#( solas wants to give wisdom not orders? Well buddy Asharen wants to study not hand out judgements )

[mercysought]

What is the idea of justice to Asharen going into her time as inquisitor? How is it changed by the choices that she’s had to make? Is there one choice that she feels under-qualified to make or especially regrets? How does she lean on her inner circle?

unprompted asks my beloved . @extravagantliar

I had to rewatch all of the judgements, and there is something that I think I need to clarify immediately upon the start which touches upon how Asharen is slightly canon divergent from the jump given her background:

Asharen Lavellan is not the first of Clan Lavellan. That was her eldest brother who died at the conclave. She is now the last mage child of the four children. She is also the youngest. Her Father is the keeper. She was not sent as a spy. She was never trained as a leader. She was trained, barely, as a merchant when they first started going to Antiva City to sell their wares. When she becomes Inquisitior, she has been the main face / merchant for the Clan Lavellan for ten-ish years. This will be important and will inform why leadership, as a whole, was not something that Asharen was used to before becoming Inquisitor.

The following is what Josephine tells you immediately when the Judgement mechanic is introduced:

You are a beacon of law, Inquisitor, as others retreat from responsibility. But this needn't be bloody. The Inquisition's soverignty is derived from the allies who validate it. You are both empowered and bound. Justice has many tools. If their application is clever, execution may even seem merciful by comparison.

Now, putting aside that hearing Josephine say that last line given what we know about her is chilling and made my head spin. Asharen is only convinced to do it at this point because of her very, very little leadership skills at this point and she trusts Josephine and her judgement. Asharen is growing to find her space within the Inquisition but she is, at this point, realising that what she is truly interested in is studying the breach, studying the anchor and finding a way of making it so that she is not the only person who can close them. Asharen enjoys the people of the Inquisition but she does not want to be a holy figure, she doesn't want to be a figure of authority that has this sort of power.

Also, to add. I find it would be bulshit that the "Inquisition's sovereignty" is a thing, given what we know about Anora, what we know about Celene (and objectively Gaspard). The only nation I see might be ok with that is Tevinter? And that's only because they don't want to deal with the embarrassment. Especially what comes with the Exalted Conclave later, let's just say that for now these nations are just willing to push this responsibility to the Inquisitor and be done with it (which I really don't think they would, but ok)

Let's start off with the most obvious answer I can offer: The same way she feels awfully under-qualified to be the Inquisitor, she too feels awfully under-qualified (like at all) to make any and all of these judgement decisions.

She is convinced to sit in judgement because she doesn't really feel comfortable still to say no. This will come later, put a pin in it. The dalish don't deal with crime often within their ranks, and they don't hold judgements this way. And when they do, at least in my Clan Lavellan, the Keeper has the last word and he often confers with other elders. It is not up to a single person unless the situation is dire (which, I guess, all matters related to the Inquisition are)

Given this, for the judgements the order of things are important. The first Judgement the Inquisitor gets is Gereon Alexius and it's a good example on how she would operate when in judgement. And Josephine says herself upon introduction:

Tevinter has disowned and stripped him from his rank. You may judge the former magister as you see fit.

So... He's already been judged by Tevinter. And is now being brought to her? Yes, his crimes were awful, and the decision to release him to the Inquisition instead of taking him to a Tevinter prison seems odd to Asharen but why should she be the one to give one final judgement on top?

This is where we go into another answer to one of your questions: she doesn't really reach the decision alone because... that's not how the Keeper in her clan does it, and it's not how she wants to do it. She has her own feelings and ideas but to not hear Dorian's thoughts would be foolish. She knows next to nothing about Tevinter. She would confers with the inner circle as a whole, but paying probably peculiar attention to Varric (who is a Viscount, yours at least is, I don't know if it's canon and so has leadership experience) and Solas (who has...... cough memories of the fade of rulers). Cole is also an important aspect to this.

In the end, his crimes while directed towards other mages (and him being a Tevinter citizen) has also been towards the people of Ferelden specifically. So she would in the end likely ask Josephine to reach out to the Ferelden crown and see how they might make use of him to pay for his crimes. Asking that they be merciful in their choice if they can find it in them. I would assume that Anora would likely put him to work in rebuilding Redcliffe (with quite a few guards and with some Inquisition forces to make sure he does not kill anyone and escape).

The one that is most pressing and changes most things, however is when Florianne's box arrives for judgement after she saves Celene in Halamshiral. Josephine says:

First, this wasn't my idea. It is an issue born of titles and heir apparency and... (Sighs.) Halamshiral is having difficulty freeing trade routes formerly controlled by Duchess Florianne. Had she been tried, her assets would be forfeit and considerable bureaucracy avoided. So they ask that we judge her.

This is the straw that breaks the camel's back for Asharen. Regardless of what Josephine said, the Inquisitor ends up being so deeply disappointed that she would be called to sit and to look down at a box, that Josephine wouldn't have had the sense to pull her aside and warn her first or to ask what they should do that she is just stunned into silence. Some words are exchanged and the scene finishes with Asharen asking for a letter to be sent to Orlais and that they collect Florianne's body and that they give it some respect and at least bury it or whatever they do - probably burn it. It makes her sick that she, someone that killed Florianne, has more respect towards the dead woman than those of her living relatives despite everything.

She is disappointed with Josephine for having allowed it to get to that point. Especially since Orlais even has a particular situation where this has happened before (according to one of the options, idk man Orlais is strange). Disappointed in herself for allowing herself to be dragged into this deeply uncomfortable situation

The whole situation leaves a bitter taste in her mouth. From then on she is not only resistant in sitting in judgement but starts blatantly refusing to do so. "I should not sit in judgement, these people should be either judged by their victims' nations or by their own" or, eventually, "I don't want to, and I have more pressing matters to attend." (and you can't make me) end up being the reasons why she actually does not sit in judgement again. The only times she will do so is if the "crimes" are solely related to the Inquisition, like.... you know, Storvacker who is throwing goats at the walls, please stop and clean the mess right the fuck now.

This being said, she doesn't release the people that end up in judgement. She keeps them in the dungeons until everything is over, she doesn't want very powerful enemies of hers running around if their nations will do nothing about them. Once Corypheus is defeated, she arranges with Josephine that the prisoners should be judged and where (and not by her)