Post by Rafael on Dec 26, 2013 23:47:57 GMT -6
I hereby render unconditional obedience to the Circle
and its principles. . . . I will be ready to risk my life at
any time for the Circle, in order to preserve the purity
of the bloodlines of Idris, and for the moral world with
whose safety we are charged.
--Loyalty oath of the Circle
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The Accords have never had the unanimous support of the Clave.
Almost every Accords negotiation has drawn protests and objections from among the Nephilim. These arguments have been heated and impassioned. Tempers have flared. Respected members of the Clave have stormed out of the Accords Hall in fury. Certain Downworlders and certain Shadowhunters have had to be carefully seated far from one another in the negotiation chambers.
At the heart of it all, however, the Nephilim's and the Downworlder's aims have aligned. Everyone has wanted peace. Until the Circle.
A purist, the only living son of a widely respected and long-standing Nephilim family, and his followers, disrupted the Accords. Not disrupted--invaded.
Believing in the purity of humans and the impurity of Downworld, believing that Downworlders were, at their root, demons, and should be slaughtered to keep the world pure for everyone else, they viewed those Shadowhunters who disagreed with them as complicit in the profanity they believed Downworlders brought to the world. The Circle members were not protestors; they were violent fanatics.
Like so many others, the members of the Circle were in the Accords Hall that day. At the moment the Ninth Accords were presented for signing, the Circle, as one body, rose and bared their weapons. Panic broke instantly over the Hall like a wave in a storm. Disarray and carnage followed, with lives lost on both sides of the battle.
Ultimately, the Uprising ended in failure. The Ninth Accords were signed in a stroke of irony, the purist's terrible acts helping to uphold the Shadow World's commitment to the Accords' passage. It had been a difficult negotiation that year, full of clashing personalities and strong opinions, but after the Uprising a great sense of fraternity was felt by Downworlder and Shadowhunter representatives alike, and united against their common foe, they were able to ratify the Ninth Accords only a few weeks later in August, 2013.
Almost five months later the Shadow World remains, to some degree, up-ended.
Shadowhunters and Downworlders bear fresh scars. The literal wounds suffered during the chaos caused by the Uprising, or the figurative wounds that the World as a whole feels--everyone knows now the meaning of loss. Families mourn their brothers and sisters. Their husbands. Their children. Factions scramble to maintain organization without leadership.
And still some whisper that those loyal to the Circle remain, even now plotting their next move against the Downworlders they would see gone and the Shadowhunters who would not help them cleanse their World. Worries that the Circle will not wait another fifteen years for the next Accords Negotiations to strike again.
Now more than ever, it is important that the Shadowhunters and the Downworlders bury their differences in an attempt to work together--a trying and often frustrating task at the best of times, and what seems like an impossibility in the wake of the worst.
Almost every Accords negotiation has drawn protests and objections from among the Nephilim. These arguments have been heated and impassioned. Tempers have flared. Respected members of the Clave have stormed out of the Accords Hall in fury. Certain Downworlders and certain Shadowhunters have had to be carefully seated far from one another in the negotiation chambers.
At the heart of it all, however, the Nephilim's and the Downworlder's aims have aligned. Everyone has wanted peace. Until the Circle.
A purist, the only living son of a widely respected and long-standing Nephilim family, and his followers, disrupted the Accords. Not disrupted--invaded.
Believing in the purity of humans and the impurity of Downworld, believing that Downworlders were, at their root, demons, and should be slaughtered to keep the world pure for everyone else, they viewed those Shadowhunters who disagreed with them as complicit in the profanity they believed Downworlders brought to the world. The Circle members were not protestors; they were violent fanatics.
Like so many others, the members of the Circle were in the Accords Hall that day. At the moment the Ninth Accords were presented for signing, the Circle, as one body, rose and bared their weapons. Panic broke instantly over the Hall like a wave in a storm. Disarray and carnage followed, with lives lost on both sides of the battle.
Ultimately, the Uprising ended in failure. The Ninth Accords were signed in a stroke of irony, the purist's terrible acts helping to uphold the Shadow World's commitment to the Accords' passage. It had been a difficult negotiation that year, full of clashing personalities and strong opinions, but after the Uprising a great sense of fraternity was felt by Downworlder and Shadowhunter representatives alike, and united against their common foe, they were able to ratify the Ninth Accords only a few weeks later in August, 2013.
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Almost five months later the Shadow World remains, to some degree, up-ended.
Shadowhunters and Downworlders bear fresh scars. The literal wounds suffered during the chaos caused by the Uprising, or the figurative wounds that the World as a whole feels--everyone knows now the meaning of loss. Families mourn their brothers and sisters. Their husbands. Their children. Factions scramble to maintain organization without leadership.
And still some whisper that those loyal to the Circle remain, even now plotting their next move against the Downworlders they would see gone and the Shadowhunters who would not help them cleanse their World. Worries that the Circle will not wait another fifteen years for the next Accords Negotiations to strike again.
Now more than ever, it is important that the Shadowhunters and the Downworlders bury their differences in an attempt to work together--a trying and often frustrating task at the best of times, and what seems like an impossibility in the wake of the worst.