#tumblr fcking up the read more coding on an ask reply yet again

[felassan]

So from the tease that we got so far, I think the south is doomed,it looks like red lyrium has spread so far and wide destroyed everything on it's path (like that second picture of the Ferelden styled ruin/building) do you think blight and red lyrium will destroy or at least ruined some part of southern continent like Ferelden? And what about red lyrium in tevinter? Is the red lyrium growth in the north as bad as the south?

Hi Nonnie. This became long so I put it under a cut. TN spoilers beneath

My takeaway from it was bit different in some respects. I would guess that the WIPs were less of a “here’s what’s happened in Thedas between Trespasser and the next game”, and were a bit less specific on the major/main storybeats front than the DWR trailer and than a normal proper trailer would be. I would guess that the WIPs are more like a mini tech demo (a tiny slice of next gen capabilities), a nod to fans to show the franchise is still alive and a reel put together to act as an example of environmental stuff that looks cool while also being something which was suitable/safe to show at a corporate event like EA Play.

I took it as telegraphing the following:

‘Hey guys! DA is still a Thing. DA4 is still coming and it’s in development. Here’s a little snippet to reassure / feed / excite you [delete as appropriate lol] and keep the tiny spark alive. Haha lol we still can’t formally announce the game because top-level leadership rules and NDAs’

‘Wow omg! We’re excited about our next-gen stuff. Get a load of that raytracing (and so forth)'

‘Check it out! It’s red lyrium and stuff. These segments are Noticeably, Recognizably Dragon Age™’

‘This is conceptual. We’re still early in development and can’t show you anything more specific than this’ (compare to the similar early conceptual teases of MEA and Anthem)

In terms of major plot aspects*, I took it as:

Indicating or setting the kind of tone, aesthetic and overall feel the next game will have (‘Ooh ominous - dark - creepy.’), like set pieces or color swatches or a free sample/taster session of something

red lyrium is dangerous and the threat of it and its spread will feature in the plot of the next game. (‘The red lyrium threat shown in the background of DAI as in Emprise is returning, and with a vengeance’; ‘Expect to learn more about red lyrium in the next game’)

‘Omg!! What is that beating mass? Ooh!’

I don’t think we can say for certain that the WIPs are set in the south. It can probably snow in parts of the north of Thedas for one thing (see all that Equator stuff), and since several of the assets in the WIPs such as the bearded statues and skull-topped urns are straight out of DAI, it could be a case of asset reuse. If it’s simple asset reuse, devs were probably just making use of what resources they currently had available or were able to currently show, not trying to telegraph a specific location. Given the statues and urns, it’s possible that the buildings were also reused assets, and so not necessarily specifically Fereldan despite the resemblance. It’s also possible that given the nature of the WIPs as a mini tech demo and as a ‘tone setter’ of sorts, that they weren’t created with any specific location in mind. The game was also rebooted and is still far out from release - things could change and such scenes might not even make into the game (see the Crestwood scenes from the DAI marketing cycle). 

About the far and wide and destroying everything in its path, stuff. I don’t doubt red lyrium has spread some and is destructive, but it’s worth mentioning I think, that the three shots we saw look to have been ‘connected’. They seem to have been ‘taken’ in the same place (that place could either be a specific place in Thedas, or just the same ‘set piece’ made for the teaser), going by the similar lighting and how it looks like snow is tracked onto the foreground of the second shot. Example: The mass in the third shot seems like it’s located inside the fortress which is in the top right of the second shot. So it’s possible there’s a tighter ‘focus’ in terms of the spread of red lyrium in the surrounds than what we think.

This is all speculation of course and so I could easily be wrong, but: so, I am unsure about the south being doomed. I do think we’re leaving the south behind, that red lyrium destroys what’s in its path, that it will have spread more by the time of DA4, and that it is a serious problem and is going to be a grave threat faced by Thedas and the PC and crew in the next game. (This was shown in the background plot in Emprise.) Just more like, the threat of red lyrium dooming whole regions is something we will be contending with and trying to stop in the narrative, or at the very least is something which will be part of the backdrop to plotbeats (like why Solas is doing his thing). Would they change whole nations so dramatically like that off-screen between-games, effectively removing or drastically ‘reducing’ those nations as settings? That’s a lot more of a radical change than “And now the Qunari are invading.” They might, that would be something different to what’s been done previously and so be dramatic and new, and you could potentially have an updated south which amounts to ‘Red Lyrium Future Ferelden and Red Lyrium Future Orlais’, but idk. The south doesn’t have to be doomed to cause a narrative move north. I’m thinking about how in DAO, the Fifth Blight threatened to spread across and ruin all Ferelden, but it was stopped and only really properly environmentally scarred parts in the far south near the Wilds. If they did do this, I would expect the story to have a big influx of refugees from Ferelden and Orlais travelling north to escape the issue. I feel like that’s something we’ve already seen before, that was already explored in the Fereldan refugees crossing the Waking Sea and the effects of the influx on Kirkwall in DA2.

I think red lyrium is a major threat to the world (a threat of doom, to all nations, north and south), and that it will have spread further than it had before by the time of the next game. This was seeded as a beat in DAI (literally in the nodes of lyrium in the land and metaphorically in the lore in codexes and such). I think this spread would at least ruin or seriously damage certain regions in the south and possibly elsewhere before the next game, like what we could expect to have happened as a result of the expanding spread in the region of Emprise despite the Inquisition’s efforts. I think it’ll feature prominently in the narrative and that we’ll learn more about it in terms of Dramatic Lore Reveals (considering the intersection it has with the Taint/Blight and the corrupted fleshy sacs in the WIPs). I’m hesitant in thinking that the south more as a whole has been doomed by red lyrium by the time of DA4, and in thinking that’s what the WIPs are saying. Hope this makes sense. 😰 Ofc, all any of us are doing when speculating about the trailer is guessing, so who knows really. 😄

About red lyrium growth in the north: We know less about its growth in the north than we do about its growth in the south. It does seem that it is worse in the south, because after the Breach opened, nodes of it began appearing throughout the surface of the south. The aforementioned Emprise du Lion is the best example of this so far. Makes sense, aside from the Breach it’s in the south that the red lyrium idol was found and in the south that the red templars were largely operating. I do think it’s still a big threat to the north though - it’s clear from stories in Tevinter Nights that some Magisters in Tevinter are messing with it (e.g. the Wigmaker’s experiments) and that remnants of the Venatori are still active in parts of Tevinter. In DAI we saw the Venatori just like the red templars messing with red lyrium: poisoning the well in Wycome, trying to start a supply line in Antiva, trying to smuggle it from the Storm Coast to Minrathous in order to convert the Imperium's slaves into an unstoppable army to turn the tide in the war with the Qunari for Seheron.. (TN was also careful to present us with similar instances of Tevinter nationalism and Tevene desire to restore the glory of the Imperium..  And here we note that both Antiva and Minrathous are northern locations). Stupid behavior like that is exactly how this kind of dangerous thing gets out of control and spreads. And so, I’m sure we can expect to see red lyrium threatening the northern regions in a serious way in DA4.

* I mean I still have been and am gonna speculate wildly and overanalyze, but primarily because doing so is fun for me