Melness wrote...
All I asked is that you enrich an already extensive thesis with actual and in-depth knowledge of the thedosian forging techniques also including, as much as you can, about Magic and magical materials and how they can be applied in the manufacture of weapons and armor.
I'd delighted to find how and why the dwarven and elvish fantastic knowledge, as well as the lore and power of the mages, is unable to surpass 'Earth-like Medieval Technology', thereby confirming your views of the appearance of the armor models from Origins, as opposed to those of DA2.
As you asked for a thesis, I'll give you the longer version of the argument in my previous post. The assumptions about what appears reasonable are based on a) what is what is visible to the player throughout both DA2 and Origins and
supply and demand theory.
I'll focus on Origins as the examples are clearer. Firstly, the smiths themselves - you see several blacksmiths or smithing locations in Origins; in Ferelden, you have the smithies at Ostagar, Redcliffe, Soldier's Peak and Wade's Emporium. No mysterious fire-shooting lyrium rods or other equipment that would suggest the ability to manufacture plate in a modern fashion. That suggests that the human smiths can't be creating these items, unless Ferelden in its entireity, including its master smith, are all incredibly backward and import armour from everywhere else. Which none of them mentions.
So could it be the lore of Arlathan? Well, we didn't see a great deal of the Dalish but the discussions on techniques using fire and a hammer didn't suggest advanced metallurgy or woodcraft in terms of *technology*, only in terms of skill and materials. Plus, as the Dalish don't trade much with the rest of Thedas in the round, its unlikely they could be the source of all advanced materials, as otherwise they would be highly rare. They could be the outputs of lost elven technology but, again, that would make them incredibly rare.
The dwarves? We've seen less of them, and of all the above they're the best candidates for impressive work with metal and armour. However, aside from a bucket of lyrium, a lava flow and a massive golem, the forge in Kal Hirol didn't look overburdened with magic-imbued equipment. We know that they can make use of lyrium in enchantments...so is it conceivable that they play a major role in armour technology? Possibly...but again, given that they exile anyone who goes topside beyond being a guard and they clearly don't do much trade themselves with the outside world, that would suggest again that dwarven-made armour would be rare and, correspondingly, ridiculously expensive...and as the chantry controls lyrium flow, its unlikely the average non-dwarven smith has access to it. If its required for smithing of the majority of the armour we see, then either a small number of smiths are being incredibly prolific, or its not a valid logical step...or there could be another piece of the puzzle.
What if a wizard did it. Could the circle be using dwarven techniques and the fact that the tranquil can work with lyrium to mass produce armour? We know that the Circle are the masters of enchantment and so potentially the combination of their enchanting skill and dwarven manufacture could be at work. However, this intuitively seems unlikely. We never see tranquil smiths, and the Circle seems to focus on enchantment of items rather than their creation from scratch. The circle had no smithy, no mages have been seen at any smiths anywhere in-game and nowhere during item creation did you need to enlist the help of a friendly wizard except, possibly, to acquire an ingredient that Wade needed in Amaranthine. Plus, bless 'em, the wizards don't appear too strong as a general rule...and weedy smiths are few and far between.
Ultimately, any combination using the Dalish, the Dwarves or the Circle, irrespective of how likely or unlikely this is, faces a major barrier. They simply couldn't be producing enough armour. The prevalence of armour using styles that imply surprising technology suggests that whatever technique is available is relatively widespread - we know that most people in Thedas are not wealthy, we know the comparative price of armour in-game, and as the pieces don't cost or sell for a king's ransom they can't be rarities - when the supply of a valued good is lower than demand, its price will be high...and assuming that the appetite for smithing work in Thedas is comparable to medieval Europe (not an unbelievable assumption), it stands to reason that smiths will be relatively commonplace...and they can't all be master smiths with lyrium-infused technology capable of forging incredible armour. Particularly not if they're all going to bed in a wattle-and-daub thatched hovels.
So intuitively most armour we see is made by average smiths, with the odd amazing piece being forged by a master present or past. The available evidence suggests that this situation is illogical with DA2 armours compared, generally, to what was seen in DA:O. Unless Kirkwall is a major technology centre compared to Ferelden...possible but, frankly, it didn't look like it. And no-one ever mentioned it.
There you go...a thesis based on the available info, arguing in favour of bEVEsthda's point. What can I say, its been a slow evening. A certain level of suspension of disbelief will always be required, but if people on the Origins art and design team actually gave this some thought, I hope threads like this give them a warm fuzzy feeling that at least some of us bothered to notice.
Feel free to refute in kind, Melness, but anything less detailed and I will show a similar aloofness to your arguments.
Modifié par Wozearly, 13 juin 2011 - 09:29 .
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