First off, If you played DA:O/A (Which I assume most of you did) Blood magic is supposed to be Taboo, because of its demonic connections, however even in DA:O/A you were allowed to be a blood mage, as a player, but it had no reprocussions on the outcome of the game at all, now in DA:2 bloodmages are the prime protagonists, and there is still no mention of the "Hero of Fereldan" being a bloodmage. not only that Merill doesnt have ANY "Bloodmage" tree to spec from, she just "Dabbles" in it like the other mages in DA:O/A the thing I really dislike about the entire Merill story arch, is she appears to be a VERY young girl, yet you get romance and sleep with her, I find that more disturbing than any other aspect of her. especially considering you cannot romance Aveline because they wrote her marriage to another guard into the quest archs. which is quite lame in my opinion. So if you happen to be a Hetero playing Male, your limited to an apparently underage age elf chick, or a self procclaimed **** for a love interest...