Since you think about templar stuff a lot, how do you see Cleanse or Wrath of Heaven working?
I’ll start with the easiest one: Cleanse.
Cleanse works in the same manner that certain types of healing and buff (protection) spells might work. They swath an area around the caster in a type of energy/magic/anti-magic. I think overall it works like a breath. The templar draws on the lyrium in his blood (like a mage draws on their magic for the same types of abilities) and exerts his/her “will” beyond his person, which pushes out the wave of the ability. With time, practice, and control over the use of his powers, those abilities can become more devastating.
As for the effects of the Cleanse, when I think about it in terms of the way the magic system is described in Dragon Age, and sprinkle in my own ideas about how it behaves. I think at the earliest stage (the level 1 ability) that the Cleanse works like ... pouring a bucket over someone, or someone getting hit with a chest high wave. It just washes over the other person and knocks any negative/hostile magical effects from them and from the area around the templar. Cleansing Wave pushes that effect farther around the templar. The third stage of this spell ability, Lasting Cleanse, goes beyond the wave lapping at the shore.
In some discussions of the magic lore in DA, there is mention that mages pull on the power of the Fade, thereby recrafting reality in the ways that they desire. While I only moderately ascribe to this theory, I do see the logic of it. I feel that since everyone does not have the ability to cast, this cannot be entirely the case. A person has to have some innate ability to manipulate these things in order to become a mage, and I personally lean toward the idea that mages literally have a well of power in their person. One they can maintain, train, and manipulate.
I view templars in a similar fashion. With time and training, they can more efficiently use the lyrium in their blood. Despite this increase in ability and conservation of energy, the lyrium is still killing and destroying them from the inside out. But they can use it with more success and for longer the more well-trained and practiced they become.
As such, this final trait of Lasting Cleanse, combines the cleansing wave with an effect that blooms outwardly like blowing an invisible bubble. The wave doesn’t just benefit allies, but thwarts foes as well by silencing mages in the area. I think that just like a wave at the beach it washes over them with a sense of cold (dread), like that wave that knocks you off your feet and drags you under the water. You’re unable to speak or act in anyway outside of trying to relocate the surface in that instant of panic. In effect, Lasting Cleanse steals their breath, stifles the magical fire in their blood, and manages to temporarily cut a mage off from the Fade. It can keep them from casting while the spell lingers in the air around them, it can stop certain somatic casts in their tracks.
But according to the wiki, it is less effective on some Necromantic and Blood Magic spells. I think this is because part of the power for these spells comes not only from the magic in a mage’s blood, but from their very life force itself. It is that reasoning that makes these particular spells less effected (It was a list of like 4 spells which are powered by the health of caster or target, thus placing them in a slightly different category).
So much for that one being the easy one ... :D
In some terms, it was. Wrath of Heaven is a little bit harder to explain, at least in terms of the way I think of the abilities of a templar, even more so because I fear at some point I might just give up and start handwaving and say “magic.” I’ll try to avoid that approach though.
In terms of the physics of the effects of the spell on others, I think that it works in a similar way to cleanse ... think of ocean waves lapping at the shore. The energy of the wave pushes the water (or in this case the effect of the spell) beyond the point where the water’s edge (or the caster) is located physically. The second stage follows logically with the idea of the stronger wave, the farther it moves from that point.
From the description of the spell, “You summon a blinding pillar of light that stuns nearby enemies and damages demons,” it seems that the stun is more a response to the nature of the light. Think of it like a magical flashbang grenade. The light is intense and flashes so bright that those in the area are disoriented.
The ability, however, feels more like a magical ability than an antimagical response (like Cleanse). There is definitely a holy nature to it, especially with the addition of the capstone ability of this spell--Breath of Light, which then heals the templar for each enemy struck but the spell.
So, while there might be some drawing on their stores of lyrium involved, I think this ability might be more aligned with their faithfulness and beliefs. This might, in their heads, be something that can only be cast when they are right with Andraste or the Maker. It could be an effect that is literally a boon of faith. It truly feels like a “holy” school of magic rather than an antimagical lyrium ability.
But then, I’ve always kind of aligned with the idea that templars have a magic of their own that the Chantry denies exists. They have a power that both affects and draws on the fade, but is shrouded in this holiness of purpose that the Chantry hides and covers up. I also think the magic available to templars is another reason why they are leashed by lyrium, a substance that destroys them physically and mentally and warps their ability to control their own power.