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[In Exile]

Red-herring?

 

How about how the Blight and it's destructive nature and pawns are the central conflict of Origins? 

 

Or that the magister who brought the Blight to Thedas is the central villain of Inquisition's storyline?

 

Then there's Red Lyrium, lyrium corrupted by the blight which plays a heavy role in DA2 (for better or worst) and in Inquisition?

 

Or how major aspects of Thedas such as the status of the Dwarves; the Chantry's existence; Tevinter's fall from dominance; and the Grey Wardens themselves are all somehow connected to the Blight?

 

The Blight may not be the most important aspect of Thedas, but calling the Blight a red herring is the equivalent of calling the Black Death insignificant. Especially when the stuff consistently has consistent impact and effect on each and every game in the Dragon Age series and plenty of supplemental material.

 

You've got it backwards. There's the "Blight" with a capital "B", and that's the archdemon rising with a bunch of darkspawn. That's irrelevant backdrop. There's the "blight" with a small "b" (which use to be called the taint before DA:I), which is the actual magical corruption that is the cause of the darkspawn among other things. That part is pretty important to the lore of Thedas. But the actual darkspawn critters and archdemons, that stuff is irrelevant backdrop. In hindsight, I should have actually capitalized my last post, so I apologize for the confusion. 

 

But the actual thing that was an issue in DA:O - the darkspawn horde led by an archdemon - that's not relevant. Hell, it becomes irrelevant by DA:I, where we see that we might end up with another eruption of darkspawn because of a sentient being called the Architect. 

 

What used to be called the taint - that matters to DA lore. But DA:O spent exactly 0 minutes examining it, and often actively avoided revealing anything about it. The red-herring is that the horde of orks and ostensibly evil monster god is all just a smoke-screen - what matters is the magical corruption, and that thing has a very different relationship and role in the history of Thedas. 

 

We've slowly unraveled what the magical corruption is in every DA game, with red lyrium in DA2/DAI and the Titans in DA:I. That's way more focus on it than in DA:O, which was the red herring.  

[ShadowLordXII]

You've got it backwards. There's the "Blight" with a capital "B", and that's the archdemon rising with a bunch of darkspawn. That's irrelevant backdrop. There's the "blight" with a small "b" (which use to be called the taint before DA:I), which is the actual magical corruption that is the cause of the darkspawn among other things. That part is pretty important to the lore of Thedas. But the actual darkspawn critters and archdemons, that stuff is irrelevant backdrop. In hindsight, I should have actually capitalized my last post, so I apologize for the confusion. 

 

But the actual thing that was an issue in DA:O - the darkspawn horde led by an archdemon - that's not relevant. Hell, it becomes irrelevant by DA:I, where we see that we might end up with another eruption of darkspawn because of a sentient being called the Architect. 

 

What used to be called the taint - that matters to DA lore. But DA:O spent exactly 0 minutes examining it, and often actively avoided revealing anything about it. The red-herring is that the horde of orks and ostensibly evil monster god is all just a smoke-screen - what matters is the magical corruption, and that thing has a very different relationship and role in the history of Thedas. 

 

We've slowly unraveled what the magical corruption is in every DA game, with red lyrium in DA2/DAI and the Titans in DA:I. That's way more focus on it than in DA:O, which was the red herring.  

 

I was referring to both the Blight and the blight because they're connected and have clear impact on the world/history of Thedas and on each game in the series.

 

The story focused less on the darkspawn horde as the series progressed, true since now the Blight is over. But to discount them as unimportant even though Thedosian society and history rightfully remember them as one of the biggest menaces and threats to the world is a disservice to both the darkspawn and to the world of Thedas. They may not be the main focus anymore (for better or worst), but the darkspawn are certainly not irrelevant (just ask the dwarves), especially since there's still two more prospective Blights on the Horizon.

