Dalisclock plays through the Dragon Age Trilogy and makes a lot of running commentary along the way. Spoilers abound.

[Dalisclock]

Not a ton going so far. I think I spent a fair bit of time doing quests in the hinterlands on the Way to Redcliff and just talking to people in Haven. Still trying to get a feel for Sera who is always in the Tavern. It's something about her spritely cockney thing that isn't working for me and while I get where she's coming from, being anti-elitist, it's not clicking for me at all. Most of the other companions I've grown to appreciate if not like to some extent or another, but Sera is the odd elf out at the moment.

Anyway, I've reached Redcliff and it looks a bit different then it did in DAO and a hell of a lot more populated. Also, much more colorful. Met up with the Mages and found out they apparently threw in with Tevinter. God dammit mages. I mean, I'm sympathetic to your plight but this? Throwing in with an empire where you're either an elite mage or a slave to one, with a ton of blood magic to boot? I'm not a huge fan of the Templars but this is making me seriously want to work with them this time(aside from the fact I've thrown in with the mages twice in the last few games, albeit under protest in DA2). Apparently there's some mutually exclusive stuff for each side(though not as much as say Witcher 2), but otherwise the game plays mostly the same.

Too be honest, I understand and respect the role the templars play(or are supposed to play), but the chantry/templars have a bad tendency to treat mages like dirt. OTOH, Mages have shown a really bad tendency to turn to demon summoning and blood magic when left alone and I can't get behind the idea that Mages should just be left unsupervised either. I feel like the whole system before wasn't bad in theory but desperately needed reform. The circle tower in DAO was an emergency situation but was contingent on being able to solve the demon invasion before the Templars arrived to purge the tower, so it didn't really feel like I sided with anyone despite the game deciding I'd picked the mages over the templars. DA2 felt kinda pointless either way since apparently your decision means almost nothing regardless which side you choose. I went with the mages there because Meredith's solution was literally murder every mage in Kirkwall, despite Orsino flat out offering to surrender and go back to the gallows in peace(which Meredith rejected). Then you have some mages(such as Orsino) basically going straight to demon possession and blood magic as if to prove meredith's point, but on the other hand you have a number of the Templars willing to call Meredith out on her extremism and not back her call for mass mage murder. But honestly it felt hard to side with Meredith in DA2 when her argument is "Burn the circle to the ground" because an Apostate acted more or less on his own to commit an act of terrorism(Yes, I know she was under the influence of an artifact of DOOM, which makes it even harder to want to support her)

At least here I'm given time to decide and choose a side and honestly I think I'm gonna pick the Templars this time around, though through the magic of video games I'll probably check out both missions(In Hushed Whispers and Champions of the Just) and save just before I do because apparently they're both interesting. And if/when I replay DAI I'll play the other side with a different inquisitor.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Not a ton going so far. I think I spent a fair bit of time doing quests in the hinterlands on the Way to Redcliff and just talking to people in Haven. Still trying to get a feel for Sera who is always in the Tavern. It's something about her spritely cockney thing that isn't working for me and while I get where she's coming from, being anti-elitist, it's not clicking for me at all. Most of the other companions I've grown to appreciate if not like to some extent or another, but Sera is the odd elf out at the moment.

Ugh, I just wanted to punch her in the face. So. Fucking. Annoying.

At least here I'm given time to decide and choose a side and honestly I think I'm gonna pick the Templars this time around, though through the magic of video games I'll probably check out both missions(In Hushed Whispers and Champions of the Just) and save just before I do because apparently they're both interesting. And if/when I replay DAI I'll play the other side with a different inquisitor.

Gah. I hate the whole Mage/Templar War deal because despite there being a lot of really interesting lore you can unearth about its causes in the end both sides routine are as bad as the other side they they are. They're both utter shit heels. I resent being forced to choose which group of cartoon villains to support when I'd much rather give both sides a righteous spanking. Would it have been so hard to make both sides basically decent but history has put them on a collision course? At least then I'd put some thought into choosing.

 

[Dalisclock]

Gah. I hate the whole Mage/Templar War deal because despite there being a lot of really interesting lore you can unearth about its causes in the end both sides routine are as bad as the other side they they are. They're both utter shit heels. I resent being forced to choose which group of cartoon villains to support when I'd much rather give both sides a righteous spanking. Would it have been so hard to make both sides basically decent but history has put them on a collision course? At least then I'd put some thought into choosing.

I think they started out good in DAO but DA2 they ended up shortcutting this and while the whole "Kirkwall is basically a demon magnet/Fade breach waiting to happen" thing does help explain the extremism in kirkwall, it also makes both groups unlikable extremist as a result(as you mentioned). Don't get me wrong, there are some bits where both sides are trying to avoid a war(The mages offering to surrender and go back to the circle when the rite of annulment is invoked, the templars refusing to support Meredith in her one woman war) but you also have every other mage slitting their own wrists and turning into abominations at the drop of a hat and templars wanting to make all mages tranquil.

Bioware seems to have this problem, both here and in Mass Effect, where there's a good premise set up but for whatever reason the follow up steps in the storytelling process just ended faceplanting to one extent or another. I mean, the Reapers started out as Lovecraftian Cosmic Horrors and ended with "Pick your color because the star brat whose existence is never explained told you the Reapers gave up because reasons"

 

[Dalisclock]

Did the big mission part of "In Hushed Whispers" last night and that was interesting. After a bit of discussion about being invited into a trap at Redcliff and being offered numerous offramps to go get the Templars instead(I assume you get something similar if you do the Templar quest), I go to Redcliffe and control the Tevinter Magister who took control of the mages here and before long he tries to kill me(shocker). This results in me and Dorian, a new character, being thrown through a time portal(that's new) to Redcliffe castle IN THE FUTURE.

