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[Ieldra]

Rune Cadash's story, prologue part 2:

 

I had been walking down the path, following Cassandra to see what fate holds in stock for me this time. Well, a giant rift in the sky is at least something new. I don't feel particularly threatened. If I die, I die, the same as before. However, that I can do something about it, that is new. Magic, they tell me. On a dwarf. That's new as well.

I meet Varric. Damn. Here we are with a giant rift in the sky and all I can think is "Wow, he's hot." Well, I may at least take my pleasures as long as I have the chance. No such thing with Varric, however. The way he looks at his crossbow, outright creepy. So much for a little fun in-between.

I'm playing this game on the "Hard" difficulty setting, and that becomes apparent when fighting the Pride demon at the temple. I have to restart this fight three times. Problems: My bow does a measly 3-5 damage to the demon, and Long Shot doesn't improve things, and I timed the rift disruption wrongly several times so that the demon's infinite-strength guard came up and reinforcements appeared right after I had used the ability. So all I'm good for at this point is waiting until the demon's guard comes up, going into stealth to avoid the shades and then disrupting the rift. I'm using tactical mode to position the others so that they don't all get damaged from the demon's AOE attacks. When the last attempts ends with a win, we're down to 3 healing potions.

Waking up in a nondescript wooden hut, I am greeted by an elf....who bows before me as if I'm some tyrant. This can't be real. If this is what humans call dreaming, it's creepy and I want no part of it. Feels pretty solid though. The elf babbles some nonsense about the Breach having stopped growing because of me. I look at my hand. It feels different. Perhaps not complete nonsense after all. That means its all real. Including the bowing elf. Heck, who does that if they don't have to, it's disgusting. Is he....afraid of me? He looks like a child. I....don't want him to be afraid of me. I tell him there's no reason to be afraid and we talk. I understand people are...happy with me? No, this can't be real after all. Or can it? I look around for something better to wear and find some really impressive-looking armor in a chest, with shoulder plates in form of dragon wings, and gold ornamentation. A bow that fits the style as well. I'd believe it was the local lord's or something like that except it's all dwarf-sized. Well, I might as well enjoy this cloud-cuckoo-land while it lasts, and if it's all real... that thought ends in a confusing jumble. OK, I think, they need me and this is the carrot. Let's see about the stick. And I step out of the door.

[Ieldra]

Rune Cadash's story, prologue part 3:

 

As I step out of the house there are a number of people who stare at me as if I was a unicorn. I hear one of them calling me "Herald of Andraste". Hmph. If they only knew who really sent me here and for what purpose. Still, they call me that because I stopped the Breach from growing, and it does feel nice to be appreciated for something I did, no matter that I couldn't close it as they hoped. 

 

I enter the Chantry and as I approach the door to the war room, I hear Chancellor Roderick again calling for my execution. I stop to listen. He doesn't appear to get the upper hand, and I'm not defenseless anymore so I step in, right in time to hear Cassandra declare the re-formation of "The Inquisition". Uh....wasn't that some organization of religious zealots who killed people for believing the wrong stuff? I don't want to have anything to do with that. Cassandra seems a halfway decent sort, however. She even apologizes for having been too harsh. I suppress a smile. That wasn't harsh. And of course, as I guessed, they need my help. There appears to have been someone behind the opening of the Breach who clearly wasn't me, and they want him found.

 

Then the talk revolves around this "Herald of Andraste" business. Ludicrous. Me, some sort of religious figure in a faith I don't even believe in? And then I hear they're not even attempting to curb the rumor. Solas - the elven mage full of stories about the Fade - says this belief gives me power, but all the power I see is in the hands of those who make use of it. Which isn't me. Hmm...perhaps I should just roll with the avalanche and take some. People will believe what they want to believe anyway, and seeing those people outside? I've always despised people who didn't take their fate into their own hands as best as they could, but this is different. This time I have the power to close rifts, and they don't. It feels odd, having a power nobody else has, and unsettling to see people's hopes rest in me. Me, a casteless dwarf who's killed her share of innocent people, no matter it was on orders and I hated it every single time. We'll see. For now, closing down demon gates is something I don't need to be pushed to do, as long as I'm not alone in taking the risk. Better put off thinking about the religious stuff for now, maybe it will all vanish into thin air.

