I know all that well. I am agreeing with you that, unlike other posters in this thread, I do not remember a conversation other than that one.
ah right, sorry I misread then
carry on.
I know all that well. I am agreeing with you that, unlike other posters in this thread, I do not remember a conversation other than that one.
ah right, sorry I misread then
carry on.
Yes, that's probably it! I really don't remember the exact context, but I know I talked to him about that stuff at... some point.
But you're right, that's probably the conversation I'm thinking of, which also explains the slightly different responses he gives. I do remember Cullen answering differently depending on whether you believe yourself to be the Herald or not, but it's one of those places when Greg just emphasizes different words or registers a more placid or candid tone, the words themselves weren't that different. The gist of both answers anyway was that the Cullen himself doesn't believe you're Maker-blessed, he just knows that you're the wheel that's keeping the Inquisition turning, and that's good enough for him.
I've yet to run into this conversation, it's going to be interesting in my current playthrough. For some reason, the game seems to treat my Trevelyan as if she's a believer, when I have repeatedly had her give the non-commital answers to the question of whether she's the Herald?
The only things that might have tipped the scales was that I had Trevelyan quote an appropriate verse from the Chant during the initial Herald convo, as well as stating a belief in a Maker when talking to Cass in Haven... which honestly, seems like it would be the sort of things that any Andrastian would say in that situation, not someone who believed themselves to be sent by the big kahuna himself?
For some reason that happens to me too, even though I'm consistently noncommittal/denying. Think there's a glitch or a lock somewhere.
EDIT: Re: Cole and Sera: "The joke means the horns on the cow's head, but there are different horns that make noise when you blow them. It's funny because the cow horns and music horns are very different. Cullen explains it better." I think that's all there is about it, but IDK.
(1:56:37)
Thank you so much for this! I really appreciate it ![]()
What happens if you say that you believe you're the Herald of Andraste, and then you discover, well, that you're not? at first I didn't know what was really going on so sometimes I was choosing "yes I believe I was chosen" but sometimes "I don't know", so... because I really didn't know if the Inquisitor was really "the chosen one" of some destiny or if it was totally by mistake/by luck that she inherited of that power.
I think they didn't want to make Cullen too clear on the subject because:
- if he doesn't believe you're sent by Andraste, and if YOU say you are, it means that he thinks you're a liar or naive
- if he believes you're sent by Andraste and it turns out that you're not, he would be really disappointed/think you lied, etc...
I know all that well. I'm agreeing with you that, unlike other posters in this thread, I don't remember a conversation other than that one.
The one I'm talking about is not in a scripted custcene, it's in his dialogue wheel. It might be early game dialogue, it might buried under unique Templar dialogue (though I vaguely remember using it with my rogue), it might be buried under "believer" dialogue (again, there are a few unique variations to conversations with Cullen if you believe yourself the Herald), it might be buried under specific conversation paths (doesn't seem like a lot of people in the thread have tried going through as many disagreements as I had with him, and some of his conversations end in very different places depending on how you respond to his lines), etc... it could be anywhere. I really don't remember. Like I said, I'd have to either go through his entire dialogue wheel again with both my most played characters, or go through my entire screencaps directory to find the conversation again, and I just don't have the time to do that right now, so... feel free to disregard. Maybe some other week I'll have the time to go find it, right now it's just a vague memory.
personally I'd be very disappointed if Cullen explicitly says that he doesn't believe she has a mission from Andraste / is Her Herald (which would indicate that when he calls her that in public, he's going along with the title publicly to keep the Inquisition rolling smoothly).
Why would this be a problem, though? It's not like that makes Cullen a liar or hypocrite anything - Cassandra, Leliana and Josephine all explicitly state that they don't believe you actually speak for Andraste either, then reason that using the name you've been given by the populace is important to boost the morale of the Inquisition's soldiers and build up rapport with your allies, turn people over to your cause, etc. As a military commander, Cullen too would understand the value of giving soldiers a symbolical standard to fight for, whether he believes the title himself or not.
What happens if you say that you believe you're the Herald of Andraste, and then you discover, well, that you're not? at first I didn't know what was really going on so sometimes I was choosing "yes I believe I was chosen" but sometimes "I don't know", so... because I really didn't know if the Inquisitor was really "the chosen one" of some destiny or if it was totally by mistake/by luck that she inherited of that power.
