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

[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.

Re: The Dalish Perspective

[keeperofmagi]

yeah gavin's going to try to break her out, no matter who is with him

[samahl]

Cyril would too though. And he would be very, very vocal if they got caught that she should not have been locked up in the first place. And that it's offensive that shems would lock up an elf just for disagreeing with them. And What I'm saying is he'll have a lot of feelings ok.

[serannas]

Ellana will be speaking for herself in this matter, separate from the Mage Council. She doesn't think Galadriel wanting to study the rifts is a bad thing. Were she doing it on her own and opened a rift and demons poured out and killed her, then yeah, she'd be upset, which is why she doesn't think rifter mages should be studying these things on their own, just like you shouldn't try to take on a dragon on your own. But she wants to help! She wants to be there for Galadriel and any other rifters or native shardbearers who need support.

She's angry that Galadriel was locked up and her things taken (the Light of Eärendil! How could you???) and will speak openly that she thinks Galadriel deserves to walk free, as do the other rifters. She won't physically be sneaking down to the dungeon to break Galadriel out, simply because she worries she may be kicked off the Mage Council for it, but the idea absolutely has her support and she will keep the plan secret.

Re: The Dalish Perspective

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Yeah, Katniss is going to be with Cyril on this one.... she shouldn't be locked up.

She shouldn't open rifts but she should definitely not be locked up.

Re: The Dalish Perspective

[samahl]

Yeah. Literally right now all he cares about is that she's locked up and should be released. He isn't trying to make any statement about the rest of this conflict.

[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?

[laurenande]

I am 100% on board for this still.

[wontforgetyou]

Excellent. I rambled in it's own spot but do let me know when we need to specifically plot more for this.

The Dalish Perspective - Part 2

[samahl]

Okay, talking about this on plurk I think I've come up with something that might be important to put here for input/plotting.

Once news gets out that Galadriel has been imprisoned, I feel that the Dalish, and other elvhen characters if they wish, should have a sort of group meeting/huddle where they discuss openly advocating for Galadriel's immediate release. An official statement should be drafted and then should be taken to the Inquistion's higher ups.

Once that's denied, a group of the Dalish/others will then try to break her out. This should be run as a sub-plot within this plot, with signups and everything, maybe? Depending on how many people want to be invovled. I think we've settled that Gavin and Cyril would instigate it though, depending on what Britt thinks?

Input? Questions? Concerns? I'm up for anything for this, but I just really don't think that Galadriel being imprisoned is something that would be ignored.

[stabsbooks]

When/how Galadriel gets released is up to Bubbles (Galadriel's mun). We (Bella, Bubbles and I) still have to determine how that's going down. If Leliana insists that Galadriel be released immediately (and manages to get Cassandra to comply), a jailbreak attempt won't be necessary.

NOT TO SAY IT WON'T HAPPEN but don't make any firm plans because it's still up in the air!

[samahl]

Okay! Good to know! That's why I wanted to put this up here because I feel like first they would try something more organized and then go to something drastic if that is ignored.

[keeperofmagi]

GOOD TO KNOW though i still think gavin trying to break her out would be hilarious just saying

[laurenande]

Honestly I would find a jailbreak log to be deeply hilarious but I don't want to make the Inquisition soldiers look incompetent in the process, or drive Cassandra to further action you may not want her to take? If we could roll it into the process of releasing her after Leliana and Cassandra argue discuss it, that would be delightful.

Basically I'm down for however this works for everyone.

[stabsbooks]

cool we should discuss this when I get home (as if we're gonna be discussing anything else all night lbr)

[serannas]

I've thrown around the idea that maybe while others try to break out Galadriel, Ellana would try to steal Galadriel's things back. This is entirely dependent on what Buttercup wants to do with that, of course, especially since the breakout will fail and then they're left hiding Galadriel's stuff.

They being whoever wants in to help Ellana, of course. :3

[samahl]

Haha. You go girl.

