MisterJB wrote...
Magic, like all other advantages, will be used to raise one's position in society. Non-mages will be unable to keep up and thus, be left at the bottom of society.
Refusing to accept this does not make your viewpoint more objective. Or do you think that mages will agree to not use magic, regardless of how much benefit it could bring them, to give non-mages a fair chance?
Some will, many won't. If everyone is treated as an individual, and individual criminals are punished, and the necessary training and safeguards are made to deal with the dangers of magic, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to believe things will go the way you believe them to.
A single corrupt non-mage ruler can do just as much damage, if not more than a single blood mage criminal.
If I were to take upon myself your dismal view of humanity, I would also turn it against the Chantry and the templars, saying that the Chantry could very well be wrong about their interpretation of the chant of light, and are deliberately misreading it to maintain power over the mages, and keep the most powerful weapons (Cullen's view on mages, not mine) away from independent rulers. It's not a reliance of magic that keeps technology from advancing in Andrastianism, it's the Chantry. There are lore entries that suggest that even anatomy and the study of biology is considered blood magic and they kill all suspected blood mages without trial or prison.
I don't believe the Chantry as a whole does this, because it's been so long, and Sister Petrine has been called heretical because she seeks out the truth more than she seeks out affirming what the Chantry says. But using your view of humanity, the same picture you paint mages with can be used on the Chantry and the templars wholesale as organizations, and say it's inevitable that they'll slaughter mages for the heck of it, and then slaughter all the mages families who aren't mages out of paranoia.
Which kind of sounds like Meredith by Act 3, and the zealots and extremists she promoted to Knight-Lieutannents who controlled the decisions, overriding the moderates who opposed death squads and abuse of political power.
But one thing that is true, is if you give ANY group absolute power over another, that group will abuse its power and then over time, come to believe it's entitled to that power by virtue of....being them. The templars believe this of themselves when it comes to mages, Cullen makes that clear. Their actions make that clear in Kirkwall, and Lambert made it very clear when he ignored his primary duty of inspecting templars so he could be one and looked for way to keep the mages in their place and illegally tried to kill them (even Pharamond, whom he wanted to kill to hide evidence that tranquility could be cured, even if they're emotional wrecks once cured.)
And yes, I know that the Seekers need to take over for templars who don't do their duty. Lambert never waited for that. He simply let his fear of mages and his paranoia overtake him that he simply started harrassing the mages as much as possible, and then tried to slaughter them when legally, the First Enchanters had done absolutely nothing wrong in any way. Even the call for a vote to remove themselves from the Chantry was legal, done at a meeting that the Divine authorized, and then tried to take away the duty they were authorized to use, which is to investigate Rhys, away from them and force them back to their circles, when they had permssion to be there.
Lambert was simply in the wrong, and he's the one who started the war.
Of course...that was pretty much off topic from the original point, so I digress, but ultimately, the same negative view you have on mages and why they shouldn't have any political power at all can just as easily be applied to the templars and the Chantry as an argument why they can't have authority over mages, or have authority over City-States like Kirkwall. You might have templar death squads killing non-mages for crimes that don't deserve death like giving relatives a place to sleep for a night, and the relative happens to be a mage. And they might not even be allowed a trial.
Just a suspicion of course....
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