(Did you guys know the DA:I Tapestry is up now in the Keep??)
NIce! I wonder if that is any clue about when we might see DLC? I would guess it might be awhile but it's nice to think about. Makes me want to roll another toon. I might break down and try a mage.
I'm not very clear on the timeline of all this stuff, but hadn't the mage/templar war been going on for years by the time of Inquisition? Since Cullen was still in Kirkwall, not off fighting mages, maybe the Order had already written him off as having "quit."
It's not clear why they say the war started in 9:37, because it didn't really break out until 9:40. There was some unrest amongst the mages in the interim between 9:37-9:40, but the Circles still existed and just cracked down harder on the mages. The mages rebelled in 9:40 shortly before the Seekers broke the Nevarran Accord and divorced themselves from the Chantry. So, folks call what Anders did the beginning of the mage-templar war, but nothing really happened over the next three years.
I do agree that it would have been great to see more of the time period between Meredith's downfall and Cullen being in the Inquisition, but I feel like Cullen would not actually have left the Templars had Cass not come along and given him a more helpful cause to fight for. He wants to be free but I rather think his strong sense of duty wouldn't have allowed him to leave unless he felt he was doing more to protect people. It's possible that he did all he could do for the Order in the years prior to joining the Inquisition but realized it just wasn't enough at the end. Clearly not all Templars agreed with Cullen's more moderate ideologies, and mages' distrust of Templars was higher than ever - so there he was, stuck in the middle, unable to do any more to restore the peace than he already had. He was Knight-Captain/Commander in Kirkwall but I don't think he'd have had enough leverage to prevent the Order's holy crusade where he was since circles all over Ferelden were revolting.
In Cullen's DA:I Codex entry, he says the Maker has shown him a new path, and upon arriving at Haven for the first time you see how excited he is to be able to make a difference where the Chantry couldn't. He spent all his time following orders from people above his station because he thought they meant well, and maybe his stint as Knight Cap/Commander gave him insight into the benefits of taking a more neutral stance on matters and taking things into his own hands. I feel like he maybe thought he'd be able to do much more good being the leader of a neutral organization dedicated to restoring the peace instead of staying in the Order and having to eventually follow people above his station who may or may not order him to keep doing things he found disagreeable (Lord Seeker Lucius comes to mind). As Commander of the Inquisition, he can challenge the more corrupt leaders of the Order on equal ground without being accused of being insubordinate. It just so happens that leaving the Order for the Inquisition also allowed him the chance to break free from lyrium, but I don't think that was the main factor in his decision to leave.
squeee! But... why are all the tiles hidden...? It says they're hidden if I haven't unlocked that quest, but I'm on playthrough #2...
Yeah, the hiddens will get removed eventually apparently, but until then, I've essentially got less than an eighth of the Keep unlocked. Some of them I know should be unlocked though, so maybe when they sort of the bugs I'll have a quarter? 
squeee! But... why are all the tiles hidden...? It says they're hidden if I haven't unlocked that quest, but I'm on playthrough #2...
I'm having to go through and manually pick them all myself--the right choices are all unlocked, but I seem to have chosen very few "defaults" and for whatever reason they're not showing up at the upper levels, so it all looks empty even though it isn't. I don't know if this is because my console (canon) saves seem not to be syncing as well as my PC saves or what.
EDITED TO ADD: Totally flipped out when I saw Samson as the top-level image for the Advisors panel. oh nooo, Wolf of Skyhold AU is real
The DAI Tapestry is very bugged right now, y'all. You just need to be patient.
NIce! I wonder if that is any clue about when we might see DLC? I would guess it might be awhile but it's nice to think about. Makes me want to roll another toon. I might break down and try a mage.
No, it's got nothing to do with DLC. The thing is just bugged to hell and back right now.
The DAI Tapestry is very bugged right now, y'all. You just need to be patient.
Yep. Literally none of the Cullen ones have unlocked for me!
At least I have my precious Divine Vivienne. 
The bigger questions: How can Cullen not be bitter?
(...)
Cullen in a way as a child idolize The Order and for someone to come along and shatter that boyhood idolization into a million pieces, makes him furious. It’s a slow climb, a slow death. While Cullen is glad to not be a part of that downward spiral, he sometimes comes across as helpless as if he can do nothing about it. Thus I believe it adds to his anger.
I mean, I understand Cullen's story. I know what happened there. My criticism is not about his storyline, which is a very interesting one once you put it all together - it is specifically about the fact that we are never told this story. We have to put it together ourselves from scraps of information found in codexes, vague one-liners, unrelated conversations and third party references, headcanon the gaping holes left where the canon doesn't answer things, and come up with this awkwardly franken-story that each of us sees a different way, because we don't actually know.
