#without them qun society would be devastated

[ne0ncowb0y]

This is exactly why I don't like Vivienne but I love her as a character. She's a soft core of contradiction to the armour she's woven around herself to survive. She can't help but to end up caring for the people around her with all of their flaws and cracks in the shiny surfaces of their many facets of existence mirroring her own inscrutable heart and past right back at her. Even the people playing the great game at Skyhold have too much of themselves involved in everything they do, she can't help but to see that sincerity and admire it in the quiet way she does. She tries to teach the companions to protect and guard those hearts the way she had to, with her hard edge and icy demeanour.

Madame De Fer. The Iron Lady, indeed.

god. Vivienne really is just. that character. She is taken to the circle so young she does not remember what her parents even looked like and someone had to tell her. She wouldn’t even know if they were telling the truth. She is ruthless, the terror and nightmare of the Orlesian court. She almost weeps when you find the Tranquil skulls in Redcliffe. She hates drop waists. She is harrowed younger than any other mage in living memory. She teaches Bull the steps to the dance of the six candles. He likens her to a Qunari dreadnought that has half the enemies on the ground before he’s even reached the front line. Her accent’s not Orlesian. No Free Marcher can tell where she is from either. Is her original voice another part of herself she cut off? She enchanted a duke within one meeting and they scandalised even Orlesian society. She was good friends with his wife. They possibly fucked too. No can control her. She’s been owned since the moment she was first brought to the Circle. She belongs to no people. There are a dozen leashes around her neck claiming otherwise. She makes fun of an elven god for setting his coattails on fire.  She is on the verge of banishing Cole back to the Fade all the time. She can’t help but grow to care for him at the end despite her best efforts to pretend otherwise. She hates herself for it. She thinks caring makes you weak. During the first conversation you have with her unmasked as a Trevelyan, she begs to know if you also cared about her childhood friend, Lydia. She tries to import illegal fur into Skyhold. Did she kill everything soft within her soul herself or did the Chantry sisters do it for her? She is impossible to prank. Some might say she’s even better than Sera at pranking. She was pulled into the game by the time she was nineteen. She’d faced worse things since she could first remember her dreams. Life has never been fair. One merely needs to be hard enough to survive. The blade at her neck when she lay on the floor of the harrowing chamber was no different from the hunger in her belly as child, a necessary pain that only drove her forward. Maker, was there ever any chance that she did not see cruelty as simply another word for life? Is there any version of her that does not end up surrounded by moral filth? 

[senseandaccountability]

If you'll take another one from the poetry prompts, how about #50 (“With a memory all fragmented but inclined to miracles”)?

Small secret spaces  Iron Bull’s Tamassran reflects on the boy she raised.  Also on AO3: here

This is soft, okay? I’m soft for tiny babies and their not-mothers. * * *

They call her Aqun, a nickname that sticks through the years, though to all the children in her care, her flock of imekari, she is Tama. Tama with the stories, with the stern reprimands, with the cool hands in the middle of a sweaty nightmare. Some of the women work with paper and quill, some with breeding administration, yet some can be found in the temples and the hospital wings tending to those with the broken minds that qamak leaves behind. She has friends that re-educate and friends that deal with nothing but death, its final stages, its remains, its practical matters. Aqun considers herself lucky that her place is to work at the other end of things. Imekari are life, messy, brutal life that shakes her up every day, at every turn. It keeps her awake, it smashes her heart open. She will lose them. She will lose them all, but some will carry pieces of her with them as they go; it’s a thought that sits well with her, a flash of pride that she allows herself. A Tamassran’s job is to evaluate and educate; she isn’t meant to have favourites but she always has. She considers it a rebellion, a reward, or both. * Ashkaari is a big baby, arrives loud and dark-haired and screams for half a day when they place him in her arms. He’s the genealogical product of a Sten, now lost to glorious battle, asit tal-eb, and a re-educator nicknamed Asta though Aqun does not know this. The Tamassrans in charge of recording never show her the notes of the children given to her house. It would cloud her judgement, upset the scales. Aptitude triumphs over inheritance, as it must in any civilized society. Because he will not settle at night she rubs his back and stomach, sings to him to drown the screaming. He is meant to cry it out, they all are; infancy is a test, one of her old instructors echoes in her memory. But Aqun’s head hurts from listening, so she sings. A made-up song of a made-up nug, the king of all nugs, living in a cave. She feeds him another bottle of milk, mutters a rhyme she vaguely recalls from her own childhood and places her mouth against the crown of his head. A snug little nug, small as a bug. The baby looks at her, blinks, and falls asleep. The warm weight of him in her arms, the softness to his mouth, his tiny fists against her palm. That swelling in her chest, its terrible gentleness. The Qunari don’t have motherhood; she understands why.

