#anti templars

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

best article I've seen about Cullen

They are not even remotely being shy and im loving it

He is part of an army that regularly tears children from their homes and lobotomizes anyone who doesn't fall in line. He is treated better because he is not them, and it’s a system he is complicit in. There is nothing cute about his crush on one of his inmates.

#anti cullen #his crush was NEVER CUTE!!!!!! #ableism #anti templars

[yesiplaygamez]

when they say that side with the templars

me:

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #dai #pro mage #sorry not sorry #anti templars #anders did nothing wrong #dragon age 2 #da2 #video game #dragon age shitpost #anders dragon age 2 #anders my love #wise words #pro anders #mage rights #dao #yesiplatgamez

[ohnoitshappening]

The way there are ways to learn to weild magic and magic-like abilities in the universe (Templars, Berserkers, Spirit warriors or whatever that subclass was called) with Templars originally not even needing lyrium to have their skills, and how that could affect the story is ignored especially after it got retconned to lift responsibility from the chantry and fit in the "both sides equally bad" bullshit in...

#dragon age #dragon age critical #dragon age origins #alistair theirin #tagging him bc he's the source for the templar info #mages #chantry #templars #anti chantry #anti templars #pro mages

[meowmeowmage]

I once read that magic is to blame for the suffering in Hawke's life and I just couldn't disagree more. The Chantry and its cruel yet useless Circle system are to blame for literally every major shit thing that happened to Hawke. Not directly, but we can trace the blame to them anyway.

• Malcolm and Leandra would've never had to leave Kirkwall and a cushy life behind if the Circle prisons weren't a thing

• If mage healers weren't locked up and instead were free to heal the general populace, Malcolm might've survived his illness

• Hawke's now dead sibling wouldn't have died bc they would've never had to flee Lothering and the Blight

• Hawke's other sibling wouldn't have died/become a grey warden bc Hawke wouldn't have had to go to the Deep Roads for money

• The same sibling also wouldn't have been imprisoned/joined the Templars

• Leandra wouldn't have been killed (even if Malcolm had died) if the Templars served as actual protectors against dangerous mages (being part of the guard for example) instead of being mostly a bunch of bigoted jailers who are too busy keeping the innocent mages "in line" to actually do anything about the truly dangerous ones (and are mostly too incompetent against those anyway)

So nah, magic didn't fuck Hawke over. An oppressive system did. Hawke has every right to want it torn to shreds.

#hawke #da2 #anti chantry #anti templars #feels like i can slap those two tags on 90% of my posts lmao #the biggest betrayal in game is for hawke to side with the templars #hawke would literally not exist if his father hadn't given one big fat middle finger to the circle #my posts

[thedisc0panda]

I’ve been slowly adding more DA things to the shop, including this sticker which has proven more popular than I expected, mostly with origins fans.

#dragon age origins #anti cullen #anti templars #anti templar #dragon age alistair #dragon age 2 #garret hawke #anders da2 #warden surana #shop stuff #alarian surana #da:o #Instagram

[snurtle]

I've been thinking about the templars lately. they were promised honor, virtue, told that they would be charged with protection of the innocent... And then those same people are systemically exploited and abused, abuse others because they're taught to regard everyone else as either sheep who need to be lead or potential threats. Never equals, except in their brothers/sisters-in-arms. They act as the guard-dogs and military arm of an entirely different organization that they're only a functionary member of but have no governing say in. Even the chantry aren't their equals- they function as the templar order's supervisors! And all this isolation and closing of ranks ends in disability, addiction, death, and abandonment by the system they spent their bodies in service of.

To top that off, retaliations against them just confirm the paranoia they were taught to embrace. It's probably a long hard road to get out of that hole.

Like, listen. the dichotomy of mage vs templars is a satisfying and easy one, but the system is tearing them apart too. have you ever heard of a retired templar?

at the end of it, mages and templars need to unite against the real threat. the chantry.

