Prompted Conversations

Vivienne Prompted Conversations

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Investigate

Tell Me About the Circle

PC: I wanted to ask you about the Circle of Magi.

Vivienne: Of course. What do you wish to know?

1 - Dialogue options:

Investigate: Wasn’t the Circle disbanded? [2]
Investigate (dwarf/Qunari/Dalish/human non-mage PC): What was Circle life like? [3]
Investigate (human mage PC): What was your Circle like? [4]
Investigate: How did the rebellion start? [5]
Investigate: Tell me about the templars. [6]
General: Nothing right now. [7]

2 - Investigate: Wasn’t the Circle disbanded? PC: If the Circle disbanded, how can you still belong to it? Vivienne: The Circle is an idea, my dear, and an idea cannot be dissolved. Many of the first enchanters voted for rebellion, caring little that anything short of a unanimous decision would pit mage against mage. Rather than dissolving it, Grand Enchanter Fiona’s vote split the Circle in two. The rebels follow her. The loyalists follow me.

Dialogue options:

Investigate: Shouldn’t you replace Fiona? [8]
[Back to 1]

8 - Investigate: Shouldn’t you replace Fiona? PC: If you lead all the loyalists, why are you only first enchanter and not grand enchanter? Vivienne: Grand enchanters are elected, and since there are no first enchanters besides myself, no vote can be held. I could name myself grand enchanter, but the title holds no meaning now. When the Circles are restored, that will change. [back to 1]

3 - Investigate: What was Circle life like? PC: What was it like to live in a Circle? Vivienne: My dear, your question is the root of all problems with mages. I cannot tell you. Every Circle was different, their templars were different, their politics unique… And every person within each tower had an experience of Circle life unique to themselves. Some people suffered, and some were content. Some were cruel, some compassionate, and some indifferent. The same is true of people everywhere, in all circumstances, whether they are mages or not.

9 - Dialogue options:

Investigate: What about your experience? [10]
Investigate: Was confinement hard? [11]
[Back to 1]

10 - Investigate: What about your experience? PC: So tell me about your personal experience with the Circle. Vivienne: I enjoyed life in the Montsimmard Circle, my dear. It was an edifice devoted to knowledge and refinement. ㅤㅤ ㅤ Vivienne (mage PC): And there is comfort to be had, you know, in the company of fellow mages. Those born without magic will never truly understand us. ㅤㅤ ㅤ Vivienne (non-mage PC): And mages need the company of other mages. No one else can truly understand the challenges we face nor see the world as we do. ㅤㅤ ㅤ 11 - Investigate: Was confinement hard? PC: You must have been under constant supervision, being forced by templars to live in the tower. Was that hard to endure? Vivienne: My dear, I have a suite in the palace and a wing at my dear Duke Bastien’s estate. I have never been “forced” to live anywhere. Most Circles allowed mages to live away from the tower, either on their own or in service to the nobility. All that was required was permission from the first enchanter. Some Circles were harsher in their restrictions. Kirkwall was the worst, but it was the exception. Most were quite permissive. Perhaps too permissive, in retrospect.

4 - Investigate: What was your Circle like? PC: I’ve never been to the Montsimmard Circle. What was it like? Vivienne: A place of great history and tradition with the greatest library of magical history outside of the Imperium. It was deeply involved in the Great Game, as you might expect of anyone living in Orlais. The mages there were quite competitive, but it was stimulating to be always pushed to exceed the abilities of my peers. [back to 1]

5 - Investigate: How did the rebellion start? PC: How did we come to this state with the Circles in revolt?

Vivienne (human mage PC): You, my dear, are far too wise not to have realized that many of our colleagues live with their eyes closed. Safe from the world inside their towers, they thought only of the templars and their own resentment. Vivienne (dwarf/Qunari/Dalish/human non-mage PC): A failure of perspective that infected Circle leadership. Mages lived solely in a world of templars and mages. They could not even imagine what was beyond the tower walls.

Vivienne: Kirkwall gave the world a reason to remember its fear of magic. A mage killed hundreds with a snap of their fingers. Across Thedas, a new, tangible fear of magic grew. Commoners and nobles alike called out to the Chantry for protection. But the malcontents in the towers thought nothing of this. They cared only for themselves and for their anger at the new templar restrictions. When a mage attempted to assassinate Divine Justinia–again–the mages protested the investigation. The leadership chose to vote on independence based on the “intolerable conditions imposed by the templars.” Sparing no thought to the fact that magic was more feared in the aftermath of these attacks than it had been since Tevinter’s day. So long as they had their freedom, they could care little for riots, angry mobs, or about pitting mages against each other.

12 - Dialogue options:

Investigate: Do you know Fiona? [13]
Investigate: Were they justified? [14]
Investigate: Mages are fighting mages? [15]
[Back to 1]

13 - Investigate: Do you know Fiona? PC: Are you familiar with Grand Enchanter Fiona? Vivienne: We’ve met. Before her horrendously ill-timed and selfish vote for independence, I thought her adequate at her job. In her dotage, she could not handle looking after the well-being of so many people. We would have done better to replace her years ago to let her spend time gardening. ㅤㅤ ㅤ 14 - Investigate: Were they justified? PC: Did they have cause to rebel? Vivienne: In the aftermath of their terrorist attacks? Was that really the most opportune time to break away? By all means, protest abuses by the templars! Just don’t do it in a way that says mages support wholesale murder. By voting when they did, my colleagues all but declared war upon the ordinary people of Thedas. A war in which we are outnumbered a hundred to one. ㅤㅤ ㅤ 15 - Investigate: Mages are fighting mages? PC: I thought the fighting was only between mages and templars. Why are mages fighting mages? Vivienne: The vote for independence was carried by only a small margin, but Fiona chose to let the motion stand. Those who opposed a rash declaration of war against the entire free world had little choice. By breaking from the Chantry when they did, the rebels declared themselves in support of mass murder. Anyone who did not wish to support terrorism and the slaughter of innocents was forced to take arms against the rebels.