* The streets boil in the afternoon heat but the heart of the classroom is cooled by heavy stone and clever architecture. Some of the smaller children shiver as they huddle over the letters, painstakingly forming them with mouth and quills. Baqo sits near Ashkaari and Vasaad, one head shorter than the boys but her mind is sharper, her feet faster, her capacity for mischief endless. They love her, magnificently; Vasaad and Ashkaari would both lay down their lives for the troublemaker with the red eyes. Words have always wielded themselves easily out of her,  her mind is strong and supple and she makes up stories where the Qun ends, follows its logical conclusions into tales of dragons and war, of ancient times and endless knowledge. “Tell me about the green dragons in the desert again,” Ashkaari implores, big and towering but gentle, his hands shields rather than weapons. He’s apt at storytelling himself, prone to the fantastic and the untrue. Vasaad heeds them both, moving around them like a protector.

Tama allows them slices of freedom when she can. Moments of play, of pretends. Soon enough they reach their true calling and get scattered across the North but days like today, there are green dragons and friendship, willfully blind eyes and make-believe. *

The Arvaarad comes for Baqo only months later, in the middle of the day, as the other children make equations and build models. Four men march in and lift her up, without a word. Her eyes are wide with fear, her mouth open in a silent scream and Vasaad holds Ashkaari back - or perhaps it’s the other way around, perhaps it will never truly matter. They are two now where they used to be three. Aqun shoves the children back into the classroom, hands on their shoulders, their backs. Herding them like cattle. It’s not a bad metaphor; cattle, too, are meant to serve. “She will serve the Qun with honour,” she tells Ashkaari; his eyes are narrow and dark. “She has found her purpose,” she tells Vasaad who stares back at her, his lower lip trembling. They do not cry over saarebas, she reminds them. They do not cry over finding one’s place, wherever and however that place may appear. The one who was called Baqo takes the chains, takes the stitches and Aqun thinks she can feel them, every single one. 

*

The one who was called Ashkaari becomes Hissrad, becomes a grown man so tall and broad of shoulder that Aqun ages a decade just looking at him. He still calls her Tama, still comes by to see her though he has no reason for it anymore. She tells him this once and he scoffs. They share a mindset, she knows, a flair for the inappropriate, a disregard for the brutality of absolute truths. Some days she thinks that it is her greatest failing that she has allowed it to slip into him, a poison in his soul. 

* She learns that Hissrad has been given command. That he’s tracking down Tal-Vashoth. That he’s transferred to Seheron. What an honour, she says to everyone who needs to hear it. Basks in the knowledge that she had been right, that she had seen the boy’s cleverness behind those fists, the sharp wit inside the body of a warrior. The other Tamassrans nod and tut, the way they do. All of them know there is also regret, unspoken, treacherous regret for every name they put down on the lists for the positions that will take their imekari far away, into danger and death. The one that was called Ashkaari, who slept soft-faced and defenseless in her arms when no one was looking, takes the orders he is given and Aqun thinks she can feel them, every single one, the devastation of them rattling inside her chest. * Once, he comes to visit.  He’s in Par Vollen, temporarily liberated of the burdens of Seheron, his face cut in stone but his embrace is tight and warm and Aqun smiles into the crook of his neck when he lifts her up from the ground. He’s brought cocoa beans and spices; she makes supper and refrains from staring at him like an overbearing old Tama. They don’t speak much at all; he stays the rest of the day. * Once, in the Viddathlok of Qunandar, she sees him when he has returned. He’s shipped from the island of asala-taar like a caged beast, rumour has it; he arrives in chains and is accompanied by soldiers on each side of him. The gossip is unremorseful, crisp, but it tastes of ashes. They had found him surrounded by so many dead they had lost count. That’s a lie, Aqun knows, they always count. The Qun is nothing if not a balance. Ashkaari who used to fear demons, his teeth clattering in the dark, his hands tugging at hers. They get inside your mind, he says. I don’t know how to hit things that live in my head. Hissrad who spends two months with the re-educators but they refuse his request for qamak. It’s partly her fault that they send him off, his faith broken and his mind all fragmented but inclined to miracles. The one that got away. * The one who was called Hissrad becomes the Iron Bull and Aqun first hears it in the queue outside the baker, waiting for her daily bread, then from an agent with red eyes and a hoarse voice. 

