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The Mage-Templar War, also known as the Mage Rebellion, broke out in 9:40 Dragon when an unspecified number of rebel mages and rogue templars elected to secede from the Chantry following years of increased tensions.

Background[]

Main article: Kirkwall Rebellion

Tensions between mages and templars increased during the early Dragon Age.

In 9:30 Dragon, mages in Ferelden's Circle led by Uldred attempted to overthrow the templars. The revolt resulted in demons and abominations being unleashed throughout the tower, causing the deaths of many mages and templars. The intervention of the Warden put an end to the crisis, and either mages or templars joined the Wardens in fighting the Blight.

In 9:31 Dragon, the Libertarian Fraternity of Enchanters intended to propose a motion to pull away from the Chantry entirely at the College of Enchanters in Cumberland.[1] In that same year, the Circle of Starkhaven was destroyed, causing many of its mages to flee towards Kirkwall.

In Kirkwall, living conditions for mages had already been growing stricter under Knight-Commander Meredith when she assumed control of the city following the deaths of Viscount Marlowe Dumar and his son in 9:34 Dragon. Meredith's sanctions against mages became even harsher over the succeeding years, while members of the nobility began to object to her rule of the city and obstruction of elections, many wishing for Hawke, the city's Champion, to become Viscount.

Meredith's sanctions against the mages were strongly opposed by First Enchanter Orsino, who publicly denounced the knight-commander and believed Meredith was losing her mind, seeing maleficarum where none existed. Grand Cleric Elthina attempted to mediate the clashes between the two but refused to pick a side in the conflict. Divine Justinia V took notice of the growing tensions and the Resolutionist presence in the city. She sent an agent to assess the danger and warn Elthina to leave Kirkwall, though the Grand Cleric was unwilling to abandon her flock.

Tensions reached a peak, and exploded into violence due to the actions of the apostate Anders in 9:37. During another confrontation between Meredith and Orsino in Kirkwall's Lowtown, Anders declared that he would no longer allow the templars to persecute mages and caused an explosion that destroyed the Kirkwall Chantry and killed all those inside, the Grand Cleric included, thus removing the possibility of compromise. Furthermore, as Anders did not contain the explosion, deadly debris from the blast also rained over half of Kirkwall, creating more chaos.[2]

Claiming that the people would demand blood, Meredith immediately invoked the Right of Annulment, forcing the Champion to pick a side in the conflict. The city erupted into chaos as mages and templars clashed, some of the former resorting to blood magic, becoming abominations and unleashing demons onto the streets. The violence culminated in a confrontation at the Gallows, the city's Circle of Magi, ending with many of Kirkwall's Circle, including First Enchanter Orsino, dead. Knight-Captain Cullen and the rest of Meredith's templars turned on her when she attempted to execute the Champion, revealing the extent of her instability as she accused them all of being blood mage thralls. Ultimately, she became petrified when she attempted to draw too much power from her red lyrium sword.

While Templar reinforcements arrived in Kirkwall to suppress further resistance, news from escaping mages of what had occurred spread to other Circles. Outraged that the templars of Kirkwall would invoke the Right of Annulment to justify the extermination of an entire Circle for the crimes of one apostate, some Circles revolted, while others were close to doing so. In response, the Templar Order cracked down, further restricting mage freedoms in an attempt to quell further disturbance.

Destruction Chantry

The destruction of Kirkwall's Chantry

Despite this, the College of Enchanters, meeting for the last time in Cumberland before being disbanded in 9:38, voted against secession from the Chantry at the urging of Senior Enchanter Wynne, in opposition to the motion tendered by its newly elected Grand Enchanter, Fiona. Nonetheless, many of the Libertarian faction, who wished for independence, continued to encourage mages to rebel.

