Anyway the Circles are Prisons
@nikkoliferous tagged me in a hilarious post by a blog called fuckyeahtemplars asking me to debunk it. Who am I to not oblige? Because if you want to make a post about the benefits of the Circle, fine. But donât spread false information.
[Image of a mage in the Gallows tagged as âloyalist mageâ in the toolset saying âPeople talk about the Circle like itâs a prison. Itâs no different than anywhere in Thedas.â]
First off, I would take anything this NPC says with a major grain of salt, considering they also consider tranquility a deserved punishment for âpreaching sedition.â So that really tells you how far up the templarâs asses they are.
âIf there werenât so many mages preaching sedition, the templars would not feel so compelled to use the Rite of Tranquility.â
Second, Iâm really not sure how you can look at that comment as a positive thing. Saying that every circle in Thedas is just as bad as the Gallows is not what Iâd call a good argument.Â
It is only the apprentices in training who are not allowed to leave the Circle at will. Of course, there are exceptions to that rule in canon, including Illana of Montsimmard.
Once a mage has passed their Harrowing, they can leave any time with the First Enchanterâs permission. There are many examples of this in canon, including Wynne, Finn, Ines, Vivienne, Bethany Hawke, and even Malcolm Hawke before he left without permission.Â
After their Harrowing, a Circle mage is not required to reside in the Circle itself.Â
[Image of a quote from Vivienne:Â âMost Circles allowed mages to live away from the tower, either on their own or in service to the nobility.â
Some of this is true, and some of it is not.Â
It is not true that only apprentices are not allowed to leave the Circle at will. It all depends on if the mage has permission or not to leave, and it is not typically the First Enchanter who decides this, but the templars. In Witch Hunt, Finn asks Hadley for permission to leave. In Asunder, it is Seeker Lambert who sanctions Rhys and Adrian to leave with Wynne and Evangeline. The only example of it being a First Enchanter granting this is with Wynne in DA:O, with Greagoir standing right next to him.
And hereâs the thing: Every single example of mages having more freedoms and interactions outside the circle are clarified to be nobles or serve nobles, save for Ines (possibly; we know nothing about her) and Wynne. And Wynne had to help kill a GD Archdemon to get her freedoms.
âWho are you to counsel patience? You have more freedoms than any of us. Youâre not locked into a tower, herded into your chambers at night like a child. Nobodyâs threatening you with the Rite of Tranquility for stepping out of line. Itâs easy to be patient when you havenât been through what we have this last year!â
There was a smattering of applause, most prominently from Adrian and the other Libertarians, but he heard opposition as well. Several voices rose in complaint, while others argued; the general level of noise began to escalate. Wynne raised a hand, and slowly the talk quieted.
âI do have freedoms,â she admitted. âThey were earned through years of service, and as a reward for my part in defeating the darkspawn. I worked to gain the trust of the Chantry; I did not expect it to fall into my lap.â
âAnd what have we done to be denied that trust, those who have spent our entire lives doing everything asked of us? Why are we all held accountable for the mistakes of a few?â
âAsunder, pg 53-54
The character from the codex you mention, Enchanter Illana, was a noble from Val Royeaux, and it specifically says that she rose through the Circle thanks to her fatherâs backing.
Finnâs father is Magistrate Kingston Aldebrant of West Hill. His family sends him magical items heâs equipped with.
Vivienne fell in love with Duke Bastien de Ghislain, and then became Empress Celeneâs Court Enchanter.
Bethany is the sister of Hawke, the Champion of Kirkwall.
Malcolm Hawke was never allowed to go out of the Circle, save for when multiple mages were tasked to perform at the Viscountâs banquet, accompanied by templars, where he met Leandra. (Similar to how Vivienne met Bastien.) He was only able to sneak out of the circle because a sympathetic templar willing to risk ending up like Samson covered for him. This is detailed in WoTv2:
âOver the following months, Malcolm continued to steal away from the Gallows to meet Leandra. Malcolm was known to have struck up a strong friendship with a templar, Ser Maurevar Carver, and some speculate that Ser Maurevar played a crucial part in protecting Malcolm and Leandraâs secret.â
He was not allowed to leave. He broke the rules by leaving.