She hears it and all the way home, her heart hammers the rhythm of the words. He got away, he got away. The Ben-Hassrath agents frown over her, towering like conquerors before a bas and Aqun looks them in the eyes and says: “yes, I failed. I should have seen. He was unfit for the job. I will do better, allow me to make amends.” Says it, while she thinks run, Ashkaari, there is much to struggle against, you always knew. There’s a note, deep and low, singing of her own defiance and she thinks one of the agents can hear it because he holds her gaze for so long Aqun begins to prepare for her own re-education. Then he lets her go. She’s old, she’s beginning to lose her rough edges and her patience shrinks with every passing day, they don’t count on her to rectify her mistake; they let her go. They will go after him instead. * Years later, she hears the news in the streets outside the market. This time, no one deems her in a position to have the reports so she has to make do with gossip. They tell her the attack that Par Vollen loudly condemns while sending resources to Orlais, sneaking ships and coin past all boundaries, has been a failure. That the Inquisition still has the Tal-Vashoth in their midst, that he had not listened to reason or respected the chain of command. They tell her the Viddasala’s direct orders had been refused by the one they once called Hissrad. Nothing but a savage now. His soul is dust. He’s lost.  The words sound like curses but they fall like relief in Aqun’s chest, fall like tears on her aging hands that used to hold him. She has educated her last flock of imekari, told her last batch of night time stories. They have been so many, her body is full of their voices, their faces, their nicknames. She has been theirs. Some of them, like Ashkaari, have been hers. She will lose them all but some will carry pieces of her as they go and she has given him her heart, as much of it as he has ever dared to give and loved him in all the small, secret spaces she was never allowed.

[thereluctantinquisitor]

Oooh my goodness... Maraas Is absolute eyecandy. What are some cool facts about him? Does he keep his hair like that when he’s in the heat of combat? What’s his preferred comfort clothes? What LI did you chose for him? (If he has an in game LI)

Cool facts about dis boy right here? Okay… let’s see…

His real name is Imekari (child). His parents sent him away from Seheron after he manifested at nine years old for fear of him being made into a Saarebas. 

He chose the name Maraas when he turned twelve specifically because it was the opposite of how he felt about himself. It was meant to be a bit of a screw you to the Qun, which expected him to define himself based on his role/worth in society.

He keeps his hair braided in combat, although sometimes coils it into a bun when shit is really going down. Maraas is very proud of his luscious locks, and the thought of someone managing to grab it and cut it off mid-fight would be devastating!

Maraas prefers comfort clothes 90% of the time, so he rarely has a different outfit for lazing around/travelling. The only thing he will add are hard leathers for protection, or maybe a chainmail shirt. But at Skyhold he’s just in a loose (usually half open) shirt and breeches, and a pair of soft leather boots. He might add a cloak if it’s snowing, but he rarely feels cold.

He’s quite lean for a Qunari, so he prefers to be light on his feet, mostly because his opponents don’t seem to expect it. 

His staff is bladed, more like a glaive, and he rarely uses magic for fear of being detected. The Valo-kas trained him to also fight without magic because very few people took kindly to a Vashoth mercenary group, yet alone one harbouring an apostate. As a result, he is proficient at both magic and non-magic combat, but is outclassed by anyone who has specialised in one or the other. 

Maraas’ number one fear is being taken and made into a Saarebas. It is the one thing that will send him into a pure panic. He is mostly brave, but if faced with that threat, he will run and never look back. The first time he saw a Saarebas was at seven years old, and he still has nightmares about the chained, stitched, hornless creature that could have so easily been him.

