G
Ginkgo
Guest
The game was quite forgettable.
And there is a reason the mages were acting loony and the templars were acting equally so, and why Kirkwell was crazy to begin with. It's a hidden quest (Fucking retarded for what maybe the most important information in this game.) that includes you gathering pieces of history around Kirkwell throughout the game. It's not on your journal, and you can't see how well your doing, there's no reward or even a cutscene. I can't even begin to pretend to know how to explain it adequately however so instead I'll direct you to the link and a quote.
And no this isn't spoiling. These are literally impossible to find without a guide. No way in hell you would have found these on your own, you wouldn't even know you were looking for them.
The Band of Three
The Enigma of Kirkwall
Archaeologist
I'll try to paraphrase it.
Kirkwell is a giant demon summoning ground. You'll also notice that the happiest people in the game are the people who are sending you letters from outside of Kirkwell, people who left, or never arrived. This summoning circle makes it far easier for mages to become possessed and turn to demons. This in of itself is problem alone but there's the idea that Templars are kind of dicks on top of that. The best solution is the solution never presented in the game, because no one had the chance likely as you don't figure out the mystery till during the final mission and it's not brought up in conversation. The game is lose-lose situation where all the players are idiots who deserve it anyways with the exception of the Hawke family and Varric. That was kind of the point. To present a situation where no one is right, but shit will happen regardless of what you do.
Obviously the Makers are trying to encourage you to discover your own satisfaction in doing the side quest for nothing. Just think of yourself as one of those haughty paladins who slays the town monster, is offered gold, and then refuses: "No good sir, I needn't any of your gold", which the townsman responds:"Fuck you you arrogant prick, I need it. Take it!" See? It all works out in the end as long as you acquire good karma for being an obnoxious douche doing the quest for nothing. Maybe if you went about it that way you wouldn't be so disappoint.