If youâre a noble, and your family still cares for you, your life in the Circle is much easier. Trevelyan has the option to say their family paid off the Circle to make their life easier, and allow them to visit. As such, it really doesnât seem to be as much about âprotectionâ as it does Chantry control, does it?
In contrast, mages who are not nobility/serve nobles appear to have less opportunity to leave. Most mages never get to see their families again. For example, the girl in DA:2â˛s quest Dissent who attempts to escape the Circle so she can see her family. Alrik threatens her with tranquility, even though she says sheâs passed her Harrowing. The minute you wake up from your Harrowing in DA:Oâs Mage Origin, you hear NPCâs say things like âDonât you ever get homesick?â âI wish I could leave the tower once in a while.â And if you ask Irving if you can leave the tower upon receiving your full status as a mage, he says no.
So, in summary, no. Mages are not allowed to leave the Circle willy nilly. They need to either do something so incredible after a lifetime of good behaviour, or have outside financial help.
Mages living outside the Circle can hold land and titles, particularly those who are contracted by nobles.
The Chantry specifically has a rule that, to quote from WoTv1, âMages could not unduly influence rulers or become rulers themselves.â They are required to be âpolitically neutral.â This is also clarified in-game in DA:O with Arl Eamon having no heir even if Connor lives, because Connor was a mage. Mages who hold land and titles are apostates hiding their magic, such as Lady Harimann.
Mages living outside the Circle can have families. The Stone Prisoner DLC introduces us to the son and granddaughter of Enchanter Wilhelm, a Circle mage who had a family, along with his own land and house, outside of the Ferelden Circle.
Again, Wilhelm was serving nobility. He was Court Advisor for Maric Theirin, as said in The Stolen Throne. Maric then gave him special permission to settle in Honnleath. His son, Matthias, is an apostate.Â
Circle mages both living within and outside the Circle building itself work to earn their own money and do in fact keep this money. There is even a fraternity among the enchanters called the Lucrosians, whose main purpose is to use their magic for profit and to make as much money possible. Circle mages who dedicate their lives to making money are not being deprived of this money by the Chantry.
First of all, the Lucrosian fraternity is said to be the smallest in numbers, which I feel is worth pointing out. Second, they do not actually have full freedoms to make money, that is the whole point of their fraternity; they want that freedom.
âTo the Lucrosians magic is power, pure and simple, and therefore the work of a mage is the acquisition of power. To Lucrosians this pursuit extends past magical power and knowledge to other forms of worldly power, particularly wealth. If a mage has the potential to earn great wealth, why should they not be allowed to do so like any skilled artisan or crafter? The Lucrosians find allies amongst the Libertarian fraternity, who favour greater freedom to pursue the kind of power that interests them. They are most often opposed by the Aequitarians (with their rules and sense of duty and service) an the Loyalists (who would cede power to the Chantry).â
âDragon Age RPG Book
Now, mages are allowed to make money, but that money is for the Circle. In DA:2 a tranquil elf has this ambient comment:
âThe first enchanter has marked up these potions well beyond the cost of making them. He is trying to earn money for the Circle.â
But who knows, perhaps mages are allowed to keep some earnings for themselves. Though itâs not like they have a lot of options on spending it.
The Harrowing is a very simple test which goes: do you agree to let a demon possess you? If the answer is no, you pass your Harrowing. If the answer is yes, then you become possessed and turn into an abomination that the Templars must destroy. Killing a Circle mage who fails their Harrowing is literally stopping a demon. If a mage cannot stand up to demons, then nobody else in the Circle, mage or Templar, can trust them not to turn into an abomination at any given moment.
The problem with the Harrowing does not lie in the actual test. It lies in how mages are set up to fail. Imagine getting woke up in the middle of the night to write a life or death exam, that you are given no knowledge about prior to, and are not allowed to prepare for? And when mages do fail, their friends donât even know for sure what happens to them. No one questions when mages just disappear, because maybe they failed a Harrowing, maybe they killed themselves, maybe they attempted escape, or maybe they were sent to another Circle without so much as a warning.
