Apologies if this has been addressed already, but I haven't seen in brought up anywhere. So, in Dragon Age II during act 3 one of the personal quests for Varric is to go to Bartrand's old estate and deal with it's apparent haunting. As it turns out, Bartrand had kept a shard of the Lyrium idol there. The player can choose to give this to Varric at the end of the quest upon Varric's insistence. Now lets keep in mind that this idol drove two people insane, and potentially the death of both. Has it been mentioned at all if giving Varric the shard will have any affect (effect?) on Varric in Inquisition? As much as I love Varric, and how it would break my heart, I'd absolutely love it if at some point he just snapped, turning on the Inquisitor somehow.
So has it been mentioned? And what are thoughts on it?
Varric and the Idol shard
#1
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 07:13
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Retour en haut
#2
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 07:20
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All I have to say is that it should have an impact considering what it did to Bartrand, Meredith, and the red templars. Whether it will or not is up to Bioware. They could make his personality more erratic or just say he discarded the idol anyway. Or somehow that piece of the idol could save the day and a decision that seemed bad at the time could pay off later.
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#5
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 07:28
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All I have to say is that it should have an impact considering what it did to Bartrand, Meredith, and the red templars. Whether it will or not is up to Bioware. They could make his personality more erratic or just say he discarded the idol anyway. Or somehow that piece of the idol could save the day and a decision that seemed bad at the time could pay off later.
Having him just discard it would be laaaaame. Although having it be valuable somehow could be pretty cool! Closing the veil at the price of our loveable, handsome dwarf's sanity (or life)? Quite the choice to make.
#6
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 07:30
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All I know is, "Varric and the Idol Shard" is a great name for a rock band.
Hahaha. Their first single could be "Hard (Rock) in Hightown".
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#7
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 07:31
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I've never let him keep the shard, but this is one of the potential loose ends from DA2 I've been really curious about.
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#8
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 09:27
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#9
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 09:31
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I was under the assumption that almost everything was an option in the keep.
#10
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 10:07
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All I have to say is that it should have an impact considering what it did to Bartrand, Meredith, and the red templars. Whether it will or not is up to Bioware. They could make his personality more erratic or just say he discarded the idol anyway. Or somehow that piece of the idol could save the day and a decision that seemed bad at the time could pay off later.
Varric used the shard to enchant Bianca. If you let him keep the shard, Bianca gets about three more rune slots (which is pretty awesome). The last person who did that didn't end up so well (granted she also had the whole idol not just a shard), so I'm hoping they'll address it without a cop out.
#11
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 10:14
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I've never let him keep the shard, but this is one of the potential loose ends from DA2 I've been really curious about.
Varric seems to use it to improve Bianca, unless that's merely a game mechanic. If it wasn't destroyed, I think the shard should be addressed.
#12
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 10:21
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I'm more interested in how his brother issues will play out. Especially if, since the inquisitor doesn't know, we get the option to make a bunch of comments around him "What kind of monster would kill their own brother?" "Jeeze, you and Sera fight like brother and sister" "Sure am glad I have a totally alive and not evil bunch of siblings. That's sooooo great"
#13
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 10:35
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I'm actually hoping it could be an asset towards the Red Templars, simply for the sake of making hindsight a b!tch.
#14
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 10:45
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Interesting question. I would like for it to have a meaningful effect but I doubt it will. I don't think enough people would have picked the option for them to go to too much effort on it. Cassandra could have confiscated it of course but I would have thought Varric would be crafty enough to somehow retain it. Seeing him corrupted by it would be very dramatic.
#16
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 10:54
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#17
Posté 02 avril 2014 - 11:16
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Interesting question. I would like for it to have a meaningful effect but I doubt it will. I don't think enough people would have picked the option for them to go to too much effort on it. Cassandra could have confiscated it of course but I would have thought Varric would be crafty enough to somehow retain it. Seeing him corrupted by it would be very dramatic.
I'm curious as to why you think not enough people would have picked the option? It was a yes or no option -- so with only two options a size able amount of people probably picked each.
#18
Posté 03 avril 2014 - 12:57
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I'm curious as to why you think not enough people would have picked the option? It was a yes or no option -- so with only two options a size able amount of people probably picked each.
In ME3 curing the genophage was effectively a yes or no option yet only 8% of people didn't choose to do so. And there were a lot more logically sound reasons for not curing the genophage than leaving Varic with the lyrium shard. It is only a guess, anticipating what other players did is hard, but I think it is a fairly safe guess.
#19
Posté 04 avril 2014 - 05:47
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Varric's having a shard is an interesting situation. Maybe it's too small to affect his mental stability? Size could also impact the rate at which its user's mental state degrades. There's too many variables to consider to speculate. Either way, it should be addressed in Inquisition.
#20
Posté 04 avril 2014 - 06:02
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#21
Posté 04 avril 2014 - 06:13
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I never gave Varric the shard my self, but if he utilized it as others have said to enhance Bianca, then I could see a plot point where we have to deal with Bianca singing to Varric and maybe even a small line dealing with the fall out of someone stealing the beloved crossbow.
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#22
Posté 04 avril 2014 - 08:19
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I give it to him everytime in the hopes he'll turn into a nice red statue, I feel I must be the only man alive that hated varric. HATED! should be put put to death by the inquisition!
#23
Posté 05 avril 2014 - 11:22
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Since giving it to him just results in an extra rune slot for Bianca (I think?), I seriously doubt it'll have any effect on DA:I.
#24
Posté 05 avril 2014 - 11:35
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Assuming the game takes place in 9:40 Dragon, it really should have an impact if he augments his weapon with the idol. Think about this: three years with red lyrium seems to be the point where you go craycray. Bartand got the idol in 9:31 and sold it sometime in 9:34. Meredith then had it for 3 years and I assume only had it on her person for two of those years considering (if I remember correctly) she used a normal sword in Act 2's finale.
Now I get that it's just a shard, the size of which we don't even get to see, but he augmented a piece of red lyrium directly into something that is constantly on his person. If you're on the rivalry path during his act 3 quest, he acts like Bilbo did over the One Ring at the beginning of Fellowship. I guess you could argue he acted normal in the flash-forwards with Cassandra, which he did, and as others said, they could easily say Cassandra somehow got the idol out of Bianca and confiscated it or he tossed it away, but that feels like a copout considering it was on his person for as long as it took some people to go totally bonkers.
#25
Posté 06 avril 2014 - 12:20
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The way that they've put him front and center in the concepts, cinematics and various other Inquisition sources, I doubt it.
There's also the red templars who have the whole red lyrium crazy thing covered, as it is to be seen. What would the story have to gain from another idol crazed maniac? We've seen it play out twice in Dragon Age II. Why would they repeat themselves?
Evidence towards an imminent betrayal or episode from Varric is doubtful when you consider the big picture.
