Hello everyone !
This topic was created to show you all the potential that our Inquisitor could have, as a playable protagonist (be it MC or dual protag), in a (possible) future DA4, in response to other topics that make us reflect on the possible origins of a new one. I read many gems in others subjects showing how Inky could become interesting, and I wanted to share my point of view.
I hope that, even if you're a anti-Inqui, you will have a certain pleasure to read this post 
Without further ado, place to the novel !
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I/ The Inquisitor
A/ The Amputation
a/ The Amputation, or the opportunity to evolve the personality of your Inquisitor
At the Exalted Concil, the Inquisitor don't seem to bother about the lost of his limb. But how does he truly react in private ?
- Does he suffer from ghost pain?
- If yes, to whom does he reveal his suffering?
- to everyone ?
- To his friends and family
- Only to his friends ?
- Only to his family ?
- Just to his LI
- to nobody ?
- If yes, how does he react to the pain?
- He drinks (an example among others) to forget it
- He uses the pain as catalyst to progress, manipulate...
- How does he react to his amputation?
- Destroyed : the loss (and the ghost pain ?) eats away at him so much that he bury himself into the research of ancient lore (helped perhaps by the Well of Sorrow 
) or into the alcohol to forget. Perhaps he will turn nasty when he drinks, becoming mean to his friends/lover. Or he could nurture the desire to commit suicide. After all, he doesn't have the Mark anymore, and if he's not even capable of using his beloved claymore, then he's only a waste!
- Discouraged : he runs away from his friends, and all those who knew "the Inquisitor", to take shelter at his family's place, take a breath, and calmly ponder his situation. Or perhaps he feels alone, privated of his friends when he needed them the most, now that they're all scattered around the world and, because of that, he visits his family to seek some comfort there...
- Reserved : he suffers, but he hides it. He refuses to answer any personal missive, or only writes a simple " I'm fine. ", nor did he informs his family of the terrible new.
- Determined : he has had enough to see how everyone pity or disdain him, or he's fed up to feel so weak. Because of that, he wants to prove to the world (and to himself) that it's not because he's one-armed that he's useless. So, he spends his time in trainings to adapt himtself to every situation. Be it in battle or dinner.
- Opportunist : the Inquisitor always look on the bright side. By doing so, he learns to play with his disability to manipulate everyone. His subordinates make all the hard job for him. His enemies underestimates him. And he can disguise himself into a beggar, a slave, or a veteran.
I want to precise that this list is not exhaustive and that every elements can be interchangeable.
b/ To overcome the amputation, or the solutions found by the Inquisitor
- Does he need 2 hands, like everyone else ?
- Yes ?
- Will you succumb to the design of a mechanical prosthesis, improved over time?
- The rustic charm of a weapon / shield simply put on in your forearm, a la Captain Hook, attracts you?
- No ?
- There is no deadly fighting style with only one weapon ? Create a new one, that you will perfect as long as you fight !
- "I'm harmless !" (sorry, I wanted so badly to tell this one 
). You concentrate on the lore, the diplomacy, the manipulation and dubious humour. After all, language is the Devil's favorite weapon ! Or perhaps, due to being bathed in hypocrisy, you develop an ability to detect lies. Unless the pain makes you as nasty and intimidating as Fenris...
- Mage, do you want to be more cool than Dorian and Vivienne together ? Do you want to be as mischievous as Sera ? Improve your telekynesis control ! The art of playing pranks, pickpocket and dirty tricks without being seen will be yours !
customizable personality + customizable skill tree = monstrous replay !
B/ Origins, another potential to exploit
Thanks to the war table missions, you can evolve your family situation for better or worse !
- Dwarf
- What happens to your friend Lantos ?
- Is he alive ?
- What's his situation with the Carta ?
- Did he take control over a part of it ? Does he try to control it ?
- Is he trying to flee this organisation ?
- How does he react when you tell him about your new connection with the Merchant Guild ?
- Does he have some contacts withing the dwarven ambassadory in Tevinter ? Or in Kal-Sharok ?
- What about Dasher, one of your personal foe ?
- Did he learn his lesson and leave you in peace ?
- If not, will he threaten your friend ? Or did he ponder a new revanche ?
- Elves
- clan dead
- Did the Red Jenny find a survivor ?
- clan alive
- Are the people of Wycome still favorable to have elven in their government ?
- Will your Keeper invite you for the next Arlathvan ?
