My contribution for the @dragonageannual 2024 calendar!
The Magisters Sidereals and the chaos they brought to the world. Reflections of a past long gone, devoured, tainted.
i've said it before and i'll say it again: DAI should be about the war between mages and templars exclusively. scrap Corypheus and all of the Fade-related mumbo jumbo, give me well-established socio-political conflict that's been developped for past 2 games. use Anders as a prominent yet controversial mage leader instead of painting him a villain, hated even by his friends. starting the game with the conclave and making the Inquisitor so easily solve the war was the biggest mistake the devs made with this game.
Inquisitor!Hawke is everything to me because I love a tired Mage!Hawke being up against this nonsense. Like oh, your least favorite things in the world are templars, red lyrium, the chantry, Corypheus, and everyone forcing you to play the hero all the time? Well what if you forced by the chantry to play the hero against red lyrium templars led by Corypheus? Then what?
Oh, Hawke, one day you'll succeed in defeating a big bad villain for good. ("But wait," you say, "What about the Arishok? He died, surely?" Lies and slander. One day Hawke will succeed…)
We are eagerly awaiting the dignified return of the Arishok over at Patreon and society6. He'll be back any day now.
Okay I just want to say that the Red Templars seeking out Meredith's petrified body and somehow reactivating her to become their new leader after Corypheus was defeated is such a delicious parallel to how the darkspawn are compelled to seek out the Archdemons to awaken them and follow the commands of their tainted god, and I am living for it
TBH I don't understand why a lot of folks were surprised about Corypheus returning in DA:I after DA:2's Legacy DLC? It's very obvious that he jumped into the body of the warden you side with. Unless people just skipped that scene I guess?