David Gaider @davidgaider · 8h 8 hours ago
Evidently some folks are taking my 'DAI took three years' thing VERY seriously. Like, seriouscat serious.
David Gaider @davidgaider · 8h 8 hours ago
DAI did not take three years. The Hinterlands...now THAT took three years. Like, at *least*.
__
We have our answer, He won't say how long DAI in-game time takes canonically but says his answer was for how long it took the Devs to make it.
Yeah, Dagna's quote that "it takes a minimum of two weeks and four days to make the journey to the Circle Tower and back." is the source I meant. That's nine days one way from Orzammar to the Lake Calenhad docks, which is a very small part of Ferelden if you look at the map. Nine days walking in good weather on a good road (which that trip is) is 180 miles, not 18 miles.
I haven't been able to find any other solid reference to travel time in the games or books, but my search has been by no means exhaustive. I'd love it if someone came up with another reference so we at least had some confirmation that either Dagna was accurate or (and this is much more likely the case) that Bioware writers really don't care much about accurate time and distance scales.
From the perspective of a writer, nailing down that information is trouble. As someone on reddit wisely mentioned, things happen "at the speed of plot" and really, that's how it should be.
The reason I'm so vocal about this particular issue, though, is that the conventional wisdom of "about a year" is incredibly off base if you take a detailed look at the maps, the travel time involved, and the more mundane events of the game like repairing Skyhold, keeps, and bridges, and marching armies half way across the world.
I agree that DAI absolutely must take at least more than a year. I would even say under 2 years would be pushing it.
David Gaider @davidgaider · 8h 8 hours ago
Evidently some folks are taking my 'DAI took three years' thing VERY seriously. Like, seriouscat serious.
David Gaider @davidgaider · 8h 8 hours ago
DAI did not take three years. The Hinterlands...now THAT took three years. Like, at *least*.
I think some dialogue or a war table mission actually covers the fact that it will take weeks for your soldiers from the Wilds to return to Skyhold. And I guess, to avoid the panic, you could send a raven or something?
Of course Cullen is back at Skyhold by that point, anyway cus he's at the war table. So, he... took a really fast horse on his own, maybe? lol
Cullen visited an alchemist to procure ye olde Red bull for that journey.
David Gaider @davidgaider · 8h 8 hours ago
Evidently some folks are taking my 'DAI took three years' thing VERY seriously. Like, seriouscat serious.
David Gaider @davidgaider · 8h 8 hours ago
DAI did not take three years. The Hinterlands...now THAT took three years. Like, at *least*.
__
We have our answer, He won't say how long DAI in-game time takes canonically but says his answer was for how long it took the Devs to make it.
Well what did he expect people do to? Just assume he was being sarcastic? He needs to work on his communication skills and not be such a p**ck when it comes to answering questions. If they are so keen on using Elder of the Scrolls to improve their Dragon Age franchise, then Gaider should take some "How to speak to fan tips" from Todd Howard. 
Well what did he expect people do to? Just assume he was being sarcastic? He needs to work on his communication skills and not be such a ****** when it comes to answering questions. If they are so keen on using Elder of the Scrolls to improve their Dragon Age franchise, then Gaider should take some "How to speak to fan tips" from Todd Howard.
He says as a comment to one of those tweets something along the lines of that fans should have learned not to take him seriously about timelines by now. But you are correct lol , DA has a very, very intense fanbase so any side comment will get taken extremely seriously and he should know that by now.
David Gaider @davidgaider · 8h 8 hours ago
Evidently some folks are taking my 'DAI took three years' thing VERY seriously. Like, seriouscat serious.
David Gaider @davidgaider · 8h 8 hours ago
DAI did not take three years. The Hinterlands...now THAT took three years. Like, at *least*.
__
We have our answer, He won't say how long DAI in-game time takes canonically but says his answer was for how long it took the Devs to make it.
Ok then...Time to move on then.
[snip]
There IS one measurement, however. In Origins, Teagan (in Redcliffe Castle) says it takes about a day to get to the Circle Tower.