 

Origins spending 0 minutes exploring the taint? How about the Dalish elf origins and the tainted eluvian (which shows up again in DA2)? How about Avernus and his research and experiments? The Architect's disciples and their newfound sentience and what that implies? What about all of those talks with Alistair where he explains what the taint does and will do to Grey Wardens including their abilities; decreased fertility; increased appetite; and how they're all gonna die within 30 years since the taint's slowly killing them? The chilling talks about the Calling which the taint produces which leads the darkspawn to find and release the Archdemon? Whether the Archdemon really is an old god corrupted by the blight or a powerful dragon that's been blighted? 

 

Plenty of folk speculate and explore the taint itself, they're were just reasonably more focused on stopping the Blight than understanding the nuances of the blight and considering the time crunch, I don't blame them.

[Aren]

Just want to point out a detail:

The Inquisitor (and in the case of the events at Fort Adamant, those whom the Inquisitor took with) are the only people in Inquisition who entered the Fade in the flesh. And they are the first since the Blackening of the Golden City to do so.

The Crossroads are not the Fade, as Morrigan explains it, but some sort of artificial in-between realm that doesn't belong in any world. Think of them as being like the Ways from the Wheel of Time series. With Eluvians as Waygates.

Corypheus is almost certainly dead. The Fade is a world shaped by thoughts and ideas. A being of flesh and blood simply can't exist there long without powerful magic shielding them (like the Anchor). It would take an inhuman amount of focus and sense of self to retain your individual identity there, and not be torn apart by your own doubts and uncertainties. And at the time Corypheus was defeated, his will had been broken, no longer certain of his power or divinity, or even if Dumat was alive or not.

I'm sure that Flemeth often entered the fade in flesh in those centuries, since apparently she did not need any anchor in order to do so
Solas on the other hand is like a ruler
There, the fade is his home

[Aren]

But those are side plots (not to mention Corypheus is released by Hawke, not the Wardens). And seeing as how the obvious original plan was Hawke => Inquisitor, the influence of Corypheus on the plot is exactly what we saw it to be in DA:I, i.e., far more about a thematic contrast with Solas.

The blight seems to be a backdrop/red-herring, all part of how DA as a setting tries to subvert the usual fantasy tropes.

The Gw didn't had the possibility to release Cory, because as i have come to understand the key was the blood of the Amell family
(but pure and not corrupted)
Hawke could have easly left Cory there.....

[Madfox11]

The Gw didn't had the possibility to release Cory, because as i have come to understand the key was the blood of the Amell family
(but pure and not corrupted)
Hawke could have easly left Cory there.....

 

I always found that part of Legacy a bit odd. The story suggests the only way to get out of the prison is to destroy the keys and confront Cory. If that was true, how did Hawke's father get out? Furthermore, I always found Hawke rather quick in wanting to confront Cory in a fight. If it were that easy to kill the creature, than why didn't the Wardens do it? What is the catch? Granted, Hawke does not know what we know about the Blight and Arch-Demons, but still...

 

Furthermore, why does Cory suddenly stir now after centuries of inaction?

 

To be perfectly honest, I liked the adventure from a background perspective and game play (definitely a great boss fight at the end), but I always assumed Hawke was a careless man who rushed blindly into conflict without considering the consequences. It certainly explains some of the other choices forced upon him during the game

[vbibbi]

I always found that part of Legacy a bit odd. The story suggests the only way to get out of the prison is to destroy the keys and confront Cory. If that was true, how did Hawke's father get out? Furthermore, I always found Hawke rather quick in wanting to confront Cory in a fight. If it were that easy to kill the creature, than why didn't the Wardens do it? What is the catch? Granted, Hawke does not know what we know about the Blight and Arch-Demons, but still...

 

Furthermore, why does Cory suddenly stir now after centuries of inaction?

