FADE RIFT: CIVIL WAR

[stabsbooks]

On the last day of Wintermarch, a rift opened in Skyhold. Cassandra was in the Emprise at the time, but once she returns to Skyhold at the end of February/Guardian she will be investigating - questioning Sina when she's strong enough to be questioned, as well as the Rifters involved in closing the Rift. You can read about some of the planned reactions to the rift here, but the next part of this plot will be kicked off by Cassandra's interrogation of Galadriel.

This conversation (forward dated to the beginning of Drakonis/March) does not go well. While Cassandra's other investigations determined that Sina opened the rift by mistake, Galadriel both strongly implies that she - and perhaps other rifters - may have the ability to open rifts purposefully, and refuses to promise not to personally do so.

As a result, Cassandra does the only thing she feels she can do to keep Skyhold safe: she takes Galadriel's belongings (including her staff) and orders her imprisoned in the dungeons.

After imprisoning Galadriel, Cassandra will be going to the other advisors to report to them. She will also be insisting upon a closer investigation of the rifters. Thus far, there has been no formal preliminary interview of rifters as they come through the rift, or any attempt to keep track of who they are, where they come from, or where their loyalties might lie. Galadriel refusing to swear any loyalty to the Inquisition, even something as reasonable as 'I promise I won't open a rift intentionally', and the possibility that she has magical abilities beyond anything anyone's seen in Thedas, has shaken Cassandra badly, and she takes her responsibility of keeping the Inquisition secure very seriously.

THUS:

Cassandra will be implementing the following (to the best of her ability):

- She will be conducting a thorough investigation of all rifters, to determine what magical or other abilities they have. She will attempt to secure an oath of loyalty to the Inquisition from each of them.
- Templar guards will be assigned to all rifter mages until further notice.
- She will call for a halt of all magic performed by rifter mages until either a) they swear an oath of loyalty to the inquisition or b) she determines that they cannot or will not open additional rifts.
- She will also call for some kind of supervision by Inquisition soldiers for rifters leaving Skyhold, to ensure that they a) don't do anything they shouldn't be doing and b) actually return to Skyhold.
- She will be attempting to institute some kind of formalized interview/vetting process to new rifters as they appear in Thedas, and keeping a roster of all rifters.

Cassandra's main opposition in her efforts will be Leliana. Leliana believes strongly in Rights and Freedom for all, and will strongly oppose any restriction on rifter freedom or rights. Her concern lies with protecting groups that have been historically been discriminated against - notably elves and mages. She is vehement in her convictions that shardbearers or rifters should not suffer the same injustices, and will be strongly opposed to any institutional discrimination against rifters. Leliana has already publicly expressed her opinions (well, sort of) via sending crystal and in conversation with Inquisition members. Her views are likely known through the Chantry, should your character have any contacts there, so she has a history For The Cause, so to speak.

Galadriel, unlike the advisors, considers the rifters, as a whole, to be apart from the Inquisition. They are neither involved in, nor party to any of the political or social problems in Thedas. They cannot be held accountable for what local mages do, nor should they, and she refuses to swear any oaths to a human military organization. She is 15,000 years old; she doesn't have to put up with this shit.

Following her incarceration, Galadriel will:

- Refuse to acknowledge the authority of the Inquisition, particularly in matters of those from other worlds, and vocally encourage other rifters to do the same.
- Begin studying the mark very seriously in an effort to understand its magic and learn if intentionally conjuring a rift is possible/what the rifts actually are and how they behave.
- Begin testing the limits and effects of the mark and recruiting as many other rifters (and native mages who offer to assist) as she can to aid her.
- Magically assist any rifters in evading their assigned guards at any time.
- Seek artifacts of power in Thedas to help secure her own and other rifters' safety and freedom.

Since Cassandra views Galadriel (and therefore, perhaps other rifters) as potential threats to the Inquisition and its people themselves, this has become an Inquisition matter and therefore supersedes the authority of either the Mage Council or the Templar Order. They are free to make suggestions on how things should be handled, offer recommendations, or vehemently protest, but any votes that the Mages or Templars take or decisions they make as a group will not be recognized as binding to the Inquisition. Galadriel's insistence that the Mage Council does not speak for her, and the fact that there are no representatives of rifters on the Council, will also weaken the Council's influence here.