Nothing much happens, but you can have a nice conversation with Mother Giselle in the gardens after you return from Here Lies the Abyss. She will question what do you think what you saw in the Fade was (if it was just a demon, or Justinia's ghost), and if your ego is too bruised to find out you're not actually Andraste's chosen. It's the only conversation I remember where you believer Inquisitor can express disappointment with the truth (or say it doesn't matter, or that they had already figured out, etc).
You can keep believing yourself to be blessed, even - you still get the believer unique dialogue options even after you find out the "woman" who pulled you out of the Fade wasn't Andraste, you can tell Giselle you still believe Andraste is guiding you... in gameplay terms, nothing changes. It's all in how you choose to roleplay your character from that point on.
Not a problem in the sense of his being a bad person or anything, I just don't see it as in-character for him to pretend he believes something of a religious nature that he does not believe (given the importance of his faith to him and the amount of his character arc that's had to do with deciding his beliefs/morals for himself) or participate in propaganda (given his disregard for politics, deception, social/mental games, etc.), and calling her the Herald in front of his soldiers but not believing that she was chosen by Andraste for some special purpose would count as both for me. I remember we all talked a lot about this before the game came out and I think I was in the minority on this one; I still feel pretty strongly about it personally, but I'm happy to agree to disagree because as you said, there's also a case to be made that his pragmatism (morale benefit for soldiers!) would win out.Why would this be a problem, though? It's not like that makes Cullen a liar or hypocrite anything - Cassandra, Leliana and Josephine all explicitly state that they don't believe you're actually sent by Andraste either, then reason that using the name you've been given by the populace is important to boost the morale of the Inquisition's soldiers and build up rapport with your allies, turn people over to your cause, etc. As a military commander, Cullen too would understand the value of giving soldiers a symbolical standard to fight for, whether he believes the title himself or not.
The one I'm talking about is not in a scripted custcene, it's in his dialogue wheel. It might be early game dialogue, it might buried under unique Templar dialogue (though I vaguely remember using it with my rogue), it might be buried under "believer" dialogue (again, there are a few unique variations to conversations with Cullen if you believe yourself the Herald), it might be buried under specific conversation paths (doesn't seem like a lot of people in the thread have tried going through as many disagreements as I had with him, and some of his conversations end in very different places depending on how you respond to his lines), etc... it could be anywhere. I really don't remember. Like I said, I'd have to either go through his entire dialogue wheel again with both my most played characters, or go through my entire screencaps directory to find the conversation again, and I just don't have the time to do that right now, so... feel free to disregard. Maybe some other week I'll have the time to go find it, right now it's just a vague memory.
Why would this be a problem, though? It's not like that makes Cullen a liar or hypocrite anything - Cassandra, Leliana and Josephine all explicitly state that they don't believe you're actually sent by Andraste either, then reason that using the name you've been given by the populace is important to boost the morale of the Inquisition's soldiers and build up rapport with your allies, turn people over to your cause, etc. As a military commander, Cullen too would understand the value of giving soldiers a symbolical standard to fight for, whether he believes the title himself or not.
They explicitly state that they don't believe it? I don't actually remember any of them saying as much. I wonder if I wasn't paying close enough attention or haven't taken the right dialogue option because the closest I've heard from any of them is the war table conversation when they say they're using it to boost support. They more or less say "whether it's true or not," but not whether they believe or disbelieve it. I got the impression they were divided on believing it, with Cass at the "wanting to believe" end and Leliana at the cynical end of the spectrum. Of course, I've mostly played through with "yeah I'm the herald" responses since you're pretty much beating your gums fruitlessly as a non-human if you say anything else (other than losing some judgement and reaction perks) so maybe that changes things?
Edited for grammar, lol.
Cullen is supposed to believe a lot in Andraste, to have a lot of faith? (as a templar)
Because he doesn't sound/look like he believes in it a lot, he doesn't talk much about Andraste, we don't see him pray a lot (not like Leliana)...
Maybe what happened in his life made him lose his faith... not completely, but most of it...
The one I'm talking about is not in a scripted custcene, it's in his dialogue wheel. It might be early game dialogue, it might buried under unique Templar dialogue (though I vaguely remember using it with my rogue), it might be buried under "believer" dialogue (again, there are a few unique variations to conversations with Cullen if you believe yourself the Herald), it might be buried under specific conversation paths (doesn't seem like a lot of people in the thread have tried going through as many disagreements as I had with him, and some of his conversations end in very different places depending on how you respond to his lines), etc... it could be anywhere. I really don't remember. Like I said, I'd have to either go through his entire dialogue wheel again with both my most played characters, or go through my entire screencaps directory to find the conversation again, and I just don't have the time to do that right now, so... feel free to disregard. Maybe some other week I'll have the time to go find it, right now it's just a vague memory.
