exsecutus | inbox.

From:

Anyone living has to get accustomed to assholes. Even outside of Orlais. The one bright spot is that servitude like the kind you've been forced to suffer is less common outside of that shitting cesspit of a country.

I won't give Thedas any more credit than that. The systems of governance and power in place ensure that everyone lives in a kind of servitude. At least someone might live free while they suffer it. Or what passes for free.

From:

murderbaby

If you'll excuse my forthrightness, I would not be so quick to judge the details of an experience you've not lived.

But I am... curious. If you'll indulge me. What do you consider truly free?

From:

exsecutus

My definition of free begins without contracts that purport to own and control the life and actions of a living person.

Are those details at all wrong?

From:

murderbaby

Of course not. But most do not have such circumstances, at least outside the serving halls of Orlais.

From:

exsecutus

No. In Orlais, they write them down. Elsewhere they leave them more subtle. A man can be easily enslaved by circumstance. Trapped in poverty, trapped by title, by peerage, by class--prevented from progressing, from moving, freely. It doesn't require written words. It is spelled out upon the bones of society.

From:

murderbaby

[Um.]

Trapped by title?

From:

exsecutus

The want of title. A system that emphasizes place--ascribes names to preferred places--king, prince, lord, duke--men strive for them, collecting them to impress one another with. Empty and meaningless, allowing for control--this one over that one. And most of them achievable only by circumstances of birth--which is entirely arbitrary--or by purchase, wealth enough to pay for them--which is itself a fucking tool of oppression.

From:

murderbaby

[...huh.]

Have you read La Voix Qui Pleure?

From:

exsecutus

Does it have a translation that's worth a damn?

From:

murderbaby

[He laughs lightly.] It has none. It's an anonymous account of an elven uprising in Val Royeux, one that caused the purging of several alienages as a result. The author is almost certainly elven. The book is banned in Orlais.

From:

exsecutus

Of course it is. How wonderful to be in any country but that one. Even if the others have their share of banned books as well.

[His sigh means he's interested. Probably that's unclear; he doesn't deign to explain.]

I've never bothered to learn Orlesian. Why bring it up in the context of title specifically?

From:

murderbaby

A book being banned in Orlais makes it the most fashionable thing to secretly own. I've long suspected its banning was aided by elven agents working in the royal palace, as the action ensured it reached a far wider audience than it ever would have before.

[A pause, considering.]

I brought it up because it seemed the sort of thing you would find of interest. It details how the uprising was planned and organized, how information was disseminated, all of that.

From:

exsecutus

So it could be gifted in the salons at Satinalia, then read by nobles so inflicted by their inbreeding their eyes sink in their lumpy skulls? Yes. A grand plan.

[But, maybe. It's certain a tactic that gets used. Make it a scandal and everyone flocks to it, witlessly. And perhaps there's two or three that learn of it. Nikos was once an eager student of similar teachings, which is why he hates thinking of it so much. What an idiot, besotten, at sixteen.

Still. He is interested--of course he's interested--but he has to be himself still, so--]

I know about uprisings and information. If a text has something new to teach, I'd learn it. But if you think you're giving a reading list to a fucking dullard, I'll correct you now.

[Also, changing tack abruptly:] Do you come of agents?

From:

murderbaby

I've made it policy to assume everyone is a genius until proven otherwise. [Just a light sprinkle of sarcasm, there.]

Nobles owned it. I doubt they ever read it. Their servants, however... [Of which Mhavos was one. If the man he's talking to isn't a dullard, he'll put it together. Or not. One never knows.]

In what sense do you mean?

From:

exsecutus

[He huffs something almost like a laugh. Sarcasm is something he can appreciate. Not the part where he feels like he's being challenged in some way (fuck that, he's too old for that, too old to be proving himself, but everyone should know that he's beyond proving himself, and that's why he's not bothering).]

I mean in the sense that you were serving and reading those banned books. And are now conveniently placed in Kirkwall. Freed--that part I don't mistrust. Nor do I mistrust your cleverness. It's within reason for anyone of any station to be clever. Maybe even more so, the farther you get from inheritances and diadems and parcels of land.

Sharpness is something notable.

From:

murderbaby

[Mhavos, meanwhile, is relishing being in the position to challenge anyone on anything. He may be overdoing it. Can he be punished for it? He somewhat doubts it.]

[Ah, comment le pouvoir m'a corrompu.]

I am not a secret agent of the elven resistance, if that's what you mean. Though if I was, I imagine my answer would be the same. Still, for the life of me, I can't imagine why they would want an agent here.

[He clears his throat.]

I like to read. I have read the book. I've also read books on the right of nobility and the frailty of elves. I've found it a bad policy to form one's opinion entirely from books. That will dull anything sharp.

From:

exsecutus

Riftwatch flatters itself thinking it is of any interest to anyone.

[Perhaps that's his frank and honest assessment, or a summation of why someone might suspect or perhaps send an agent of the elven resistance to be stationed in the Gallows. It is dry enough that it might be any of these.]

What opinions did you form in Orlais?

From:

murderbaby

[Flatly:] I formed all of my opinions in Orlais.

From:

exsecutus

But not only of books. So where did the rest of it come from? Experience? Meetings? Religion?

From:

murderbaby

Observation. Messire may have noticed, many elves have rather large eyes.

From:

exsecutus

[Despite how committed to being an asshole, somewhere, a little smile tugs at the corner of Nikos' mouth.]

Don't tell me you're funny.

From:

murderbaby

[Very dry-] Your low expectations are hurtful in the extreme.

From:

exsecutus

I don't like being charmed. By anyone. Or amused.

If you give a shit, we have meetings. Not regularly. The leader of our operation is often away. Our interests keep him in other cities, fighting for other causes. [And Nikos gets left behind in Kirkwall, very cool.] And in case you've not noticed, I'm not the most inspiring.

From:

murderbaby

My days of purposefully trying to charm and amuse are blissfully over. What you think of me is between you and your deities.

Vague instructions. I'm still interested.

From:

exsecutus

Then I'll be plainer. We're interested in revolution. The death of the systems of control--wealth, status, titles, inheritance. The rigidity of tradition, social expectation. We have contacts across Thedas with these same interests. We work with Riftwatch because before it, the Inquisition was uniquely positioned to learn information--valuable information--and to come across contacts that would be of interest to us in this work. Riftwatch continues to serve this function.

Every movement must represent the people that it fights for. So we turn to Lowtown, and Darktown, here in Kirkwall. Our greatest weapon is the spread of information.