It's a scary future indeed. Redcliffe has been remodeled and gotten a heavy metal makeover, Red Lyrium is growing out of the walls and ceilings in terrifying quantities and the breach has expanded so much it's basically just the sky now. Also apparently demon armies wiped much of thesdas clean and rifts open everywhere now(you have to close several inside the castle to proceed). It's unclear if Red Lyrium is also everywhere or if it's just a RedCliffe thing(though it sounds like people who die from it turn into more red lyrium which is then used to infect others in a self perpetuating cycle). The inquisition has long since ground itself to dust trying to take redcliffe and effectively doesn't exist anymore. And even more disturbing, it's only a year in the future from when you left.

The high enchanter has been fused with lyrium so much she;s pinned to the walls and the companions brought with you to redcliffe are all suffering from Red Lyrium poisoning, all saying they don't have long to live. Lilianna is here too and she looks horrible, like she's aged 30 years and she's very, very bitter, flat out saying that "To you this, is a hypothetical future that can be avoided. To us, this is the hell we've been living through". What's clear is that the world is thoroughly fucked, at the behest of something called "The Elder One" who the magister was working for.

So basically, Mages fucked up hard when they signed on with Tevinter and apparently helped fuck the world hard. It's not entirely clear what causes the bad (near) future, but it sounds like the tevinters were pulling a lot of human sacrifice, using red lyrium and my inquisitor not being there to close the rifts/the breach didn't help either. But yeah, there's this whole wierd time magic thing now where apparently the tevinter was supposed to get the glowy hand "mark" and is mad I got it instead and he's been messing around with time to try to change the past. Except the breach apparently enables the time magic so it can't prevent the breach from forming and this whole thing just got a lot more complicated and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Anyway, yeah, I think I'm siding with the Templars. I had enough time to do In Hushed whispers before it was time for bed, tonight I'm doing "Champions of the Just" and probably proceeding from there.

Also, fun fact: I found out I could get locked in an infinite death loop somehow by falling off the metal platform at the center of redcliffe where I keep falling, reloading and falling and reloading and falling and then it autosaving while following but I never get a "death" screen so I have to basically shut down the game from task manager and reload and earlier save. From falling off a platform. Goddamn it Bioware.

 

[meiam]

I hated the mage mission so much. Time travel always makes things worse and it was really not necessary to use in this case, it just make a mess of everything. I also hated Leliana so much in it, she just refuse to answer any question that could help you in the past cause, I don't know, she's just that badass dumb apparently. Then the ending has the team mate you brought with you (ie people you chose to inlcude in your party) die off screen, because who care about them, while Leliana gets a long cutscene for her death. Oh, and your character is just hanging out in corner doing nothing, can't have the player character be an active participant here, might take some of the spotlight away from the writer Leliana.

Oh and obviously after that nobody mention time travel again, not like it could come in handy at any other time.

 

[Dalisclock]

I hated the mage mission so much. Time travel always makes things worse and it was really not necessary to use in this case, it just make a mess of everything. I also hated Leliana so much in it, she just refuse to answer any question that could help you in the past cause, I don't know, she's just that badass dumb apparently. Then the ending has the team mate you brought with you (ie people you chose to inlcude in your party) die off screen, because who care about them, while Leliana gets a long cutscene for her death. Oh, and your character is just hanging out in corner doing nothing, can't have the player character be an active participant here, might take some of the spotlight away from the writer Leliana.

Oh and obviously after that nobody mention time travel again, not like it could come in handy at any other time.

So, wait, they make it a central conceit of a main mission, show that the world will very definitely end if you fail and then NEVER MENTION IT AGAIN? Holy shit Bioware. What is wrong with you?

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I think they started out good in DAO but DA2 they ended up shortcutting this and while the whole "Kirkwall is basically a demon magnet/Fade breach waiting to happen" thing does help explain the extremism in kirkwall, it also makes both groups unlikable extremist as a result(as you mentioned). Don't get me wrong, there are some bits where both sides are trying to avoid a war(The mages offering to surrender and go back to the circle when the rite of annulment is invoked, the templars refusing to support Meredith in her one woman war) but you also have every other mage slitting their own wrists and turning into abominations at the drop of a hat and templars wanting to make all mages tranquil.

Exactly. The half-hearted attempts at nuance get buried damn fast in favour of underlining how shit-awful both factions are. It's utterly fucking pointless choosing a side because it doesn't effect the outcome and it offers no advantages. It's just railroaded 'moral grayness' for its own sake and a giant 'fuck you, conflict was inevitable hahahaha' pseudo-intellectual wankery.

Bioware seems to have this problem, both here and in Mass Effect, where there's a good premise set up but for whatever reason the follow up steps in the storytelling process just ended faceplanting to one extent or another. I mean, the Reapers started out as Lovecraftian Cosmic Horrors and ended with "Pick your color because the star brat whose existence is never explained told you the Reapers gave up because reasons"

Red because it's the ultimate cockblock on Joker.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

So, wait, they make it a central conceit of a main mission, show that the world will very definitely end if you fail and then NEVER MENTION IT AGAIN? Holy shit Bioware. What is wrong with you?

Obviously it has something to do with dark energy and prematurely aging stars.

 

[Asita]

So, wait, they make it a central conceit of a main mission, show that the world will very definitely end if you fail and then NEVER MENTION IT AGAIN? Holy shit Bioware. What is wrong with you?

Eh...Mostly right? A lot of the dialogue in that quest instead suggests that it's not that the characters don't acknowledge its existence but rather that they themselves don't have the means to try and know better than to even consider it. The entire reason Alexsius was going along with the Elder One's plan at all was because he desperately wanted to save his son with the heavy implication that he wants to use the same ritual for this 'steal the mark' ploy to retcon history so that Felix would never be infected with the Blight. Serving the Elder One is explicitly only a means to that end for him. This in turn implies that - even with Tevinter's devil may care approach to crimes against humanity in their magic - Alexius did not have the means to cast this spell until he got some kind of aid from the Elder One. This, in turn, makes the time travel magic an untenable option for the Inquisition, as bending the knee to the Elder One - especially after seeing that future - is unconscionable.

