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[Hydwn]

When Mass Effect 3 was on the horizon, I prepared a "pure paragon" and a "pure renegade" playthrough through the first two instalments.  The game really rewarded that approach.  

 

Everything and everyone came back, if only briefly.  Paragons saw old friends return, old allies come back with gifts and favours.  When they gathered the fleets at the end, it was truly awesome.

 

But what I'm thinking about is the renegade run - it was a whole other world.  A dark, and bleak one, and a lot emptier because a lot potential allies were dead or enemies by the end.  Generally speaking, any enemy given alive to or abandoned to an enemy came back a brainwashed enemy, and any potential ally who'd died because of you had something vital you needed to get through a mission unscathed.

 

That got me thinking which "evil" decisions from the first two games could come back to haunt the Inquisitor, especially since so much of what we've seen of the game looks Mass Effect 3 influenced.  I'm doing a "worst of all worlds" playthrough to see how it affects the world of the Inquisitor.

 

I can think of at least three people you can feed to demons who might return as abominations: Connor, Feynriel, and Amalia.  Fenris gets brainwashed if you turn him over as a slave, and his master seems a prime candidate for the Venatori.  

 

Also, turn Isabela over to the old Arishok, and he doesn't die.  That means the more sympathetic ex-Sten never replaces him.  Sister Petrice might be alive and well and causing trouble.  So can the Architect.

 

Then there are he people missing from the scene if you cut a swathe of destruction through the games.  No Irving, no Wynne.  No Dalish clan in the Brecilian.  Possibly no Alistair.  Any of those people might have had a vital piece of the puzzle for the inquisitor.

 

What other disasters could the Warden and Hawke have prepared for the Inquisitor...?  

[SgtSteel91]

The Old God Baby is an unknown

 

Merrill's Eluvian if she didn't destroy it

 

The Anvil of the Void

 

Things off the top of my head

[Icy Magebane]

The Fade Beast in the Deep Roads if you accepted gold in exchange for its freedom?

[Hydwn]

I'd forgotten the Fade Beast.  How many demons are there that you can let go, either to avoid a fight or for a reward?  It strikes me that's a fairly large number.

 

There's the desire demon and the templar in the circle tower too.  If I recall correctly, they vanish together, though no one knows where.

[Green Snivy]

I'm curious as to what Kolgrim and company would be doing.

 

More of the werewolves with or without the lady of the forest.

 

Beyond that one minor sidequest in 2, curious how people feel about the Warden-commander after Amaranthine.

 

This last one is  a stretch, but what about Varric should you allow him to keep that part of the idol.

[Hydwn]

I don't think that's a stretch at all.  A member of your companions is under the  influence of red lyrium

 

It became part of his armour as I recall.  At least this game he can change that.  Maybe someone figured it out and destroyed that?

[Warden Commander Aeducan]

I can see that spare the Architect is gamble at this point, and rather risky because there is no foregone conclusion. You either give it a chance to work together with the Wardens in the future and end the Old Gods's cycle before the next Blight could begin or you just created another powerful enemy that could cost entire Thedas.

I'm not sure if handing Isabela over to the Qunari is the good or bad decision, and beside that means more sympathetic ex-Sten never replaces old Arishok, but if you don't have enough friendship or rivalry with Isabela that's mean she leave with the Tome of Koslun and probably finish her job?

So...is it safe to assume in that case the Tevinter Imperium get the tome, and pretty much strike a major blow on Qunari's moral?

[EmperorKarino]

i'm not sure about this, but i think alot of people choose haramount to be king of orzimmar cause he's an honorable man, but bhelen's good for orzimmar even though he is a horrible person. so that was more of a hard choice than a bad one, but i felt like mentioning it anyways.

[Warden Commander Aeducan]

I think sparing the Architect and Avernus will be right decisions in the long run. There needs to be more research done on the Taint and as of now the only person known to be able to cure or counter it is the Architect, albeit with mixed results (Fifth Blight).

I still have mixed feeling over to spare the Architect's decision it's either turn out to be good or bad for me, but I agree sparing both Architect and Avernus could be useful for the research on the Taint. Now that's raised another question for me should I allow Avernus to continue his research without any restriction or he can continue his research only if he follow ethical constraints.

