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dalishious · 3 years

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The Circle of Magi is a Cult

(NOTE: I would like to sincerely apologize to my followers - this should have been posted publicly like two months ago. I genuinely thought I do so, but apparently not. But at least I caught it now!)

I admittedly do not always pay close attention when my character is talking to Wynne, as I find her preachiness often boring to listen to. However, I recently found myself snapped to attention over her explanation for how she went from, in her own words, a girl who “hated her life and herself”, to living happily in Kinloch Hold:

“The revered mother came out and decided to speak to me. And because I had no one else to talk to, I talked to her. I must have said many silly things... But she told me that the Maker puts us all on our paths for a reason, and fighting our intended course is what causes so much anguish. ... She taught me that you can find your family in the people around you, that you can love your work and find fulfillment in duty. And there is joy even in self-sacrifice; if you put others before yourself, then their well-being is yours, and their happiness is your happiness.”

This struck me with how unhealthy it sounded. The game even gives you the dialogue option of telling Wynne that sounds unhealthy, but she rebuts that as a Grey Warden, you have no right to judge. But this only made me think about how unfair the comparison between the Grey Wardens and the Circle of Magi is, given the extreme differences in even the most basic levels of freedom between both factions… which then only made Wynne’s comments all the worse sounding.

It was at this point that it truly dawned on me that a great deal of the Circle’s problems revolve around the fact that the Circle of Magi in Southern Thedas is a cult. The BITE Model of Authoritarian Control, developed by undue influence expert Steven Hassan, is an outline of how cults build and maintain control over people. Applying this real life BITE Model to this fictional organization shows just how elaborately crafted a cult it is; probably one of the most developed in all of the fantasy genre.

Not every single point in the BITE Model applies of course, but enough to justify calling the Circle a cult. Here are all the points that apply, and how they apply.

Behaviour Control

2. Dictate where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates or isolates

By Chantry law, identified mages are required to live in a Circle under its supervision, where they are almost entirely isolated from the outside world. Exception status may be granted to mages who serve nobility (i.e. Wilhelm, Vivienne), or the rare mage awarded public favour for extraordinary acts of heroism (i.e. mage Hawke), but these exceptions are far and few between.

Intimate relationships between mages are discouraged, so not to distract from loyalty to the Circle.

3. When, how and with whom the member has sex

Emile de Launcet tells Hawke that he has never had sex, not because of any choice of abstinence on his part, but because he has spent almost his whole life in Kirkwall’s Circle. He was denied the freedom to have sexual intimacy.

4. Control types of clothing and hairstyles

Circle mages do not wear regular clothing. While one might argue that mage robes are enchanted to help with casting ability and therefore provide practical use, circle mages are made to wear them even outside of practicing magic. Mages are presented with robes that correlate with their rank, and are meant to “protect one’s modesty”.

5. Regulate diet – food and drink, hunger and/or fasting

Emile de Launcet also tells Hawke that because he has been in the Circle since he was six years old, he has never even learned how to prepare a meal on his own. The Chantry controls the food provided to mages entirely. Because of this, it is withheld as punishment; in Asunder, Rhys was denied food and water for four days.

10. Permission required for major decisions

Mages require permission from the First Enchanter and Knight Commander just to step outside the Circle. Even the First Enchanters themselves cannot leave without the Knight Commander’s permission.

Anders cynically jokes that being a mage, “it’s like you need permission to be alive.”

14. Punish disobedience by beating, torture, burning, cutting, rape, or tattooing/branding 16. Force individual to rape or be raped 17. Encourage and engage in corporal punishment 20. Beating 21. Torture 22. Rape

The Circles make use of a variety of torture techniques as punishment for disobedience, ranging from long-lasting solitary confinement to outright use of medieval torture devices. These devices are found in the Gallows.

Mages are beaten for minor offences. Alain will tell Hawke that the templars beat them, and Thrask backs this up by saying the same, as well as that they are starved. In the White Spire, it is a common sight to see mages sporting bruises as well.

Along with beatings, mages are also whipped for minor offences. A mage NPC in the Gallows tells Hawke, “The templars will give me thirty lashes for speaking to a civilian.” An NPC who tried to hide her escaped mage cousin says, “Wh-what crime is feeding my cousin? She was whipped, half-starving.”

Anders mentions that the templars of Kinloch Hold beat and rape the mages there. Alain says, “Ser Karras said if I tell anyone he's been in my chambers, he'll make me Tranquil.” In the quest Dissent, Hawke almost witnesses this with Ser Alrik preying on a young mage girl, Ella. Alrik says that once she is Tranquil, she won’t be able to tell him “no”.

