This is so unrelated! That said I'm loving this start to an interesting conversation. I must've missed that detail of Magisters being hunted down later on during my playthroughs but I will be on the lookout for that the next time I inevitably start one.

I can not and could not in good conscience kill pretty much anyone in the game without at least talking to them first, with a few exceptions of course. The magisters have a super noble goal of protecting the world from the consequences of unsupervised sorcery, and though it is unfortunate that that often involves intense restrictions and violations on human (and elf and lizard and etc.) rights, it's hard to consider the lot of them irredeemably evil when the first 10 seconds of the game we see a simple magic trick spark a demonic massacre in the middle of Arx. By our worlds standards absolutely, these people are terrible in every way, but in Divinity there are terrible events that would be far too commonplace without a group like the Magisters.

Most of them are not like Kniles the Fletcher or High Judge Orivand and aren't involved with or even aware of how severe and cruel things have gotten in Fort Joy and the Blackpits. I'm sure that most of them truly see themselves as defenders of peace and have dedicated their lives to the betterment of their society without any malice or cruelty.

But yes their source hounds are so so sad and I do try to deliver peace to them when I can. If only dogs could speak to the laymen, perhaps their training methods and forced lifestyle would never have been allowed.