Xilizhra wrote...
To ensure we're on the same page, which are the ones you see?
This is going to be a fairly long post. Feel free to skim it (or skip it even).
Let's start by introducing three characters: Varnell, Alrik, Meredith. Now, I'm not going to compare them, and I selected these three to show questionable actions performed by templars. There are, naturally, more exemplar templars, such as Cullen or Greagoir.
Varnell effectively kills several defenseless Qunari in DA2, for no other reason than the fact they do not worship the Maker, but probably more so because of his hatred of aliens. My opinion is that Petrice played on his racial hatred to gain his support.
Alrik, to my mind, lusts for power, it's as simple as that. With the incredible amount of power templars wield over Circle mages, it was bound to go to someone's head. Alrik is a prime example of someone who has overstepped his authority and has thoroughly breached the fragile trust between templars and mages. He dictates who lives and who dies on his own terms and answers to no-one.
Meredith is a bit trickier because of the whole idol thing. See, if you take out the idol, you have a character that experiences a drastic and inexplicable transformation in a very short period of time. For years Meredith was, let's say content, with the situation in Kirkwall. That changes at the end of Act II when a prominent figure loses his head (pun intended). Apparently, power gets to Meredith in the interlude between Acts II and III and she gets more draconian than ever. There's nothing to prompt this except a questionable power vacuum... which actually doesn't explain it. Perhaps if we had had some more exposition it would be convincing, I can certainly picture it happening... under the right conditions.
Throw in the idol and suddenly everything makes sense. The idol worked like the One Ring, playing on Meredith's fears, enhancing them. Meredith basically fears losing control over the mages, she believes that if she lets her guard down for a second, catastrophe will ensue. Meredith wielding the One Ring could certainly explain her sudden transformation in Act III. Better yet, you can argue that since the idol was magical, magic is to blame. Brilliant, isn't it? (that's sarcasm, by the way).
So summing up: bigotry, lust... One Ring (she could've been a much richer character than that). But these (the first two) are common in just about every standard human (and non-human) being, it's not something that distinguished the templars from anyone else. It just points out that templars are human too and thus subjected to the same passions and desires. We cannot extrapolate all templars are evil based on these three individuals, just as we cannot say all templars are good because Cullen and Greagoir are likeable people.
So let's look at what the Templar Order has done as an organisation. Well, getting the easy stuff out of the way first, they've killed mages. Why, they've probably killed lots of mages who hadn't turned into abominations or demons, children even (that is, they've killed children, not that the mages turned into abominations, demons, and children). For me, a prime example of this is Greagoir. Because of the Knight-Commander's relationship with the First Enchanter, old friends and what not, he holds out for as long as he can, but this is not the norm. He even gives the Warden a chance to save the Circle. Surely, more than one Knight-Commander has simply purged their Circle altogether without worrying about technicalities, such as who is an abomination and who isn't. Better to stick a sword in them first and check later. Is that good, bad, irrelevant?
Well, I've always played RPGs with a paladin (as in good guy, not blind zealot) mindset so to me that's not just bad, it's pretty damn lazy. Hey, some Knight-Commander may actually believe it's their only choice. How do you judge a person when history has ingrained in him that things are done a certain way? But let's not get carried away, we're talking about the organisation, not the individuals themselves. So, templars have killed mages. They've probably even killed civilians who've given safe haven to apostates. Whether or not these kinds of actions (killing civilians who stand in their way) are sanctioned I don't know since I'm limiting myself to the games only.
Templars rip families apart. There's no denying that, they take children away from their families if they think they're magic users and put them in Circles. In fact, Hawke and family moved often because Malcolm (Leandra too probably, but mostly Malcolm since he was the magic user) worried that the templars might come and take Bethany/Hawke away from them (if this sounds too much like the Jedi Order, remember the Jedi do offer the family a choice, it's not mandatory in the strict sense of the word). So, yeah, that's pretty cold and definitely earns the Templar Order some resentment on the part of a sector of the civilian populace.
I think that about covers what reprehensible actions the templars have undertaken as an organisation, that is, actions sanctioned by the Divine herself (I'm unsure whether the Templar Order took part of any or all of the Exalted Marches, in which case we can certainly add more to the list; for the record, I do consider the Orlesian Empire and the Templar Order to be separate entities in the sense that if the former marches to war, not necessarily the second will too).
So, to answer your question, this is what I understood by "effects": reprehensible, or even condemning, deeds performed by the Templar Order as an organisation. Bear in mind I limited myself to DAO and DA2, so there could be more examples to be found in the novels.
As a corollary (more of an epilogue at this point) I find myself wondering how the Templar-Mage War started. I mean, certainly not because of the events of DA2. In the thousands of years of oppression the mages have been subjected to, certainly more drastic and meaningful measures than Anders' were taken. It's not the first time a Circle's been annulled either (though perhaps it's the first time the templars have failed to annul a Circle?). So, what's the shatterpoint? Yes, there's this baggage mages and templars have been carrying for a while now, but why now? What is it that's convinced all mages to act now? Certainly not Hawke. It has to be a convergence of multiple events that has never happened before in history. So, what is it?
I'll stop now before my mad ramblings get the better of me.
Modifié par OdanUrr, 28 janvier 2012 - 03:09 .
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