#justinia

[whiterosemarie]

The latest art work. 25+ hrs. Based on a fanfiction that's being written between myself and a friend.

[illusivesoul]

A Divine's Hand

A short Leliana/Justinia fic.

Ratings: Mature

Words: 1596

Summary: The Inquisitor asks about Justinia. Leliana remembers.

Tags: Power Imbalance - Implied Sexual Content - Angst - Grief/Mourning - Anger - POV Multiple -Memories -Regret

Read it on AO3

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Leliana noticed the subtle smirk of the Inquisitor’s lips after she asked the question, and the cold she felt from her words had nothing to do with the snow that fell all around them. Trevelyan was a noble, and the way she had spoken made it clear that she was no stranger to the whirlwind of rumours that had surrounded Leliana during the years she had served at the Divine’s side. Only those who presumed to know the truth before asking asked things in the way the inquisitor had. 

“You’re asking if we were lovers. Typical. I was devoted to her, therefore it must be romantic” the spymaster replied, unable and not caring to hide the frustration in her tone. Nothing seemed to matter anymore anyway.  “Love is common. Love is simple. My bond with Justinia was something greater. She was a sister, a mother, a teacher…”

Bloodied, bruised, broken. Cold rock of the cell floor, stone stained by torture, walls that held the tears and blood of the countless orlesians and fereldans that never left this prison alive. Tears drying in her face. The phantom pain of a lover’s treacherous blade still throbbing at her ribs. Praying, hoping for death. 

A bag drops from the small gate far above, surrounded by the daylight that seeps through it. A woman’s voice. Soothing, comforting. Leliana swears it's the sweetest sound she’s ever heard.

“You feel alone, perhaps for the first time, but you are far from helpless. Others need you, even at your lowest. And that is a strength I cannot describe. You can do this” 

And she finds the strength to lift herself from the cold, bloodied stone floor, if only to find the source of the mysterious voice who talked to her.

Hope.

They’re gathered around the table, where incriminating letters prove the existence of a conspiracy - the latest one - involving several grand clerics and Orlesian nobles aimed at deposing Justinia. Leliana calls for their deaths, to be granted permission to unleash her agents to purge the halls of the Grand Cathedral and the mansions and palaces of Orlais of the traitors. It wouldn’t be the first time a Divine had done so, a show of force to keep things in order. 

Justinia looks at her with concern. Leliana has told her little about what she had lived through during the Blight, but she had returned from Ferelden a changed woman, callous, cold, calculating, brutal. With the same fire from her days as a bard, but with a harshness fitting for a soldier.

As she listens to her talk about how her agents can make it all seem like accidents and to make the deaths occur gradually to avoid raising suspicion, Justinia sees the dark shadow of Marjolaine’s influence looming over Leliana. But Justinia knows that she’s the only one responsible for this. Because in the end, what is she in Leliana’s life if not Marjolaine by another name, making her spill blood in the name of the Maker just as Marjolaine had her spill blood for courtly intrigues. The Game is played even in the halls of the Grand Cathedral, after all. The memory of her moment of weakness at the hands of Marjolaine and everything it had led to filled her with a sense of shame and anger towards herself that she would never let go of.

She denies Leliana’s request, and after a few moments spent enduring Leliana’s anger and rage washing over her as she goes on about the risks of letting traitors alive and how her position will be made vulnerable, Justinia takes her into her arms, feeling how she melts into them as she starts sobbing loudly against her white robes.

“I can’t… I can’t bear the thought of losing you too. I cannot lose you too”

Justinia wishes she could let her go, to not make her course the dark ways that surround this position of power. Yet she knows that without Leliana at her side, she would have died long ago. She knows it's foolish and selfish to think of herself as the victim in this. Leliana had asked to join and serve, and she had said yes, and Justinia tells herself it was not due to her manipulation, but through a genuine act of faith. And the Divine knows she's not the only one who is at risk of losing herself.

Doubt.

The large book with the eye and a sword crossing it laid on the table, the words "Into darkness, unafraid” inscribed in the cover. Yet Justinia was afraid. Afraid that things had deteriorated to the point that it needed to be used. A last resort. 

In the distance, the White Spire stood, its walls still charred from magic fire, the same fire that had consumed the minds and hearts of men and women all over Thedas.

Justinia knew they wouldn’t find the Champion of Kirkwall, who, just as the Hero of Ferelden, seemed to have vanished into thin air. Though by the way Leliana’s eyes darkened and her sight lowered towards the floor whenever the dwarven woman who had saved Ferelden was mentioned, she couldn’t help but think that perhaps it was best that they hadn’t found the warden after all.

The task of fixing this burning and crumbling world would be up to her, to salvage what she could from the madness of a war she had failed to prevent. Justinia had relived the last years constantly in her head since the destruction of Kirkwall’s Chantry.

Had her changes been too fast and too radical? Or had they been lacking? Had she pushed too much, or had she done too little?

In the end, she knew she could only play her last card with the Conclave. History would judge her actions and determine if she was to be praised or thrown to the darkest pits, remembered only as the Divine that lost the Chantry. In any event, she had already passed judgement on herself long ago.

The sound of light steps approaching from behind brought a smile to her face, for she was very familiar to whom they belonged to. It was one of the little things she had gotten used to about Leliana over the years.

She felt her hands placing themselves on her shoulders, her lips softly planting kisses on the back of her neck as she gently pulled her white robes off her.

Leliana’s hands feel like a miracle, the callousness and scars that dotted her hands mixed with the delicate soft bits of skin a reflection of the story of her life. Each movement and caress made all the stress and weight of the world vanish under her touch, and made Justinia feel alive in a way that she only did when she’s given into her. Leliana’s hands and lips trace every line, every inch of skin, and she makes her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.

She had never asked Leliana for this, but Leliana had done it cause it was the only way she knew how to show gratitude. The only way she knew to show that she cared. The only way to show love she had ever known. The only form of love allowed to those shaped and molded by the Game. And what was Justinia doing if not playing the Game in the name of Andraste and the Maker? 