This is not to say that your characters must or even should quietly fall in line! There are a few sides to take here, and there is no clear-cut "right" or "wrong" - Cassandra, Leliana and Galadriel all have legitimate justifications for their actions and positions. Your character can:

- Stand behind Cassandra, placing the safety of the Inquisition and the people of Thedas first. The rifters have sworn no oath of loyalty to the Inquisition. We don't know what they might be able to do, and at least one of them is being very open about the fact that she has no intention of swearing loyalty to anyone, and fully intends to continue researching rifts in an attempt to open more. Cullen will be backing Cassandra; he understands the importance of freedom to mages (and has seen firsthand what can happen when the restrictions placed on them are too great), but he also cautions that anyone with such power needs to have some sort of check.

- Stand behind Leliana, placing the freedom and rights of individuals first. The rifters appeared here against their will, and (Galadriel aside) are completely innocent of any wrongdoing. Many of them have already proven their loyalty to the Inquisition through their actions in closing rifts and fighting Corypheus' forces. It would be wrong to restrict their freedoms or actions in any way. Josephine will be backing Leliana; while she doesn't feel as strongly about this as Leliana does, she doesn't think this treatment of rifters is in line with the Inquisition's goals.

- Stand behind Galadriel, who believes that rifters are not obligated to help the Inquisition and that local laws and regulations regarding magic, including the Mage Council's decisions, do not apply to them. They are free to help if they choose, but they shouldn't be forced to assist anyone, especially not people who regard them with such immediate distrust. In addition, no one knows much about the rifts. They could be a doorway back home or a symptom of another problem. We may even be completely misunderstanding what they are and how they work. Galadriel will study them whether she is 'allowed' to or not and will not be recognizing the authority of the Inquisition, the Mage Council, or anyone else. She will advocate exclusively for rifters (mages and non-mages alike) and will prioritize their interests above all others.

This will affect, to some extent, the entire Inquisition, especially the rifters. However, we don't want to restrict anyone's characters against the players' will! If you're interested in Cassandra being highly suspicious of your character and keeping them under watch/limiting their movements and activities, fantastic - I am totally willing to play that out. If not, there are a few ways to get around this and continue with whatever activities your characters have planned:

- option 1: complete opt-out: Per the mods, some Rifters have already signed on officially with the Inquisition and are listed in its official rolls though til now this has almost entirely been handwaved and there is no OOC list. If your rifter character is already committed to the Inquisition, comment to say so! OR, Leliana has already quietly investigated your character and determined that they are not a threat (either because they cannot or would not do anything that would cause harm to the Inquisition). While it's not required, Bella has set up a form that it might be helpful to fill out regarding what Leliana knows about your character. (Cassandra will still want an oath of loyalty from these characters if she can get them - this can be agreed to OOC - but if this is really a problem and Leliana vouches strongly enough for your character, she can be persuaded to back down.)

- option 2: limited consequences: Cassandra can investigate your character herself and determine that they do not pose a threat and can be trusted with some degree of freedom (she will probably require an oath of loyalty). This will be a lot harder than getting Leliana to vouch for them - Cassandra's much more suspicious of rifters than Leliana, and much less concerned about personal freedoms! But it is possible. Please let me know if you're uncomfortable with any restrictions and what you want your character to still be able to do (perform magic, leave Skyhold, etc.) and we will work it out. This may require a little bit of work, especially if your character is a powerful rifter mage or if Cassandra has other reasons to be suspicious of them.

- option 3: beat the system: have your rifter character take advantage of Galadriel's willingness to assist them in evading their guards and continue to do magic/leave Skyhold as usual (this can be done without your character necessarily endorsing Galadriel's take on the matter).

Ideally, however, we would love to generate a lot of in-character conflict with this plot. All sides of the argument are extremely polarizing and nobody is right or wrong, so taking a stance can be an interesting way to generate new CR! How it will end and the long-term consequences will depend on how it plays out, but it has the potential to get into a lot of unanswered questions concerning civil rights in Thedas. The more actual consequences this has, and the more people get invested in the different sides, the more nuanced and interesting it will end up being! Please join in, the more the merrier!