Moreover - as you mentioned - Alexius's efforts were always doomed to failure because of the limitations of the spell. Even with the Elder One's patronage, he can't go back before the creation of the rift. So he can't even go back far enough to get the mark, much less save his son from being infected. This means that even in better hands, there is a very limited 'retcon' window for the Inquisition (about 1 year by the end of the end of the game). Even before accounting for the implicit necessity of the Elder One's involvement, the cost likely far exceeds the reward. And the same quest demonstrates the inherent flaw of popping into the future: You aren't looking at a "if these shadows remain unaltered" future, you're looking at an "if I wasn't here" future, wherein the time travelers are removed from the timeline until they reach the targeted date, meaning the very act of traveling to the future creates an inherently unpredictable element that's mucking up whatever insight you're trying to glean about it. At minimum, you've got a butterfly effect going on, and at worst you removed a keystone for unforeseen events (eg, Darkspawn Chronicles removes the Warden from the equation)

Never mind that from a Doylist perspective, there's a double whammy that precludes their usage of it. First, they used this for a branching path. You only know about this magic at all if you do the In Hushed Whispers quest rather than Champions of the Just. As such, the greater implications of it must be confined to that quest and its immediate follow ups. More importantly, from a writing perspective, giving the characters the ability to simply undo the bad things that happened rather than making the characters live with the consequences is just a narrative cop-out that accomplishes little aside from unnecessarily removing weight and tension from the events of the story. The end result is that the audience becomes more distrustful of the events they are presented with, and brings them out of the narrative as they start internally counting down to when the cast will decide to use the reset button to fix the problem (or get frustrated with the cast for not doing so).


As an aside though, for what it's worth, my own metric on this quest choice was for In Hushed Whispers over Champions of the Just. This was not on the grounds of who was more deserving, but because I reasoned that it was damage control. The long and short of it being "who can cause more damage as a rogue element: A group of mages, or a group of templars?"

 

[Dalisclock]

And the same quest demonstrates the inherent flaw of popping into the future: You aren't looking at a "if these shadows remain unaltered" future, you're looking at an "if I wasn't here" future, wherein the time travelers are removed from the timeline until they reach the targeted date, meaning the very act of traveling to the future creates an inherently unpredictable element that's mucking up whatever insight you're trying to glean about it. At minimum, you've got a butterfly effect going on, and at worst you removed a keystone for unforeseen events (eg, Darkspawn Chronicles removes the Warden from the equation)

That's really what it felt like honestly, like more polished, limited take on the DSC DLC, which only works because you got pulled through the rift and thus wasn't able to seal any rifts or lead the inquisition in the first place(also anyone that comes with you gets captured as well) which leads to everything going to shit within a year which sure, fine. It does make it come across as a gimmick because of it's implementation. I wonder if this was because of the troubled dev cycle(though not nearly as rushed as DA2) and if this was intially planned to have a larger impact earlier in the dev cycle because as it stands now it's a wierd plot element that isn't really used beyond that one mission.

I do agree with what you said though.

As an aside though, for what it's worth, my own metric on this quest choice was for In Hushed Whispers over Champions of the Just. This was not on the grounds of who was more deserving, but because I reasoned that it was damage control. The long and short of it being "who can cause more damage as a rogue element: A group of mages, or a group of templars?"

Arguably, you could frame it as "Which faction makes more sense to have on a leash to oppose the other faction" since the faction you don't choose to help basically joins the enemy. I choose the Templars as my allies after playing both missions, partially because I do think having them on my side is advantageous due to their anti-magic abilities and the possibility of reforming them afterwards. Because I do think the Templars are needed, but they need to be reformed because as much as I sympathize with the mages and have tried to help them, the number of times they decide to summon demons and turn to blood magic or blow up buildings whenever they feel remotely threatened convinces me they can't supervise themselves effectively. I do agree with Viviane that circles can work effectively and apparently they do in some places, if she's not lying. I realize she's been in a very privledge position in the circles but she also says in a lot of circles mages can leave with permission from the chief enchanter, presumably if they're deemed trustworthy. And of course, the Templars need to stop beating down on the mages who aren't causing problems because this is not supposed to be their fucking job. Tranquility is not supposed to be a toy, nor is Annulment. They're supposed to be "We have no other choice but to magical lobotomy you/purge all of you because we've run out of other options". Also sorry about the rant

But anway, I picked the Templars because I felt they would be more useful in the inquisition and also because while their leadership was also shitty, it felt less egregious somehow then what the mages did and I know that's a pretty small margin considering. The fact the Templars actually help you take down their demon posessed leader once they realize it gave them bonus points, because it felt like you very little support from the mages in their mission other then Dorian.

 

[Dalisclock]

So a bit has happened. After doing the Mages Route last time, I decided to go with the Templars this time and it was quite a different experience. Unlike the Mage mission "In Hushed Whispers", this one plays about a bit differently. It starts with the Inquisition gathering a delegation of Orlesian nobles to accompany me, the Herald to talk to the leader of the Templars, which is an interesting way to start this of and then there's this weird little flag raising mini-game thing that as far as I can tell doesn't matter in the least. For a couple minutes I fiddled with it thinking i had to get all 3 flags to the top but then just put them where I thought they needed to be then went on and it turns out it makes no difference.

Anyway, after enduring an annoying noble for a few minutes and meeting with one of the Templars, I find out they've been dosing on Red Lyrium(some of them anyway) and hell breaks loose with Red Templars(who are basically mutant templar baddies) fighting the regular templars and everyone else. It seems at some point the Lord Seeker was taken over/replaced by an Envy Demon and has been converting the Templars from the Senior members and working down to ensure compliance from the rank and file. Which means most if not all of the leadership was converted at the best of the Envy Demon who was working on behalf of the "Elder One".

