#da templars

[magepride]

templars will be like "i know a spot" and then take you to some circle's dungeon and leave you there to rot

[vulvalini]

re: your post about false dichotomies:

given that the templars also take in the younger children of nobles, and that they're apparently happy to send people to be stationed outside their home country, i suspect there's also a great deal of internal politics-- the commoners and the nobility, the different nationalities, all wearing the same armor.

it probably causes tension but what else would unite two groups like that but an even greater 'us versus them'? further demonizing the mages.

and thats not even getting started on the children who were given to the order at infants.

the horrors of the order actually get sanded down and hidden, imo, when the individual templars get turned into faceless stereotypes. its not an either/or, as the fandom treats it, its a 'yes and'. the chantry destroyed both groups of people, and used one against the other to do it, intentionally or not.

fabulous. 10/10 no comments my friend

[pansexualhaljordan]

Templars, Lyrium and the Chantry

Okay so looking through the DA tags for Templars there’s a lot of hate for the Templars which I think is at least somewhat misplaced. Looking at what happens in canon verse I’m going to say that some, if not the majority of templars are not abusive assholes 100%. In fact most of the completely batshit members of the Templar Order are older than the rank and file and I feel this speaks a lot on the effects of lyrium and the Chantry is in some ways ultimately responsible.  In Origins it is made incredibly clear that Templars brains get ruined by prolonged exposure to lyrium and from dialogue with Alistair and with Cullen in Inquisition, it becomes evident that the Templars recruit at least mostly from the young. We also know from the Magi Origin that Cullen was a rather new Templar (it’s his first Harrowing for shits sake) and considering the 5th blight is in 9:30 and Cullen born in 9:11 he is 19 when the first blight starts. Also Alistair who is born in 9:10 was just about to be initiated when Duncan recruits him to the Grey Wardens. Soooooooo this means from initiation (where the codex entry detailing it basically describes the Templars being ODed on lyrium: http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_Way_of_the_Templar ) the Templars are basically taking lyrium for at a bare minimum 20+ years daily. The Templars may also have an extra hit for what is expected to be pretty bad fights (in Champions of the Just the Templars all take lyrium before trying to fight the Envy demon) so all in all, that’s a helluva lot of lyrium.  And dwarves who are somewhat immune lose brain function from being exposed to the unfiltred stuff. Clearly this shit will mess up your brain. (sandal being possibly lyrium-addled as an example) In Origins there’s a Templar stationed at the Denerim Chantry who has no grasp on reality with his buddy saying lyrium does that to them over time. They know this is going to happen to them and take it anyway because of either addiction or belief they’re doing the right thing. Now that we’ve established what lyrium does and how much templars take, is it really that hard to believe that a few -but not all- of the Templars who are particularly cruel are potentially going crazy due to the lyrium? Meredith clearly went off the deep end when she was exposed to the Red Lyrium, which is clearly strong than the blue so as such probably speeds up the process of Templars losing their minds too. Samson and Bartrand are also both evidence of this. I’m not saying all Templars go batshit because of lyrium Greagoir seemed to be doing pretty okay, and I’m not saying all the crazy Templars like Alrik aren’t total dickbags but lyrium definitely plays a part in it. Now for the Chantry element that was advertised. While I don’t think the use of lyrium was only to ensure Templar obedience, the Chantry seems to capitalise on it. In Origins Alistair claims to not be addicted to or taken lyrium but can still use the talents, claiming that lyrium only increases it’s effectiveness. However this has been retconned saying that he did take lyrium but stopped taking it for quite a while and could still use the abilities long afterwards (the wiki for Alistair mentions this and links to this http://swooping-is-bad.livejournal.com/1286233.html which gives lots of insight into DA lyrium usage and the Cahntry). As such it appears that perhaps Templars have their abilities ‘activated’ with the initial ODing Initiation ceremony and that the dosages afterwards strengthen these abilities, the Chantry’s hold on the Templars. So yeah. Lyrium makes the Templars a wee bit crazy which can contribute to the excessive cruelty they demonstrate to the mages (power corrupting them and the trauma of fighting monsters also adding to this), and they are at least mildly aware of this but are that addicted or loyal they continue to take it. And the Chantry is aware of the negative long term effects of lyrium but does not particularly care as long as they still have their loyal soldiers. This... got away from me a bit...

[technoturian]

So dwarves are supposedly unable to use magic because of living so close to lyrium deposits making them immune to it... So do you think templars' constant use of lyrium may cause them to have a smaller chance of having mage children?