 

To be perfectly honest, I liked the adventure from a background perspective and game play (definitely a great boss fight at the end), but I always assumed Hawke was a careless man who rushed blindly into conflict without considering the consequences. It certainly explains some of the other choices forced upon him during the game

Well I believe the binding spells aren't great, so Cory stirs every few decades, so the Wardens have to have a non-tainted mage re-perform the blood magic binding spell. That's why they blackmailed Malcolm into it, because the latest binding spell was fading, and by the time of Legacy, Malcolm's binding was fading. And I believe Janeka was supposed to find someone to renew the binding, but was indoctrinated by the sleeping Cory before she could. But I might be wrong about that last bit.

 

I think the explanation given for Hawke fighting Cory instead of binding him was that either Larius or Janeka told him it was too late and Hawke had to kill the darkspawn. Presumably at that point, either Warden couldn't resist Cory's influence and were telling Hawke this to actually just release Cory. But it's not explained well.

[Iakus]

I'm sure that Flemeth often entered the fade in flesh in those centuries, since apparently she did not need any anchor in order to do so
Solas on the other hand is like a ruler
There, the fade is his home

Where's the evidence that Flemeth has ever entered the Fade in the flesh?

[vbibbi]

Where's the evidence that Flemeth has ever entered the Fade in the flesh?

In the final main quest before facing Cory if Kieran is the OGB. Flemeth lures him into the Fade through the eluvian.

[Tidus]

The DA games is like the books tells different stories from different eras which is the reason I love the DA series as much as my my FF  games-both DA and FF is the same thing beat the evil boss and save the world. The only exception in my  FF game collection is FF12 where you beat a evil boss in order to restore a fallen kingdom.

[Iakus]

In the final main quest before facing Cory if Kieran is the OGB. Flemeth lures him into the Fade through the eluvian.

If anything, that just demonstrates that an Old God can draw people into the Fade physically with the aid of an eluvian (since Kieran activated it himself)

 

Flemeth could very well have been a projection, just as any mage can cast their minds into the Fade with the aid of lyrium.  And Dreamers don't even need that

[KaiserShep]

The Gw didn't had the possibility to release Cory, because as i have come to understand the key was the blood of the Amell family
(but pure and not corrupted)
Hawke could have easly left Cory there.....

Hawke had no choice. Hawke was led into a trap due to Varric's tip on the Carta dwarves that were trying to kill Hawke and sibling. The prison's hold on Corypheus was degrading, but in the meantime, there was no way out but to release him in hopes of killing him.

[Dai Grepher]

But those are side plots (not to mention Corypheus is released by Hawke, not the Wardens). And seeing as how the obvious original plan was Hawke => Inquisitor, the influence of Corypheus on the plot is exactly what we saw it to be in DA:I, i.e., far more about a thematic contrast with Solas. 

 

The blight seems to be a backdrop/red-herring, all part of how DA as a setting tries to subvert the usual fantasy tropes. 

 

Or are they?

 

Yeah... I guess they are side plots. But the guy's point was that DA2 may have originally been more focused on the Darkspawn, Grey Wardens, and the taint. So maybe those side plots are what remains of the original script? And in the grand scheme of things, these side plots are the only relevant part of the series. What happened in Kirkwall means little by comparison.

 

Cory is released by the Wardens as much as by Hawke. She works with either Larius or Jeneka to free Corypheus in order to kill him or bind him.

 

That's assuming Solas is the main plot. I doubt he is. He's probably just a lead-in to other plots revolving around greater villains like the evanuris, the Forbidden Ones, or the old gods. And again, the old gods are connected to the taint. And I think the "final level" of Dragon Age is the Black City, which of course is tainted.

 

Now, I don't know if DA2 was supposed to be about the taint and Wardens or not, but there certainly is a lot of storyline content about them in DA2. And in all honesty, is Legacy any more of a side quest than Trespasser? Maybe it is a little more side questy since it takes place before the end of the game, but both are foundations for future storyline.

[In Exile]

I was referring to both the Blight and the blight because they're connected and have clear impact on the world/history of Thedas and on each game in the series.

