inquisitionthoughts

[inquisitionthoughts]

Dragon Age the Veilguard: My Thoughts

I have played through all of the latest Dragon Age installation (except for two side quests in Rivain, and one blighted dragon that I was locked out of for the entire game due to what I believe was a bug) and I have things to say. 

After finishing it I had so many conflicting thoughts and feelings, and those internal conflicts have only grown after letting the experience marinate. 

I want to start with saying that I am writing what I'm going to say as a nonbinary, queer, bi, pan, poly, “leftist” progressive feminist vegetarian working at an NGO LGBTQI-organization, so you can safely assume that I am not coming from a grifter or alt-right point of view. 

To give you an idea of where I am coming from:

I grew up reading folktales, mythologies and fantasy literature by Pratchett, Tolkien and Eddings; playing the Swedish version of Dungeons & Dragons, making role-playing games, and programming text based fantasy adventures in DOS as a kid. That's how I ended up in this whole fandom in the first place. 

I am an original Dragon Age fan. I've followed and absolutely loved the series since before the release of Origins. As I watched my friends play Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, but never had a good enough computer at home to play those games myself at that time, I was elated when I got to hear talk of a game universe that was the “spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate”, and I followed all info on the development and marketing, until the game was released. And boy did they deliver, Dragon Age: Origins converted me into a gamer and cemented my love for cRPGs as well as my love for BioWare. 

I did many playthroughs of Origins; every origin, good runs, evil runs, canon runs. All the DLC. Several runs of Awakening. When the demo for DAII was released I was apprehensive due to the really weird look so it took me a while to play it, but when I eventually did it was amazing. The companions and the story were stellar, and it didn't really matter that they reused the dungeons, I just wish they had updated the maps so it wasn't as obvious. Several playthroughs later with both siblings, all romances and different allied endings I was ready for the next installation. 

I pre-ordered Dragon Age Inquisition as soon as it was possible, the collector's edition, so I ended up learning tarot to use the deck that came with it. I bought all the art books for all the games. I kind of wanted to stop playing Inquisition at the 1337 hour mark but now I have over 2000 hours in the game, with all the DLC completed, and I've played every race and class, explored all the different ways the character can be portrayed as devout Andrastian, carefree selfish asshole, elven supremacist or goodie-two shoes hero, and I’ve even written a guide to how to get the best DAI experience here on tumblr (tldr; get out of the Hinterlands, talk to companions, skip the shards 😅). 

And then I waited for ten years. Played Mass Effect 1-4, Fallout 3-4, Skyrim, Witcher 3, Baldur's Gate 1-3, Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, Elder Scrolls Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Divinity: Original Sin 2, The Outer Worlds, Cyberpunk 2077 and Starfield to bide my time. Followed Ghil Dirthalen's YouTube channel religiously. Read most of the Dragon Age Wiki, even contributed to it. Made my own mad person mind maps over the lore and timeline of the universe; the Maker, the titans, the spirits, the elves, the veil, humans, Tevinter, qunari, the blight, Andraste and the Chantry. 

I love the darkness and depth of the Dragon Age universe. How it consciously turns fantasy tropes on their head in its own way. I have memories of the writers of Origins explaining that when they created the setting they wanted to contemplate how the existence of magic, elves and dwarves actually would play out in a gritty realistic world filled with bigoted and narrow minded people, and then followed through with those conclusions. How the plight of the elves had clear connotations to the holocaust and the Jewish gettos of Europe. It was a curious series not afraid to follow their own trains of thought, making you nauseated, flabbergasted and upset on the way. 

I followed the twists and turns of the development at BioWare. Through development being halted due to teams being moved to Andromeda and Anthem, the pivot to and from multi-player live service, mass leavings and layoffs, teaser trailers, Kotaku articles and whatnot. It was a roller-coaster pendulum swing between being afraid and hopeful, oftentimes at the same time. I refused to completely give up hope, I never did, and I was immensely excited for the release of Dragon Age Dreadwolf. 

Eventually it came! Name changed to Veilguard. A quite weird League of Legends-esque companions trailer. A spoiler filled gameplay video. Marketing team spoiling endgame scenes with official trailers. Rumors of amazing character creation and a shocking reveal that only three choices would carry over from the past three games. We already knew the Keep wouldn't be used, but only three? Nevertheless I pre-ordered and then it came. 

And I played it. 

