#Dragon age mages

[germanich]

[sns315]

And you thought his written manifestos were bad…

[notebooks-and-laptops]

[christinasketch]

A day late, but here's a quick doodle of my inquisitor Ember ✨

[transandersrights]

Bioware's dislike of the mage rebellion

I really enjoyed Absolution, but it continues to immensely frustrate me that people writing for Bioware refuse to write pro-rebellion mages. Qwydion is a "rebel mage" - whose introductory line about the topic is that she isn't actually a rebel. She's a mercenary who pretends to care about the rebellion because people pay more for a cause. It annoyed me, but also got me thinking:

Since Anders, there have been no (afaik) pro-rebellion mages in major roles in Dragon Age media - and very few pro-rebellion characters have ever been portrayed in a favourable light.

Major mage characters since the start of the mage rebellion (I'm counting from the end of DA2), excluding comics/short stories/Tevinter Nights:

Rhys (Asunder). He starts as a Libertarian who defects to the Aequitarians because of disagreements with a pro-rebellion mage. He votes in favour of mages leaving the Circles, but he's not exactly happy about it.

Felassan (Masked Empire). Not particularly concerned with the rebellion. Definitely has other priorities - the Circle can't really touch him.

Valya (Last Flight). The whole premise behind her existence in the novel (I haven't finished it yet) is that she doesn't want to fight in the rebellion. She would rather die as a Warden than take her chances as a rebel.

Vivienne (Inquisition). We know how this one goes. Pro-Circle, fervently anti-rebellion.

Solas (Inquisition). Not pro-Circle, but he's more apostate than rebel and more *gestures at his whole deal* than apostate.

Dorian (Inquisition). Tevinter, with little to no stakes in the rebellion. Will specifically voice his doubts about whether a full alliance with the mage rebellion is actually a good idea.

Mage Inquisitor (Inquisition). Can absolutely hold anti-Circle and pro-rebellion views. Only a Trevelyan mage Inquisitor can have been a rebel, though.

Qwydion (Absolution). As discussed above, more of a mercenary than a rebel and her only comment on the matter is stating that she isn't one.

Saphira (Absolution). Again, a Tevinter mage with no real stake in the rebellion. Was seemingly in Ferelden during Inquisition, but makes no comment on the rebellion.

And what about the narrative's general treatment of mage characters, particularly mage rebels? Well, it's not good. People have already discussed at length that Anders is almost universally demonised in post-DA2 Dragon Age media that mentions him, but he's not the only one.

The most fervent mage rebels in Asunder are Adrian and Fiona - the former is generally discredited as a scary radical who alienates people with her actions, and the latter is portrayed largely as foolish/weak in Inquisition (I disagree, but the narrative of Inquisition has little time for it). The mage rebellion in Inquisition is seen as a terrible, dangerous group destroying the region just as much as the Templars and for just as bad a reason.

More recent Dragon Age entries are also more generally anti-blood magic - no blood mage companions in Inquisition, no specialisation, characters who will speak against it frequently (most notably Hawke), and a blood mage villain in Absolution. Not to mention that Absolution also inadvertently reinforces the "necessity" of Harrowings by showing that Rezaren failed his.

And that isn't even the end of it!! There's a general narrative arc in Dragon Age which serves to validate the Chantry view of mages - the Blight was (seemingly) caused by Tevinter mages. The elven gods were just powerful mages - and they were slavers just like in Tevinter (making our only two examples of mage-dominated societies also slave-based). Mage companions deceive or betray you, their actions responsible/anticipated to be responsible for hundreds of deaths in a way that isn't the case for other former companions. The mage who found the cure for tranquility accidentally killed everyone in the city. From the Chantry boom onwards, 3/5 of our biggest in-game antagonists/bosses have been mages. If we're counting Absolution, that brings us up to 4/6.

This means that the general message of recent Dragon Age isn't just a disdain for the rebellion and its participants, but also a general lean towards saying that the rebellion should never have happened in the first place - because the Templars are right. Mages are Bad.

This probably isn't much of a revelation for a lot of people, but it stands completely in contrast with how I (and a lot of people) understand mage-related conflicts in Dragon Age. How Bioware have managed to set up a compelling narrative showing oppression+attempts to deconstruct it and then decided that no one should resist it (and if they do, they're never good people) is just.......what.