Fearing the possibility of a mage-templar conflict igniting within Orlais, Empress Celene I appealed to the Divine to take action and end the war before it began before she would be forced to utilize her own military to fight the conflict within her own empire.[3]

Among the White Spire Circle in Val Royeaux, tensions continued to mount throughout the following year. The Divine, Justinia V, sought to use her position to reform the Circle of Magi and thereby bring an end to the troubles, but was hindered by both the templars and the mages, culminating with Jeannot, one of the White Spire's senior enchanters, attempting to assassinate her in 9:39 Dragon, despite her mage-sympathetic views. In response, Lord Seeker Lambert took control of the White Spire Circle and its templar contingent in order to attempt to bring matters under control. [4]

Revolt at the White Spire[]

BioWare canon
The plot follows BioWare's own canon, meaning it may not follow some of the player's choices in the games.

Circle of Magi disbanded

The Circle of Magi disbanded

Archmage Wynne, acting on Justinia V's personal orders, took her estranged son Rhys, a senior enchanter of the White Spire; his friend Adrian; her golem friend Shale; and the templar Knight-Captain Evangeline to Adamant Fortress in order to save her friend, Pharamond, a Tranquil who had become an abomination. Once rescued, Pharamond told the party that he had managed to find a way to reverse the Rite of Tranquility.[5]

Presenting this information before Justinia V, it having already been sent to each of the fifteen Circles, and against strong objections from Lord Seeker Lambert, the Divine concluded that a conclave of first enchanters must meet, ostensibly to hear from Pharamond and to discuss the findings. Eleven of the fifteen first enchanters arrived in time, along with Grand Enchanter Fiona, Wynne, Rhys, and Adrian. Watched by the templars, the Grand Enchanter nonetheless sought another vote to separate the Circle from the Chantry. Before the vote could be taken, the meeting was disrupted by Lord Seeker Lambert, who on presenting news that Pharamond had been murdered and the bloodstained knife found in the quarters of Rhys, attempted to disband the Conclave. Unknown to everyone, the murder had been committed by Adrian, who knew that Wynne would've convinced the Circle to vote against independence once again, thus forcing Wynne to abandon her position of compromise for the sake of her son. Suspecting that Rhys was being framed, the mages refused to stand down, including Wynne, and the Lord Seeker ordered his templars to attack.[6]

At first the mages fought in defense, but when a templar killed a mage who tried to surrender, they attacked in fury and killed several templars. Several of the first enchanters were slain; most were imprisoned, as was Rhys. Only Wynne and Knight-Captain Evangeline managed to escape. They returned to the White Spire to rescue those imprisoned with the assistance of the golem, Shale, and Leliana, an agent of the Divine. The Divine herself asked Lord Seeker Lambert and a number of his templars to meet with her, a ruse to lure them away from the Spire.

Evangeline, Wynne and Shale succeeded in destroying those phylacteries contained in the White Spire vault, including those of the surviving first enchanters, while Leliana led those imprisoned to safety. In an echo of the rebellion of the Kirkwall Circle, other mages of White Spire rose up and fought their templar jailers. By the time Lord Seeker Lambert returned to the White Spire, most of the templars had been slaughtered.[7]

Retreat to Andoral's Reach[]

The surviving first enchanters, the Grand Enchanter among them, retreated to the fortress of Andoral's Reach. Most of the fifteen Circles rose against the templars, with thousands of mages gathering at Andoral's Reach in the following months. It was predicted that with hundreds of mages manning the battlements, they could fend off an army ten times their size.

In Rivain, the Seekers invoked the Right of Annulment on the mages of the Circle of Dairsmuid for freely mixing with their families and training female mages in the traditions of the seers. First Enchanter Rivella led the defense, using the skills she learned from her father, Captain Revaud of the Felicisima Armada. The templars and Seekers slew all mages inside, but not without suffering heavy casualties. Before dying, First Enchanter Rivella sent word of the Annulment to her fellow mages at Andoral.[8][9][10]

About a month after the Battle of the White Spire, a vote for independence was once again proposed by the Grand Enchanter. As several first enchanters were either absent or had been killed, the mages were represented in the conclave by their fraternities, while they vowed that whichever decision they were going to take, they were all going to abide by it, be it submission or rebellion. The Loyalists insisted on submitting to the Chantry, arguing that they couldn't defeat the templars, an argument most of the smaller fraternities chose to side with. The larger fraternities, the Libertarians and the Aequitarians, voted to fight, winning the vote, arguing that submission would impose harsher conditions for all Circle mages.[9]

While the vote passed, it did so by a very slim margin. The other half of the mages who voted against secession were soon forced to fight the rebel mages, and united under First Enchanter Vivienne of the Montsimmard Circle. They identified themselves as "Loyalist" mages, wishing to reinstate the Circles and end the war. Meanwhile, the "Isolationist" mages, true to their name, chose to go into hiding rather than fight.

