100% serious question, under what basis does the Chantry not treat the mages as people?
Is it because they are imprisoned? But we imprison people as well. In some cases, such as during a quarantine, without them doing anything.
Is it because their children are taken from them? But we also take children from parents we deem unfit to raise them.
Is it because there can be abuses? But there can be abuses everywhere, including Tevinter.
Is it because their freedoms are restricted? But everyone's freedoms are restricted.
Is it because they can be legally killed? But many states still have the death penalty.
Circle Mages receive an education. Animals aren't educated, they are trained.
Circle Mages are clothed. We don't clothe animals.
Circle Mages can have their aid requested. Animals or tools don't receive requests but orders.
Circle Mages have freedoms and rights such as the freedoms of association. Animals or tools have no such rights.
1. A quarantine is not imprisonment. It is a temporary solution. In the case of sick people who are dying of their sickness it's meant to not spread the sickness. If the sickness is either treatable or deemed not contagious they go free after treatment. Magic is not contagious and the likes of Vivianne, Wynne, Morrigan and every single mage protagonist every played proves that Magic is not dangerous if you know how to wield it. You still have to choose to use it violently in order for it to become dangerous, just like you have to chose to use every knife violently in order for you to become a danger.
2. We take children from parents unfit to raise them to protect the children. We don't take them from their parents to send them into an orphanage until they're 18 to then send them into prison for the rest of their lives.
3. There can be abuses anywhere, true. Yet the state usually treats abuse as a crime (the parents unfit to protect their children, which you used in the previous example, are often deemed so because they abuse them after all) instead of legalizing it and actively using it on every person that has, lets say, green eyes. If other people abuse you, the law is on your side. If the law sets up the rule that you should be abused no one is on your side.
As for Tervinter. Their slavery system is pretty bad too but it's still better than the Circle-system because of one simple thing: choice. You choose to sell yourself into slavery in order to solve a problem. You could make the choice to become a homeless person insead. You could potentially ask a family member to solve your debt-problems, ending the need for slavery. Hell you could even leave the empire if you thought thats a smarter move. A mage has only 2 options: Either be imprisoned for the rest of your life or get hunted down and killed for the crime of not letting yourself be imprisoned.
4. You could argue that even saying "don't kill people" restricts people, so yes, to a reasonable extent every single person is restricted in their freedom. There is however a difference between that and not even having the freedom to walk across the street and sit on a bench. Thats not the normal level of restriction, but a level we use for prisoners that have already proven to cause severe harm to others. We don't use it on people with the logic that there once was a bald murderer, so every bald person has to be a murderer and thus imprisoned. We wait until they give us a reason.
5. Same thing. Death penalty is used instead of a life sentence for people that were exceptionally brutal and sadistic in their murders, showed no remorse at all or simply killed dozens of people. It is earned and even then, most states with a higher amount of intelligent people than Texas have already outlawed it. Every european country has outlawed it. There's not even a death penalty in russia. Those are all different cultures choosing to not even treat criminals the way you say everyone born a mage should be treated. The exception are some dictatorial regimes and countries like Saudi Arabia, who we often deem dangerous (often, as in during every single religious discussion) because of their willigness to legalize murder.
The one thing that irritates me whenever I come across those "Magic is a sickness and should be treated like one" or "every Mage is a Blood Mage" posts is the question, if the people using that argument never actually played Dragon Age o.O
BioWare already proved you false in the most definite way possible. They let you play a mage and see the world from a mages perspective, and guess what? It's no different from a rogues or warriors perspective. There is no sudden urge to murder people and commit blood magic. Demons don't flock around you trying to possess you. The demons you do meet try to corrupt you no matter if you are a mundane or a mage. The playthrough is overall identical no matter if you are or are not a mage. Wouldn't you think there'd be some kind of difference if magic was something that severly changes your way of thinking and turns you into a psychopath?
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