He has no love interest, but lots of flings and one-night stands. A part of him is afraid to settle down because of his status as a runaway mage. As he likes to say, the Qunari don’t like losing what they believe is theirs, and he is nothing more than valuable property to them. But that’s not to say he wouldn’t commit to the right person, if they came along.

Otherwise, Maraas is very free with his affections.He’s confident and charismatic, and makes a point not to put people down unless they really deserve it. If someone impresses him, he’ll let them know. In the end, he doesn’t see the harm in making people feel good about themselves, especially when so many find that hard to do.

He is generally well-liked, although not particularly well-known. Sometimes he’ll tell stories of his days with the Valo-kas, but if people pry too deep into his personal or family life, he tends to deflect or otherwise change the subject. Given he largely keeps his magic a secret (particularly his blood magic), his past is not really something he wants to get into.

For more information, his character page is HERE ;)

[laurelsofhighever]

Mages and Warfare in Thedas

This ramble emerged out of @natachimikotsu‘s post on how mages might use physical skills to augment their magic in battle, and as always, I spent far too much time thinking about it. Maybe someone will find it useful?

Every point here has been sourced from canon lore, i.e. the three games, World of Thedas, the novels and comics, and the codex entries listed in the Dragon Age wiki, and I’ve tried to provide exact locations for examples where possible. Any speculation is based in things we know from canon sources. Lots of bullet points ahead, because I’m lazy. 

In the world of Dragon Age, we see the value of mages in combat from the perspective of the individual, and come to understand the strengths and weaknesses of magic when fighting alone or as part of a small group. Mages are effective fighters and the range of their powers is vast, and even without specialisations the powers they are able to call upon can be devastating for their enemies. Because of the effective and flexible nature of this power, all major Thedosian militaries have incorporated mages into their ranks, and this has led to the development of various offensive and defensive magical techniques which vary by culture and requirement, depending on the status of mages in society at large.

Magic vs non-magic in Thedosian warfare

Even before the First Blight, large scale fighting forces that incorporated the talents of mages had a distinct advantage over those that did not, for several reasons:

·        Mages can call on elemental, entropic, and chaotic forces that are hard to counter without special training, such as those given to templars (Inquisition: The Iron Bull revealing he know Cullen was a templar by how he holds his shield). These powers are capable of large-scale destruction even without specialised training (World of Thedas vol. 2: ‘Meredith’).

·        Mages can create enchanted objects that enhance the wielder’s offensive potential and create an advantage against opponents who don’t have access to such crafts (Juggernaut armour, Maric’s sword – an extreme example is Fenris).

·        Depending on ability, mages can be deployed as either front line or support fighters, making them versatile additions to an army, which can then use a wider range of strategies.

·        Blood magic, although of limited use on a battlefield due to the extreme physical demands on the caster, is a very effective method of bolstering an army’s momentum, either through the control of demons-as-soldiers to wear down and terrify enemy forces (Aurelian Titus in Until We Sleep), or as a way of increasing a mage’s own power through the sacrifice of others (such as prisoners from previous battles) (Origins: Uldred and the other blood mages in Kinloch Hold).

The spread of the Tevinter Imperium as far south as Ferelden is testament to the effectiveness of mages in battle (World of Thedas vol. 2: ‘Legend of the Juggernaut’ – also a codex entry in Origins), but with the rise of Andrastianism in the aftermath of the First Blight, the magocracy of Tevinter was challenged by growing suspicion and hatred of magic in the nations outside its heartlands, partly due to the creation of the Blights, and partly as a reaction against Tevinter control (World of Thedas vol. 1: ‘The Imperial Chantry’). It is possible that the special mana-purging techniques of the Templars were developed both as a way to control mages within Chantry-controlled borders, and as a precaution against a second Tevinter expansion by the magisters of the Imperium.

Whether or not the Imperium would have tried to regain its lands is a moot point. The beginning of the Second Blight at the start of the Divine Age led to a shift in the way mages were viewed by the Chantry, with their power coming to be recognised as an essential tool in the fight against the darkspawn, and on the battlefield in general (World of Thedas vol. 1: ‘The Circle of Magi’). The Orlesian Emperor Drakon I established the Circle of Magi as a way to both train mages for war and to contain them in times of peace. Whether intentional or not, this act held several benefits for the Orlesian Chantry, which persisted until the start of the mage rebellion in the Dragon Age:

·        It gave them a magical arsenal great enough to rival any challenge by Tevinter.

