33 réponses à ce sujet

[illsteward]

Lots of you made point of me maybe not talking to every companion inbetween all missions. Come to think of it, this MIGHT be the case. I do recall talking to Varric, Solas, Dorian, Cassandra and Leliana a lot... Maybe even after every mission, save maybe Halamshiral, where I skipped Dorian and Solas, and the Nightmare, when I talked just to Varric and Blackwall, as far as I remember. Still, my Inquisitor was either the worst leader ever, or I have withnessed some bug... Because a lot of the "Hunt down X of Templars / Apostates / Thieves" missions triggered to me only just before the Arbor mission and it was very hard (and looked downright unecessary and illogical) to complete them, given the fact how everyone always acted like you should get Corypheus ASAP. Maybe I'll have more luck with my next Inquisitor.

[thedancingdruid]

I simply pretended the Halamshiral plot didn't happen until after I completed everything. Meaning, when I got to Skyhold I didn't talk to Josephine until I completed everything else by talking with Hawke first. It seemed the best way to do it. Finish everything, all regions, all inner circle quests then head to deal with the empress. It works so long as you don't want to romance Josephine, and, even then, I suppose you could simply keep talking to her, a lot, all at once after learning you have to go to the ball in order to secure her personal quest. Especially considering, the Winter Palace doesn't tie into anyone's quest except the main one.

 

Even with all that, I'm in the same situation. My 160+ play was on a PS3. I know, ouch. I now, however, have a sweet new 70" Sharp Q series hooked up to a PS4 and I'm contemplating doing it all over again. Yeah! I had no idea it was snowing in the mountains and actually raining in the Storm Coast. Oh, and when I set up camp there's more than just the same two people. Also, Dorian's mustache doesn't slide up his face anymore. Wow, it's like an entirely different game. Still, kudos to BioWare for even putting it on the ancient consoles in the first place. I had to play the moment the game came out. I couldn't wait until Christmas, as Hawke said, "Perish the thought."

 

Cheers!

[Robert Trevelyan]

Hi illsteward.

 

To answer on your queries a little.

 

1) Cole. What? Cole gets plenty backstory through War Table missions. He was first introduced as a character to the DRagon Age universe through the novel Asunder. Some of the other characters he knew from that book, Rhys and Evangelyne, can be contacted through the War Table after Cole mentions them to you through conversation. Cole is a complicated character. Through your actions you get to decide which he associates as more - A Spirit or a Person. That's your choice.

 

2) Solas. Also makes very little sense. It actually makes a lot more sense in a second playthrough, knowing now what you do. You start realising little things along the way, little hint at his secret. It's still left as a cliffhanger, of course. But it's actually pretty well done.

 

3)  Leliana. How the hell did she made it so far so fast? Not sure how you figure it as so fast. It's been 10 years since Origins. Her profile rose considerably through the Blight and then a Woman she knew in the Chantry got made Divine. She's been operating as Sisrer Nightingale for several years and already had connections with The Divine. It's far from unbelievable.

 

4) Overall chantry reaction. Are they really so naive? Yes and No. And that's kind of the point. They hired a lot of bodguards for The Conclave. They prepared for it. But they only expected a battle between theur own forces. They did not expect a third party to arrive and tear a hole in the fade. Walk back around the Temple of Sacred Ashes if you do another play through. Obseve actual scale of the damage. A few bodies survived in a form that you can tell that they used to be people, the rest were turned ash. Hundreds of people. Burned away to nothing in a single moment. Tearing that hole was like a nuke going off. Who could have planned for that?

 

5) Romance handling. Sounds like you spooned that one righ up. Cassandra can be charmed. But you have to pay attention to her reactions to other in-game decisions. Making the Mages Free for example tanks her approval levels. Did you never get her Romance Quests pop up?

 

6) Red lyrium. Drugs are bad, plotholes worse, mmkaay? While not entirely explained we are told that Red Lyrium is blighted. WE have a Darkspawn Magister walking around, able to control the Taint. Heck that's how he controls the Wardens. He uses Red Lyrium to control the Templars too. It's all pre-planned by Corypheus. It's not exactly a plothole. It's how he's controled everybody. As for how long he's been out and around? Not so relevent. He escaped in the body of a Warden. He likely only returned to his true form later. What I want to know is how You Know Who found him, in order to give him The Orb.

 

7) Red. Holy. Templars. Did they came out of nowhere? No. No. Red Lyrium has been spread to all ranks of the Templars. After the Conclave all those who remained were offered it in order to better fight the Mages. They were order to take it. But of course Corypheus was manipulating the Templar's higher ranks. The Red Lyrium allowed him to control them through the Blight which existed within it.

