directly concerning the plot, like discussing the diplomatic talks after the fact or sneaking around to acquire the blackmail.

And by modifier, we mean that the associated point values will be multiplied differently for each candidate, to represent the fact that some candidates are more widely palatable to normal Thedosians than others, and it will take more effort to secure the election of a candidate outside the mainstream than one well within it. The current modifiers are in the candidate list, but if we have way more or way fewer overall plots proposed than we expect, we may need to adjust them to make sure the race remains competitive enough that everyone's plot efforts matter.

Failed Rolls

If you choose a plot that requires rolling for success and fail the roll, you’re required to comply with the requirements for RPing the plot—so you have to post a log or something and actually tag it even though your characters don’t succeed—before you submit another plot. I.e., you can’t submit five plots one after the other and only RP/count the ones where your characters succeed. For plots where failing a roll has an inverse effect, not playing it won’t make those points go away, either.

That said, we think—and we hope you all agree—that RPing about failure is interesting and that keeping an element of unpredictability, rather than letting characters definitely get what they want whenever they try, is super fun. So if you fail a roll, or if the candidate you want to win ultimately doesn’t, try to look at it as an opportunity for cool storytelling instead of a video game death screen.


We expect most ideas—or most ideas that are also realistic about the level of influence PCs can have without the Inquisition taking an official stance— will work with the above system, but we don't want to stifle anyone's creativity, so here are some other options, too.

Removing Candidates

Player plots that would realistically completely remove a candidate from the running—blackmailing them so much they withdraw from consideration, insurmountable scandal, assassination, etc.—must have at least five players involved, and at least three characters must be aware of the plan. The other two can be oblivious to the scheme if their players are OOCly okay with that and okay with the plot. This is to prevent one or two players from negating the effect of a bunch of other people's efforts in one fell swoop. These plots will also require rolling, generally with a 60-40 chance of failure but possibly higher depending on the proposal, and failing will have an inverse effect on a candidate's chances rather than no effect at all.

Changing Candidates' Stances

Player plots for "soft" gains, such as persuading a candidate to change their view on a topic or make promises to a certain group, will be handled on a case by case basis, since whether or not it's plausible and whether or not it will affect a candidate’s popularity across other demographics will vary so much. If you’re interested in doing a plot like that, let us know what you have in mind, and we’ll talk it out with you. In most cases these will also require a chance of failing, proportionate to how big of a change it is, and some changes may just be impossible. For instance, nobody can make Gertruda agree to abolish Circles, no matter how they approach it.

Other

We want people to be able to be creative and to have a real impact on who's ultimately chosen! So if you have an idea that doesn’t seem to fit into the options we’ve already addressed, let us know. But please keep in mind the other concerns we have to balance, like making sure that the decision isn't dominated by only a few players, making sure Thedas stays Thedas and doesn't turn into an unrecognizable fantasy utopia, etc., and temper your dreams accordingly!


Getting Your Points Counted

Once you've submitted a plot request, gotten approval (and a roll for your success/failure if necessary), and RPed about what your characters are doing, you can register the points we should count for you here. Remember to also submit reports for any official project or division work to the correct pages! But things your characters undertake in secret don't need to be reported, obviously, unless something official is used as cover for it.

We'll keep the spreadsheet updated with the current rankings of the candidates based on all of the plots that have been approved, but keep in mind that points will only really count once the plots have been completed and we've been notified of that. If half the people who have submitted plots to support one candidate ultimately don't register their points with us by the deadline, the rankings might not be reliable. We also won't share actual point totals until after the fact, so if someone is in the lead, it might be by 100 projected points or only by 5. This is to represent that while it may be possible to roughly gauge the mood of various groups and who currently has momentum, Thedas doesn't having fivethirtyeight to tell you who's up by how many points today.

Deadlines

Because the result of the election won't have a huge impact on how we write the final plot log (though it will have a huge impact on the world going forward), we'll accept plot reports up through the day before the log is posted, which we currently expect to be April 20. However, plot requests must be submitted by March 31 at the latest, so we have time to respond to them and you have time to actually play them. You can submit both plot requests and points over here.

In lieu of our having a PC present tidbits of IC news from around Thedas this month, we're providing lengthier update below on the state of things post-Ghislain. Please read on for important information about how things currently stand with the invasion of Orlais, and how other countries have reacted to news of the battle.


The storm that chased the Inquisition back to Kirkwall has lingered over northeastern Orlais for long enough to seem unnatural, keeping the region locked down in the face of bitter cold, roads south of Ghislain to the Imperial Highway made all but impassable by snow. It's made it difficult for the allied army to regroup, and impossible for them to mount any sort of attack on the invaders who have now entrenched themselves in Ghislain and fortified their supply lines back to Tevinter. The only force out and about are the darkspawn, which have been spotted marauding the countryside and harassing villages around the Fields of Ghislain.

