Xilizhra wrote...
Cullen being a companion would be... I think unprecedented, actually; he'd certainly be the companion who'd been yanked around the most for two games straight prior. How well would this work with the obvious desire to let new players get into the game well?LolaLei wrote...
Xilizhra wrote...
Didn't the Illusive Man get a whole comic series?I mean, why even bother to develop his character and backstory to the extent they have if they aren't going to use him as companion/LI material.
I don't know, I don't read any of the Bioware comics... I really should though. Hell, give us a comic about Cullen then, that's better than nothing lol.
Come to think of it, hasn't Cullen already had a rather large character arc? How well would he do as a companion in that area, if starting at all fresh?
In a new game having fresh faces makes it easy for new players to join in but I also think having a return character helps to knit the overall story of Thedas in Dragon Age together. I thought it was neat that Hawke could possibly have been related to the Warden in DAO, depending on which origin you played. So I think including Cullen could offer that link to the past 2 games. He could even be the messenger, so to speak, to help bring the new PC - and thus new players - up to speed on all that's happened. His telling of the tale (and I don't mean in Varric's story-within-a-story kind of way) could also offer a different POV of events so the story wouldn't be redundant. Of course this only works if the current story in DAIII has any relevance. If my memory serves, when Bioware first began talking about a third game, they said things like "the mage/templar situation is going to come to a head all over Thedas" and that the PC would have to save the world from destroying itself.
If the story is about the mage/templar crisis, there would be room for Cullen. The mage/templar conflict could be further reaching than just one country and could be at the root of a lot of big evil things. Cullen's story could be that of someone who left the Order when the war on mages began because he doesn't agree with just killing them all. Or maybe the Order needs to reform and Cullen is on a path to find some kind of religious relic or something to help unite the templars. If his path crosses the new PC, he could join the party because they're headed the same way, or because they're both looking for the same thing. Maybe everyone finds more than they bargained for and it changes what people had always believed about Andraste's message and ensuring that the revelation is brought to light becomes the main focus of the quest because it could stop the war and unite Thedas before the Qunari invade or the Tevinter try to take back Kirkwall, or something like that.
I can even see the whole relic thing being a loyalty test for Cullen: A) Once it's found, if you're rivals with him - or whatever system the game will have in place - if you and Cullen don't have a trust between you, he could choose to steal the relic and deliver it to his superiors, trusting them with it and they destroy it because it undermines their divine power. The war goes on.
If Cullen and the PC do have enough trust between them, he could choose to help the PC get the relic to a place where it can be seen by the people, thus robbing the Chantry of being able to shut it away. The war ends and Thedas is in a stronger position to defend against the Qunari. Or whomever. There's still a war but who the enemy is changes based on what happens with that relic. Instead of calling it a relic, how about scroll. It's a scroll. The first account of Andraste's speech regarding magic.If one wants to concieve of another DAII travesty, where your actions mean almost nothing; one can also add a mage to the group, one who wants to subjegate all non-magic people and if the same trust balance things isn't right, he/she will run off to the Tevinter Imperium and then, seeing that mages have indeed been unfairly persecuted for centuries and that the Chantry never had a right to do what they did not even according to their faith in Andraste, the Magisters march and the war is against them.
Cullen could be on assignment from the Divine herself. He could be outcast and jaded. He could be trying to rebuild the Order but trying to make it a better compromise than what it was in the past in order to save mage and templar alike. His goals however need some help so that quest is how he joins the new PC in DAIII. However it happens, he could be useful... if the story has anything to do with the first 2 games. Otherwise, he's likely to be a cameo at best.
Personally I like the idea that Cullen has no idea what to do because he doesn't wanna go off half-cocked, killing mages but without an Order to report to, he's left doing whatever he can to help people and falls in with the PC. Then they soon discover that all the magic and death and lyrium over the years is causing huges tears in the Veil. Tears that will enable the old Dragon Gods to return. It's something that Flemeth has been orchestrating to resurrect her kind and she would have the Tevinter worshipping she and her ilk while what's left of the rest of the world is treated like cattle, to be farmed for their blood and as slave labor. Or maybe she's really a good guy and has been working against someone else who wants this fate for the world. Another Dragon God perhaps? One who styled himself into "The Maker" and made the Andrastean religion up because he knew the world would stand only so many years of anti-magic oppression and cruelty before the Veil shredded into itty-bitty pieces.
Opportunites abound. And that's just the Thedosian side of things. There could be tons more possibilites with the Qunari still threatening to conquer everyone. Then there are the elves... maybe they find Arlathan again and who knows what they'd do with it...?
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I do wonder if the Old Gods aren't pulling strings to try and free/resurrect themselves. Ripping the Veil open would certainly be a way to do that.