- Will you reveal to all the Dalish the truth about the Evanuris and all you discovered in DAI ?
- If not, will you at last warn your clan ?
- Without your valaslin
- How will react your clan ? Will you be banished ? And how will react other Dalish ?
- Will you tell them about the true nature of the valaslin ?
- Qunari
- Are the Valo-Kas still in the Kirkwall guard ?
- If yes
- Have they many problems with the inhabitants, who are still stigmatized by the last Qunari invasion ?
- What are their relationship with Aveline ? And with Varrick ? (are they Varrick's bodyguard ?)
- What is their job within the guard ?
- If not
- Have they a new contract ? With whom ? Is it dangerous ? Is it a trap ?
- Have they news about the "Northern War" ? (war between Tevinter and the Qunari)
- Do they have new members ? Are they Tal-Vashoth from the north ? From the Nortern War ?
- Human
- Peace keeping Inquisition
- Are the Trevelyans still trying to use the Inquisition to their personal purposes ?
- Will they try manipulating you to rise Sisters coming from the Trevelyan family to higher positions ?
- Is your direct family going to get a big head, with all their new responsibilities? Will they try to take the lead of the whole family ?
- Disbanded Inquisition
- Is the position of your direct family compromised? Threatened ?
- Do you receive letters of threats and reproches, for having "abandoned" your andrastian faith ?
- Will you be despised by your family, who will never give you any aid without a strong compensation ?
- Will you be summoned to return at home, or to the Circle, to take back activities worthy of your rank, now that nothing holds you officialy ?
- Is your family targeted by another powerful family ?
- Are the Trevelyans preparing a political marriage ?
- Are you married ?
- If yes, did you tell them about this "momentous day" ?
- Will they approve it ? Or will they try by every means to broke this alliance ? (Cullen could be approved, but Sera...)
- Are you in love with a companion ?
- Did you tell them ?
- Again, will they approve or will they try to separate you from your loved one ?
C/ His knowledge
a/ general knowledge and unknow knowledge
- In a game, it's generaly better, with a new culture, to approach it with foreign eyes, and not those of an inhabitant. We so avoid the incoherence as those (for example) of a Dalish Inquisitor who asks about is own culture to Morrigan, when he visits the Temple of Mythal...
- He has discovered the existences of Titans, Scaled Ones, Foci, Eluvians, Evanuris and know more about spirits and rite of Apaisment than an actual researcher ! If there is someone who can find a way to become more powerful, to know more about the Evanuris (I don't know, perharps we will have to fight them 
) or to find a way to counter the power of petrification, it's him !
- Did he drinks from the Well of Sorrow ?
- If yes
- Will we know the true nature of the geas ?
- What will he learn from the Vir'abelasan ?
- If not
- Will Morrigan try to lend you some hints in a missive to help you ?
b/ The enemy threat
- Did the world truly believed the Inquisitor when he warned everyone about the real menace (aka Solas) ?
- Does everyone take the Inquisitor for a madman, a storyteller who tries to make himself important ?
- Does everyone think that the whole "Solas plot" is a justification found by the Inquisition to act with complete impunity ?
- Inky is perhaps the only mortal who know the more about Solas
- He knows his purpose, so he can find how he will destroy the Veil, what will be the real consequences, and how to counter him.
- He knows a large part of the powers of Solas : now he can find a way to escape petrification and to make himself invisible in the Dream World. Or to use dreams to find memories of Arlathan...
- He knows that fen'Harek control the Eluvians. He can find a way to destroy them, to redirect them (imagine : if an Elvhen cross it, instead of finding himself in an abandoned manor near Val Royaux, he is in the middle of the Rialto Bay, or in the Amaranthine Ocean ! ) or trying to take control of it.
II/ The inner circle
A/ The Amputation. Again.
In various scales, your friends will feel unconfortable in front of you, simply because they will not really know how to talk to you without potentially hurting you. And you're now in a pretty bad shape. At least for them...
- Some cannot help but throw embarrassed glance at your stump, curious to know if it still hurt, how you live with this new situation...
- All of your friends will be worried by your various reactions :
- Opportunist : "how can he take well this handicap ? Does he pretend to not worry me ?"
- Reserved : "why he don't speak with me ? He don't trust me ? Have I accidentaly said something wrong to him ? "
- Determined : "Is it truly sane to spend all his day in the training room ? Does he eat and sleep, at least ?
