"They sometimes just kill us too," Christine mutters grimly. "Long ago, the Circles were meant to be places of protection against the masses, with the Templars there to protect us from those masses getting in. But then it all changed and the Templars controlled us like we were prisoners and they were guards."

She sighs and crosses her arms, looking out across the courtyard. Since arriving at Skyhold, she's met Templars and Seekers who don't make her skin crawl, but those people are rare when counted against the whole of the former Templar Order.

"It is born of fear. Fear of power in the wrong hands. What non-mages fail to understand is that they make mages afraid of what we are to start with. The apostates who were raised outside the Circle: they are often strong and stable while we Circle mages always feel we are standing on the precipice, about to succumb to evil."