No one is asking to go and shake the Makers hand. However his influence needs to be felt. The world is going into the toilet because mortals and powerful deities alike are totally out of control. All the world has seen for thousands of years is chaos and steady decline.
Some people believe his influence is in the world. Perhaps the Inquistion's triumph over Corypheus is a sign of his hand? That's certainly what my first Inquisitor believed.
Comparisons with the real world are a non starter here...nobody in this world can throw a frostbite spell at will or create a breach in the sky.
This is a fantasy world. We should focus on whether somehow the lore can make sense in this world Bioware has created
But this question comes to the exact same problem: we have literally no idea why, if he did at all.
Who's to say it was even created. Perhaps it just came into existence like our universe did
When Alistair or Mother Giselle or Cassandra say "thank the Maker" I assure you they are not thinking of the Bioware team
they are thanking Gaider for not pointing the story to kill them.... 
The Old Gods, the Elven Gods, that's where it's at in Thedas. The Maker is just another human fairytale.
I struggle with this theory because someone had to have assigned jobs to these deities. Someone must have said Mythal was in charge of Justice, Fen Harel in charge of rebellion, and Elgarnan in charge of the sun.
Who assigned these gods their portfolios?
I struggle with this theory because some had to have assigned jobs to these deities. Someone must have said Mythal was in charge of Justice, Fen Harel in charge of rebellion, and Elgarnan in charge of the sun.
Who assigned these gods their portfolios?
Probably the same people who assigned the saints their jobs, and the hindu deities and etc. I think part of the way the plot is going with the end game reveal is that we really have no idea how the fade and these different ideas of old gods and elven gods work or how they exist, similarly with the maker. As far as I understand the elves don't believe in the maker or at least not the human maker and we've seen tangible proof their gods do exist. So what does that say about the Maker?
I struggle with this theory because some had to have assigned jobs to these deities. Someone must have said Mythal was in charge of Justice, Fen Harel in charge of rebellion, and Elgarnan in charge of the sun.
Who assigned these gods their portfolios?
Their worshipers.
There's a lot of assumptions in the OP,
Your first assumption is that the Maker exists at all, and isn't just a hopeful figment of people's imagination. In a world where the gods that we know exist (elven) kept slaves and sounded like right bastards, it isn't entirely out of the question to assume that some people might prefer to believe in a god that didn't keep slaves or even interact with the world at all - even if that god had to be made up.
Now, if the Maker does exist, why is it assumed he is good, or cares about the quality of life in Thedas? Before he created Thedas, he apparently had already made spirits, angelic beings with purity of purpose. There was no pain, and since we know that spirits only become demons if corrupted from their purpose (by mortals), there was no sin. If the Maker wanted a perfectly good and pure world, we can assume he would have stopped at spirits and wouldn't have made mortals at all.
If we believe the myths that he created mortals because he wanted more change and meaning, then we also have to assume that he introduced evil into the world to act as a counter point to the pure virtue that already existed thanks to the Fade. Philosophically, the presence and persistence of evil is what gives good and virtue meaning. Without conflict, virtue has no meaning, it simply exists. It is only within a world of uncertainty, chaos, filled with evil, that purity, virtue, and goodness mean something.
Choice, motivation and uncertainty is what defines mortals and Thedas when compared to the spirits and Fade. If the Maker directly intercedes, shows himself, and picks a side, then it completely negates that meaning, and ultimately negates the purpose of his creation. If people are good because they know, without a doubt, that a higher power wants them to be, then it ceases to be a choice.
It's my belief that if the Maker exists, he didn't create mortals - the Maker simply gave spirits the ability to make decisions, to choose. As long as people can continue to make choices, of their own free will, his creation has meaning.
And if Thedas is to be destroyed, it will be at the hands of the mortals, either through action or inaction. But if it is to be saved, it will also be at the hands of the mortals. Either way, there is true meaning and real choice, regardless of how many suffer.
Btw didint read all of the posts here, just wanna say it: The Elves dont belive their Creators created the world.
Btw didint read all of the posts here, just wanna say it: The Elves dont belive their Creators created the world.
The Dalish (and the elves in Andrastian society who follow "the old ways") don't believe it was created by the Maker, however.
I struggle with this theory because someone had to have assigned jobs to these deities. Someone must have said Mythal was in charge of Justice, Fen Harel in charge of rebellion, and Elgarnan in charge of the sun.
Who assigned these gods their portfolios?
This line of reasoning is bizarre to me.
Why on earth do the elvhen 'gods' have to be actual gods as we understand deities? Solas himself says (before we know who he is) that he believes (he says believes because he's being duplicitous, he can't at this point say he 'knows') the elvhen gods were just people. Why can't they simply have been extremely powerful mages, more powerful than any we've seen so far? Why are we meant to take the elvhen god myths about their 'portfolios' as absolute truth? Haven't we had it drummed into us enough in the 3 games so far that anything and everything that gets written down and/or relayed through history is open to interpretation? Haven't we had it drummed in to us that people can view the same events in drastically different ways depending on their own biases, their relation to the subject, and the balance of power at the time?
