#mfda editiorial

If you think about it, what exactly is magic?

Is alchemy magic? Is using an enchanted item performing magic? Are Templar/Seeker powers not magic? It's admitted that phylacteries and necromancy are blood magic - so why are they not just permissible, but routine, when blood magic is otherwise demonized? Why can Grey Warden mages walk free even when there's no Blight?

Because it was never about magic. It's about power - and specifically, the power structure. That which upholds the power structure is good. That which doesn't is bad. Heresy. Apostasy, if you will - not in the having or being or wielding of magic, but in the rejection of the power structure - in the denying of the system of its control. Picking and choosing what is permissible and what is not isn't a bug, it's a feature. It's Story Juice.

And I don't want to get too deep into Gameplay Mechanics, but I do think that mechanics constantly undermining the story didn't help. A good deal of lore and narrative get lost when any character can get specced to blood mage, there are a million apostates and demons around every corner, lyrium potions are laying around everywhere... it's like, damn, if you can open literally any door and find 8 maleficar abominations and a stockpile of magic power juice behind it, maybe the mages SHOULD be locked up. It's distracting from the point, which is that imprisoning/enslaving people "for the greater good" is never about the greater good - it's about power, always.