[video]

[songofvalor]

[ A FEW MINUTES AFTER THIS THREAD. Leliana's voice is shaky and her accent heavier than usual, too much anger bubbling inside her. ]

Anders! Where are you, you fiend?

I can't believe I thought you were a good man. You were one of Elissa's friends, for Andraste's sake! To find out this out from someone else while you walk around like you didn't... you didn't...

The blood of Kirkwall's grand cleric is in your hands. Grand Cleric Elthina! How could you murder one of the holiest people in Thedas!? What have you to gain!?

[ ANDERS BRO GET YOUR ASS IN HERE BEFORE SHE HUNTS YOU DOWN HERSELF ]

[ ooc: I am so sorry for spamming! Important development that can't be delayed and stuff. ]

Comments

[songofvalor]

I gave a lot of them refuge from the templars during my time as a bard. I helped one of them escape from prison. [ NOT THAT SHE HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH SKETCH ENDING UP IN PRISON IN THE FIRST PLACE OH NO ] I was against annulling the Fereldan Circle, and I traveled with a couple of them against the Blight.

Wynne and Sketch, they are people very dear to me! I never saw them as abominations, as mistakes in the eyes of the Maker. I saw them as what they are -- good people.

Do not talk as if I'm turning a blind eye to their plight.

[birdhousesoul]

Oh, really.

[Scorn fairly drips from the words.]

You've traveled with a couple of mages, have you. You've used them in your bard's work, as Cousland used them against the Blight, and kept them by your side for your own gain, which also happened to keep them clear of the Templars for as long as that association lasted.

Tell me, Sister, would you say that some of your best friends are mages? Good mages, of course. Not like those rotten maleficarum roaming Thedas. Not like the abominations your good Chantry protects you from. Those few, good, exceptional mages who've shared your table.

Well, I suppose if that's the case, you're a bona fide ally of the mage cause. Forgive me for ever doubting your sincerity. Wynne, was it? I knew the spirit healer Wynne in Fereldan. She had some exceptional liberties. A candidate for First Enchanter, it was rumored, who turned down the job for old Irving to take. Being First Enchanter would've locked her down to one Tower, of course, like every other mage.

What would you call a person who curries favor with his masters by helping to keep down his peers? What's a good name for that, lady bard? You're so good with words. Give me the right title for Wynne.

[songofvalor]

So, I never really helped and befriended them, you mean? Wynne doesn't count, because she worked hard to be where she is? That I have to devote all of my time to helping mages or else anything I do for them is invalid?

It's not like you did your part any better. Killing Elthina and dissolving the Kirkwall Circle? My, what a grand idea! Let's encourage the Chantry to form an Exalted March against them until they wipe them out for good, until every sympathizer backs away from your cause or gets killed for it.

Innocent mages are going to die because of what you did. You're not helping your cause. You're mutilating it.

[birdhousesoul]

No, you didn't. You partook in a mutually beneficial exchange of services and then you parted ways. That does not make you an ally of mages. What it makes you is a woman who's happy to avail herself of an apostate's talents outside the Circle when she needs one, and equally happy to let all mages rot inside the Circle when she doesn't need one.

You've got as rosy and false a picture of your precious Wynne as you do of the Grand Cleric. Worked hard to be where she is? I grew up in the Fereldan Circle. Everyone knows about everyone. Do you really want her dirty laundry aired? I could say a few things about how hard she worked. And for whom.

Quite frankly, Sister, you're full of shit. You know nothing of what goes on in a Circle. Wynne's part and parcel of the problem. The mages who manage to thrive under Circle discipline spend the prime of their lives bickering with one another about whether it might be nice to have some freedoms, and if so, what sorts of freedoms might be safe. It's makework masquerading as politics.

It would continue to go on, because those enchanters and First Enchanters are comfortable where they are, thank you, sitting on their arses and pretending to be important. And do you know what else would continue to go on? The deaths of innocent mages.

Innocent mages have always died under Chantry law. Many of them die before or just after the age of majority, facing that barbaric ritual called a Harrowing. Others die falsely accused of blood magic. And then there are the mages who aren't innocent, the ones who do turn to blood magic -- driven to it, in desperation, lacking any other recourse.

All these deaths, all this despoiled innocence, engineered entirely by the Chantry and abetted by their pet enchanters. That's what your Wynne was. The Chantry's pet, permitted privileges most mages couldn't dream of, as long as she'd speak loudly in favor of keeping all mages on a tight leash. That's the hard work Wynne did for the Chantry.

Freedom is costly. Some of us will be called upon to lay down our lives. I'd sooner see mages spill blood fighting for their rights than yield their throats to the sword in the Harrowing, or their souls to the brand of Tranquility.