No single organization in Thedas has had more influence over mage culture than the Circle. Since its inception, the order of trained mages have regulated the use of magic in Chantry nations across Thedas. Many important traditions have come out of the Circle, and its practice have heavily influenced how magic is used and perceived.
Local branches have longed acted as both schools and storehouses of magical knowledge. Although the Circle is supposed to be autonomous, a heavy templar presence in all Circle towers has effectively made the organization an arm of the Chantry for ages. Chantry law requires those with significant magical ability to join the nearest Circle and live under its supervision. While Thedosians with extremely low levels of magical talent are generally permitted to go about their lives, they are still closely watched. In most nations, practicing magic and not joining a Circle is to be branded an apostate and danger to society. Those who survive capture are turned over to the Circle to become students or prisoners depending on the circumstances.
Over the years numerous Circles have been built across Thedas. Though usually in remote places, Circle chapters can also be found in major cities. Most are huge structures, usually towers, dominating city skylines and country horizons. Inside there is ample room to house, feed and train hundreds of people, along with significant dungeon space. The future of the Circle of Magi, and indeed all mages in Thedas, is uncertain. The Circle, templars, and Chantry are all at odds after a series of bloody mage-templar conflicts that led to many templars and Seekers severing ties with the Chantry in 9:40 Dragon. Loyalties are also split within mage leadership, as some support the Circle system, while others favor mage independence.
A mage who has survived Circle training has not done so easily. Years of instruction culminate in difficult test, known as "The Harrowing" those who fail face death, and mages who do not wish to undergo the trail are made Tranquil. The actual test, kept secret from apprentices, begins with the novice mage sitting in a room surrounded by numerous senior spellcasters and templars. The apprentice uses lyrium to project their mind into the Fade. There the apprentice must face a demonic spirit and the threat of possession. If the mage resists the spirit, the test is passed. Those who fail become abominations, and are killed on the spot by templars supervising the ritual. The Harrowing separates skilled magic users from those too weak or unstable to be trusted with their gift. The Chantry considers mages who have passed the Harrowing, no longer a a danger to society-until they prove otherwise-and give them a limited license to practice magic. Any living, full fledged mage who has spent time in the Circle has undergone this test.
Every Circle apprentice provides a sample of blood to be kept in a phylactery, a special vial imbued with magic. The Phylactery can be used to track down or even remotely cast a spell on a fugitive mage. The holder of a mage's Phylactery essentially controls the mage.
The "Right of Tranquility" completely severs a mage's connection to the Fade in an attempt to block the potential of spirit possession. You can tell a Tranquil from the sunburst marking burned into the mage's forehead and their deliberate monotone manner of speech. As a side effect of the rite, a Tranquil loses all capacity for emotions, as well as the ability to dream. Tranquil can no longer cast spells, and although free will persists, they rarely exercise it. Without emotions, they have nothing to guide them but the will of other. Tranquil possess an abnormal ability to concentrate on even the most tedious of tasks. The forced excising of emotion is controversial among mages, who argue the ethics of the practice. While non-Tranquil may consider an emotionless existence to be horrifying, the Tranquil do not posses the desire to object. While the rite makes demon possession difficult, it does not actually render it impossible. Without emotions to mine, spirits are simply uninterested in Tranquil mages. If a spirit is coxed to touch a Tranquil's mind, the rite may be reversed.
Circle Politics
Under the current Circle hierarchy of authority, the leader of the Circle is the Grand Enchanter, elected by the Cirlce's First Enchanters. Traditionally, the Grand Enchanters act as an advisor to the Divine, in addition to leading all mages under the Chantry control.
At the head of each local Circle is a First Enchanter, implicitly the leader of all mages in that Circle's jurisdiction. He or she assumes this position for life and retains the right to choose a successor, taking into consideration the "strong suggestions" of the templars. Only in recent years amid increasing friction, have First Enchanters denied templar choices for succession.
Under the First Enchanter are senior enchanters, who mentor junior enchanters, who in turn mentor apprentices.
Mages with strong political leanings may join noble orders known as fraternities, which serve to lobby mage leadership based on ideology. Representatives are traditionally called to vote on continuous issues that affect all mages, such as independence.
Aeduitarians: One of the most popular fraternities, advocates temperance and rationality.
Libertarians: A growing fraternity that petitions for greater power for mages. Some Libertarians have pushed for a complete split from the Chantry.
Resolutionists: From the Libertarians emerged a more radical group, who openly accept apostates and support mage freedom at all costs. Many Resolutionists have connections to a growing mage underground.
Isolationists: A smaller group of mages who believe their gifts are dangerous. They preach withdrawl to remote territories in extreme cases, and seek to avoid conflict with non-mages.
Loyalists: Advocate loyalty and obedience to the Chantry.
Lucrosians: Maintain that the Circle must do what is profitable first, putting wealth before politics.