·        It allowed the Chantry to control how and what mages learned, developing specialisations that, while powerful, were of little use when pitted against the mana-draining abilities of templars, thereby making it easier to deal with any uprisings that did occur.

·        Concentrating mage numbers in turn meant that each Circle could have a dedicated number of templars in one place, essentially a miniature army that could be quickly mobilised in the event of rebellion or rogue mages. It also meant that templars would have a numbers advantage against any mage practicing unsanctioned magic, and made other forms or contro, such as phylacteries, easier to enforce (World of Thedas vol. 1: ‘The Annulment at Dairsmuid’ – also a codex entry in Inquisition; Inquisition codex entry ‘Phylacteries’).

·        It also meant the Chantry could control the flow of information to the mages in order to ensure obedience. This would have come in two forms still practiced in the Dragon Age: first, in the use of Andrastian doctrine to reinforce the idea that the outside world is dangerous for mages (Origins: Conversation with Wynne recounting how she set a boy’s hair on fire: “Village folk have little love for witches like us.”). Promoting the Circle as a safe haven was even more effective once it became common practice to take mages from their families as young children. Secondly, the Chantry could restrict communication about matters such as the Rite of Annulment, which has the added bonus of preventing mages forming any kind of long-term, centralised opposition to the Circles (DA2: Anders gets suspicious about Kirkwall when Karl suddenly stops writing to him).

·        Removing mages from general society made it easier for the Chantry to spread fear of magic among the common people (World of Thedas, vol. 1: ‘The imperial Chantry: the Schism’; ‘Chantry Beliefs’; World of Thedas vol. 2: existence of The True Threat of Magic on a list of Chantry-approved books). With magic is now ‘othered’, the Chantry’s teachings about the place of magic in society was legitimised, creating a self-perpetuating cycle wherein the threat of mages is a unifying force for the people: the Chantry is seen as the bulwark standing between safety and the dangers of magic (whether that danger came from Tevinter magisters threatening slavery or from ‘abominations-in-waiting’ depending on what was most convenient at the time) (DA2: Cullen’s comments on mages and magic).

·        Othering mages also justifies the view that they are somehow less than human, and therefore deserving of violence perpetrated against them (DA2: Ser Alrik’s ‘Tranquil Solution’). The ultimate benefit for the Chantry here is the perpetuation of the idea that Circle is designed to protect mages from the fear in the outside world, thus making them more willing participants in their imprisonment.

In short, what the Chantry gained from the Circles was a readily available arsenal entirely under their control that could be called on whenever needed, and pointed against whatever target they wished. The often brutal methods used to control Circle mages, including the Harrowing and the Rites of Tranquility and Annulment were permissible because, owing to the inherent magical potential in all living beings, there were always more mages to replace those lost, and the systems of control placed on mages meant that there was little they could do to change their situation.

Saarebas

The opposition between the Chantry and the Qun is interesting regarding the matter of mages. Both believe that magic is inherently dangerous, both have seen the damage that can be wrought by unchecked magic (through contact with the Tevinter Imperium) and both seek to control their mage population through a combination of doctrine and physical restraints (DA2 Shepherding Wolves quest; Trespasser). The harsher treatment of Saarebas to Circle mages probably boils down to three factors, however.

First, the nature of the Qun itself, which suggests that every living thing has an assigned place, without regard to individual preference (Inquisition: Conversations with The Iron Bull; Origins: Conversations with Sten). Magic by its nature is dangerous and deceiving, and therefore the role of any creature possessing magical talent must be as a weapon wielded by another (DA2: Avaarad in Shepherding Wolves quest). This is made worse when you consider the way magic might manifest in Qunari children. After all, it has been well documented in Chantry nations that children often try to hide their abilities with magic for fear of being labelled as a sinner and taken away from their families (World of Thedas vol. 2: ‘Meredith’; Inquisition: Chateau d’Onterre quest), so that when the power finally becomes too great to control, it often has dramatic and damaging consequences – how much worse must it be for a Qunari child, who sees a Saarebas and knows that if they reveal their magic, their fate is to be bound and blindfolded with their horns cut off and their lips sewn shut?

