1580 réponses à ce sujet

[Dai Grepher]

I think we've reached the most critical point here. Viddasala is unauthorized, disavowed, but not rogue. She is Tal-Vashoth, yet also true Qunari.

No, she attacked the South without authorization from the Triumvirate. She did this because she believed the Qun demanded it. She hid this from the Triumvirate and the other priests in the Ben-Hassrath, that's why the Triumvirate claims no knowledge of her actions. She cannot be declared Tal-Vashoth until the Triumvirate investigates her activities at the very least. She dies before this can happen. After the investigation, the Ben-Hassrath disavow her.

It's called a sequence of events.

It's kind of a thing from an "in the moment" story player perspective. It's not a thing when the developer comes straight out and tells you what's going on.

But Weekes didn't say the Triumvirate authorized Dragon's Breath or Viddasala. He said something completely unrelated to this issue. The group of Qunari we fought was not a rogue group. That says nothing of authorization or what the Triumvirate knew or didn't know.

I am still baffled how you can even say (well... write) say that he didn't with a straight face.

Because it's the truth.

Like... it's there. Everyone can hear him saying that IB would not betray Inky if Viddasala was a rogue group.

Weekes did not speak the title "Viddasala" at all. And I explained this to you already. Weekes said the group itself was not rogue. That does not automatically mean Dragon's Breath was authorized by the Triumvirate. Certain Qunari and Qunari groups can and have acted without authorization.

There's not a large room for interpretation there; Weekes' statements are very clear in that regard.

Yet your side continues to twist his words to take different meaning.

The Vidassala would do more than disobey orders in the course of ultimately doing her duty. An unsanctioned attack is not something the Qun takes lightly, as we saw with the Arishok.

And yet the Arishok still went through with it, knowing full well he wasn't authorized to do so. Viddasala clearly had the same mentality.

Regardless, Weekes did not say she wasn't Tal-Vashoth. He went more broadly, and said she wasn't a rogue agent or an offshoot. I think that, when the Arishok decided to sack Kirkwall, he went rogue without going full-on Tal-Vashoth (albeit if he had failed to recover the Tome and somehow survived the events at the Viscount's Keep, I wouldn't be surprised if that would have been his fate). It's wasn't his mission, thus why he was disavowed afterwards.

Viddasala was disavowed afterward, and yet you do not apply this standard to her. As for going rogue, that is all up to personal opinion. In any case, Weekes did not say that Viddasala wasn't rogue. He was only referring to the Qunari we fought.

Weekes specifically says that this is not what happens here. The Vidassala is not a rogue operative, not an offshoot.

He said nothing of Viddasala.

Eh, yeah. This is where the "kind of" comes in. Disobeying an order is by definition "going rogue".

What order did she disobey? The letter indicates that she kept her activities a secret from her superiors.

Weekes just tells us straight out the whole thing is authorized.

No he doesn't.

[ModernAcademic]

People coming to this thread now are like

 

 

Others who are following the discussion for a while are like

 

[Almostfaceman]

 In any case, Weekes did not say that Viddasala wasn't rogue. He was only referring to the Qunari we fought.
 

 

The Qunari we fought included the Viddasala. 

[Almostfaceman]

What order did she disobey? The letter indicates that she kept her activities a secret from her superiors.

 

 

The letter is just misdirection. Weekes makes this clear when he explains what happens in Trespasser.

[Almostfaceman]

No he doesn't.

 

Yes he does.

 

That said, when we got to the Qunari, we kicked around different ways to do it. We said 'Oh, okay, maybe it's a rogue faction of the Qunari and they aren't really the real Qunari and Bull doesn't believe in them,' and every time... We tried to talk ourselves into that for a while, like, 'Oh Bull wouldn't do this, they're not the real Qunari, they're an offshoot,' and it just got so toothless. It got to a point where we were like 'No, really, who wants to play a game where you are fighting the offshoot of the offshoot of the offshoot.' We own this. The Qunari aren't being used anywhere but in our games. So if we're gonna say the Qunari are gonna start a war, let's have the Qunari start a war, and let's own it.

[Giantdeathrobot]

Viddasala was disavowed afterward, and yet you do not apply this standard to her. As for going rogue, that is all up to personal opinion. In any case, Weekes did not say that Viddasala wasn't rogue. He was only referring to the Qunari we fought.

 

 

In what twisted reality does this not apply to the one who commanded them?

