The Great Forum was built three centuries ago for exactly this purpose – public discourse, civic debate, the marketplace of ideas given physical form.
Stone amphitheater seating arranged in concentric circles, capacity for two thousand. Raised platform at the center for speakers. Acoustics designed so even whispers from the platform carried to the highest seats. Open to the sky, visible to the city, impossible to hide or control.
Perfect for what Elara was attempting.
By noon on the day of the forum, every seat was filled and thousands more gathered in the surrounding plaza, unable to enter but unwilling to miss this moment. Clergy in their robes occupied entire sections. Minor nobility claimed their traditional areas.
Common folk filled the rest – merchants, craftsmen, farmers who'd traveled from outlying villages specifically for this.
The entire kingdom watching while the Church tore itself apart.