This means that Lake Calenhad is approximately the size of Lake Superior (roughly). Big Lake, hmm?
I haven't been able to find any other solid reference to travel time in the games or books, but my search has been by no means exhaustive
I'm not sure that it's helpful and\or counts as something, but we've got 'Asunder'. And we do know that it begins early autumn (~our 'October' perhaps?), and it ends with a blooming lavender. That's a trip from the White Spire to Adamant and back.
Nailing down specific time and distance scales is just asking for headaches down the road when the fans find inconsistencies in the games and books. The internet is - to say the least - not very forgiving of lore inconsistences.
While this is true, and I agree totally understandable, they've already published lore inconsistencies with information in both World of Thedas Vols. 1 & 2. So either they're willing to have a go with inconsistencies and explain them away later via whatever method, or they just avoid them altogether by not releasing any additional tidbits. They're currently trying to have it both ways and just causing more frustration.
This time period certainly has some interesting ramifications for the romance as well. Even if you finally get together after a year, two years is a long time to be with someone. I'd say that is a firmly established couple, rather than the "let's seek comfort together during a crisis" kinda vibe I typically got from the DAO romances (this is not a bad thing).
Although I shouldn't be complaining as this actually helps me with some fanfic stuff...
Yeah, 3 years would alter the feeling of the romances a lot. Especially with romances where you'd think marriage might come up, like Cassandra, Cullen, and Josephine especially.
interesting. it only felt like a few months to me. nowhere near a year, much less three. i mean, intellectually i can see that with the traveling. but i never got a sense of it. it never felt like any significant time was passing.
i think that's because the world--as big and gorgeous as it is--is still fairly static. no change of seasons. no day/night cycle. no dynamic weather system--it's always raining on the storm coast. most of the npc's don't really have any kind of schedule--that we see.
Actually, DA:I does have dynamic weather. It's usually pretty subtle and not noticed. It's only mostly raining on the Storm Coast, I think. Sometimes it's cloudy in the Hinterlands, etc. Though, I don't know if this is only on New Gen. That would be a shame.
I figured it was a year like with Origins.
Three years? Corypheus would've killed everybody by then.
We get a sense of how much time passed in DA:O and DAII. I believe somewhere in the game they say it's been about a year. If not then I still feel like you can tell it's been about that long, as you can tell by subtle indications here and there. DAII we're flat out told and we see changes.
I feel like we don't get an accurate idea of how long Inquisition takes place.
There IS one measurement, however. In Origins, Teagan (in Redcliffe Castle) says it takes about a day to get to the Circle Tower.
That... Makes no sense. Orzammar is about the same distance from the tower as Redcliffe is judging by the official maps, yet one takes 2 weeks and the other takes a single day? In fact Redcliffe seems to be further from it than Orzammar is, yet Redcliffe has the significantly shorter travel time? DAO contradicts itself on distance then, based on this.
There IS one measurement, however. In Origins, Teagan (in Redcliffe Castle) says it takes about a day to get to the Circle Tower.
This means that Lake Calenhad is approximately the size of Lake Superior (roughly). Big Lake, hmm?
Yeah, Lake Calenhad is pretty enormous. More like the Sea of Calenhad. But based on the scale of the map that comes with the Dragon Age RPG box set, Thedas as a whole is pretty small. I scaled a map of France to the same scale as the Thedas map and overlaid the border of France on Thedas:
Yeah, Lake Calenhad is pretty enormous. More like the Sea of Calenhad. But based on the scale of the map that comes with the Dragon Age RPG box set, Thedas as a whole is pretty small. I scaled a map of France to the same scale as the Thedas map and overlaid the border of France on Thedas:
I don't think that works. The size of France for a cutout is completely variable, made to be whatever size you want it to be based on what map you used and how zoomed it was and how it was cropped. I could just as easily make Thedas look huge by overlaying onto France.