Second, the Qunari do not have the same need of mages in ordinary battle as do the armies in southern Thedas. Their military technology evolved along a different trajectory, developing chemical-based weapons such as gaatlok or saar-qamek that could be easily manufactured, did not require training or upkeep, and has similar destructive effects to mage abilities (DA2: Blackpowder Courtesy quest). For this reason, the Qunari have no need for a force of mages, and Saarebas are only used in situations where other incendiaries are impractical.

Aside from that, however, is the fact that the Qunari have never faced a Blight (Origins: Sten’s Beresaad came to Ferelden in order to gather intelligence about Blights for the Qun). As mentioned above, the place of mages in Southern Thedas was secured because the range of their powers is effective at countering darkspawn attacks. And darkspawn just Keep. Coming.

With no such overwhelming enemy in the north, and no need to prepare against future Blights, there is no need for Saarebas to be trained to the same levels of sophistication required of Circle mages. They are, simply put, weapons like any other, to be maintained and turned against the enemy to do the maximum amount of damage possible. We haven’t yet seen enough Saarebas of in the games to note whether there are different specialisations within their overarching class, but given the prerogative of the Viddasala to destroy magic (Trespasser), and the distrust with which the Fade is viewed under the Qun (Inquisition: The Iron Bull in Here Lie the Abyss quest), it is likely there hasn’t been enough research done on magical abilities to allow for the development of specialisations, let alone something like a Spirit Healer.

The Chantry: the Glory Age to the Dragon Age

In the aftermath of the Third Blight, the growing political rivalry between the Orlesian and Imperial branches of the Chantry came to a head after Emperor Kordillus Drakon of Orlais declared Divine Justinia I head of the Andrastian faith. Both empires gained massive territories following the retreat of the darkspawn, as smaller states such as Nevarra recovered slowly from the effects of the Blight, leaving only each other (and Seheron to the north) as any form of political challenge. In order to prevent the Imperium from taking over the Free Marches, the Orlesian Chantry called an Exalted March on Starkhaven (World of Thedas, vol. 1: ‘The Imperial Chantry: The Schism’). We don’t know that mages were definitely involved in the war because there are no records of it in the games, but considering the advantage mages give to an army and the fact that the Exalted March was against the Imperium, which certainly had magisters in its ranks, we can assume they were.

The march on Starkhaven came roughly the same time that the Orlesian Chantry started to promote the story of the Blight’s origin in Tevinter, creating a propaganda campaign that painted all mages not under Chantry control as blood mages and abominations. This strategy was directly targeted against Tevinter magisters and the Imperial Chantry, who allowed mages into its higher ranks, and laid the groundwork for the public view of mages in Southern Thedas that persisted into the Dragon Age (Canticle of Transfigurations: 2; World of Thedas vol. 1: ‘Chantry Beliefs’). Setting themselves up as the champions of that cause, the Orlesian Chantry managed to do several things:

·        Mobilised ordinary citizens to reject Tevinter advances into the Free Marches.

·        Controlled the narrative surrounding blood mages in order to consolidate the legitimacy of the Circle as ordinary people became more suspicious of magic users, and mages themselves became more fearful of blood mages.

·        Discouraged mages from defecting to the magocracy of the Imperium, taking their military specialisations with them and bolstering the power of Tevinter.

However, the Schism between the Imperium and Orlais also had negative consequences, in that Tevinter now had a legitimate excuse to wage war on the south. This was especially dangerous given the voices within the Imperium that have always called for a return to the old glory days of the empire before the Blights (Inquisition: Dorian’s comments on the Venatori). Repeated Exalted Marches into Tevinter made very little headway, but should Tevinter decide to ever invade properly – or if the war with the Qunari ever ceased – the Chantry needed a response.

