The issue of the Maker is a well-known one to most in the Dragon Age games, being such a massive issue in strife-filled Thedas. In Thedas, the Andrastian faith covers a large amount of the continent as far as I know, and as such appears to be the dominant religion of the land. For the sake of this discussion and my own as well, I will only focus on the Maker as the Andrastians know the concept to make things easier on one as simple as I am, allowing it only to be an exercise of our minds to conceptualize the possibly fictional in-game existence of a fictional deity of a fictional world of a fictional universe created by the brilliant employees of the company whose forums these are. Nothing in this thread is meant to relate to religion in the real world in any way, but instead apply what we can reason into this wonderful and rich universe. It is necessary to consider any shreds of evidence for the Maker’s existence that we can glean from the world. The way the Maker is presented is such that it, to avoid the overt anthropomorphism that comes along with the Andrastian faith, is much harder to put together with the little evidence unfortunately available to us. As such, I will try to stay in line with the Dragon Age universe and avoid attempting to argue any real-world examples here, as I hope you will also observe when you respond and take part in a modest exercise in which there is no coming to any sort of seemingly conclusive argument.
First off, in the Dragon Age universe, we can see that Thedas seems to exist, for if it didn’t exist, then we would not have a game. Therefore, it appears that the universe does exist. Were it all to be a falsehood and a deliberate deception on the part of the developers, I have no doubt that this forum would be swelled with an influx of new threads of a most sharp manner. Therefore, it is likely that the game’s setting exists within the game. With the idea of Thedas existing within the setting, it seems as though it was created at some time by a maker, whether or not it is inherently tied to the developers or not. We can consider that something that starts to exist or happen had to have some sort of underlying cause. The universe began to exist, and as such, has a cause. What could make this universe? A Maker. Therefore, the Maker exists possibly. Of course, one could always deny this and assert that Thedas has always existed in the timescale of the games despite the records of texts claiming otherwise. There is nothing inherently wrong in saying this or saying that Thedas sprang from nothing, but it seems as though it discounts the entire idea completely. Creating from nothing is a problematic idea to say the least. If a Maker already existed beforehand, it would allow for something other than the setting popping into existence without a maker instead of with the Maker. If the Maker began to exist at some point, then we have done nothing but double the conundrum before us. If the Maker is timeless and not included under time, then nothing can be said. The problem is however, time being infinite. An actual infinite number of things cannot actually exist. There may be a lot of those things, but it is not infinite in the absolute sense of the word. An infinite series of time is therefore not possible and cannot exist leading us back to the idea that time seems to have begun at some time, lending credence but not confirmation that the universe that includes Thedas was created by the Maker since the set of events in time are an accumulation by adding one event after another, said collection formed by this adding one at a time cannot actually be infinite, meaning that a series of events in time can’t be infinite.
For the next part of the argument, let us consider that of an in-game item, a suit of armor, more specifically, warden commander armor. As one can see, it’s very intricate, ornate, and apparently functional in terms of keeping insides inside when stab comes to penetrate. None can deny that someone forged that armor during some point in the past on Thedas so as to provide a means to protect the squishy insides so easily spilled by other steel crafted items, other steel crafted items, like swords, daggers, axes, and spiked atrocities of death and destruction that can spill one's giblets. Every bit of evidence of a function, being forged, and being intended to provide protection is clear and obvious with this suit of armor. Just as it has complexity, so does the world of Thedas. Playing the game, one can see that monsters are placed specifically to block paths; trees impede walking off the roads as do knee high mounds of dirt with no grass on them. The world of Thedas has a specific way through which to travel, an order, just like said armor. Forged armor is a product of purpose and the world of Thedas seems to mirror this observation of purpose. As such, it would appear as though the world of Thedas is a product of purpose, leading to the possibility of a maker that we are exploring. Yet, there’s an issue: the Dragon Age universe is vastly more complex and bigger than a suit of armor. As such, there must be another solution: the Maker. One might say that we have no universe with which to compare Thedas with. I say that’s a load of malarkey in that the Fade is definitely a separate universe in the sense of what Thedas is. Note that one cannot figure out the location of the Fade as it is outside our universe because of Fade Tears can happen seemingly any and everywhere in Dragon Age: Inquisition. You cannot walk or fly from Thedas to the Fade. You can only be mystically transported to it across whatever the Dragon Age existence has for a space-time continuum. As such, we do have a comparison that is strikingly less natural compared to what is clearer and more familiar to residents of Thedas. In the Fade, the denizens themselves shape and create, giving rise once again to the mirrored complexities and mirrored levels of intelligences designing and creating what they need, highlighting the need for the existence of the Maker by the nature of parallel examples.