I loved it so much, but at the same time I had so many deep grievances that threatened to take over the whole playthrough unless I somehow managed them. I had to create a document that stayed open at all times on my second screen just so I could write down things that I just could not let go otherwise, that made me able to keep focusing on the game and not the hard to swallow moments I was getting stuck on. I have never experienced anything like this before, but on the other hand I have never loved and been invested in any game fantasy universe like this. 

This was the result of all my reactions to Dragon Age the Veilguard:

THE LOVE

Things I really loved

the lighthouse <3

the look and graphics of every place, the game is absolutely stunning, and the visual people have outdone themselves, the level designs, the environmental storytelling is amazing and beyond

the cities, the markets, I LOVE LOVE LOVE them, and they give so much cyberpunk 2077 vibes in a good way 

dock town gives awesome low town vibes from da2 ❤️

the main story

the new lore drops, omg the lore, yum yum

buskers playing the old tavern songs, just love it

the blight, visually, oh god I loved it, it was really a throwback to the fleshyness of the Deep Roads in Origins

the new look of the demons, I actually loved it eventually as I was first sceptical, even though the pride demons were abit too much floaty neon

so many new iterations of enemies, in such fun ways

the faction systems and factions stores 

the companion gear systems

the gear system, upgrade systems

the short letters ❤️

the leveling up systems, really funny, great to be able to refund at any time

the world maps and fast travel systems

the cards where you chose your companions, stunning

the scene in front of the lighthouse eluvian, awestriking

the companion conversation system where you could see on the map of the lighthouse if they had anything new, or a quest or where they were if you wanted to eavesdrop - it was very refreshing after talking to everyone in camp in bg3 every night to see if there is any new reaction to something you did, now I could just talk to them if they had something and not compulsively all the time

the quest formats of walking along with your companions in areas you otherwise can end up in battle in, loved that so much, a calm way to experience these absolutely stunning environments

the combat system on explorer mode, when at highest level the animations that played out were mad cool XD that was fun!

that you can walk into and climb ladders at the same time as companions and that they teleport to you or enemies in battle, lovely

squeezing through narrow passages, sliding down, walking on thin planks

the no fall damage jumping

opening doors like in dark souls games

that lucanis had a contract on a bronto once XD

elgar’nan has an amaaazing voice actor giving weight to his menace

loved the format of the ending in the style of mass effect 2, so well executed! one of the best endings of all times

the varric twist OMG!! I cried ❤️

I have cried and have had goosebumps so many time during this game ❤️ I love so much of it so much ❤️

the hype for what the "devouring storm", "the adversary" and "it's eye" is, and a potential next game

the joining chalice T_T

THE MEH

Things that were meh

that the romance was super PG13 T_T I guess I am spoiled after bg3 but to get a peck and then a lying hug on a couch and an "I love you" was of course wonderful, but NOT ENOUGH XD I absolutely loved the Lucanis romance otherwise, very spicy in it's way, but I really wanted the scenes of origins, da2 or dai - we honestly didn't get that here

wasn't a fan of the cartoony vibes for the characters but I still grew into almost immediately, I really wish that they had done something to not make all important characters look so extremely young, some people who should be in at least their 30s look like teenagers.. they should have used more rugged face textures

that there was no real way to make your inquisitor look like your original inquisitor like in they did with hawke in Inquisition, kinda broke immersion and emotional connection

the controls (ok remappable so it was fine in the end)

the lol dota fortnite overwatch type of ui vibe

whats up with all this drowning all the time XD

that you have to destroy stuff to loot it - very dark souls (they have clearly been elden ring inspired in this game) - very unimmersive as you trash the markets in all major cities…😅 but in the end it was fun, but still insane XD

repetetive puzzles in especially arlathan forest, wish they made more meaningful quests there instead to slow the pace

wish I never watched the game trailers they released, they spoiled too much of the

would have loved to be able to zoom in a bit more

too many cats XD 😉

the music was more like starfield or a scifi game than dragon age - there was a lot of modern music instead of the classical brass orchestra or choirs, I missed that

I missed the chantry, and the chant of light

personal quests starts like in the shadow of mordor games, interesting, a bit weird 😛