The templars gathered you for your Harrowing in the middle of the night, without warning. Succeed at the test and you were a mage in full. Fail and you were dead. If you refused the test, you were put through the Rite of Tranquility and rendered an emotionless neuter. It was a preferable fate for some, but Rhys found that hard to believeâ he couldnât get near a Tranquil without shuddering. He would rather be dead than spend the rest of his life looking at the world through those dead eyes.
When someone failed their Harrowing, however, the rest of the mages werenât told. The apprentice was just gone. It happened frequently, and considering a mageâs life was never his ownâyou could be transferred to another Circle or whisked off to some duty assigned by the Chantry without so much as a by- your-leaveâone became accustomed to people coming and going. You didnât question it. There could have been many more murders than any of the mages suspected, and only the templars would know for sure.
âAsunder, pg 25
Educating magesâespecially mage children who are more likely to be impulsiveânot to give in to demons and become possessed is the entire point of the Circle.
Hmm, you should tell that to all the people saying the purpose of the Circle is to protect the rest of Thedas from mages.
Donât get me wrong, I think mages should have a place for education. Itâs just that the system as is, is mega corrupt. Instead of annulling the Dairsmuid Circle in Rivain for allowing mages to come and go as they please, they should have taken inspiration from it.
It is explicitly against Chantry Laws to make mages who have passed their Harrowing Tranquil.
When Meredith and Ser Alrik were doing this in DA2, they were knowingly breaking Chantry Laws.Â
Well that sure doesnât fucking stop it from happening now, does it? And what happened as repercussion? Nothing. Meredith is making mages tranquil at random as a fear tactic and nothing. Happens.
âThree of the Starkhaven mages were made Tranquil. I hear they picked at random.â
Elthina is fully fucking aware of the shit going on in the Gallows, but does nothing but sit in her Chantry with her thumbs up her ass.
The Chantry did not condone most of Meredithâs actions, but she wielded enough political power in Kirkwall after personally overthrowing Viscount Threnhold that the Chantry presence in Kirkwall could not hold her back.Â
The Chantry is the highest power in all of Thedas, superseding governments. The only country this is not the case is Rivain, and then of course the Qunari controlled lands. Again, Elthina chose to do nothing.
Even going above Grand Cleric Elthinaâs head to send for the Right of Annulment was breaking Chantry Law.Â
It is explicitly stated in canon that the Gallows is run differently and much more strictly than any other Circle of Magi in Southern Thedas and that Meredith has placed more restrictions than any other Circle has.
LMAO and yet the opening image was of a mage saying that the Gallows are just like any other Circle, remember?
Yes, the Gallows were worse than most. But thatâs like comparing two turds and saying one is more appetizing because someone sprinkled some salt on it.
And honestly? Iâd argue that the White Spire in Val Royeaux is described to be either just as bad as if not worse than the Gallows, in Asunder.
Therefore, it is illogical and a direct contradiction of canon to take the worst examples of the Gallows and claim this is commonplace throughout every single Circle of Magi.
Except many of the problems with the Gallows is commonplace. The mages talk about being locked up in cells? This is the same for the White Spire in Asunder. Mages tortured/abused? Again, the White Spire was horrible for this; Cole died because of it. The mages talk about always being watched by templars and having no privacy? Mages say the same in the Ferelden Circle in DA:O. Meredith calls for the Rite of Annulment before getting approval? Sheâs not the first. I could go on, but TL;DR: All these problems are not special cases just in the Gallows. The Rebellion came to be because of the mass accumulation.
The Circles are in fact the only places in Thedas where humans and elves are on equal footing.
Not true on a few levels.
The Qun has lot of issues, but racism is not among them. Elves have just as much as humans have just as much as dwarves have just as much as qunari. The whole reason so many elves have flocked to the Qun is because many of them actually have more freedom under it. (Which says something.)
