Filament wrote...
This mage threat-
I saw no mages in that scene, did you?
I saw a pack of demons being led by a Dragon, who are acting up unprovoked in DA3.
Probably Flemeth putting her plan in motion.
Filament wrote...
This mage threat-
Who is that Masked Man wrote...
Filament wrote...
This mage threat-
Yeah, it was probably a templar who did that. They've clearly been dipping into the Red Lyrium again.
Fuggyt wrote...
I think the mage threat is exaggerated. There's an inherent contradiction in the situation. Either the mages are numerous and powerful enough to resist or they are not. If they are, then the Templars could never have rounded up and controlled them all in the first place, nor, for that matter, would the Tevinter Imperium ever have fallen.
Fuggyt wrote...
If they are not, then Anders's act of terrorism is a desperately futile gesture than can only lead to the genocide of all mages and the Circles are merely the repressive products of superstition, paranoia, and greed for power.
Ravensword wrote...
*snipped picture*Morocco Mole wrote...
It is better to live with certainty than to be an animal without purpose
Modifié par Herr Uhl, 13 juin 2013 - 11:44 .
Medhia Nox wrote...
Since people make up Dragon Age lore all the time (like all mages everyone being "slaves") - we can only really say: The Joining and Wardens are the only way we know of that can kill Archdemons.
Medhia Nox wrote...
Kill all the Darkspawn - and you won't have any more archdemons. A little more pro-active than waiting for the world ending threat nobody will believe until it's "almost" too late to show up.
MisterJB wrote...
I'm not certain I can agree you, I need a third opinion.The Grey Nayr wrote...
The only threat comes from armed and armored zealots who shank people with their swords because "The Maker says so."
Here, let me ask this woman from Redcliff who does she think is the real threat.
Guest_Puddi III_*
It's clearly magic of some kind. It's just an example of the type of cosmic power mages can tap into, not that they necessarily caused this instance.The Grey Nayr wrote...
I saw no mages in that scene, did you?
I saw a pack of demons being led by a Dragon, who are acting up unprovoked in DA3.
Probably Flemeth putting her plan in motion.
The Grey Nayr wrote...
Also don't forget, it wasn't Templars that solved that crisis either. It was magic. Their solution would have been to shove a sword into a 10 year old boy who was perfectly curable and leave Arl Eamon in a coma.
Modifié par Herr Uhl, 13 juin 2013 - 11:51 .
Herr Uhl wrote...
Ravensword wrote...
*snipped picture*Morocco Mole wrote...
It is better to live with certainty than to be an animal without purpose
What does the tree have to do with anything?
Modifié par Ravensword, 13 juin 2013 - 11:53 .
LobselVith8 wrote...
That's a little more difficult than you make it sound, considering the taint, the number of darkspawn, their primary location in the Deep Roads, and the existance of two Old Gods remaining out of reach.
The Grey Nayr wrote...
You mean Isolde?
That wretched succubus was dumb enough to trust Loghain. Nothing good ever comes out of that man.
Also don't forget, it wasn't Templars that solved that crisis either. It was magic. Their solution would have been to shove a sword into a 10 year old boy who was perfectly curable and leave Arl Eamon in a coma.
I mean anyone who lost family in Redcliff because Connor happened to have magic. Had he been sent to the Circle, there wouldn't be a crisis to begin with.The Grey Nayr wrote...
You mean Isolde?
That wretched succubus was dumb enough to trust Loghain. Nothing good ever comes out of that man.
Also don't forget, it wasn't Templars that solved that crisis either. It was magic. Their solution would have been to shove a sword into a 10 year old boy who was perfectly curable and leave Arl Eamon in a coma.
Herr Uhl wrote...
The Grey Nayr wrote...
Also don't forget, it wasn't Templars that solved that crisis either. It was magic. Their solution would have been to shove a sword into a 10 year old boy who was perfectly curable and leave Arl Eamon in a coma.
When did the templars voice their opinion on the search for Andraste's ashes? Or are you implying that killing Connor causes a coma?
