This one takes place completely within the library on the first floor. We get the opportunity to do a little summoning for some loot and experience. The directions for this are in the codex in game too, at least for the first 3 summoning fires. The fourth summoning fire is a secret, which I’ll share at the end.
For all of these, remember that you can hold down TAB to spot the items with which you can interact.
The first summoning isn’t too tough. You need to touch the summoning font and then walk over to the right side of the room and touch the Tome of Spirit Passages. It’s on the bookshelf near the entrance. Then you can touch the first Summoning Fire. This will bring up a type of fade hog. It will die, but you can check the body for a piece of garnet.
The second summoning is a little trickier. Touch the summoning font, then touch the Rodercoms book, the statue, and finally the second summoning flame. This will summon a trickster whim. We’ll have to deal with him a little bit later.
The third summoning is harder and will actually involve a fight. Touch the summoning font, then Elvorn’s Bestiary, then move over to the big table by the entrance to touch the carving spot, then the Spiritorum Etherialis, then the statue, and then the Novice Phylactery by the statue. Once you’re done, touch the third summoning flame. This will summon a bereskarn. This is a type of darkspawn bear mixed with a hedgehog. It shouldn’t be too tough if you have Wynne as a healer. Just have a warrior buff it while the rogue and another warrior or mage do some damage. Check the body for a pair of Charged Mitts. These are pretty nice for a mage who likes lightning spells.
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The fourth and final secret summoning is just for a codex entry. If you looked around, you should have seen a fourth summoning flame by the staircase up to the second level. To use it, we’ll have to run around and basically touch everything. I think you were supposed to use trial and error for this, but I’ve got the correct order.
Touch the summoning font, then the Tome of Spirit Passages, then Rodercoms, then the statue, then Elvorn’s Bestiary, then the carving spot, the Spiritorum Etherialis, touch the statue again, then touch the phylactery. Switch to a rogue character and approach the summoning the fourth flame. Save and then touch the flame. A mage called Arl Foreshadow will be summoned up for a few seconds before he teleports back himself. Have your rogue walk forward and use stealing on him. If it succeeds, you will automatically get Codex 231, 'The Notes of Arl Foreshadow.' It’s just a humorous little list and it shouldn’t be too hard to steal. Just reload if it fails.
That officially completes Summoning Sciences.
Five Pages, Four Mages
Five Pages, Four Mages is a fairly quick quest that we actually won’t finish here. Our business now is to grab the 5 relevant pages from the third floor of the circle tower. Through the Great Hall, there are 5 things labeled as Torn Pages on the bookshelves and podiums. I hate to be lazy, but any directions are fairly useless for a circular level. The simple way to find them all is to just check the side rooms and press TAB. The last one should be in First Enchanter Irving’s Office before the stairs. It seems that these mages all bought a worthless and fairly expensive document from a con artist.
Once you have all five in your possession, you’re basically done for now. You’ll get a random encounter later while you’re walking around the world map in which you meet the merchant in quest. His name is Beyha Joam. It’s not too difficult. You have to fight him no matter what, so you should hopefully have a combat party with you.
The one big danger is that he has a mage on the little hillside behind you. Have some rush the mage, or have one of your mages hammer her with spells. She has some really good spells that can do tremendous damage to your party. Once she’s dead, it’s a simple matter of helping your buffer warrior survive against Beyha and his men while your other warrior and a rogue cut them down. Search Beyha’s body for the Cameo Cowl. It gives a nice boost to cunning and health regeneration for your mages.
Watchguard of the Reaching
The Watchguard of the Reaching quest in the Circle Tower can net you one of the best dragonslayer swords in the game, if you’re lucky. I’ll cover that later, though.
To start this one, just pick up one of the six notes. There are three on the first floor in the Apprentice Quarters, two on the second floor in the Senior Mage Quarters, and the final one in the Great Hall on the third floor. The best way to find the first five are to go into the bedroom areas and hold down TAB. This will highlight everything. They aren’t really hidden. For the first floor they’re just in the apprentice foot chests. The second floor has them spread out on table areas. The final note is on a big table in the first room on the third floor. This is the one with all the statues, which we’ll need for the quest.
Once you have all six pieces, you should have everything you need to carry out the ritual. You need to touch four statues in the right order in the Great Hall area. The first three are in the first room. If you’re following the clues, you need to touch the one with the bowl first. Then touch the one with a sword raised. Then the one planting a sword in the ground The fourth one is further along. Once you get to the big center room and kill the abomination, you should be able to see a big statue with a shield in the center. Touch that. If it doesn’t shock you, you did it right. You should also get a notification on the quest being updated.