 

The story focused less on the darkspawn horde as the series progressed, true since now the Blight is over. But to discount them as unimportant even though Thedosian society and history rightfully remember them as one of the biggest menaces and threats to the world is a disservice to both the darkspawn and to the world of Thedas. They may not be the main focus anymore (for better or worst), but the darkspawn are certainly not irrelevant (just ask the dwarves), especially since there's still two more prospective Blights on the Horizon.

 

Origins spending 0 minutes exploring the taint? How about the Dalish elf origins and the tainted eluvian (which shows up again in DA2)? How about Avernus and his research and experiments? The Architect's disciples and their newfound sentience and what that implies? What about all of those talks with Alistair where he explains what the taint does and will do to Grey Wardens including their abilities; decreased fertility; increased appetite; and how they're all gonna die within 30 years since the taint's slowly killing them? The chilling talks about the Calling which the taint produces which leads the darkspawn to find and release the Archdemon? Whether the Archdemon really is an old god corrupted by the blight or a powerful dragon that's been blighted? 

 

Plenty of folk speculate and explore the taint itself, they're were just reasonably more focused on stopping the Blight than understanding the nuances of the blight and considering the time crunch, I don't blame them.

 

The Blight is not important to the story of Thedas we're told, even if it's notionally historically important. It's a red herring for the lore of the games, and the story we're experiencing. DA:I is the best illustration of this - we have some far flung events which are formative to this world, and their true story is lost to the mist of history with the narrative surviving being a twisted, at best, version of it. A lot of stuff happened between the First Blight and the Fifth. But that gets a lot less attention that stuff that either happened before the First Blight, or stuff that happened immediately. 

 

And no, DA:O tells us jack all. The Dalish Origin doesn't even begin to explore the taint. We have no idea why the Eluvian was tainted, how it got tainted, what its relationship was to the taint (and everything Duncan says is outright wrong). We learn absolutely nothing about the taint from Avernus apart from it being something "unknown" to demons. The random things Alistair tells you - all of which have to do with how someone becomes a ghoul - are also all irrelevant to what is important about the taint, i.e., the actual magical corruption. These are all things that are plainly known in the world of Thedas. It's not a "relevation" to be told the basic facts known to every initiate in an organization. 

 

And we don't learn anything about the calling, apart from learning there is such a thing as a calling, which can't be called a revelation when it's a plainly known fact. 

 

It doesn't matter that, in-setting, people don't care to understand the blight. What matters is that, lore-wise, the important aspects of the blight isn't per se the band of angry orks or the corrupted dragon. 

[In Exile]

Or are they?

 

Yeah... I guess they are side plots. But the guy's point was that DA2 may have originally been more focused on the Darkspawn, Grey Wardens, and the taint. So maybe those side plots are what remains of the original script? And in the grand scheme of things, these side plots are the only relevant part of the series. What happened in Kirkwall means little by comparison.

 

Cory is released by the Wardens as much as by Hawke. She works with either Larius or Jeneka to free Corypheus in order to kill him or bind him.

 

That's assuming Solas is the main plot. I doubt he is. He's probably just a lead-in to other plots revolving around greater villains like the evanuris, the Forbidden Ones, or the old gods. And again, the old gods are connected to the taint. And I think the "final level" of Dragon Age is the Black City, which of course is tainted.

 

Now, I don't know if DA2 was supposed to be about the taint and Wardens or not, but there certainly is a lot of storyline content about them in DA2. And in all honesty, is Legacy any more of a side quest than Trespasser? Maybe it is a little more side questy since it takes place before the end of the game, but both are foundations for future storyline.

 

Corypheus isn't released by "the Wardens". Janeka isn't the whole of the order, and if anything she's a wackjob renegade at that point in time. 

 

And I didn't say Solas is the main plot of DA - just that his story is moreso the main plot of DA:I than Corypheus the darkspawn is the main plot. The parts of the story of Corypheus that matter have nothing to do with his status as a darkspawn, but rather with his obsession of re-creating his long lost imperium. Even the parts of the blight/taint that are relevant (i.e., red lyrium related) have nothing to do with what is introduced in DA:O as being relevant or related to the GWs. 

