Blood Magic. Even without playing the game or reading anything about Dragon Age, it creates a vision in your head – a vision of darkness and death, of ritual sacrifice and, well… evil. Why is that? What is it about just the word “blood” being added to something so fantastic as the concept of magic that sends your mind down that dark path?

Is it something that is encoded in the human psyche? Is it the demonization of such things by dominant religions? Maybe a combination of the above combined with a healthy dose of Hollywood? Whatever it is, the concept of the power that resides in our life’s blood is something that spans human history, culture, creed, and the planet as a whole.

According to legend in Thedas, Blood Magic was originally taught to man by the Old God of Silence, the Dragon Dumat. He taught it to Archon Thalsian, the founder of the Tevinter Imperium. The magisters of Tevinter used the power of the blood to rule over their subjects and extend the Imperium, controlling the hearts and minds of men, and performing feats well beyond their natural magical ability. The modern day religious power of Thedas, the Chantry, holds that misuse of this power, and the craving for more, lead to the tainting of the Maker’s golden city and their version of Original Sin. This Taint eventually lead to the withdrawal of the Maker from the world of men and the corruption of the Old Gods – which lead to the first Archdemon (Dumat, whether fittingly or ironically), and the First Blight of Darkspawn upon the world.

Heady stuff.

It’s easy to see why the people of Thedas are not fans of Blood Magic, or Mages in general. They’re terrified! These mages have the potential to manipulate their minds, and the power to reshape the world – not to mention the fact that they can be taken over by demons and turned into ravening beasts of mass destruction. Blood Magic is not always evil, however, and many (well, mostly those who use it) hold to the thought that it is really just another tool. A powerful tool, and one that, like any powerful tool, can corrupt its user – but a tool nonetheless. In fact, the main saviours of Thedas in times of Blight – the Grey Wardens – only exist due to use of a type of Blood Magic. That in and of itself proves that Blood Magic is a means to an end that can be justified in the world of Dragon Age.

In the really real world on good ol’ Planet Earth, the power of blood has been a constant throughout the ages in almost all peoples and religions. Blood rituals and rites still happen today, in fact, though many of those that appear in the mainstream have become more symbolic than anything else – the Catholic rite of communion, for example. Drinking the (symbolic) blood of the Son of God is viewed by Catholics (and some other Christian sects) as cleansing and spiritually healing. This concept, though many may scream otherwise, is not so different in its core element from a Celtic warrior drinking the blood of a fallen enemy or dead relative to absorb that enemy’s strength or relative’s wisdom; or sacrifice of an innocent and use of that innocent’s blood to cleanse a tainted place or person. The core element? We believe that blood has power, whether it be our own blood or that of another.

The earliest examples of blood rites and most examples of “true” Blood Magic in our world are much more focused on the power contained in one’s own blood. This is a voluntary act of bloodletting that is meant to create a strong and positive outcome: Wiccans may add a few drops of their own blood to invest themselves in and increase the strength of a spell; the chieftain of a tribe or village of the Celtic, Briton, Norse and Teutonic tribes would voluntarily sacrifice himself so that his blood could flow onto the earth and rejuvenate it; Mayans had special tools made just for bloodletting from the ear, tongue, penis and hands to give sustenance to their gods, communicate with them, and symbolically return life to the earth and the universe.

There is a darker side to human blood rites, but many hold that these are abominations of the original concept and purpose of Blood Magic. A modern practitioner I came across in my research stated that he felt the rise of these darker rites came from the “if a little is good, a lot must be better” theory that many people fall into – especially if it was somebody else’s. He maintained that only a little of your own, or another willing person’s blood is needed to give a spell that added kick, and that if the blood were taken under protest from another, and in large amounts, it would be the equivalent of “a powerful car out of control at high speeds – it may go where the driver wants it to, (but) may fly off the road and do a tremendous amount of damage before stopping”. This sort of ritual, due to its nature and consequences, went a long way to helping Christian and other missionaries who wished to demonize pagan religions, and is doubtless where the overall negative view we have today of things like Blood Magic comes from.

Magic and ritual are not the only ways we see power or energy related to blood. In martial arts, the breath can still the blood or pump it through the body at great velocity, lending power to form and transferring Chi (or Ki ,or Qi) energy throughout. In our own day to day lives we are all familiar with the heart or blood “racing” or the blood being “afire with passion”, and we know that adrenaline sent through the blood can cause us to achieve feats of strength, speed and agility that we would not be capable of otherwise. We know that a transfusion of blood can give life to another, and we know that tainted blood can kill. As a general group, humans do not appear to be able to truly separate the scientific elements that make up our life’s blood from the conceptual, fanciful or contextual ideas that we attach it to.

Blood Magic, as it is presented in Dragon Age: Origins, caters far more to the base fear that is conjured up by our stereotypical view of blood rites and sacrifice. That base fear lends excitement and depth to the world, but is predicated on our own love of life and fear of death. We are fascinated by blood. And why wouldn’t we be? We need it to live. When we lose it, we die. To see another lose it is both horrifying and fascinating – it reminds us of our own mortality and all of the spiritual questions and beliefs that are attached to it. Ever driven by a bad car accident? Did you look? Why? What were you hoping to see? No one really wants to see someone dead or dying, but the fact remains that we are drawn to look, even against our will or better judgement. Drawn by blood, and the innate power – or magic, if you will – and hold it has over all of us.

What are your thoughts on Blood Magic?

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