Justinia knew she should have refused, but Maker, she was only human after all. She allowed herself to have these small moments of happiness, to remind herself of the times when the world had not been thrusted upon her shoulders. She just prayed that the way Leliana’s eyes looked at her, those hushed “I love you” she said during their passion were just words uttered in the fire of the moment. She would never be worthy of Leliana’s love.

As their lips, souls and bodies met on that desk in the Grand Cathedral, in a world which only the two of them were privy to, Justinia felt her resolve stronger than ever. She would push as hard as she could in the Conclave, to help put Thedas back in order… and to leave a world where Leliana could find the peace and love she so much deserved. It was the least she could do for her.

Resolve.

“So to answer your question, Evelyn Trevelyan: yes, it was more than friendship. Friendship is a lacking term to describe the bond that we had. Now, you’ll have to excuse me. There are many things I have to see with to make sure this Inquisition of ours lasts more than a month”

As Leliana retreated to the depths of her tent, she pretended to focus on the papers in front of her, the wood on the sides of the table creaking in pain as she tightened her grip on it, desperate to hold back the tears, the rage, the pain and loss that boiled inside of her. Cause she knew, and she felt it, that if she turned around, she would be met with the sight of Trevelyan smiling mockingly at her, laughing at her pain and reveling in the turmoil she had caused. And through the holes in the fabric of the tent, the green glow of the Breach made itself seen, the embodiment of Justinia’s loss haunting her from the very skies.

But Leliana did not falter. She would not let Justinia’s name be tarnished any further by her weakness.

She had failed her enough already.

[lairofdragonagelore]

The Raw Fade - Part 4, Justinia

Main Quest: Here Lies the Abyss

Divine Justinia V was the head of the Orlesian Chantry between 9:34 and 9:41 Dragon. Given her wordly past and her dealings with the bards of Orlais, Justinia V was reputed to be one of the finest players of the Grand Game.

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]

Justinia

As we explore the fade, we find Justinia, or what I think it’s a spirit of Faith that took Justinia’s shape to help the inquisitor in this place, guiding them along the Fade, protecting them to avoid worse spirits and teaching them things needed to be whole again.  Pretty much like the spirits claimed by : Walking the Fade: Frozen Moments, in The Raw Fade - Part 1.

We can talk to her. The main goal of Justinia is make the Inquisitor recover their own memories.  By the kind of answers she gives, very Cole-like, she seems to be a spirit of good nature. I speculate it’s a spirit of Faith.  Why? With Wynne we learnt these are the strongest good spirits [information reinforced explicitly in the World of Thedas, Vol 1], even though they are more passive in their hosts.  I speculate that Justinia had been possessed by this spirit in a similar fashion as Wynne was, and for that reason Corypheus needed her power to unlock the orb, and not just kill her like he wanted to do with Celene to produce political instability.

She informs us about Nightmare, a demon that works for Corypheus and feeds on the fear and darkness. This may explain why this Fade has so many keepers of Fear: here is where the food for this demon is exhibited.

We are informed by this spirit that this demon Nightmare is the one responsible for the apparent Calling of the wardens.

The inquisitor does not remember what happened in the Conclave, and it’s here where they recover by gathering the small wisps of memories.

She explains that the Fade is “made of” the mind of mankind.

What changes in the mankind’s world, changes here in the Fade.

Due to the evasive nature of this Justinia, whose behaviour is similar to Cole’s, we reinforces the idea that she may be a spirit like Cole, in particular: Faith [mostly because she asks for forgiveness to Leliana for having failed her, and even though it may be a posthumous regret of Justinia, it fits well from a narrative point of view, since Leliana starts the game with her loss of faith.]

She claims she is what the Maker made her. But if the Chantry Maker doesn’t exist, this may be a typical misuse of language of the spirits: a Maker can be any person who creates or maintain spirits in the Fade. She may as well call Maker to the real, human Justinia, whose faith kept her stronger over time.

We follow a conversation about the Maker. This is quite challenging since we have the confirmation of Corypheuys already claiming there is no Maker, as well as Solas ignoring completely the presence of any. Justinia claims that the Maker can be seen all around us, implying that a Maker can be anyone who can create spirits or reflection of emotions in the Fade, if we take this spirit in a more poetic way.

It’s curious how she describes the anchor: It’s the needle that pulls the thread, as well as a key. Meaning a key to something locked, the door to the Fade: the Veil. It creates [sew] the Veil, and it’s also the key to access to the Fade. If we assume that the Veil was made with this energy trapped in the orb/inquisitor’s hand, and it was a means to seal a bigger danger, it’s also the key to unlock it.

When we recover the memory, we realise Justinia was used by Corypheus to unlock the orb. He required a sacrifice, and for unknown reasons, she was chosen, despite not being an elf, a dragon-blooded humanoid or a mage [all more suitable victims which blood or sacrifice has more power, lore-wise]. Even the way she is sacrificed does not implies blood magic.

She is restrained with red lines of power, which represent the bound Grey Warden’s power or maybe Corypheus’. And the Green energy coming out from her to the orb may suggest “similar Fade energy”. This is why, from a visual point of view, I suspect that human Justinia has been possessed by a gentle spirit for a long while, in the same fashion that Wynne was. [For more details, even though this speculation is a bit old, read What is Justinia?]

Once recovered the first set of memories, we have a comment from the mage companions: Solas, who has always spoken about the spirit nature, suggests this Justinia is pretty much a similar case to Cole but staying in the Fade.  Dorian, also says an adequate comment: if they would have been a demon, they would have asked for something in return. Vivienne, of course, remains wary about the nature of this creature.

The second set of memories happens nearby the Humanoid Mythal statue.  We see the  inquisitor climb a rock towards the Breach to return to the Waking World. Justinia is helping him, as spiders follow him.