I found an outline map of France with a scale (note the map scale at the bottom of that image), and resized it to match the scale of the Thedas map. Based on the scale of the fold-out map from the RPG (which is overlaid over Ferelden - note the scale at the top of Ferelden), that's how big France is compared to Thedas.
That... Makes no sense. Orzammar is about the same distance from the tower as Redcliffe is judging by the official maps, yet one takes 2 weeks and the other takes a single day? In fact Redcliffe seems to be further from it than Orzammar is, yet Redcliffe has the significantly shorter travel time? DAO contradicts itself on distance then, based on this.
The gate to Orzammar looks to be the same distance from the tower as Redcliffe, but we don't know how long it takes to go from the city to the surface. (It seems to take no time at all during Origins, but then, the game also elides all the time you spend tromping through the Deep Roads and the weeks it must take you to walk deep into the Brecilian Forest.)
Really? Huh.
Oh well, no big deal.
ETA:
Ah yeah, figured as much.
Man, David can't say Iron Bull likes Ice Cream without a thread blowing up with canon claims.
I found an outline map of France with a scale (note the map scale at the bottom of that image), and resized it to match the scale of the Thedas map. Based on the scale of the fold-out map from the RPG (which is also overlaid over Ferelden - note the scale at the top of Ferelden), that's how big France is compared to Thedas.
And who says the scales can even be made to correlate? That seems reaching to me. You can't compare a fictional continent with a real world one, the sizes won't be accurate no matter what you do. And that stupid RPG fold out map has already been shown to have a lot of issues shown in just this thread alone, even contradicting in-game info. I won't take the RPG map's scale seriously.
The gate to Orzammar looks to be the same distance from the tower as Redcliffe, but we don't know how long it takes to go from the city to the surface. (It seems to take no time at all during Origins, but then, the game also elides all the time you spend tromping through the Deep Roads and the weeks it must take you to walk deep into the Brecilian Forest.)
And the gates are what I'm comparing. The gates on the map are slightly closer to the circle than Redcliffe is.
And who says the scales can even be made to correlate? That seems reaching to me. You can't compare a fictional continent with a real world one, the sizes won't be accurate no matter what you do. And that stupid RPG fold out map has already been shown to have a lot of issues shown in just this thread alone, even contradicting in-game info. I won't take the RPG map's scale seriously.
That's exactly the point of the image. The scale on the fold-out RPG map seems... small.
You can compare a fictional continent with a real one if you have maps that include a scale that shows the relationship between map size and distance on the continent. If you resize one of the maps so the scales are the same, distances on the maps can be compared. For example, based on the scale of the Ferelden map, the straight-line distance between Denerim and Redcliffe is about 240 miles. That's about the distance from Kansas City to St. Louis in the US. So based on that map scale, Ferelden is about as big as Missouri.
That's exactly the point of the image. The scale on the fold-out RPG map seems... small.
You can compare a fictional continent with a real one if you have maps that include a scale that shows the relationship between map size and distance on the continent. If you resize one of the maps so the scales are the same, distances on the maps can be compared. For example, based on the scale of the Ferelden map, the straight-line distance between Denerim and Redcliffe is about 240 miles. That's about the distance from Kansas City to St. Louis in the US. So based on that map scale, Ferelden is about as big as Missouri.
So your point was to the final nail in the coffin on the legitimacy of the RPG map, by showing that it shows Thedas to be much smaller than it should be.
While this is true, and I agree totally understandable, they've already published lore inconsistencies with information in both World of Thedas Vols. 1 & 2. So either they're willing to have a go with inconsistencies and explain them away later via whatever method, or they just avoid them altogether by not releasing any additional tidbits. They're currently trying to have it both ways and just causing more frustration.
A lot of game franchises have this problem and I honestly do not understand why. Just stick to your story. Build upon, don't cut and contradict. Hire a lore keeper. Every game series out there with lore has forums and posters that will correct them when they are wrong and keep their story honest for free and yet they still make mistakes and ****** off their customers when they could easily avoid not doing so.
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