#avexius really grinds my gears too. because she's so important to cassandra's story but there is no interaction.

[exhausted-archivist]

Honestly all of this. I was going to put this in the tags but its too long. But yeah, all of this. Along with the addition that aside from Minaeve, the only people we see who actually care about the tranquil or any specific tranquil are: Samson with Maddox and Harritt with Helisma, both of which are easily missed.

(Gonna shove this under a cut cause it's a long post already.)

You only know of Maddox and Samson's relationship if you read the short story or side with the mages and even then it is brief and not fully explored even after you capture Samson. I feel like even in his ambient dialogue with Dagna, this really could have been explored and discussed more. Especially with Dagna's unique relationship and perspective of circles. How often had she seen a Templar and Tranquil in a positive relationship? The motivation and inspiration Maddox had to work with red lyrium? Because red lyrium doesn't care who you are, that stuff talks. It infects. How did Maddox avoid its influence? Dagana would inadvertently pry into their relationship to answer questions about the construction of Samson's armor. This would also presumably happen while Harritt was around which would dove tail into some interesting conversations between him and Samson on the topic of tranquil because of Harritt's past and present relationship with Helisma.

Harritt and Helisma's entire relationship is dependent on you catching the conversation with the runners. Harritt knew Helisma before she was turned tranquil and he is trying very hard not only to maintain some sort of relationship but also do right by honoring her current self. You see Helisma handling his attempt at continued friendship with slight confusion but she doesn't dissuade his attention. Harritt, he's struggling with the memory of who she used to be and the type of relationship they had before (it doesn't read at all as romantic to me to be clear) but he's also working to come to terms with who she is now and isn't trying to force her in anyway to maintain, return, or accept his desire for a friendship. He still cares for her and is struggling to show her that while respecting the new boundaries.

This would have been reason enough for Harritt to ask a dying, imprisoned man like Samson how to maintain and have a good relationship with a tranquil. One that wasn't disrespectful to the tranquil. Because Samson did respect Maddox, he valued Maddox as a person. This would have also been an interesting time to talk about the reversal of the rite of tranquility, one that is common knowledge to mages, templars, and anyone who knows a mage. We could have seen what that meant to Maddox, what it might mean for Helisma, what it would mean for Harritt and the likely very painful conversation for him.

The subject of tranquility, the horror and crime it is to the mages it is forced on, the incredibly fragile hope that is the reversal of tranquility is all under explored. To the detriment of the world building honestly, and I really wish such a heavy and relevant conversation could be had with your companions. That other ambient npcs that it mattered to could have this conversation even if you didn't. That your stance on it actually mattered. I also wish you could have a conversation on how some "well meaning" mages think the reversal should be forced on tranquil because "they can't make decisions for themselves". Which is a whole level of fucked that gets glossed over in the game because it's regulated to ambient dialogue.

I wish that tranquility wasn't such a tucked away but slipped in topic in the games. That Inquisition used the "Look at this pretty world with its dark undercurrents" more than it actually does.

like i just. i just need to lay this out. becuz i need to go to bed but i will not be able to stop thinking about this otherwise. okay. so

the tranquil we see in inquisition

Avexis. who was a major player in the events of dawn of the seeker. helped save the day alongside casssandra. was honored by the divine. she's tranquil now. she's minaeve's assistant and we see her around haven but we can't speak to her

overheard dialogue between her and giselle reveals that she has been so horribly abused while tranquil that she wouldn't chose to be cured becuz she doesn't think she could handle dealing with her trauma with all her emotions intact

cassandra, who knew avexis, who tells you the story of saving the divine and mourns how she is celebrated while the mages were forgotton, has absolutely fuck all to say about any of this. if she even knows avexis is in haven

you don't know avexis's significance if you haven't watched dawn of the seeker. we don't see avexis again following in your heart shall burn