Here more or less is confirmed that she is a spirit of some kind, as the orange glowing, typical of the spirits in this game, turn into the intense yellow glow with the Divine hat [detail that reinforces the idea that the essence of this spirit is related to Faith]

We can have some discussion with other companions, but there are no concrete answers about the nature of this creature. Lore-wise, it seems reasonable to think in this situation similar to Wynne’s [Wynne was not always possessed, but she always noticed the presence of that spirit, taking care of her].  It’s not clear if Justinia was or was not possessed by a gentle spirit, but in either case, this one keeps reinforcing the idea of a spirit of Faith. Her dubious answers also fit perfectly her potential Faith-nature: she asks you to believe in whatever story you want to create to justify her decision of looking like Justinia. 

So, in a short series of speculations:

This spirit takes the shape of Justinia. It may imply a situation similar to Cole’s in  Asunder.  

This Spirit may have been to Justinia like Faith was to Wynne: a spirit that took care of her until she died, and in wynne’s case, Faith possessed her in mutual agreement to save the lives of the Mages that were trapped in the tower. 

It’s not clear if Justinia was or not possessed. But since Corypheus needs her energy to unlock the orb [which needs a lot of energy that Solas didn’t have when he awoke from his slumber, said by himself at the end of Trespasser] it seems natural to assume that Corypheus used her energy because she was more powerful than an elvhen [when elven blood is special for potent magic] or than even a mage. 

The way the spirit of Justinia evades the requests for answers, and always suggests you to believe in whatever you want, it seems to be a fitting behaviour for a spirit of Faith

Her shape of light loses all details except the typical hat of the Divine, meaning that the spirit has kept a modern, powerful religious icon into herself. An icon of contemporaneous Faith.

The Seekers of Truth is an institution which has always had a deep relationship with Faith spirits that they used in order to awake seekers from their tranquillity vigil. The Seekers is an Order close to the Divine as well, so there is a natural approach of Faith spirits to the Divine just by her proximity to this Order.

Leliana seems to be immune to Red Lyrium, like Seekers are. There is a potential implicit connotation that she may have been touched by a spirit of Faith. Since Justinia and Leliana have always been too close, this speculation seems to have a bit of room for this event to happen between the Divine and the Left Hand. However, the most natural and obvious explanation of this is if Leliana dies in DAO, at the temple of the Sacred Ashes, and she is revived by a spirit, as it’s implied in her speech if we play in a world where the warden killed her. The problem with this is that it depends a lot of the player’s choice.

When the spirit fights the gigantic spider, she tells the inquisitor to ask Leliana for forgiveness of “having failed her”. This is so ambivalent that it could be interpreted as a last regret of the real Justinia, but it could also be a genuine apology from the spirit of Faith for having let Leliana lose her Faith [as we saw in the beginning of the game] or even an apology for not having protected the Divine that Leliana loved so much.

[sluttyquarantinetheory]

Cassandra is so funny as a character. She's a highly skilled fighter and is genuinely down to listen and learn about new things and different types of people. And she has absolutely zero bullshit detecting abilities whatsoever. Worst possible choice for an investigative profession.

[fartholder]

A lot of comparisons can be made between the gameplay reveal and the opening of DA:I, but these happen in the same order:

A bridge collapses as you cross it and you fall down under it

You pick up your gear, a rift opens and you get attacked by shades

You arrive at the site where a ritual to tear down the Veil took/takes place and the camera pans to Thee Rift

You get attacked by a pride demon

When first watching the gameplay i thought it was a little funny, but thinking more about it, it looks like a very deliberate choice on the developers part, especially because it then goes on to put Solas and Varric in the same "roles" as Corypheus and Divine Justinia, respectively.

[v-arbellanaris]

still working plotting for my main fic and yknow. i see a lot of posts laughing at cassandra/the inq/justinia/whoever for wanting to recruit hawke as the inquisitor but like there's actually a lot of really disturbing tones to it, when i thought it through.

cassandra recruits cullen into the inquisition. and yeah, he comes in as a military commander, despite the fact that he has no military experience, but i think that's more related to like. the roots of the first inquisition. they later became the templars and the seekers -- cullen is military commander not because they expected to have to fight anyone but because justinia was going to use the writ to build the chantry's military strength if the bloody conclave didn't work out. cullen was hired because he's the fucking knight-commander of kirkwall, and justinia wants him to rebuild the templars. i know people like to laugh about it because it makes "no sense" but the military commander was never meant to do the kind of fighting they ended up having to do in the game -- it was intended to remake the templars. cullen trained hundreds of templar recruits in kirkwall and he's one of the only few that hasn't broken away from the chantry despite the dissolution of the nevarran accord. he's the most obvious pick for commander, when you consider what the inquisition wants.

bw canon hawke is a mage hawke who sided w the mages in kirkwall. they recruited a templar that knows him personally, that has had an antagonistic relationship with him in the later years, that knows how he works and thinks. if they had gotten their hands on hawke, do you actually think they wouldve politely asked him to lead the inquisition?

[moghedien]

Shipping Cassandra and Leliana is so funny because I feel like the only people who actually do it have either only played Inquisition or don't think much past "Well they're the Left and Right Hands of the Divine" because you KNOW they only get along to the extent they do in Inquisition because they've never had an actual conversation because the second Leliana opened her mouth about her theology in front of Cassandra, they would have been trying to strangle each other

[vigilskeep]

now that you've watched the Cassandra movie, do you know that Avexis is in Haven?

i do. i had the appropriate breakdown over this yesterday. it’s so true to the world and the chantry and yet it had me gasping

[lesbianholyspirit]

Me loading up DAI to see Leliana acting like the cold and calculating killer she hoped she would never become in origins.

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

i know we are making all the old man jokes about Emmrich but lets be real with bioware's history of age portrayal (wynne was only 49, divine justinia looking wizened despite being 'young and fresh' only a few years earlier), some in-game conversation in Veilguard is bound to reveal that he's like. a fresh 40 to be honest

[jemandthesingalongs]

credit for transcription: @daitranscripts / @dragonagetranscripts

very normal about whatever is going on in here

[nespyofire]

[melancholichalfelf]

I think that Bioware missed a great opportunity.

