mikkeneko:

I’ve talked before about the relationship between the Circle, the Chantry and the orphanages, or what my friends sarcastically dubbed the “orphanage-to-Circle pipeline.” I made my argument for why I think the Chantry would keep records as to which children in the orphanages were taken from the Circle (so that they can keep a close eye on them,) why I think the Chantry would keep these records secret (so that they don’t get blamed for orphaning children unnecessarily/so that the children don’t suffer the stigma of being mage-blooded, take your pick depending on how charitably you view the Chantry) and why I think they would focus on mage orphans for use as Templar recruits (because lyrium is hell on the body, and we know for a fact that something about a mage’s physical makeup means they can handle it better; also so that any subsequent families and children of mageblooded orphans would be kept close to Chantry supervision.)

Can you imagine, after the end of Inquisition, that one of the first acts of a softened Leliana Divine would be to make these records accessible to the public?

Every mage mother who lost their baby to the Chantry can check the records to see where their children were taken and what became of them. Every person who came from a Chantry orphanage, or anyone who had a family member who did, can check the records to see if the baby was brought there from a Circle tower.

A lot of people – and especially a lot of Templars – would suddenly find out that they’ve got mage blood in them.

I can see Leliana’s advisors doing their best to dissuade her. “This is unwise, Your Holiness,” they would wheedle. “After a time of such turmoil for the Chantry, the last thing we need is a shock that will weaken the people’s trust in us!”

“And how can we be worthy of a trust that is built on a foundation of secrecy and lies?” Leliana shakes her head. “Either the Chantry has done nothing wrong, and we have nothing to be ashamed of. Or the Chantry has done great wrong, and we must atone for it.”

“Most Holy Victoria,” another advisor begins, more diplomatically. “We understand that you have great sympathy for the magefolk, but… by doing this you are putting a brand on innocent people all over Thedas! Especially the Templars – by marking them as mage-blooded, you are making them targets for the fear and hate of the common folk!”

“Then it is the duty of the Chantry to teach them better,” Leliana says, stepping away to gaze out the window of the grand cathedral. “It is no sin to be born. It is no sin to be who the Maker made us to be. We must lead our people to understand and accept that, not to profit off mindless superstitions.

"Tomorrow, many people will learn something about themselves,” she continues. “Many of them will learn things that we had no right to keep hidden from them – loved ones, blood relatives, lost to silence and to the Circle. Many of them will learn that there was a silence in their family tree that now speaks. They will learn that the concerns of magefolk are not so distant as they once believed… that it is not only a thing that happens to other people. They will learn that magic is as close to them as their own heart and blood – and that it is something that cannot be denied, cannot be excised, not by hatred and not by fear.

"You say I have great sympathy for the magefolk? I have great sympathy for our people, Sister. Because that is what they are. The mages are our mothers and fathers, our sisters and brothers, our sons and our daughters. We can hide that, we can disguise it, but we cannot make it untrue. The mages are our family.  It is time to let them come home.”