MOD POST ↠ THE WINTER PALACE

[faderifting]

THE WINTER PALACE

WHAT'S GOING ON

The War of the Lions has gone on for over a year now, and everyone's sick of it. Celene and Gaspard have been in a stalemate for months, fighting back and forth across the same few miles of the Exalted Plains, with neither able to gain any decisive victories. Neither side is prepared to give up, but with winter nearly here and the drain on the Empire and their personal resources reaching catastrophic proportions, both have been convinced to give peace talks a chance.

They will meet at the Winter Palace in Halamshiral, where a grand ball has been planned by Gaspard's sister Grand Duchess Florianne de Chalons. Despite its hostess having been recently captured and imprisoned by the Inquisition on charges of conspiring with Corypheus, it's been decided that the party will proceed. Too much effort has been put into bringing the major players to the table to postpone and plan a new occasion, and no one can afford to wait until the spring if there's any chance of ending the war now.

The Inquisition has been invited to attend in a vague intermediary role. They're not officially negotiators or mediators, and they have no authority to decide an outcome. Technically, they're just guests. But they're guests who have been welcomed in large numbers and asked to provide manpower to assist in guarding the palace. There have been no direct threats on the event, but everyone is more concerned with trouble coming from within than without, for good reason. It's not been said explicitly, but it's clear that the Inquisition presence is meant to provide a buffer between Celene's supporters and Gaspard's, and to prevent brawls--or open battle--from breaking out mid-party.

The canon NPCs from the game, including Celene, Gaspard, and Briala, are away behind closed doors preparing for and engaging in the talks everyone has come here for. In their absence and to help flesh out the atmosphere, below in the comments you'll find a list of NPCs with brief descriptions. Like we did with the soiree at Skyhold, these are available for you to use in your tags, and some may also be played by our helpful NPC mods. There won't be top levels for NPCs, but they might drop into threads here and there for brief interactions. This is to help make sure that as many different people as possible get a chance to play with them, though we still can't guarantee we'll get to everyone. This can of course be opted out of! Just mark in your subject line if you'd like to stay closed to PCs only.

HOW WE'RE PICKING A "WINNER"

Since a lot of our plans for determining the outcome of the Orlesian civil war didn't work out, that decision will instead be based on this log and Winter Palace Part II (to be posted later this month). To simplify things, we're going to use characters' involvement in these logs as a proxy for how involved they have been in the Inquisition's efforts in Orlais. Tell us who your character would support in the Orlesian power struggle, and we'll tally your comments in the IC log as points in that person's favor. Only comments posted before 11:59pm EST on December 15 will be counted.

To clarify, this is not a measure of the influence your character is exerting just during the ball itself. We assume that people will know better than to try to persuade the Orlesian nobles in attendance that Briala should be in power. It's more retroactive: if you comment 50 times here and your character supports Briala, we'll say that your character's actions in Orlais since the Inquisition arrived, prior to the ball itself, have helped garner 50 points' worth of support and bargaining power for Briala to bring into the negotiations.

As leaders of the Inquisition, the advisors obviously have the final say as to who the organization officially puts its support behind, and we'll be letting them make that call here, too. On December 16th, we'll inform the advisors of what the political landscape looks like, taking into account the relative strength levels of the three major players as determined by the comment count results. They'll then get to decide what they ICly want to do. If they choose to openly throw their support behind one candidate, that person will gain substantial leverage in the negotiations. Looking at their decision and the comment counts, we'll then determine whose leverage will be enough to prevail, and whether they'll be able to force the other two to submit to their rule or if a more complex situation will result.

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE

Everyone is welcome to participate in both logs. For PART I, we're including options for characters who would be invited to schmooze the nobility and characters who would not. Those who would not be welcome in the ballroom can hang out with the palace servants, who are celebrating no longer having to cook or prepare, or can be on guard duty/patrol in the areas around the palace. Even some non-combat characters might be tagged to help with guard duty, as their role there is as much to provide eyes and ears and a buffer between Celene's men and Gaspard's as anything else. Characters who hate fun or Orlais and would not willingly attend can be ordered to; this is a military organization, not a volunteer corps. All comments will count toward your chosen individual, regardless of whether your character is in the palace itself or not.

Please exercise good judgment when deciding where to put your character during Part I -- nonhumans and mages aren't barred from participating in the ball, but they will need to be particularly well-behaved and able to graciously accept poor treatment. Those with a history of outbursts or inherently controversial reputations likely would not be permitted to attend. Anyone who causes a scene in any portion of the log may be discreetly asked to leave by an Inquisition NPC. But don't despair! PART II will allow opportunities for characters who were not invited to come inside anyway.

TL;DR

1. Tell us who your character supports.

2. Participate in the logs. PART I, covering the first half of the night, is up now; PART II will cover the second half of the ball and will go up later this month. Comments to both parts posted before midnight EST on December 15, 2016, will count toward deciding the ultimate outcome of the war.

3. Make good choices and don't say your character was permitted to attend the fancy ball if they're at obvious risk of causing a brawl on the ballroom floor.

4. Mark in your subject line if you don't want NPCs to potentially pop into your thread.