If your referencing the dialogue you mentioned before- I'm going to look through my early saves and see if I can find this because it's bothering me now. I can't be mis-remembering an entire conversation....
It's funny though because I never even considered that the game tracks what your opinion is on the whole Herald thing... It's silly now in hindsight and I can't help but wonder how many dialogue options I've chosen- were opened up because of it. Gonna go look through those saves now, I'm procrastinating on starting the last mission.
Btw, waaaay off topic but, last night while in Emprise du Lion on an ardent blossom run, I stumbled upon the most disturbing glitch I've yet to see. It was in a cleared red lyrium pit and I'm guessing it was just supposed to be someone from the Inquisition taking a survey of the area. A female dwarf's body with an over-sized male human's head? It was humming in a female voice too. When I ended up doubling back it changed to a normal male dwarf. Is this a thing? I didn't want to post a screen cap in case it was well documented.
If your referencing the dialogue you mentioned before- I'm going to look through my early saves and see if I can find this because it's bothering me now. I can't be mis-remembering an entire conversation....
It's funny though because I never even considered that the game tracks what your opinion is on the whole Herald thing... It's silly now in hindsight and I can't help but wonder how many dialogue options I've chosen- were opened up because of it. Gonna go look through those saves now, I'm procrastinating on starting the last mission.
Btw, waaaay off topic but, last night while in Emprise du Lion on an ardent blossom run, I stumbled upon the most disturbing glitch I've yet to see. It was in a cleared red lyrium pit and I'm guessing it was just supposed to be someone from the Inquisition taking a survey of the area. A female dwarf's body with an over-sized male human's head? It was humming in a female voice too. When I ended up doubling back it changed to a normal male dwarf. Is this a thing? I didn't want to post a screen cap in case it was well documented.
That thing in Emprise du Lion is a glitch that's been around since the game launched. Bizarre, but apparently not worth the time to fix in a patch.
That thing in Emprise du Lion is a glitch that's been around since the game launched. Bizarre, but apparently not worth the time to fix in a patch.
Ah, thanks. God did it freak me out though...
Not a problem in the sense of his being a bad person or anything, I just don't see it as in-character for him to pretend he believes something of a religious nature that he does not believe (given the importance of his faith to him and the amount of his character arc that's had to do with deciding his beliefs/morals for himself) or participate in propaganda (given his disregard for politics, deception, social/mental games, etc.), and calling her the Herald in front of his soldiers but not believing that she was chosen by Andraste for some special purpose would count as both for me. I remember we all talked a lot about this before the game came out and I think I was in the minority on this one; I still feel pretty strongly about it personally, but I'm happy to agree to disagree because as you said, there's also a case to be made that his pragmatism (morale benefit for soldiers!) would win out.
Fair enough, thank you for explaining your point of view. I put probably too much stake on Cullen's faith and general relationship with religion too (certainly more than the character himself does in-game, at least), but I suppose his pragmatism as a soldier and commander overrun that in my mind, as I saw it as pretty natural that he could detach his own faith from the practical needs of leading an army of generally aimless people. But it's good to see another approach to it from the other side too, it gives you stuff to think about.
They explicitly state that they don't believe it? I don't actually remember any of them saying as much. I wonder if I wasn't paying close enough attention or haven't taken the right dialogue option because the closest I've heard from any of them is the war table conversation when they say they're using it to boost support. They more or less say "whether it's true or not," but not whether they believe or disbelieve it. I got the impression they were divided on believing it, with Cass at the "wanting to believe" end and Leliana at the cynical end of the spectrum.
Yeah, they do, and these are a little more arcane to get because they depend on how the Inquisitor approaches it (Cass will eventually confess to not really buying into it only if your Inquisitor is persistently denying it too; Josie will do it the other way around and only own up if your IQ believes so much that they start tripping too hard on their own hype). More stuff to look through screencaps for, another time.
There's definitely a divide, but I think the scale is more like: Leliana obviously doesn't buy any of it for one second (she'll shrug it off in the first war table conversation with all the advisors, and then consistently jab at you about it throughout the game); Cassandra doesn't think you're Andraste's chosen prophet speaking with Her words or anything (she'll admit this early on in the war table scene with Roderick if you choose the right dialogue option) but she does genuinely believe the Maker put you in her path for a reason, whether you believe the Maker even exists or not (because she believes enough for both of you); and Josie sounds like she wants to believe the more your Inquisitor denies it, because she really needs something bigger than all of the chaos around her to cling to (does she actually believe? I don't know, but she sure really wants to).
