faderiftooc | Mage Council Emergency Meeting!

In the aftermath of the Abomination, Pel calls an emergency session of the Council. Those not present in Skyhold attend via Sending Crystal. The meeting is public and anyone can watch.

Her proposal is threefold:

First, a two-week anti-demon training course. Whether it's mandatory or not can be tossed back and forth by the Council in discussion.

Second, a variation on Harrowings, held in a safe location outside of Skyhold to be determined (for the safety of non-mages), with three major differences: (1) they are opt-in only, with the mage fully apprised of what the experience will be beforehand, (2) the subject has the option of being accompanied by a spirit medium for safety and education, and (3) they are called something besides Harrowings, due to the fearmongering nature of that name.

Third, mages going alone on missions will be partnered with (not escorted by) a templar, who does not oversee the mage's work but who accompanies them as a sort of bodyguard and helps them in their work. They are to be on utterly equal terms. If they're with another mage, one templar can cover more than one mage. That limit can be set at the Council's discretion, since obviously you can't have one templar with ten mages. In Skyhold, mages can go about without templars, but they can ask to be quartered with a templar if they feel like they need it to be safe. The templars being quartered with mages must have the Council's utter trust.

She concludes by beseeching the Council to work with the safety of all people in mind, whatever their background. Dalish mages will not submit to Harrowings or Templar oversight, but they still believe in this Council and don't want to lessen the fragile power it has.

It would be best to handwave as much of this meeting as possible, due to holiday schedules and time zones, so let's hash it out in the comments below.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nerva would say (in her very blunt way) that the Council has already failed, and that she will not sit by and allow them to endanger all of the mages as well as everyone in Skyhold (and thus all of Thedas) by taking half-measures. The details of the harrowings she will leave to the mages, she's not saying that they have to be the same, but they need to keep an element of unknown to them or it will be nothing more than exam that they take, pass, and then forget about.

Vigilance against demons must be constant, and unless they are to always be accompanied by a 'spirit guide' (which she already sounds dubious about), they shouldn't have that accompaniment in the Fade, either.

And, (again, in a blunt deadpan) that Pel's training and integrity came at the cost of the Dalish releasing apostates and the unworthy into the wild, and she really doesn't think the Dalish did the whole mage thing any better than anyone else.

Also in order for the Inquisition to shape the world, it can't just throw out thousands of years of tradition in order to give in to extremists who refuse to recognize the danger they pose to themselves and the rest of Thedas.

There is always an element of the unknown in the Fade. There is no way to make that any other way.

The Dalish are not on trial here, and Nerva does not know them better than Pel herself. She was an excess mage herself, and the tales of releasing apostates and the unworthy into the wild are wildly exaggerated.

A demon killed a young mage. Maybe it is because the Council did not act quickly enough, but it is acting now and with the combined knowledge and research of many cultures. Tradition is not being thrown out, it is being modified.

Elian is a quiet dude but would stand there vibrating with rage and would probably snap and speak up to agree with Nerva's point on the element of surprise--Harrowings developed as they did because the mages have to be able to resist possession when they're taken by surprise, afraid, and emotionally vulnerable, so if it's only a voluntary sightseeing trip with forewarning and an escort, you might as well save the lyrium for something that actually matters.

... But on the other hand, for what it's worth, if people were making noise Alistair would probably come watch from the back and emanate silent but supportive anti-Harrowing vibes.

The element of surprise is something you use against an enemy, ser.

"That is not an argument. That is a deflection.

The element of surprise in necessary in ALL battle training. We aren't just teaching the mages here to study, we are teaching them to fight, against demons. We can't coddle people and tell them that the field is going to be neat and easy and you'll have help through it.

There WILL be times when templars fall, die, and mages are left on their own. They need to be ready.

On that, we agree. Do you think we would set up our own to fail? There is no chance of the situation you believe is going to happen. No manner of going into the Fade can be considered coddling, least of all when you go in looking for demons. That is what it is, after all.

But the Chantry has treated mages like the enemy for a thousand years. That is what you are encouraging now. Not unity in the Inquisition, but further hostile treatment of one of its largest subsets. Whether you intend it that way or not, that is what will happen. And that fosters blood magic and possession.

Harrowings aren't Hostile Treatment. The actual abuse that happened was far, far worse than what Nerva is recommending and she would personally ensure that such things never here in Skyhold because she would knife the templar who tried (though she would have put it better)

And the way mages are treated in Tevinter is proof that you can't just go and let them do whatever they want.

If you are arguing against mages governing themselves, you have come to the wrong meeting.

SEE YOU GET THIS

LOOK AT THAT MUSTACHE

THAT HAS TO BE ILLEGAL

Yes, because being taken into a room and forced into the fade to face a demon with the alternatives being death or tranquility is such a picnic. The Templars do not know what it is to be harrowed or to have the threat of possession and tranquility hung over them in such a manner.

Just as mages do not know what it is to be the ones to perform the right nor to send mages to what might be their death. Nor is there a way for either side to learn the other. Moving forward must be done with all possible consideration to every experience involved in this; those that endured abuse, those that did not, those that swam through their harrowing, those that passed by the skin of their teeth, and those that never endured in in the first place. The Inquisition is to be better than what came before. Hence the open, public discussion and attempts to compromise.

(grudging approval point, and her voice mellows slightly)

I would never claim the Harrowings are not difficult. Or that we can't have a form of supervision for mages that shouldn't or can't face the trials.

If there were a real way that worked - a method that was effective without the necessity for death - I would happily* agree to it, but as it stands, there isn't, and two weeks of training is not enough to prepare someone to fight off demons their entire life - whether they do it in the fade, or with a sword.

If training is meant to be a replacement, it should be constant, and regular.

* she would still not be happy but she would grudgingly go along with it, maybe

Mage Council Emergency Meeting!

basically nerva is not going to make any friends

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