This response came in the form of the mages it locked away in the Circles. Although training mages to control their magic had a dual benefit of keeping the mages occupied and allowing more extensive study of the Fade, most of the techniques learned were (and still are) of greatest use on the battlefield (Origins: Wynne mentions that she has been in many battles, not just Ostagar). Despite this, the heads of the Chantry have always been aware that treating mages as second-class citizens while also encouraging their abilities is a double-edged sword, hence the need for ant-mage rhetoric among the populace and the presence of templars in the Circles to keep the mages from rebelling (Origins: codex entries ‘The Hierarchy of the Circle’; ‘The History of the Circle; Inquisition: codex entry ‘Phylacteries’; DA2: pretty much everything Meredith says). To further nullify the threat mages presented within their own borders, the heads of the Chantry channelled research into a small subset of magical specialisations, each with its own strengths in battle, but which had weaknesses that templars could exploit should the mage choose to rebel. Essentially, these specialisations acted like a choke leash: trained mages were granted more freedoms than others, but only as much as the templars (the leash holders) allowed. Any mage trying for more than that was swiftly punished (the dungeons at the White Spire; Anders’ claim that he was kept in solitary confinement for a year after one of his escape attempts).

While it is true not every mage has the talent to learn a specialisation (and mages such as Jowan in Origins are likely to fail even their Harrowing), the focus on the opposition between their usefulness and their weaknesses is important, because a specialisation will make a mage uncommonly powerful and therefore a bigger risk to the Circle, especially given that those with greater powers are more likely to be confident enough to rebel against the Circle.

Chantry-sanctioned mage specialisations

·        Spirit Healer – historically the most encouraged specialisation owing to its nature as a support role for frontline troops and non-combative abilities, existing before the Circle as one of the few kinds of magic sanctioned by the Chantry (Origins: codex entry ‘The History of the Circle’). The military benefit of Spirit Healers is easy to see: soldiers who can be patched up quickly can be sent out to fight again, meaning that long campaigns can be sustained with fewer losses. Though the that fact these healers use spirits to help them might be questioned by some (Asunder), their heavy reliance on mana to power their abilities and their lack of experience with offensive spells means they can be easily dealt with in times of rebellion, and this makes them valuable assets to Chantry armies. (Spirit Healer wiki page)

·        Force Mage – a specialisation designed for battlefield use, favoured by the Kirkwall Circle, that relies on telekinetic forces to disrupt enemy forces on a large scale. This is a specialisation that can deal high amounts of damage at a time, which makes Force Mages useful as shock troops or to clear a field for warriors to go in and finish the enemy off. Their high resistance to physical attacks means they do not have to be protected as closely as Spirit Healers, allowing them to be more flexible on the battlefield. Like Spirit Healers, however, they rely on mana to power their abilities, which, coupled with the discipline of mind needed to maintain their spells, makes them vulnerable to templar techniques. (Force Mage wiki page)

·        Battlemage – combines entropic and chaotic forces with elemental magic. Not as much is known about this specialisation as it only appears in Awakening, but it seems to be primarily focussed towards providing frontline defence for warriors, meaning that Battlemages fighting alongside templars are difficult to beat. In order to maintain health on the front lines, however, Battlemages absorb the damage they take by drawing on their reserve of mana. This is disastrous when facing off against templars, who not only possess physical abilities (sword > mage robes) but can drain a mage’s mana, leaving them as an exposed target. (Battlemage wiki page)

·        Knight Enchanter – unique among Circle specialisations as it combines physical and magical abilities to create an offensive frontline fighter with exceptional combat flexibility, able to face off against either magical or mundane opponents. The intense training Knight Enchanters undergo combines the techniques of elven Arcane Warriors (Inquisition: Solas’ comments on the Knight Enchanter specialisation) with the martial skills learned by templars, and these characteristics combined make Knight Enchanters tough opponents even for the templars themselves, which is what makes them so valuable to Chantry forces (Inquisition: Commander Helaine; codex entry ‘Knight Enchanters’). This potential for disaster should a disillusioned Knight Enchanter run amok is why, under normal circumstances, only the most loyal of Circle mages (such as Vivienne) are given the opportunity to learn this specialisation. The training they are given mirrors the indoctrination the templars go through, and the screening process for faith in the Maker over individual morality (Origins: codex entry ‘Templars’) is likely similar, thereby preventing thoughts of disloyalty before they become a risk.