IMPORTANT NOTE: As mentioned above, Cassandra will be concerned about the possibility of rifters running off or not returning to Skyhold after missions in other parts of Thedas, hence her attempting to press templar/other guards onto any rifters leaving Skyhold. While there has always been a measure of supervision and more recently a push to join, the Inquisition has never officially or unofficially imprisoned Rifters or prevented them from leaving Skyhold if they wished until this point. However, there is an IC mechanism involving the anchor shards designed (by the mods) to make it so that shardholders can't just run off into Thedas never to be seen again. Since no rifter has yet attempted to run away, this "anchor leash" has not yet been discovered, either by rifters or by Inquisition leadership.

If your character decides that all this is BS and does try running away, please contact the mods for more information rather than making up for yourself how the leash works or when it is triggered. It's important that the mods construct it in a certain way in order to allow shardholders to be involved in mission-related travel.

Questions/suggestions/planning (including how this all fits in with concurrent plots, such as the current templar ongoings) are welcome below!

Comments

[fightingale]

just

a

quick

message

for

cassandra

[stabsbooks]

[fightingale]

BUT IN ALL SERIOUSNESS if you have Leliana related questions, hit me!

[gatheringstorm]

WELL. Korrin will definitely take Leliana's side in all this, given her personal stake in the matter. She's not usually the type to be Leliana's agent, but still. Make use of her as you will.

[aceso]

Just making a note that Christine throws her support behind Leliana. She supports freedom for everyone, including the rifters. My only question would be if Leliana is making some sort of official announcement about her stance, or if this is news that trickles down to the masses?

[nadasharillen]

Yes hi this is your new scout and she agrees with you. also she has not yet met Galadriel but this is apparently a big bad deal for the Dalish and she's on team Dalish so. Yes can we let her out?

[demonicbeauty]

Ariadne's sort of taking Leliana's side even though they've never met. Both because she believes in freedom and because Cole's vouched for Leliana. That said, she might also take both her side and Galadriel's because she doesn't like the idea of anyone being press-ganged.

[slaveking]

Hello, freedom & truth lady, you have a vampire on your side. He's going to put some effort into being ostensibly supportive of Galadriel, partly because he really wants to study the Rifts and find a way back home. However, he's irritated at both Galadriel and Cassandra because they both seem accountable for this spectacular inconvenience. And also because chances are exponentially higher now he'll get found out as a vampire, which he suspects neither of the other women will be in favor of.

But it's fine. Let's go with club freedom and independence, and mostly do our own thang. He will offer discreetly to help, though, or at least be interested in Leliana's opinion on what can be done for Galadriel.

[wontforgetyou]

Team freedom is a good team, and he's going to lean towards Leliana's side on this before everything turns into a complicated mess. He'd also add his voice to the Dalish that would like see Galadriel released, if he finds out about it early enough. And in general I'll offer Jamie if there's a need for him, although he's still destined for the complicated mess so no problems if there isn't.

[foxsays]

Araceli will be siding with Leliana, partly because she's one of her bards-in-training, partly because she is absolutely not in favour of being watched like she's a criminal. Equally though she'll have concerns regarding Galadriel (despite not being in favour of actually provoking them because the actions of one rifter, in her mind and as evidenced, can reflect on every single one of them) but more about her being treated fairly, being allowed to receive visitors, legal standing etc.

Whatever help Leliana needs, Araceli will offer.

And I'm pretty sure you know my Morrigan stance. You know smirking and snarling alongside Leliana she's got your back.

[laurenande]

As I blatantly copy Leliana For Galadriel related questions/plotting, feel free to ask/comment here!

The Dalish Perspective

[samahl]

I said this on plurk but I'm saying it here.

Galadriel inspires a lot of feelings in a lot of the Dalish characters. I feel like at least some of them - Cyril included - would be very vocally opposed to her being locked up under any circumstance. I feel like even those who might agree the Rifter situation needs to be figured out might be against locking her up just for that?

Other Dalish players are welcome to put their two cents into this, but I personally know that Cyril is actually viscerally offended by her being imprisoned, no matter what he thinks about the rest of this.

[wontforgetyou]

Before I put in my officially official comment in below, just wanted to double check - are we still on for Really Bad Ideas involving opening rifts where Jamie winds up tagging along?

[stabsbooks]

Anything specifically for Cassandra (as opposed to questions/etc. about the plot in general) can go here! is this necessary idk i just wanna be Cool

[qunari]

Bull's all for personal accountability, yo.