Edit: Anyway, the Ashes plot was easily the worst one in Origins, so I wouldn't blame them if they discouraged it.
Riverdaleswhiteflash wrote...
WittingEight65 wrote...
Riverdaleswhiteflash wrote...
WittingEight65 wrote...
The Grey Wardens can teach them how to.
Fair enough. Next question: What will you do if the Wardens themselves come after you? They know that mages are necessary, and why. Who's to say they won't turn on you the second you show what you're about?
Question after: What makes you think the Qunari will side with you at all?
If the answer to either of these questions is "I don't know," you might be working for the darkspawn.
I have my persuasion skill maxed my friend, gg.
And that will be enough? Hint, no. Remember that persuade check to stop Paedan from attacking you, where it never works even if you pass? Max persuade won't be enough to get the saarebas answering to you, though if you're willing to volunteer for the Qun I'll just bet they're willing to treat you like you treat mages.
MisterJB wrote...
I mean anyone who lost family in Redcliff because Connor happened to have magic. Had he been sent to the Circle, there wouldn't be a crisis to begin with.The Grey Nayr wrote...
You mean Isolde?
That wretched succubus was dumb enough to trust Loghain. Nothing good ever comes out of that man.
Also don't forget, it wasn't Templars that solved that crisis either. It was magic. Their solution would have been to shove a sword into a 10 year old boy who was perfectly curable and leave Arl Eamon in a coma.
It took magic to solve the problem; a problem caused by magic, in the first place; but it was magic used by Circle mages proving the system works.
Also, while a templar might have killed Connor that would be udnerstandable given there was no guarantee he wouldn't kill more innocents or escape in the time it took to make the travel between the Circle and Redcliff. However, the fact they didn't oppose the exorcism means they didn't disaprove of it.
Oh and you were speaking about orlesians earlier. It's true non-mages can abuse power and hurt others but Connor, a six year old boy who had naught but good intentions, destroyed Redcliff whereas it would have taken a large group of adult non-mage soldiers to do the same.
The tree symbolizes the Qunari's sophistication over the rest of Thedas as they're the only society who knows how to produce toilet paper, and wipes.Herr Uhl wrote...
Ravensword wrote...
*snipped picture*Morocco Mole wrote...
It is better to live with certainty than to be an animal without purpose
What does the tree have to do with anything?
Fuggyt wrote...
Riverdaleswhiteflash wrote...
Fuggyt wrote...
I think the mage threat is exaggerated. There's an inherent contradiction in the situation. Either the mages are numerous and powerful enough to resist or they are not. If they are, then the Templars could never have rounded up and controlled them all in the first place, nor, for that matter, would the Tevinter Imperium ever have fallen. If they are not, then Anders's act of terrorism is a desperately futile gesture than can only lead to the genocide of all mages and the Circles are merely the repressive products of superstition, paranoia, and greed for power.
The mages were willingly accepting the Circle system as the best thing all around; that's how they were all rounded up, because they put up with it. Anders does not believe it to be the best option, and thus scares the Templars into cracking down so far that the mages have no choice but to revolt.
As for why this didn't happen sooner, remember that Templars are supposed to be able to counter magic. Thus, they can defend themselves from a rebellious mage. A large part of the reason mages are supposed to be scary is that most non-mages cannot do this.
As for the Tevinter Imperium, it never did fall. Not really. It lost a lot of power, due to the Blights (remember that the spawn have mages too) and the slave revolt (which took advantage of this chaos and some well-timed natural disasters), but Minrathous itself has never been breached and it still has territories under it. Make of that what you will.
I make of it that you agree with me. Mages are not now and never were numerous or powerful enough to resist all the other various powers in Thedas. Their threat is exaggerated for political and social ends.