At the start of Dragon Age: Inquisition we are told that Divine Justinia perished during the explosion at the Conclave and there was no funeral held for her. During my studies I came across something called Castrum doloris - Castle of grief. These "castles" were build during the funeral of high ranking members of the church in the 17th and 18th century (for example Pope) or other important people (kings/emperors etc.). Look at this picture and tell me that the pompous Orlesians would miss the opportunity to show off like this.

Not to mention that this event could be used in the Game - nobles fighting with each other about who donated the most to build this "castle" etc.

It would also be more dramatic if the Herald (a person who is believed to be responsible for the Divine's demise) showed up during the funeral rather than at the Val Royeaux plaza when trying to speak with the clerics. Not to mention how scandalous it would be if the Templars also showed up only to announce that they are breaking away from the Chantry moments later.

I presume that Orlais have the same burial customs as Ferelden and burn their dead, in that case there might be no need for Castrum doloris, but the thing is, that they do not have the Divine's body so Castrum donoris might as well work as a symbolic funeral.

Maybe the funeral couldn't be held because the Chantry was at its lowest at the time - everyone who was important enough went to the Conclave and perished along with the Divine, which only led the lesser clergy to fight for influence in the Chantry. On the other hand, if someone crasping for power would organise a funeral for the beloved Divine, it might streghten their chances.

So this is why I think that this could have been a part of the game.

[lairofdragonagelore]

Frostback Mountains: Attack to Haven

Main quest:  In Your Heart Shall Burn

Haven is a small village in the Frostback Mountains. It is not marked on most maps. In DAO was the place where a cult to a dragon that they considered Andraste incarnated stayed isolated from the rest of Thedas. 

This post has compiled the most relevant information during the main quest for completion’s sake. These quests have little “archaeological” value, but since I’m visually covering the majority of the game, I can’t put them aside since there are some exceptions, such as the Temple of Mythal.

When the Breach is closed with the help of Mages or Templars, there is a celebration in Haven. However, it lasts not longer, since it is immediately under attack of Corypheus and his Red Templars.

The most important part of this quest in my opinion is all the information that Corypheus gives us. It’s as valuable as the little bits he dropped in DA2: Legacy

I think Corypheus here speaks of a truth that mortals cannot have, referring to the truth that there are no gods. He claims that the inquisitor, pretending to be a Herald of a goddess, is not different than what he was once with Dumat [”Know me, know what you have pretended to be”]

I find curious he speaks of himself as “the will of Corypheus”. Considering his ability to jump into different bodies, probably this will is the only real thing that Corypheus is. The concept of “will” is explored once more with Abelas: the Well of Sorrows contains the “will” of all the high priests of Mythal. And they all are bound to the “will” of Mythal [check the post about Temple of Mythal to see these details]

It’s also interesting that he claims that the Anchor was his “craft”. So this energy, which we know it’s Fen’Harel’s energy, is concentrated in a hand, that was Corypheus’ doing. This would explain loosely why he was in the Temple of Sacred Ashes, looking for Justinia. Apparently, for whatever reason Justinia is needed, she was a component of what Corypheuys needed to do to unlock the power of the Orb, anchor it, and use it for himself.

I’m still curious why, from any other better candidate, such as an elf or a human with dragon blood, or even a mage, Corypheus chose Justinia, a mere [magically speaking] powerless human, to unlock the power of the Orb [I wrote some old considerations to question here on this matter]

However, when we question this to Corypheus, he claims it was about the chaos generated by killing important leader figures in the political world of Thedas. I get that, but he could have killed the Divine as he wanted to do with Celene in order to ensure chaos. Instead, he dragged some kind of energy from her, and that’s one of the biggest mysteries in this narrative for me. Why Justinia?

He once more confirms he entered the Fade in the name of Dumat [”in the name of another”] to “serve the Old Gods in person”, which I assume it’s to help them to stop being silent. Let’s remember that the Old Gods had communication with their priests via dreams until they went silent and Tevinter fell in despair to the point that they developed rituals to break into the Fade and look for them personally.

What Corypheus found in the Black City was “chaos, corruption [understood as the Blight], and dead whispers.

There is once more this italic “will” in the text, where Corypheus emphasises that he had gathered the will to return by his own name, without following Dumat anymore. He realised the place of the gods was empty, and in almost a human gesture, he wants to become the god that the humanity always asked for. 

Sure, this is not merely an altruistic goal, but certainly is a motivation a bit more complex than power-hunger as the Chantry always narrated the story of the Sidereal Magisters.  Corypheus is not the best candidate for a god, but I like how all the information we had about the Tevinter Magisters acquires a different hue here. Corypheus is a blighted immortal creature, who is also Tevinter culturally speaking, so his moral will always be quite questionable, and he turning into a god is something as terrible as the shattering of the Veil. However, there is some degree of “nobility” [I knot it’s a big word, but I can’t come with another one] in his mission that I’m not sure how much it’s perceived: he knows humanity cannot handle the truth that the gods do not exist, so he wants to become the god they deserve. I wonder if Corypheus’ story doesn’t hide a parallel with the Evanuris, or at least, some of them. We know that Falon’Din was a power-hunger creature, but maybe Mythal or others wanted, originally, to be the god for The People, because the world was too cruel without any. 

Once Haven is destroyed and we endure the song of Mother Giselle, Solas speaks with the inquisitor dropping some details:

Solas informs the Inquisitor that the orb that Corypheus holds is elven. In fact, by the end of Tresspasser we will know he gave it to him somehow hoping that the unlock would kill Corypheus. He had just awaken from his slumber and was too weakened to do it by himself.

He confirms that unlocking the orb was what destroyed and killed so many in the Temple of Sacred Ashes.

Solas is surprised for Corypheus survival. By the time we reach the Temple of Mythal, we will learn that Corypheus’ will can jump into other blighted creatures and revive from them, but this procedure only happens if he is close to his dragon. This is probably a retcon from DA2: Legacy

Solas calls the orb with the Tevinter name: foci, and he claims they channelled the power of the “elven gods”, probably meaning the Evanuris.