THE 😬

Things that I did not like

that I could not recreate a body that is similar to mine (and I have a completely normal female body that is just kinda curvaceous) because they put an unrealistic cap on boob and butt size, it makes me really sad because it feels like there is something wrong with existing like me, especially since women like me are the only ones not allowed to be included and represented in a game that otherwise prides itself at inclusion and representation

the stressed opening throwing us into the main action of the game far too quickly with far too little buildup as to who your character is, how they were drafted by Varric, what they have been doing, why they have been split up, what their relationships are like and why you should care about your own character

the gold exploding everywhere when looting or opening chests, it is really immersion breaking and unnecessary, I really hope someone can mod that out

the new look of the darkspawn: I like that there are so many different types and the amazing idea that the blight has changed, but they obviously went for comedic effect instead of horror here which makes me so sad, it feels like it ties in with other choices that make the game more juvenile that are hard to reckon with, especially since the game is marketed as “mature”

the new combat system on anything other than explorer, a huge nope for me, unfortunately, but I can only congratulate all those that seem to love it

that we, true to american culture and despite healing magic existing in this world, get death scenes of people just sitting and watching someone die crying for dramatic effect instead of trying to help them… it irks me every time it happens in any media

that you cannot sort your inventory by any values or show only light or medium armor or anything, a missed opportunity

THE 😭

These last grievances are the hardest ones to put into words and the things that have stayed with me since I played the game. They have given rise to so many questions as to why these choices were made, because these things are so obviously choices that it becomes really hard to understand why they would chose to go this route.

But here they are, the three major grievances I have with this game:

1) the lore breaking or retconning

2) the writing regarding companions, NPCs and its ideas of "teambuilding" and preaching

3) that there is so little real choice 

The lore breaking or retconning

That there is much lore that is missing, and many choices or things from the previous games that are not referenced, felt a lot more okay than the instances where actual lore and world building was retconned in a way that was not explained in any capacity, but where you were just supposed to live with the fact that this is the new reality of the world. 

I am not fully sure why this happened, and it felt really disrespectful to the game itself, its previous creators and all those who love this universe. It feels like they did it for two main reasons: one was that they wanted to remove things that could be somehow perceived as “uncomfortable” or “problematic” to the player, and the other was in instances where I think that the writers did not have enough knowledge or interest in the world lore, or experience with playing the previous games, and thus missed important pieces of lore where they had taken part of just some of previous codex entries and just kind of gotten it wrong. I really don’t know. 

They seem to have retconned and thrown out the window all previous elf lore regarding dalish and city elves, that dalish elves are very hateful towards shemlen, and that humans are generally racist against elves, and that city elves are oppressed, and that they are often andrastian, and that not all elves even speak elvish… 

Playing an elf mage warden was a rollercoaster of people talking about "my people" when I most likely grew up in a mage circle and was drafted to the wardens and should most likely not speak old elven? All elves just talked about "our people" and "our culture" like if that was a thing constantly, but it is so much more complex in this universe. And it seemed all elves just suddenly knew elvish, which was not a thing in the older games, that was like a cryptic language people didn't know much about.

The weirdest scene in the whole game that had me rubbing my eyes to make sure I was seeing and hearing correctly was the one where you meet the Veil Jumpers for the first time and the two leaders of the faction for some unknown reasons had knowledge of Solas being Fen'harel and most importantly that the old elven gods were power hungry evil mages. Like, that should not at all be any kind of common knowledge, that just felt absolutely insane. No explanation given as to how they could have pertained that bit of info.

And there was something really off with Arlathan, where the whereabouts of the ancient elven capital was like the biggest mystery of the previous games; no one knew where it had vanished, it had just been buried according to legend, and suddenly there is just a large crater in the middle of Arlathan forest and loads of city parts kind of left? Just, really strange. 

And all this talk about the Tevinter blood magic destroying the elves while walking in that forest - where we literally just learned in the last game that it was not Tevinter that destroyed the elves, but the elves themselves and that when Tevinter came they were long gone, which makes those throwaway conversations just like this huge retcon of the last games. Kind of like someone reading the early lore and being like, aha, this is what happened, without also taking part of the events that showed that as being a false belief… 

And it feels like this was done because it fits in with this whole new idea of “elves good” and “man bad” vibe of the story, where elves had been turned into some kind of indigenous population that were fighting the evil colonialist Tevinter? Which is not at all the original lore; in the original lore pretty much everyone’s an asshole in different ways (even if Tevinter are more assholes than most).