[ModernAcademic]

So the original idea was for the Viddasala and her team to be a rogue faction. But the devs changed their mind midway.

 

No wonder people are confused.

[ModernAcademic]

If they were going to make an official Qunari invasion, then they should've been consistent with everything they've built so far on the Qunari.

 

Sten and Fenris tell us that "When the Qunari finally decide to attack, you'll know." Fenris even tells us they have a huge, impressive army, fully capable of defeating the Imperium. Staging an infiltration of the Exalted Council by using one of their many cells isn't the best example of this.

The right way to announce an official invasion in Trespasser would be for the Inquisition - and every Southern nation- to receive reports in the middle or the end of the Exalted Council about a huge fleet of Qunari dreadnoughts battling Tevinter vessels and occupying a major city of the Imperium, like Minrathous.

 

This was sloppy work. It would've been best if the Viddasala and her subordinates remained a rogue faction - or a faction that turned rogue midway due to her going all Arishok - and the announcement of an invasion came much later, after the Inquisitor had dealt with her.

 

The devs are to blame.

[thats1evildude]

Even in this fantasy you have of a massive faction of loyal qunari being misled by a mad Ben-Hassrath priestess, I still don't see how you can claim the Iron Bull turning on you is a bad thing, Dai Grepher.

 

I mean, if communication between qunari agents is apparently so poor that the Vidassala can fool hundreds of loyal qunari into helping her start a war, then why is it Hissrad's fault for believing she was a legitimate authority?

 

The Triuumverate obviously has no communication with its agents out in the field and lets them run around without any direction. How was he supposed to know that she had gone General Ripper?

[midnight tea]

So the original idea was for the Viddasala and her team to be a rogue faction. But the devs changed their mind midway.

 

No wonder people are confused.

 

You make it sound as if they began producing the DLC with Viddasala as a rogue faction and then turned that around mid-production. That's NOT what happened. Weekes states that they bounced around ideas during writing stage - and the writing stage is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, stages of game production.

 

People are confused mostly because people have pet theories and heacanons they want to believe in, for whatever reason. Heck, there were people confused with 'whitewashing' Qunari, only it later turned out that they simply don't understand Qunari logic.

[BansheeOwnage]

 

The Qunari are a giant logic engine... and it's how the Geth should have been represented.  

I think the opposite. I found the geth fascinating, but am fairly "meh" about the Qunari.

[Mistic]

If they were going to make an official Qunari invasion, then they should've been consistent with everything they've built so far on the Qunari.

 

Sten and Fenris tell us that "When the Qunari finally decide to attack, you'll know." Fenris even tells us they have a huge, impressive army, fully capable of defeating the Imperium. Staging an infiltration of the Exalted Council by using one of their many cells isn't the best example of this.

The right way to announce an official invasion in Trespasser would be for the Inquisition - and every Southern nation- to receive reports in the middle or the end of the Exalted Council about a huge fleet of Qunari dreadnoughts battling Tevinter vessels and occupying a major city of the Imperium, like Minrathous.

 

This was sloppy work. It would've been best if the Viddasala and her subordinates remained a rogue faction - or a faction that turned rogue midway due to her going all Arishok - and the announcement of an invasion came much later, after the Inquisitor had dealt with her.

 

The devs are to blame.

 

Why invade openly when you have a golden opportunity to weaken your enemies first? Doing so would be beyond stupid for any military leader.

 

Don't forget that the Qunari also have been said to have one of the most advanced, numerous and effective intelligence services in Thedas. Beheading every major ruler in the South with spies and saboteurs in a single covert operation? Governments today would kill to have such a card in their pockets. Now add that the Qunari had never been known to pay much attention to written formalities (as pointed out by Sten himself) and that they loathe the meaningless sacrifice of lives if there's another solution (from the reason they finally relented in Rivain to the way they deal with people who keep resisting them), and the "Salarian School of Warfare" describes perfectly their known modus operandi:

 

In every war the salarians have fought, they struck first and without warning. For the salarians, to know an enemy plans to attack and to let it happen is folly. To announce their own plans to attack is insanity. They find the human moral concepts of "do not fire until fired upon" and "declare a war before prosecuting it" incredibly naive. In defensive wars, they execute devastating preemptive strikes hours before the enemy's own attacks. On the offensive, they have never telegraphed their intentions with a declaration of war before attacking.