Templars and Seekers rebel[]

In 9:40 Dragon, in response to Justinia V's interference at the White Spire, Lord Seeker Lambert declared the Nevarran Accord, which had led to the Seekers and the Templars submitting to the Divine and establishing the Circles of Magi, to be null and void. The Seekers of Truth and the Templar Order they commanded would no longer be under the authority of the Chantry. At the time of this declaration, a large Templar host was about three days march from Andoral's Reach. The Lord Seeker predicted that once the mage rebellion was defeated, the Chantry would be forced to replace the Divine and reach a new agreement with the Seekers and Templars. Lambert vanished shortly after annulling the accord without a trace. Many templars assumed he had been assassinated by the mage rebellion in retaliation for his actions at the White Spire, though he had in fact been murdered by the spirit Cole.

Following the disappearance of Lambert van Reeves, Lucius Corin succeeded him as Lord Seeker and led the Templar Order in the Mage-Templar War.

With neither side under the authority and regulations of the Chantry, the Circle of Magi and the Templar Order along with the Seekers prepared for all out war with each other.[11]

Chantry Mediation[]

By 9:40 Dragon, the Andrastian Chantry was crumbling, with over nine hundred years of relative stability shattered. All the Circles of Magi had separated from the Chantry. While some of the Seekers were known to remain loyal to the Chantry and the reigning Divine, others, as well as many templars, had rebelled and left Chantry oversight to hunt and fight mages on their own terms. Some, such as the loyalist mages and templars of Hasmal, elected to maintain a refuge from the war instead of partaking in it.[12] Other mages and templars who wished no part in the fighting elected to join the Grey Wardens, who were willing to offer amnesty to such refugees on the condition they would undertake the Joining after their arrival. Many refugees from the Hossberg Circle of Magi elected to travel to Weisshaupt fortress to partake of the offer.[13]

The Fereldan Monarchy offered the rebel mages sanctuary in the Arling of Redcliffe. The mages gratefully accepted the offer; however, the Templar host pursued them across the border. Skirmishes between rebel mages and templars raged throughout the Hinterlands, with the peasantry of Ferelden caught in the middle, fighting in support of one faction or the other, or merely to defend themselves.[14]

Chantry Mage Templar Peace Summit

Templars and Mages marching to the Temple to attend the peace summit, shortly before the explosion which would destroy the Temple and open the Breach into the Fade.

The Divine desperately sought to put an end to the conflict, and assigned those Seekers remaining loyal to her to track down the only two people in all Thedas who might have the power and influence to put an end to the conflict and lead the Inquisition. One of her agents, Leliana, was sent to track down one of them, the Warden-Commander of Ferelden.

Meanwhile, Cassandra Pentaghast, a Seeker still loyal to the Chantry, was sent to find Hawke, the Champion of Kirkwall. She captured one of Hawke's companions, the dwarf Varric Tethras and interrogated him in the old Hawke Estate in an attempt to discover the Champion's current whereabouts and the true origins of the war. After giving her a full account of Hawke's time in Kirkwall, Varric said he knew nothing of the Champion's fate, but also said he highly doubted that Hawke was dead. Though satisfied that he had told her the truth, Cassandra ultimately decided to bring him to the Divine so he could tell her the story himself.[15]


This section contains spoilers for:
Dragon Age: Inquisition.