They have also removed a lot of the difference between surface dwarves and thaigh dwarves with their quite oppressive cast systems and racism towards the surface dwarves and peoples.

And they made the chantry into the catholic church in Antiva, is that really lore friendly? The chantry run or other mage circles aren’t really referenced anymore, even with several new organisations around that forming after Inquisition no matter what choices you made, and mages aren’t really treated any special, and people don’t seem to be afraid of them or revere them as they would in the rest of the world or Tevinter, and magic has been turned into some kind of scifi magical tech instead of what it used to be. 

And apparently dragons have treasures now, but they never used to have that, so that's another thing where it feels like the writers did not write for the Thedas but for like generic fantasy. 

And the Crows of Antiva are only a friendly family instead of an unscrupulous child buying assassin’s league (I hear that has kind of been explained in some written media by a war between the different crow factions, but they could have somehow then explained that...), and the pirates lead by Isabela - one of the worst perpetrator of cultural theft known from Dragon Age 2 where she stole the Tome of Koslun, with so little care as to return it to the point that a war with the Qunari broke out in Kirkwall - are not pirates but culturally sensitive treasure hunters, but of course without explanation as to how this could come to pass. 

I have seen many people complain about things and references that are missing but that actually ARE in the game, and that is why I am not as upset about the missing lore because I know that there are probably a lot of that lying around in codexes and scenes and little NPC conversations and such that I have missed, just as many others have missed a lot of things. But those things that ARE there, that break the earlier lore without any given plausible explanation, that is what hurts. 

The writing regarding companions, NPCs, "teambuilding" and preaching tone

Generally people are just too happy and cheery almost all the time.

I've heard "you've got this" WAY too many times - the disconnect between the dark lore and world and the NPCs who are so unphased almost all of the time, except for when emotion is needed for a scene, is too large. There is way much more cynicism needed here to reflect the evil in the world and the actual goings on around. This constant cheeriness was present in both companion dialogue and NPC interaction.

This game is obviously themed around building "a team" - that's the main premise, but the idea the writers have about how you do that doesn't feel based in reality. It feels like the power fantasy of nerdy queer computer developers on how they want people to feel or operate. Rook is made out to be a good leader because the question "are you ok" is used in any and all (not always reasonable) situations. Romantic questions are blunt in a way that not everyone would be comfortable with, but all companions are still happy with that in-the-real-world not very successful flirting style, and it feels like that is a power fantasy of writers who just wish the world would function like this. 

You as Rook feels like your companion's mom and therapist, and their struggles are so juvenile and safe that they are about that they cannot sleep, forget to eat, that their mom told them to do something, that grandma might not approve of them, or that they do not like vegetables… And you tell them how to live their lives; they should eat, and sleep, and lots of other cliches, but the game also tells you as the player through companion dialogue that it is also good to do breathing exercises, drink less coffee, eat more flax-seed because it's good for your stomach, and how often you should shower. I as Rook even gave the mega ancient goddess Mythal modern style RELATIONSHIP advice, I wanted to sink through the floor… 

This game feels preachy in a way that I have never ever felt in a game, it is like there are some writers there who just discovered that mindfulness, flax-seed and personal hygiene are good for you and now have to tell that to the WORLD. If kind of feels like they were envisioning us players some young vulnerable gamers that they needed to save with their hard earned life wisdom. I feel like the writers behind a lot of the companion interactions were not suited to write the kind of deep meaningful content that you expect from this kind of game.

The amount of times I have heard "Thank you" and "I am sorry" in this game is insane. The characters thank each others and apologize constantly like there is no tomorrow, and they resolve their differences within two sentences like - "I hate your whole way of life" - "Oh, I'm sorry I wish you said something sooner" - "Oh, no, I am sorry, I should never have called you assbag." It's just… so much bad writing, I don't know what to call it, it's shallow and flat and I just wish it was so different.

A whole lot of the preaching style could have been remedied if there had been more “show, don’t tell” in this game. It feels like the writers have forgotten that when you want to convey a moral, cultural, artistic or political message through a piece of art, like games are, you need to do it through the power of allegory and not just by having characters outright saying what is right or wrong.