At some point, run down to that room on the first floor where you met Wynne. There’s a locked door to the basement here. Save first. We need to do this for a few reasons. It’s a tough battle and we may not get good loot out of it the first time. Try to open it and the monster will spawn behind you. Shah Wyrd is just a big rage demon. The good news is that if you did this during the Broken Circle quest, Wynne’s three mage friends will be nearby and they’ll help out. They can do a fair bit of damage too. This means you just have to have your warriors soak up the damage while the rest kill him. Rogues are alright but Mages with ice spells are the best. Just try to keep him pinned.
Once Shah Wyrd dies, you get to see how lucky you are. A pile of rags should appear where he dies. Check it. If you’re lucky, then it should be Yusaris and some gems. If you’re not lucky, then it will be some mediocre chainmail. Yusaris has a fairly high drop rate, but you might still need to do the fight a few times. It’s really worth it though, since this will be nice to have when we’re fighting dragons.
This post is part of the series: Dragon Age: Origins Walkthrough – Broken Circle
The quest to gain the Mage Circle’s help isn’t an easy one. We’ll have to clear out a 5 story tower, fight lots of demons and abominations, travel through the fade to beat the lieutenant demon, and finally fight and kill Uldred at the top. Look here if you need any trouble with the Circle Tower.
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I saw myself, a teen in a psychiatric hospital, in the mages of Dragon Age.
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There's a place where they send you when you're young and troubled.
You don't really have a choice in the matter. They ask you if you'll come along willingly, but it's just a formality. If you don't go with them now, they'll bring in armed men to escort you there, where you'll be under constant surveillance. They say you're here because something is wrong with you, because you can't handle life in the outside world. You'd hurt yourself, they say, or you'd hurt someone else. You're here for your own protection, and they'll let you go—with proper supervision—when you're no longer dangerous.
But what happens when you never stop being dangerous?
Dragon Age fans will recognize this story. It's about the Circle of Magi, a place where young people with a talent for magic are sent. But the above isn't about the Circle Tower. It's about my life as an adolescent psychiatric patient.
Spoilers for the Dragon Age series below.
Magic is literally the source of all evil in the world, according to the cutscene at the beginning of Dragon Age: Origins. The hubris and greed of mages causes the Fall of Man, it says. Mages are naturally susceptible to demonic possession and abuse of power, and must be watched carefully to prevent them from hurting themselves and others. The Chantry (a sort of ersatz Roman Catholic Church) creates an institution to keep them in line: the Circle of Magi.
Header and all Dragon Age screens courtesy of EA
In the Circle, young mages learn to control their powers. At the end of their training, they face a ritual called The Harrowing, where templars force them to confront a demon and resist possession. If they don't perform according to the Chantry's specifications, the templars either kill them on the spot, or perform the Rite of Tranquility on the mages, a sort of magical lobotomy.
Central to the three games is the conflict between the Circle of Magi and mages who demand more freedom. Unfortunately, the drama of the conflict is undercut by the fact that every mage who opposes the Chantry ends up being evil.
In Dragon Age: Origins, the only unambiguously 'good' mages—Wynne and Irving—believe that the Circle is necessary. The mages who defy Chantry law are less noble. The utterly amoral Morrigan deceives the main character into carrying out a ploy for her to conceive a 'demon baby.' Uldred, a staunch mage liberationist, is a straightforward antagonist who murders innocent children and eventually transforms himself into a giant demon.
The main plot of Dragon Age 2 revolves around the struggle between the templars (who think that there is an epidemic of blood magic and evil among the mages in the city) and the Circle of Magi, who insist that they're doing no wrong. While some of the mages are innocent, like Hawke's sister Bethany, the templar leader is ultimately accurate in her assessment of the Circle of Magi, whose leader is a secretly an evil blood mage.
Anders, a party member, is the strongest proponent of mage freedom. He also becomes possessed by a demon and ends up blowing up a church full of innocents, provoking an all-out war.
Inquisition, at least, begins to admit that the Circle of Magi might require a certain amount of reform, and shows several corrupt Chantry authorities. Still, the leader of the rebel mages who oppose the Chantry is morally questionable at best and a craven villain at worst. Another mage, fan-favorite Dorian, frowns at the Circle of Magi, but his counter arguments are weakened by his status as a foreigner: in his home country, mage-kings murder their slaves to power blood magic and summon demons.
