You go too far. Even in Origins (yeah i don't remember 2 that well) the reason for Circle going nuts was that, apparently, a lot of the mages were actually blood mages in secret biding their time to overthrow the templars in the tower and butter up to the demons. Templars couldn't sniff out a conspiracy in their own base of operations. Oh and enemy mages are the worst. Hate fighting them. I still saved both circle and templars because you kinda need all the guns you can get for the blight and you can sort out the mages later but i agree, i wouldn't want to live in the same village with a mage. Then again, they're more of a necessity than a friendly neighbourhood fireball man. Like trained killers for the feds in case Qunari come, or the Orlesians, or the... i dunno... darkspawn. And then they conveniently turn on each other...
There are plenty of mages that don't mess with demons and such. It doesn't help that they have natural affinity to be able to become massive nukes if they simply wished for it. Only takes one guy to mess everything up. Which is why mages are on a very short leash.
Nope. You can deal with the demon in the Connor quest and come out on top, having both gotten something from the demon and casting it away. In Shale quest you can trick the demon. In the circle of Magi... i forgot... I don't think there were any demons there you could talk to without fighting them thereafter. In the Mage prologue you correctly figure out the trick Mouse was pulling on you as well. Demons are not unbeatable which is the whole point of defeating them.
Yeah. I'm replaying it now. I like the overall feel of the world though i'm a bit more sore about the gameplay now. Though there are some things that you could definitely notice as woke. Can't remember them now, they're pretty minor. Leliana was mentioning how orlesian knights could be men and women and there are not a whole lot of options for player character to not be a liberal.
Elf lore