For example, if the message that you want to get across is that cultural piracy is bad, you should not have a character posture for an organisation just telling you how good they are for returning treasure to cultures they come from; you should write a quest where you dig up a piece of treasure that gives you some kind of power, but where you later find out this is an important cultural relic of some lost tribe that really wants it back, and where you as the player have to grapple with the weight of that moral choice. Even players who would then choose to keep the relic for selfish and power-grabbing reasons would still feel kind of morally bad, and they would still get the message you are trying to convey. This kind of mechanic in storytelling is something that is missing throughout the whole game when it comes to different moral, social or cultural messages. 

Also, in the character Bellara the retcon or writing for a different universe and strange companion writing converges. She namely talks about herself as autodidact - that she has learnt not by studying but by poking around and figuring out what goes boom - but at the same time she has many discussions with professor Emmerich about academic stuff and she uses all the fancy words, words that are also out of lore-words, about frequencies and things that come rather from Elder Scrolls and sci-fi universes, whereas in Dragon Age magical power relates to blood (titan blood, human blood, blighted blood and so on) or the fade and spirits. A person who is self taught by only learning and doing would not at all talk like that "you need to huperflux the enchantment-condesator", they would say "you know that feeling you get when it's about to go boom, that's when you do like this show and hold your breath" or something.

That there is so little real choice, you have only one personality and morality

You get very little choice in this game, so little that it almost no longer really feels like an RPG. Especially around who your Rook is and how they act, oftentimes they will just continue talking and say things about their life and background that you had no idea about and had never chosen. You are getting to know your character at the same speed as the NPCs of the game.

For a while while playing this game I honestly thought I had lost my ability to read and understand the English language, and was making plans to try to regain my language skills, because I had never before experienced such a disconnect between what you choose as a player and what Rook actually says. I realized later that this disconnect was not only felt by me but by others as well, and that there is a large disconnect between the options and what is said. 

I don’t need to be “evil” like you could be in Origins or can be in the Baldur’s Gate games, but at least I thought you could be a kind of paragon or renegade version of Rook, or at least that you could form your personality like Hawke and be kind, funny or harsh - but not even that. Rook is more pre cooked than Geralt in the Witcher games, this is more of an interactive movie in many places, so many that I wish they were more honest about that and made those conversations more into quicktime events where you would just experience the scenes like in Detroit Become Human or games like those. The illusion that there are RPG choices where you have less choice in dialogue than you had in Fallout 4 is just hurting the experience, and especially hurting any immersion and connection you can have with your player character. 

You are only allowed to be heroic, and just one type of heroic; not the one that is ready to sacrifice things for the greater good or to get things done, but only the goodie two-shoes hero (that for sure oftentimes is what I play, but which feels meaningless unless there is an option to go another route). 

The most glaring example of this forced morality that pretty much breaks the fourth wall was when Rook goes by a scene in a blighted city where several people have been hung and says very dramatically that “this shouldn’t happen anywhere” and then proceeds to murder 20 Venatori agents with zero thought as to who their mothers, children or pets are. That comment did not feel like a legitimate comment that would be said by a Rook as created by genuine interest in the character or their connection to the world, but much more as a clear “social posturing” or “virtue signaling” for the player behind the computer screen that this is a good person, and that they are good according to the only specific moral view the hero is allowed to have (no chaotic good allowed). 

It was also very present in Rook's interactions with Solas' memories in the crossroads. When confronted with a memory of the blight being created and threatening to spread to the whole world and how Solas sacrificed ONE of his agents to guarantee that the blight would not spread to the world the only way to react to that was the Solas was a horrible callous and evil person for not saving this one person and possibly condemning the world. I think they somehow meant for Rook and Solas to be moral opposites, where Rook would always protect the little people against oppression and Solas would sacrifice the little people for his missions, but it really feels so off to not have any say in your RPG characters moral values, even within the tropes of heroes.

This kind of virtue signaling is also present in many other parts of the game, used not to deepen the characters but to position them as the "good guys", and my best example here is how they handle Emmerichs vegetarianism. It could have been a really interesting trait that could have resulted in interesting conversations about morality, mortality, spirits of animals and flesh - but instead this trait is mainly used to position the other companions as good because they have (wow, time to get impressed) remembered to cook vegetarian food for Emmerich, several times even (naaw, that is so nice and inclusive of them, uwu). This cheapens the whole thing and makes it instead feel preachy (which it is at this point) and it's such a wasted potential.

And when it comes to the choices in the main game there is only one big choice before the suicide mission ending that is major and creates some replayability, but it doesn’t have a particularly large emotional effect because you have not come to know the places enough to care about them properly. The choices you make in the companion quests are, with the exception of Emmerich’s quest, so shallow and just affect their gear instead of their stories in any meaningful way, that I just wish they didn’t have any choices at the end of the quest lines.