We have been told a few times that elves in the Circle are treated the same as humans⌠all by human characters. I would no sooner take this as the ultimate truth as I would Iron Bull or Vivienne explaining Dalish mages.Â
Instead, elven mages have to face oppression in Thedas for being both an elf and a mage. Hell, in Witch Hunt, two mages engage in a casual racist conversation as Arianne passes by.
Thedasâ racism against elves doesnât just disappear by walking into a Circle.
The Circles also provide better food, shelter, and education to many of its apprentices, particularly city elves and human commoners, than they would otherwise receive.
THEY SHOULDNâT HAVE TO GIVE UP THEIR FREEDOM AS A PERSON TO HAVE BASIC NEEDS. THIS IS A HUGE STATEMENT ON THE INEQUALITY IN THEDAS, RATHER THAN IN SUPPORT OF CIRCLES.
Circle mages are not locked up so that they never see the light of day. That does not happen even in the strictest Circle.
The White Spire only has windows in the Templar levels of the tower.
From [the Knight-Commanderâs windows] one could look down at the entirety of Val Royeaux, even as far as the port district at the seaâs edge. It was a spectacular view of the capital, one that few mages got to see; they were rarely invited into the upper levels of the White Spire.
âAsunder, pg 24
In Witch Hunt, Finn says that the Circle used to allow the mages to go outside on the docks for fresh air and exercise once a week, but after Anders used this as a chance to escape, they no longer allow even this.
As an Amell or Surana, you can talk to a templar guarding the doors outside, (which he also mentions takes four guards to open,) and ask him âwhatâs out there?â Because itâs been years since you saw it.
Circle mages are not cut off from their families. Some do not seek contact with their families and some families do not seek contact with the mages, but others remain close, including Finn from Witch Hunt. Even in the Gallows, Arianni is able to frequently visit Feynriel and Leandra is able to frequently visit Bethany.
I donât see the need to repeat what I already said above about all those examples being almost exclusively with noble families. Arianni would be an outlier. So Iâll just leave this from Orsinoâs entry in WoTv2, about his friend Maud:
âAs tome wore on, Maud found it increasingly difficult to put thoughts of her family from her mind, and she grew homesick. When letters from home arrived, Maud would cheer up slightly and then sink to even greater depths, knowing that she would never see her loved ones again. Her studies suffered, and the templars took note of it. Orsino would urge her to focus on her magic, warning her that she was drawing the gaze of their guards, but Maud did not seem to care. âYou mustnât make them suspicious,â he would say. âItâs terrible, but at least youâre still alive.â And Maud would only reply, âThis is no life, Orsino.â When the templars broke down the door to the closet she had locked herself into, all they found were dark scorch marks on the walls and floor.â
âWoTv2, pg 195
What did Maud do to never deserve to see her family again?
Circle mages are not enslaved, and calling them slaves is a great disservice to the suffering of actual slaves in Thedas, many of whom are enslaved by mages. This is not the Oppression Olympics; stop appropriating the suffering of others for senseless Templar/Circle/Chantry hate and/or to attempt to claim your fave is the Most Oppressed â˘.
No, itâs not the âOppression Olympics,â because contrary to your belief, you can talk about oppression of one group without minimizing the suffering of another. Talking about the oppression of mages in no way negates the issues of others in Thedas.
Anyway, hereâs a quote from Fiona, a former slave, on the Montsimmard Circle:
The Countess found her in the dungeon, unconscious and lying in a pool of her own blood. Almost dead. Why the woman had contacted the Circle of Magi to come and take Fiona away, she had no idea. She never saw the woman again. Perhaps the Countess had felt pity? Perhaps she had felt some gratitude for the elf who had finally slain her cruel husband and transformed her into a rich widow? She could just as easily have called on the watch, or let her die.
The Circle, sadly, had been little better. At least the nightmares grew fainter in time.
âThe Calling, pg 320
I think Fiona, being a former slave herself, has every damn right to compare the Circle of Magi to slavery.
Mages in the Circle of Magi are treated like prisoners.