And then there's Solas. Solas consistently makes the most eloquent and strongly-worded arguments against the narrow-minded views of the Chantry, but he turns out to be an evil demigod and the secret puppetmaster behind the main antagonist, who is an evil mage.
It is difficult, then, for some people to understand why I feel sympathy for the mages trapped in the Circle of Magi. Given that allowing mages freedom seems to unerringly end up with murder, havoc, and the occasional apocalyptic war, it seems bizarre to argue that their confinement is neither justified nor necessary. Yet still I identify with the young apprentice mages trapped in their Hogwarts-cum-prison, hoping that they pass their Harrowing, dreading that the Rite of Tranquility might happen to them.
There's no Rite of Tranquility, but there are anti-psychotics and electro-convulsive therapy.
Of course, there are differences between a mental hospital and the Circle of Magi. There are no templars waiting to cut off your head if you mouth off to your psychiatrist, but there are men in scrubs with injectable Ativan if they think that you're 'being unsafe.' There's no Rite of Tranquility, but there are anti-psychotics and electro-convulsive therapy. My own psychiatrist recommended ECT for me, but my parents refused. Instead, I was placed on anti-psychotics that made me left me in an unfeeling, apathetic daze.
At least one nurse thought my ailment was spiritual. Convinced that they were satanic, she took away the Terry Pratchett and RPG books my family brought me. I made do with what I could find in the day room: Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul and poems by Jewel. Mostly, I spent my time sleeping off the drugs.
My days were taken up by tedious group meetings run by overworked and underpaid psych techs and social workers, or outdated psychoeducational videos.
If it doesn't sound like I experienced much healing during my stay in the hospital, you're correct. Max payne 3 dead man walking man. Being an inpatient is not about getting better. It's about being safe—ensuring that you're not going to die, hurt someone else, or break any laws. It's more like prison.
And it's what I saw when I played Dragon Age.
The Circle isn't the only reason I see myself in the mages. Like mental illness, the talent for magic is a heritable quality. When Bethany is sent off to the Circle, Hawke's mother laments the fact that magic runs in both her and her late husband's families. It's a conversation that I've had many times with my own parents. I'd watched them try to find some reason for why I was so messed-up. I watched them blame themselves, just like Hawke's mother blamed herself for Bethany's misfortune.
In America, it's not unheard of for mental illness to be blamed on demonic possession. It's downright common for people to claim that God and faith can cure mental illness (The secular version of this phenomenon substitutes 'positive thinking' or 'mindfulness' or the self-help gospel du jour). My culture views me as an aberration and regards mentally ill people with fear and suspicion. People like me learn to hate ourselves. We're taught to think of ourselves as deficient and broken, to regard ourselves as inherently and permanently flawed rather than temporarily in pain.
We are not taught to question a society that considers 20 percent of its population 'mentally ill.' We don't question a culture that creates a group of people and says that 'these people feel pain because there is something inherently wrong with them,' rather than questioning how it contributes to those people's pain. Questioning that would be like questioning Chantry law. Only villains do that.
I'm still 'in the Circle,' so to speak. I take medication. I see a therapist regularly.
I don't feel ashamed of who I am, for having this quality they call 'mental illness.' I cherish my ability to feel things deeply, even though it brings me pain. The ability to summon intense emotions from nothing is useful to me as an actor, writer, and storyteller. I see connections between things that other people do not see: poetry in the flight of birds and omens in the garbage on the street. My illness has taught me to be steady in a crisis, to be keenly aware of my own emotions, and of the emotions of others, and to be wary of things that seem too good to be true.
It's not strange to me that the mages seek their freedom. They want a way to view their condition that doesn't render them as demons. They want to imagine themselves and their world complexly. They want to look at themselves in the way that Solas tells us to look at the spirits of the Fade: without judgement, and without fear. That doesn't make us demons.
That makes us human.
Tagged:
When the mage tower, called the Circle Tower, is accessed during the “Broken Circle” quest in 'Dragon Age: Origins,' there are two puzzle quests available. These quests are not required; however, they yield both treasure and experience. To access these quests, you must retrieve the required codices that are located on the first floor of the Circle Tower. These codices are called “Summoning Sciences” and “Watchguard of the Reaching“. The “Summoning Sciences” codex can be gained by touching the summoning font in the library or by finding either half of the torn textbook in the library. Obtain the “Watchguard of the Reaching” codex by finding any of the apprentice notes located in the apprentice quarters.