SUMMARY

In conclusion: a lot of people have tried to explain these choices of retconning the factions and the lore, and the strange “teambuilding” discourse, as stemming from an idea of Rook as a heroic hero and their team “The Veilguard” as some kind of Avengers. And that for this purpose everything they do has to be good, they have to have only one type of personality, with one type of morality, have only one type of interaction with the world and their companions, the companions have to lack any type of “problematic” (or god forbid interesting) or morally ambiguous character flaw, and all factions you collaborate with have to be morally unambiguously good and the bad guys have to be unequivocally evil preferably without grayscale.

This way of thinking, if this is true, makes these choices that they have made for the game kind of make sense, but it is still such a weird choice to make, to take a complex dark fantasy story that is Dragon Age - and a cRPG franchise known for morally difficult and emotional choices and complex morally grey factions and cultures - and turn it into this hero-fiction, with clear cut morals and cartoony vibe aimed at younger audiences. 

This could have been such an amazing game (which is in many parts still is), but something went really wrong in the direction for the writers and I ache so bad for all those developers that I am sure really tried their best and probably suffered under insane creative direction. I don’t know how else to explain this. 

It feels like, when playing through the game, like the teams that made the environments, the main story and the companions were three different teams where the first two got all the time and resources, and no micromanagement, whereas the last team didn't have any contact with the others and got the short end of the stick.

I am still waiting for the Kotaku article where they talk to 19 people who have worked on this keeping them anonymous and telling us the real story about the experience of making this game. 

Thank you for reading this far, I seriously hope you loved this game no matter its strange choices at time, and I would STILL say after all of this that it is worth playing for all Dragon Age fans out there.

Dareth shiral.

[inquisitionthoughts]

Guide to the Ultimate Dragon Age Inquisition Playthrough

To get the most Dragon Age-esque experience out of Dragon Age Inqusition and not get “stuck in the Hinterlands” (aka fall for the more fetch quest and grindy aspects of the game) I have devised a method of playing the game to get the most out of the top quality aspects of it. 

First there is a general priority you should always keep in mind no matter what you are doing, and second I have a recommended order of unlocking areas and doing or finishing content.

General priority: 

Always talk to all companions

Do all companion quest

Then do main quest

Only if convenient do side quests

Ignore grind like the requisition officer in world camps, picking up shards and mainly ignore astrariums

What to do at a certain time in the game? 

Always start at number one; if there is a companion who you can talk to and where you have not exhausted all conversation options, keep talking to them. Even say goodbye and start over to see if new conversations unlock. Then move on to number 2. 

Do companion quests before moving on with the main quest (unless in becomes utterly ridiculous, then switch somewhat between them). After done with available companion quests move on to doing the main quests.

Only do side quests in areas if they are right by where you are. Pick them up by all means, but generally follow the companion quest and main quest paths and then do the side quests if they happen to coincide. 

Lastly ignore the requisition officer in the camps in the world (there are some requisitions tied to quests you will pick up, those you may do, but ignore any quest you get from the “requisition officer” in world map areas, if possible don’t even pick them up from her. You may look through any occularum you find (they give nice views of the lands) and reveal shards, but only pick up shards if they are literally next to you. And only do the astrariums if you like mini game puzzles and they are close to you. 

Order of content unlocking:

Do the prologue.

Talk to your companions and advisors as much as you can.

Explore your camp. Talk to mother Giselle.

Unlock the Hinterlands

Leave the Hinterlands as soon as you have enough power to continue the main quest. Only exceptions are helping the refugees if you want to (talk to corporal Vale and get food and blankets for them), and getting your own horse (not all the horses for the Inquisition). 

Continue main quest. 

Unlock Val Royeaux

Continue main quest here. Explore the area. 

Unlock Fallow Mire

Do the thing you’ve been sent there to do! Also talk to the Sky Watcher. 

Unlock Forbidden Oasis

For research purpose. But you do not have to venture there unless you have collected all the shards. Do it later if you are a completionist

Continue main quest. 

Visit the faction in Redcliffe. The first visit doesn’t need you to make a choice so you might as well enjoy the story of it. Explore the village.