#this is an anti chantry post i want that temple exploded NOW #the chantry controls the lyrium; benefits directly from the formari enchanter system; has a financial incentive to make and use tranquil #the templars are breaking themselves in service of a system that functionally does Not care about them in any way except #their ability to hold a sword and counteract fade magic and that messes me up #thedosians need a fucking cross-field labor union NOW #of course the kalna would probably send the carta after any potential organizations of that nature #and the coterie #cant kill em all though!!! #actually that would be a hilarious fic #dragon age #canon dont interact i dont pay attention to discrete facts here we operate on half remembered game knowledge and vibes #if there are any retired templars out there: uhh... enjoy that. happy for you king (alistair) #cullen rutherford fundamentally represents 'no retirement plans' for me #the man is fifteen chronic illnesses ptsd shit withdrawal and interpersonal abandonment in a trenchcoat with fur trim #text it #long tags

[kirkwalldrama]

people: 'anders killed hundreds of people in that explosion'

also people: ignore the fact that hawke killed like 1000000 people in the streets for gold

#hawke #anders #da2 #dragon age #dragon age origins #handers #dai #garrett hawke #dragon age 2 #anders da2 #anders was right #anders dragon age #dragon age dreadwolf #anti chantry #anti templar

[trans-ruffboi]

pounce's outfit

original image under the cut:

#dragon age memes #anders has never been more proud #dragon age awakening #ser pounce a lot #everybody ignore how this image is terrible quality. i lost the actual sketchbook image and downloaded the version i posted to discord #da2 #dragon age origins awakening #anti templar #dragon age meme

[elvenforestwitch]

The Tevinter Templars are fucking insane. Dead elven slaves embedded in your walls in case of emergency necromancy? Fine. Summoning spirits to ask about ancient relics and then aggressively pestering them until they are corrupted into demons? Totally chill bro everyone makes mistakes. Skipping out on church? Rad. Blackmailing the elf you consider your sister? Okay. But you use bLOOD maGIC? Terrible. Horrible. The line has been fucking drawn. How dare you.

#Rezaren #da absolution #dragon age absolution #spoilers #absolution #absolution spoilers #tassia #Tevinter #anti chantry #fuck the Templars #dragon age templars

[rosenfey]

the thing is I keep thinking about replaying dr*g*n age several times a year but I never do because I cannot think about these games as "something that helped me get through college" anymore without getting the immediate backlash of "people being harassed over a fictional choice in a fictional role playing game around 10 years ago"

#ambie.txt #it sucks so damn much because I remember having my first comfort character to be a dragon age character #(it was anders. so you know how it is) #and then literally seeing people accuse others of condoning terrible fucked up crimes because they like certain characters #instead of like. addressing the actual anti-semitism in the games. you know. the actual problems. #instead of the supposed grey morality of the games (it's not grey at all) and going on a crusade over who you romance #and I think it would be so cool to revisit games I played 10 years ago and see them with fresh eyes etc etc #but then I remember that my fave characters from there are like. controversial or something. and I don't have the energy #like. as if that's a thing I should think about. like oh no I can't play this game and kiss this guy cuz he blows up a church #but the elven ghettos are fine it's the whole templar vs mages thing we need to focus on #BTW this is NOT an invitation to be nasty in my anons. I am tired and I will block you

[crunchbuttsteak]

Warden Amell, storming into Kirkwall: Anders, how could you?!

Anders: Oh Maker, here we go...

Warden Amell: You blew up the chantry-

Anders: Have you seen the kind of abuses-

Warden Amell: WITHOUT ME?!

#dragon age: origins #dragon age #dragon age ii #anders #warden amell #gray warden #anders dragon age #fuck the chantry #mage rights #this is an anti-templar anti-chantry blog

[platoniccereal]

actually jowan and surana's story is so cruel because surana is the best student, and jowan is a far less skillful mage, and their story shows so much because the templars claim to be champions and defenders so it means they are supposed to protect the weak. and what the players see when they are presented to thedas for the first time? once again nothing the templars claim is true, because they don't defend their weak, they weed them out, and only mages like surana have a chance. if you play for the first time, it's such a cold dogma vs reality opposition. the existence of the harrowing is also in the same bucket. it's not about protection, nobody cares about the weak, and the only for mages is to prove themselves constantly.

#dragon age #dragon age origins #anti templar #anti chantry #jowan dragon age #warden surana #dao playthrough #my post

[squirrelwithatophat]

Wynne defending children from the Templars

It’s interesting to reflect on Wynne’s Establishing Character Moment in Dragon Age: Origins, especially in light of the strange whitewashing of the Templar Order in Inquisition as well as her apparently conservative politics.  When we encounter her in Broken Circle (our first interaction with her since the brief chat at Ostagar), we see her fighting to protect a group of young children not only from demons but from the Templars -- the very military force that claims to protect them.  If she is recruited into the party, in fact, we discover that she had already sacrificed her life for them.  She is technically dead/undead and only kept standing due to possession by a spirit of Faith.

