Mage Council Emergency Meeting!

[mythalenaste]

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.

Comments

DISCUSSION: Demon Resistance Training

[mythalenaste]

Mandatory? With what content? Let us talk.

DISCUSSION: Reimagined Harrowings

[mythalenaste]

DISCUSSION: Templar Involvement

[mythalenaste]

[mythalenaste]

Pel describes this experience with Maria Hill.

[keeperofmagi]

Nerva will likely say that Mages who have not been through a Harrowing should be kept in separate barracks under guard for the foreseeable future. And that having the idea of having harrowings somewhere else other than skyhold makes little sense because the danger they pose is exactly the same as having non-harrowed mages in the castle anyway, so why not just build a harrowing chamber like they did in the circles.

She will argue against them being told what a harrowing involves because the whole point is that you need to be prepared at all times, and won't know in advance what will happen with a demon in a general setting anyway.

Also changing the name is semantics "and stupid", because she is stubborn and set in her ways.

Also she would argue that every mage should have a discussion before hand about the possibility of Tranquility, and the costs and benefits of such a decision, without the "fear mongering" that many mages use to discredit and de-humanize the tranquil.

[keeperofmagi]

From Nerva:

All mages leaving the castle should go with a templar (yes good), all mages should be barracked together until they pass a harrowing, and barracks should have templar guards, for the safety of both them and everyone else in the castle.

She will also point out that this means that mages will not be able to go a good majority of missions because of the lack of templars, and that they should be actively working to train more templars.

[mythalenaste]

Taking. Deep breaths.

She explains that no matter what, many good mages who believe in this Council will deny its authority if it tries to enforce Harrowings as they existed in the Circles. This includes herself. She has spent weeks working on this proposal so she will not have to turn her back on this Council. She believes it can do great things, but she cannot reconcile the Chantry's philosophy on mages with her own training and integrity. This Inquisition will shape how the world treats mages forever, and she will not endorse a course of action she is unwilling to follow.

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin will just blatantly give Nerva the stink-eye for all of that and bluntly refuse Templar authority. She was never in a Circle and will not submit to anything resembling one now.

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin has Pel's back on this, supporting the proposal and echoing that she won't endorse any council that would enforce Harrowings. Non-Chantry ways of dealing with such things exist and she's not about to let Circle mages or Templars forget it.

[mythalenaste]

Pel will explain more tactfully that a number of cultures must be respected here if any effective method is to unfold.

basically nerva is not going to make any friends

[keeperofmagi]

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.

[keeperofmagi]

Sure, ways of dealing with such things that had her dealing with apostates-turned-renegade all over the countryside.

They're an army, not a tiny clan able to deal with their own, and as an army they have to have much stricter regulations. Any misstep on the part of the mages reflects on the whole of the inquisition, and they can't ignore the risks.

[keeperofmagi]

Nerva will just blunty say that they are in an army, and an army has to work as an entire unit, not coddle 'cultural feelings'.

[mythalenaste]

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.

[mythalenaste]

That may be so, but the fact remains that if those cultures are disrespected, there will be no effective method of keeping everyone safe.

That said, your cultural feelings are being given due respect and being taken into consideration.

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin would point out that they're not ignoring risks, that's why the meeting was called in the first place. But she's never submitted to Chantry regulations about magic and she isn't going to start now.

[keeperofmagi]

SHE ACTUALLY WOULDN'T REPLY TO THAT OTHER THAN GLARE AT HER

and secretly give Korrin an approval point that she will pretend she doesn't feel

[keeperofmagi]

Nerva will probably ask where the army that the Dalish are raising to seal the breach is

oh wait

since this inquisition is named under the divine's authority, it is, by necessity, under chantry 'cultural feelings' and you're the one who joined up if you don't like it pel

nerva is super good at frands

[gatheringstorm]

You mean the Chantry that's decrying them all as heretics? That Chantry?

[keeperofmagi]

DIVINE JUSTINIA IS THE ONLY CHANTRY SHE NEEDS

seriously the rest of the chantry can go fuck itself but you can't claim justinia ain't of the chantry

obviously i have started paraphrasing

[mythalenaste]

Ser, I am working within the environment of this Inquisition, not simply catering to my own pride. I respect your disagreement, but I am working to unify this Inquisition. There has been a great deal more talk from you about my people being separate than there has been from me.

But the people who draw away from the Council will hardly be limited to the Dalish. There are a significant number of moderate Circle mages who already will not submit to the Council because it reminds them too much of a Circle already. A greater number will follow them if we are not mindful of their autonomy.

[dairsmuid]

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.

[keeperofmagi]

Then they should be lectured to about Duty. Because sealing the breach and fighting Corypheus comes above everything else, which will be impossible if our own soldiers are terrified of the mages they are supposed to be working with.

If you think your tent mate can burst into a demon at any time, you're going to be looking from death from beside you when you should be focusing in front of you.

The only way to run an effective campaign is to ensure that everyone in it is safe, and there's been no proposal put forward so far that would make a non-mage feel any safer, save for the templar babysitters (she agrees with that one). Harrowings renamed and made gentler aren't going to do the mages, the templers, or the scared public any favours rather than give a false sense of security.

[mythalenaste]

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

[keeperofmagi]

"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.