And then there's Cullen, who generally "doesn't care"/tries not to think too much about it one way or another, partly because of his pragmatic personality (he has an army to run and no time to waste on what ifs), but mostly, I think, because of his also avoidant personality - he does not like to argue things he doesn't understand well, things that make him question his perceived sense of self, and things he can't articulate a verbal defense for other than his gut feeling/intuition that that's just how things are/are supposed to be, and he'll usually shut down any conversation steered that way pretty hard. So I imagine for Cullen to stop and start questioning whether he truly believes the Inquisitor is Andraste's chosen or not might quickly derail into more dangerous questions of whether he believes Andraste herself is real, the sheer weight of living his whole life in the name of a faith that might not even be real, etc (Mother Hevara says it perfectly, for you to be true many things must be false, and for you to be false many things must have failed). And that's where Cullen shuts the door down on this whole line of thinking and defaults back to that "I don't know, it just is, leave me alone" defensive state he takes when he doesn't want to argue/think too muh about something anymore. After being shut down so many times by him every time you raise a question that makes him question himself, I think if Cullen doesn't have a particular stance on whether you're holy or not, it's not because he does or not believe; it's because Cullen deliberately doesn't want to start asking himself that kind of question.
We could always ask Brianne, but she'll probably just say she left it vague on purpose. ![]()
Yeah, they do, and these are a little more arcane to get because they depend on how the Inquisitor approaches it (Cass will eventually confess to not really buying into it only if your Inquisitor is persistently denying it too; Josie will do it the other way around and only own up if your IQ believes so much that they start tripping too hard on their own hype). More stuff to look through screencaps for, another time.
Yeah, they do, and these are a little more arcane to get because they depend on how the Inquisitor approaches it (Cass will eventually confess to not really buying into it only if your Inquisitor is persistently denying it too; Josie will do it the other way around and only own up if your IQ believes so much that they start tripping too hard on their own hype). More stuff to look through screencaps for, another time.
There's definitely a divide, but I think the scale is more like: Leliana obviously doesn't buy any of it for one second (she'll shrug it off in the first war table conversation with all the advisors, and then consistently jab at you about it throughout the game); Cassandra doesn't think you're Andraste's chosen prophet speaking with Her words or anything (she'll admit this early on in the war table scene with Roderick if you choose the right dialogue option) but she does genuinely believe the Maker put you in her path for a reason, whether you believe the Maker even exists or not (because she believes enough for both of you); and Josie sounds like she wants to believe the more your Inquisitor denies it, because she really needs something bigger than all of the chaos around her to cling to (does she actually believe? I don't know, but she sure really wants to).
And then there's Cullen, who generally "doesn't care"/tries not to think too much about it one way or another, partly because of his pragmatic personality (he has an army to run and no time to waste on what ifs), but mostly, I think, because of his also avoidant personality - he does not like to argue things he doesn't understand well, things that make him question his perceived sense of self, and things he can't articulate a verbal defense for other than his gut feeling/intuition that that's just how things are/are supposed to be, and he'll usually shut down any conversation steered that way pretty hard. So I imagine for Cullen to stop and start questioning whether he truly believes the Inquisitor is Andraste's chosen or not might quickly derail into more dangerous questions of whether he believes Andraste herself is real, the sheer weight of living his whole life in the name of a faith that might not even be real, etc (Mother Hevara says it perfectly, for you to be true many things must be false, and for you to be false many things must have failed). And that's where Cullen shuts the door down on this whole line of thinking and defaults back to that "I don't know, it just is, leave me alone" defensive state he takes when he doesn't want to argue/think too muh about something anymore. After being shut down so many times by him every time you raise a question that makes him question himself, I think if Cullen doesn't have a particular stance on whether you're holy or not, it's not because he does or not believe; it's because Cullen deliberately doesn't want to start asking himself that kind of question.
We could always ask Brianne, but she'll probably just say she left it vague on purpose.
Huh, I thought I was pretty persistent in denying it in one of my PTs and didn't get that from Cass. I wonder if their own beliefs about it maybe change depending on what the IQ does and says? I know Cass is very relieved if a non-human says they believe in the Maker (which I take as fairly disingenuous, you can say you believe a god exists without actually following that god) and she definitely, as you say, says she thinks the Maker had a hand in what happened to you. Interesting. It honestly doesn't matter that much once you become Inquisitor anyway because everyone's following the IQ rather than the Herald.
