The point is, trained mages on the whole, even living in stressful and rather dehumanizing conditions, don't go abomination out of the blue. They don't go abomination because life is hard. These mages turn abomination in extreme circumstances. There hasn't been anything to really demonstrate that trained mages can't live freer lives.
Mages can harm people in many ways beyond demonic possession. The Tevinter mages demonstrate that trained mages can't live freer lives.
However, there are other examples. Quentin who turned to blood magic for no reason other than the natural death of his wife.
And then there is the Baroness, both a blood mage and Abomination.
And what about mages like Huon who earned "freedom" and imediatelly used it to harm others?
Or Thrask's daugther who meant no harm to anyone and yet, she was threatened by outlaws and becamwe an Abomination.
There are many threats on Thedas that can push mages to the arms of demons. There are many temptations that can lead to them abusing their power.
Ultimately, mages are simply far too dangerous to be allowed much more freedom beyond what they already have.
That is not to say the Circle can't be improved but let's stop short of allowing them to leave it permanently if they wish.
There is no bad implication behind mage and non-mage. Its akin to something like resident and non-resident. Its a simple distinction of identity in context. Mages and "normals" implies that mages that don't belong in the world, that they're a strange aberration to be fixed or ignored. Its dehumanizing.
Of course there is. It implies normal people have no identity beyond their lack of magic.
Normal, like I said before, comes from norm. Since those bereft of magic are actually the majority they are, by definition, normal.
Mundane, on the other hands, carries the connotations of "worthless". Not to mention we're still defining normal people in comparison to mages.
I don't know of any proof in the lore that supports Tevinter as the only human society in Thedas before some kind of non-mage break off. WoT details eleven distinct human tribes with their own cultures, language, and beliefs in Thedas before Tevinter as an empire even came into existence, and there were likely many more than that around. All of human society was not a response to Tevinter.
Tribes, yes. But the Anderfels, Free Marches, Nevarra, Orlais and Rivain were all formed through violent separation from the Imperium.
So much paranoia. We haven't seen or heard of one case of mind control yet, and you can't cut one group out of decision making - certainly not when it mostly or solely affects them. Magic is a commodity and using it as leverage, to support itself and its interests, is exactly what the Circle should do. They aren't going to control all of society. Magic is not a solution to all of society's problems and southern Thedas doesn't have a culture supportive of unrestricted magic use. Mages will never be so thoroughly ingratiated in the ruling class as to hijack it and any magic used or promoted by the circle will be under heavy regulation.
So much naivety. All the mages have to do to control all of society is to use magic towards making money. They already produce glowing stones for Val-Royeaux thus, we see the beginnings of electricity except it can only be produced by mages. Do you see us today holding a revolution against electricity?
If allowed to flourish, magic would eventually dominate the entire making the population entirely dependant on mages. After that, it's a matter of sending the right money into the right pockets to approve the right laws.
And that is merely one of the possibilities. Mage children born to nobles being allowed to inherit their father's authority is another. And then of course, there is always blood magic to control the King.
Give mages freedom, and they'll be in control within a century. Which is why they should have no power to make decisions beyond what happens within the Circle.
We do know that seers work with non-mage leaders and subordinates. WoT calls seers the most senior authorities of traditional Rivaini culture, it doesn't say that non-mages have no authority or voice in this society. And the traditional societies very much appear to like their culture and want to keep it in tact despite attempts by the Chantry to convert them.
That doesn't really adress my point of how mage leadership affected cultural tendencies towards making society less safe for normals.
They may have some authority but it's not as much as the Seers. Certainly not enough to stop them from allowing themselves to be possessed.
The circle in Ferelden had hordes of abominations after Uldred's plan - his plan being a direct response to the injustices of the Circle. Failed Harrowings, which seem rather regular, ensure abominations in the circle. You can't discuss abominations without discussing why most of them occur. The majority of them are related to circle operation.
No, his plan was a direct response of him being power greedy; as Wynne says, Uldred was only ever interested in his advancement.
See, you can't prove Abominations ocurrs because of Circle operation. I can always counterargue that it was the personality of the mage in question that lead them down that path and that the Circle is what prevented them from harming others.
The only point you have is the Abomination created through the Harrowing but those are always killed before they harm anyone.
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