Kamille

Mythal, the queen bitch proper.

Mythal.

(the Protector and the All-Mother in elven pantheon of Dragon Age universe)

“Mythal was born of the sea. In elven legend, when Elgar'nan threw the sun out of the sky in vengeance for burning the earth to ashes, Mythal calmed him and helped him see how his anger had betrayed him. Elgar'nan was convinced to free the sun. On the first night after the sun was released Mythal created the moon, from the glowing earth round its bed, to be placed in the sky as a pale reflection of the sun’s true glory.”

Thinking a lot today about how magic in the current age in Thedas is in a virtually post-apocalyptic state, it’s so severely crippled by the near-universality of the Chantry and Chantry attitudes towards magic.  Almost every bit of magic we experience in the entirety of the three games comes from this cultural background; almost everything we think we know about how magic works is circumscribed by this.  Mages are ruthlessly repressed, imprisoned, killed, prevented from reproducing (which we know would produce more mages) and kept as helpless as possible all throughout Chantry-controlled space.  Totally hamstrung, in other words.  Living outside Chantry-controlled space means either living as part of an extremely marginalized society, impoverished and even so at risk from the Templars, or living as part of the extremely toxic and self-limiting society Tevinter has created for its mages, where the most powerful mages do their damndest to kill each other off.  Even so, the only magisters we actually meet are sufficiently powerful that they’re boss battles.  Dorian’s not even a magister, virtually a punk kid by Tevinter standards, and yet he’s instrumental in creating magic that allows TIME TRAVEL.

But pre-Chantry?  Well.  Let’s just consider that fundamentally, what are Flemeth and Corypheus, these incredibly powerful beings?  Just mages.  They both started out as mortal as anyone, even, judging by what Solas says, if you include Mythal.  Just mages.

They’ll show you why mages are feared.

Absolutely. I mean, one mage created the bloody Veil.

My theory about the Evanuris is that they became “gods” because they were effectively immortal. Take a preternaturally gifted mage and give them thousands of years to develop their powers and study, rather than the simple, short lifespan humans get, easy access to the Fade, and no Chantry limitations. Eventually their magic will become so good it could almost seem… like divine power. Brings to mind that Arthur C. Clarke quote about how “sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” except I suppose I’m saying, “sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from omnipotence.” Huh. By those standards, pre-Veil, someone like Dorian could quite easily have become a ”god”. Well, maybe if he had pointier ears.

Oh man, I wrote the OP months ago, before I played any of the DLCs, pretty much all of which strongly reinforced this notion.  I totally agree with trulycertain‘s addition here, too.

Solas: “I’m not a god.” *lives for thousands of years* *created the effing Veil* *can kill people in their dreams* *can walk to half of thedas in minutes* *can petrify powerful enemies without even looking at them*