[Tishina]

Letting Lord Vaughn live in Denerim? I'm also trying to imagine the problems (not sure if it they'd be good or bad) if you recruited Loghain and convinced him to perform Morrigan's ritual and then he gets sent off to Orlais...

[iheartbob]

I always felt too bad in the end to make the truly horrible decisions. I think I only ever defiled Andraste's ashes to get the achievement and then I immediately reloaded the game, even with characters who were not religious. I could never give up Isabella or Fenris, though I did have Isabella simply up and leave on me in my very first play through because her friendship/rivalry wasn't high enough.

 

I'll have to make a world state where I have some of the awful, ruthless decisions that I always felt too bad to do myself.

[KaiserShep]

This reminds me of the Terror on the Coast quest in DA2, where Hawke can run into Sophia Dryden's demon-run corpse if the Warden spares her at Soldier's Peak.

 

I'd like the Warden's choice to spare the Mad Hermit cause a headache for someone.

[iheartbob]

Aw man, I was never able to let the demon run free in Sophia Dryden's body either!

 

Yet for whatever reason I never had trouble letting the Architect live and performing the dark ritual with Morrigan.

 

I think it's a slavery + demon possession vs. suspect dark magic with me. I can rationalize the latter very easily, but not the former.

[SgtSteel91]

I still have mixed feeling over to spare the Architect's decision it's either turn out to be good or bad for me, but I agree sparing both Architect and Avernus could be useful for the research on the Taint. Now that's raised another question for me should I allow Avernus to continue his research without any restriction or he can continue his research only if he follow ethical constraints.

 

I wonder what ethical constraints mean in Avernus' case. No use of Blood Magic? You can't use unwilling subjects? You can't infect the Blight disease on people and test on them, they have to be unlucky enough to catch it and then brought in?

[Warden Commander Aeducan]

I wonder what ethical constraints mean in Avernus' case. No use of Blood Magic? You can't use unwilling subjects? You can't infect the Blight disease on people and test on them, they have to be unlucky enough to catch it and then brought in?

I don't think the game make it clear in this case, but I suppose it doesn't involve with Blood Magic or unwilling subjects. As far as I know the decision only affects the text in his letter to the Warden, and if you order Avernus to follow ethical constraints the result of the research will be less effective but regardless of your decision the effect of Avernus's potion will always be the same.

[Green Snivy]

The anvil would no doubt come back to haunt us.

 

 I'll admit to liking Valena, she is might not be the warden type.

 

Even though I just about never use him I can never ignore the Dog.

 

I always let Jowan go because life just loves making him it's punching bag.

 

I really hope something comes from Sebastian hunting down Anders if hes alive.

[CENIC]

Letting Varric keep the Red Lyrium Shard. 

 

RE: Jowan... my mage Warden reluctantly betrayed him to Irving and confessed the deed to Jowan just after destroying his phylactery. She felt terrible about it. When she met Jowan again in the Redcliffe Dungeon, she wanted to give him a chance at redemption, so she set him free, called on the Circle to help perform the ritual to save Connor, and tasked Jowan with entering the Fade to free Connor from the demon. Although she could remind Bann Teagan and Arl Eamon that it was Jowan who saved Connor's life and ask for mercy, there was none and he is shipped off to the Circle, presumably to be executed. I thought that was terribly unfair, especially since to save his life you have to be a dick to him. 

[Milan92]

I think sparing the Architect and Avernus will be right decisions in the long run. There needs to be more research done on the Taint and as of now the only person known to be able to cure or counter it is the Architect, albeit with mixed results (Fifth Blight).

 

I used to spare the Architect as well, but isn't his long term plan to make everyone a talking darkspawn?

 

He never mentions it to the warden ofcourse, but I remember reading something like that on the forums.

[Hydwn]

I was on the fence about sparing the Architect until I read the Calling.  Now I can't see it as anything but a bad thing.  The Architect's good intentions always seem to leave a massive body count.  He originally wanted to taint every man, woman, and child in Thedas, knowing it would kill most of them.  He awoke the old god and started the Blight, trying to stop it.  He kidnapped countless grey wardens to experiment on.  And in the Finding Nathaniel quest, it seems his plan to take the Darkspawn away didn't work either...  