 

I walk around the town of Haven. In the Chantry building, I meet Josephine while she's debating with a local lord. She handles him competently. I suppress a chuckle. At the end of the day, he'll probably think the Inquisition is doing him a favor by camping in "his" town. I recall these are both nobles and call up my oddly comprehensive knowledge of Fereldan etiquette. I've never told anyone how I came by that, but it got me the position as an "envoy" to the Conclave. I continue my walk around the town, exploring this and that and speaking with people. People treat me as one of their own, or as if I'd stepped out of a cloud. I prefer the former. After speaking with Cassandra and Cullen, I'm getting the impression as if this could grow into something big. I still feel like a tagalong, but perhaps some attitude adjustment is in order. In the tavern, there's a woman named Maryden singing songs, and I stop to listen for a time. The songs are nice, but the performance could use a little more fire in the more lively pieces.       

 

Now it's time to leave and start doing something about all this chaos. I wonder if they'll really let me do the talking at that meeting with the Chantry priest, Mother Giselle. I guess there's only one way to find out. Before I head out, some strategic decisions have to be made, and I'm actually called to make them. I guess they *are* serious. OK, I decide if they're being honest with me here, I'll do my best for them. Making people smile feels way better than making them cry anyway. I just hope it won't get me killed.

 

I almost forget to change my armor. That dragon armor they've given me looks fancy, but it's crap. I can craft a better one just from stuff laying around here, and I'm not even a smith. How does anyone ever survive a fight against demons with equipment like that? The only competent armorer appears to be that man, Harrit. Anyway, time to leave for the Fereldan Hinterlands. What kind of people may live in an area named like that....

[Ieldra]

I'm sorry to say I finished this playthrough without further write-ups. There are several reasons for that. First, I didn't really find who I wanted Rune Cadash to be, so roleplaying was a bit of a mess, and as a result the way I experienced the different parts of the story was all over the place. Also, I had seen almost everything before, so if not for differences from the roleplaying viewpoint, there wasn't much I wouldn't repeat. And lastly, I played this game completely on "hard", and that meant I had to pay attention to the combat and couldn't get into the mindset for writing in-between.

 

However, there were significant differences I'd like to comment on now as I've finished this playthrough, as well as some more random observations.

 

(1) I played the templar storyline in this playthrough. Unfortunately, the envy demon and what it showed me didn't work at all for me and left me completely cold, as opposed to Alexius and the vision of a dark future in "In Hushed Whispers". I don't know exactly why, but the fact that my power fantasies tend to run more along Corypheus' lines may have been the main factor. Gaining a level of individual autonomy akin to a deity's, I'd easily be tempted by that. Meanwhile, more mundane power means you're always bound by the very organization you lead, as the Inquisitor herself amply demonstrates. While both kinds of power are desirable, there lies little temptation for me in the latter, and roleplaying characters who are different from me in that is particularly difficult.

 

(2) On the other hand, Calpurnia (spelled that way on purpose since IMO the game misspells the name) is a much more interesting antagonist than Samson, and the visit to Dumat's Shrine is much more enlightening about Corypheus in the "templars as allies" version. Samson always came across as not quite rational and somewhat stupid, while Calpurnia I could understand. 

 

(3) All in all, I expected more parts of the game be more different between the mage and templar storylines. The only maps affected were the Shrine of Dumat and the final chamber in the Temple of Mythal. Particularly, it was disappointing that I still got red templars instead of Venatori on the rest of the Arbor Wilds map, and that the Emprise du Lion didn't change at all.

 

(4) I played this game on the "hard" setting, and as a result I paid more attention to equipment and crafting, doing things like visiting the Hissing Wastes early to get the materials for better equipment, and killing dragons specifically for the purpose of getting the bone, the scales and the webbing. I should say that all this was surprisingly enjoyable as I delved deeper into the mechanics of the combat, selecting talents for synergy, and as a result the fights became significantly easier over time, with some notable exceptions.

I have now played the game on three difficulty settings (normal, casual and hard), and I recommend trying the game on "hard" to anyone who's thought about it. The hardest encounter by far is the pride demon at the end of the prologue. It's a pretty good gating encounter: if you can beat that (it took me three attempts - none of the subsequent fights did that), you can also beat the rest of the game, and if you're well-equipped, you'll trash Corypheus in fairly short order. The only really annoying enemies are high-level melee rogues. If you don't pay close attention to them and they get lucky with their criticals, one of them can kill your party before you've even noticed you're dead. Also, the Revenants in the Cradle of Sulevin are "poof, you're dead" material, particularly in high levels. I got there at L23. It's not so much the Revenants alone that make this difficult, but they're accompanied by hordes of Corpse Archers.

