Noble or commoner human

I would love this to happen but I doubt it will be a reality. The best we can hope for is achieving the reform that Dorian wanted with his Lucerni. Unless it is a case of letting the Antaam destroy the Magesterium and then we destroy the Antaam. More likely it will be along the lines of getting them to work together for the greater good of saving the world.

No, I'm saying that Vivienne has the backing of the non-mage nobility and they ultimately control the direction the Chantry will take with regard to the mages. The reason the Circles lasted so long is that they had the backing of the secular rulers. Whilst the nobles might have to pay the price of losing the odd mage child to the Circles, normally there is always an "heir and a spare" and the offspring of nobility are treated very differently to those of commoners. They can keep in contact with their families, they are far more likely to be allowed out from time to time and in some cases it was even possible to arrange for hand picked Templars to be their overseers, thus ensuring they never had to suffer abuse. I've long suspected the reason the secular rulers did back having Circles is that they didn't want to have powerful mages out in the community who could help their own people defend against exploitation by those of higher rank. Leliana's ideas were a threat to the status quo, Vivienne's were not.

I think bioware has learned to avoid this. An ending should never have huge sweeping choices but be a culmination of choices. See Andromeda and ME 2.

As we saw with Vivienne and Malcolm, the nobility is certainly okay with flaunting the Circle. Either that, or it's much more leinent than its critics give it credit for. 

Although, as we saw, Vivienne's family weren't nobility (neither was Malcolm) far as we can tell. 

Powerful mages would be more likely to seize power for themselves rather than "help the people." It's a noble idea that exists in storybooks, but not reality. Look at Tevinter. 

Vivienne caught the eye of a noble when allowed out to entertain the nobility and it was his influence that allowed her greater freedom outside the Circle. Then she got the backing of Celene and she was made. Ultimately, it did depend on the non-mage nobility. They are less happy with Vivienne as Divine but so long as she keeps the other mages under control, they will continue to back her. As the epilogue says, whilst mages appear to get greater freedom under her rule, she is always the one really in control. When she dies, it will just go back to regular Circles as before.

As for Malcolm, the mages were allowed to attend the function in order to entertain the nobility and presumably he was recommended by the Templars as someone who could be trusted. They seemed rather more lenient back then in Kirkwall but it was really a similar situation to the one with Vivienne. The nobility want to be entertained with magic tricks and the Templars decide who can be trusted. If you do a good job and behave yourself, with any luck you will be invited again but it is the nobles who make the request, not the other way around.

This is true but whether for their own power or the sake of others, my point still stands; the non-mage nobility don't want to lose power to those beneath them. Having a "tame" mage in the family though is a different matter. So long as they don't push their luck too far, it can be useful having one around to intimidate your enemies. Look at what Vivienne did at her party. Apparently you can freeze your enemies provided you do it as part of the Game.

On the face of it, no, but shutting away all mages in Circles is protecting the status quo, particularly when the majority of those mages are not from the ruling class. I also forget to mention in my previous post that mages do not automatically assume power if left free in their community. The Avvar have free mages who would appear to act as spiritual leaders of their community, whilst non mages are the secular ones. They work together for the benefit of all. Likewise in Rivain, the Seers or Wise Women are the traditional leaders of the community but not in an overbearing way (unless you are a man I suppose). People go to them for advice and judgement on matters and seem happy to do so. Otherwise, the practice would have died out considering how the Chantry are in direct opposition to it. Yet the people away from the cities preferred to protect their Seers rather than report them to the Templars.

The problem with Tevinter is that the entire ruling class are predominantly mages and they specifically breed for magical ability, thus perpetuating the disparity. Actually it has never been stated what status non mages have within Altus families but there does seem to be some evidence that they are either deliberately killed off, if there would otherwise be a risk of them inheriting, or exiled as an embarrassment. Felix was not actually a non-mage but a mage of negligible ability. His grandfather thought this brought shame on the family and, as an only child, there was a risk it would end up with a weak mage at its head, so he tried to have him assassinated, only to be murdered by Felix's mother. We know that Drakon's father was the son of a Magister who was a non mage, so left his homeland to seek his fortune elsewhere. Mind you, it was a way of spreading Tevinter's influence back down south, so it might well have been done with his father's blessing.

