KnightofPhoenix wrote...
40-45% is a huge number however. And a majority (simple majority as opposed to absolute majority).
I doubt mages make up more than 5% of the population and even that sounds too high. 1% or so sounds reasonable.
Within
that 1%, only the Resolutionists call for armed revolt against the
Chantry and are deemed as too extremist by the Libertarians themselves.
Let's assume that all fraternities have the same number of adherents
(not true, but lets for the sake of argument). That means only 1/6 are
resolutionists. I doub they represent a higher percentage or even that
percentage, as the Chantry would have probably called in the Seekers a
long time ago.
At worse, Anders is representing himself only, as
he is not part of any organization or fraternity. At best, he is
representing the Resolutionists who are deemed extremists by even
Libertarians. At best, 1/6 of all mages, who themselves probably make up
about 1% of the total population. Him representing the Resolutionists
however is highly debatable as we have no indication that he is part of
the group and if he coordinated anything with them. They might like his
act, but that does not mean he planned anything with them and that he
wasn't acting on his own.
I think he is just representing
himself. This goes far from a substantial minority (or a simple
majority) deciding the fate of everyone else. This is more like one man
thinking he is qualified to make a choice bigger than himself on behalf
of all mages.
I did not mean that 40-45% actually
participated in the revolution nor that they actively encouraged it
before the fact, only that that's the approximate percentage that is
believed to have been in favor of it and supported it after it began. I
don't know of any figures on how many supported it before it actually
began, but I'm pretty sure it was much, much less - I'm not sure it
would be possible to even obtain such figures in any way that would be
objectively meaningful.
You're right about Anders, though, since
as far as we're aware he wasn't even representing a small organization,
but only himself. I think the story would
have been more interesting and made more sense if we'd gotten even a
small indication that he was in contact with other Circles across
Thedas, since his actions would have made a lot more sense then, but
alas. I was more referring to people claiming
that most of the mages were being forced into this, which is true, but
no more true than most any revolution.
Most revolutions that I have studied (although I'm not an expert on them by any means) are sparked by a tiny percentage of the population doing some very visible things, which then explodes into popular support. So, once the ball gets rolling is when people start to support the movement, in general. The Resolutionists are the only large organization actively wanting to get that ball rolling at the moment, but once it begins, it seems reasonable to presume that many of the other mages joined in, since we are told that all the Circles have revolted. There are, after all, many attempted revolutions which used similar events to try to incite revolution, but were not picked up on by enough people to actually do anything.
sphinxess wrote...
The trouble with using Anders as an example is he has plot immunity - it's like holding up Merrill as proof that Blood Mages can easily and safely control their magic...
How about using Jowan as an example that blood mages can easily and safely control their magic? There is never once an incident in which Jowan's magic gets out of control, and even when he's escaping the tower he apparently doesn't kill or cause permanent injury to anyone - he just disables them enough so he can escape. He certainly never seems to be in any danger of becoming an abomination, and even though he's a screwup and an idiot, he never once does anything bad that is related to his magic. Poisoning the arl is the only bad thing he ever did that we know of, and any servant could do that just as easily.
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