Unlock Storm Coast

Unlock all companions available at this time. Check out the hint about a Warden in the Hinterlands. You might as well after that go looking for Warden clues in the Storm Coast. Unlock the companion  in the Storm Coast and two through leads from Val Royeaux. If you didn’t get the encounters in Val Rouyeaux then explore that city more and go to the smaller areas on the world map. 

Continue talking will all companions as much as you can, exhausting all options they have for conversation.

Make the choice that the main quest needs you to do at the war table.  

Continue talking will all companions as much as you can, exhausting all options they have for conversation as soon as you have a break. 

Continue the main quest and enjoy the cutscenes.

Continue talking will all companions as much as you can, exhausting all options they have for conversation before leaving your base. Don’t forget to talk to Cullen and Leliana at all opportunities to unlock the special main quest side quest.

Unlock Crestwood

Continue the main quest here.

Talk to the mayor and do as he asks on the way to your destination. Capture the Keep. Help the Keep. 

Unlock the Western Approach

Continue the main quest here.

Remember: If the companions have a companion quest maker sure to bring them to that place and event. Capture the Keep. Unlock the corresponding missions. Help the dragon researcher if you want to, it’s a nice storyline.

Unlock Exalted Plains

For  the Solas quest and getting the dalish agent at the dalish camp. Dorians and Vivienne’s personal fetch quests can also be found here. Leave the ramparts for later.

Unlock Emerald Graves and Emprise du Lion

Visit them if you want to or need to for some companion quests. 

Unlock Here Lies the Abyss

Continue the main quest there. 

Round up some stuff 

Emprise du Lion: Capture the Keep. Investigate what is happening to the miners.

Emerald Graves: Learn about the Freemen of the Dales. 

Exalted Plains: Help the ramparts in Exalted plains before unlocking Wicked Hearts (voluntary, but doing it before Wicked Hearts makes it more of an intro to the Orlesian situation)

Unlock Eyes and Wicked Hearts

Continue the main quest.

Unlock the Arbor Wilds

Continue main quest.

Unlock the Hissing Wastes (may be unlocked before Arbor Wilds)

Investigate what the Venatori are after.

DO THE DLC:S 

Unlock the Frostback Basin - do everything here

Unlock the Deep Roads - do everything there

Dragons: Somewhere here, right before or after the Arbor Wilds or after the DLC:s you could go after the different dragons of the game (in the order Hinterlands, Crestwood, Western Approach, Exalted Plains, Emerald Graves, Storm Coast, Hissing Wastes, 3 in Emprise du Lion).

For the completionist: Here is where you can pick up shards, finish astrariums, and do all manner of unnecessary side quests you have not yet done, get all of the mosaique pieces and scout entire maps if you feel like it. Do as much or as little as you want to! 

LAST

Unlock Doom Upon All the World

Continue the main quest. 

You are going to be over powered during this event no matter what you do, so take it slow! Doing this will make all companions stop talking to you so even though the game promises you can keep playing afterwards all companions turn to robots which makes it a horrible experience, therefore leave this to last!

ABSOLUTE LAST

Unlock the war table mission for Trespasser

[inquisitionthoughts]

[Spoilers all] Is this the source of the Blight and Red Lyrium?

“Really rough comment on my way home from work; will update with links and sources later.

The important thing to remember is that there is no record of titans in the Hall of Memories whatsoever.

With that out of the way, the timeline looks something like this:

Elves reside in Arlathan, dwarves reside underground. The Deep Roads are untainted at this point, and it’s assumed ‘the song sang the same’ (i.e. that the dwarves have not been sundered from the titans). Source (Cole banter).

Titans destroy elvhen cities. Source (Song to Elgar’nan).

Mythal hunts down a titan in retaliation, and “makes the earth blossom with their passing”. Source (Old Elven Writing).

The other gods hunt the titans for “lyrium and... something else .” Elgar’nan is specifically mentioned, but I think it’s safe to assume others did as well. Source (Signs of Victory).

The dwarves are sundered from the titans. There are several in-game sources that suggest this, with Cole specifically saying “no dreams with the cord cut ,” and other sources saying “Mythal gives [the dwarves] dreams .”

The elves wake something in the darkness and cease all operations in the Deep Roads. Source (Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads).

Mythal dies, Solas begins his rebellion. No source for this, but Solas mentions a war. I’d be willing to bet this was a war against the titans, especially given all the darkness and corruption that was being thrown around due to the Sundering of the titans.