6 - Investigate: Tell me about the templars. PC: You must have an opinion of the templars after living so long in the Circle. Vivienne: Having opinions about templars, my dear, is exactly like having opinions about mages, or Nevarrans, or men. I have known some who were impossible to endure and some who were utterly charming. I have suffered insults at the hands of those in the armor, but no more than I endured from nobles or tradesmen in Val Royeaux. Personally, I have found the templars a useful tool, skilled at keeping more unpleasant elements at bay. [back to 1]

7 - General: Nothing right now. Scene ends.

Tell Me About Yourself

PC: I’d like to know more about you, Madame Vivienne.

Vivienne (low approval): How sweet of you, my dear, but I’m sure there’s nothing I could say that you don’t already know. Scene ends.

Vivienne (neutral/high approval): Whatever would you like to know?

1 - Dialogue options:

Investigate: Where are you from? [2]
Investigate: How did you become a courtier? [3]
Investigate (after Vivienne’s personal quest): Tell me about Duke Bastien. [4]
General: Never mind. [5]

2 - Investigate: Where are you from? PC: Your accent’s not Orlesian. Where exactly are you from? Vivienne: I am from the Circle, my dear. One’s country of origin rarely matters there. But if you must know, I was born in Wycome in the Free Marches. I was sent to the Ostwick Circle, but I transferred to Montsimmard while still an apprentice.

3 - Investigate: How did you become a courtier? PC: I’m curious how a Circle mage winds up a courtier. Vivienne: Nobody “winds up” at court, my dear. It takes a great deal of effort to arrive there. I caught the eye of Duke Bastien de Ghislain, an advantageous connection that opened many doors. When the position of enchanter to the Imperial Court became vacant, I was able to secure it.

6 - Dialogue options:

Investigate: You married a duke? [7]
Investigate: What is a court enchanter? [8]

7 - Investigate: You married a duke? PC: You’re married to the Duke de Ghislain? Vivienne: Of course not, my dear! Don’t be ridiculous. Marriage is the business of alliance and inheritance. I’m Bastien’s mistress.

Dialogue options:

Investigate: What does his wife think? [9]
[Back to 6]

9 - Investigate: What does his wife think? PC: And what does the Duchess de Ghislain think of this arrangement? Vivienne: We got along quite well. Duchess Nicoline and I used to host musical salons together. She was a great patron of the arts. She passed away from a fever a few years ago, the poor dear. [back to 6]

8 - Investigate: What is a court enchanter? PC: What duties does a court enchanter have? Vivienne: I am tasked with providing assistance to the empress on arcane matters. Most of my predecessors restricted this to lighting lamps and doing parlor tricks. In such troubled times as these, however, I provide political advice to Her Majesty on the subject of the mage rebellion. [back to 6]

4 - Investigate: Tell me about Duke Bastien. PC: Why don’t you tell me more about your duke? Vivienne: Bastien is… was the leader of the Council of Heralds—the only person who could bring that rabble into line. He could charm a bird out of its feathers and frequently did. I remember once… he broke up a fight between Prosper de Montfort and the dowager with a joke and a glass of wine. Oh, Bastien… I’m sorry, my dear. I don’t think I can discuss this.

5 - General: Never mind. Scene ends.

Flirt: Any Chance We Might…

PC: Do you think that you and I might someday…

High approval:

Vivienne: Oh, aren’t you precious? Of course not, my dear.
Vivienne: That’s charming, but you’ll have to keep working on your technique.
Vivienne: My dear, you are delightful, but that’s quite impossible.
Vivienne: Of course not, my dear. There’s no advantage to such an arrangement.

Low Approval:

Vivienne: Oh, don’t be ridiculous, darling. You’re no use to me at all.
Vivienne: Whatever would I want to do that for?
Vivienne: Oh, how sweet! Perhaps if you bathed more often. And had better manners. And knew how to dress yourself properly.
Vivienne: You are such a wit, my dear!

Neutral Approval:

Vivienne: How very sweet of you to ask, but no.
Vivienne: You and I? Don’t be absurd, my dear.
Vivienne: I don’t see how that benefits me in the slightest, my dear.

Specialization: Knight-Enchanter

Vivienne: It’s a noble calling, the knight-enchanter. You have joined the ranks of the most select mages. You should be commended. So few have the discipline necessary.

1 - Dialogue options:

Investigate: You’re a knight-enchanter? [2]
General: I’m glad you approve. [3]
General: We are the best. [4]
General: I prefer fighting up front. [5]

2 - Investigate: You’re a knight-enchanter? PC: I didn’t realize you were a knight-enchanter, Vivienne. Vivienne: Of course I am, darling. Knight-enchanters serve in the highest echelons of the Chantry and Circle. Where else would I be? [back to 1]

3 - General: I’m glad you approve. PC: I’m pleased you approve of my choice. Vivienne: You have your moments, my dear. Scene ends.

4 - General: We are the best. PC: It was an easy decision to join the finest mages in Thedas. Vivienne: It always is, my dear, but not everyone can manage it. Scene ends.

5 - General: I prefer fighting up front. PC: I simply prefer to be on the front line. Vivienne: It’s always best to take charge, my dear. Scene ends.