In 9:41 Dragon, Divine Justinia called for a peace summit, to be held at the Temple of Sacred Ashes, which had been rediscovered a decade earlier in the Frostback Mountains. The leaders of both factions feared the possibility of a trap and sent emissaries in their place. During the summit, an ancient darkspawn magister called The Elder One, one of the Magisters Sidereal who had first entered the Golden City, infiltrated the Conclave and captured the Divine using enthralled Grey Warden mages. He planned on using her as a sacrifice to power an elven orb he had acquired, which would allow him to physically enter the Fade and return to the Black City to claim the Maker's throne. However, an unexpected attendant of the Conclave interrupted the ritual and accidentally made contact with the orb, causing a massive explosion that destroyed the temple, killing thousands, and sundering the Veil on an enormous scale, creating multiple rifts across Thedas. The largest of these rifts was called The Breach, and the Veil's tearing caused legions of demons and spirits to tumble out. The only survivor emerged out of a rift with a mysterious magical mark granted by the orb that glowed with the same magic as the Breach, and was found by loyalist Chantry forces.


Rebirth of the Inquisition[]

Three days later, the survivor regained consciousness and was accused by the Hands of the Divine, Leliana and Cassandra Pentaghast, to be the perpetrator behind the Breach. Though Chancellor Roderick wanted the survivor to be taken back to Val Royeaux for trial and execution, Cassandra gave the survivor a chance to prove their innocence by using the mark to seal the Breach. The attempt almost succeeded, stopping the Breach from growing, but not sealing it.

The people of Haven had heard tales of a mysterious woman seen in the rift from which the survivor had emerged, and thus assumed the figure was the prophet Andraste, and labeled the survivor her "Herald". When the Herald awoke, Roderick was still convinced of their guilt, but Cassandra believed the Herald was sent by the Maker. She and Leliana then invoked the late Justinia V's writ to restore the Inquisition, independent of Chantry control, for the purpose of finding the true perpetrators behind the Breach. In response, Roderick used his influence in the Chantry to denounce the Inquisition, claiming them heretics for harbouring the Herald, which the surviving clerics declared blasphemy.

The renewed Inquisition sought allies to help in sealing the Breach. Its leadership was divided on whether to seek help from the mage rebellion or the Templar Order.

Renewed Conflict[]

Mage-Templar War Scene 1

With the latest attempt at a peaceful resolution destroyed with the Temple of Sacred Ashes, the war resumed across Thedas. In particular, after Fiona's Rebel Mages were granted refuge in Redcliffe by Ferelden's monarch, the Hinterlands region became the site of fierce conflict between deserters from both sides, causing heavy collateral damage to the population. Rogue templars supplied by lyrium smugglers liberally murdered those they deemed mage sympathizers and pillaged peasants to supply themselves for their purge. These templars believed that they were entitled by divine right to do whatever was necessary to crush the mage rebellion.[16] When the rebel mages saw that the templars were brutalizing the peasants and confiscating whatever food they had so that no Fereldan peasant could offer them any support, the rebel mages and their sellswords began ambushing the templars. The rebel mages' sellswords were no match for the templars and the rebel mages' careless use of violent magic engulfed templar and Fereldan refugee alike. Many templars were able to dampen the rebel mages' magic and survive the ambushes, leading to rebel mages and templars engaging in hit and run skirmishes throughout the Hinterlands with the Fereldan people caught in the crossfire. Not only were innocent Fereldans dying in these battles, but both the mages and templars began looting their victims' belongings to supply themselves in their war.[17][18]

Some spiteful mages who had spurned Fiona's refuge in Redcliffe took part in the skirmishes but resented common people and templars alike for their ostracism and thus had no qualms about hurting either. These mages believed in mage supremacy and sought to gather followers from the rebel mages in order to form an army bent on conquest.[19]

Meanwhile, many foreign mages congregated to Fiona's refuge in Redcliffe village to seek asylum. Some of these foreign mage refugees were in fact Venatori infiltrators who encouraged an alliance with the Tevinter Imperium as the situation with the mage rebellion grew dire.[20]

The Inquisition was forced to dispatch these extreme elements in order to protect the Fereldan people and bring peace to the Hinterlands.[21][22][23]


This section contains spoilers for:
Dragon Age: Inquisition.


With the Mage-Templar War wreaking havoc across Thedas, the Elder One's agents were able to prey on the floundering Templar Order and corrupt them with red lyrium, turning them into the Red Templars.

