The Architect is a damn idiot who screws up everything he touches, but the Grey Wardens need every ally they can get. Especially if Corypheus is running loose, we'll likely need The Architect's help to stop him.
Well, the Architect is the expert on the Taint and undoing its control, and Corypheus is certainly exploiting the Taint to control Grey Wardens.
Non-darkspawn have never managed to win any meaningful military victory over an entire horde.
I spare the Architect, both because of my general principle of not killing people who aren't trying to kill me, and because I want to share in his knowledge and power. And, though it's a long shot, maybe even have a chance of peace.
Having read The Calling, I always kill the Architect. Hes too dangerous, his ideas on how to bring about lasting peace are madness to put it mildly. Plus, I just don't like the idea of Intelligent Darkspawn. Such creatures could carry out their own blights long after the last archdemon is slain.
Having read The Calling, I always kill the Architect. Hes too dangerous, his ideas on how to bring about lasting peace are madness to put it mildly. Plus, I just don't like the idea of Intelligent Darkspawn. Such creatures could carry out their own blights long after the last archdemon is slain.
This is pretty much my opinion as well. I can't remember Awakening that well but it may be that Awakening doesn't really give the player the full information a bout what the Architect actually wants to do.
Where I agree with you, though, is that intelligent darkspawn improve the odds of any horde's success to the degree that it's very easy to argue that they should not be allowed to exist - if one wanted to argue that. And since darkspawn are literally impossible to coexist with, due to the corrupting nature of the taint, it's very defensible to suggest that it's not safe enough to simply trust in their intelligent leaders to 1) not fight and 2) keep away from everybody else.
The main shortfall in this line of argument vis-a-vis the Architect choice is that the option to eliminate the intelligent darkspawn is never available. The Architect has already created more Awakened Darkspawn, and these Awakened will survive regardless and be able to produce more Awakened regardless of whether the Architect is killed or not.
The Awakened Darkspawn is a ship that sailed long ago. The choice to kill the Architect isn't an opportunity to stop or reverse that development, but merely a choice to kill one particular Awakened Darkspawn in particular. As much as I agree that it's not safe enough to simply trust their intelligent leaders... there's really no other alternative at this time. The intelligent leaders exist, and will continue to exist regardless for some indefinite time into the future, and there's nothing the Wardens and surface nations can do to stop the growth and social evolution of the newly awakened Darkspawn.
Between the limited engagement and influence of a partnership with and trusting the Architect to stop fighting and keep the Darkspawn away from the surface, and the utter lack of engagement and influence of no partnership and trusting the other intelligent Darkspawn to stop fighting and keep the Darkspawn away from the surface...
There are arguments to be made in favor of killing the Architect, but a security argument on the basis of intelligent darkspawn isn't one of them.
I think that they have. For one thing, Drakon's Orlesian armies scored several notable victories over the darkspawn in the Second Blight. These victories helped him cement his power and authority in southern Thedas, even though the Blight itself was not ended: indicative, I think, that the darkspawn menace was not necessarily an existential threat at that time. Earlier, in the First Blight, Tevinter armies began turning back the darkspawn long before Dumat was killed the first time, and after Dumat was killed the last time, the horde remained in being, albeit badly disorganized, and had to be forced underground in a series of hard-fought campaigns.
But on a more general level, if the darkspawn won chains of endless victories and nothing but until the Archdemon was slain, it's hard to imagine the civilizations of Thedas surviving at all. Defensive wins, like the Tevinter victory in the siege of Minrathous during the Second Blight, are plenty "meaningful" on their own.
Ultimately, though, battle is a lottery, and darkspawn armies can lose that particular game of chance just as much as any other armies.
Where I agree with you, though, is that intelligent darkspawn improve the odds of any horde's success to the degree that it's very easy to argue that they should not be allowed to exist - if one wanted to argue that. And since darkspawn are literally impossible to coexist with, due to the corrupting nature of the taint, it's very defensible to suggest that it's not safe enough to simply trust in their intelligent leaders to 1) not fight and 2) keep away from everybody else.
While you're entirely right that I understated and exaggerated the success of the darkspawn, you understate the damage done by the First Blight. It actually did basically lead to a collapse of Thedosian civilization. So much harm and damage was done that there's basically a sharp historical divide as to the pre and post Frst Blight period because very few records have survived.
My point about the awakened darkspawn was only meant to be this: that the 1st blight was, initially, an unstoppable apocalypse because the archdemon was unkillable and always controlled the horde, which the races of Thedas simply could not defeat in any consistent fashion. The dwarves were overrun, and Tevinter and humanity was well on the way of sharing the same fate until the GWs were formed. With Awakened darkspawn, there's no hope of such a victory: the Awakened could wage a blight in perpetuity.
