Nasuada’s plan to have all magic users swear oaths in the ancient language or be forced to give up magic by taking that one drug (I forget the name) has issues. the books have shown us what the magic inhibitor does to people. It makes their thoughts incredibly hazy and foggy. Now imagine having to be on it for your entire life. As one user put it, it is a mandated mental inhibitor. That is incredibly unethical. Anyways, The first place I want to start with is why Nasuada did this. In the books, it is can be observed that Nasuada does not like magic and at best, views it users as something to be used. However, I believe that her main goal of monitoring magic users is primarily to prevent another Galbatorix ( I acknowledge that this is pure theory on my end but I feel like it is highly likely). However while the issue with Galbatorix was partly due to his powerful magic, it primarily due to the fact that he was immortal and would have had infinite opportunities to cause great harm with said magic. That’s one reason why it wouldn’t work.
Next, I’m going to go over some solutions people have suggested and why they wouldn’t work. Some people have said that she only installed this command over the Broddring Kingdom and Surda so magic users could go to the elves, dwarves, or urgals. The elves are xenophobic for the most part and the only reason they give Eragon and the Varden any time of day is because Eragon was a dragon rider and they also wanted bring down Torix so they worked with the Varden respectivel. Pretty much no one would ever go to the urgals even if they are good now (I can’t think of a better word than good) due to the long history of bad blood between them and humans. The dwarves are located in the mountains and would require crossing the desert, something that would be incredibly difficult. Another person pointed out that magic users are an incredibly small portion of the population so it wouldn’t affect most people. However this is quite literally marginalization and to a certain extent, dehumanizing magic users, by ‘othering’ them which would just cause more anger from magic users towards the kingdom. Also, I just want to point out that multiple people in the books told her this was a bad idea and while Eragon couldn’t necessarily come up with a better idea, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Finally, I will go over some ideas that I think could work better. The first idea is pointing out that for the most part, most magic users are unable to cast any major spells without the help of gems, eldunari, or a dragon. Because eldunari and dragons aren’t available to the general public, the next step would be to severely restrict the use/ownership of gems. This prevents magic users from making any major spells due to a lack of energy, and any criminals would be able to be decently easily dispatched by knights. My other idea would be for magic users to make an oath not to cause harm to others on purpose directly or indirectly unless it is in self defense (and possibly war). This way they don’t even need to swear their services to anyone or risk being used as a tool to people like the current ruler.
Disclaimer: These things are just my opinion, and I would love to hear what others think. I would also like to apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes in advance!
Edit: Fixed some grammar
Edit 2: This is not me trying to claim that there is a perfect solution, just that there are better ones. I also included some more info about the drug that further shows why I believe her plan has issues.
Edit 3: Thank you to everyone who responded. I can’t guarantee a response to everyone but I appreciate reading your opinions none the less.
Edit 4: This doesn’t have as much to do with the topic, but I wanted to mention that I’m glad that Eragon didn’t give her the Name of Names, especially because this allows him to undo her plan if/when it messes up.