 

To say that the parts of DA2 that focus on Corypheus are about the same sort of thing as DA:O is a misnomer. Hell, not even DA:A bothers to follow up on the same plot as DA:O, basically changing everything there is related to the darkspawn (now they can talk and think!), their threat (suddenly, crazy broodmothers and talking darkspawn can start a blight all on their own!), and the lore (the Mother wants to be subject to the Calling again). 

[Lady Artifice]

Proof? I've seen absolutely no evidence that there was ever any further GW related plot in the works as a sequel.

Brent Knowles left over design differences, as far as we know, not plot.

 

Also, "Dragon Age: Origins 2" is not a good name. 

[In Exile]

Also, "Dragon Age: Origins 2" is not a good name. 

 

To be fair, I'd wager the "Origins" got added on when EA decided the game was going to flop and wanted to distance their future sequel from it pre-emptively. It was originally just "Dragon Age"

[midnight tea]

You've got it backwards. There's the "Blight" with a capital "B", and that's the archdemon rising with a bunch of darkspawn. That's irrelevant backdrop. There's the "blight" with a small "b" (which use to be called the taint before DA:I), which is the actual magical corruption that is the cause of the darkspawn among other things. That part is pretty important to the lore of Thedas. But the actual darkspawn critters and archdemons, that stuff is irrelevant backdrop. In hindsight, I should have actually capitalized my last post, so I apologize for the confusion. 

 

But the actual thing that was an issue in DA:O - the darkspawn horde led by an archdemon - that's not relevant. Hell, it becomes irrelevant by DA:I, where we see that we might end up with another eruption of darkspawn because of a sentient being called the Architect. 

 

What used to be called the taint - that matters to DA lore. But DA:O spent exactly 0 minutes examining it, and often actively avoided revealing anything about it. The red-herring is that the horde of orks and ostensibly evil monster god is all just a smoke-screen - what matters is the magical corruption, and that thing has a very different relationship and role in the history of Thedas. 

 

We've slowly unraveled what the magical corruption is in every DA game, with red lyrium in DA2/DAI and the Titans in DA:I. That's way more focus on it than in DA:O, which was the red herring.  

 

I completely agree. The more important aspect of DAO was introducing us to Thedas, rather than fighting the Blight - every major quest or origin story tells us something about the socio-political, religious or magical landscape; lays out the basics for us to grasp and navigate around. The Blight itself is simply a pretext to push the story further. But by the time DA:I was released this landscape is established well enough that we can get into intricacies of how the world itself works, or what has created it, as well as getting closer to the answers more important than Blights - namely, what creates them, fuels them and what may be behind many more tragedies and changes to the world that we have yet seen.

 

To put it simply: we didn't have much space or time to examine the blight in detail in Origins - so it was mostly delegated to being an unknown, evil force that has to be stopped at all costs. The Wardens did that, only to be revealed that while they may be the best tool to stop the Archdemon-led darkspawn Thedas has so far, they themselves don't really know what they're fighting. And seeing how Solas is absolutely terrified of the Blight (the corrupting force, not the darkspawn invasion) and he himself seems to not know the answer how to neutralize it (seal it, maybe, but not get rid of it), it's safe to assume that we'd get even more solid answers on the nature of it in DA4 or 5 - and by DA5 I suspect the series will likely be all about the overarching plot we've all seen being introduced in increasing increments throughout all the existing installments.

[Aren]

If anything, that just demonstrates that an Old God can draw people into the Fade physically with the aid of an eluvian (since Kieran activated it himself)

 

Flemeth could very well have been a projection, just as any mage can cast their minds into the Fade with the aid of lyrium.  And Dreamers don't even need that

Flemeth was not a projection there she was real,real and in flesh.

She called Kieran but she didn't used the same eluvian to enter the fade,sh did o her own

Also the way in which she appear and disappear in the Altar of Mythal,is seem to me that she is perfectly capable to enter the fade in flesh at will.