[wickedchase]

All for running the hell away, say "aye". That's a reasonable reaction right.

Team: Running for the boarder

[aintwejust]

Malcolm is going to take one look at where this is going, give his weird glowy (now slightly more magical) hand a look- and bail. Quiet like.

Maybe not so quiet like with how he's getting his things together but if anyone wants a ride up north he'll drop y'all off wherever you want.

Re: Team: Running for the boarder

[stabsbooks]

Just a note that Cassandra will definitely have people guarding Skyhold and the rifters/shardbearers specifically to prevent this sort of thing from happening, so we should work out how Mal gets past that! Especially if he's bringing a big group with him, that would definitely get noticed.

Team: <silently screaming>

[el_tybs]

[quietblade]

My two horned boys are standing here going 'wat'.

I mean Kas has no love for Rifters (gg Samwise) and Taas knows how it is to lose control, but they're both confused because obviously the person opening the rift was a Dalish elf so why this.

Team We Are So Going To Get Arrested

[wontforgetyou]

[wontforgetyou]

Because this is pretty sure where Jamie thinks they're going to wind up.

For him, it's complicated. He is one of the rifters who did sign up and agree to help the Inquisition as soon as he was able to. However, he also did so because he was under the impression that the Inquisition was an organization that wasn't really the sort to go around randomly throwing people in jail cells, and while he's initially is willing to cooperate, that is not going to sit well with him as well.

So he will have a strong leaning towards Team Leliana and be a proponent of freedom in general. However, because he is also someone who happens to feel very strongly that his friends need looking after, he's going to wind up helping Galadriel. The theory being that a: he wants to know more about these rifts himself, b: if she's going to be opening rifts she'll need someone who's a non-mage to fight, c: sooooo there'd probably be at least enough rifters on hand to be able to close the thing again and d: maybe he can help keep her out of trouble while not getting in trouble himself and...who is he kidding that never works when he tries it with the Doctor, so that's probably not going to happen now.

Which all adds up to a bonus e where there will be a point where he stops cooperating with Cassandra and if that skips over a couple of letters and he gets caught and winds up with j for being thrown in jail he's been expecting that from day one anyway.

Unless of course for some reason the Doctor actually shows up. Then Jamie will just drag him into the whole mess anyway, like he does.

confirming actions taken against shardbearers;

[glandival]

the term 'rifter' is being used to cover off everything and includes the danger that sina (not a rifter) presented to the inquisition, so i wanted to confirm some clarification around:

how will each argument impact shardbearers, if at all?

obviously they have rift opening powers and a shardbearer opened a rift as well, but rifters have their own aura about them as being especially unknown and dangerous that factors in to the actions being taken.

and ftr i'm fairly into having a shardbearer involve herself/be affected, hence curiousity.

Re: confirming actions taken against shardbearers;

[stabsbooks]

Rifters will get more scrutiny seeing as they are straight up strangers whose loyalties and abilities are a complete unknown. Ie they don't necessarily have any loyalty at all to the Chantry or the Inquisition and for all anyone knows they may agree with everything Corypheus is doing. Rifter mages are especially problematic because their magic doesn't work like Thedas magic, some of them (like Galadriel) are obviously very powerful in ways no one understands, and they're all apostates by default.

HOWEVER Cassandra will definitely be taking a look at some or all of the shardbearers too (she will be interrogating Sina, as soon as she gets back to Skyhold), so if there's a reason why your shardbearer might warrant a closer look or you would like them to be affected by this we can definitely make that happen too!

Team 'why this why me'

[maladgogo]

Guy is nervous about all of this. He has a couple of unique capabilities but he's not inherently dangerous, at least he doesn't think so. So if Cassandra starts getting on his case after he (willingly) sits and talks to her, he may well get very overwhelmed. Rather than hostile though, he'll be incredibly avoidant, up to and including actually physically leaving Skyhold. He wants to help, he really does, but all of this rubs him in absolutely the wrongest of ways. He may well explain this to Cassandra if need be.

[stabsbooks]

I'll be putting up an interrogation log for Cassandra, if you want to RP the interrogation itself and see how Guy reacts. It may not be as bad as he fears, especially if he's willing to sign on with the Inquisition officially/promise not to mess around with rifts, or if she determines that he's not really able to do anything to put people in harm's way. Remember that it's the rifter mages that she views as a real threat.