Newly elected Lord Seeker Lucius Corin went rogue, joining forces with the Order of Fiery Promise to destroy the remaining Seekers. Lucius allowed an Envy demon allied with the Elder One to masquerade as him in his absence. Under this guise, the demon took command of the remaining templars, introducing them to red lyrium. The commanders of the Templar Order became corrupted and then spread their corruption to their subordinates, by force if necessary. Red lyrium use quickly caused both physical and mental changes in the templars.

Meanwhile, Raleigh Samson, a former templar from Kirkwall, was made the Red Templars' general. As an agent of the Elder One, he supplied the templars with red lyrium, convincing them to master it for the sole purpose of overthrowing the Chantry that had cast them aside to make the world a place free of the Chantry's oppression.[24]

On the advice of Mother Giselle, a Chantry cleric tending to refugees in the Hinterlands, the Inquisition journeyed to Val Royeaux to address the Chantry and make them reconsider their denouncement of the Herald. Upon arrival, an Inquisition scout reported that a large contingent of Templars were in the city and that the populace assumed they had arrived to protect them from the Inquisition. The Herald's meeting with the clerics quickly went sour as Revered Mother Hevara accused the Herald of murdering the Divine and dismissed Cassandra's reassurance that the Inquisition only wanted to restore order. When Lord Seeker Lucius approached with his templars, Revered Mother Hevara assumed that they were returning to the fold to put an end to the Inquisition, only to be assaulted by one of the templars.

Lucius denounced the Chantry, the populace and the Inquisition for not recognizing the Order's divine right to purge the mages. He then reaffirmed the Templars' independence and declared Val Royeaux unworthy of the Order's protection, leaving with his troops for Therinfal Redoubt.

Shortly after the templars' departure, Grand Enchanter Fiona approached the Herald in Val Royeaux and invited them to Redcliffe to discuss a possible alliance. Later on, Delrin Barris secretly informed the Inquisition that the Templar Order gathers at Therinfal Redoubt in the hopes that they can convince the Lord Seeker to bring the Templars out of exile and resume their honorable duties.


Alliance with the Inquisition[]


This section contains spoilers for:
Dragon Age: Inquisition.


In hushed whispers

Magister Gereon Alexius

If the Herald travels to Redcliffe to meet with Fiona:
However, upon reaching Redcliffe, the Herald learned that Fiona had no recollection of their previous meeting in Val Royeaux and that she had already pledged the rebel mages to the service of Magister Gereon Alexius of Tevinter, claiming that she had no other choice given their dire circumstances. Soon after his arrival, Alexius usurped Redcliffe Castle from Arl Teagan Guerrin, alienating the mage rebellion's sole benefactor. With the mage rebellion's survival now entirely dependent on him, Alexius changed the terms of the alliance: from protection and eventual Tevinter citizenship in exchange for indentured servitude to conscription of all the rebel southern mages into military service under his command. Negotiations between Alexius and the Herald for the use of the rebel mages in closing the Breach were cut short by the arrival of his son, Felix, who feigned illness to direct the Herald to the chantry. There, they met Dorian Pavus, who explained that Alexius, his former mentor, had manipulated time itself to recruit the mages before the Herald could do so, and warned that this magic was dangerously unstable and threatened to spread beyond Redcliffe, where rifts had already started to alter time around them. Felix joined in to reveal that his father had joined a cult known as the Venatori, serving an entity known as the Elder One. After returning to Haven, the Herald receives an invitation from Magister Alexius to continue their interrupted negotiations in Castle Redcliffe—an obvious trap.
If the Herald recruits the mages:
With Dorian's help, the Inquisition infiltrated Castle Redcliffe and reclaimed it. Facing defeat, Alexius pulled out the time amulet and attempted to erase the Herald from existence entirely. Dorian interrupted him, accidentally sending both himself and the Herald one year into the future, where their absence had resulted in the spread of the Breach and the Elder One's conquest of southern Thedas. While attempting to return to their time, the Herald and Dorian found Fiona and their companions, jailed and infected with red lyrium, as well as Leliana, who had been the subject of Blight experiments. With their help, the Herald learned something of the Elder One's plans and were able to use the future Alexius' time amulet to return to the present, where they captured the present Alexius.