I've never had Cass say she doesn't believe you're the Herald eve when playing disbeliever. Doesn't the Nightmare taunt her about the IQ not being the Herald and how her faith was empty.
It does taunt her about your legitimacy, but that has more to do with her faith in the Maker than with your specific title as Herald of Andraste. Maybe what I'm saying isn't clear, so to reiterate: what Cassandra says she doesn't believe is that you're Andraste's prophet, speaking with Andraste's words. But she does believe the Maker put you in her path. That if the Maker made you survive the explosion, he did it for a reason. The title of Herald of Andraste is just something the scared folk in Haven came up with because of the mysterious shadow of a woman the soldiers saw in the Fade - that title doesn't need to be true for the fact that you are the one who's going to save Thedas to be true as well. Cassandra doesn't believe the title itself, or that you're actually talking to Andraste in your head, but she does absolutely believe that the Maker sent you to lead them and save everyone.
What Envy questions, then, is that same matter of faith that's nagging at every Chantry person we hear from (Hevara, Giselle, Cassandra, Leliana, Cullen, etc) - their need to explain the absurdity of the Conclave's destruction by presuming the Maker only allowed such a horrible thing to happen because you had to survive it, so you could fulfill your purpose. What Envy pulls at is that doubt, the fear that maybe it makes no sense because there is no sense to it - that maybe it was all for nothing, maybe there is no Maker after all and all people at the Conclave died for no reason, maybe your survival was just sheer dumb luck. Envy's not really questioning whether you're a false prophet, he's just making Cassandra question whether she truly believes your survival is a deliberate act of the Maker, or just a pointless coincidence. He's messing with her belief in the Maker himself through the stakes she puts in your existence because that's the most dangerous question to ask her then - your perceived purpose in the world as a certain sign of the Maker's will is what's keeping the core of her faith together at that point, and if she allows herself to question that, she'll break.
Huh, I thought I was pretty persistent in denying it in one of my PTs and didn't get that from Cass. I wonder if their own beliefs about it maybe change depending on what the IQ does and says? I know Cass is very relieved if a non-human says they believe in the Maker (which I take as fairly disingenuous, you can say you believe a god exists without actually following that god) and she definitely, as you say, says she thinks the Maker had a hand in what happened to you. Interesting. It honestly doesn't matter that much once you become Inquisitor anyway because everyone's following the IQ rather than the Herald.
Indeed, it really doesn't matter anymore after Skyhold, because the Inquisition at that point isn't about healing the wounds of the Conclave anymore. It becomes an aggressive force set to take Corypheus down, and at that point people are following the Inquisitor as the leader of the new world's order, not the Herald who might have held Andraste's answers.
As to whether the conversations with the advisors change depending on how you relate to them... maybe? I didn't feel much difference in Josephine or Cullen, but I do suspect Leliana's religious cynicism in my playthroughs may have been influenced by how I steered her towards becoming more jaded. At the point where you question what she would do if she were Divine, she was practically admitting she didn't care for the religious aspect of being Divine so much as she really wanted the political power that would come with it, which is very different from what she says if she's not hardened. So maybe the various jabs I've got from her were influenced by that too. As for Cass... I actually don't have enough experience with being a super denier, so I wouldn't know the effects of that. Even my non-believer IQ was Andrastian too and used the special dialogue options all the time, so maybe there's some other factor to consider, or some other conversation branch to get there.
Some stunning doodles from cute-ellyna, along with some fic recommendations. The avvar Cullen one is delicious, if way NSFW.

http://cute-ellyna.t...l-4am-to-read-a
It does taunt her about your legitimacy, but that has more to do with her faith in the Maker than with your specific title as Herald of Andraste. Maybe what I'm saying isn't clear, so to reiterate: what Cassandra says she doesn't believe is that you're Andraste's prophet, speaking with Andraste's words. But she does believe the Maker put you in her path. That if the Maker made you survive the explosion, he did it for a reason. The title of Herald of Andraste is just something the scared folk in Haven came up with because of the mysterious shadow of a woman the soldiers saw in the Fade - that title doesn't need to be true for the fact that you are the one who's going to save Thedas to be true as well. Cassandra doesn't believe the title itself, or that you're actually talking to Andraste in your head, but she does absolutely believe that the Maker sent you to lead them and save everyone.
oh wow! He's lovely!!My last sketch portrait of Cully-Wully.
http://evolvana.tumb...from-dragon-age
My last sketch portrait of Cully-Wully.
http://evolvana.tumb...from-dragon-age