15. Threaten harm to family and friends

Anders shares from personal experience that the templars tell the family of mages that they will be thrown in prison if they ever ask about their child. He also mentions that the Kirkwall templars go on “midnight raids on mages’ families”—by Act 3, this has advanced to “templar death squads” outright attacking family members of mages in the streets.

18. Instill dependency and obedience

By denying mages who have been in the Circle since childhood the freedom to cook for themselves, clean for themselves, collect wealth for themselves, so much as existunchaperoned, the Chantry creates a dependency on the Circle. As Anders says of Emile, “He's lived in the Circle all his life. He can't function in the real world.”

19. Kidnapping 23. Separation of Families

Mage children are literally kidnapped from their families by the templars, upon being discovered to have magic. Communication between family members is discouraged with threats, as mentioned above.

24. Imprisonment

The Circles themselves are essentially prisons. Even more confining, mages are often locked in their quarters, as said in Dragon Age II and Asunder.

25. Murder

Mages are murdered by templars regularly and lawfully. There is even the Right of Annulment, giving templars the Chantry authorization to murder every single mage in a Circle. This right has also been used to cover up mass murder already enacted, such as the case was with the annulment of the Antivan Circle in 3:09 Towers.

Information Control

1. Deception: a) Deliberately withhold information b) Distort information to make it more acceptable c) Systematically lie to the cult member

The two biggest cases of mass deception pulled on mages is the Harrowing and the Rite of Tranquility.

Since the creation of the Rite of Tranquility, the Seekers of Truth have been fully aware of its reversal. However, they chose to keep this a secret. All mages believed that Tranquility was irreversible, and when a cure was discovered by re-creating the Seekers process through independent research, they attempted to cover it up.

3. Compartmentalize information into Outsider vs. Insider doctrines b) Control information at different levels and missions within group

Every mage must go through the Harrowing; a test that sends the apprentice mage into the Fade to fight off a demon. Those who fail are killed. Mages are forbidden from sharing information about the Harrowing with apprentices who have yet to take it. The only vague explanation being that this secrecy is “a necessity”. Apprentices are only told of the test when the night comes that they are pulled out of bed to take it.

4. Encourage spying on other members: b) Report deviant thoughts, feelings and actions to leadership c) Ensure that individual behaviour is monitored by group

Mages are under constant scrutiny by templars; there is no such thing as privacy. But even mages themselves are encouraged to our outright ordered to report signs of deviancy to the Knight-Commander and First Enchanter. In Asunder, Rhys and Adrian are threatened with punishment if they do not share information about other mages—information they do not even actually know. In the quest Bound in Blood and Magic, should the PC report Jowan’s intent on escaping the Circle, Irving sends the PC on a quest to assist in setting up a trap.

Worse yet, the Ferelden Circle actively lures apprentices into practising blood magic, for the sole purpose of then seeing they are made Tranquil. Irving justifies this as being ‘for the good of the Circle’ in his journal: “The students think we toy with them. The truth is far more intricate and directed. Deviant traits must be exposed early, or the whole of the Circle suffers.”

Thought Control

1. Require members to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth a) Adopting the group’s ‘map of reality’ as reality b) Instill black and white thinking c) Decide between good vs. evil d) Organize people into us vs. them (insiders vs. outsiders)

Anders says, “In the Circle, they tell you day and night that magic is a sin. A mark on your soul of the Maker's hatred.” This is shown to be heavily internalized by mages like Kelli in Dragon Age Origins, and nameless NPCs found in the Gallows in Dragon Age II speaking of how they are cursed with “demonic influences.”

There is no room for grey in the Circle teachings about spirits/demons, or about forbidden magic like blood magic. Mages are taught that spirits/demons are dangerous beasts no matter what, they are taught that Chantry-determined forbidden magic is evil no matter what, and that mages who consort with spirits or use blood magic are evil no matter what.

One of the biggest defences from Loyalist mages who defend the Circle’s system, is that the outside world is just as much a danger to them as they are to it. They argue that the fear and hatred of mages held by the common folk—conveniently forgetting that this fear and hatred is spread by the Chantry itself—makes it too dangerous for mages to live outside the Circle, because they will be attacked. This “us vs. them” mentality is used to scare mages into submission.

3. Use of loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words.

Select parts of the Chant of Light with a select interpretation are recited regularly by the Templar Order and Chantry brothers and sisters. These verses are used as argument-enders and vague answers without real explaining. The most common example being, “Magic exists to serve man, and never to rule over him” from the Canticle of Transfigurations 1:2. The way in which phrases like this one are used, without even the full context of the full passage, turns them into hackneyed proverbs of lost significance.

5. Hypnotic techniques are used to alter mental states, undermine critical thinking and even to age regress the member.

In Dragon Age II, if Hawke asks Cullen to be magnanimous to the mages involved in the quest Best Served Cold, back at the Gallows, Cullen tells Hawke “The mages have been confined to their quarters and sedated.” It is unknown what method of sedation is used on the mages exactly, or if it is magical or pharmaceutical in nature. Either way, it is a forced alteration of mental state.

8. Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism.

Challenging or even just criticizing the Circle system is highly regarded as “dangerous” seditionist behaviour. Leliana says that the Chantry only tolerated the Libertarian fraternity’s wishes to change things in appearance only. This is further evidenced by the Templar Order’s declaration of war when the Libertarians did actually win the vote to separate, at the end of Asunder.

10. Labelling alternative belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or not useful.

The Chantry refers to cultures with admiration for and free use of magic, ones that do not lock up their mages as prisoners, as “uncivilized” and/or “evil” in order to delegitimize the evidence against their fearmongering, untruthful control methods. The Rivaini, the Dalish, and the Avvar are referred to as dangerous and backwards, while all of the issues in Tevinter are blamed on its freedom of mages, rather than capitalist oppression. (I.e. the same capitalist oppression that exists in Orlais, comparatively speaking.)

Emotional Control

1. Manipulate and narrow the range of feelings – some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong or selfish. 2. Teach emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of homesickness, anger, doubt.

The Chantry very literally controls feelings through the Rite of Tranquility; halting a mage’s ability to feel anything at all. The rite is regularly used as punishment, and on mages deemed “too dangerous”. When Pharamond cured himself of tranquility, he was immediately ordered to be made tranquil again, because he was deemed “too emotional”.

3. Make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault.

Victim-blaming is a common defence for the measures against mages by templars and Chantry apologists. The idea that it is always the fault of the mages that the templars are “forced” to act strictly has been recited repeatedly by characters, like for example, Cullen: “It will be up to the mages themselves whether they push us to more stringent measures.” Meredith, Cassandra, and others minor NPCs echo this notion. Even the Mage-Templar Conflict is referred to as the “Mage Rebellion,” despite it being the Templars that first declared war in Asunder.

4. Promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness, such as: a) Identity guilt

Mages are constantly told that their existence is a sin, and that they are not even truly people deserving of being treated as such. Literally, as Cullen says: “Mages cannot be treated like people. They are not like you and me.”

To reiterate one of Anders’ most chilling quotes again: “In the Circle, they tell you day and night that magic is a sin. A mark on your soul of the Maker's hatred.”

5. Instill fear, such as fear of: b) The outside world

The Chantry cultivates a fear of magic in the general population, and then on the opposite end, cultivates a fear of that general population’s fear in mages. Supports of the Circles are quick to say that it is the only place “safe” for mages, because of this fear. The Chantry makes the Circle appear safe only by making the outside world appear worse in comparison.

6. Ritualistic and sometimes public confession of sins

This one is debatable whether it is canon or not, as it is shown in the IDW published Dragon Age comics. BioWare has no official stance, while Gaider has said it’s up to fans to decide. With that said, in the comic, when a pregnant mage named Veness refuses to say who the father is—a templar—she is taken before every male mage in the Circle, and a “proximity spell” is used to try and determine the father. There is no actual purpose for this, since the Chantry plans on taking the child anyway; the only reason is to force the truth of Veness’ private affairs, and humiliate her for becoming pregnant.

8. Phobia indoctrination: inculcating irrational fears about leaving the group or questioning the leader’s authority b) Terrible consequences if you leave: hell, demon possession, incurable diseases, accidents, suicide, insanity, 10,000 reincarnations, etc. e) Threats of harm to ex-member and family

The Chantry brands every mage outside the Circle as an apostate, and brands every apostate as most likely to be a maleificar (someone who practices forbidden magic) and/or abomination (someone possessed). This is another reason why mages fear leaving the Circle; they do not want to become what they are taught is evil.

Mages who do flee the Circle face the very real threat of death or tranquility if caught. And again, there is more than just threats to family; the templars in Kirkwall actively raided their homes and assaulted them.

In Conclusion

A cult uses undue influence to keep people dependent, obedient, and loyal. Assessing the Circle using the BITE model above, as if it were real, shows how the Chantry uses undue influence to maintain control over mages in Southern Thedas. Perhaps the Chantry as a whole is not a cult, but the Circle system, as it exists pre-rebellion at least, definitely is.

Sources

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas, vol. 1

Dragon Age: The World of Thedas, vol. 2

Dragon Age: Asunder

Dragon Age (IDW Comic)

Codex entry: Irving's Mistake (DA:O)

Codex entry: The Rite of Tranquility (DA:I)

Item description: Apprentice Robes (DA:O)

Item description: Mage Robes (DA:O)

Item description: Senior Enchanter's Robes (DA:O)

Item description: Magehunter (DA:I)

Quest: The Harrowing (DA:O)