If he does leave, just remember that there will be factors in place to prevent rifters from leaving (guards, mainly) - if you want Guy to successfully get out, you'll have to work out how that happens, whether it's Galadriel helping him escape notice or something else. Also make sure to talk to the mods about the anchor leash if he does get away.

Team Moderate

[tactical_alert]

Checks and balances while also taking into account that nobody shard-bearing has so far actively worked against the Inquisition.

Malcolm, as a paranoid Seeker, doesn't like the idea of rifters, though due to the Herald he doesn't mind shards. He thinks, like mages and templars, keeping an eye on things, having people to especially eyeball shard-bearing mages, is totally in line with shit that they (and the mage council and the templar order) already do on a smaller scale. He thinks there's a potential for things going awry. And no, Galadriel, suggesting you'll do whatever you want including opening rifts all willy and nilly does not help. Suggesting everyone must have freedom at all times is a nice ideal, Leliana, but it's too idealistic when it involves people and powers beyond current understanding.

That said, a good number of rifters have either sworn loyalty or have done enough for the Inquisition to be in good graces. Others are quiet and don't actively wreck their shit. And the rest of the shard-bearers (of which Sina is) are their own kin and countrymen. They're all also the only known way of closing rifts. And rifters in particular have no ties to these lands, social statuses, politics, and events unfolding, nor should they be forced to care about something they don't understand or otherwise know nothing about.

There has got to be a compromise here, some kind of grey middle ground.

[laurenande]

I'd love to see Malcolm try to mitigate this whole disaster by searching for a compromise/middle ground, honestly I would, it seems like an approach that would be super interesting in the long run. A moderate stance will be really fascinating, but a hard position to hold and defend in the long run. There are a lot of general fundamental misunderstandings that sit at the core of this conflict and resolving them will be an ordeal.

Galadriel, for instance, comes from a place that doesn't have any military force with a structure like the Inquisition. She's never encountered a police force or policing like the templars and her military, especially, is run in a completely foreign fashion to that of Thedas. She's extremely wary of being asked to swear oaths (not historically a good idea in Arda) and she basically views everyone around her as kindergardeners trying to put her in time out.

She'd be a hard sell on compromise, particularly considering that she's prideful and Cassandra and she got off on a terrible foot, but it could be done.

I'm not sure what middle ground exists or where they could find said compromise, (I expect that will be the end result of this plot after a long stretch of conflict,) so if Malcolm wants to really devote himself to finding that he is more than welcome to do so!

If you want to figure out what we can thread or what points would help this along, I'm always available for discussing it on plurk or via PM (even here is totally okay), but I know a lot of this is going to be unpredictable at first because of IC reactions and conversations.

A discussion thread for Grey Warden responses, mayhaps?

[twelvelabours]

Herc is going to believe in keeping Thedas and its people safe, and as such, will support Cassandra.

Just because Wardens are dedicated to stopping the Blight and the Darkspawn doesn't mean they can just let some other disaster tear it apart, so far as he's concerned, and he will be urging his fellow Wardens to seriously consider their lot before tossing it in with Leliana or Galadriel, or dismissing this as trivial or somehow less important than Warden concerns. (Urging, but not ordering or demanding. It's their decision to make.) However, he'll say something along the lines of what's the good in sorting out the Warden problems if Thedas gets torn apart by shardbearers, demons, or anything else in the meantime?

For those Wardens who have served for a long time, Herc is a man with a reputation for caring about mages, but... as we all know, there's mages and there's mages. One good one can do a lot of good, one bad one can do a lot of bad, same as any person - it's just that a mage can control minds, if they get desperate enough. He doesn't want to see mages or innocent people locked up, but at the end of the day, safety of Thedas at any cost is what Grey Wardens are prepared to give up their lives for (what they have all lost friends and brothers and sisters in arms too, as well.)

Normally he'd say that political matters don't concern them, but the Inquisition is above most political matters, they need the Inquisition, and the Inquisition is the only force rising to address Corypheus, etc. The Wardens ignoring this would be like cutting off their nose to spite their face, essentially.

Re: A discussion thread for Grey Warden responses, mayhaps?