After a short battle through the Templar Redoubt, I catch up with the lord seeker and he pulls me into this weird fade-like dream world where the Envy Demon tells me he's trying to take over my body or steal my face, something like that. For the next 15 or so minutes I'm running through a fadelike remix of the chantry from Haven and the Templar Redoubt seeing little vignettes of the Demon leading the Inquisition as a cruel ruthless theocracy(which I guess I'm already partway there) using my identity and honestly it is kinda cool to see just how this power could be used for fanatical evil ends by someone who only cared about themselves. I also meet Cole, a Spirit or something or helps me fight my way back to the Demon, which puts me back in the real world right after I left(everything in the fade dream world apparently happened instantly with almost no time passing on the outside) and the demon skedaddles away. Inside the main hall, some of the uncorrupted Templars have been holding out and I tell them they've been duped, at which point they join me. The next section is an interesting change of gameplay where a couple Templars hold the main hall while I and my party go explore and fight through some other parts of the fortress to round up some Veterans to send them to join the others, and a supply of Lyrium to help the push, which all Culminates in a battle where the Templars try to break the barrier to the demon while I hold off enemies coming in from all sides. When that's done, it's time for a Boss fight with the Envy Demon, which honestly isnt as long or annoying as some of the bits leading up to this.

With this completed, the Templars agree to join with the inquisition, at which point I'm given the choice to either dissolve and conscript them OR let them remain intact and ally with them. Since a fair number of Templars aided me along the way, I agree to let them remain intact, hoping I can reform them along the way. With that decided, It's back to Haven, where I find out Cole has followed me and, well, Cassandra wants to kill him and everyone else is pretty wary. I vouch for him because I think he can help(and he did help) and then begin the mission to Seal the breach once and for all.

I know something big is coming here and I'm a bit surprised when the actual sealing goes off without a hitch. It felt rather anticlimactic because I was sure something was gonna try to stop me. Instead, We return to Haven to celebrate and that's when an army shows up in the hills, with Dorian(the guy from Redcliffe and the Mage mission) banging on the gate to warn me that the mages have joined up with the Elder One and they're going to wipe the Inquisition off the map. The next 30 minutes almost feels like a Call of Duty mission in a way, attempting to hold the line before falling back to the Chantry with whoever can be saved. There are a couple people to save along the way but I'm unable to get to most of them in time and they perish, because apparently I have to know exactly how to save them when I get there.

When it looks like we've run out of places to retreat to, it's mentioned there is a path that leads up into the hills from there to evacuate the survivors, but it requires us to hold the line and also prepare to fire a trebuchet into the snowpack in the hills to cause an avalanche(which I pulled off a little while ago by accident). Before I can do that though, I'm confronted with a fucking DRAGON(Who may or may not be an archdemon)...and the guy from the Legacy DLC of DA2 Corypheus. Who I seem to remember being dead when I last left him(and to be fair, Varric says the same thing when questioned about it later).

Corypheus monologues a fair bit for like five minutes, trying to take the glowly green magic hand and echoing what I learned in "In Hushed Whispers" about it being a mistake. He somehow blew of the conclave with a metal ball thing of DOOM(I forget the name) and calls the Mark the Anchor, which I guess he was supposed to get to open the breach, He also seems to imply that the veil was supposed to open right then and then and somehow I got in the way completely by accident(or Divine Intervention, who knows) so instead we got a breach that was opening quickly but also that could be stabilized and closed. And the goal of his plan was apparently.....repeat exactly what he did 1000 years ago to go back into the fade and enter the golden/black city again, which worked out SO WELL LAST TIME.

After some monologuing and trying to take the Mark/Anchor(which he fails at), I fire the trebuchet and cause the mountain to drop on him, or would have if he hadn't flown his ***** ass out on his stupid dragon. Somehow I fall in a convenient hole nearby and find myself in the middle of a blizzard high in the frostbacks, which depicts me wandering for who knows how fucking long(it's a couple minutes but clearly meant to be much longer) before being found by the inquisition again just as I collapse in the snow. Oh, and the other 3 party members are here as well, despite being conveniently absent once Corypheus shows up.

The inquisition is now homeless and wandering, lost in the mountains after the loss of Haven. Cassandra, Leliana, Cullen and Joesphine argue with each other and then...Giselle begins singing the Dragon Age theme song, "The Dawn will come" and at first it's...Wait, WTF is happening? And then everyone starts joining in singing which still feels a bit off...and maybe it's just me, but that's when it clicks and it just works, the song bringing everyone together out of a moment of despair into some kind of united feeling. So maybe it's because I'm a sucker for shit like this or maybe because I'm a noted sucker for musicals which often have moments like this, but yeah, that was worth it to cap off this story arc.

After that, the inquisition marches further into the mountains at the advice of Solas and finds a fortress, conveniently abandoned but also incredibly defensible to set up camp in. Skyhold, as it's called, has apparently been around for a long, long time and has fallen into disrepair, but it's also in decent enough condition to be fixed up without too much trouble. Granted, upon first arriving half of it isn't even accessible, but even in that dilapidated state, it's still a step up from Haven. Hell, it's a step up from Vigil's keep in Awakening, which it's clearly inspired by. After a little bit, it actually gets fixed up a little and fully accessible, though a lot of work is still being done on it and everyone is starting to fine places to work and live in it, with the inquisition starting to settle in, which is kind of awesome to have everyone have their own offices and such, a tad more immersive then everyone just standing in rows in the hall of Vigil's keep. Also, I get officially made the head of the Inquisition in front of everyone, which is a cool little bit.

I think I spend a good 2 hours or so just wandering around it, exploring and talking to everyone after the fall of Haven, both because it's that big and there's a number of new quests and people have a bit more to say. The rest of this is just gonna be me talking about some of the more interesting charcter stuff I encountered.

