#tevinter imperium

So, who in Tevinter would be literate? What would it mean to be literate? Which seems to cumulate in the problem of the viability of the Dock Town newspapers.

The problem seems to boil down to Minrathous Press being introduced as a contemporary, free-media-based way of distributing information, and "literacy" in question, when contested, refers most of all to "high level" literacy. The kind that allows one to consciously experience culture and history, receive specialist education, provide their own independent commentary, and make decisions involving multiple abstract factors.

That The Soporati in Dock Town have access to multiple independent newsletters seem to clash with a previously established (but never emphasized quite enough) cultural chasm between the select Altus houses, forming the ruling class, and the rest of the population -- I think it would be fair to view it with a 1:9 ratio of mages to non-mages. (The Laetans are a Schrodinger's class that had to fight for an entirety of three Magisterium seats, they have magic but they don't belong to the established oligarchy, so they have potential for both defiance and sycophancy.)

Some possible segues to make this shit make sense could be:

Leave the common tongue as a tool of functional literacy. A runner can receive a shopping list in writing and not mess items and prices up. A random Gaius Septimus can leave graffiti about ass in their favorite taberna. There would be ornamental signboards and catchphrases on the front walls of establishments. A Soporati foot soldier could write their own letter home without engaging a scribe.

The population may have a notable percentage of surface dwarven craftsmen and merchants who hold certain standards in familial education as a necessity. It would be a family's or a guild's responsibility to grant such elementary education. We're speaking the free people, of course -- private slaves would be left out from that, even.

But if you want to sign any document, you need a scribe to prepare it in Old Tevene and basically translate for you. Unfavorable translations reeking of corruption? You bet. Magic education? Old Tevene. Laws? Old Tevene. The Chant of Light? Hessarian's unrevised OG version in Old Tevene, with a possible translation in common -- available for the clergy to spread the word, but not widely distributed to the masses. Poetry and rhetoric? Tevene. Science? Tevene. And the only way to learn ancient Tevene would be to attend the Circles of Magi. The Soporati from merchant and military clans (alleged to be wealthy and hold *some* status) would still be disenfranchised from "high" forms of culture. Make the Circle-Chantry truly own the system of knowledge!

With this, the most advanced kind of work available in common tongue would be a light & trashy fictional story, an advert, a utility textbook. It sounds logical that information would be censored to a degree, to prevent the Soporati from codifying their awareness and their struggle. If there are newsletters in the Imperium, they should be, to a great extent, propaganda tools that cherry-picks and obfuscates. Imagine a prospective poet elected to the Publicanium just to revise foreign literature all day long and pick the fragments to be included.

What are the options to navigate the Newspaper Problem?

- We abandon the idea of written digest for the masses, and replace it with a medieval-ish cliche function of city criers, or

- We leave newsletters closer to a singular "weekly digest" format under control of the state, as a source of strictly local updates from the Publicanium, paid requests and advertisement, and sections of approved entertainment. No deeper opinion pieces or nation-wide events. There's room to squeeze out 3-5 topically varied sections still. There are also many ways to make poor literature for this purpose, while The Real Thing (by Altus standards) is gatekept in an elite language.

DATV Photo Week, Day 5: Free Day

"Those who oppose thee Shall know the wrath of heaven. Field and forest shall burn, The seas shall rise and devour them, The wind shall tear their nations From the face of the earth, Lightning shall rain down from the sky, They shall cry out to their false gods, And find silence."

We've seen canon Tevinter heraldry with two serpentine shapes entwined.

I felt a need to break it down into components and simplify for the needs of a sigil script that could be, IDK, Old Tevene.

So, we've got a dragon and a serpent - a larger, winged shape with a leg standing out, and a wingless, limbless snake. The arrowhead, placed on the left figure's wings, might represent a connection with flight and The Fade.

Tangentially (but shedding light on a connection that might be of use here), this lore post by @wyrdsistersofthedas explores how the shape of the triangle/ arrowhead in concept art and DA frescoes usually stands for the Veil or spirit essence surrounding someone.

The bent shape of the wings also reminds us of a common lightning iconography. The thunderbolt symbol is present in Thedosian lore next to the constellation Fulmenos, attributed to The Old Gods' wrath, especially in the context of the destruction of Barindur. This detail seems meaningful, because Barindur was the fourth Northern tribe mentioned in WoT, that did not join the others (Neromenian, Qarinus, Tevinter) to form the Imperium. In fact, the legends of Barindur portray the city-state as antagonistic. Its downfall is attributed to what looks like the Thedosian equivalent of Vesuvius' eruption that destroyed Pompeii, rationalized as the Tevinter Old Gods' wrath (or, later, according to the Canticle of Silence, attributed to the Magisters Sidereal falling from the Black City, which looks like a reocurrence of the same theme).