 

8) The Elven artefact. Small orb rewritting history as we know it? It didn't rewrite history, though. Much of what you have stated about the Elves is correct, yes. The Eluvian network allowed them to cross large distances via the Crossroads. It's not implausible that the Golden City may even once have been Arlathan. There are still unanswered questions there. BUt as to having seen them before? We kind of have. At least they first turned up in the last Dragon Age novel, the Masqued Empire. They are ancient artifacts, and ones lostsince the fall/disappearance of Arlathan.

[illsteward]

@Robert Trevelyan:

1) Started reading Asunder a few minutes after making this thread. While still not making sense, I can at least more imagine how the ingame characters feel around him. I think that this is the first game to REALY need the novels.

2) I guess this is a mistery that is left to solve for other games, in a way. Even though the post-credits scene makes a "reveal".

 

3) Exactly. What I was lacking there was already pointed out by someone other. I didn't notice that Divine Justinia V. is former Revered mother Dorothea, who helped Leliana when she was escaping after the plot in Leliana's song. That actually shone a lot of light on the matter for me.

 

4) Point taken. I did observe the damage every time I was in the temple (made this section twice, because my harddrive went brick during my first playthrough). And what seems weird is that it looked totaly nuke style. As in - no-one expecting the explosions. Those skeletons you see? No-one looks running or anything, they simply stood there when it happened. Scary, I know, but it still means that Corypheus and company SOMEHOW got in, got close enough to Her Holiness, found her with no bodyguards around (save for one Qunari, who came to late, in my cause), and almost completed the ritual. Still, he IS darkspawn and a former Magister. So yeah, I guess he holds that kind of power.

5) As I have stated in this topic, sadly, a lot of quest didn't trigger for me, or appeared in strange ways. Maybe I'll have more success in subsequent playthroughts.

6) I didn't question the mechanics of it. More like how did it get spread around so fast. Someone here came up with a theory that it spreads like a bacteria / virus epidemy. Finds a host, lets him wander around, slowly consuming him and waiting for another host... That could have explained how it got from one little thaig and one little statue to Fereldenwide phenomenon so fast.

7) "...the Red Lyrium allowed him to control them through the Blight which existed within it." <= Good explanation. And the first part might thus explain how Corypheus got so many templars so fast. The game still contradicts itself on this a bit, but this might explain it a bit...

8) Yeah, me and my friend have made a theory like you mentioned now. That the Golden City existed back in times of Arlathan as a regular city, maybe located in Fade, with the Crossroads being maybe one of it's districts. When the Blight stroke (which, if Corypheus was right, must have been before Tevinter mages set foot there), the Elves have decided to quarantine their city, losing all but Crossroads. This subsequently let to decline of Arlathan as an empire and later to it's fall. This theory kind of explains Arcidemons too, as elven deities able to shapeshift into Dragons, but progresively losing the ability to shapeshift back once they got cut off from Fade. Which will explain why Mythal is so interested in them and why they sleep underground (in the elven Everlasting Sleep), until awoken. As for Masked Empire... Well, never have I ever expected the books to have so much impact on the games.
I just seriously hope they won't include comics or do the same think they did with Mass Effect in some countries, where we missed out plot-important DLCs due to "licensing issues"... That made the third ME really confusing, since they cannonized - and bulit upon - events that we had no way to know they happened.

[Melca36]

Its funny how many people said the same things after finishing DA2

[katerinafm]

If you want backstory on Cole, read Asunder. It's a great read regardless.

[illsteward]

@katerinafm:

I am in the midst of it right now. Just reading and checking the forum between chapters. A bit scary, so far... But it explains also a lot about the Western Approach area. O_o

[leaguer of one]

After ME3...I doubt many stick around for the credits for fear of having a DLC advertisement thrown in their face.

The entire ending of DAI was a dlc advertisement.

[Celuwen]

2) Solas. Also makes very little sense. He doesn't seem to be particularly careful, yet no-one seem to know him, recognize him, or as much as notice him sometimes. And I mean in moments you'd expect that elven apostate with vast Fade knowledge will stand out.

 

The other questions have been covered fairly well, but I wanted to touch on this one. I do think you're right to question this and the fact that no one else in the Inquisition does so is probably in itself a bit of a giveaway. Solas is wonderfully adept at deception, which again: reasons. Even so if you know what to look for, he gives himself away quite often. Plus a lot of what he says can be seen as very multi-layered on a second play through. Practically everything he talks about can be revisited in at least three ways! It's wonderful to try and pick apart his words and try and figure out what he's actually thinking.(metaphorically, as your Quizzy remains blissfully ignorant).

 

My hope is that DA4 is based around the reclaiming of the Elvhen heritage. Add to that an invasion from the Qunari (should Tevinter become more unstable and Orlais weaken further) and humans might find themselves suddenly on the lowest rung of the Thedas ladder. I'm also utterly fascinated by the hints about Dwarves.