As soon as the party enters the door, she’s fearful that the Warden has come to kill them all on behalf of Knight-Commander Greagoir, and depending on player choices/intentions, she may in fact be correct.  

Wynne: It’s you!  No... come no further.  Grey Warden or no, I will strike you down where you stand!

Warden: Wynne - what are you doing here?

Wynne: I am a mage of the Circle.  More importantly, why are you here?  The templars would not let just anyone by.

Warden: You have children with you.

Wynne: The tower is a place of learning.  Young apprentices are always here.  Why is that surprising?

Wynne: But this is no time to discuss that.  Why are you here?  Why did the templars let you in?

Warden: I am helping Greagoir resolve the Circle’s difficulties.

Wynne: Then you do serve the templars as I feared.  Do they have the Right of Annulment?

Warden: The Right of Annulment?

Wynne: The order from the grand cleric allowing the templars to completely annul a Circle.  Do they have it?

Warden: No, but Greagoir expects it to arrive soon.

Wynne: So Greagoir thinks the Circle is beyond hope.  He probably assumes we are all dead.  

Wynne: They abandoned us to our fate, but even trapped as we are, we have survived.  If they invoke the Right, however, we will not be able to stand against them.

Warden: It’s nothing less than this Circle deserves.

Wynne:  Do these children deserve death too?  Will they die by your hand?

Warden: Mages are a danger.  If I had a say, you would all be culled.

Wynne: Kill us solves nothing, but with training and education, mages learn to control their powers.

Wynne: You’re mad if you think I’ll let you lay a finger on these children.  If will fight you if you won’t listen to reason.

Wynne: I am not afraid of you.

Warden: This Circle must be destroyed, for all our sakes.

Wynne: If you insist on making war on the Circle, we have nothing more to discuss.  It comes to blows, then.  I will stop you or die trying.

BONUS - terrified child fleeing from being murdered:

Commentary

While Wynne can be condescending and sometimes preachy in her support for the Circle, her dialogue both here and elsewhere indicates that she has no illusions about the Templars keeping them locked inside.  

After all, they imprisoned her in Kinloch Hold since she was a young child, took her own child away from her forever, and threatened to slaughter both her and the other children she was mentoring in her son’s stead.  If recruited into the party, she opens up about the despair she felt as a girl when she realized she would be trapped there forever, and it was only by turning to the religious faith that was being forced on all mages in the tower that she began to make peace with her fate.  She knows that if the Libertarian Fraternity successfully leads a vote for independence from the Chantry, the Templars will simply kill them all.  She even uses the term “genocide” to describe what will happen.  She explicitly cites this as the reason why she opposes the independence vote. 

The mages will never be free! The Chantry would never allow it. Our only hope for survival is to show them we can be trusted! Don’t you remember what happened to the Circle in Ferelden? Do you want to give the templars another excuse to call for the culling of all mages?

She doesn’t reject freedom for her fellow mages for any personal advantage, throwing others like her under the bus to reap the rewards of brown-nosing.  If she wanted any semblance of power or status, after all, she would have accepted the post of First Enchanter (or second-in-line to it) a long time ago.  As of Dragon Age Origins, she has consistently rejected the opportunity to become Irving’s successor.  As of the end of Broken Circle, if she joins the party and defeats Uldred’s rebels, she still needs to ask for permission just to temporarily leave the tower, despite having proven her loyalty and competence beyond any reasonable doubt both here and over the past thirty or so years of incarceration.  It takes helping the Hero of Ferelden save the entire country by defeating the Archdemon to convince the Templars to allow her to come and go freely - an opportunity that, as her own son later points out, no one else has had or probably ever would have in their lifetime (and one, as the only the player knows, that is entirely conditional on player choices).

The only context in which she ever even considers fighting the Templars is when she has no other way of preventing the Templars from killing them all anyways - both during Broken Circle and in the climax of Asunder.

Her politics are, in the end, based on fear.

Not the usual fear of the Other or fear of social change that hamper normal politics, but the completely rational fear, as someone at/near the bottom of the social hierarchy, about what the authorities will do to her and everyone like her if they step out of line.  As it turns out, she’s not wrong about what the powers that be are and how they will react - she’s only wrong about the potential for a better future and the rewards of fighting for it.

