It's funny how in DAO, in the introduction for the mage origin they SAY that the circle is a prison, like... litterally and then in DAI they're like "lol thats not so bad, circles are a necessity" (also apparently there is a real mage prison ? Is there more infos about it anywhere ?)
Well, there are multiple mage prisons. For example there is the one in Kirkwall that the templars took to torture Keeper Yevven and where they tried to hold the captured Saarebas in Dragon Age: Redemption.
But the one in Ferelden mentioned in DA:O is Aeonar. Mages who are accused of being a maleficar, or citizens with connections to one are taken there to be proven if they are indeed blood mages or not, or under the control of a blood mage or not. This ‘proof’ is a “trial by fire,” aka they probably torture them until they “confess…” :/Ideally all mages who are accused of being maleficarum should go there, but of course that doesn’t actually happen and instead templars execute first and ask questions later, “just to be safe.”
