RPGs are popular for their choice-based gameplay, and often like to bring up ethically difficult questions to their players. Video games that are famous for doing this well includeTelltale’s Walking Dead,Life is Strange, andThe Witcher 3. Ethically difficult questions can be quite hard to make for players when handled properly, though a lot of games get them wrong. Unfortunately forDragon Age, it is a series that leaned on a moral question that fans have deemed basically one-sided since the beginning.
The ethical question is the one between mages and templars. It is quite rare to find aDragon Ageplayer that is pro-templar and anti-mage, even though the series constantly tries to put the two sides at odds and make an argument that either one could be right. There are many reasons fans have firmly rooted themselves in the mage side. In fact, some fans go as far as calling the mage and templar war a “misnomer,” an ethical question that tried to be complex but ultimately failed in that mission.
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Why Most Players Are Unquestioningly Pro-Mage
WhileDragon Age 2and onwards calls the mages rebelling against templars a “war,” a lot of fans instead have made comparisons to genocide. The templars are ultimately a trained police force, while mages are born as they are. The word “genocide” has even been mentioned inDragon Age: Originsin discussions about mages and templars, where fans first learned most of the lore. For example, if the player decides to support the Right of Annulment in the Circle Tower, Zevran speaks up and says “Committing genocide just because something might happen is more than the mark of a weak mind. It’s insanity.” InDragon Age: Awakening, the word is used again by Wynne. If the Warden asks her why she insists on following the rules of the Chantry, she argues that the only other option mages are offered is genocide.
The genocide comparison does not stop at the Right of Annulment. Eugenics is also in play, but the lore keeps it subtle. Wynne discusses this in banter with Alistair inDragon Age: Origins, mentioning that mage births are usually prevented and that union between mages is not encouraged. Templars constantly make it known that they wish to avoid the existence of more mages. Even fan-favorite Cullen said that they’re losing a battle because “Every day new mages are born in Thedas.” There is also Tranquility, which is another disturbing fate pushed on mages that really has no equal. In the best sense, it is another option for mages that do not want to be killed. In the worst sense, it is a way the Chantry can turn mages into slaves that they can profit from.
DespiteDragon Agetrying to make the mage situation seem complex, the details behind mages and the templars are incredibly harsh and hold some disturbing similarities to actual eugenics and genocides that have taken and currently take place in the real world. There are players that go pro-templar, but they often do so while adding that it is their “evil playthrough.” To most gamers, there is no moral grayness to the argument. Despite this, BioWare tried hard to make the templars and mages seem equal inDragon Age 2andDragon Age: Inquisition, and it has left a sour taste for even the biggest fans of the series.
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How BioWare Tried And Failed To Make The Issue Complex
Dragon Ageis very character-driven, and it has tried to use that drive as a path for complexity. For example, there are good and bad templars just as there are good and bad mages. Through this kind of writing, BioWare does succeed in making all situations not work on the same level (for example, some pro-mages players may stop mages from killing a sympathetic templar, andnot all pro-mage players like Anders). However, the writing only makes the mage and templar sides sympathetic on a character level and not a systematic level.
Mages lack a systembecause they are not a system; they are people who are born the way they are. Templars are completely built on a system. Templars are not born, they are made, and their system is oppressive and dehumanizing to mages. It is like comparing a military force to a race of people, which is a hole in that any sense of complexity is lost.
BioWare has tried to solve this issue by creatingTevinter, where mages are the oppressors. The nation makes mages out to be more than a race, but a systematic and oppressive system. However, at the end of the day, Tevinter was made just like the templars were. All the issues are not related to the circumstances of one’s birth, but by how a society is built.
What Can Be Done In Dragon Age 4
WithDragon Age 4going to Tevinter, it is possible that the mage and templar war is going to be seen from a different perspective. With what is known about Tevinter, it could be easy for BioWare to make a final argument about how templars could be in the right. However, with all that is happened, succeeding in such an argument would be impossible. It is simply impossible to argue that a system of oppression is the right side to stand on when the other side is literally just people who were born into their circumstances. Trying to make that impossible argument with Tevinter would be a bad move.
What the series can instead do is lay off the attempt to make the sides seem equal. There is already so much going on fromSolas' planto the qunari invasion. If the series really wants to ask some strong ethical questions, it should be mages versus mages rather than mages versus templars. After all, there are already a ton of factions and interesting ideas from different mage characters to focus on.
Dragon Age 4is in development.
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