So first off, Varric tells me he has someone for me to meet and lo and before, it's fucking Hawke, who just showed up recently. Apparently she went off into the wilds to avoid an Exalted March on Kirkwall after the Mage Rebellion but that never ended up happening with everything else that flared up(amusingly, the Exalted March was the canceled DA2 DLC. Nice one Bioware), Hawke confirms what Varric said about meeting Corypheus, that he was fucking dead when she last left him, which I already knew and then says she's going back out into the world to help the inquisition out with something I don't recall just at this moment. Not long after, I catch Cassandra trying to Kill Varric for lying to her about knowing where Hawke was, because apparently the original plan was to recruit either the Warden or Hawke for the Inquisitor role, but since neither of them could be found(the Warden is still MIA, apparently) I was what they got. Granted, it sounds like Hawke didn't want to be Inquisitor and in fact, seemed kind of sad and world weary(though considering what she'd been through, I can't blame her).

I do get Cassandra and Varric to kind of makeup, partially because it turns out Cassandra has a secret love for Varric's Trashy Romance novels and I do a little errand to convince Varric to write her the next chapter, mostly because he's amused by the fact she loves what he considers his trashiest work. And she gets so fucking giddy about getting it, which is kind of hilarious. It also makes me sad that I still can't romance Varric in this game either(Goddamnit, Bioware).

Iron Bull takes me on a little outing to pretend I'm one of his mercs to get a feel for how some of the common members of the inquisition feels, which is a weird undercover boss type thing, but also...wait, does nobody recognize me? Do all Qunari just look.....yep, that's it.

Sera is starting to get a little less obnoxious and has her own little nook at the tavern...and apparently has been fucking with the kitchen staff, which is kind of hilarious in a way. She also has some ideas for War Room missions which I find interesting.

Oh, and that dwarf I convinced to go study at the mage tower back in DAO is here to help in the workshop/undercroft, so that's kinda cool. Apparently she's had a great time since then.

So yeah, Skyhold is pretty awesome and I'm fucking digging it. It might be one of the best player HQ's I've seen in a video game, to be honest. It fucking nails the feel of a real castle to boot, which as a history/military nerd is always appreciated.

 

[thebobmaster]

Varric is taken by both Biancas, sadly. And yes, Skyhold is a fantastic HQ.

 

[Gordon_4]

So a bit has happened. After doing the Mages Route last time, I decided to go with the Templars this time and it was quite a different experience. Unlike the Mage mission "In Hushed Whispers", this one plays about a bit differently. It starts with the Inquisition gathering a delegation of Orlesian nobles to accompany me, the Herald to talk to the leader of the Templars, which is an interesting way to start this of and then there's this weird little flag raising mini-game thing that as far as I can tell doesn't matter in the least. For a couple minutes I fiddled with it thinking i had to get all 3 flags to the top but then just put them where I thought they needed to be then went on and it turns out it makes no difference.

Anyway, after enduring an annoying noble for a few minutes and meeting with one of the Templars, I find out they've been dosing on Red Lyrium(some of them anyway) and hell breaks loose with Red Templars(who are basically mutant templar baddies) fighting the regular templars and everyone else. It seems at some point the Lord Seeker was taken over/replaced by an Envy Demon and has been converting the Templars from the Senior members and working down to ensure compliance from the rank and file. Which means most if not all of the leadership was converted at the best of the Envy Demon who was working on behalf of the "Elder One".

After a short battle through the Templar Redoubt, I catch up with the lord seeker and he pulls me into this weird fade-like dream world where the Envy Demon tells me he's trying to take over my body or steal my face, something like that. For the next 15 or so minutes I'm running through a fadelike remix of the chantry from Haven and the Templar Redoubt seeing little vignettes of the Demon leading the Inquisition as a cruel ruthless theocracy(which I guess I'm already partway there) using my identity and honestly it is kinda cool to see just how this power could be used for fanatical evil ends by someone who only cared about themselves. I also meet Cole, a Spirit or something or helps me fight my way back to the Demon, which puts me back in the real world right after I left(everything in the fade dream world apparently happened instantly with almost no time passing on the outside) and the demon skedaddles away. Inside the main hall, some of the uncorrupted Templars have been holding out and I tell them they've been duped, at which point they join me. The next section is an interesting change of gameplay where a couple Templars hold the main hall while I and my party go explore and fight through some other parts of the fortress to round up some Veterans to send them to join the others, and a supply of Lyrium to help the push, which all Culminates in a battle where the Templars try to break the barrier to the demon while I hold off enemies coming in from all sides. When that's done, it's time for a Boss fight with the Envy Demon, which honestly isnt as long or annoying as some of the bits leading up to this.

With this completed, the Templars agree to join with the inquisition, at which point I'm given the choice to either dissolve and conscript them OR let them remain intact and ally with them. Since a fair number of Templars aided me along the way, I agree to let them remain intact, hoping I can reform them along the way. With that decided, It's back to Haven, where I find out Cole has followed me and, well, Cassandra wants to kill him and everyone else is pretty wary. I vouch for him because I think he can help(and he did help) and then begin the mission to Seal the breach once and for all.

I know something big is coming here and I'm a bit surprised when the actual sealing goes off without a hitch. It felt rather anticlimactic because I was sure something was gonna try to stop me. Instead, We return to Haven to celebrate and that's when an army shows up in the hills, with Dorian(the guy from Redcliffe and the Mage mission) banging on the gate to warn me that the mages have joined up with the Elder One and they're going to wipe the Inquisition off the map. The next 30 minutes almost feels like a Call of Duty mission in a way, attempting to hold the line before falling back to the Chantry with whoever can be saved. There are a couple people to save along the way but I'm unable to get to most of them in time and they perish, because apparently I have to know exactly how to save them when I get there.

