1:40
I thought the magic has "rules" as we can see in a book in the Circle of Magi in DA:O
http://dragonage.wik..._Rules_of_Magic
- No one, for instance, has found any means of traveling-either over great distances or small ones-beyond putting one foot in front of the other.
No one has "FOUND" a means of traveling. Thanks to the eluvians, it's clear that they just haven't gotten it down correctly.
What's this? Bioware destroying their own lore through terrible cutscenes and writing?
No....that's so....shocking. I can't even *yawns* imagine it.....ZzzZzzz
What lore has been destroyed? Did you even read the codex entry and its context? Are you not aware that all magic has not been explained? There are vast areas of ignorance for humans, explored only by the ancient elves.
I'm curious as to why Calpernia is the subject of this thread. We see Cory defy death and fly. Obviously, there is more to magic than the codex from the circle mages perspective reveals.
What lore has been destroyed? Did you even read the codex entry and its context? Are you not aware that all magic has not been explained? There are vast areas of ignorance for humans, explored only by the ancient elves.
Hell the fact that Tevinter has more knowledge about magic than the Circles should give this impression
Hell the fact that Tevinter has more knowledge about magic than the Circles should give this impression
True, but the general impression I have from reading the codex and playing the games is that Tevinter "stole" knowledge from the ancient elves. For example, Solas seems to be familiar with the technique Cory uses to become immortal. That's why I mention the ancient elves as the source of vast knowledge of magic.
In the Last Flight they introduced flying aravals and Dorian says the stories about flying cows above Minrathous weren't a joke. Cory also flies. So clearly there is a great deal about magic that we were not previously aware of. Probably why people seem to get around for one part of Thedas to another in such short spaces of time, without eluvians, despite the fact that they are meant to be covering hundreds if not thousands of miles in the process. If in doubt, just put it down to magic.
Calpernia isn't even dead. I'm almost 900% sure the reason they railroaded her into jumping off a cliff into a black void (GASP) and not even giving us the option to capture her alive (Bioware needs to check their female privilege) is so they can retcon her into somehow surviving for the next game (if the need arises). Trust me, they would not waste time on programming a unique hair style, a unique outfit, AND a unique staff if she wasn't really really important to the overarching plot.
Bioware does this every time. They give us the illusion of choice but don't really follow through. Woops, went off on a tangent there. To get back on topic....
A game has to follow its own internal rules and consistency. That is Rule #1 of good writing. Calpernia didn't use Fade Step. She clearly teleported. Which isn't possible according to Dragon Age....Origins I believe it was?
Calpernia isn't even dead. I'm almost 900% sure the reason they railroaded her into jumping off a cliff into a black void (GASP) and not even giving us the option to capture her alive (Bioware needs to check their female privilege) is so they can retcon her into somehow surviving for the next game (if the need arises).
Well, they're setting it up so it wouldn't be a retcon.
I don't have a problem with it, I'd love to see her again in Tevinter.
Well, they're setting it up so it wouldn't be a retcon.
I don't have a problem with it, I'd love to see her again in Tevinter.
Is going to be weird if we recruited the mages and fought with samson.
Is going to be weird if we recruited the mages and fought with samson.
That's my preferred path, so I'm looking forward to hear her story about what happened after Corypheus didn't pick her to be his right hand.
That's my preferred path, so I'm looking forward to hear her story about what happened after Corypheus didn't pick her to be his right hand.
Maybe she forced everyone in Tevinter to use her same hair!
There's an alternative to Fade Step, which is Stone's Throw. Merrill uses the latter in DA2 to travel through solid objects, like swimming short distance through rock and earth. It's possible Calpernia is "swimming" through solid objects.
Neither breaks the teleportation rule. If you count dimensional transport as teleportation, then only eluvians break the rule.
That said, as others have pointed out the codex is one circle mage's perspective. All three rules have been broken. Eluvians break teleportation. Wynne broke the rule about "returning from the dead" with the help of her spirit in the novel Asunder. And as the codex itself notes, the rule about walking in the Fade has been broken before.
I don't think this is so much a retcon as it is an ongoing theme of the story. Virtually every authority on every subject has been wrong. Go back over the codices from all three games knowing what we know post-Trespasser, and you'll see that all of them are in-universe, and almost all of them contain errors.
Calpernia isn't even dead. I'm almost 900% sure the reason they railroaded her into jumping off a cliff into a black void (GASP) and not even giving us the option to capture her alive (Bioware needs to check their female privilege) is so they can retcon her into somehow surviving for the next game (if the need arises). Trust me, they would not waste time on programming a unique hair style, a unique outfit, AND a unique staff if she wasn't really really important to the overarching plot.
Bioware does this every time. They give us the illusion of choice but don't really follow through. Woops, went off on a tangent there. To get back on topic....
A game has to follow its own internal rules and consistency. That is Rule #1 of good writing. Calpernia didn't use Fade Step. She clearly teleported. Which isn't possible according to Dragon Age....Origins I believe it was?
There's an alternative to Fade Step, which is Stone's Throw. Merrill uses the latter in DA2 to travel through solid objects, like swimming short distance through rock and earth. It's possible Calpernia is "swimming" through solid objects.
Neither breaks the teleportation rule. If you count dimensional transport as teleportation, then only eluvians break the rule.