He says that some “were dedicated to specific member of the pantheon”, which I infer it means that not all the Evanuris had an orb.

We know that Corypheus wants to enter the Fade and the Black City once more. We know he is already immortal and has immense power. What’s it in the Fade that he needs and that will be necessary for becoming a god? So far we speculated from Trespasser, the Evanuris claimed godhood through the use of lyrium or through the titan’s hearts that ended up being the orbs. 

This implies that there must be another component to acquire godhood, and it may be in the Black City, whatever this place is.

On the other hand, he serves chaos in the mortal world killing important leaders like Celene and leading an army of demons using the Grey Warden for that matter.

[anneapocalypse]

Meredith's Mistakes: A Study in Power

The full-scale rebellion of mages across Thedas against the Circle system of the Andrastian Chantry officially begins in 9:40 Dragon, with the uprising at the White Spire and a vote by the College of Enchanters to separate from the Chantry. But the seeds of the rebellion are planted years earlier in Kirkwall, where the extreme Circle policies of Knight-Commander Meredith Stannard lead to the destruction of the city’s Chantry by apostate mage activist Anders.

Knight-Commander Meredith’s reign of terror over her Circle and over Kirkwall itself is abruptly ended during her battle with Hawke when the sword forged from a red lyrium idol found in the Deep Roads corrupts her totally, turning her to a frozen lyrium statue herself (though as we have more recently learned, it did not destroy her completely). This was catalyzed by the destruction of the Chantry, Meredith’s invocation of the Right of Annulment, and the mages’ subsequent resistance. But had all that not happened the way it did, I believe that an end to Meredith’s rule had already become inevitable. The Knight-Commander makes several grave mistakes in maintaining her power, some of which begin years before she acquires the idol, but are dramatically escalated by her exposure to red lyrium.

And it’s because of those mistakes that the mage rebellion truly has its roots in Kirkwall.

Circle Dispensation

Throughout the Dragon Age universe we meet mages like Wilhelm Sulzbacher, Ines Arancia, Severan, Vivienne, Finn, and Wynne: Circle mages given special dispensation to travel, work, and even live outside the Circle proper.

This privilege proves to be a highly effective tool of Circle control, and a critical part of the Chantry's strategy for keep mages contained.

Prior to the the destruction of the Kirkwall Chantry, it seems that this sort of thing is quite commonplace in most Circles. Not for most mages, of course. But for well-established Enchanters who have proven their magical competency, and most importantly their loyalty, certain privileges may be afforded. Thus, compliance is incentivized for any mages who might aspire to some limited but additional freedoms and are willing to toe the line to get them.

In most cases, these mages are still denied the rights of non-mages: to own property, to hold a title, to marry and raise a family. (Wilhelm is a notable exception to the latter, but this seems rare.) But a mage like Ines Arancia might be afforded the opportunity for field research and publication. A mage like Wynne or Finn might gain the prestige of traveling at the side of a hero. And a mage of ambition such as Severan, Wilhelm, or Vivienne might even attain the title of Court Enchanter, serving at the side of a King or an Empress (even if the title is in many cases purely ceremonial) and mingling with the court.

Here's a basic principle that is critical to understanding politics, real or fictional: most people are primarily concerned with the material wellbeing of themselves and their immediate loved ones. Many people will engage in various forms of activism in the hopes of improving conditions for themselves and others, but truly revolutionary activity is an extremely unappealing prospect for the average person most of the time. And it's not because they're callous or apathetic. It's because they have too much to lose. Revolution is bloody and horrific and sometimes necessary, but there are always heavy costs to be weighed against the potential (and by no means guaranteed) gains.

It is no accident that of the mages we meet and get to know personally, the ones with the most to say in support of the Circle are also the ones who have gained significant privileges within that system—and who therefore have the most to lose from an attempted rebellion which may not succeed. I have written before about the conversation between Wynne and the Warden in Awakening, in which Wynne expresses concerns about the College of Enchanters potentially voting to break away from the Circle. "The mages will never be free," she says. "The Chantry would never allow it. Our only hope for survival is to show them we can be trusted."

Notably, at this point in time, even Anders will agree that this is "madness" and "a recipe for disaster." Why would Anders, of all people, say this, given how adamant he is about his own freedom? Awakening Anders sums up what he wants out of life pretty well when he says, "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." He's being glib here, of course, and there's probably a lot more going on under the surface (we're given to understand later that Anders has always had a lot of anger at the Circle), but I do think it's accurate to say that at the moment he's mainly concerned with maintaining his own freedom. And while he and Wynne have very different opinions of the Circle generally, I think Anders doesn't at this time relish the thought of a full-scale war, with Templars roaming the land hunting renegade mages. You can see how that might actually make it harder for him to fly under the radar as an apostate.

Nearly a decade later, Vivienne will express her own opinions on the mage rebellion that is already well underway, calling it "A failure of perspective that infected Circle leadership." Unlike Wynne, Vivienne's objections are less about the unstoppable power of the Chantry and more about the attitudes the general population holds toward magic. "Kirkwall gave the world a reason to remember its fear of magic," she says. "A mage killed hundreds with a snap of their fingers. …By voting when they did, my colleagues all but declared war upon the ordinary people of Thedas, a war in which we are outnumbered a hundred to one." Vivienne's argument (if you take it at face value) is that the rebellion was poorly timed and generally unwise. "By all means, protest abuses by templars," she says. "Just don't do it in a way that suggests mages support wholesale murder."

Notice that Wynne does not say that mages shouldn't be free but that they won't be free. She does not say that bowing to Chantry oversight is the right thing to do but that it is mages' only hope for survival. Vivienne's objection (as stated, anyway; Vivienne’s motives are complicated and another post for another day) is not that the vote for independence supported murder but that it appeared to support murder. In these conversations, the argument is never really that mage rebellion is immoral, but that it is unwise, impolitic, bad optics, bad public relations, not smart.

A point on which even Anders once agreed.

