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

[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.