It's something he hasn't really thought about before so concretely; as Strange has just mentioned, it's not as if Riftwatch has the personnel to spare to offer to take anyone in themselves. But the second idea is one he turns over.
"You'd be asking anyone affiliated with the Chantry to take a massive risk," he says, after a few moments. "Yes, we could frame it as a wartime necessity, never meant to be permanent, but sanctioning it would be a tacit admission that the Circles effectively do not exist right now. That's mostly true, but if the Chantry admits that, it is going to be much harder to shove mages back into them after Corypheus is dealt with and the Templars aren't all on an Exalted March. If someone did that without permission, there's a risk they could be branded a heretic."
With his arms folded, he taps his fingers above his elbow, absently thinking it through.
"It's a couple of problems together, I think. I've no doubt we could find at least a few mages willing to help with some rudimentary training and instruction. But without at least a veneer of Chantry involvement, parents like mine aren't likely to voluntarily send their children to a mage-supervised situation. Sympathetic parents, maybe, or those who are just so scared they want a mage out of their house and don't care where they go. But there's enough piety in Thedas that there would be resistance, even beyond the Chantry itself." He shakes his head. "I don't think it's impossible, but it's going to be a challenge. On the other hand, if we could establish something now, it will give us some bargaining power later. And it would give at least some children somewhere safe to go."
Strictly speaking, this might not be Strange’s problem — not his circus, not his monkeys — but no one here’s going to care much about the technicalities of the difference between a sorcerer and a mage, and if it weren’t for that shard in his palm, he’d be considered one just the same. And people look at rifters with much the same dubious mistrust; he’d heard some of the arguments for giving them the same treatingment after the war. Their fates might be more intertwined than he’d like.
It’s no surprise, then, that he identifies as a mage himself, and finds himself invested in the problem. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…
“The other risk,” Strange says, “is that you wouldn’t want to accidentally recreate the Circles all over again, just under a different name. History repeating itself. One would want it to be better than what came before. We might have too much on our plate already to tackle this too, but we’re also uniquely-situated by having so many free mages publicly organised under one roof, and so we might be positioned to think about alternatives. And presumably having some option available somewhere on the continent is better than having no options at all: staying at home or being turned out on the street.”
Or worse. He wonders how bad it gets in the even less tolerant villages, finding a child’s manifested as a mage.
Probably bad. Let’s not ask.
maybe wrap up for now but circle back to this potential idea in a thread closer to the present?
"There is that," Julius agrees, quietly. "I used to think reform was the better way forward, for ... there were reasons, some lack of information, others lack of context. But I know the tendency well enough. There are mages who are rightly wary that anything too similar to the Circles would slide back into being the Circles with minimal prodding. That said..."
A sigh. It's a problem he's been turning over for a long time, and he truly does appreciate the fresh perspective. That said, it's a large tangle to try to tease apart and it hasn't gotten any smaller in the past few years.
"I think it was good. Seeing Kamar-Taj. Thinking about ... the training, the chance to talk with other mages, or sorcerers rather. That there were some good things we might be able to build a different way." He hadn't fully expected it to be so affecting, in the moment, but it's clear Julius has thought about it since.
"If you're interested in getting involved, native mage politics are messy, but you've raised an excellent point about children. If you haven't, you might want to talk to Mme de Cedoux, some. She has an interesting perspective as another rifter who can use magic, and she's gotten more fully involved with our efforts here. Obviously," with a wry little smile, "we're all here for Riftwatch, and that's the more immediate priority. But what happens to mages, now and later, is a thing some of us have been working on simultaneously. And history shows that rifters are likely to be lumped in with us. Even the ones who can't do magic." Much less those who could.
“A good idea.” As if they don’t already have enough on their endless to-do lists, but, “Between being a rifter and a magic-user, I’ve always felt you and I are more in the same boat than not. I’ll talk to her and hear what she thinks.”
It’s a sunny day, warm and a little drowsy with the daylight trickling in through the windows. Strange has been working too long, pent-up with these Sashamiri reports, and could probably do with a break. Nothing like stretching one's legs after dealing with weighty philosophical conversations about the fate of an entire people.
“Y’know what, let’s go for a walk,” he says, sweeping his paperwork back into a tidier pile. “I’d like some fresh air.”
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portalling) wrote2022-04-02 01:17 pm
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"You'd be asking anyone affiliated with the Chantry to take a massive risk," he says, after a few moments. "Yes, we could frame it as a wartime necessity, never meant to be permanent, but sanctioning it would be a tacit admission that the Circles effectively do not exist right now. That's mostly true, but if the Chantry admits that, it is going to be much harder to shove mages back into them after Corypheus is dealt with and the Templars aren't all on an Exalted March. If someone did that without permission, there's a risk they could be branded a heretic."
With his arms folded, he taps his fingers above his elbow, absently thinking it through.
"It's a couple of problems together, I think. I've no doubt we could find at least a few mages willing to help with some rudimentary training and instruction. But without at least a veneer of Chantry involvement, parents like mine aren't likely to voluntarily send their children to a mage-supervised situation. Sympathetic parents, maybe, or those who are just so scared they want a mage out of their house and don't care where they go. But there's enough piety in Thedas that there would be resistance, even beyond the Chantry itself." He shakes his head. "I don't think it's impossible, but it's going to be a challenge. On the other hand, if we could establish something now, it will give us some bargaining power later. And it would give at least some children somewhere safe to go."
no subject
It’s no surprise, then, that he identifies as a mage himself, and finds himself invested in the problem. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…
“The other risk,” Strange says, “is that you wouldn’t want to accidentally recreate the Circles all over again, just under a different name. History repeating itself. One would want it to be better than what came before. We might have too much on our plate already to tackle this too, but we’re also uniquely-situated by having so many free mages publicly organised under one roof, and so we might be positioned to think about alternatives. And presumably having some option available somewhere on the continent is better than having no options at all: staying at home or being turned out on the street.”
Or worse. He wonders how bad it gets in the even less tolerant villages, finding a child’s manifested as a mage.
Probably bad. Let’s not ask.
maybe wrap up for now but circle back to this potential idea in a thread closer to the present?
A sigh. It's a problem he's been turning over for a long time, and he truly does appreciate the fresh perspective. That said, it's a large tangle to try to tease apart and it hasn't gotten any smaller in the past few years.
"I think it was good. Seeing Kamar-Taj. Thinking about ... the training, the chance to talk with other mages, or sorcerers rather. That there were some good things we might be able to build a different way." He hadn't fully expected it to be so affecting, in the moment, but it's clear Julius has thought about it since.
"If you're interested in getting involved, native mage politics are messy, but you've raised an excellent point about children. If you haven't, you might want to talk to Mme de Cedoux, some. She has an interesting perspective as another rifter who can use magic, and she's gotten more fully involved with our efforts here. Obviously," with a wry little smile, "we're all here for Riftwatch, and that's the more immediate priority. But what happens to mages, now and later, is a thing some of us have been working on simultaneously. And history shows that rifters are likely to be lumped in with us. Even the ones who can't do magic." Much less those who could.
👍 slaps a bow on it
It’s a sunny day, warm and a little drowsy with the daylight trickling in through the windows. Strange has been working too long, pent-up with these Sashamiri reports, and could probably do with a break. Nothing like stretching one's legs after dealing with weighty philosophical conversations about the fate of an entire people.
“Y’know what, let’s go for a walk,” he says, sweeping his paperwork back into a tidier pile. “I’d like some fresh air.”