yeah I tend to only play Awakening with characters that survive Origins though if they make the Ultimate Sacrifice I skip the extra DLC's. Besides I bought the Ultimate Edition version of DAO so have access to everything so why not play it.
I even do it on my sacrifice Wardens. For the reasons I stated. It's wonky while you play DAA... but once you transfer to DA2, it recognizes that your Warden died, but the DAA playthrough was another Warden.
I even do it on my sacrifice Wardens. For the reasons I stated. It's wonky while you play DAA... but once you transfer to DA2, it recognizes that your Warden died, but the DAA playthrough was another Warden.
There's a solution on PC using the console to play with an imported warden that did the US and play Awakening with the orlesian warde and it keeps the choices of Origins.
https://www.youtube....h?v=bbv80vJrLwA
As for the choice of saving both the keep and the city, I remember my 1st playthrough that I had managed to did it and that the 80 gold was a real pain in the butt at that time and because I didn't have the DLC with the extra bonus stuff that you can sell for a good amount of gold, especially the mace that you get after completing GoA that you can sell for around 1k gold 
I even do it on my sacrifice Wardens. For the reasons I stated. It's wonky while you play DAA... but once you transfer to DA2, it recognizes that your Warden died, but the DAA playthrough was another Warden.
I intend to do the US, create an entirely new character for Awakening and pretend that it's a continuation of my original save(Anora is sole ruler, so it shouldn't be a problem), import the Origins save into DAII and hope that the default decisions for Anders and Nathaniel won't somehow be out of line with the ones I actually made in the unused Awakening save, and eventually type the whole thing into Dragon Age Keep and use it for Inquisition.
I can't imagine playing Awakening with my canonically dead Warden. Isn't that incredibly distracting?
I intend to do the US, create an entirely new character for Awakening and pretend that it's a continuation of my original save(Anora is sole ruler, so it shouldn't be a problem), import the Origins save into DAII and hope that the default decisions for Anders and Nathaniel won't somehow be out of line with the ones I actually made in the unused Awakening save, and eventually type the whole thing into Dragon Age Keep and use it for Inquisition.
I can't imagine playing Awakening with my canonically dead Warden. Isn't that incredibly distracting?
There's a better way to do it.. if you insist on playing on Awakening as an Orlesian. Use the console. It takes some futzing around, but you can change your Warden origin in DAA this way.
Only prob is like... when Bodahn or someone comments on the Warden, they'll recognize them as alive.. or as the gender your Awakening's warden was.
The default state will screw you on the Nathaniel choice. You won't get his quest unless you do it this way. In which case, you won't get Varric's armor upgrade either.
As for playing the dead Warden being distracting.. not too much. It sucks, but I can run through Awakening fairly quickly. It's just not very immersive and I'm headccanoning as I play.
There's a better way to do it.. if you insist on playing on Awakening as an Orlesian. Use the console. It takes some futzing around, but you can change your Warden origin in DAA this way.
Only prob is like... when Bodahn or someone comments on the Warden, they'll recognize them as alive.. or as the gender your Awakening's warden was.
So, for my US warden to be recognised as dead in DA2 I need to resurrect them in DAA and play them (not then switching out to the Orlesian?).
I wanted my warden to stay dead, but keep the save file, so thought I'd have to do that console trick and switch to the Orlesian.
So, for my US warden to be recognised as dead in DA2 I need to resurrect them in DAA and play them (not then switching out to the Orlesian?).
I wanted my warden to stay dead, but keep the save file, so thought I'd have to do that console trick and switch to the Orlesian.
Yup. lol. You just have to pretend it's a different Warden, I guess.
I hate this... but at least it finally works in DA2. I only do the other method on a non-Dalish. I haven't tested, but if it can't even recognize gender, I'm afraid I won't get the Merrll dialogue as well. It's safer to just play through DAA the silly way.
Yup. lol. You just have to pretend it's a different Warden, I guess.
I hate this... but at least it finally works in DA2. I only do the other method on a non-Dalish. I haven't tested, but if it can't even recognize gender, I'm afraid I won't get the Merrll dialogue as well. It's safer to just play through DAA the silly way.
Oh good grief it's all ridiculous. Awakenings is. ridiculous.
This is why I've ignored it my last 3 playthroughs and just made stuff up in the Keep. 
I wonder if I could mess with the toolset save file before loading it into DA2? Start with my dead warden, switch to the Orlesian, play the game then make sure the warden is dead in the save file....or start a fresh awakenings and mess with the plot flags so it matches my DAO save?
I sense lots of messing about with the code in my future...Samara won't be happy. 
It sounds complicated.. that might be doable, but I haven't dug that deep. Good luck 
But people should try an Orlesian playthrough (one way or another), if they haven't. It's not too different, but there's some unique dialogue.
I like playing mine as diplomatic and trying to build bridges with Ferelden. She feels bad about the past there. I said my character was an older chevalier. She was only trained as one. After reading Masked Empire, I like to imagine she got sick of their behavior with the elves and killed a fellow chevalier. Since she was a noble and had connections, her family got her into the Wardens. Maybe this is why Celene gave her that armor (apparently that's what it says).
It sounds complicated.. that might be doable, but I haven't dug that deep. Good luck
But people should try an Orlesian playthrough (one way or another), if they haven't. It's not too different, but there's some unique dialogue.