I also killed all the dragons, and only needed my focus ability (which I find OP to the point of being almost a cheat, see below) in the two fights where I was underleveled (L18 against the L20 Hissing Wastes dragon and L21 against the Highland Ravager). Most notably I didn't need it against Corypheus.

 

(5) Rune Cadash was a ranged Rogue, and I found ranged Rogues are badass. I chose the Artificer specialization but mainly for the passives and the focus ability. Stealth isn't quite as good as Fade Step in order to get away from enemies that get too close, but works well enough alternating with Leaping Shot. Damage output doesn't come close to a melee Rogue's I guess, but it can be insane nonetheless. I once one-shot a Red Templar Behemoth. 

 

(6) Story-wise, the impression that the main storyline is incomplete remains. Not so much because of the ending, which is a real ending, but the pacing appears to be off and I continue to think that there should be another main plot mission between Here Lies the Abyss/Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts and What Pride has Wrought. Or somewhere else, depending on how you play. Also, how the Breach is handled is confusing: you close it early mid-game, but still people refer to a hole in the sky for the rest of the story. Why is that? I suspect some serious restructuring has happened at some time rather late in development. Also, the lack of a city hub deserving of the name becomes ever more noticeable.

 

(7) I very much dislike the distribution of the schematics, and the fact that I have to depend on random drops for anything outstanding. I find dozens of dagger schematics (I don't use melee rogues) and dozens of greatsword schematics (I don't use two-handed fighters) while bows and staffs are rare. I found exactly one tier 3 masterwork bow schematic by random chance and no masterwork staff schematic at all, and you can buy some tier weapons 3 schematics, but if you go by the standard map sequence, only at a point where one map is left to play with them. I also have no tier 3 headgear schematics at all.

 

(8) On the other hand, I love the design of the armors. Not that they're really realistic, being much too beautiful to be dirtied in real combat, but they do look functional with things like breastplates protecting the vitals even in the medium armors and believable padding in the light ones. Some of the gloves and boots are ridiculous, but overall it's a very good compromise between functionality and aesthetics. I think Bioware has hit the sweet spot in this. I can even forgive Sera since she's clearly made around the idea of not being where the sharp metal hits rather than deflecting attacks.

 

(9) I'm of two minds about the way the "faith and doubt" theme has been handled. I can't fault the roleplaying opportunities I get (except in one case, at that cult in the Hinterlands) and I'm mostly happy with them, but the story's reactivity to my choices in that regard leaves something to be desired. Basically, I can't make my stance actually affect anything, even in minor ways, in spite of the power I wield. Which may not be all that implausible, but it means that the Inquisitor may go down in recorded history as the leader of a organization whose power rests largely in faith, regardless of the fact that my Inquisitors tend to go out of their way to tell people that they should have faith in what they can do rather than in distant gods. Well, I guess nobody gets a say about how history treats them, but as players we are in the unique situation of being able to read future accounts in the next games.

 

(10) I have now played the game with characters of three difference races: human, elf and dwarf. They feel sufficiently different to be worth replaying the game IMO, but the dwarf feels a little disconnected. The elf feels naturally part of the story, mainly because of what happens in the final chapter, and my human mage feels naturally part of it because she's a mage. I also have the occasional race-specific option or reaction. This aspect might be a little underdeveloped still, though I commend Bioware of making the game react to the choice at all in more than cosmetic ways.

 

(11) This was my most "completionist" game so far. I have found all but three mosaic pieces, all regions but the bugged one, all bottles, landmarks, shards etc.. and I'm only missing once piece of the Notes on the Wastes (is there a dungeon that opens if you have all of them? If so, I'm missing that, too of course). However, I'm missing a ton of Codex entries - I estimate about 20% in the history and tales sections. That's immensely galling. I will attempt to rectify that on my replay of my first Inquisitor, which will come next, albeit much more slowly than before.

 

And finally, here some screenshots of my last playthrough:

 

Rune Cadash entering Adamant Fortress:

 

Rune Cadash in Val Royeaux. The armor is dragonscale sturdy prowler armor and the Cowl of the Overseer

 

 

Rune Cadash's endgame team. All in crafted armors and weapons.

