The Circle of Magi and Systemic Sexual Violence
[TW for discussion of sexual abuse and rape]
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Most of the Dragon Age franchise holds a continuous in-universe debate on the Circle of Magi’s existence in Southern Thedas; whether it should even exist, and if so, how it should exist. A key argument point are the many abuses mages suffer behind its walls. However, among the long list of abuses, the sexual violence is sometimes overlooked or understated.
When referring to sexual violence in the Circle, the first example that usually comes to mind is Ser Otto Alrik of the Gallows in Dragon Age II (DA2). Anders’s Act 2 companion quest, “Dissent”, is about Alrik’s “Tranquil Solution” to use the Rite of Tranquility on every mage in Kirkwall. In his letter to Divine Justinia, he proposes the following:
“The Tranquil Solution is our answer. All mages at the age of majority must be made Tranquil. They'll coexist peacefully, retain their usefulness—a perfect strategy! It's simply the best way to ensure mages obey the laws of men and Maker.”
Notice how Alrik puts an emphasis on “age of majority” and “retain their usefulness”? This would be sketchy on its own, but there is more evidence that Alrik is a rapist.
Confronting Alrik in “Dissent”, the player discovers him about to recapture a feeling young mage girl. She begs not to be made tranquil, saying she’ll do anything to avoid it. Alrik responds by saying “That's right. Once you're Tranquil, you'll do anything I ask.” The implication given his leer is that he is planning on raping her, something he already does to others. A Tranquil woman named Helena and her former lover, a mage named Jaken, have the following ambient dialogue in the Gallows:
Jaken: I've been searching for you everywhere. You weren't in your rooms, the libraries...
Helena: We have no scheduled appointments at this time, apprentice.
Jaken: No! Helena, it's me. Don't you remember me?
Helena: Of course. YOu are Apprentice Jaken. We were once involved in an illicit relationship.
Jaken: Illicit? I love you!
Helena: I am Ser Alrik's now. He is the only one who can command me.
The Tranquil are not always regarded as real people, even by their fellow mages. This is, of course, not true – just because they lack full mental capacity and are a vulnerable population does not make them less deserving of personhood. But the fact that they lack the capacity to properly consent is what so easily leads to them being abused as they are. If the Chantry actually cared about the wellbeing of the Tranquil, there would be proper protections for them put in place, to avoid people like Alrik getting away with his blatant crimes.
It is not just the Tranquil who suffer from sexual violence, though. Any mage is fair game for the templars. Alain, a mage first encountered in the DA2 quest “Act of Mercy”, can later be found in the Gallows. If Ser Karras survives the quest, Alain can be overheard saying, “Ser Karras said if I tell anyone he's been in my chambers, he'll make me Tranquil.” But even if Ser Karras does not survive, during the quest “Best Served Cold” when Alain is encountered again, he will uncomfortably say, “You don't know what it’s like. We're locked in our cells all day, no light, no air. The templars... ask things of us.” Alain is still being raped, just by someone else.
It is worth noting that Ser Alrik and Ser Karras are no random grunts, either. They are both Knight-Lieutenants, meaning the only two people of higher rank are Cullen and Meredith. They have been rewarded, granted even more control for their horrid actions. Other templars are supposed to obey them without question, or the Knight-Lieutenants have the power to strip them of their knighthood.
While the Gallows has the most examples, by virtue of being a central part of the plot in DA2, sexual violence is by no means exclusive to Kirkwall’s Circle.
In Dragon Age: Origins, during the mage origin, you can overhear an apprentice mage’s ambient dialogue: "Gerda told me the templars watch us while we bathe. I hope that's not true." And while voyeurism is certainly not as severe as rape, that is canonically confirmed by Anders to have happened in the Ferelden Circle as well, in a banter with Sebastian:
Sebastian: Did something happen to you in the Circle? I understand there were problems in Ferelden...
Anders: Are you saying a mage can only be unhappy in the Circle if demons were involved?
Anders: No, it's not about Uldred. It's not about being beaten or raped by a templar— that does happen, but I've been fortunate.
In the novel Dragon Age: Asunder, Cole watches two mages of the Val Royeaux Circle have a conversation about the infamous “ghost of the spire” (namely, himself). During this conversation, one mage suggests it may have been a templar the girl saw. Her response:
"You think I don't know every templar in the tower by now? Some of them far better than I'd like." She touched the bruise on her cheek, and the elven boy scowled but said nothing.
Saying that she knows templars “far better than she’d like” implies that she has had suffered from non-consensual intimacy – aggressively, given she was wounded.
The fantasy of a sexually available mage even bleeds out into the common person. In the DA2 quest “Repentance”, accompanying Sebastian to investigate the Harimann family involves witnessing Ruxton Harimann carrying out a sexual roleplay with an elven woman in which he says, “Now, you be the naughty apprentice, and I’ll be the templar torturer…” No shame on consensual roleplay, that’s not my point. My point is that this specific scenario did not come from nowhere; it is perpetuated by the Circle.
This is why I believe it is only fair to call the sexual violence mages suffer from to be a systemic issue, part of the entire structural Circle of Magi. These are not individual errors, but rather a built in part of how the Circles are set up. The Chantry giving the Templar Order complete control over the mages as they do easily creates an environment where abuse can flourish, including sexual violence. This cannot be fixed without changing the underlying system of the Circle itself.
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SOURCES:
Dragon Age: Asunder
Codex entry: Templar Letter (DA2)
Codex entry: Ser Alrik's Letter (DA2)
Dialogue: Ambient remark from apprentice mage (DAO)
Dialogue: Ambient remark from Alain (DA2)
Dialogue: Party banter between Anders and Sebastian (DA2)
Dialogue: Obtaining the quest “Dissent” from Anders (DA2)
Dialogue: Alain during the quest “Best Served Cold” (DA2)
Dialogue: Ruxton during the quest “Repentance” (DA2)