I like playing mine as diplomatic and trying to build bridges with Ferelden. She feels bad about the past there. I said my character was an older chevalier. She was only trained as one. After reading Masked Empire, I like to imagine she got sick of their behavior with the elves and killed a fellow chevalier. Since she was a noble and had connections, her family got her into the Wardens. Maybe this is why Celene gave her that armor (apparently that's what it says).
Lol, I'll be tearing my hair out in no time.
I definitely want to try being Orlesian next time and see the differences. Though I may go full on Orlesian s.o.b that hates the dog lords. 
That's just as good. I'd do it if I switched to male. And gave them a funny beard.
That's just as good. I'd do it if I switched to male. And gave them a funny beard.
So what you're saying is that men with funny beards encourage evil??
I'm all for it! Bring on the face fluff.
Actually, it's mustaches. I should correct that.
Is there a real difference between saving both and abandoning Vigil's Keep? The latter gers destroyed in one way ir another. All that changes is how long it takes to rebuild.
It's more of an active carelessness, roleplaying wise. I guess. You get different epilogues. It's funny if your elf abandons Amaranthine.
Personally I prefer to leave my character as dead if they've sacrificed themselves so it's not that much of a problem. So I'm happy to leve Awakening if my character is dead anyway
It's more of an active carelessness, roleplaying wise. I guess. You get different epilogues. It's funny if your elf abandons Amaranthine.
Indeed they started blaming Amaranthine's destruction on elves in my playthrough when my City Elf decided to focus on protecting the keep.
^
you get similar reactions on other combinations as well
If you're a mage rumors start circulating you're a malificar/abomination consorting with demons
as a human noble a rumor starts that it was a ploy to get more influence with the court
as an Orlesian you get a rumor it was some sort of Orlesian plot to weaken Ferelden
funnily enough, the only race they don't comment upon are the dwarves
and that was the one time I did abandon Amaranthine in favor of the Keep (mainly for the achievement)
Personally I prefer to leave my character as dead if they've sacrificed themselves so it's not that much of a problem. So I'm happy to leve Awakening if my character is dead anyway
Indeed they started blaming Amaranthine's destruction on elves in my playthrough when my City Elf decided to focus on protecting the keep.
I would too.. I just hate the way they did upgrades in DA2. Since Varric and Izzy are some of my favorites, I feel tempted to keep Zev and Nate alive. In Varric's case, playing DAA is necessary. Or I have to use the Martyr prebuilt state.. but I'd rather have custom settings.
If you're on PC, there's actually a little utility you can use to create a save game state with whatever flags you want, and it imports perfectly into DA2, so you don't have to jump through hoops to get the worldstate you want. There's a forum thread here about it:
http://forum.bioware...save-generator/
As for the original question, I've done Awakening several times with different PCs (never have played the Orlesian warden, but I might eventually). The "best" outcome is to upgrade the Keep and then save Amaranthine, but from a roleplaying point of view, it seems to me that saving Amaranthine is a more personal reaction (i.e., a warden who is more about people and saving them) and letting the city burn is more the reaction of a hardened Grey Warden. They are known, after all, to burn whole cities to stop the spread of the Blight... Even Nathaniel will tell you that you should let the city go and save the Keep (though you can persuade him). You can play it however you like, of course, and justify it however you wish. Such is the nature of roleplaying. 
How it affects later games is actually quite minor. It doesn't affect DA:I at ALL as far as I can tell (though they do mention in one war table mission an "Arl of Amaranthine" and I wondered who in the Void that might be, because as far as I know, the Warden-Commander or whomever was in command at Vigil's Keep was effectively the Arl, but I headcanoned it as being an "acting arl" who was in charge for a while). In DA2, of course, you can get a brief (and kind of stupid) quest where you meet up with Nathaniel Howe in the Deep Roads, and there are some ambient dialogues amongst Fereldens regarding how the Warden-Commander handled the situation (it's been a while since I played DA2, so I can't remember the particulars). There are a few other things (Anders being alive even if he died, for example).
The epilogues in Awakening are complete nonsense, by the way. Most of them were thrown out completely, so I wouldn't worry too much about them. Most epilogue slides in Dragon Age are written in sand on a beach at low tide, so don't play just to get a certain ending slide. It may or may not count for something in DA:I and Trespasser (time will tell how much of that they throw out when they suddenly get a new idea for where they want to take the story), but in Awakening, yeah. Meaningless.
I've used that tool before. It's useful. The only snag is it also doesn't recognize some things correctly. Like when you talk to Bodahn. Sometimes he says they're still alive if you did the sacrifice (probably recognizing the Orlesian as the HoF). They're minor bugs... it's just kinda annoying.
For the dead HoF imported into Awakening and be "resurected", it's more of a coding problem in the import system of the game.
Basically, the game couldn't recognize 2 different main characters in the same world state so your dead warden overides the orlesian warden and the only tool to be able to play them both in the same world state is using the console for the PC version of the game 
Yeah, DA2 has import issues. Just one that I know of is that if you don't have Nathaniel with you during the big climax of the game (i.e., you leave him in the Keep), even if he survives (and he will, if you fully upgraded the Keep), when you import that save, DA2 will think he's dead and you don't get the "Finding Nathaniel" quest.
The game apparently has other import issues, as well.
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