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Bethany isn't going to like the fact that Galadriel is being locked up. However, she is not going to like the fact that people are playing around with dangerous magical things when they don't know what they do because clearly that's never gone wrong before ever.

She is not looking at Anders and Merrill. Not even a little bit.

So I think she wants to be part of the moderation crowd. Perhaps if the Wardens step in and offer a voice of reason - yes it is important to understand the rifts but perhaps this is something that can happen after they have taken out the extremely dangerous darkspawn magister.

Team We Need A Damned Inquisitor

[judgemewhole]

Norrington's been thinking about this one for awhile, and he might just start voicing this opinion aloud during this crisis. The problem is that they have four central authority figures and no deciding vote of what to do when things like this happen. They do not have a single person acting as their moral and spiritual and PHYSICAL leader, so right now there are too many factions inside factions and they need a single person to get this all sorted.

He's not waiting for a Divine. They need an Inquisitor. The Inquisitor could sit down, take all the facts here, and come up with an informed decision. That Inquisitor could be elected by the people, for the people, to decide what is going to be best for the entire Inquisition in regards to this mess.

He does not vote for himself -- his current stance is, 'Let anyone who wants to open a rift open a rift and get eaten by demons. Then the smart rifters can close the damned thing and we can move on with our day.' That ... is not a helpful response.

[tactical_alert]

Good idea. I'd just suggested some kind of small emergency council to make executive decisions on this matter and hopefully disband after, but it's true, a central, centre figure to be The Inquisitor would be tremendously helpful. (Malcolm would not be optimistic about the outcome of even putting that idea out there, much less the votes, but still.)

team i already signed up tbh

[apostasia]

martel was one of those as mentioned who have already signed up as a member of the inquisition - he was one of the first, pretty much signing his name on the dotted line the instant it became permitted for rifters to do so. he's also previously been questioned by cassandra and received some nominal trust, so im not sure if he will be dealing with guards or...??? he is an inquisition soldier.

seeing as he a) has no desire to go home, b) has zero rifter solidarity (and in fact quietly opposes the concept), and c) strongly does not want to jeopardise his position here, he will be irritated if he has to tolerate a templar guard (and consider it an appalling waste of resource), but he is going to cooperate completely with everything put forward, distance himself from any opposition (namely GALADRIEL, oh my god) and refrain from taking out his irritation on said templars if they are a thing that happens.

he doesn't view most of what galadriel has to say as relevant to him, and thinks if she's trying to accomplish anything besides "a totally unnecessary clusterfuck" she's going about it terribly. anyone who tries to talk to him about "rifter interests" will not get far, because he doesn't give a fuck about the other rifters as a concept. some individuals he might consider pissing on if they were on fire, and in general everyone in skyhold gets roughly the same level of consideration from him, but he actively opposes and wants nothing to do with anything resembling organisation by the rifters.

+1

[dragoon_pride]

I was going to jump in and say something like this but I didn't have a fun team name, so I'll just add another over here!

Kain is in this because it gives him a purpose other than aimlessly wandering, he always needs a purpose. His real motivation in signing up is the ultimate Good vs Evil struggle (he just came from one, it's what he does), so he's more interested in battling Corypheus/Red Templars/Dragons/Bears/etc. He will always first and foremost want to focus on things like that instead of social conflicts. He has no interest or stake in political arguments or anything like that. He doesn't like rifters being singled out as a thing, he's a warrior above all else and that's why he signed on in the first place. He's gone on a couple missions at this point so I'd assume would have proven his worth.

Now, another reason I'd prefer him in the opt-out loyalty option is that he really hates the idea of being guarded or not coming/going as he pleases (but him not being a mage and already signing on loyally to the Inquisition... I'm assuming that's not a concern...).

team let's leave and go fight bandits and stuff

[hlif]

Asher has zero stake in this beyond probably talking shit to any Templars that talk shit to people he cares about so he will be leaving Skyhold for a bit to go take care of a job with his crew.

If anyone wants to come with him to kill stuff, welcome aboard. He will smuggle out rifters too if desired.

[dragoon_pride]

YEAH KILLING STUFF. That's what Kain signed up for. He's loyal to the Inquisition and all, but prefers to stay out of the social conflicts like this one... he's really not fond of the general mood of things right now. But he's not going to be one to totally run away, just take some time elsewhere until things settle. So he will be all for coming along!