[Milan92]

I was on the fence about sparing the Architect until I read the Calling.  Now I can't see it as anything but a bad thing.  The Architect's good intentions always seem to leave a massive body count.  He originally wanted to taint every man, woman, and child in Thedas, knowing it would kill most of them.  He awoke the old god and started the Blight, trying to stop it.  He kidnapped countless grey wardens to experiment on.  And in the Finding Nathaniel quest, it seems his plan to take the Darkspawn away didn't work either...  

 

Right! That was it.

[Feybrad]

I'd like to see it the other Way Round - what "good" Decisions could come back to haunt us?

 

Will Orzammar fall to the Darkspawn, if you didn't preserve the Anvil?

 

Will Connor and Feynriel become the powerful Leaders of the Venatori, if sent to Tevinter?

 

Will Tevinter be able to send more Forces because of the Arishok's Death in Kirkwall?

 

Something like that. I mean it's idealistic to expect every good Decision turn out to be fine and every bad Decision to come back to bite you in the Ass, but Dragon Age has never been an idealistic Series and some Decisions (like the Anvil, or the Arishok) fall squarely into the grey Area.

[Warden Commander Aeducan]

I'd like to see it the other Way Round - what "good" Decisions could come back to haunt us?

 

Will Orzammar fall to the Darkspawn, if you didn't preserve the Anvil?

 

Will Connor and Feynriel become the powerful Leaders of the Venatori, if sent to Tevinter?

 

Will Tevinter be able to send more Forces because of the Arishok's Death in Kirkwall?

 

Something like that. I mean it's idealistic to expect every good Decision turn out to be fine and every bad Decision to come back to bite you in the Ass, but Dragon Age has never been an idealistic Series and some Decisions (like the Anvil, or the Arishok) fall squarely into the grey Area.

 

To be fair, you make a good point especially on Anvil of the Void part as no one ever question the moral of using the anvil until King Valtor having prisoners and his political enemies forcibly turned into golems. That said I don't see the anvil as evil because it have no mind of it's own, and the only thing that can be good or evil are the person and their intentions when using it either for the greater good or for his own gain. I don't appreciate seeing the anvil in the hands of a mad woman who sacrifice her entire house, but the anvil itself is too valuable to be destroyed so I intend to preserve it at this point it'll be interesting to see if we even get a chance to recover it and use it for the good purpose.

I suppose when it comes to the anvil decision one have to think like a Dwarf, and while Human or Elves can preach all they want about good principle or morality the differences is the dwarves have a very dire situation, their race have low birth rate and on the verge of extinction, and the Darkspawn always pressing always barking at Orzammar's door. Also the only surface organization who seems to care about the dwarves is the Grey Warden while the rest of the world are content and ignore their plight.  I don't think human have the right to judge the dwarves for doing everything to survive, and at least not while they ignore the dwarven's plight and content with leaving the entire race to die out slowly.

That's what I like about Dragon Age games. I mean there are no paragon or renegade bar or light side, dark side telling you which is right, which is wrong. You can be idealistic or realistic but you cannot expect everything to go smoothly just because you follow ethical constraints or pick the right decision. Sometimes doing the right thing is not doing the right thing, but that's just my opinion and it's coming from a guy who's playing a well-intentioned extremist so don't take my word for everything.

[Wolfen09]

Architect:  Dead after i read the calling, cant let him live

 

Jowan:  Well, i do need a good laugh, especially if hes a wimpy venatori we can kill

 

Anvil:  If we look at the epilogues, the only real drawback was when harrowmont was king and they kidnapped people from the surface.  Take the epilogues with a grain of salt though.  I can see this making or breaking orzammar.

 

Avernus:  Im at the point where i think he has discovered the path that the architect is kind of on, a way to stop the blights (maybe without turning everyone into darkspawn), so i always let him go unethically.

 

OGB:  Meh, how much damage could a 10 year old do?

 

Merrill's eluvian:  Only thing i see here is a joke if our group wanders through an eluvian and we walk by one in the mirror world that looks like the interior of merrill's old house, maybe a comment from varric.

 

Lyrium shard:  This was a good start in da2, but since red lyrium is popping up everywhere, i see this one getting shoved under the rug so to speak.