I'm not necessarily against a change in direction for his character - I don't feel it was well done, though, and that leaves me lukewarm about his ever-changing characterization, and struggling to reconcile the various facets of his person into one cohesive shape.
The fact is, the pace of how Cullen feels towards the Templar Order is fine, nothing wrong with it. You just have to take a step back and understand why Cullen is bitter and there is a reason. A reason I cannot blame him for.
This, I cannot agree with, sorry. We should not have to take steps back and piece together a character's story for it to make sense. We don't have to do that with most other major characters in the series - their stories are told, not hinted at, and even when they change in radically different ways (like, say, between DAA!Anders and DA2!Anders), we are given stories behind those changes. What Cullen gets is:
Last few scenes in DA2: I believe in what the Templars stand for.
First few scenes in DAI: I don't believe in the Templars anymore.
Four years inbetween: [reasons???]
Cullen's story is not the problem. The lack of this story actually being told in narratively interesting ways is.
This is the same criticism I have towards Sebastian's storyline, for instance - if you piece together all the codex entries about him, all the things he says in dialogue and party banter, his backstory, and all the references that other characters make about him, Sebastian's story is fascinating and absolutely heartbreaking. But we're never actually told this story in a narratively interesting way, so most players have no idea that he even has such a good story to his character, and to them he's basically just that Chantry guy who whines a lot. Only people really really interested in him will go the extra mile to put his story together and see the whole piece of his character.
Cullen ends up being the same: we, Cullen fans, put a lot of time and effort into putting his story together and filling in the blanks and seeing the whole picture of his tragic character arc. Outside of our Cullen bubble, though, he's "that one Templar who was kinda evil but is a nice guy now I guess?" (actual words I heard the other day about him). We shouldn't have to walk three miles through the snow and up the hill to understand his character. People shouldn't look at him and say "he's alright I guess" - his story should have been told clearly enough that not just his most dedicated fans will understand it.
So it boils down to: Cullen's story is great, I'm not disputing that. I just wish we had actually been told all of it, instead of having to guess for ourselves.
Awww why do I have 7 Inquisitors that is exactly the copy of the one PT I happened to throw a few month ago 
Bugs! 
PS: if anyone can help me with 2 different colour choice for a drawing please PM me... I'd love opinions...
LOL
One of the very few companion tiles I have unlocked is that Solas is NOT my Inquisitor's friend. He's that desperate to distance himself from me!
(Did you guys know the DA:I Tapestry is up now in the Keep??)
Well, now that I do, I'm not sleeping all night, so thanks for that. 
(kidding, kidding, but ahmahgad SO EXCITED!!!!)
I see my name being invoked and rise from the grave to haunt ya. *poorly made wind noises*
I have written idle snippets and pieces related to my own Templar Inquisitor who's romancing Cullen here and there for myself, but I hadn't actually considered publishing them because it doesn't seem like there's much interest in that stuff anyway, to be honest. I don't know if it's a self-reinforcing circle of the more mage fic there is because that's what people enjoy writing the more people write it because it's all they see people reading the more people read it because it's all they find etc etc; or if there's genuinely such less interest in reading about Cullen with anything but a mage that the rare non-mage fics get so little attention, so... in the end I up writing these thingies just to savor them myself. I wonder if more warrior and rogue writers feel that way too and if that kind of self-defeating reclusion only reinforces the circle even more. It's an interesting meta/fourth wall question.
But it's also really cool to see that there is interest in different approaches to Cullen's romance with less conventional Inquisitors, and it does inspire me to whine less and just work harder in ~being the change I want to see~ and all
so maybe more warrior/rogue (and hey, even non-Trevelyan/non-Lavellan Inquisitor) writers will feel inspired to write more too. Maybe we all should be writing more.
Who knows, by the rate we tend to work through pages, maybe 6k will come up soon and I'll frenzy myself into writing something with Templar quizzie for that milestone.
I hope you or someone does tackle warrior playthroughs, especially templars. I've seen some fanfic that is a female warrior or rogue; some of it may be flying under the radar because it doesn't occur to people to tag for class (I simply didn't think of it on my rogue until today, though that's a friendship story.) I suspect the self-reinforcing circle is mostly people assuming people aren't interested in that kind of fanfic because they've mostly seen mage stories.
I'd adore seeing a Cadash-Cullen romance fanfic (I'd do it myself and risk the yells, but I have a very low opinion of my ability to write romance, lol.)
There are some very interesting tiles scattered around the Keep. Color me intrigued!
I'm having to go through and manually pick them all myself--the right choices are all unlocked, but I seem to have chosen very few "defaults" and for whatever reason they're not showing up at the upper levels, so it all looks empty even though it isn't. I don't know if this is because my console (canon) saves seem not to be syncing as well as my PC saves or what.