“Summoning Sciences” Part 1
Approach the summoning font in the second section of the library and select it.
Return to the first section of the library and go to the bookshelf on the right side. Select the Tome of Spirit Personages, which is located on the second to last shelf of the bookshelf.
Approach the bright area on the floor of the first section of the library. This is called “Summoning the First”. Select this area. A spirit hog will appear, fall over and drop a garnet.
“Summoning Sciences” Part 2
Approach the summoning font in the second section of the library and select it.
Go to the third section of the library. Approach the book “Rodercoms Uncommon Calling,” which is located on a bookshelf to the right on the second to last shelf. Select “Rodercoms Uncommon Calling.”
Return to the first section of the library. Proceed to the back of this section and select the statue Magus Gorvish.
Return to the second section of the library. Approach the bright area on the floor, which is called “Summoning the Second.” Select the area, and Trickster Whim will appear. For players using the PC version, this character can be pickpocketed; however, it is not possible to pickpocket this character if using either of the console versions.
“Summoning Sciences” Part 3
Approach the summoning font in the second section of the library and select it.
Go to the third section of the library. Close to the back wall is a bookshelf that contains the book “Elvorn’s Grande Bestiary.” Select the book, which is located on the second-to-last show.
Return to the first section of the library. Located in the middle of this section is a long table. Select the area of the table called “Common Table Carving Spot.”
Return to the third section of the library. Located on the floor is the book “Spiritorum Etherialis.” Select the book.
Return to the first section of the library. Proceed to the back of this section and select the statue Magus Gorvish.
Go to the bookshelf in this same section that is close to “Summoning the First.” Select the “Novice Phylactery,” which is located on the second-to-last shelf.
Return to the third section of the library. Approach the bright area on the floor, which is called “Summoning the Third.” Select the area and a Fade Rifter will appear. Defeat the Fade Rifter and retrieve the Charged Mitts, which are mage gloves that grant electricity damage.
“Summoning Sciences” Part 4
Approach the summoning font in the second section of the library and select it.
Return to first section of the library and go to the bookshelf on the right side. Select the 'Tome of Spirit Personages,' which is located on the second-to-last shelf of the bookshelf.
Go to the third section of the library. Approach the book “Rodercoms Uncommon Calling,” which is located on a bookshelf to the right on the second to last shelf. Select “Rodercoms Uncommon Calling.”
Return to the first section of the library. Proceed to the back of this section and select the statue Magus Gorvish.
Go to the third section of the library. Close to the back wall is a bookshelf that contains the book “Elvorn’s Grande Bestiary.” Select the book, which is located on the second-to-last show.
Return to the first section of the library. Located in the middle of this section is a long table. Select the area of the table called “Common Table Carving Spot.”
Return to the third section of the library. Located on the floor is the book “Spiritorum Etherialis.” Select the book.
Return to the first section of the library. Proceed to the back of this section and select the statue “Magus Gorvish.”
Go to the bookshelf in this same section that is close to “Summoning the First.” Select the “Novice Phylactery,” located on the second-to-last shelf.
Proceed past the third section of the library into the next room. Walk around the back of the bookshelves on the left. There will be a bright area on the floor called “Summoning the Fourth”. Select the area and Arl Foreshadow will appear. In all game versions, Arl Foreshadow may be pickpocketed.
'Watchguard of the Reaching' Part 1
Go to the common room on the third floor of the Circle Tower.
Approach the statue holding the bowl. Select the statue.
Approach the statue whose sword is facing upward. Select the statue.
Approach the statue whose sword is facing downward. Select the statue.
Proceed to the last room of the third floor. This room will contain the stairs to the fourth floor. Approach the statue that is holding a shield. Select the statue. While there is no confirmation that this part of the process is complete, you will now be able to proceed to the second part of this quest.
'Watchguard of the Reaching' Part 2
Return to the first floor of the circle tower and proceed to the room where the character Wynne was acquired or battled.
Head down the stairs and approach the door labeled “basement.” Select the door.The rage demon, Shah Wyrd, will appear.
Battle Shah Wyrd to complete this quest.
Tips
In the console versions of the game, flames will appear when an object is successfully activated. The PC version will show no confirmation of a successfully activated object. All three versions will show sparks if an inaccurate object is selected. Should this happen at any point, the sequence will need to be started over again.