The thing is, it cannot have always been this way. In the Chant of Light, Thalsian was not actually King of the Neromenians but one of the leader's Oracles, which I assume was their equivalent of Seer or Augur. Therefore, it may be assumed that the King was not a mage himself. So the Neromenians seemed to have the same arrangement as is found in the Avvar. When Darinius was a baby, his uncle, Tarsian, led a successful coup against his mother, yet he was a non mage. Even if he had the support of mages wishing to remove a political rival, if that was the case it is odd they didn't immediately overthrow someone who had no real defense against them. Darinius' mother was said to be the High Priestess of Razikale but also queen of the kingdom. May be this is what led Tarsian to challenged her rule, apart from personal ambition, because she had combined the role of secular and spiritual rulers, which went against tradition. This would explain how apparently he retained his position until Darinius grew up and was able to return and claim his birthright. After which Darinius set up the system of the Magisterium, which originally consisted of him as High Priest of Dumat and the other 6 High Priests of the Old Gods, who were all mages, presided over by him as Archon. The Archon continued to be both head of state and head of religion until the two offices were split to appease the southern Chantry. Hessarian, in order to stave off rebellion in the lower classes and remove his political rivals, tried to reverse the stranglehold that mages had on the political system by throwing open the Chantry priesthood to Soporati, thus giving them access to the Magisterium but of course it didn't last. The damage had been done right back at the beginning with Darinius and, as you say, once a group of people, in this case the mages, have acquired power, they are not going to relinquish it willingly.

However, my point is that there was a system of governance among the ancient barbarians both north and south that did not automatically result in mages having absolute power over everyone else. It was Darinius changing the system of government that allowed this. Meanwhile, the non-mage nobility of Orlais justify their positions by the means of the state religion. Whilst the Emperor/Empress has never been both head of church and head of state, nevertheless the nobility are said to rule by "divine right", which gives a religious justification to the status quo as well as the having secular power. Really, in either case, the only way to bring about change in that status quo would be by violent revolution.

So, I guess I don't feel like I have to be a slave. I mostly want to be a rebel. And I do want to be from Tevinter, not another country. If a Dalish elf can ask stupid questions about their own religion to the white human mage that was made to join our group, then a Tevinter native can ask questions about how the land works. I mean, it's been a while since I played Skyrim, but the player character was from that country and had no issues asking a bunch of questions they should "have known" the answer to.

Lords of Fortune just isn't winning me over. They are just such a bland adventuring group of blandness.

If you'll notice, they don't actually contradict. Countries do not, in fact, remake easily, and violent revolutions often meet their ends at their own violent revolution. I simply do not give mages or anyone else the benefit of pretending that they are more valid. It is simply a personal failing on your part to acknowledge parts of our agreement. Lots of evidence is ignored by you, frequently for the benefit of your group. We were having an interesting discussion until you allowed your prejudices to get in the way. 

What about them feels bland to you?

I don't consume any of the other media (for any game/game series) so all I know/have seen about them was in the discussion that took place several months back with the videos that were put out.

If nothing else, being a diverse collective of mercenaries rather than an organisation of demon fighters or a pseudo-religious governing body gives our protagonist a reason to be out in the world doing things not 100%, directly related to the main plot.

Ugh, that sounds awful. 

The background of your character is up to you. It is never established your character is from Skyrim. Most assume you aren't, like for example if you choose Dunmer they assume you're a refugee from Morrowind. 

Or your character could have became a Lord of Fortune to help worthy goals like family, jobs for the poor, medicine, education and the like. It's not Thedas has fundraising telethons...