The Fereldan monarch(s) (Alistair and/or Anora, depending on who was made sovereign) arrived and ordered the rebel mages to leave Ferelden, angered by their actions in Redcliffe. No longer welcome in Ferelden, and without Tevinter's support, Fiona reluctantly accepted the Herald's offer of either a full alliance or forced conscription.

Without the Herald's help, the templars of Therinfal Redoubt were fully corrupted into Red Templars and became the bulk of Corypheus' army during the attack on Haven.
If the Herald recruits the Templars:
With the help of ten Orlesian noble families, the Herald traveled to Therinfal Redoubt to pressure the templars into sealing the Breach. By request of the Lord Seeker, Knight-Templar Delrin Barris led the Herald in performing a special ritual: sorting the banners of Ferelden, Chantry and the Templar Order in order of importance. Whether they agreed to the Lord Seeker's request or not, Barris further led the Herald's party to a meeting room where they were met by Knight-Captain Denam and his posse of strange-looking templars instead of the Lord Seeker. The Herald realized that many templars had been corrupted by red lyrium. Knight-Captain Denam, claiming that the Herald's attempt at swaying the templars to their cause had sowed dissent among the uncorrupted templars, ordered that no one was to leave Therinfal Redoubt if they weren't "stained red" and attacked the Herald. Ser Barris helped them fend off the corrupted templars.
Envy-Demon-Therinfal-Redoubt

The Envy demon

Notes found in Therinfal Redoubt's officers' quarters proved that the templar officers, most likely members of General Samson's Red Templars, had willingly infected half their knights with red lyrium[25] and were complicit in the assassination of Knight-Vigilant Trentwatch.[26][27]

The Herald confronted Lucius Corin, only to discover that he had been supplanted by an Envy demon. The demon trapped them in their own mind, trying to assume the Herald's form and take over the Inquisition. While in the Fade, Cole appeared before the Herald to help them escape from the Fade and defeat the demon. The Envy demon then barricaded itself in the Shrine of Offering with magical barriers and occasionally sent out Red templars to exterminate its enemies. Delrin Barris took command of the remaining uncorrupted templars and led them in defending the Great Hall. Barris asked the Herald to find all templar veterans and their uncorrupted supplies of lyrium in the castle so that the templars could regroup and break the barriers. Once the Envy demon's barriers had dissipated, the Herald's party faced the demon, which they managed to destroy after a long and hard fight.

With the Templar Order in complete disarray following the loss of its leadership, the remaining templars were forced to turn to the Herald, who either welcomed them as full allies of the Inquisition or disbanded the Order and conscripted them; either outcome prevented the templars from continuing to use red lyrium.

Without the Herald's help, the rebel mages of Redcliffe were conscripted into the Venatori (with Arl Gallagher Wulff's aid)[28], and became the bulk of Corypheus' army during the attack on Haven.


Aftermath[]


This section contains spoilers for:
Dragon Age: Inquisition.


By recruiting one of these factions (the Rebel Mages or the remaining Templars of Therinfal Redoubt), the Herald effectively ended the Mage-Templar War and was able to to close the Breach. However, the celebrations were cut short when the Elder One, revealed to be Corypheus, attacked and destroyed Haven, marking the beginning of the War against the Elder One. The forces of whichever faction wasn't helped by the Inquisition became part of Corypheus' armies as either the Red Templars or the Venatori, furthering his plans throughout southern Thedas.

What became of the Inquisition's allies is explained in the epilogues of Inquisition and Trespasser.


Codex entries[]

Codex entry: The Conclave Codex entry: The Conclave
Codex entry: Rebel Mages Codex entry: Rebel Mages
Codex entry: The Circle of Magi Codex entry: The Circle of Magi
Codex entry: The Templar Order: End of an Accord Codex entry: The Templar Order: End of an Accord

Note texts[]

Excerpt from a Journal Excerpt from a Journal

References[]


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