EDITED TO ADD: Totally flipped out when I saw Samson as the top-level image for the Advisors panel. oh nooo, Wolf of Skyhold AU is real
WHOOOOT????
WHOOOOT????
Hahah, he's just there because he's the image for the "Nemesis Quest" if you side with the mages, which I guess falls under the advisors' purview. And he looks oddly clean-cut in the tile. Confused me for a second, that's all. 
There are some very interesting tiles scattered around the Keep. Color me intrigued!
Ooh! Will you be my favourite for the next few minutes and post screenies? You know, for the poor people who have like ten tiles unlocked.
Hahah, he's just there because he's the image for the "Nemesis Quest" if you side with the mages, which I guess falls under the advisors' purview. And he looks oddly clean-cut in the tile. Confused me for a second, that's all.
He's probably got off easy. Calpernia kinda looks like Joffrey in her tile, if you ask me.
Argh, panicked ToP onesie Cullen!
By our Morie
http://moriesartwork...-today-remember
(Also, I couldn't find the nice butt and scar pic I like, but a literal (onesie) tail is just as good, right?)
LOL
One of the very few companion tiles I have unlocked is that Solas is NOT my Inquisitor's friend. He's that desperate to distance himself from me!
omg same. I cackled so hard when I entered the companions tapestry and it was all "hidden hidden hidden hidden hidden hidden NOT FRIEND WITH SOLAS!!!! hidden hidden hidden hidden hidden hidden" Sheesh, he really really does not want to be pals with me.
Ooh! Will you be my favourite for the next few minutes and post screenies? You know, for the poor people who have like ten tiles unlocked.
Sure. Just give me a few minutes to pick out some choice ones.
Just peeping back in....maybe there was a final straw that broke Cullen's back. First torture in the Circle, then Meredith going crazy, the Kirkwall going all to hell. Still, he stood true. So what was the true catalsyt?
I like to imagine it was something relatively small in the grand scheme of things, but personal. Maybe it had something to do with his scar. Like, he is patrolling the streets, trying to keep order, and a young punk tries to rob him. They scuffle, and he gets his lip sliced, mainly because he is trying so hard not to kill the young guy. But he accidentally does. Then the kid dies in his arms and he looks around him, lip bleeding, blood on his hands, and thinks...screw it. This is too much. I need a change.
I have several of these little scenarios running through my head, but the point it, I always imagine that getting that lip injury was the last straw. Just for fun!
On a more serious note...I can understand the frustration of people who loved Cullen for what he was in DA2. He was a man who stood by the order. One aspect of him quitting that I don't like, personally, is that he left when the order needed him most. Red lyrium rearing its ugly head, mage abuse running rampant, unrest in the ranks, Kirkwall falling apart. I feel he left when he was needed more than ever, and that Cullen does not quite fit with the person he was in DA2. So I get when folks are a bit frustrated that he left.
On the other hand, it shows a very human quality in him that I like. He is just a man, after all. And he is tired of it all, in a way. He just wants a chance to be his own man for once. And the lyrium really ties into that desire for some kind of freedom. So I can dig that too.
Hey! I just noticed I got little icons under my avatar!! They just showed up! What does it mean? Am I like...more of member now than I was before? Am I finally...old school???? EEEKK!!!
Weird...now they are gone...perhaps going mad??
So it boils down to: Cullen's story is great, I'm not disputing that. I just wish we had actually been told all of it, instead of having to guess for ourselves.
Oh! My apologies, I did not know that is what you were implying.
Yes, I agree.
That is a pet peeve of mine that we have to put the pieces together.
Look I know people like doing head-cannons and that is fine, I get it.
But see I hate when a character is created and there are more holes then swiss cheese and the writer is like, "Well fill it in how you want too." Um. No.
I want to know everything about that character, I don't want to play guess work in my head.
I want to open my codex and see the character's bio, and that bio changes as the story progresses depending on your choices you make with the world or with them.
The letters are nice but that is not about the character, that is about the character thoughts on a signal matter. If I wanted to dig through someone's mail, I'd raid my neighbors mailbox.
And I think I am going to end it here, cause if I don't I'll rant even more.
He's probably got off easy. Calpernia kinda looks like Joffrey in her tile, if you ask me.
Argh, panicked ToP onesie Cullen!
By our Morie
http://moriesartwork...-today-remember
(Also, I couldn't find the nice butt and scar pic I like, but a literal (onesie) tail is just as good, right?)
That photo...is rather disturbing.
Ooh! Will you be my favourite for the next few minutes and post screenies? You know, for the poor people who have like ten tiles unlocked.
Here are the broad overarching Keep choices.
Want any specifics? I can pull them out of mine.
Retour en haut