 

In hindsight, the planning was good. Had it not been for Solas, the Inquisition and the other Southern powers would have never known what hit them, so then an invasion would have been easier. Failure didn't hurt them much either. Instead of losing an entire invasion force, it was just some soldiers and spies. Their army is intact for plan B: try to defeat Tevinter first before going south.

[Darkstarr11]

Why invade openly when you have a golden opportunity to weaken your enemies first? Doing so would be beyond stupid for any military leader.

 

Don't forget that the Qunari also have been said to have one of the most advanced, numerous and effective intelligence services in Thedas. Beheading every major ruler in the South with spies and saboteurs in a single covert operation? Governments today would kill to have such a card in their pockets. Now add that the Qunari had never been known to pay much attention to written formalities (as pointed out by Sten himself) and that they loathe the meaningless sacrifice of lives if there's another solution (from the reason they finally relented in Rivain to the way they deal with people who keep resisting them), and the "Salarian School of Warfare" describes perfectly their known modus operandi:

 

In every war the salarians have fought, they struck first and without warning. For the salarians, to know an enemy plans to attack and to let it happen is folly. To announce their own plans to attack is insanity. They find the human moral concepts of "do not fire until fired upon" and "declare a war before prosecuting it" incredibly naive. In defensive wars, they execute devastating preemptive strikes hours before the enemy's own attacks. On the offensive, they have never telegraphed their intentions with a declaration of war before attacking.

 

In hindsight, the planning was good. Had it not been for Solas, the Inquisition and the other Southern powers would have never known what hit them, so then an invasion would have been easier. Failure didn't hurt them much either. Instead of losing an entire invasion force, it was just some soldiers and spies. Their army is intact for plan B: try to defeat Tevinter first before going south.

 

 

Shock and awe.  A sudden beheading of the South would have thrown everything into chaos.  The South with no leadership and Tevinter would be reeling from the news.  They'd have no idea what to expect.  Where did the Qunari come from?  How'd they do it?  Plus with the Eluvian network, the Qunari could hit Tevinter from a multitude of angles.  The Qunari would look far more imposing than they could possibly be.  Tevinter would have two choices...submit or fight.  If the plan was pulled off correctly, Tevinter might capitulate rather than face utter destruction...maybe.  However, with the South now in the know, they'd HAVE to shift their focus.  It is much harder to stab a guy in the back when his back is now guarded and he can see you across the way.  Attacking Tevinter (who would know what was up thanks to Dorian) would be the only choice.  After all, if Tevinter had its wits about them, they'd be able to push back against the Qunari.  However the Qunari know from its spies that Tevinter is currently divided amongst themselves.  The only probable target would be Tevinter...NOT the South who now have a renewed interest in protecting their borders from without and within.  Its still war...just not the one they anticipated, thanks to the Inquisitor and pals.  

[Dai Grepher]

The Qunari we fought included the Viddasala.

When did we fight Viddasala?

The letter is just misdirection. Weekes makes this clear when he explains what happens in Trespasser.

No he doesn't, but if it's just misdirection, then again I ask what order did Viddasala disobey?

Yes he does.
 
That said, when we got to the Qunari, we kicked around different ways to do it. We said 'Oh, okay, maybe it's a rogue faction of the Qunari and they aren't really the real Qunari and Bull doesn't believe in them,' and every time... We tried to talk ourselves into that for a while, like, 'Oh Bull wouldn't do this, they're not the real Qunari, they're an offshoot,' and it just got so toothless. It got to a point where we were like 'No, really, who wants to play a game where you are fighting the offshoot of the offshoot of the offshoot.' We own this. The Qunari aren't being used anywhere but in our games. So if we're gonna say the Qunari are gonna start a war, let's have the Qunari start a war, and let's own it.

Find:

Triumvirate
no matches

Authorized
no matches

Viddasala
no matches

So Weekes said the Triumvirate authorized Viddasala without using the words Triumvirate, authorized, or Viddasala?

No. He simply said these were real Qunari part of the real Ben-Hassrath. That does not automatically mean they were authorized to attack the South. So are you going to address this fact or are you just going to repeat yourself again? 

In what twisted reality does this not apply to the one who commanded them?

Because we did not fight Viddasala.

So the original idea was for the Viddasala and her team to be a rogue faction. But the devs changed their mind midway.

Maybe, or maybe they were going through the ideas, and then after debating it, they decided to make them real Qunari. But the game shows that Hissrad still thinks they're a rogue group regardless. So in a way that storyline did make the final cut as far as Hissrad was concerned.