We have no frame of reference for the power these elvhen 'gods' had because such power isn't seen anymore. We know magic and the fade was different back then, we know that elves in general lived for centuries. That's all something we can't begin to make sense of using our limited world view (I use 'our' and 'we' to mean both us the player and the modern day people of Thedas).
And consider this: even if they did have the power of creation (as Ghilen'nain is meant to have created animals, etc), why on earth does it follow that they must be gods and not just powerful mages with the power of creation? What is the defining characteristic of a god over that of a very powerful mage or very powerful spirit, or very powerful anything? The dwarves of old could create golems. Should a civilisation of golems have ended up appearing, would it have been right for them to centuries later describe their dwarven creators as gods? Or were they just clever dwarves who knew how to make golems?
Why are we so quick to call something a god? And what is a god, anyway?
Prob same reason wee invented the telly, sh!t n giggles
I struggle with this theory because someone had to have assigned jobs to these deities. Someone must have said Mythal was in charge of Justice, Fen Harel in charge of rebellion, and Elgarnan in charge of the sun.
Who assigned these gods their portfolios?
@ Anaeme
If the creator God of [insert monotheistic religion] exists and created the Universe, then God only knows why.
So. This is a philosophical and theological question.
As a Christian I often wonder this to.
Heck. I don't have any response for Stephen Fry, since the examples of suffering he came up with were not the fault of humanity.
If it's something that humanity has done, then you can say that God gave us free will therefore we are to blame.
However if humanity isn't to blame, do we blame God? Do we ascribe the blame to a devil?
Atheists resolve this by saying God doesn't exist. For me, this is a lingering doubt that has plagued my faith for years.
That's without even trying to reconcile the massacres of the Bible.
So as for the Maker of Thedas, much like the Christian deity, there is doubt over the Makers existence.
I say, let's keep it that way. Better for it to remain a mystery so that we can ask interesting questions like the ones posed in the opening post.
Also apologies for breaking BioWare Forum rules. However given the nature of this thread, this is a real world issue that covers religion and philosophy. The nature of this thread lends itself towards people being butt hurt. If the risk of me getting butt hurt and other people getting butt hurt is the price we pay for having an interesting discussion, then I'm fine with that.
Well, according to the Chant, he created it because he was dissatisfied with only spirits and the fade, with the spirits able to change their environment at will, but rarely changing themselves, so he created Thedas and mortals, who were always changing, but couldn't change their environment on a whim. He abandoned mortals because they began worshiping false gods and then killed his bride
Personally, I think that makes him a pretty lousy god if even a part of that is true. He sounds fickle and petty and not a god of anything good
For all we know there could be dozens of other worlds he created and then ditched when they didn't come out perfect or he got bored of them.
There is a difference between interesting lore and fascinating lore.
Interesting Lore: Here is a bunch of stuff that happened from one point of view. Well that's good to know. Not a whole lot to discuss here.
Fascinating Lore: Here is a bunch of stuff that might have happened from multiple contradictory points of views. I want to know more. Plenty to discuss here.
Elder Scrolls and Dragon Age universes are my favourite since they do a lot more of the latter and a lot less of the former.
The Maker doesn't exist so...
After DAI it seems to me very possible that the entire planet - every living thing - can be obliterated by someone's mistake.
Even before the breach in DAI the setting has come close to the brink multiple times.
Flemeth confirms that In the past some entity was able to betray the entire world - just to show you the kind of powers we are dealing with here
Banter between Cole and Solas (Fen Harel)
Cole: Why would they want to prove the Maker wrong? He is already far away.Solas: It isn't about right or wrong. It's about attention when you think you've been forgotten.
Whomever they are calling the Maker is acting in a fashion I really do not understand...
After DAI it seems to me very possible that the entire planet - every living thing - can be obliterated by someone's mistake.
Even before the breach in DAI the setting has come close to the brink multiple times.
Hmm... this sounds suspiciously like another place I know.
It's almost like the writers are using the story's setting to draw parallels to the real world to act as a vector for familiarity and commentary.
Whomever they are calling the Maker is acting in a fashion I really do not understand...
What makes you think you have enough information about the Maker to understand anything about the way he acts?
I'm almost filled with satisfaction that, if the Maker is real within the setting, he's written in a way that it unfathomable to mortals.
You're filled with assumptions, but even your quoted 'evidence' supplies more mysteries than it does answers.
We don't know that, so...
We also don't know that he does exist.
But its my opinion that he doesn't.
And in my equally valid view he does with minor evidence he does exist including that his return has been foretold by the same stone seer who foretold what Corypheus was going to do back in witch hunt.
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