#dragon age #dragon age origins #dragon age meta #da meta #wynne #wynne dragon age #chantry critical #anti chantry #templar critical #anti templar #circle critical #anti circle #pro mage #dao #broken circle #knight commander greagoir #right of annulment #100 #200 #300

[meowmeowmage]

The Chantry explosion being Hawke's catharsis

One handers (doesn't have to be handers but imo it works best like that) take/headcanon about the end fo DA2 that I haven't seen before is that the Chantry explosion is a catharsis for Hawke, that it feels both freeing and relieving to him. I'll elaborate. This is all about pro-mage (probably red) Hawke btw.

Hawke is not exactly a man with a plan. Things just happen to him (Varric approaches him for the Deep Roads expedition, the qunari try to take over Kirkwall, etc). He only makes decisions when a situation is presented to him, but never really tries to steer events in a certain way unprompted. In Act 3 Hawke has a reputation and social sway due to being Champion. But those don't mean much bc politically (and in terms of actual power in the form of a templar army) Elthina and Meredith are in charge, and nobody can do anything against them. Not really. And not in the violent police/dictatorship state that Mereedith is running.

Hawke gets blackmailed into helping Meredith, and would've probably gotten blackmailed again and again until he was forced to do something he would hate himself for, or refused and Meredith had him removed from the picture. The latter would've caused a stir among the people but ultimately nothing would've changed bc Meredith has Kirkwall by the throat. Hawke would've been accused of something (blood magic, harbouring apostates, doesn't really matter) bc in Act 3 the templars are killing people left and right for whatever. Hawke just has way more protection bc of his status, but that's not infinite.

So Hawke in Act 3 is stuck between a rock and a hard place. But he's not a planner. He doesn't even know where to start in order to fix the situation. Red!Hawke specifically realizes that war is inevitable, but he doesn't know how to bring everything to a boil, especially not to a situation in which those against the templars would have as close to equal grounds as possible for a fight. But Anders does. Anders has a plan and Hawke knows that. So he waits for Anders to present him with a situation.

And when the Chantry goes boom, that situation is finally presented. The choice is clear. And Hawke feels relief bc now he knows exactly what he needs to do. It's catharsis bc it's the relief from years worth of stress. The feeling of constant pressure, uncertainty and frustration - all released now. It's time to act.

#handers #hawke #anders #anders was right #my posts #chantry critical #anti chantry #anti templar #this got longer than i intended but i hope someone reads it

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

DAI really did lack the teeth that DA2 and DAO had. Cassandra never really get challenged in her views and she doesn't change anything when Divine. The game just tries to trick you into thinking she does by using manipulative language, i.e., "new" templar order and "new" circle of magi. Neither is new, they're both exactly the same. The game just wants you to think change is being made when it isn't.

Then you have her ask an elven Inquisitor if there's no room for another God. Or be very dismissive of any faith that isn't Andrastian. But you can never challenge her on it. Much like how you can't challenge Cullen's shit takes.

Yeah you're so right, they really flopped when inquisition writing backpedaled on the chantry and templars. And you can't fire back on people with their apologism.

That line of Cassandra's pisses me the hell off. Let people, especially elves with their oppression believe in their own gods.

0/10 stars do not recommend (100/10 stars for most of the companions). Shame they made 2 great games and they made the best quality (graphics wise) game but the personality of wet cardboard 😞

#bioware critical #anti chantry #anti templar #cassandra critical #cullen critical #f them all

[wylldebee]

Thinking more about the Meredith Inquisition Antagonist AU and how it would've affected the world and story of Inquisition. Because of instead of a Tevinter Magister, you've got the Knight-Commander of the Templar Order. Not a mage a Templar. One of the Chantry's own. Like. Imagine how this would affect the Chantry and the Templars, when the world finds out that not only had a Templar blown up the Temple of Sacred Ashes—a holy site for those of the Andraste faith—but also killed Divine Justine V and many others, and is now one of the biggest threats since the Archdemon and the Darkspawn of the Fifth Blight. Imagine the Inquisition's new mission is now not only to defeat Meredith and close the breech, but to also investigate the Chantry and the Templars for answers on how Meredith came back and if they had anything to do with it—and it's given to you by both Orlais and Ferelden. And in the end, after the defeat of Meredith, you can pass one more judgement to Orlais and Ferelden before the game ends: The fate of the Chantry. You decide whether to let it remain as is, serverly limit their power to the point they are no longer the religious powerhouse they are, or completely get rid of it and rebuild from scratch. The pros and cons are yours to weigh and the outcome is yours to decide. So what will you choose, Inquisitor?

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #Meredith Stannard #inquisitor #the inquisitor #the chantry #anti-chantry #Ferelden #Orlais #templar order #knight commander Meredith