(Assuming that The Elder One hadn't interrupted things) Do you believe that the Conclave could have achieved a long-term compromise, or would it have been the Thedosian Versailles Treaty, a stop-gap prelude to another inevitable conflict? I liked the story of DAi, so I understand why we couldn't see the end of the peace negotiations, but I do wish it had been explored more.
I appreciate what you’re trying to say about the Treaty of Versailles as a representative of things that really did not help in the long term. I do. But I think it’s always important to remember that this wasn’t that kind of war.
World War I was, for all its horrors, a war fought between nations. Nations that had land and resources and money. They didn’t have all of these things in equal measure, obviously, but they had them. When you’re talking about the problems of the Treaty of Versailles, you’re talking about the problems of the details of that agreement. A conference to discuss who was going to take disputed territory and who was going to pay for all the damage is not an inherently absurd idea. That’s how you end a war of nations, if you don’t intend to end it by invading and conquering your opponents.
This was not a war of nations. The mage-Templar war is more rightly named the mage rebellion. The mages are people who have been kidnapped, largely as children, and held against their will. That’s at bare minimum – any number of other abuses may be heaped on top of that.
They seem to be stateless persons: in dialogue Vivienne says:
“I am from the Circle, my dear. One’s country of origin rarely matters there.”
She herself was sent from the Ostwick Circle in the Free Marches to the Montsimmard Circle in Orlais; Karl Thekla, likewise, was transferred from the Fereldan Circle to the Kirkwall Circle. Once taken to a Circle they no longer belong to their homeland and can no longer rely on their government – or any government – to protect them.
In Dragon Age 2 an Alistair who was made king is apparently trying to protect the mages:
Hawke: You were having an argument about mages?
Alistair: Yes, well, apparently I don’t feel the same way about mages as the Chantry does. So we’re in disagreement. That means they get nasty. They’re like that.
Hawke: Sounds like the Circle is better off in Ferelden.
Alistair: You’d think so, wouldn’t you? Sadly, I don’t control the Circle. I can only deal with mages outside the Circle … of which there aren’t many.
Hawke: Aren’t they in your kingdom? Why not just kick the Templars out?
Alistair: Ha! Easier said than done!
He apparently has no legal authority to intervene on behalf of the mages in the Fereldan Circle, even though most of them were likely born Fereldan citizens. The only way to really help them would be to attack and evict the Templar Order from Ferelden. While it’s implied that idea isn’t entirely off the table, it’s clear that Alistair is just barely keeping Orlais at bay and can’t afford to kick the military arm of the empire’s official religion out of the country right now.
These people are Chantry wards. They own nothing. At most, those from wealthy families, and those who have acquired wealthy patrons, will have a bit of portable wealth: fine clothes, jewellery, books, wine, art – that sort of thing. Assuming some of them had time to pack when fleeing the Circles, that’s the most wealth we could expect them to have to negotiate with.
Except … they’re not negotiating about land or a mine or a strategically placed river, are they?
So when you ask whether I think the Conclave could have produced a ‘long-term compromise’ I think it’s worth remembering exactly what they’re negotiating here. The Templars have held absolute power over the mages for centuries. The mages have fled from that, seeking the same freedoms that any other Thedosian might expect (maybe not all that many freedoms, depending on which nation we’re talking about, but still better than what they had). We are now negotiating how much power the Templars should be allowed to have over any poor bastard who happens to be born with magic.
The Templars are a religious order, enforcing their particular doctrine – their particular view of magic. They aren’t guardsmen or police officers, protecting people from criminals – on those occasions that they do accomplish that, it is incidental to their true purpose. They have murdered people simply for practising their own faith, because that faith included magic that is not accepted under Chantry law.
Chantry law says it’s okay for:
children to be abducted from their homes, and potentially dragged off to a completely different country never to see their parents again
people with magical ability to be incarcerated indefinitely, without trial, with any ‘release’ (be it short or long term) to be contingent on receiving official permission to be absent from the Circle
people to be permanently surveilled, with phylacteries allowing Templars to track and kill them if they try to leave without permission
people, usually young people, to be forced to fight a demon to the death
people to be mutilated and given what is functionally brain damage to make them compliant and destroy their magic should they refuse that fight
people to be summarily executed for ‘blood magic’ or spirit/demonic possession without either trial or any attempt to assist the person in question
entire communities to be wiped out on the authority of a religious official (usually a grand cleric) without trial on the entirely vague grounds that they ‘rule it irredeemable’.
All of that is completely legal and normal before we even get into things like people being kept in small cells or solitary confinement, being starved to death, flogged, raped, or made Tranquil once Harrowed.
Which of these things would you say that the mages should have to agree to, to end the war? I would say none of them. There can be no long-term compromise between mages and Templars, because the only reasonable amount of power a Templar should have over a mage is none. A religious institution should never, ever be allowed to have any legal power over a person’s life. The Templar Order is not, under any circumstances, the right group to be handling magical crime.
We, the mages of Ferelden and Orlais, do hereby dissolve the Circles and renounce our sworn submission to the Order of the Templars, effective immediately.
We reiterate Andraste’s assertion that magic was made to serve man, not rule over him, and state unequivocally that we will use our abilities only to defend ourselves from those who would see us relinquish our lives and freedoms under the presumption of guilt for crimes we have not committed.
We condemn those practitioners of magic who, through illness of mind or understandable but misguided anger at those who oppressed them, would use their Maker-given powers to threaten innocent lives, and we pledge to aid any legitimate and impartial government in bringing these lawless apostates to justice.
We look earnestly to a future of cooperation between all peoples of Thedas, free from persecution and prejudice, and hope to build a better world alongside all who approach us with friendship instead of fear.
That’s part of the mission statement of the rebel mages. I would say that, right there, they have already agreed to every reasonable condition. They have agreed that offensive magic should only be used in self-defence, and committed to cooperating with secular law-enforcement in dealing with magical crime. Are there details still to be hammered out? Sure. But with the governments if the lands in which they take up residence, not the Templar Order.
The Conclave is an absurd and inherently evil thing. It’s happening for two reasons, one in-universe and one out:
In universe, because the mages are not an army – they are refugees with children and elderly people in tow, and many of them will have no idea how to fight or plan a battle. The Templars are an army, and thus can terrorise these people into a position where they may agree to any damn thing to make it stop.
Out of universe because Bioware overreached themselves in Inquisition and needed to simplify the scenario in a hurry. They therefore pretended that the mages had no option but to negotiate with their oppressors. I genuinely do not think the Conclave should have happened, but I understand why Bioware really needed to ‘end’ the conflict by blowing most of these people up.
So … I think it’s possible the Conclave might have created a ‘compromise’ that lasted decades or centuries, depending on how badly the mages’ spirits were crushed by its results. But an unjust system will always lead to anger and despair, and as long as Templars have power over mages, another conflict is inevitable. As long as the ‘compromise’ persists, the mages will continue to suffer.
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