The evanuris are sealed behind the Veil. Again, no source, but this event is directly correlated with Solas’ rebellion.

Dwarven records begin. Source (DA Wiki).

The dwarves, based in Kal Sharok, ally with Tevinter, under the rule of Archon Darinius. Time period: -1200 Ancient, according to WoT.

Tevinter makes contact with the elves of Arlathan, a tense few decades pass before Tevinter sinks the remains of the city into the ocean (or so the records say, no actual remains have been found). Time period: -975 Ancient, according to WoT.

About 800 years later, the Magisters Sidereal break into the Black City and bring the Blight (back) to Thedas (I say back because some sources above suggest the elves of Arlathan introduced the blight to Thedas through their extermination of the titans). Time period: -395 Ancient, according to WoT

Sorry if the formatting is complete garbage, I’m on mobile. So with the timeline as it is, the titans have been sundered from the dwarves for at least 1200 years before the Magisters enter the Fade. I could of course be wrong, but the timeline suggests that the existence of active titans/connected dwarves and humans never intersects, at least not until the events of the Descent DLC.

And it’s unlikely anyone, save for the Sha-Brytol or the few elvhen sentinels that remained after the fall, remembered the titans after their Sundering. Cole says “even the dwarves don’t really remember the dwarves.”

https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/aswlaz/spoilers_all_is_this_the_source_of_the_blight_and/

[inquisitionthoughts]

Meet Jona - a hardcore feminist diy dual wield dwarf coming on to Blackwall, he’s legit PC and fits her dreams of collective thinking ;)

[inquisitionthoughts]

Meet Kaelic - the ruthless carta warrior, best friend of Sera, fucker of most of his possy, non believer looking out for himself no bullshit two handed dwarf. Iron Bull was the only one capable of giving him any meaningful outlook on the future, caring is for others. 

[inquisitionthoughts]

Meet Malean - the extremely devote human noble mage who loves Andraste above everything, almost as much as he later falls for Dorian, the mage that steals his heart.

[inquisitionthoughts]

Meet Herah - a qunari rogue mage sceptic that accepts no bullshit and is quicker than lightning with her double daggers. See her take over the Inquisition, denouncing Andraste and falling for Blackwall ;) 

[inquisitionthoughts]

“Just like old times, right?”

Because people seemed to like my aged up Cassandra portrait, I thought I might make a little series of it. Of course I couldn’t resist doing Varric with greying hair and reading glasses :P

this picture is dedicated to this amazing Varric playlist by antivanruffles, which I listened to while drawing (several times over)

[inquisitionthoughts]

Colored the earlier Tevinter inspired designs !

[inquisitionthoughts]

[inquisitionthoughts]

Burnt through the heart by Static through the heart, Static through the heart, Static through the…

I did a collab!! With @sunnyflora! I sketched/lined and she painted Anders (and Justice) from Dragon Age 2. Dunno bout y’all but we’re very solidly pro mage rights.

[inquisitionthoughts]

Dragon Age: Inquisition - Krem.

So I’ve found this mention in Dragon Age about Iron Bull losing his eye while saving Krem and here’s the picture.

Cheers :]

[inquisitionthoughts]

..another kiss in the Fade, ma vhenan?

[inquisitionthoughts]

Think of it: like Andraste long ago, once again the fate of Thedas will be determined by a woman.

Powerful women of Thedas: Hero of Ferelden, Champion of Kirkwall, The Herald of Andraste.

[Kate Mara, Antje Traue, Aishwarya Rai]

[inquisitionthoughts]

<3

I think I know why you can´t take your followers to confront Solas ^^

(Comic inspired by this post: http://ymirr-art-blog.tumblr.com/post/129063527434/the-two-deceiving-fucks-i-remember-leaving-solas by ymirr-art-blog)

[inquisitionthoughts]

This made me so happy ^_^ I don’t understand the Icon for Dragon Age: Inquisition, why is it a big green paus sign? o_O Now I can haz pretty icon ^_^

[inquisitionthoughts]

Yeah, that’s when the will be Herald of Andraste is in a coma from stopping the breach from growing more in the intro scene. It was just days earlier that he/she stepped out of the fade, after running from grey spiders with lots and lots of eyes. That’s what he/she is dreaming anxiously about, what happened in the fade ^_^

more fodder for my crazy