The first mage volunteers were from Val Royeaux who only thought a Circle would be the "best thing all around" when compared to an Exalted March or a lifetime as a magical Zippo lighter for the lamps in the Chantry. That's a far cry from suggesting the system was established with the voluntary cooperation of mages in general. Besides, even if that were case when the Circles were founded, it is not the case now, when children are torn from their homes between 6 and 12 years old. Most parents are not like Jowan's, anxious to rid their hands of their demon child. Religious indoctrination goes only so far. Most parents naturally dread the Templars and many go to great lengths to hide their "special needs" children from them, sometimes, as Redcliffe learned, with tragic results. So if mages were particularly numerous in the population, there would already be a significant resistance underground among the parents. But there's not.
And although Tevinter has not gone away, its decline confirms the point. Clearly, Tevinter's fortunes have been shaped by the way it has regulated magic, not by the magic itself. The Tevinter empire was built on slavery which fueled not only its economy but also more powerful (and darker) magics. So once it declined and could no longer import slaves from lost provinces or depopulated districts, it became too weak to recapture its territories but remained too strong to eradicate. Whether they were overrun by a Blight, an Exalted March, a slave rebellion, or a plague of nugs is beside the point. The point is that once they fell they'd never be able to get all the way back up, similar to the strategic situation faced by Justinian and his successors. Byzantium was was impregnable as Minrathous until the invention of artillery. The magisters still had the spells but they lacked the conventional means to acquire the resources needed to cast them. Otherwise, if the mages of Tevinter are numerous or powerful enough in and of themselves to reconquer Thedas, why haven't they?
It seems that confining lots of mages in one place is the cause of Tevinterism, not its cure. Consider Rivain. Numerous mages live outside the Circle there, many of them revered as wise women and associated with the pre-Chantry traditions. There they are, completely unsupervised or out of control, apparently either too weak, too few, or just too disinterested to invite a Divine March on the abominations and pride demons rampaging through Llomerryn.
It is often argued that the Circles are necessary to train mages lest they become abominations which, we are frequently reminded, can level a city block. But the Circle's idea of training is to toss an apprentice to a demon and kill his body if he loses his soul. A fairly high percentage have to fail, because otherwise nobody would even consider Tranquility as an alternative nor would the Harrowing be a secret. Evidence suggests this is the wrong way to go about it. If as high a percentage of apostates spontaneously turned into abominations as fail the Harrowing, then you'd have a point, because they'd be popping out on a regular basis everywhere in Thedas and twice in Rivain. But such is not the case. Flemeth taught Morrigan, apparently by progressive exposure, and she's a lot wiser to the ways of the Fade than wonderful Wynne is. Bethany and Mage Hawke were taught by their father by methods unknown but obviously effective. Cruel, useless, and unnecessary, the Harrowing can only persist because mages as a class are not numerous or powerful enough to resist its enforcement.
So we agree. The mage threat is exaggerated.
Modifié par Riverdaleswhiteflash, 14 juin 2013 - 12:13 .
Riverdaleswhiteflash wrote...
Sontemuka wrote...
TinuHawke wrote...
You don't have to be a lunatic to believe in what you're fighting for. Being oppressed is a valid reason for fighting back.
This. SO MUCH This.
At first I killed Anders and was a Pro-Templar. I always looked for peacefuly solutions but i thought than the Templar's duty was to protect the citizens from the magic, so... "i must stand with them" was what I said. Then I realize... that's all because the opression and control over the mages, they're a kind of slaves.
We lock them all mages because MAYBE A FEW can be dangerous? Common...
How much damage can those few do? Leaving Anders aside, since he's an extremely rare case, what about Connor? Abominations at all are a rare case, but what can one abomination do?
Sontemuka wrote...
Riverdaleswhiteflash wrote...
Sontemuka wrote...
TinuHawke wrote...
You don't have to be a lunatic to believe in what you're fighting for. Being oppressed is a valid reason for fighting back.
This. SO MUCH This.
At first I killed Anders and was a Pro-Templar. I always looked for peacefuly solutions but i thought than the Templar's duty was to protect the citizens from the magic, so... "i must stand with them" was what I said. Then I realize... that's all because the opression and control over the mages, they're a kind of slaves.
