Blood Magic (possible spoilers all books and games)

That is true and it does seem likely that no one asked the titan if it wanted its blood farmed or alternatively it comes from the corpse of a titan that died at Mythal's hands. Strangely enough it was learning that lyrium is really blood that made me start to re-evaluate the use of blood magic. Surely a mage using their own blood is actually more ethical than using lyrium? I was inclined to agree with Solas that whether the source of the mana is the Fade or the blood, the magic created is neutral when it comes to morality and it is the source of the blood and the uses to which it is put that determines if a spell is good or evil.



Exactly, which again is why I started to re-think the whole blood magic is evil aspect. PW only says that sacrifice is necessary for it to be considered a legitimate life source; he says nothing about the need for violence or pain. Then, as other people have pointed out, you see that entry in World of Thedas and I'm back on the side of it being dubious to say the least. I certainly wouldn't categorise it as just another form of magic because magic that draws on the Fade, as far as we know, does not require anyone to suffer pain, so there is a clear difference between the two.



Like elves, mages would seem to have magic in their blood (according to Kieran at least) and it was also stated in Calpernia's story that slave mages are often used in magical experiments because their blood is more potent. So it would seem that in Tevinter the preference is either for slave mage or slave elf blood when conducting blood magic sacrifices but failing that I assume anyone would do but probably in greater numbers.   Except that surely the pain felt by them is pretty much the same, so why the preference for elf or mage blood if it is the level of pain, not the blood itself that give the spell its potency?



Since on the whole they use expendable slaves they probably don't care if it causes pain or not. However, that doesn't mean it has to be the increase in pain levels that makes a spell more powerful. The more blood that is let, the more life force you are utilising, so surely it is that which fuels the spell, with any pain just a by-product of the procedure? The more blood you use, the more life force is utilised and the more powerful the spell makes sense. You expend health, you get mana: it is a straight forward exchange.

Yet, according to WoT this is not the case, and you could just use a small amount of blood provided the violence and pain in doing so was great enough. Why is this the case if it is meant to be a physical source of magic? What is it about pain that makes it a trade off for mana? What is the source of this power? A demon? An Old God? The Maker?

Now according to Threnodies 6 of the Chant of Light, the demon (Old God Dumat) when he first did his deal with Thalsian required the King of the Neromenians to renounce the Maker and make burned offerings of oxen and horses. Since the poor creatures were probably terrified and suffered a great deal, may be the Old Gods did grant power in exchange for violence and pain, although note that in this case it was not human sacrifice. May be that came later when the demon decided that animal pain was not enough. So since Dumat was said to have taught Thalsian blood magic it may well be that he insisted that pain should be an integral part of the sacrifice because it would seem that Dumat did get off on that sort of thing. Is it really necessary for the blood magic to work though?

Just to muddy the waters still further, in the Mortalitassi's tale in the Dread Wolf Take You, she claims that the servants/slaves of the Tevinter mage were in a trance when he killed them. So wouldn't that effect the level of pain? It is also noticeable that she claims the Mortalitassi mages were pumped up with lyrium but then again I doubt she would care to admit they used blood magic in front of Charter. The Carter assassin totally calls her out on that though.