[Ieldra]

I have decided to let my main Inquisitor make my post-Trespasser comments in her words:

From the notes of Maelyn Trevelyan:

"I do not believe in gods, I told Corypheus at the final confrontation, and what happened since - what turned out to be the truth behind everything that happened ever since I was thrown out of the Fade with the Mark on my hand - should prove to everyone why. For Solas acted exactly with the regard I'd have expected of him had I known he was Fen'Harel before. That he refuses to regard himself as a god does not change the light that illuminates his actions. Why should I not regard him as equal to those Evanuris he fought against in the past, since all we'll gain from his plans will be exactly the same as we'd have gained from them. Regarding the gods, the wisdom I have to offer is this: "Keep away from them, and do not get entangled in their machinations unless you have the power to match them." I have always believed that beings like Solas or Mythal existed, and that I do not believe the same of the Maker is a different matter entirely. When I said I do not believe in gods, I meant that no beings exist that deserve what mortals give to beings like Solas or Mythal as they name them gods - the unquestioning regard, the devotion, the acceptance of their pronouncements as ultimate wisdom. And behind all my aspirations to power, there has always been one single desire: to match any power that would control my fate, and to give the ability to do so - to defy both real gods and pretenders to divinity - to everyone who desires it."

"I have failed. I, and the organization I lead, became entangled in the machinations of gods, and since we did not have the power to match them, we lost. Never mind the disregard of Ferelden and Orlais, that was always to be expected, part of the game of power necessarily played by anyone who would attempt to change the face of Thedas. The truth of the matter is this: had I not lost the Mark, I would not have disbanded the Inquisition whatever Orlais and Ferelden might've thrown at me. The Mark gave me a wider reach and a wider perspective than any other ruler, and without it, I would be just another ruler of a perfectly normal power. Thedas does not need more of those."

"Perhaps it is just as well. The Inquisition was, after all, built on a foundation of faith, and as such, might even be considered anathema to my ultimate purpose - not the kind of organisation to inspire people to wrest control of their fate out of the hands of the powers that be, of whatever kind they may be. Maybe it was not the time for it either, and the smaller issues - the fate of the slaves in Tevinter, of the elves in Ferelden, and the qunari - must be attended to first. Still, I can't but regret the loss of a tool like the Mark, especially after the latest revelations, since it symbolizes my purpose best: a god's power, taken for myself in order to stand against another of its kind."

"So what now? Well, in the stories I have always admired those who spit fate in the eye and went on, regardless of what was thrown at them. I guess it's time for me to take up their mantle. After all, what we are up against is, in a sense, that which I've always fought against, even though most of the time it was more in the minds and hearts of people than in physical and magical reality. As opposed to the Mark attached to it, the loss of my arm, as galling as it is considering who's responsible for everything, is not - forgive the pun - crippling. I was always better at the war table than out in the field anyway, and in the end it's strategy and magical power that will likely decide the coming war, rather than a lost hand."

"There's only one thing I regret: that in the stories they'll tell of me, I'll be one of countless other "heroes" who lost something personal in the end and in personal matters, ended up worse off than when they started out. I had hoped to be different, inspire a different kind of story, let the children who hear the old one ask why the heck don't these heroes get something for all they did in the end. It's just as well I don't believe in the Maker - I'd have to fight him about this. Not that it would be the only thing I'd fight him about. Whatever the people of faith say, I find it much easier to accept an unpleasant fate if nobody is responsible. Against everything else, I will fight. And the rest of my story may be hidden from the face of the world and never be told by anyone, but it's not done. I will not be dependent. Not even on the will of a god. And I won't have the world depend on it either."

[Steelcan]

I'm just curious, is there a reason you put Blackwall in Templar armor?

 

Is it cause of its stats or a more story driven reason?

[Ieldra]

I'm just curious, is there a reason you put Blackwall in Templar armor?

 

Is it cause of its stats or a more story driven reason?

Neither. I chose it because it looks good on him. Actually I didn't even realize it was templar armor until much later, and then I had become used to it. In this playthrough anyway.

 

Which is not my main Inquisitor's. I won't put up pictures of her since at this point, that reminds me too much of what she's lost. Trespasser's ending is a good one from a storytelling perspective, which is why I accept it, but nonetheless I do not like the outcome, as my Inquisitor's latest commentary indicates.