It is. Either Alistair and Loghain dies at the Landsmeet, the HoF then makes the sacrifice, then the survivor of the Landsmeet later dies in the Fade. All three dead in one world state. With the extra possibility that all the Awakening Wardens are either dead or missing in action too, on a particularly "bad ending" playthrough.
Well crap...
The biggest strike against the notion that this here was supposed to be foreshadowing to DLC is that the Orlesian Warden-Commander did not get this "opening" at all in Inquisition. The letter, the search for a cure, none of that stuff ever shows up. In a US world state, this subplot doesn't exist at all. That's a pretty poor way to set this up as a premise for DLC - if they ever intended this "cure for the taint" line to be anything more than a throwaway excuse to send the HoF far far away into obuscurity to never return or be heard from again, it's been set up really badly across different world states. There's just no lead up to it for half of the player base out there, if it comes up on DLC now, it will have literally come out of nowhere.
Going even more basic on the premise: let's see the DA Keep give us US players at least a tile where we can select the race, gender and class of our Orlesian Wardens first. As they are now, the Orlesian Warden is barely a character at all, despite their admirable deeds of rebuilding the Wardens in Ferelden from zero and potentially defeating one of the ancient magisters before the Inquisitor was a thing. Once we have evidence that the OW still exists in the world, we can talk about them being a replacement for the HoF on possible future games/DLCs. Chances are not looking good, though - that one nameless prisoner who dies five minutes into the game has like six tiles at the Keep to determine his irrelevant fate; the Warden-Commander who's been leading the Wardens in Ferelden for the past nine years doesn't even get a text box namedrop.
Which I find incredibly frustrating, I really can't stand the "it's about the world not the people" line they keep pulling. The parts of their game they are best known for are their characters, saying that's not what they care about undermines what makes their games compelling. People keep making the "Warden's a blank slate why bother argument" but isn't that the best way to immerse yourself in the world? To project yourself into it? I think people are getting so defensive about bringing the Warden back because that is their piece of the world, and they don't want to let it go (I certainly don't). Hawke and the Inquisitor are so predetermined and outside of player control that this entire series for me has become a wait and see game of "well what happened to MY character?" If they want to stop complaints like this I see only a few ways out (IMHO):
1. Time jump, location jump: Blank slate, new people. If it's really about the history of the world, then just run with it. People in actual history have only a brief window of relevance, so the roster must constantly be changing (Worst option, but seems to be how they want to do it).
2. DLC Resolution: I know the calling part didn't apply to everyone's Warden, but the Weisshaupt stuff does. Since the Anderfels sounds like a horrible Skyrim (the place sucked...snowy mountains get old quick) setting, use i up in a one shot DLC rather than a full game. (Second best option)
3. Multiple PC's: What if your two PC's were at odds with one another? The Wardens have a clear beef with the Inquisition now (either they exiled Wardens, or commandeered them and got them killed), so why not pit the HoF/Warden Commander against the Inquisitor? It would make for some painstaking choices like where would Leliana go? And set up a consequence for the Hawke Fade Choice, if Hawke lives he's with the Inquisiton, the Warden with the Wardens. There's a reason the Keep asks whether you were friends with a specific companion or not, make it mean something.
From what has gone on in DA:I, I don't think Bioware has fully committed to in practice what they have said. Remember when they said the Morrigan/Flemeth conflict would be resolved? It really isn't. If anything it's become more complex. We don't want to bring the Warden back? Why did you give everyone a perfect avenue to do so? If they want to keep having new PC's they have to complete the stories of the old ones, because people are going to keep asking for closure and not be able to move on and fully appreciate the new characters if they don't feel like their done with the previous yet. The games probably feel a lot more fleshed out for those who did the US and left Hawke in the Fade, but I'm sure they'll be back around to ask what happened to their Inquisitor come DA4.
Retour en haut
