Guest_TheDarkKnightReturns_*
I'm not one to rock the boat too much. For the most part I like the world as it is. Plenty of conflicting interests, wars, and alliances. Policies that I agree and disagree with. Views that I find fascinating and sometimes weird.
But Orzammar... C'MON. That nutcase Branka is a Paragon and the genius Dagna is casteless? WTF is wrong with you guys?
It's their culture. Surface Dwarves lose touch with the stone, they don't return to the ancestors.
Guest_TheDarkKnightReturns_*
It's their culture. Surface Dwarves lose touch with the stone, they don't return to the ancestors.
I get it. I know the lore. They lose their Stone Sense. Can't hear the song of the Ancestors and all that awesome dwarfy stuff. But when their culture is becoming detrimental to not only their advancement, but their survival you'd think they'd do what everyone else does. Adapt.
Damn, you'd think for all his progressiveness Bhelen would've changed some rules in the Shaperate by now. They should at least examine exceptional surfacers for potential Paragon status (without having to end a Blight anyway).
The Shaperate and the Assembly have perverted the teachings of the Stone and twisted them to their own political ends. They must be overturned, so the dwarven master race can reach its true potential.
All that rock must apply some imaginary pressure on their brains, add to being boiled by magma.
I get it. I know the lore. They lose their Stone Sense. Can't hear the song of the Ancestors and all that awesome dwarfy stuff. But when their culture is becoming detrimental to not only their advancement, but their survival you'd think they'd do what everyone else does. Adapt.
Damn, you'd think for all his progressiveness Bhelen would've changed some rules in the Shaperate by now. They should at least examine exceptional surfacers for potential Paragon status (without having to end a Blight anyway).
But which cultures truly want to adapt? They all, including that of Western civilisation, believe they are where they are supposed to be.
It gets better. Listen to the trio at the empress's ball. There's rioting due to lack of food, we never get to get involved in. At least is has been for my past few playthroughs that have Harrowment as king, he makes the dwarves more insular. It may be different for Bhelan, but some stuff is going on there and I wanna know what it is.
Bhelen doesn't have riots, he is actively working to combat the shortage unlike Harrowmont who is too busy lining his pockets.
Bhelen is also working with the merchants guild to liaison with Kal Sharok and if you let Branka live, he shuts her down because she does awful experiments on the Casteless.
And he allows the Casteless to go into the Deep Roads along with soldiers to combat the Darkspawn. He might seem the more ruthless option but he get's s*** done!
Bhelen doesn't have riots, he is actively working to combat the shortage unlike Harrowmont who is too busy lining his pockets.
Bhelen is also working with the merchants guild to liaison with Kal Sharok and if you let Branka live, he shuts her down because she does awful experiments on the Casteless.
I don't know what I've done that my last handful of worldstates all have Harrowment as king. I'd forgotten what they say if Bhelan is king, which is my general preference.
My point being, stuff is going on in the world that the inquisition doesn't deal with. Might be fun if DA4 runs parallel to DAI and deals with some of this.
Wasn't a hard choice for my Brosca, haha. Harrowmont can suck an egg.
Generally I pick Bhelan, but my first Aeducan picked Harrowmont. I don't remember picking Harrowmont so...often, though.
IIRC There is a way, or more accurately a loophole, for surface dwarves to be on the surface and part of a caste. You have to be born in Tevinter as a dwarf. The culture of dwarves there is that they are all ambassadors and envoys for Orzammar. They function as a lobby for the lyrium bussiness, but as envoys they have underground embassies in most major tevinter cities and thus can claim they are still part of a caste 
Bhelen doesn't have riots, he is actively working to combat the shortage unlike Harrowmont who is too busy lining his pockets.
Bhelen is also working with the merchants guild to liaison with Kal Sharok and if you let Branka live, he shuts her down because she does awful experiments on the Casteless.
This is making me like Bhelen more and more 
I think the food shortages ARE tied to the civil war though.
But yes the Kal Sharok stuff is hopefully leading to something, I'm very excited..
Rumor has it they eat darkspawn. They're also less set in their ways than Orzamaar and a hope bantered about was that Inquisitor Cadash was from Kal Sharok.
Maybe next game...