There are other magic specialisations, of course, but these are uncommon and often discouraged in the Circle (Origins: codex entry: ‘Shapeshifters’; Inquisition: codex entry ‘Necromancers’). It is telling that the one commonality between necromancers, keepers, shapeshifters, and blood mages is their relative lack of dependence of mana for their powers, the depletion of which is how templars weaken mage opponents (wiki: entries for necromancer, keeper, shapeshifter, blood mage, and templar specialisations). In other words, none of these can be easily countered by templars, whether it be because of physical prowess (shapeshifters) or use of spirits (necromancers), for example. This means that despite the very real offensive capabilities that would make each of these specialisations useful in battle, the Chantry cannot afford the potential backlash that would come if such mages went rogue. It is also interesting to note that all of these specialisations have origins in cultures where Chantry superiority is shaky at best, which if anything makes their practitioners more likely to reject the authority of the Circle.

Tranquil

It would be easy to assume that the Tranquil refute the idea that the status of mages in southern Thedas is directly linked to their usefulness as living weapons. After all, besides purging all emotion (and coincidentally, all inclination to rebel) the Rite of Tranquillity removes a person’s connection to the Fade, and therefore their ability to draw mana and cast spells (Origins: codex entry ‘The Tranquil’). In short, they cannot fight. However, the Tranquil are crucial in providing two resources vital to the success of any military campaign: equipment, and money.

Chantry scholars agree that the skills Tranquil possess with regard to crafting and enchantment are unrivalled because of their ability to work without distraction (Origins: codex entry ‘The Tranquil’). The Orlesian Chantry’s preoccupation with Exalted Marches requires not only large numbers of the faithful willing to die in the name of Andraste, it also requires coin enough to feed, equip, and transport those soldiers. During peacetime, the capital raised by the sale of Formari enchantments is enough to fund the Circles, with the quality of items such as runes, weapons, and armour being respected even among the dwarves. Considering the sometimes abysmal conditions Circle mages are kept in during peace (The White Spire, Kirkwall), it is easy to imagine this money being diverted to the Chantry’s armies in times of war. The economic benefit of Tranquil becomes even more apparent when you realise:

·        Tranquil don’t need to be paid for their services

·        The high quality of enchanted equipment they produce goes to the Chantry automatically, meaning it doesn’t need to be bought from the dwarves

·        The Chantry controls the number of Tranquil directly, so if more are needed to fill requisitions, then all it means is that a few more apprentices than usual won’t be passing their Harrowing (Messed. Up.)

 These factors, coupled with the fact that Tranquil are a rather visceral reminder to other mages about the consequences of crossing the Chantry (Asunder: Rhys mentions the ‘creepy’ effect tranquil have on other mages; pretty much the whole of DA2), means they are an integral link in the mage-warfare system operating in southern Thedas.

Implications for DA4 (TL;DR)

Whether or not the systematic use of mages in warfare was intentional from the outset (or just a knee-jerk reaction to the threat posed by the Blights) by the time the Mage Rebellion broke out in the Dragon Age, the use of mages as sentient weapons had evolved into a tightly woven system based on economics, religious politics, and fear that supported Chantry expansion and held as a defence against the Tevinter Imperium. With mages and Tranquil under its control, the Chantry could call on a massive force to augment its armies and provide support in all aspects of war, for the purpose of defence (against Blights) and attack (in Exalted Marches).

However, by becoming so reliant on magepower, the full-scale rebellion in the aftermath of the Kirkwall explosion crippled the Chantry’s military engine. Former Circle mages are now rallying with each other, exchanging knowledge and figuring out how to live without Chantry influence (depending on who became Divine at the end of Inquisition). The specialisations that once would have been controlled by templars and regulated by the Chantry can now be passed to any mage willing to learn, which means that, as a group, mages are becoming more powerful, but without an outside force to direct them (though the Inquisition might have recruited some of them).

And aside from causing chaos within Chantry borders, the infighting between mages and (renegade) templars means there is no unified force to stand against outside armies looking to gain ground within southern Thedas. The two main threats to Orlais and the Free Marches (and eventually Ferelden) are posed by the Tevinter Imperium and the Qunari. As well as being organised, both of these superpowers make use of mages in their armies, and both possess the organisation, the conviction, and the numbers to cause a lot of damage.

There is a rising voice in the Imperium calling for a return to the ‘good old days’ of empire.

The Qunari are gearing up to launch a full-scale invasion on the South.

And that’s even without whatever bullshit Solas is going to come up with.