That said, as others have pointed out the codex is one circle mage's perspective. All three rules have been broken. Eluvians break teleportation. Wynne broke the rule about "returning from the dead" with the help of her spirit in the novel Asunder. And as the codex itself notes, the rule about walking in the Fade has been broken before.
I don't think this is so much a retcon as it is an ongoing theme of the story. Virtually every authority on every subject has been wrong. Go back over the codices from all three games knowing what we know post-Trespasser, and you'll see that all of them are in-universe, and almost all of them contain errors.
That said, as others have pointed out the codex is one circle mage's perspective. All three rules have been broken. Eluvians break teleportation. Wynne broke the rule about "returning from the dead" with the help of her spirit in the novel Asunder. And as the codex itself notes, the rule about walking in the Fade has been broken before.
Well, those first two are kinda borderline cases. Eluvians just make you walk a shorter distance in another dimension to get where you want to go. They go around the rule, but they don't break it. In the case of Wynne's revivals, those were only ever done on the recently deceased, like in the past minute deceased. An argument could be made that their bodies hadn't completely shut down yet and the spirit only keeps them from slipping fully away.
What lore has been destroyed? Did you even read the codex entry and its context? Are you not aware that all magic has not been explained? There are vast areas of ignorance for humans, explored only by the ancient elves.
Time travel is another supposedly inviolate rule. Alexius broke that far more thoroughly than Calpernia broke the teleportation rule.
Flemeth seems to be able to teleport as well, at least when she is called/summoned.
That's possible, although if you're talking about her appearance at the shrine of Mythal, she might have known a shortcut through the Eluvians. It's also possible she knew that whoever drank from the well was coming, and started making her way there.
There's an alternative to Fade Step, which is Stone's Throw. Merrill uses the latter in DA2 to travel through solid objects, like swimming short distance through rock and earth. It's possible Calpernia is "swimming" through solid objects.
Neither breaks the teleportation rule. If you count dimensional transport as teleportation, then only eluvians break the rule.
That said, as others have pointed out the codex is one circle mage's perspective. All three rules have been broken. Eluvians break teleportation. Wynne broke the rule about "returning from the dead" with the help of her spirit in the novel Asunder. And as the codex itself notes, the rule about walking in the Fade has been broken before.
I don't think this is so much a retcon as it is an ongoing theme of the story. Virtually every authority on every subject has been wrong. Go back over the codices from all three games knowing what we know post-Trespasser, and you'll see that all of them are in-universe, and almost all of them contain errors.
Velanna does it too. Then the teleport exist, damn codex.
Calpernia isn't even dead. I'm almost 900% sure the reason they railroaded her into jumping off a cliff into a black void (GASP) and not even giving us the option to capture her alive (Bioware needs to check their female privilege) is so they can retcon her into somehow surviving for the next game (if the need arises). Trust me, they would not waste time on programming a unique hair style, a unique outfit, AND a unique staff if she wasn't really really important to the overarching plot.
Bioware does this every time. They give us the illusion of choice but don't really follow through. Woops, went off on a tangent there. To get back on topic....
A game has to follow its own internal rules and consistency. That is Rule #1 of good writing. Calpernia didn't use Fade Step. She clearly teleported. Which isn't possible according to Dragon Age....Origins I believe it was?
Except that WAS Fade Step. The animation is very similar. Or if it was teleportation, it is a very short-ranged one, else she would have teleported atop to the Well instead of wasting time holding you off. Thus I don't have any issue with it.
yeah looked like fade step to me. I doubt she's skilled/powerful enough to teleport.
Still, Flemethal did show a type of teleportation when you meet her at her altar on a no OGB playthough
Velanna does it too. Then the teleport exist, damn codex.
Since Merrill's "stone's throw" is in her unique Dalish skillset, maybe Velanna has it too...?
That's possible, although if you're talking about her appearance at the shrine of Mythal, she might have known a shortcut through the Eluvians. It's also possible she knew that whoever drank from the well was coming, and started making her way there.
yeah looked like fade step to me. I doubt she's skilled/powerful enough to teleport.
Still, Flemethal did show a type of teleportation when you meet her at her altar on a no OGB playthough
True, but she's also the only one who can turn into a dragon. It is clear that as far as the rules of magic are concerned, a living goddess can bend them which makes sense.
Plus, there are alternative explanations. She might be able to hide herself in plain sight, or do a super Fade Step. I doubt she can teleport across the land willy nilly either, else she wouldn't bother with Eluvians or the amulet in DA2.
True. It's funny to imagine that when Flemeth disappears into that mist/smoke she's really just turning invisible and running away really fast.
There's only thing Flemeth knows better than how to make an entrance, and that's how to make an exit 
So much of Flemeth is theatre, and brilliant theatre at that. She's also really good at avoiding revealing her secrets. Before the Mythal reveal, I was convinced she was Razikale, the Old God of mystery instead for that reason.
I imagine that whoever drank from the well, she knew the instant it happened, and dragon wing is a fast way to travel.
It's notable that we never see her teleport outside of that scene, and even there it's unsure. It uses the same graphic as coming out of stealth if I recall.
Anyway, we're all likely overthinking this. There's always been a division between gameplay and story (like how people often mock the idea of sneaking into some heavily fortified while rogues can essentially go invisible in plain sight). But I don't see Calpernia doing anything you can't make Merrill on an Inquisition mage doing, and both of those are talents on the talent tree.
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