IIRC There is a way, or more accurately a loophole, for surface dwarves to be on the surface and part of a caste. You have to be born in Tevinter as a dwarf. The culture of dwarves there is that they are all ambassadors and envoys for Orzammar. They function as a lobby for the lyrium bussiness, but as envoys they have underground embassies in most major tevinter cities and thus can claim they are still part of a caste
Basically, it's dwarf culture that something can't be done unless it benefits the nobles for some reason.
Brosca, the castless paragon and mistress of the human king of Fereldan...the scandal!
Guest_TheDarkKnightReturns_*
IIRC There is a way, or more accurately a loophole, for surface dwarves to be on the surface and part of a caste. You have to be born in Tevinter as a dwarf. The culture of dwarves there is that they are all ambassadors and envoys for Orzammar. They function as a lobby for the lyrium bussiness, but as envoys they have underground embassies in most major tevinter cities and thus can claim they are still part of a caste
This is making me like Bhelen more and more
Alas, Dagna was born in Orzammar. It reminds me of backward ass thinking of 70 years ago.
Guest_TheDarkKnightReturns_*
Rumor has it they eat darkspawn. They're also less set in their ways than Orzamaar and a hope bantered about was that Inquisitor Cadash was from Kal Sharok.
Maybe next game...
I don't know about eating them. I'm sure they have their own version of the Joining though.
Solas has some dialogue with Varric that, as far as I know, happens regardless of who's king where Solas asks "Why do the dwarves tighten their hold on the lyrium trade and use it to leverage aid from the surface; either claim soveriegn land or demand their help in fighting back against the darkspawn", where Varric answers, essentially, "You're not saying anything I haven't said myself. Orzammar's always been that way and is always going to be that way."
Personally that annoyed me for two reasons. First, it undercuts Bhelen's role as a reformer, but I'll let that slide because it's only been ten years and he's fighting an uphill battle. Secondly, since when has Varric given two thoughts about Orzammar's politics? When has he ever cared enough to put that much thought into the problem? What makes Varric, this guy who's established to love surface life and have no love for dwarven culture, this enlightened philosopher on issues dwarven?
sounds like Orzammar propaganda to me.
I don't know about eating them. I'm sure they have their own version of the Joining though.
I forogot where I read it, around here somewhere I think. It was accompanied by a codex entry or some such about someone interviewing a Kal'Sharok native, and the last line was how they've seen darkspawn and gray wardens, and can't quite put their finger on what in the eyes of the Kal'Sharok dwarf reminded them of both.
As I recall, they're more cutoff from help than Orzamaar, so the theory, again, as I recall, was that they eat darkspawn for survival.
Guest_TheDarkKnightReturns_*
Solas has some dialogue with Varric that, as far as I know, happens regardless of who's king where Solas asks "Why do the dwarves tighten their hold on the lyrium trade and use it to leverage aid from the surface; either claim soveriegn land or demand their help in fighting back against the darkspawn", where Varric answers, essentially, "You're not saying anything I haven't said myself. Orzammar's always been that way and is always going to be that way."
Personally that annoyed me for two reasons. First, it undercuts Bhelen's role as a reformer, but I'll let that slide because it's only been ten years and he's fighting an uphill battle. Secondly, since when has Varric given two thoughts about Orzammar's politics? When has he ever cared enough to put that much thought into the problem? What makes Varric, this guy who's established to love surface life and have no love for dwarven culture, this enlightened philosopher on issues dwarven?
He wrote Darktown's Deal. He has a grasp of their politics. And while he may have converted to Andrastianism, while still occasionally referencing his Ancestors, he was raised in the same house as Bartrand who was very much a red blooded Dwarven traditionalist. So much so that he tried to recreate the Noble Caste on the surface out of the Merchant's Guild. You don't grow up with someone like that without learning a thing or two about the culture. In Varric's case he thinks it's a lost cause.
Varric's not. He probably knows a fair amount about it from his dealings with the Guild and general information gathering, but his perspective is obviously biased and not all encompassing and shouldn't be seen otherwise. Solas also has a huge blind spot about dwarves. That conversation shouldn't be read as a general condemnation of them, just two guys who think they know everything talking about a subject they don't know everything about.
agreed.
Also if Orzammar wanted too it could destroy Tevinter faster then the Qun ever could by just going "nope no more lyrium for you." they don't because well the lyrium trade in tevinter makes Orzammar rich and tevinter needs all that lyrium so they are willing to pay the price that the dwarves are charging.
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