- Discouraged : In a letter "I'm so sorry for not being here to help you overcome this difficulty." or, in the new QG of the Innquisition : "WHERE IS THE INQUISITOR ?!"
- Destroyed : "What can I do to cheer him up ?" "What he says what so mean ! I know it's because of the alcohol, but... Do we need to stop him before prevent him to go to the tavern ? What he said to me, was it only to hurt me or was it his true feelings ?"
Again, I merely gave hints. I'm not going to detail the reaction of every companion according to every case, otherwise this post would become indigestible ( how that it already is 
?! )
- Most of your friends will assist you, depend on what you do to overcome this handicap :
- If you spend days in your training room, Cassandra may pay a visit and help you in your quest to slaughter all practice dummies !
- if you visit the tavern, you can perhaps drink strong alcohol with Bull (like a good Maraas-Lok ). And perhaps he can take you to a mission with the Chargers, to clear your mind. Or (for exemple if you killed Bull 
), Vivienne will pick you up with a disapproving face and will scold you, then help you clear your mind with a Spa (besides, you reek so much alcohol we can smell you miles away 
) and then bring you to her personal tailor, because you absolutely need a new wardrobe.
- If you use your handicap as a decoy, Serra will involve you into a new Jenny adventure, where you will swindle another corrupt noble !
- Some will prevent you from taking too big responsibilities, because they're afraid it will make you suffer pointlessly. Others, on the contrary, will try to give you some tasks to make you prove that the loss of a hand does not make you useless.
B/ Friendship and love
- Maybe you will receive letters (and packages perhaps ?) of distant friends (lover ?), too busy with private task (like runing a business trade or a whole city... ) to join you. With each missive they will comment their daily lives, the latest rumors and the political situation which surrounds them !
- Are you still in a relationship ?
- How do you feel, being appart of your LI ? How does he feels ?
- Is there infidelity (accidental or not), on one side or the other one ?
- How will your LI helps you ? By doing so, will he put himself in danger ?
- Do you have news of Leliana and her nugs farming ? Of Morrigan ? Of Valta ? Of Mother Gisele ? Of Dagna ? Of ancient members of the Inquisition (be it the blacksmith, your ex-intendant, ex-alchemist, ex-"monster researcher" or mere soldier) ?
- Do some alliances remains, even after the disband of the Inquisition ?
- Will your friends ask for help when they're in trouble ?
- Dorian could ask you to help his Lucernis to take a dominant position in the tevintide politic. After all, you had played and won the Noble Game, so a political battle in Tevinter should be a real cup of tea!
- He also could ask you to help him find the murderers of his father...
III/ The World
A/ Your openings on the world
The Inquisitor as contact in the whole world !
- Orzamar (especially after The Descent)
- Kal-Sharok (is you won their respects with the war table mission)
- The Grey Warden (if you helped them, if Blackwall is a true GW...)
- Nevarra (if you saved the king from his venatory ex-chancellor, or if you're friend with Cassandra)
- Antiva (Josie, the Crows...)
- Ferelden (Hessarians Blade...)
- Tevinter (Dorian)
- Par Vollen (if alliance with the Qunari)
- Free Marches (Varrick, Sebastian if allied (and spies within his house ?), Trevelyan family, Lavellan clan if survived...)
- Avvars (Movran, Svarah Sun-Hair...)
With that, we have a good excuse to come into every country if wished, or needed !
B/ Alliances and Inquisition's remains
- Disband or not disband ?
- How will this affect your wolf hunt ?
- Alliance with the Qunari ?
- Who will you choose officially ? Dorian, at the risk of denying your alliance with Qunari? The Qunaris, at the risk of compromising your friendship with our favorite magister ?
- Is the alliance the only way to stop the war with a win-win traity ? Or the fastest one ?
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At last, thank you for reading this insanely long post 
I hope you didn't found too many mistakes (feel free to MP me if you want me to correct something ! ), as I said in another post, I'm French and this... novel took me a whole day to writte it and translate it... So in the end I'm a little tired...
I also hope you didn't found this post boring ! So, what are your thoughts (fantasms ?) on this theme ?!
Retour en haut
) !
Threads about the return of Inky are generally focused on one point, and I felt that my post was too general (and too huge) to suit the discussion...
If so, will the Inquisitor ally with the Qunari, who want (among other things...) to strengthen the Veil ? Will he, on the contrary, try to learn more about ancient magic because he thinks (like Morrigan) that knowledge is a strong source of power ?