And why would a full-scale mage rebellion look like the best option to Wynne and to Vivienne—to mages who have spent years and decades working to gain the respect and trust required to be granted the maximum amount of lenience the Circle allows? Why would they throw away what they have gained for a war they don't believe they can win?

If enough mages believe that compliance is a more reliable strategy than resistance, you won’t get the critical mass for a rebellion.

But even Wynne fights back when the Right of Annulment is invoked upon her Circle.

One of the most foolish things a ruler can do in terms of maintaining their own power is to allow conditions to deteriorate to the point where their subjects feel they have little or nothing left to lose. And that's exactly what happens in Kirkwall.

This is Knight-Commander Meredith's first mistake: she fails to positively reinforce compliance.

We get the sense that the Gallows was always a strict Circle. There's talk of the Knight-Commander's severity when Hawke first arrives, long before Meredith gets her hands on red lyrium. The kind of special dispensation that Wynne and Finn enjoy from the Fereldan Circle is likely far less common here.

There is some evidence that such things occur under Meredith, even post-lyrium-sword, however rare it may have been. Notably, if Bethany Hawke goes to the Circle, she is given permission to go with Hawke to the Vimmark Mountains, and to Chateau Haine. In terms of game mechanics, this is obviously done so that the player can have a bit more time with their sibling as a companion, and for the Legacy DLC specifically, the Carta has actually been breaking into the Circle trying to capture Bethany, so it does make some sense that Meredith would want that dealt with, enough to let Bethany go with Hawke to deal with it.

But Chateau Haine is purely a pleasure trip, and Bethany is still allowed not only to leave the Gallows, but to travel outside Kirkwall with her sibling. It would be very easy for her to run away if she chose, and she would have a solid head start on the templars pursuing her. Bethany has demonstrated herself a loyal Circle mage at this point, with no intention of escaping, but I think that's not all that's going on here.

Let's talk about Emile de Launcet.

In Act III, Hawke is given the task—or has their arm twisted, depending on how you're playing—of tracking down three runaway mages. The first two, Huon and Evelina, are a blood mage and an abomination respectively and attack, leaving Hawke no choice but to kill them. The third, however, is a man named Emile de Launcet, who reveals that having been in the Circle since he was six years old, he simply wanted to live a little. He also reveals that he himself spread the rumor that he is a blood mage, hoping that it would make him seem "dangerous" and therefore more attractive to women.

It's easy to write off Emile as simply a fool, but I think there's more going on here.

How does a man who has spent almost his entire life in the Gallows, who is well-acquainted with the Knight-Commander's policies, think that telling people he's a blood mage is a good idea? In Act III? By this point in the game, it is well known that Meredith is accusing anyone who sneezes of being a maleficar; most of the Circle mages live in terror of just such an accusation. What in the Maker's name could possibly make this man believe that labeling himself a blood mage wouldn't get him killed, or made Tranquil, never mind caught?

Unless Emile de Launcet, the son of rich Orlesian expats (the Comte and Comtess Guillaume and Dulci de Launcet) has always received more leniency in the Circle than the average mage.

Bethany Hawke, daughter of Lady Leandra Amell who has come home to reclaim her family estate, sister of the Champion who saved Kirkwall from Qunari invasion, seems to quickly decide that life in the Circle isn't so bad. Undoubtedly, a large amount of Bethany's relief is she doesn't have to hide anymore and be constantly protected by everyone around her, and she appreciates the opportunity to be around other mages. But she also says in party banter that "The idea of the Circle is much more terrifying than the reality of it." She frustrates Anders with her acceptance of her new life, and judging by Ella's words, Bethany seems to encourage the apprentices she mentors to accept theirs as well.

Bethany and Emile's experiences with the Circle do not fully reflect what we know of the Gallows, and I think that's because they're both from noble families. This is important for other reasons too, and we'll come back to it.

But for now, what's worth noting is that the only examples we have of Meredith's leniency are for political expediency and accidents of birth rather than actively rewarding compliance.

I think it’s safe to say that even before things escalate to all mages confined to their quarters, not a lot of mages in the Kirkwall Circle are going out on leave for botanical studies. But as her paranoia deepens due to her exposure to red lyrium, as she begins to see blood magic and demons around every corner and in every person, Meredith stops rewarding compliance at all. There are no “good mages” and “bad mages”; there are only mages, not a one of whom can be trusted. Fewer and fewer privileges are afford to any mages in the Gallows, until eventually it is clear that all mages will be punished simply for being mages. There is no incentive for "good" behavior.

That's how you brew a rebellion, kids!

And when she invokes the Right of Annulment, not one of those mages has anything left to lose.

I am far from the first person to point out that Anders spends his first seven years in Kirkwall attempting to change things for the mages by relatively nonviolent means. He wins massive goodwill from Kirkwall’s lower classes with his medical clinic in Darktown. He appeals to the upper classes the only way he can reach them, through his impassioned writings on mage freedom. (And the upper class is a critical piece of the puzzle here, but we’ll come back to that.) He works with an organized Mage Underground to rescue as many individual mages from the Circle as possible.

But by Act III, the Mage Underground has been completely dismantled, and ambient dialogue in the Gallows tells us that Meredith has confined all mages to their quarters and has already sent for the Right of Annulment, well before Anders takes his final action. She has yet to actually receive permission, and we cannot know whether she actually would have, but given that Divine Justinia has already threatened an Exalted March on Kirkwall through her Left Hand, it doesn't seem out of the question that Meredith's request would be granted so long as she provided the Divine with a plausible excuse. It is also very possible that in the absence of a reply, Meredith simply would have invented an excuse to invoke the Right without waiting for permission (given that she does exactly that after the Chantry explosion), and it's likely that is exactly what Anders—and every mage in the Circle—fears will happen.

And had that happened, every mage in the Gallows would have been locked in their quarters, alone, when templars came to their door to kill them.

