OOC discussion post for an IC project - Building a mage community

[justice_is_blond]

So Anders has noticed that one thing most Loyalist mages have that most non-Loyalists don't is a sense of community, and an idea of their place and where they belong. If mages are going to find their own ways and lives, and if they're going to keep their freedom, they need a little togetherness, a little unity.

My proposal is starting a set of meetings for networking and chatting and coming together for all non-Loyalist mages (and Kostos because... Kostos.) OOCly it would happen roughly every month, ICly we might do something quick-tag/spam-tag style every other month where mages can gather and chat and network with the idea of helping each other and working together.

Anders would only take the position of organizer. He'll make it really clear that there's no leader, no 'first enchanter' or something, and that it's not a council. He'll find the place, coordinate the dates and food and chairs and water, but there will be no one in charge because that's not what this is about.

I'm thinking the first meeting would be around the tenth of January and would focus on introductions and hearing what mages feel they need and can use to help them find stability, and what they think would help incoming mages find stability as well. Anders would be personally contacting mages about this meeting; let me know if you'd like to play that out.

What I could use, and what this post is for, are suggestions and input. What would people like to see? What would you like your characters to contribute? What questions should get answered OOCly before this starts up?

Comments

[keenly]

Colin is glad to cater and I am glad for him to get dragged into things despite his reluctance.

[justice_is_blond]

Eeeeeeexcellent. :D Did you want a conversation to happen in Colin's inbox? With Anders trying to be clever? LOL.

[keenly]

We can have an IC inbox conversation!

[justice_is_blond]

Woohoo! I'll be starting those up tomorrow for the sweet AC points. :D

[ungovernable]

support groups are not the scene for ms i have one friend in the whole world, but she'd express interest in being available to pass things to if there's something mages need that she can help with, making herself a resource as a non-loyalist mage who does have that confident idea of where she fits into the world and experience in moving around in it etc. (like, if she can pull a string here or there, or if someone might benefit from a one-on-one with someone who knows her way around.)

[justice_is_blond]

Awesome! Shall he contact her and chat with her so he knows how much he can say about her availability and such?

[ungovernable]

yyyy sounds good :] december was a surgery haze, but she'll have been quietly back with the inquisition since they returned from nevarra as part of the research division. (and she brought the dogs with her, obvs.)

[justice_is_blond]

Sweet. I'll be starting those up tomorrow.

...And Anders says he's not sure dogs really help anything. Cats, though...

[circleprodigy]

Inessa won't have a lot of available free time, in between Grey Warden and project duties, but she'll want to at least be kept in the loop. A general sense of community sounds good to her, and she'll be happy to focus on pooling arcane knowledge. I'm not offering to run anything just yet (since I already have stuff lined up for January), but I'd love to see a push toward recovering what they lost in terms of tomes, enchanted items/weird shit from Circle basements.

Korrin has zero interest in fraternity chatter, since that's non-applicable to her. What does have her interest is practical applications of magic and learning/sharing what she already knows. That brings me to one suggestion: for introductions, perhaps encourage people to mention specializations if they have them? This could make it easier to network and find people mentors/students.

[justice_is_blond]

Cool!

If Inessa brings that up, Anders can potentially connect her with Kostos who co-lead a run on a Circle for grabbing stuff. It's definitely a good project to keep going and there will likely be a bunch of people interested.

There won't be Fraternity talk, I'm pretty sure, because that's something to leave behind with the Circles too. It's mainly here to show the divide as the Loyalists tend to have the Chantry Relations stuff already and their own shared goal. The introductions with specializations is a great idea, though!

Would you like either/both to be poked in their inboxes?

[circleprodigy]

Sure, that's fine!

[el_tybs]

So it's like a support group?

Sam might not be super involved in things, but he'd be willing to help out with things and hear others out.

For him it would be important to help others learn skills that aren't reliant on magic - learning to cook, camp, etc. - and having people available for those who need to talk about their issues.

[justice_is_blond]

Exactly!

Those are awesome things to bring to the table. Would you like Anders to call him and ask him to be there?

[el_tybs]

Yeah, Anders can call him up, or pull him to the side sometime.

[purered]

The Medicine Seller will be lured by the prospect of free food, and will generally hang around at the back of the first couple of meetings being a useless hippie and surreptitiously stuffing his face.

Eventually tho, he'd pipe in with the logistics of converting his ofuda to some form of glyph usable by thedosian mages since one of the biggest barriers to mage freedom is the whole prone to getting possessed thing, and he is very, very good at warding off the bad juju.

Klaus is still keeping his magic on the downlow (because blood magic is bad news bears) but he would very much be in the camp of offering whatever support he can as a show of solidarity.

[justice_is_blond]

Yay, MS! That glyph potential has a lot of promise and I can see there being a ton of interest in it. Shall I have Anders poke MS?

Maybe one day Klaus can be encouraged to come on over. :D

[exequy]

Kostos isn’t a joiner and will continue insisting he’s a Loyalist but he would nonetheless show up if invited.

And he probably would not be Great and tell people their problems are stupid and so on but conflict makes the RP world go ‘round!

[justice_is_blond]

He's gonna be invited because he fought for freeeeeeeedom or at least for Nell.

He might also get eye rolls. Lots of eye rolls.

[wheretheferngrows]

Atticus will not participate because lol sheeple, but Fern will shyly turn up and probably hover around in the background trying to figure out where her place even is in the mage community as it is evolving. If Nell shows up, she'll probably stick kind of close to her.

The only real thing of value she can contribute are her unique warming glyphs, which are largely self-designed and self-taught, useful for keeping gardens warm in colder months, and also for keeping the interior of stables warm.

[justice_is_blond]

Yay Fern! She doesn't have to contribute things of value, just chat and show up and stuff, but those are seriously handy for cold places.