We lock them all mages because MAYBE A FEW can be dangerous? Common...
How much damage can those few do? Leaving Anders aside, since he's an extremely rare case, what about Connor? Abominations at all are a rare case, but what can one abomination do?
A person can became into a serial murder. So because of that we must lock all the citizens for "just in case" argument?
All this "dangerous cases" you're talking about became with the Templars vigilance. What about without it? If i'm not wrong, Connor's mother don't let him go the the Circle of Mages because of the rules they have. If the rules were different, maybe the Circle Of Mages stop being the "worst horrible place to go for the mages".
Modifié par The Grey Nayr, 14 juin 2013 - 12:21 .
WittingEight65 wrote...
Riverdaleswhiteflash wrote...
And that will be enough? Hint, no. Remember that persuade check to stop Paedan from attacking you, where it never works even if you pass? Max persuade won't be enough to get the saarebas answering to you, though if you're willing to volunteer for the Qun I'll just bet they're willing to treat you like you treat mages.
Alright then.
Since my Warden is pro-templar, he would support me. So, with him, I'd have a group of Grey Wardens by my side, if not all of them.
And for the Qunari, I would ally with them to destroy Tevinter with condition to support me with their own mages to help the Grey Wardens. And maybe let them rule the whole of Thedas with their religion.
Modifié par Riverdaleswhiteflash, 14 juin 2013 - 12:24 .
Sontemuka wrote...
Riverdaleswhiteflash wrote...
Sontemuka wrote...
This. SO MUCH This.
At first I killed Anders and was a Pro-Templar. I always looked for peacefuly solutions but i thought than the Templar's duty was to protect the citizens from the magic, so... "i must stand with them" was what I said. Then I realize... that's all because the opression and control over the mages, they're a kind of slaves.
We lock them all mages because MAYBE A FEW can be dangerous? Common...
How much damage can those few do? Leaving Anders aside, since he's an extremely rare case, what about Connor? Abominations at all are a rare case, but what can one abomination do?
A person can became into a serial murder. So because of that we must lock all the citizens for "just in case" argument?
All this "dangerous cases" you're talking about became with the Templars vigilance. What about without it? If i'm not wrong, Connor's mother don't let him go the the Circle of Mages because of the rules they have. If the rules were different, maybe the Circle Of Mages stop being the "worst horrible place to go for the mages".
Modifié par Riverdaleswhiteflash, 14 juin 2013 - 12:24 .
Or Connor could have just been sent to the Circle which would have avoided the whole situation.The Grey Nayr wrote...
Blood magic also solves the crisis. Actually using Jowan's blood magic is a lot easier than going to the Circle because doing that risks leaving Connor alone for an unspecified amount of time that he could have raised another zombie army and wiped out the whole city.
I've never condemned the existence of the Circle of Magi. Having a place for mages to learn how control their powers is fine.
What I condemn is the Templars stripping mages of basic human rights and treating them like animals. If you treat them like animals, big surprise when they become animals(to quote Jacob Taylor from Mass Effect 2)
This is the one thing I agree with Merril. ALL spirits are dangerous.Wynne's very existence proved a better method than the Chantry ever had for preventing mages from becoming abominations. Bonding a placid spirit to a mage makes them immune to demonic possession. Anders is a different case because the spirit he bonded with was violent and zealoted, which didn't mix well with his inner hatred.
Riverdaleswhiteflash wrote...
Ordinary people can't solo cities. I really wish pro-mages would stop using this strawman.
Now when did I say I support the Circles as they were? Some of the rules in place are absolutely insane, and really ought to be changed.
Modifié par Peer of the Empire, 14 juin 2013 - 12:36 .
Saarebas are less adept at using magic than trained human mages due to their lifestyle, so good luck with that.WittingEight65 wrote...
I just need the help of the Qunari (and THEIR mages).
Modifié par JackumsD, 14 juin 2013 - 12:38 .