The main shortfall in this line of argument vis-a-vis the Architect choice is that the option to eliminate the intelligent darkspawn is never available. The Architect has already created more Awakened Darkspawn, and these Awakened will survive regardless and be able to produce more Awakened regardless of whether the Architect is killed or not.
The Awakened Darkspawn is a ship that sailed long ago. The choice to kill the Architect isn't an opportunity to stop or reverse that development, but merely a choice to kill one particular Awakened Darkspawn in particular. As much as I agree that it's not safe enough to simply trust their intelligent leaders... there's really no other alternative at this time. The intelligent leaders exist, and will continue to exist regardless for some indefinite time into the future, and there's nothing the Wardens and surface nations can do to stop the growth and social evolution of the newly awakened Darkspawn.
Between the limited engagement and influence of a partnership with and trusting the Architect to stop fighting and keep the Darkspawn away from the surface, and the utter lack of engagement and influence of no partnership and trusting the other intelligent Darkspawn to stop fighting and keep the Darkspawn away from the surface...
There are arguments to be made in favor of killing the Architect, but a security argument on the basis of intelligent darkspawn isn't one of them.
There's no possibility of a partnership. You hold absolutely none of the cards. All that you have is a brilliant,intelligent and powerful darkspawn that clearly, unlike the other Awakened, has mastered a ritual for creating more of them and is capable of industrializing it, and a bunch of basically insane brutes whose critical thinking skills make Oghren look like a Nobel Laureate.
Awakened darkspawn exist and can't realistically be wiped out - but with the Architect alive there are a threat far worse than with him dead.
By decapitating their leadership now, it's possible to seriously and substantially stunt their development. There's no indication at all any of them have any idea how to create more of themselves, and there's absolutely no indication any of them have the intellectual wherewithal to copy the Architect's ritual.
Killed him, the only way he can create intelligent Darkspawn is with Gray Warden blood and I don't believe for a second that he would hesitate to kill Wardens to create more of his ilk.
I always spare him.
I agree with Lady Ashe (I think it's her who said it anyway) that Blights have always been an inevitability; the cycle must be broken for anything to truly change, and the Architect may just be the key to doing that.
I spare the Architect, both because of my general principle of not killing people who aren't trying to kill me, and because I want to share in his knowledge and power. And, though it's a long shot, maybe even have a chance of peace.
But he is trying to kill you. He tried to kill you twice! And that's when he was in your face about it.
The only good Darkspawn is a dead Darkspawn. The Architect is no exception.
The only good Darkspawn is a dead Darkspawn. The Architect is no exception.
I did the Dark Ritual, spared the Architect, and spared Avernus.
I want to see where this crazy train goes, even if it's off a cliff.
To make a long story short, In DAO-A, I liked Sigrun who can't stand darkspawns... So I killed all of them.
I remember I let him live, but I can't remember why. I hope the keep goes over his motives again because it's been a long time since I've played awakening and my morals have defiantly changed since I last played.
I killed him:
1) Justice. He started the Fifth Blight. All those lives lost must be avenged.
2) Read the Calling. His plans never work, or cause a lot of collateral damage and needless suffering.
3) He does not wish to destroy the Darkspawn. Broodmothers are needed for their survival. I don't think so.
4) The Taint itself is still a plague to all living things, no matter how smart the darkspawn become.
5) What would the dwarves, who have to deal with darkspawn everyday, have to think about this? They don't want sentient darkspawn, and I don't blame them.
It's times like this I wish Duncan was here, I could use his guidance. 
I killed the architect and his little tainted buddies without hearing whatever he wanter to blabber about. Darkspawn are corruption made manifest and are to be destroyed, not bartered with.
It's times like this I wish Duncan was here, I could use his guidance.
Duncan knew about the Architect. He would say kill him... actually, he would probably just start attacking the Architect with or without your consent.
They didn't have a friendly parting when last they met...
I always kill him.
I don't think he's competent enough to make his plan work and stop the blights. He's just going to kill a whole lot of people trying. When he mucks up his next plan I don't want to have to deal with an army of intelligent darkspawn. I'm also not too keen on spreading the taint to everybody in Thedas, or using Warden blood to do so. There's also the problem with the need for broodmothers.
My main Warden killed him, because I didn't trust him.
I sided with him on another playthrough, and learned about his role in the fifth Blight and the Mother, then his true plan in the Calling. I don't like to use meta knowledge to make my character's decisions, but it certainly leaves a bad taste in my mouth to help him now.
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