By destroying the Chantry when he does, Anders provokes Meredith to invoke the Right of Annulment without waiting for Chantry permission, but critically he also does so in such a way that the mages have advance warning of their sentence. They have time to gather and organize, to fight back, to allow at least some of them to survive. Anders has broader goals for a mage rebellion, absolutely—goals which may or may not be met. But his immediate goal is to give the mages in the Gallows a chance to survive. And he does succeed in giving them that chance, regardless of what happens after. He also kills hundreds of people, many of them not templars or clerics but simply citizens of Kirkwall caught in the fallout—many of them undoubtedly lower-class citizens of Lowtown, including elves in the alienage. (The collateral damage is canon, and not just per dialogue in Inquisition; you can see flaming debris raining down over the place where Hawke is standing in Lowtown after Anders sets off the explosion, and Lowtown is on fire as you make your way to the docks, so this really isn't a point I'm interested in arguing.)

Whether Anders’ actions are morally justified, what kind of collateral damage is justifiable in the process of liberating an oppressed people, ultimately comes down to a trolley problem; I’m not going to get into that here and I’d appreciate it if people would refrain from having that argument on this post. What I do hope to demonstrate here is that something like what Anders does is the predictable and inevitable outcome of conditions deteriorating and abuses escalating for a subjugated people until there is quite literally nothing left for them to lose.

That is, in my opinion, Meredith's biggest and most obvious mistake. But there are two other failures that contribute to her downfall, and which I believe would eventually have led to her being removed from power.

The Absent Puppet

Following the failed Qunari invasion, Meredith increasingly alienates the nobility of Kirkwall.

There is an excellent post by @mllemaenad analyzing Elthina’s strategy for “mediating” the mage-templar crisis in Kirkwall and maintaining her own power. This post touches on Meredith’s second and third mistakes in several facets and it's also a fantastic analysis of Elthina's character that really helped me to understand her; I'd highly recommend reading it.

I have on occasion sees the nobles' opposition to Meredith read as support for mage freedom. I strongly disagree; that is not what’s going on here. This is apparent if you’ve played both the templar and the mage endings of DA2 and paid attention to the epilogue slides. Hawke can actually become the next viscount of Kirkwall—but only if Hawke sides with the templars.

The nobility on the whole do not want the Circle abolished. They are not interested in opposing the Chantry outright; when Elthina "gently" sends them home after Orsino's speech, they all comply. They were even willing to tolerate blatant Chantry puppet Marlowe Dumar as Viscount. Let's be clear here, the Chantry has ruled Kirkwall in all but name since the deposition of Perrin Threnhold. The nobles know this. (Even the random nobody city guard Hawke speaks to at the beginning of the game knows this; it's the worst-kept secret in Kirkwall.) So long as there is a noble ass on the throne, the Chantry maintains at least the appearance of a "proper" social order, and the nobles are willing to live with that because it does not overly inconvenience their lives, and as established previously, their own mage children will receive some leniency in the otherwise strict Circle.

Meredith openly seizing control of the city is a bridge too far. The Knight-Commander cannot rule the city outright; this is not how things are done. The nobles want to unseat Meredith, but they do not want a rearranging of the social order as they know it. That means a functioning Circle of Magi that keeps the mages contained over there, where they don't have to think about them, and a proper noble ruling the city at least in name. They do not want a coup by an anti-Circle radical. If Hawke fights with the mages, the nobles will not support Hawke as Viscount. But a pro-templar Hawke by the end of the game has accomplished what the nobles want. They have removed Meredith from power, while demonstrating to a city that still fears magic that they will continue to keep mages subjugated.

The Chantry and the nobility are always deeply intertwined, but the Chantry in Kirkwall has a particular stranglehold on the city’s civil government, more so than in other nations. That the nobility have been pushed to the point of opposing Meredith at all speaks to how gravely she has fucked up.

Chantry Authority

And finally, as MlleMaenad aptly explains in the post linked above, Meredith has alienated her superior in the Chantry, Grand Cleric Elthina—in part because she has stopped playing the game they both once implicitly agreed to. Her abuses of power have become too public. She has agitated the mages to the point that her First Enchanter is out protesting in the streets. In Hightown. She has alienated the nobility and turned public opinion against her. And that makes the Chantry look bad in turn. It makes Elthina look bad. If nothing else, it makes Elthina look like she (and by extension the Chantry) no longer has control over the Circle, and that’s a big problem. Elthina deftly distracts everyone from this problem by pretending to be a third-party mediator between the mages and templars instead of the person holding jurisdiction over all of them. But the conflict spilling into the streets of Hightown is a big problem for her.

As detailed by MlleMaenad, Elthina has no problem with what Meredith has been doing to the mages. She does have a problem with Meredith ranting and raving about how mages should be made an example in public, in front of the nobility—some of whom have family members in the Circle. (Again, this is why Hawke meeting Emile de Launcet is so important. This is why you have to talk to his parents, so that there can be no mistake about who he is.)

My one quibble with the excellent post linked above (and it’s largely a semantic quibble and not a practical one) is the statement that Elthina has no morals. I would argue that from Elthina’s perspective she has a very strong moral code—one that demands she defend the authority of the Chantry against all threats and at any cost, including the cost of her own life. Which is exactly what she does.

Multiple times, Elthina can be warned of the danger to her life if she stays in Kirkwall (once in Sebastian’s DLC sidequest “Faith,” and once if Hawke chooses to warn her about whatever Anders is planning). In both cases, she refuses to leave. “I am Grand Cleric,” she says. “Who would dare attack me?”

It’s easy to look at Elthina as simply overconfident, and I certainly agree that there’s an arrogance to her personality and the way she handles things in Kirkwall. But I’m not actually sure that her death is a political failure. I don’t mean that she wants to die, or that somehow she plans to. But to leave Kirkwall to protect herself would show weakness—not only in herself as an individual, but in the institution she represents. In refusing to flee from danger, and in dying for that decision, Elthina makes herself a martyr for the faithful. And in doing so, she probably sways a few people who might have at least sympathized with the mages to oppose the rebellion more harshly than they might otherwise have done.

