Circle Tower questions?

They are all dead. Yes.

The game is a bit fuzzy about what will happen to the mages if you side with the Templars.

It should be noted that Greagoir never actually got the authorisation he was waiting for. Even if you advise him to chose to pursue annulment, Greagoir states his intention is to leave it to the Chantry to decide the survivor's fate.

As much of a hardass as Greagoir can come across as (especially to a Mage Warden), he's really not depicted as the "kill 'em all and let the Maker sort them out" type of Knight-Commander as Meredith was in DA2. He seems far more level-headed and by-the-book, who'd only carry out such a harsh sentence if the Chantry deemed it appropriate. Even Wynne and Irving both characterise Greagoir as "not unreasonable" and someone who'd be willing to show leniency if it could be proven the mages were "safe".

I personally don't that Irving or Wynne would have allowed the survivors to be put to the sword without objecting either.

If you want to be spoiled on what (supposedly) happened according to the epilogues (which are semi-canon);

And considering the history of the place, it was dumb to make a Circle in the first place.

Kinloch Hold started as an Avvar settlement and fortress. The Avvar are known to freely mingle with spirits and rituals like the "Watchguard of the Reaching" demonstrates that certain spirits were bound in the tower. These rituals were either forgotten or mistaken by later denizens for foolish traditions, meaning that various wards grew weaker over time.

Then the Tevinters took the tower from the Avvar after a lengthy campaign. The Tevinters are no strangers to experimenting with magic and binding spirits either. Various artefacts and relics from that time are now kept in storage in the lower levels, locked away in repositories that only few are granted access to.

After Andraste's armies drove the Tevinters from Ferelden, the fortress stood abandoned for about 400 years and was widely shunned and thought cursed by the locals. It wasn't even the first choice when picking a Circle location in Ferelden. Only after the Circle in Denerim was destroyed by fire during the Chantry Schism of 3:87 did they relocate to Kinloch.

"Hey guys, why don't we relocate our mages to that old Avvar fort on the lake? Y'know, the one that the Tevinters occupied for a while and now everyone thinks is haunted? What's the worst that could possibly happen?"

Whoever said that needed to be slapped. Then turn and slap the person who agreed with them.

Or Aeonar.

Let's put mages in prison in a place "spiritually damaged" due to heavy magical experimentation by the Vints. When even the Vints felt it was safest to keep their experiments as far away as possible from people, why would you set up shop there?

Even the given explanation doesn't really make much sense, because spirits and demons are going to be attracted to any mage kept in a place where the Veil is that thin, regardless of whether they're guility or not!

Templars really do make the worst location scouts.

(And it should be no surprise that Cullen's roof in his office in Inquisition is never fixed)

I agree, templars are the worst loacation scouts in Thedas. I'm pretty sure, there are nice abandoned castles,where nothing out of the ordinary happened, which can be used for circles, but no, it has to be the really creepy places, with thin veil, blood sacrifices, experiments and the lot