[steastorchartandstuff]

My artwork for Lunavis' "Прийдешній Шторм"

[littlepinksapphire]

Turning to blood magic as an oppressed mage is like turning to crime. People don’t do it because it’s the easy way out. They do it because it’s their only way out. It’s easy to blame individuals, to assume they are weak-willed and lack morals. But if so many mages are turning to blood magic, then the system is at fault

[dragon-age-fame]

Edit: I want to thank you guys for the interest. She is 14 pages in now. Low key might skip work today to write. Keep up the good work. I answer some of your questions and replies uwusl

Hwy guys.

I'm hoping to generate some interest for my current project with my bestie. We are writing a dragon age fanfic. Instead of one origin surviving, Duncan recruited all of them.

It will have romance, adventure, friendship, politics, betrayal and hope.

Our goal is to keep it true to the story to lore as possible.. hope to eventually write through all 3 games. (Possibly dreadwolf too depending on how that turns out)

The romance list is F. Maharel x Zevran, F. Tabris x Leliana, M. Adecan x Morrigan, F. Cousland x Alistair.

Surana and Brosca will be announced later.

How it will work is we are splitting the chapters. She writes one half. I write the other. We have different writing styles so I hope this will be a fun and relatively unique project.

Bestie says she will be more.motivated to write if people are interested. So I am hoping to show her to get her on the ball.

Please feel free to comment with any thoughts, comments, questions or ideas.

[fidufish]

Ginger inquisitor with a storm in her heart

[dragonageconfessions]

CONFESSION:

I do wish you were allowed to summon wisps in the games besides Origins. They’re my mage’s little buddy!

[germanich]

Still love my OCs designs in Dragon Age AU. (Wanna draw them more)

Ace and Winona are both mages and maleficars. But usually, only Winona uses blood magic, Ace just gives her his blood for this

Winona was tranquiled during the events of Dragon Age II. And Ace joined the inquisitor to get close to order of the Seekers of the truth and find a way to reverse the ritual of tranquility. Also, he tried to learn more about the fade. Specifically about the demons and the spirits, cos he thought that there must be an answer in them how to restore the connection to the fade (well, he was right).

Winona was from the Tevinter imperium, but her father thought that she wasn't worthy to become the head of the family and become his full heir. Also, he was trying to kinda protect her. So when she was a kid, she moved to Ferelden, where she joined the Circle. And there she met Ace. Her bestie (and he has a secret crush on her)

[sashimoii]

Grey warden naema. Also known as grey warden a name because if you rearrange it yeah I thought it was funny

Revisiting origins in my proper despair hours because god is life kicking me in theeeeee asshole

Anyway she’s so silly I’ve got so many doodles of her

Some of my favourites because I think they deserve to be seen again. Horse girl teagan

[justanotherflemethstan]

if Solas lifts the Veil... will that mean that The Chantry will no longer have any grounds to prosecute/control mages. since, you know, demons & spirits will be all around anyway, so there's not really a threat of mages summoning them any longer

[christinasketch]

Viscountess of Kirkwall, though Kirkwall doesn't know it yet 👀

Headcanon she marries Varric soon after Dragon Age 2 ✨

[my-dumb-obsessions]

So I discovered a really funny bit of dialogue in the mage origin that I’ve never gotten before, and I figured you’d appreciate it.

When you ask Jowan why he thinks they’re going to make him tranquil, he says that there’s a rumor that he’s dabbling in blood magic.

To which Amell/Surana can respond with:

“You can't even light a candle with your magic.”

Jowan immediately gets defensive and shoots back with:

“That was bad aim, not lack of ability! I did set fire to the curtains! I suppose that's pretty dangerous... but that's not the point.”

And now all I can imagine is Jowan and this Surana trying to practice their fire spells and Jowan accidentally lighting the curtains on fire.

It probably happens a lot! Little apprentices with bad aim just learning how to control this ridiculously powerful element. We totally see an apprentice freak out about starting a fire in the library in the mage origin. I'm surprised the curtains aren't enchanted to be fire resistant at that point... and all the books, holy shit! Who practices fire spells in a library? They should have a gymnasium for that sort of thing.

[neb-art-zeke]

"I used the Lyrium to destroy the Lyrium."