When it looks like we've run out of places to retreat to, it's mentioned there is a path that leads up into the hills from there to evacuate the survivors, but it requires us to hold the line and also prepare to fire a trebuchet into the snowpack in the hills to cause an avalanche(which I pulled off a little while ago by accident). Before I can do that though, I'm confronted with a fucking DRAGON(Who may or may not be an archdemon)...and the guy from the Legacy DLC of DA2 Corypheus. Who I seem to remember being dead when I last left him(and to be fair, Varric says the same thing when questioned about it later).

Corypheus monologues a fair bit for like five minutes, trying to take the glowly green magic hand and echoing what I learned in "In Hushed Whispers" about it being a mistake. He somehow blew of the conclave with a metal ball thing of DOOM(I forget the name) and calls the Mark the Anchor, which I guess he was supposed to get to open the breach, He also seems to imply that the veil was supposed to open right then and then and somehow I got in the way completely by accident(or Divine Intervention, who knows) so instead we got a breach that was opening quickly but also that could be stabilized and closed. And the goal of his plan was apparently.....repeat exactly what he did 1000 years ago to go back into the fade and enter the golden/black city again, which worked out SO WELL LAST TIME.

After some monologuing and trying to take the Mark/Anchor(which he fails at), I fire the trebuchet and cause the mountain to drop on him, or would have if he hadn't flown his ***** ass out on his stupid dragon. Somehow I fall in a convenient hole nearby and find myself in the middle of a blizzard high in the frostbacks, which depicts me wandering for who knows how fucking long(it's a couple minutes but clearly meant to be much longer) before being found by the inquisition again just as I collapse in the snow. Oh, and the other 3 party members are here as well, despite being conveniently absent once Corypheus shows up.

The inquisition is now homeless and wandering, lost in the mountains after the loss of Haven. Cassandra, Leliana, Cullen and Joesphine argue with each other and then...Giselle begins singing the Dragon Age theme song, "The Dawn will come" and at first it's...Wait, WTF is happening? And then everyone starts joining in singing which still feels a bit off...and maybe it's just me, but that's when it clicks and it just works, the song bringing everyone together out of a moment of despair into some kind of united feeling. So maybe it's because I'm a sucker for shit like this or maybe because I'm a noted sucker for musicals which often have moments like this, but yeah, that was worth it to cap off this story arc.

After that, the inquisition marches further into the mountains at the advice of Solas and finds a fortress, conveniently abandoned but also incredibly defensible to set up camp in. Skyhold, as it's called, has apparently been around for a long, long time and has fallen into disrepair, but it's also in decent enough condition to be fixed up without too much trouble. Granted, upon first arriving half of it isn't even accessible, but even in that dilapidated state, it's still a step up from Haven. Hell, it's a step up from Vigil's keep in Awakening, which it's clearly inspired by. After a little bit, it actually gets fixed up a little and fully accessible, though a lot of work is still being done on it and everyone is starting to fine places to work and live in it, with the inquisition starting to settle in, which is kind of awesome to have everyone have their own offices and such, a tad more immersive then everyone just standing in rows in the hall of Vigil's keep. Also, I get officially made the head of the Inquisition in front of everyone, which is a cool little bit.

I think I spend a good 2 hours or so just wandering around it, exploring and talking to everyone after the fall of Haven, both because it's that big and there's a number of new quests and people have a bit more to say. The rest of this is just gonna be me talking about some of the more interesting charcter stuff I encountered.

So first off, Varric tells me he has someone for me to meet and lo and before, it's fucking Hawke, who just showed up recently. Apparently she went off into the wilds to avoid an Exalted March on Kirkwall after the Mage Rebellion but that never ended up happening with everything else that flared up(amusingly, the Exalted March was the canceled DA2 DLC. Nice one Bioware), Hawke confirms what Varric said about meeting Corypheus, that he was fucking dead when she last left him, which I already knew and then says she's going back out into the world to help the inquisition out with something I don't recall just at this moment. Not long after, I catch Cassandra trying to Kill Varric for lying to her about knowing where Hawke was, because apparently the original plan was to recruit either the Warden or Hawke for the Inquisitor role, but since neither of them could be found(the Warden is still MIA, apparently) I was what they got. Granted, it sounds like Hawke didn't want to be Inquisitor and in fact, seemed kind of sad and world weary(though considering what she'd been through, I can't blame her).

I do get Cassandra and Varric to kind of makeup, partially because it turns out Cassandra has a secret love for Varric's Trashy Romance novels and I do a little errand to convince Varric to write her the next chapter, mostly because he's amused by the fact she loves what he considers his trashiest work. And she gets so fucking giddy about getting it, which is kind of hilarious. It also makes me sad that I still can't romance Varric in this game either(Goddamnit, Bioware).

Iron Bull takes me on a little outing to pretend I'm one of his mercs to get a feel for how some of the common members of the inquisition feels, which is a weird undercover boss type thing, but also...wait, does nobody recognize me? Do all Qunari just look.....yep, that's it.

Sera is starting to get a little less obnoxious and has her own little nook at the tavern...and apparently has been fucking with the kitchen staff, which is kind of hilarious in a way. She also has some ideas for War Room missions which I find interesting.

Oh, and that dwarf I convinced to go study at the mage tower back in DAO is here to help in the workshop/undercroft, so that's kinda cool. Apparently she's had a great time since then.

So yeah, Skyhold is pretty awesome and I'm fucking digging it. It might be one of the best player HQ's I've seen in a video game, to be honest. It fucking nails the feel of a real castle to boot, which as a history/military nerd is always appreciated.

I fell in love with the game well and truly after the scene of them singing. And since it’s Mother Giselle that starts it off, I assumed then and now that it’s meant to be some kind of hymn from the Chantry to explain why everyone knows it. And yes, Skyhold’s reveal is a pretty masterfully done bit.

