Did Elthina do the right thing by staying neutral?

that is one of the main questuions.
BM is considered to be a bad thing in the game. And with the above post by Mithras about lots of demons/shades/abominations etc, is it really a no-brainer for mages to use BM as they are under attack?
As you say BM is good against templars as they just can't do anything.
BUT what we see in the game?
Mages use BM not in a way Jowan used it in DAO, BUT they simply summon demons/shades/just become abominations (there are even certain cutscenes for that).

So what is that? Using BM as Jowan did is one thing trying to protect yourself, but we see only demon-summoning, not Jowan-way of using it.
Mages just summon demons and become abominations. That is what the game shows us (only some examples of simpe using of BM, some).
And with that summoning simple people also die, including children. Or do you think demons will ignore them?

Yeah he didn't know he was the serial killer until  after Hawke caught him. He only knew a little bit about the magic he was using. Also as first enchanter it's his job to protect his fellow mages. Unless he knew Quentin ws using that magic to cause crimes you can't blame him. He admitted later on though he made a mistake supporting Quentin but he didn't know what Quentin was doing with that magic.

that is the point. All we see it "demon-summonng". Who did that? Templars?
No, mages are responsable for everything we see: all kinds of demons, and they become abominations.

Do you justify that kind of protection of yourself? Even if innocents will die, including children? Demons do not care who is in front of them.

Oh, "innocent children would die" argument... This is a war. The Templars prepared to kill everyone. Including innocent children in the Circle – nobody cares. Also: not every mage summoned demons, shades and became an abomination. 
Meredith didn't want to protect the city. She was an abomination.
You blame the mages because they tried to protect themselves.

Indeed when an Annulment is issued it means that everybody in that circle dies it doesn' tmatter to the templars whether they are guilty o rinnocent of the crime being committed. Granted bot h Orsino and Meredith went too far but in Orsino's case it was out of desperation because he knew the moment Meredith caught up to him he was dead not because he really wanted to hurt anyone. Meredith was just in it to cause chaos and preserve her dictatorship instead of doing what she was hired to do and that was protecty people from magic and oversee her fellow templars..

That's exactly sounds, like he didn't lie to Hawke. He doesn't have any reason to tell him, he knew Quentin – but if he decided, he tells that, has no reason to lie about that.

So like I said, Orsino didn't give a damn about the citizens of Kirkwall so long as it couldn't be linked back to the mages. 

That Harvester thing do bother me btw. According to the Golems of Amgarrak dlc the Harvester is not something you just do with a bit of blood magic. I wish, the writers had acknowledged that and had Orsino turn into something else. What happened to good old abominations? Why did they have to go flashy and disrupt their own lore?

About how much Orsino knows:I always thought, that he knew, Quentin did research about forbidden magic, but I was of the opinion, he didn't know, that his pal is actually killing people. But he should have stopped Quentin regardless, he knew, the research was dangerous.

I ask the same questiion as I read only short versions of books (never liked whern you need to read something more to understand events in the game - and DAO is such a game). So came the qusestion as maybe I missed something on this topic?

According to your post - there was nothing it seems.

So the game and dialogues shown that he knew. Beth reaction "you could have saved her!" Orsino had something to tell her back...

And whatever Meredith was already right before the Harvester fight, she tells a very true thing "Such magic can't come out of thin air".
Orsino practiced it, kept a secter evething and knew about everyone turns out.
And to become a Harvester? It is not just some simple abomination.
Even if he practiced - OK, I see no harm in BM as it it. As I have written already, everything depends on the persion: if you are strong and don't need alien blood - use it for good.
I did not see any good.




To become a Harverster you or even just ti use some spell - you need knowledge and practice. Where that knowledge came from?

Not about practicing to run around in Harverster form. See above.

And about mages...maybe temmplars, maybe not, as Orsino's words were already desperate as you have noticed. Remember what he said after all those confessions/talks/"and here we are"/"you could have saved her!!!!"? I already got the feeling that he killed them as "they would have died anyway! You wanted BM - get it!"

Tbh it is actually your "all-the-time-arfument". decided to use it to.
And agree - this is a war. Deaths are inevitable anyway.



First:I said nothing about "innocent templars". Templars in the game turned into thugs, forgot their duties, but as you mention, not all. As well as mage "not all".

Second: I blame not only mages. Templar and Meredith and Elthina and Isi. I blame many people here for this or that.

If he truly cared, he would have helped the Templars stop him regardless of how Meredith would have acted. But instead, his opinions are made clear: He was fascinated and fully supported Quentin's work, as well as willingly shrugging off the deaths of innocent to protect himself and his kind. 
No, helping a serial killer is not an understandable mistake.