I do not think you understand. The war stopped being a revolution. Most of the mages retreated to Redcliffe under the protection of King Alistair. They were losing. But the templars weren't winning either, it was a bloody stalemate. Those Mages and Templars that did not retreat started fighting over strips of land, and killing anyone who got between them. If you weren't a mage, they assumed you were with the templars. If you weren't a templar, the templars assumed you were a mage.
The red lyrium affected mages too. Controlled them. Twisted them. Corypheus didn't care if you are mage or templar, as long as you bow your will to him. He tried to do that in Redcliffe, to turn the mages into his personal army. Fiona was prepared to sell them all into slavery to Tevinter in order to have Tevinter's protection against the Templars, but the Tevinter mages were working with Corypheus.
Thanks to the Inquisition, that didn't happen and Corypheus did not get the mages. We were not so lucky to save the templars from the same fate.
Corypheus was a magister of old Tevinter. One of those who breached the Golden City.
He is the primary cause of most of my current dream woes. I dearly pray the Inquisitor puts him out of our misery. We cannot hope to repair the damage done by the war and by Corypheus until he is gone.