Chantry question!

[lokapala]

After going back to DAO, I finally realised what's been bugging me about the Kirkwall Chantry.

Where is the sodding CHANT?

Where are the Chanters and, er, other people, who are supposed to stand there and sing/recite the Chant? In all of the 10 years Hawke supposedly spends in Kirkwall, we never get to hear it. Gossipers? Politicking mothers? Penitent idiots? Hunted apostates? Yes. Priests reciting the Chant? Nope.

What happened? Did Bioware forget this part of the lore, discard it for some not obvious production reasons, or are we supposed to take from it that, well, the Kirkwall Chantry is heretical?

...Maybe Anders blowing it up was the Maker's retribution :D

Comments

[lenna_nightrunner]

Maybe BioWare couldn't stand hearing "Blessed are the peacemakers" and "Magic exists to serve man" etc etc over and over and over again (thanks a lot, Denerim). They had to give us new ambient dialog to get sick of!

But that is an excellent point, and something I hadn't realized until now. Maybe Kirkwall is so much imbued with the Chant that it need not be uttered outside the Chantry building?

(I love trying to rationalize flaws like these)

[lokapala]

They could've been reading other verses of the Chant :) Isn't it supposed to be quite long (and, apparently, lovely)?

I didn't mean outside the Chantry (actually, the Chanter that's minding the Board does utter some lines if you click on her), I meant inside. It's one the main tenets of the religion, the repeating of the Chant in all corners of the world to 'summon' the Maker back. In Val Royaux they sing it 24/7, according to Leliana. We saw it being constantly recited inside the Lothering and Amaranthine Chantries, outside the Denerim one, even in besieged Redcliffe the Mother was reading it to kids, wasn't she? And in Kirkwall, not once in 10 years.

And Kirkwall really doesn't strike me as 'imbued' with the Chant. Or anything pleasant and/or godly :D

The Chanter's Board is another thing that bugs me, actually. Why next to no notices on it? Again, 10 years, huge city, it should be covered in stuff to read. Not necessarily quests for Hawke - just Chantry announcements, requests fulfilled by someone else, stupid spam the Chanters didn't have time to clean off...

[lenna_nightrunner]

New theory: They were too distracted by Fenris's Hugo Weaving voice and pretty eyes that they just plum forgot about the whole thing!

Maybe that's why it never occurred to me, either...

[solitae]

There are a few priests wandering around chanting in the Chantry. I know there's at least one that keeps forgetting the words. I can't remember if you have to click on her or not to hear it.

[lokapala]

I remember gossipers discussing some other priest forgetting the words, but no one actually trying to Chant anything... Maybe is tried to click on them more, hm. Still not comparable to what we've seen in Ferelden, and of dubious adherence to the religious tenets, I say :D

[analect]

I'm so glad someone else was wondering about that! It's one of the things that always makes me feel time hasn't really passed, and then I get all melancholy about the way Kirkwall doesn't feel as 3D as it kinda should (imho).

The only legitimate reasons I can think of - aside from the thoroughly sound theory that everyone was distracted by Fenris - are a) Kirkwall's Chantry is more political than the pastoral kind of approach seen in Ferelden (like how there was bit of dialogue with one of the priests in Lothering, where she says how the Chant is only sung in full in Val Royeaux - I think?) or b) Varric couldn't be bothered with the details when he was telling the story. *cough*

(Hey, by the way. I'm back!)

[lokapala]

a) Since they're singing the Chant non-stop 24/7 in Val Royeaux, they can easily do it in full, yeah :) But from what we've seen and heard around Ferelden I understood that it is supposed to be recited in every chantry, as much of it and as often as possible. If the little village chantries manage it, what's wrong with the Kirkwall cathedral?
They can be as political as they want (although I wouldn't say that Elthina is... unfortunately for the city :E), how is that stopping them from performing one their main functions?

b) True, Varric can be used to handwave everything :D

[amhran_comhrac]

There's a chanter outside, they recite a verse that's about how an attack on the house of the maker is an attack on the maker himself. (I can't recall the exact wording and it isn't on the wiki)

oooh... FORESHADOWING!

But yeah, I felt like there is a lot more evidence of the day to day involvement the Chantry has with the people in Ferelden than in Kirkwall. I mean, the only thing I can think of in terms of any one specific Chantry representative doing anything for anyone who isn't also a member of the Chantry clergy or a templar is PATRICE. And well, yeah.

(a case could be made that the Grand Cleric does a lot for Sebastian... but Sebastian is also technically a brother of the Chantry, too, and one of their own.)

[lokapala]

To be fair, there's also the Mother wandering around Lowtown asking for donations :D She's very involved in the day to day banter quota of cheap whores, apparently.

[braigwen]

You forget the enigmas of Kirkwall. Remember that this was a city steeped in blood magic for over a thousand years before the Imperium was pushed to it's current borders. The veil is so thin that demons can posses more than just mages.

Alrik.

Merideth.

Elthia.

Slaves were executed daily. Blood was spilled day and night. Demons were summoned as party favors. What makes anyone think that anyone can simply walk into Kirkwall and not be warped by the pervasiveness of the blood magic that that place is steeped in?

The reason the Chant is not sung in Kirkwall is simple. There is nothing holy left in Kirkwall. Anders' little stunt was just making the reality visible.

Speaking of Anders' little stunt. Did you notice that most of the templars were able to think for themselves once the Chantry was destroyed? Sure Merideth dove off the deep end into an empty pool, but it was almost like a veil was lifted from the rest of the templars.

I imagine that the building where the Chantry was housed was host to some pretty horrific rituals. Possibly even the one that created the darkspawn.

Anders may have unintentionally sealed the biggest hole in the veil with that one act.

He may have actually been doing the Maker's work without even realizing it.