The soul is not purified, and the fact that 4 blights have ended prior to this one pretty much states that. Also, until the Darkspawn actually find one of the OG's, they aren't tainted. I spent a lot of time with the lore, discussing what was known, researching other stuff. I was active in most of the early to DR or not to DR, and frankly, in those conversations, I wasn't anti DR. If, however, a Grey Warden is not needed for ending blights, by all means continue to ignore how they are ended for the sake of an OGB. Riordan isn't a one year vet of the Wardens, from dialog with him, it would seem like his calling is soon upon him. I'm not just making stuff up to justify the Wardens being needed to end the blight, this is canon, and was probably before the game ever hit the shelves.Dakota Strider wrote...
And many of believe that just as Alistair being king is canon, regardless of what ending we picked, the OGB should be canon as well. Wardens while rare, are not exactly unique. But at most, there were seven Old Gods in the world. All with tainted spirits. The opportunity to purify the spirit of one, and reincarnate it may never come again. Just as some people did not choose to make Alistair the king, and he turns out to be the canon choice for it, I also believe the Dark Ritual was meant to be the canon ending. The players that had their decision to do an US, are no more trivialized than the people who killed off Alistair. The potential for what the OGB can mean to the world, is too important to be trivialized by several hours of DLC content.robertthebard wrote...
This is exactly why I feel the OGB story should be done in DLC. Good or ill, the OGB can be handled w/out having to write 2 different games with the same title, depending on how Thedas shaking the OGB is meant to be. I'd buy it, and play it. I'm rallying about nullifying choices, but as far as the DR goes, I'm not morally against it, as I said, I've done it in more than a few playthroughs, sometimes just to make Alistair squirm. It doesn't bother me that Alistair is king by default according to Canon, he was written for the role, even if he didn't want it. This despite the fact that there are reasons, written into who he is, that he may well not survive anyway, again despite player choices, and this has been hashed and rehashed, and mixed with corned beef in the past.The problem is going to be, as we can see, that this choice was major, and the sides are polarized. Some to the point that believing that it is better to ignore part of the lore about slaying the Archdemon, where the OG's soul and the Warden's soul cancel each other out, resulting in the destruction of both, to say that Morrigan got the soul anyway. This undoes what the writers went through a lot of work to accomplish; build a history for Thedas. The known consequences were laid out at Red Cliffe. That the soul is destroyed, along with the Warden, is the reason that Morrigan waits until she knows you know what's going to happen to end the Blight to approach you with the DR, and she will tell you as much. So just saying "She got the soul anyway" completely negates any ending where she didn't get the ritual, and trivializes any ending where she did.
You continue believe that everything the "lore" says, is 100% accurate. How was this lore acquired? When it was discovered that the tainted OG spirit would leap from the dying Archdemon, to the nearest Warden, was there any tests done to see where the spirit went, after the Warden died? Just because it did not leap back into another Darkspawn, does not mean that spirit is destroyed forever. You are basing your information on 1) what a handful of Wardens have told you, that are simply repeating what they have been told. 2) You are relying on what Morrigan tells you is the absolute truth, and that she held nothing back from you. Your known consequences are a combination of handed down legend, and the trust of a "witch" that you do not trust enough to go to bed with, or allow another companion to go to bed with, even to save their lives. Funny you would trust all that Morrigan tells you in Red Cliffe castle, yet you would not trust her with the ceremony. A bit of a contradiction. And Morrigan's parting words makes it clear she has not given up, and that she is going to do something else. Nor is it in Morrigan's nature to just give up, or to only have one possible plan, when something so important is at stake. It was the sole reason she accompanied you. Not to end the Blight.I could buy a rational explanation for Canon on the OGB, but not what amounts to "the soul killed the warden, and then played hopscotch until it found Morrigan's baby from earlier in camp, and merged there anyway", It is fairly obvious to me that, as was pointed out earlier, Canon is that the Warden survived, Cassandra and Leliana's dialog make that plain. So, if Canon is going to be that the DR was done, you may as well spill it now, and let the outrage pour out, maybe it will subside by the time the game goes Gold.
There are many possible explanations of how Morrigan could have captured the soul of the Old God, after it killed the Warden. By merging with the Warden, it becomes purified. Without the DR, that kills the Warden. But there is nothing to prove that either the Warden's spirit, or the OG's spirit is actually destroyed. Just the Warden's body. Both spirits would likely to move on to the Fade. And it is there, where it is likely that Morrigan would have "captured" the Old God spirit. Or perhaps made a deal with it.
If Morrigan had any doubts at all, that the Warden would refuse the DR and that was her ONLY way of capturing the Old God's spirit, she would have taken different tactics. The Dark Ritual was more to save a life, than capture a soul, she already knew how to capture the soul without the Warden, though it was likely going to be easier with the Warden's cooperation.
The OG soul needs a tainted baby for the ritual to work. Again, this isn't specific information from Morrigan, although she does pass it along, it is how the Archdemon can survive if a Warden doesn't strike the killing blow, isn't close. It jumps to the closest tainted body. Darkspawn are indicated as being soulless, and this is why jumping to one of them won't destroy the OG, it just takes that body as it's own. While I haven't found it anywhere in the lore, I wonder how many times they killed the Archdemon in the first blight before the Wardens came up with the Joining, and ended it. What is known is that it nearly destroyed all of Thedas. Again, I'm not making this up on the spot to justify the Wardens, this is Canon to Thedas, not just Origins.
The only way they are going to be able to add the OGB is to make the DR Canon. In the other three possible endings, the OG soul is destroyed along with the Warden. Stating otherwise undermines the ending of the last 4 Blights. Again, I'm not making this up, it's in the game. Riordan passes the information along, information that Alistair and the Warden would have known if there had been time for them to be educated on why they are needed to stop the Blight. It is apparent from Flemeth's dialog at her hut that, while she doesn't offer that information, she is aware of it. First she saves the treaties, knowing they will likely be needed, and then she saves the Wardens she can get to to insure the Blight can be ended. Why do that if she didn't think they were important, and why thank them for picking up their duties, if they aren't needed. Morrigan also confirms this information.
We can make up all kinds of rationalizations to say "she got it anyway". But in doing so, we are undermining the entire history of the Wardens.
Retour en haut
The Hero of Ferelden who did not perform DR and thus Alistair/Loghian/OGB is perished.