The Orlesian army, already stretched thin attempting to field a full force just two years after the protracted bloodletting of the War of the Lions, is struggling to replace the numbers lost at Ghislain. Further levies and conscriptions have been ordered, and the crown has also been forced to finance the hiring of several companies of mercenaries as a stopgap measure. Given limited manpower, the decision has been made to make a further strategic retreat to the south, fortifying a camp at the crossroads of the imperial highway, the better to protect the approach to Val Royeaux. A portion of the force has been split off to camp north of Val Chevin and protect that city as well. Montfort has been evacuated of civilians--an unpleasant exercise given the weather, but orderly--and fortified by a skeleton force. The Inquisition army has replenished its ranks with additional troops from Skyhold, and continues to support Orlesian operations. At the moment that mostly just means sitting tight waiting for the weather to break, training conscripts as quickly as possible, and fortifying the area to create a southernmost point past which the invaders will (hopefully) not be able to pass. (But the defenses at Val Royeaux and Val Chevin are also being fortified, just in case.)


Though the news was at first lost in the chaos of Ghislain, the invading army also took Perendale just before the southward push. That city too remains occupied, and is now a vital link in the supply route between Tevinter and the Anderfels at one end, and Ghislain at the other. This loss has further emboldened the Van Markhams, who were already making hay by accusing the Pentaghasts of weakness and cowardice when Perendale was merely under siege. Now that it's been lost altogether, they are openly challenging the Pentaghasts' right to continued rule of the kingdom, rallying supporters to their banner at Onavign, a recently-captured royal outpost on the road between Cumberland and Nevarra City.

The Pentaghast response has been hampered by the continuing uncertainty regarding the succession. King Markus is still not dead, which is not only frankly miraculous at this point but has become a real problem, with supporters divided and dithering about how to handle it. Fed up with inaction, Aurelia Pentaghast has finally proclaimed herself regent, and summoned all loyal Nevarrans to mass at Hunter's Fell to prepare to take back Perendale. Ferdinand has echoed this summons, but it's unclear whether he means to support his niece's claim or is staking his own. The Van Markhams haven't yet made any move to attend. No one knows what may happen if the Pentaghast army marches out and leaves the capital undefended.

On the whole, Nevarra is preoccupied with its own problems and otherwise hasn't made any official comment on the invasion or the reports of darkspawn and demons at Ghislain.


News of the occupation of Perendale and Ghislain has been greeted with enthusiasm by many in Tevinter, this very tangible evidence of success doing much to convert those who like the idea of an Imperium renewed and ascendant but who had been skeptical of whether it was really possible or practical. The rumors of darkspawn and demons aiding the Tevinter/Ander army are, for now, confidently dismissed as the usual southern propaganda. While there remain significant factions who are opposed to the new Archon and his shadowy backers, Tevinter seems overall to be warming to the idea and coming into line with their rule.


Who knows? Nobody can get any news in or out. Things are probably bad, though.

• Antiva: News of darkspawn and demons as part of the Ander/Tevinter army has begun to strain even the vaunted neutrality of the merchant princes, but not yet to the breaking point. Some simply refuse to accept the reports, dismissing them as propaganda produced by a desperate Orlais, while others hold firm to the notion that it's still none of their concern either way; business is business. But reports from those volunteers who fought at Ghislain and survived have made an impression on others, and at least a few houses have announced that they will have no dealings with those who harbor demons. What this will mean in practice remains to be seen.
  
  
• Ferelden: The historical antipathy toward Orlais, the Inquisition's perceived bias toward it, and the relative remove from the region currently threatened remain obstacles to consolidating Fereldan support for the current war effort. However, news of the battle of Ghislain has not fallen entirely upon deaf ears there, and given their own recent history with rifts and blights, they are more wary than most of the possibility of darkspawn and demons making up part of the invading army. A couple companies of volunteers raised by friendly nobles are reportedly being raised to assist, while official support from the crown seems to be growing more likely.
  
  
• Free Marches: The response varies by the March, naturally, but the majority remain in a sort of hesitant holding pattern similar to that of Antiva--unwilling to throw themselves fully into a war that still seems far away, but growing more nervous about the threat as rumors (and Tevinter influence) spread. Notable outliers include the stridently religious Tantervale, which has of course issued a statement condemning the invaders as Maker-less heathens and pronouncing this the price Thedas is paying for not investing the Chantry with a new Divine who might bring rampant evil to heel, and at the opposite end of the spectrum, Wycome, whose duke has professed a profound boredom with any news of the conflict.
  
  
• Orzammar: Silent on the subject thus far, and still trading weapons to Tevinter. News of darkspawn activity has raised hackles, however, and there are increasing rumblings of discontent, but not enough yet to push Bhelen or anyone close to him to concede that this is not just a surfacer issue.
  
  
• Rivain: Hasn't said anything official, perhaps because no one has asked. In general they continue to make vague noises of concern about the spreading violence but otherwise go about their business.