Templars

The members of the Templar Order were the primary military wing of the Chantry, charged with keeping the peace, defending the faithful, and guarding the Circles of Magi from threats both inside and out. Dealing with magic and those who wield it was their primary concern, and as such Templars were trained in the ability to disrupt or negate magic. They attained these abilities by directly consuming lyrium, using kits called philters to prepare their daily doses. This can lead to addiction to the magical mineral, and while an ex-Templar can wean themselves off of it, that is a slow and painful process. Some of the most formidable fighters in Thedas, even without their abilities, Templars were primarily trained to fight mages and demons. As such, they were used as protectors at the Circles of Magi, supervising the mages inside, eliminating any threats, demonic or otherwise, that emerged, and keeping the mages safe from an often distrustful general populace. Outside of the Circles, they also hunted down rogue, or apostate, mages and users of blood magic. You may have noticed my use of the past tense throughout this entry, and it is because things have changed quite rapidly and significantly in recent times. The Templars were, since being formed from the original Inquisition, under the control of the Chantry. However, as the Mage-Templar war began, most of the order went rogue, abandoning their positions in order to bring the mages to heel by whatever means necessary. Unfortunately, most of these Templars came under the sway of Samson, who was under the sway of Corypheus, and were fed red lyrium, which transformed them into the Red Templars that were the bulk of Cory’s army. Some Templars, including a faction in the Free Marches city of Hasmal, were able to escape this evil influence and take refuge with the Inquisition, but the vast majority of the Order was irreversibly tainted and destroyed. With Divine Victoria dissolving the Circles of Magi after the Inquisition defeated Corypheus, the ultimate fate of the Templar Order, and whether they can return to their former glory, is still in doubt.

A quick aside, there are actually Templars in the Tevinter Imperium, as well. But, they are about as toothless as you can imagine, seeing as how Tevinter is run by mages. Rather than answering to the Imperial version of the Chantry, they are under the control of the Circles themselves. Also, the vast majority of their version of the Order lack the magic-disrupting abilities that make the Chantry Templars so effective. So, the Imperial Templars are mainly just used as generic law enforcement and soldiers.