With this in mind, I'm fairly confident the Serpent represents the founding of Tevinter: three tribes united under Darinius, and the less mentioned legacy of Thalsian the First Priest of Dumat, who was also allegedly the first Dreamer. From the ancient dreamers arose the Altus class, and in the end, The Dragon came to represent them as the main bulk of mages in Tevinter, while The Serpent came to represent the Soporati -- allegorically flightless, defenseless, and doomed to slither in dirt (if we want it to be that much in their face).

I imagine Old Tevene to be an elitarian sigillic script, that's only taught to aspiring Enchanters in the Circle of Magi. Old Tevene is used for spells, the more solemn of formal documents, and, as noted by Dorian Pavus, as an embellishment in the Altus social circles.

I chose to simplify Tevinter's canon serpentine heraldry this way:

The first symbol is The Dragon -- the Altus, the second is The Serpent or the Drake -- the Soporati. The combined Imperial sigil was used in seals and spell circles during the Old God ritual era.

In modern, Andrastian Tevinter, the "wings" of the Dragon symbol are officially removed, to deprive the original sigil of its spellcasting potential and to emphasize that we no longer do the Dreamer/ Old God stuff (officially).

This sigil in Old Tevene can be further simplified in Common Script, as an acronym used in more common documents and official signatures from The Publicanium (Common for the commoners, Tevene for the Altus):

The Dragon as X,

The Serpent as Ʒ (pronounced as z or IPA Ʒ),

The combined symbol XƷ.

The Schizocletes (etym. "Those who pronounce the schism"): The dominating, patriarchal and conservative Andrastian faction in the Magisterium. It emerged from the movement that pushed for the schism from the Orlesian Chantry in the Towers Age.

The Draconic Septemvirate aka The Seven-Headed Serpent: The Draconic representation in the Magisterium kept shrinking with the rise of mandatory Andrastianism, until the seven priesthoods consolidated into one faction, that remained a major conservative force even as the Old God cults were outlawed.

Dignitas Tevina ("Dignity of Tevinter"): A populist faction that tends to sway between its support between conservative Andrastians and conservative Draconians. Somehow, it ends up betraying every coalition it has ever formed. Notable members: Archon Davan.

Legates Ambassadoriae: The Orzammar Legates, mostly concerned with economic and infrastructural issues and lyrium trade. They happen to support any coalition in their favor.

Pactus Silentium ("The Pact of Silence"): A radical pro- Old God faction that demands restoration of the old rituals, and deregulation of blood magic and slavery. Through backdoor deals, house conflicts and backstabbing, it eventually drowned out the Seven-Headed Serpent and transformed into The Venatori. Notable members: Aurelian Titus.

The Eluvites (etym. "The Seers") : A more moderate, pro- Old God and human-centric faction that proposes restoration of non-violent religious practices, from both the Old God cults and older, pre-Imperial heathen religions. Hails mostly from pre-Tevinter Qarinus and Neromenian traditions, the majority of representatives come from the North-East coastline. They support granting some liberties to the Laetan and Soporati houses under the banner of ethnic solidarity, but they're pro- status quo on slavery and predominantly anti-elven.

The Oarmen: A moderate Andrastian faction reaching back to Hessarian's pre-schism legacy. Has spoken up mostly for the interest of the Laetans, and a particular religious rhetoric claiming that magic is a sign of Maker's mercy bestowed upon the family. Notable members: Archon Radonis I

The Transfigurationists: A faction that emphasized the original pro-Soporati, abolitionist, egalitarian leanings of Andrastianism, supported education and lifting up of the Soporati. Purged by its opponents in the debacle of TE 2023/ 9:29 Dragon that led to the enthronement of Archon Radonis. The spirit of the faction survived among the friendly houses, and became revived as the Lucerni faction. Notable members: Abraxas Tilani, father of Maevaris Tilani

ISTG worldbuilding for Tevinter. Every step I take, I step into a hot pile of class tensions between the mages and the Soporati that didn't get a chance to be explored in Veilguard.

Now upon the tapis: what does the Black Chantry have to offer to an average Soporati citizen if its clergy from the Revered Father/ Mother upward must also be Circle Enchanters? How does the Black Chantry obscure its nature as a tool of mage interest whilst trying to salvage the scraps from its origins in the period of the Transfigurations, when Andrastianism was allegedly met with support from the Soporati?