Spoiler

You’re going to get access to your special advanced class training soon. I beseech that you gather as much Silverite ore as possible and choose Knight Enchanter

 

[Dalisclock]

Varric is taken by both Biancas, sadly. And yes, Skyhold is a fantastic HQ.

I'd forgotten he alludes to a real Bianca. I've talked to so many people since reaching skyhold I'm sure I forgot some details. Especially since new NPCS show up fairly often it seems. That includes the 3 trainers and they're....interesting. I think I am leaning towards Knight Enchanter since people are saying it's pretty awesome with the possible downside of breaking the difficulty over it's knee. I was also considering Rift Mage though the poor lady teaching that sounds like she's been through a lot to learn it. The Necromancer I cut him off because that just sounds like a bad idea considering everything else going on. We just had a fade breach, we don't need more intentional dead raising. Not to mention people in Thedas burn the dead for a reason and not just because it's fashionable.

It does make more sense then the theory I previously had, which was that Bioware didn't want everyone to just Romance Varric (I admit, this theory was based on pretty much nothing). On vaguely related note, I'm amused that there's a note in the Tavern about an Archery Contest and at the bottom is "Everyone invited to participate. Except Varric. And Bianca"

 

[Dalisclock]

Oh, and Shadaversity once did a fun analysis of Skyhold. Considering he dug it as a castle/medieval nerd I'd call that high praise.


Also, somehow I forgot unskippable did their own videos for each Dragon Age game. I know about it, so you have to as well.

 

[Asita]

I'd forgotten he alludes to a real Bianca. I've talked to so many people since reaching skyhold I'm sure I forgot some details. Especially since new NPCS show up fairly often it seems. That includes the 3 trainers and they're....interesting. I think I am leaning towards Knight Enchanter since people are saying it's pretty awesome with the possible downside of breaking the difficulty over it's knee. I was also considering Rift Mage though the poor lady teaching that sounds like she's been through a lot to learn it. The Necromancer I cut him off because that just sounds like a bad idea considering everything else going on. We just had a fade breach, we don't need more intentional dead raising. Not to mention people in Thedas burn the dead for a reason and not just because it's fashionable.

To the respective points:

Knight Enchanter is still very good, but take the suggestion that it's hands down 'the best choice' with a grain of salt, because a lot of that stems from a time when it was absolutely broken. Like "solo everything in the game" broken. Its big claim to fame was that so long as you could close the distance and start smacking things with your giant lightsaber, you regenerated barrier so fast that pretty much nothing in the game could kill you. It's still the tankiest option, but it's been trimmed back a bit since its peak.

Rift Mage is the "Nuke" option for mages, specializing in AoE and Crowd Control, with its own claim to fame being that it can practically get infinite mana to weaken enemies and punish them for it.

Despite the name's typical associations, necromancer in Dragon Age doesn't really deal with the undead, but instead on drawing power from wisps that are attracted to death, such as spirits of fear. Whereas Rift mage punishes weakened enemies, Necromancer punishes panicked enemies (making it synergize nicely with Fire magic) and buffs itself when enemies die. Honestly though, it's probably still the worst mage specialization because it requires significant battlefield setup - that the others do not - to live up to its potential.

 

[Dalisclock]

So

To the respective points:

Knight Enchanter is still very good, but take the suggestion that it's hands down 'the best choice' with a grain of salt, because a lot of that stems from a time when it was absolutely broken. Like "solo everything in the game" broken. Its big claim to fame was that so long as you could close the distance and start smacking things with your giant lightsaber, you regenerated barrier so fast that pretty much nothing in the game could kill you. It's still the tankiest option, but it's been trimmed back a bit since its peak.

Rift Mage is the "Nuke" option for mages, specializing in AoE and Crowd Control, with its own claim to fame being that it can practically get infinite mana to weaken enemies and punish them for it.

Despite the name's typical associations, necromancer in Dragon Age doesn't really deal with the undead, but instead on drawing power from wisps that are attracted to death, such as spirits of fear. Whereas Rift mage punishes weakened enemies, Necromancer punishes panicked enemies (making it synergize nicely with Fire magic) and buffs itself when enemies die. Honestly though, it's probably still the worst mage specialization because it requires significant battlefield setup - that the others do not - to live up to its potential.

I haven't been able to get all the resources I need to commit to any of them just yet, but I will do some digging into them to be sure before I decide. I normally use my mage for her AOE spells, since half the time I have to deal with a number of dudes at the same time, so Rift Mage might be better.

 

[Dalisclock]

I haven't had too much to say for the last day or so. After putzing around in skyhold, I putzed around on the storm coast and Fallow mire for a bit. Storm coast has some Darkspwn caves to clear and I haven't explored it all yet, while Fallow Mire had a quest with some missing soldiers that seems to comprise the plot of the ares and some beacons to light along the way(which attract demons but whatever). Also Fallow Mire is a big stinky rainy swamp, not unlike BlackMarsh from Awakening. In fact, it's almost exactly like BlackMarsh from Awakening but without any werewolves or a fade section.

I did decide to go Knight Enchanter and BlackMarsh allowed me to kills some Wisps to become one and I've gone ahead and respecd to take advantage of this as well as craft me a cool laser sword thingy. Also I realized the Black Emporium has unlimited amounts of crafting materials for sale, which is pretty awesome.

The most intriguing things since then are mostly quests in Skyhold. One of them is a little side quest involving some poor dude name Sutherland who basically asks for a sword to help defend against bandits and picking the options in the war room to support him in this leads to him winning increasingly notable victories, which feels like enabling someone else's legend. I also did some quests for Sera, one of which invovled meeting a contact in the middle of the wilderness with her and it turned out to be a trap Unfortunately my attempts to interrogate the guy ended prematurely with Sera beating him to death in front of me because she was MAD. And then she got mad at me for telling her off for that back at Skyhold. Goddamnit Sera, I WAS starting to warm to you a little.