[slaveking]

HELLO FROM A VAMPIRE. Marcel will have a lot of mixed feelings about this, and many of them split between: 1) yes please study the Rifts please get me back home and 2) why did you have to whack the hornet's nest, why? He'd like to find out more about the situation, the kinds of laws that Galadriel is objecting to, etc. In absence of there being actually problematic laws (e.g., if the law says 'don't run around using magic for murder/theft/etc.' that's-- fine), he'd be really aggravated and possibly try to convince her she needs to apologize for at least some of what she said. Mostly in the interest of making peace, so they can focus on Rift studying, going home, etc. If you'd be interested in mixed CR, I'd love to have them meet somehow. Otherwise, Marcel can just have his opinions in private and try to maneuver around her.

That aside tho--

IIRC Galadriel is a telepath. I think she might be able to tell, or suspect that Marcel isn't the 'mage' he claims to be. Unless you have awesome and fairly specific CR ideas, I would prefer for his vampire nature to not yet come out as such. But she might get the sense there's something weird and dirty about his superhuman abilities, and certainly that he isn't all that he sees. Maybe she could even detect the magic in his ring, figure out how to turn it off, and realize he's allergic to sunlight? Whatever's fun.

[laurenande]

I would love to have them interact, really! I held off on the rifter meeting because Marcel was there and I wasn't sure how to handle her meeting him. Her telepathy is an ability that requires active exertion, she has to try for it, but she perpetually senses darkness and/or corruption in people. So, depending on how his particular Vampire nature works out, that could get sticky.

Fortunately, because he's a rifter she'll hold off on anything as dramatic as open hostility, but she'll be super leery of him if she detects corruption.

I can certainly have her be nonspecific about what he is (there weren't many vampires in middle earth after all) and I can definitely have her keep it to herself or between them, if that sort of CR interests you. If you'd prefer she not detect his nature/what he is at all, she can zero in on the magic ring. (I mean, those are something of a priority in Middle Earth, after all.)

IN ANY CASE: yes, please. Someone or several of the Rifters should try to get her to back down. She will, publicly if not privately, but she's too proud to do it spontaneously or think of the benefits on her own. It literally won't occur to her that this is advantageous until someone points that out.

[slaveking]

I'd love this so much! YAY, especially with regard to getting each other to back down. :) In my own character development, Marcel is actually about to swan off and have dinner with the Knight-Commander of the New Templars (with Araceli) IIRC and has also started sidling Cullen about Inquisition-Rifter relations. The climax of this progression seems like a really great time to meet.

What kind of info do you need to make a determination, about the 'nature' of vampirism in his series? Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure that it'd ping on her senses as somewhat corrupt. Even though Marcel is incredibly in-control of his predatory characteristics, the first vampires were created from a powerful witch spell intended to make them immortal (also super-strong, and so on). But the strength of these empowerments was beyond the scope of 'ethical' magic. As dark magic, the spells basically offended the forces of nature so much that the blood-drinking, sun allergy, etc., are basically side-effects/'curse' meant to balance it out. Anyway, I'd be happy for Galadriel to notice there's corruption going on in him, as long as she wouldn't feel the immediate urge to share with much of his CR? I definitely don't mind if it comes out in a couple months, just right now feels a bit soon.

Also! When does Galadriel get thrown in jail, do you have an ETA? Are you forward-RPing these events at all, or should I just keep my eye out for the log?

[laurenande]

Oh! Thank you for that summary; I'd planned on reading his app to see if there was enough to make a decision but that helps a lot. Yes if he's not aligned with nature, that totally qualifies as physical corruption (She technically detects discord with the natural order which usually is summed up as corruption, because that's what corruption is in Arda.) Beyond that sensation, though, because there was only like...what one named Vampire in all of Tolkien? She wouldn't have many additional feelings about what he is and she definitely wouldn't share her knowledge with his CR.

Ultimately she's not very big on sharing her excess of arcane and mundane knowledge, so unless he rips someone in two in front of her she's not likely to go around warning people about him.

She'll be thrown in jail in the beginning of next month. I'm not sure the exact date, but we will figure it out and make another OOC post about the details that will be disseminated (or Cecil will overhear and broadcast said details, if that works out with the Cassandra and Leliana thread) and give everyone what they need to know to kick this off as they'd like.