Helisma Derrington. becomes your lead of creature research upon your arrival to skyhold. presumably one of minaeve's assistants prior as she is given the position by minaeve if minaeve lives

(minaeve is the only character afaik that you can talk to about the tranquil at any kind of length and who appears to give any kind of shit about them)

you can have conversation with helisma, which i think is great, and she even gives you war table missions if you talk with her enough. it's been too long since i've played and i couldn't find a full video, but you can get SOME of her perspective on being tranquil. it isn't much. her memory doesn't appear to be very good

Clemence. you have one (1) conversation with him which is his recruitment, and that's only if you check out the mages in redcliffe and then bother to talk to ppl after your convo with alexius. his conversation is interesting but brief. i don't know if anyone has taken a fly cam for close ups on everyone wearing robes in redcliffe, but for the average player, he's the only tranquil we know to be there. we do not see him again

Maddox. a tranquil from kirkwall. he was made tranquil for passing love letters. samson was kicked out of the templars for passing them for him. the only thing cullen has to say about it is that meredith made mages tranquil for even lesser "offenses"; he doesn't appear overly bothered by this

you only get to see maddox if you side with the mages. he dies. he kills himself ostensibly to aid samson. he remains loyal to samson to the end. this is arguably the best evidence we have of a tranquil exercising autonomy

(EDIT: forgot to mention Pharamond. you only learn about him by finding an obscure note in a certain cave in the western approach. it doesn't really tell you what he was doing there and you have to intuit that he's an ex-tranquil. you don't know the significance of this unless you've read asunder)

~

the tranquil are all killed. not all of them obviously, but a lot. the majority. so many are killed that their murderers have trouble finding more to kill. they are killed by the venatori. their skulls are used to make the ocularum that allow you to find the shards. tranquil skulls specifically are needed to make them. we don't know how they find this out

a tranquil must be killed within proximity to shards for the oculara to work. no one knows where that proximity is until the tranquil is killed and the oculara is able to be made. if the oculara doesn't work, they move to a different location and try again. the tranquil must be killed exactly as a demon possesses them. if their death is off even by mere minutes, it won't work. they have to do it again

(take into account how many ocularum there are. take into account that tranquil were among the largest populations in the circles and that the majority of them were killed. remember how many ocularum there are. take into account the failures during discovery and the failures during attempts to make them. estimate a number. remember that so many tranquil were killed, the venatori struggled to find more to kill. double the number)

you only find out what happened to the tranquil, this knowledge about the ocularum, if you enter the shack near the docks in redcliffe. it requires the deft hands fine tools perk. nothing is said about them otherwise

your companions have various dialogue about this. cassandra says she'd wondered what happened to them and that she should have looked harder to find them. solas says he'd wondered what happened, he says their deaths are a waste. vivienne says she'd assumed they were with the rebels and that she shouldn't have. cole says they couldn't call for help, that if he'd heard them he'd have saved them, that he'll avenge them

once you leave, no one says anything more. you can't say anything more. you don't even get a war table mission about it. if this happens prior to promise of destruction you can't bring it up in your post-quest convo with cass. you can't bring it up when you later discuss releasing the truth of the cure with her

the ocularum stay up. you can continue to use them. nothing is mentioned about whether they are ever taken down

people didn't care about the tranquil, if they even noticed they were gone. the people who cared about them didn't look hard enough for them, or they decided someone else must have. no one mentions them to you when you're herald, when you're inquisitor; you aren't given the option to look for them

the loyal templars didn't protect them. the seekers didn't protect them. the rebel mages didn't protect them. no other mage group protected them. minaeve is the only person we know of that makes an effort to protect as many as she can

we never get to talk to any tranquil character about this. we can't tell them about the ocularum. we can't tell them about the cure

the tranquil suffer the worst cruelties the circles have to offer. and then they die. they are killed en masse. off-screen. and they are never mentioned again

no one cares about them. you aren't allowed to care about them. the bioware writers sure as fuck don't care about them