That death, that martyrdom, serves as a pretty effective distraction from the fact that Meredith, whose actions made something like Anders’ actions inevitable, is Elthina’s problem to begin with. Indirectly, Meredith has become a threat to the Chantry’s power over Kirkwall, and she cannot be easily replaced without a tacit admission that Elthina has already failed to maintain control of her own Knight-Commander. If Elthina’s end goal is to maintain the power of the Chantry over Kirkwall at any cost, standing her ground to the point of martyrdom isn’t a bad gambit. It’s bad for Elthina herself, of course, but for the Chantry? Grief over her loss brings sympathy for her side and aid from Starkhaven by Sebastian’s hand, thus maintaining a Chantry presence in Kirkwall after the disaster and reinforcing the very useful image of the Chantry as a charitable organization, cruelly destroyed by a madman.

That’s a powerful narrative, and Elthina’s choices help create it.

But it only becomes necessary in the first place because Meredith, after years of success, is failing to maintain her power—in part, thanks to the arrival of an outside variable that no one could have foreseen, the red lyrium that pushed her existing paranoia to the breaking point.

Had Anders not destroyed the Chantry, the Meredith Problem would only have continued to escalate. At some point Elthina would have had no choice but to remove her from power, because the damage to Chantry authority of allowing her to continue would outweigh the damage of removing her. There are conceivably ways Elthina could go about this indirectly, giving the appearance that the Knight-Commander had been killed by a rebellious noble or even a blood mage, thereby avoiding any official admission of failure by the Chantry. Her priority would not be to replace Meredith with someone more lenient, but rather with someone able and willing to play the game, the same one she and Meredith played so well together before Meredith went off the rails. Keep the nobility complacent and the underclasses powerless. Maintain the balance. Protect the Chantry’s authority at all costs.

It would likely be quite troublesome to arrange, and Elthina thus far has been loathe to do it, but I don’t doubt that she would do it if she had no choice. And given what we have seen of Divine Justina and how she operates (see also: @v-arbellanaris’s excellent meta series on Justinia and particularly part 3) I feel confident saying that Justinia’s message to Elthina in “Faith” is both a warning and a threat: Get your city and your Circle under control or I will do it for you.

I also think that Sebastian, whose entire character exists at the intersection of Chantry and noble politics, realizes this, hence his urging Hawke to downplay the situation in Kirkwall to convince the Divine that her intervention is not necessary. For all Sebastian’s faults, at this point in his arc he really is concerned with preventing needless bloodshed, but he also cares very much about Elthina, whom he sees as kind of a mother figure. Sebastian is no fool; he can read between the lines and understand that if Justinia feels compelled to intervene against Elthina’s wishes, there will be no protection for Elthina.

Justinia’s suggestion that Elthina leave Kirkwall isn’t simply concern for her life should open war break out in the city; it’s also giving her a kind of third option, an "out”: if Elthina leaves Kirkwall of her own free will, she is signaling to the Divine that she does not have things under control and is willingly accepting Justinia’s intervention. This will irreparably damage Elthina’s reputation politically but it might save her life. In refusing to leave, Elthina is also declaring to her superior, “Your intervention is not necessary. I have this under control.”

She does not have it under control, and at some point she’s going to have to deal with that. As she answers to the Divine, Meredith answers to her. Elthina will not maintain her own power if she cannot maintain control of those under her and keep the support of those above her. Meredith is in the same position, just one step down. Neither of them are actually succeeding. This wing of the house of cards is set to collapse, one way or another. (And it’s arguable that Justinia isn’t actually succeeding either, but that is, again, another post.) All that remains to be seen is who will survive the collapse.

Conclusions

This is why Knight-Commander Meredith's actions lead to Kirkwall being the first Circle to fall. She fails to reward compliance and allows conditions to deteriorate too far; she oversteps her bounds and alienates the nobility; and she is even beginning to run afoul of Chantry authority itself. By Act III, Meredith’s regime is doomed.

Which is not to say that I think a mage rebellion actually getting off the ground is inevitable. On the contrary—even given Meredith’s downfall, things could have gone very differently had certain characters acted differently at various points. Had Elthina actually chosen to leave Kirkwall, tacitly inviting an Exalted March on the city, I think things would have gone very differently. Had the conspiring nobles managed to remove Meredith from power before things came to head as they did, things might have gone very differently. And had Anders not chosen that desperate yet still strategic moment to attack the Chantry, thus setting off not only the Kirkwall annulment and rebellion, and subsequently the locking down of Circles all over Thedas, thus pushing more and more mages toward open defiance, things might have gone very differently. Had Justinia herself taken different actions, not taken others, responded differently to the escalating tensions, things might have gone very differently.

Meredith’s actions, however, make some kind of dramatic shake-up of Chantry power inevitable. I think it’s even possible to see this collapse as the long-term result of previous Divine Beatrix III overstepping her bounds, upsetting the careful political balance between Chantry and nobility when she effectively engineered a Chantry takeover of a major city-state; that situation was likely unsustainable in the long term, and we are now seeing the fallout of it. What form this inevitable shake-up takes, and its ultimate outcome, depends on the actions of many other characters.

So why write all of this? Because I think Meredith’s rule and her downfall is a fascinating study in power. Beneath the fantasy elements, there’s an understanding in her narrative of how tyrants and autocrats rule, how they maintain power and also how they lose it. And these stories about power and power dynamics are some of my favorite elements of the Dragon Age series.

The same principles also apply to various other rulers in Dragon Age… but that’s another post for another day.

[dragonageconfessions]

CONFESSION:

I always wondered why they made the Divine so old in Inquisition. A pretty big character feature of Justinia in Asunder was that she was a lot younger than what was normally picked for Divine - obviously she didn't need to be some young 20-something, but it seemed to me that she was young enough that that fact alone was controversial, like a new generation rising up to make new changes amid older, less flexible people. Like, 40s or so. So seeing her as this extremely old woman in Inquisition in what would only be a year or two after asunder was a little jarring when I first saw it.