What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry

melancholic romantic comic cynic. bi & genderqueer. fantasy writer. sysrae on ao3.

one two three four, I declare a nerd war

shiphitsthefan:

fozmeadows:

The primary difference between the Jedi Order and the Circle in Thedas is that the Jedi run themselves, while Circle mages are monitored and controlled by Templar outsider. Otherwise, their basic approach - restriction of romance, emotional discipline against evil, the forcible removal of young children from their families, constant worries about apostacy and corruption, the fusion of magic and theism/mysticism - is largely identical. Discuss. 

They’re both sort of modeled after the monastic traditions of the Abrahamic faiths, which did similarly. A child was pledged to service of the church/synagogue, and they were literally raised in the faith. Think Samuel from the Old Testament, or John the Baptist from the New. I can’t speak for Eastern faiths, but I feel like Buddhism may have a similar format with regards to the admission of children at a very early age.

It’s the idea of scholarly/mystical pursuits being incompatible with the pursuit of a career or family. One must devote one’s self entirely. Your life is not your own, but serves a greater purpose. You strive for internal balance to promote external devotion. It’s the servant leadership model, to an extent.

So it makes sense that they would be similar, being derived from the same real-world examples. You could think of them as being fanworks–different interpretations of a source material, in this case, the practices of religious hermits and the faithful who are “of the world, but not part of it.”

The only real difference I see is that Circle mage are largely put into a Circle out of fear of what they could become, whereas I think Jedi apprenticeship (and pre-apprenticeship) was more of a recruitment of apt pupils instead of a precautionary measure. Think Gray Wardens, or perhaps the Night’s Watch, only no criminals.

I agree that both systems are based on historical monastic models, but what’s really fascinating to me are the different ways each system uses to exert control and conformity. So, for instance: as @scotsdragon says, the Jedi let you leave, and the Circle doesn’t, which superficially seems pretty clear-cut. But in Thedas, mages don’t manifest their powers until they’re at least into the walking-and-talking stage of life, somewhere between late childhood and early adolescence - which means that, unless they’re orphans to begin with, these kids are going to have memories of their family, their culture and origins, and depending on where they’re sent, there’s a decent chance they’ll still be allowed to keep in contact with them, even if only by letter. Whereas the Jedi literally take babies, and that’s not an exaggeration; Anakin at nine is considered ‘too old’ to start training, the younglings we see with Master Yoda are about five, and there are Jedi fosterers who look after whole creches in their infancy. And a galaxy is a much bigger place than a single continent - these kids might be taken planets away from their families, who are not encouraged to keep in contact, and even though there seems to be a base level of knowledge about individual heritage, it’s pretty detached from any sort of non-Jedi upbringing.   

Meaning, in essence: mages who want to flee the Circle have to live in hiding, as apostates, but they also know that life outside the Circle is possible - they have an idea of how it works, family they might want to go back to, professions and duties and lovers. Hell, we’ve seen enough adult apostates in the setting to know that, despite the best efforts of the Templars, it’s reasonably common for little mages to be protected by their families, to be raised at least until their teenage years, or to stay free once they’ve escaped. Whereas little baby Jedi are basically brainwashed, and even once they start to see the galaxy as Padawans, it’s pretty much all viewed through the single lens they’ve been raised with. It’s hard for Jedi to break away, because it means leaving the only family they’ve ever known, for the kind of isolation and emotional turmoil they’ve always been told is the path to the Dark Side.

The Circle: physically difficult to escape, but emotionally easy to want to leave.

The Jedi Order: physically easy to escape, but emotionally difficult to want to leave.

(via shiphitsthefan)

  1. tediouslibrarian reblogged this from fozmeadows and added:
    The Jedi were a religious institution that largely regarded emotions as a blinder to understanding reality. Instead of...
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    The big difference is that for the jedi, it’s their belief system. For the circle, it’s a tool of emotional abuse. Mages...
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