The Canonical Race of the Inquistor.

[Everillad]

I'm currently playing through DA: Inquistion and having a rollicking good time. When I first heard that Qunari would be playable all those months ago, I had already made up my mind that that would be the race I would play and when it came down to it I decided to play a female Qunari (or tal 'vashoth if you want to get technical up in here). Without realising I'd rolled Brienne of Tarth. Go figure.

What I've found is playing this race seems to have a massive affect when it comes to the politics and the beliefs of Thedas - compared to that if I'd rolled Human. You also get a lot of flavour chat about Qunari lore which I like seeing how until now the Qunari only seemed to be half understood. Minor spoilers (I guess) but not everyone likes you in the beginning and as a Qunari, it only makes more sense for them to fear and hate you, seeing as you're one of a race not linked with this countries beliefs.

Of course I'm speaking from bias here. Of course I'm going to say Qunari feels more canonical to me because I'm playing one. I haven't played any of the other races (yet), but do elves and dwarves get the same amount of heat from the chantry?

Does anyone agree or disagree with me? I look forward to some good talking points and debates.

 

[Barbas]

So far, my elf doesn't seem to be going down all that well outside of the Inquisition. The hard maker-thumping core of the Chantry in particular have raised my race on numerous occasions and with varying degrees of tact. I notice NPCs occasionally raising their concerns - when they think I'm not standing three feet away and listening - about the Maker supposedly choosing an elf to carry out its will.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

So far, my elf doesn't seem to be going down all that well outside of the Inquisition. The hard maker-thumping core of the Chantry in particular have raised my race on numerous occasions and with varying degrees of tact. I notice NPCs occasionally raising their concerns - when they think I'm not standing three feet away and listening - about the Maker supposedly choosing an elf to carry out its will.

now in my first playthrough (what I'm currently on) I chose to side with the chantry, be a believer in the maker, and as such, being a human fit with that quite easily/perfectly. On my next playthrough I was thinking of playing a different race and being against the chantry, thinking the maker is a bunch of hogwash, and as such I have no idea how much the main storyline will change...

(thus now coming about to the point of the thread)

I think it depends on what you choose to do, if you are a believer in the maker and believe the chantry can rise to glory once again, then human is pretty much the defacto choice here. However if you are another race, it makes perfect sense to throw all that chantry bullshit out the window, in which it makes perfect sense to be one of the other races.

edit: I don't know how it was for other races, but as a human, being pro-maker/chantry, everyone fapped to me everytime I merely walked by or merely whispered anything pro-chantry, obviously being a human, andraste surely must've chosen right? right?

 

[Everillad]

I should say that the only reason this question came to me was when I was talking to Leliana about the 'Hero of Ferelden'. I couldn't be arsed to transfer my choices from the previous games so I just used the pre-fab world it gives you. Leliana states that not only did the Hero die, but the Hero was female. So does that mean the 'canonical' gender of the Warden was female? Of course, the same rules apply, you could choose your race and genitals in the first game so who's to say which race/gender is ''more canonical" than any other? If Bioware are the "authors" of this grand tale, or if it were to appear as a TV show, would the Warden be a woman?... And if so, what do you think the inquisitor would be? Like I said above, I think a Qunari, given the political implications of that race would be perfect for drama.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

There is no canonical Warden, Hawke or Inquisitor and there won't be. The default isn't canon, it's just the default. The default is set up in such a way that it's as easy as possible for new players to get into it. Example, in the default Mass Effect 2 Wrex is dead because they don't want to bring up Wrex to new players who never played Mass Effect and never met him. Same deal in Dragon Age.

What Inqusitor will they use as the default? I don't know. Would be neat if it was Qunari though, that's what I'm playing at the moment on my first playthrough.

 

[Everillad]

Very good point! Default doesn't necessarily imply canon. Thinking back to ME. Everyone would say things like: "My Shepard did this...", "My Shepard romanced so and so...". "MY" being the important word there. There's certainly a lot of ownership when it comes to user created protagonists. I suppose it's this kind of stuff that gives way to the head-canoning that people tend to do.

 

[endtherapture]

Honestly think the game works best with Dalish elf in mind.

Connecting with Solas is important, you can really roleplay well and give everyone in the game a crisis of faith given the whole "Herald" thing, and the Temple of Mythal sequence is exceptionally brilliant if you play as a Dalish because it has that personal connection to the revelations you discover.

 

[Veldel]

Human atheist for mine. She sided with the Templar and turned a government into a pup.

 

[Gamer87]

Honestly think the game works best with Dalish elf in mind.

Connecting with Solas is important, you can really roleplay well and give everyone in the game a crisis of faith given the whole "Herald" thing, and the Temple of Mythal sequence is exceptionally brilliant if you play as a Dalish because it has that personal connection to the revelations you discover.

I agree. Nothing is canon, but I think the story works best if you're playing whatever character can romance the smexy apostate mage of respective game

For DA:O that means male, for DA:I that's the female elf.

 

[Sanunes]

I should say that the only reason this question came to me was when I was talking to Leliana about the 'Hero of Ferelden'. I couldn't be arsed to transfer my choices from the previous games so I just used the pre-fab world it gives you. Leliana states that not only did the Hero die, but the Hero was female. So does that mean the 'canonical' gender of the Warden was female? Of course, the same rules apply, you could choose your race and genitals in the first game so who's to say which race/gender is ''more canonical" than any other? If Bioware are the "authors" of this grand tale, or if it were to appear as a TV show, would the Warden be a woman?... And if so, what do you think the inquisitor would be? Like I said above, I think a Qunari, given the political implications of that race would be perfect for drama.

