1. mages cannot safely ingest lyrium. There are codices about lyrium and mages in DA:O which describe it as being so dangerous to them it can literally cause every internal organ they have to hemorrhage. my first mage playthrough I tried to avoid using lyrium potions or standing in the Veins, because I thought it would kill me. (Diminishing returns and damage caused by lyrium use were play tested but found to make the game too difficult, btw.) I used to think this was retconned, but it was confirmed again in Tevinter Nights, with a bit more detail.
Lyrium causes massive amounts of damage to mages when they take it and try to draw the mana from it and it’s too much power for them to handle. It essentially kills them with their own power. So the more willpower and magical control a mage has, the more easily they can handle ingesting lyrium.
This makes some sense within the context of our OCs and companions - very few mages we interact with are average mages. But they’re also never directly ingesting raw lyrium. The act of it being turned into a potion is a form of processing it that makes it safer to mages.
2. in several books and short stories (Paper and Steel, the DA:I Samson short, and Asunder from clear memory, possibly others) Templars drink their raw lyrium. I believe the kit we see with Cullen is an ampule/ titration kit, which allows them to dose measured doses onto their tongues where it either absorbs into the tongue or is swallowed. In Asunder, Evangeline shows Rhys her vials and it seems to imply a single vial holds enough for about a week‘s use.
As for what canonically happens with lyrium and Templars - there is conflict. In DA:O, Alistair says Templars don’t have to have lyrium to be able to use their abilities. Gaider has said in several interviews that that was a mistake and it is required. It’s been mentioned in several books, comics, short stories, and codices to “clear things up”… but it doesn’t really.
We also have a Codex which talks about how they don’t receive their first dose until they’re given their first post. And that makes no sense. Even with the Chantry’s assorted abuses against Templars and Mages, why would you send untested people who have no idea how to use abilities into a Circle?
My HC agrees with yours @jellysharkbat, and they absolutely can use their abilities without lyrium - but lyrium makes it so easy that when they don’t have it, they feel like they can’t do it any longer. It’s a learned helplessness. Alistair (who never received his first dose), never learned that he needed lyrium, and continued quietly using his powers without it.
but the official DA canon is absolutely 100% of the time, lyrium is required for Templars to use their abilities.
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