Moving on, it’s important to take notice of the objection that the Maker does not exist because evil exists on Thedas, and if the Maker loves the children of said Maker, then it can be said that the Maker is infinite good aside from the additional statements of Thedosian theological texts of the Maker being of this most far-reaching quality of being good. If said Maker does indeed exist and said Maker created the world, then in this goodness, there would be no evil to be found. Since it can be found, the Maker clearly does not exist, regardless of the possibly mortal-written Thedosian theological texts suggesting otherwise. However, since the Maker is the highest good, evil would not be allowed to exist in the Maker’s works unless the Maker’s goodness were such to bring good out of evil. This would be part of the most far-reaching goodness of the Maker and from it create good in the world from evils, meaning the Maker must exist.
Secondly, it appears that the causes of items in nature can be explained by principles, reducing all natural things to these principles or even a principle, which is nature. Nature itself can be understood by mortal reasoning and will alone leaving no reason for the supposition of the Maker’s existence. There is an issue with this however, in that since nature works for a determinate end under the direction of a higher agent, whatever is done by nature must be traced back to the Maker as to its first cause. So likewise whatever is done voluntarily must be traced back to some higher cause other than mortal reason or will since they are variable and fallible. All things that change and can fail must be traced back to an unchanging and self-essential primary principle as has been shown, requiring the existence of a Maker.
Furthermore, the existence of the Maker can be reasoned via some more ways. First, it must be considered, the concept of motion, certain that our senses do indeed sense this when we see an object move. Everything moved is moved by something else as nothing moves without a potential of that object to be in motion and the means to have had acted upon that object to start the motion allowing the motion to occur. From this motion something had to be moved to cause that motion to cause another motion and another motion for a seemingly infinite amount of previous motions. Note that an infinite series of motion is impossible and motion as I use it is not necessarily the same motion as defined rationalistically in the field of physics. Essentially, there must have been a first mover and that first mover is the Maker. To ensure more clarity, let us consider how things happen. Everything that happens has a cause which was the effect of another cause in a seemingly infinite progression. As was previously mentioned, it cannot be an infinite series of causes no more than you could manufacture an infinite Rube Goldberg machine. As such, the first cause is the Maker in the Dragon Age universe.
In the Dragon Age universe we see that some objects can exist and others cannot exist. Some can exist, then be destroyed and render them nonexistent. Anything that was capable of not existing must have, at one time, not existed, which brings up how that object came into existence. If there was once a state that nothing existed in the Dragon Age universe, it would have been impossible for anything to exist in the future, making the Dragon Age universe not exist. However, everything that exists does and as such must have been caused by something existing and as it is once more impossible to have and infinite number of objects upon which to base the existence of all things, we are forced to concede the existence of another source from which all things exist, and this is, of course, the thing you love to read more about, the Maker.
Carrying on, we must now consider that Thedosians consider things to be more good or more evil, better or worse. These are approximations of what mortals think is better or worse in that they are measurements of qualities. Based on these, there is something at the highest end of the scale, the most good. Because of this, there must be something that is this highest good, for things that are true in the greatest must also have being in the greatest, necessitating that there is the existence of the Maker based on mortal conceptualization of the greater goodness that exists. Things tend to work for an end, a goal, a result. Things like elves and dwarves, humans and Kossith, operate so as to attain the best result, which is the end. They do not arrive at this by chance, but by purpose. How is it that such a series of beings can arrive at this if they cannot know everything as there is far too much knowledge to be known to say nothing of the absolute lack of education in Andrastian dominated regions of Thedas. Since the unknowing cannot seem to follow a goal they do not know, it is only reasonable to assume that they were guided there by some outside force like how a hammer shapes a sword when it is forged. As such, it must be that another entity guides them towards their purpose, that which none greater can be perceived, the Maker.
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