More interestingly is Josephine's quest, where she mentions her family was trying to rebuild their fortune in Orlais, until now has been dwindling and they've been selling off land to make ends meet(AKA Land Poor). Well, it turns out there is a kink in the plan, that the "House of Repose"AKA the guild of Assassins have a contract on her head that activated because of this. Weirdly, the contract was put in place 100 years ago but the family who put it out mostly ceased to exist something like 80 years ago(some of them exist as farmers but all the nobles died out). Because contracts are apparently taken VERY SERIOUSLY in Orlais, the House of Repose is obliged to abide by the letter of the contract regardless and only a noble member of the the house can cancel it(which there currently aren't any). So the quest involves some back and forth between Val Royeux and Skyhold to elevate some of the family to minor nobility once again(which seems to involve a hell of a lot of red tape and playing of The Game and it's honestly pretty interesting. Leliana offers to just find and tear up the contract but I did it Josephine's way considering that's the way she wanted it handled.

Oh, and Skyhold carries over another bit from Awakening where you get to SIT IN JUDGEMENT. Basically, every so often someone will be captured by the Inquisition for judgement and there's a brief segment of hearing what they're accused of, asking a question or two and then proclaiming sentence. I've only had two so far. One was one of the Templars who was feeding Red Lyrium to his brothers on behalf of the corrupted Senior Templars and the Head Seeker/Envy Demon, but insisted he was only Following orders. I decided that since he wronged the Templars, they would decide his fate and it turns out they wanted to kill him so last I saw was them dragging him off, never to be seen again.

The second one was a lot more interesting. So at the end of the Fallow Mire, I fight the son of an Avaar Leader who took issue with me and the Inquistion for some dumb reason I can't recall and killed him. Then it turns out his dad showed up at skyhold attacking the walls with goats(as in, throwing goats against the wall). Leading to this exchange.

Inquisitor: You answered the death of your clan... with a goat?
Movran: (laughs) A courtroom? Unnecessary! You killed my idiot son, and I answered, as is my custom, by smacking your holdings with goat's blood.
(Inquisitor glances over at Josephine)
Josephine: Don't look at me.

Apparently Avaars mistook the inquisition for Tevinter soldiers or something and this was the result. I took the most amusing option here. Exiling him and his clan to Tevinter, with as many weapons as they could carry. Movran seemed most pleased with the arraignment and every single companion approved which was amusing in itself as the the approvals just flooded. Whatever, they're Tevinter's problem now.

Speaking of which, I did talk to Dorian a bit about his homeland of Tevinter and on one hand, he did clear up some misconceptions about modern Tevinter. So apparently Blood Magic isn't used all the time and officially banned, but it's done a lot behind closed doors and a lot like Orlais, the Mage nobility of Tevinter use Blood Magic and Demons to scheme against each other on the regular. Also apparently they have their own Divine NotPope, who is called the "Black Divine" by people in Orlais and Ferelden because the one in Orlais sits on a Sun Throne...and the one in Tevinter is basically the Anti-pope, because it turns out having two popes happened in Thedas as well as our world(which is a nice touch). Also Slavery is practiced in Tevinter but much like Roman Slavery apparently some Tevinter slaves have a better life then the average free person in poverty in the South of Thedas(or people living in Alienages) which, sure is a thing. It's still shitty, just a different kind of shitty.

Kinda back and forth on the War Room mechanic. On one hand, there's a lot of interesting stuff here that only shows up as little text boxes and points on the map and arguably would be more interesting to be shown as part of gameplay. OTOH, it does make sense in that you are running an organization with reach across several nations and it gives the impression of delegating to your agents and subordinates(but you still need to collect elfroot and rocks in the zones for reasons) and the game is already stuffed full of content as it is. I've been mostly avoiding the middling shit and following either companion or inner circle quest lines as well as the "Way of the Inquisitor" quests and have had plenty to do. I have like half a dozen areas to unlock still and have only explored one area I have access to already fully(the Fallow Mire). So yeah, it's an interesting idea but could have been done better for sure. Not sure how, because going full crusader kings would have probably been a bit much and required a lot more time to implement properly.

 

[Gordon_4]

To the respective points:

Knight Enchanter is still very good, but take the suggestion that it's hands down 'the best choice' with a grain of salt, because a lot of that stems from a time when it was absolutely broken. Like "solo everything in the game" broken. Its big claim to fame was that so long as you could close the distance and start smacking things with your giant lightsaber, you regenerated barrier so fast that pretty much nothing in the game could kill you. It's still the tankiest option, but it's been trimmed back a bit since its peak.

Rift Mage is the "Nuke" option for mages, specializing in AoE and Crowd Control, with its own claim to fame being that it can practically get infinite mana to weaken enemies and punish them for it.

Despite the name's typical associations, necromancer in Dragon Age doesn't really deal with the undead, but instead on drawing power from wisps that are attracted to death, such as spirits of fear. Whereas Rift mage punishes weakened enemies, Necromancer punishes panicked enemies (making it synergize nicely with Fire magic) and buffs itself when enemies die. Honestly though, it's probably still the worst mage specialization because it requires significant battlefield setup - that the others do not - to live up to its potential.

In my defence, I like Knight Enchanter because I like being a magic knight and although Templar does have some anti-magic, magic frankly but it’s much more interesting for me to subvert the squishy and not martially trained wizard thing. Especially when you can get that ‘staff’ that is in fact a magic great sword. Man I wish it was stronger than it is.

 

[Asita]

In my defence, I like Knight Enchanter because I like being a magic knight and although Templar does have some anti-magic, magic frankly but it’s much more interesting for me to subvert the squishy and not martially trained wizard thing. Especially when you can get that ‘staff’ that is in fact a magic great sword. Man I wish it was stronger than it is.

Oh don't get me wrong. I went Knight Enchanter too. The "squishy" mage jumps into the frontlines and turns into an unkillable Jedi? SOLD!