Why was it met with the non-mage's support in the firts place, though? Did it happen through the sheer dread and hatred of the common people towards the Old God cults? What kind of rhetoric did Hessarian sell to the Soporati? Was he goaded into cleaning up after the Old God cults once the commoners saw Minrathous nearly sieged by an army of barbarians and slaves?

What is the allegorical message of Andraste, really?

Aside from the Maker going "This one lass is slightly less disappointing than the rest of your lot. Try realizing me in every corner of the world, and we'll see. Until then, sayonara, you weaboos"?

"You can't bounce back until you've reached the bottom"?

It feels like her army was really everything there was, until someone else decided to meddle with the story and fabricate a counterweight for the Old God cults. But what does that have to do with the Soporati? What kind of a rhetoric did Hessarian offer them, to gather that alleged support (and, implicitly, redirect some form of Soporati unrest towards the Old God cultis?) The first answer that comes to mind is some link with blood sacrifice as a statistically significant cause of death in the Imperium. Perhaps Hessarian was ready to attack that.

And even then, whatever Hessarian's rhetoric was, it can't be still working in the Age of the Dragon, when the Black Chantry very clearly serves the righteous and charitable self-image of the new, virtuous Altus (see snippets of Halward Pavus ticking off all the boxes for an ultra-religious patriarch, all while unabashedly corresponding with Mother Giselle of Jader). Between the lines, everything still seems to be relying on the implicit antagonism between the Andrastians and the Draconians, with the latter being ever-present through Aurelians Tituses, Danariuses and other evilly cackling scum and villainy that culminates in the Venatori faction in the latter two games.

But what does any of it have to do with the Soporati, who aren't much better off, regardless of whether the Altus are predominantly Draconian or Andrastian? Would presenting the Old Gods as The Great Adversary have a strong enough effect then?

What are the points in "Andraste's" vision that could appeal to the Soporati?

A god who doesn't require a living sacrifice; Andraste's death isn't even really framed like one. She was betrayed and executed, and the hindsight couldn't undo the wrong.

All souls are, allegedly, metaphysically equal (however, the Chantry at large doesn't seem to turn that into any soteriological incentive, especially for those oppressed "in this world"? It doesn't even have a concept of "the other world" as a trove of eternal restitution. Where is the proverbial carrot for Krem's dad breaking his back to stay out of debt? Why would he care about gods when mages are the unquestionable source of his suffering?)

Shartan seemed to be an inspiring figure for a while, until the Chantry dogma writers remembered he was an elf.

What might get in the way of the Soporati adopting Andrastianism?

Tevinter pissed on the "magic exists to serve man" tenet, and then, in a pro gamer move, it also pissed at effectively separating the Old God cults from institutions of power, since the Circles were supposedly adapted from the old temples (and the people likely stayed exactly where they were). I might even put my tinfoil hat on here and hallucinate a scenario in which Hessarian's reforms actually faked the dissolution of the Old God cults to protect the Altus from the potential revolt of the Soporati, and set up a system where the Old God cults can exist in perpetuity as the constitutive outsiders or boogeymen or something, while in reality the Altus at large only need to adjust their facade.

One seems to practice their Andrastianism through faith and discourse only. There seem to be some extra points for supernatural visions. With the Imperial clergy being, to a great extent, Circle Enchanters, there will be an inevitable skill and knowledge gap. There is a possibiltiy of the Enchanter-Clergy deepening that gap through having their own writing system, language, exclusive access to education (if they aren't keeping the Soporati illiterate altogether), or claims of esoteric insights and revelations from the Fade that aren't available to the Soporati. In short, the element of "Cultural Andrastianism" really makes more sense among the Tevinter mages than their non-mages. The Black Chantry's clergy doesn't seem to be incentivized in any way to make the message more concrete and palatable to the Soporati. My tinfoil explanation for it is that it was, indeed, composed by scholars for scholars. With this in mind, it's hard to imagine the Chantry being popular among non-mages, at least on its own merit. On the other hand, we haven't really seen any proof of the Altus needing to constantly enforce Andrastianism as the state religion. There's a lore gap here that needs more thought.

There isn't really any individual soteriology either??? Only the prophecy of the Maker's global return, which, again, doesn't seem to offer anything special to individual souls, since the Maker from Threnodies is notoriously disappointed with imperfection.