As far as what would be for a "television show" its hard to know. I haven't read any of the novels, but if they are different then Inquisition I think its purely based on the situation at hand. The primary objective for the pre-build history for Inquisition is to pick what has the fewest threads for future content which to me would make a poor TV show since they are trying to segment the story.

 

[EyeReaper]

Probably human, if there is a set DA Canon, because Bioware loves having their boring humans be the center of the universe.

I mean, you guys all agree that if Shepard could be Turian, the game would be like, 5 to 10 times better right? I wanna be Commander Cuttlefish.

 

[Reiper]

Probably human, if there is a set DA Canon, because Bioware loves having their boring humans be the center of the universe.

I mean, you guys all agree that if Shepard could be Turian, the game would be like, 5 to 10 times better right? I wanna be Commander Cuttlefish.

Nope, my shepard was a racist human supremacist, and my ending is that I took control of the reapers and then proceeded to holocaust the rest of the races, leaving humans the sole power in the galaxy.

 

[Sanunes]

Probably human, if there is a set DA Canon, because Bioware loves having their boring humans be the center of the universe.

I mean, you guys all agree that if Shepard could be Turian, the game would be like, 5 to 10 times better right? I wanna be Commander Cuttlefish.

I disagree with the game being better. Besides there are probably enough people out there that want to play what represents them, its like with Assassin's Creed Unity had the pushback when they declared that there wouldn't be a playable female assassin. It is probably the same thing when it comes to the species and I would think there would be a similar reaction to if you were forced to play something besides human.

 

[EyeReaper]

snip

Nope, my shepard was a racist human supremacist, and my ending is that I took control of the reapers and then proceeded to holocaust the rest of the races, leaving humans the sole power in the galaxy.

But see, why just limit just to humans? Why not lead the Turian Nazis? Reign death upon all other species as a big stupid jellyfish! If you're going to be Space-Sauron, there's so many better options to rule the galaxies with your mecthulus. Like the Volus.

snip combo!

I disagree with the game being better. Besides there are probably enough people out there that want to play what represents them, its like with Assassin's Creed Unity had the pushback when they declared that there wouldn't be a playable female assassin. It is probably the same thing when it comes to the species and I would think there would be a similar reaction to if you were forced to play something besides human.

I'm not saying humanity wouldn't be an option, To put it simply, If Mass Effect was more like Dragon Age, You'd be able to choose to play as say, a human, Turian, or Quarian. When DA dips a little to far into ME's side of the pool, you get mono-raced human twat a la Hawke.

 

[laggyteabag]

As far as I am aware, there are a few things that have been made Canon (at least for Extended Universe use)
Alistair is made King
Wynne was recruited and is alive
Hawke met Isabela and did not give her to the Qunari
Sten joined the Warden and was welcomed back to the Qunari
Shale was recruited and did not die
First Enchanter Irving survived

They did not make any playable characters canon.

 

[theSovietConnection]

As has been said, the canonical Inquisitor seems to be whatever you make it.

For me that is a Dwarven warrior that is still an ardent believer in the Stone and does everything within his power to make Josephine's job far more difficult then it needs to be.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Honestly think the game works best with Dalish elf in mind.

Connecting with Solas is important, you can really roleplay well and give everyone in the game a crisis of faith given the whole "Herald" thing, and the Temple of Mythal sequence is exceptionally brilliant if you play as a Dalish because it has that personal connection to the revelations you discover.

This. The whole elven lore and elven background is important in the game, and being a Elf seems to actually click more with a few of the things going on. At least to me.

If there ever is a post, 'this was the canon' like there was with Kotor, my money's on the Inquisitor being elven.

 

[omega 616]

There is no canonical Warden, Hawke or Inquisitor and there won't be. The default isn't canon, it's just the default. The default is set up in such a way that it's as easy as possible for new players to get into it. Example, in the default Mass Effect 2 Wrex is dead because they don't want to bring up Wrex to new players who never played Mass Effect and never met him. Same deal in Dragon Age.

What Inqusitor will they use as the default? I don't know. Would be neat if it was Qunari though, that's what I'm playing at the moment on my first playthrough.

On my play through, which I have built the world for, Hawke is a male warrior. I met varrick who, as soon as I pressed X to interact with, brought me to a screen that asked me to create my Hawke.

Thing was out of the two options, both were male and warriors. The only difference between them was that red smear across the face. In my actual save game of 2, Hawke was a female rogue. I couldn't make a female or change class ... so I gave Hawke loads of scars (like he had continued fighting and getting marked up since 2) and carried on.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

On my play through, which I have built the world for, Hawke is a male warrior. I met varrick who, as soon as I pressed X to interact with, brought me to a screen that asked me to create my Hawke.

Thing was out of the two options, both were male and warriors. The only difference between them was that red smear across the face. In my actual save game of 2, Hawke was a female rogue. I couldn't make a female or change class ... so I gave Hawke loads of scars (like he had continued fighting and getting marked up since 2) and carried on.

That's strange and unfortunate for you, sorry to here about it. Suppose I was lucky because I used the keep and my Hawke was a female mage and it imported a female mage Hawke.