If they were going to make an official Qunari invasion, then they should've been consistent with everything they've built so far on the Qunari.

I agree. But Trespasser was the same toe-in-the-water "toothless" timidity that Weekes claims they wanted to avoid. They made them real Qunari, but there was still no war at the end because they weren't authorized.

Sten and Fenris tell us that "When the Qunari finally decide to attack, you'll know." Fenris even tells us they have a huge, impressive army, fully capable of defeating the Imperium. Staging an infiltration of the Exalted Council by using one of their many cells isn't the best example of this.
The right way to announce an official invasion in Trespasser would be for the Inquisition - and every Southern nation- to receive reports in the middle or the end of the Exalted Council about a huge fleet of Qunari dreadnoughts battling Tevinter vessels and occupying a major city of the Imperium, like Minrathous.

Yes, I would like to see an actual war like this, even if they had to put all of it in an over-world strategy battle game, like Nobunaga's Ambition or something. But I think its clear that a world war with Par Vollen is not the direction BioWare wants to go with DA4, which is why they went the unauthorized route in the end to prevent the war from happening at this time.

Even in this fantasy you have of a massive faction of loyal qunari being misled by a mad Ben-Hassrath priestess, I still don't see how you can claim the Iron Bull turning on you is a bad thing, Dai Grepher.

It isn't a bad thing per se. I wanted Hissrad to turn on us. But I wanted it for the right reasons. The way they presented it in Trespasser was just awful. Hissrad helped us kill Qunari and foil Dragon's Breath, then he turns on us afterward? Lame. Why didn't he attack us from the get go? The only logical reason is because he thought they were a rogue group, or not authorized. Okay fine. I can live with that. We find all kinds of evidence that Viddasala has gone off the reservation. Then we get to the Darvaarad and find the Triumvirate's letter disavowing her and clearly stating that the alliance with the Inquisition is valued greatly.

Hissrad should have followed the Triumvirate's letter. Hissrad should have wiggled his way out of following Viddasala's order by saying that he has orders from his superior officers to stick with their Inquisition ally, and that she does not command him.

But he doesn't. He ends up following someone he knows is unauthorized and will likely be disavowed, reeducated, and demoted by the Triumvirate, all because he's a blind follower.

Ironically, the only version of him that could wiggle out of this would be a Tal-Vashoth Bull who is capable of thinking for himself.

I mean, if communication between qunari agents is apparently so poor that the Vidassala can fool hundreds of loyal qunari into helping her start a war, then why is it Hissrad's fault for believing she was a legitimate authority?

Because he saw the Triumvirate's letter. Ideally, Hissrad should turn on you if you left him behind this whole time and didn't let him see the evidence for himself. But if you took the risk and brought him with you, then he should decide to stand with the Inquisition and honor the alliance. But the whole DLC was poorly written and implemented.

The Triuumverate obviously has no communication with its agents out in the field and lets them run around without any direction. How was he supposed to know that she had gone General Ripper?

In my preliminary run (the first one I've ever done in a DA game, because I could tell from the start that Trespasser would be a bad DLC) I took Hissrad through each level. So he was able to see all the evidence that Viddasala was acting against the will of the Triumvirate. The Qunari attacked him outright. There was a letter in the mines calling for Hissrad's death, which was then crossed out, but still, there was feeding lyrium to saarebas, red lyrium in the Darvaarad, etc. Hissrad wasn't even one of Viddasala's subordinates, and he wasn't assigned to her by his superiors. So there is just no logical reason for Hissrad to obey her order, especially when he ignores it in the Vir Dirthara.

So the only reason I can think of is that he was afraid of being declared Tal-Vashoth right then and there for disobeying her order. Like being called that would have made him lose his sanity or something, like when Sten lost his sword.

[Almostfaceman]

When did we fight Viddasala?
 

 

In Trespasser. 

[Almostfaceman]

Triumvirate
no matches

Authorized
no matches

Viddasala
no matches

So Weekes said the Triumvirate authorized Viddasala without using the words Triumvirate, authorized, or Viddasala?

 

 

Yes. 

 

"In WW2, Germany went to war with Russia."

 

I said that without using the words Hitler, Stalin, invasion, authorized. All of those words are involved. 

[Almostfaceman]

No he doesn't, but if it's just misdirection, then again I ask what order did Viddasala disobey?
 

 

I never said Viddasala disobeyed any order. 

[Dai Grepher]

Why invade openly when you have a golden opportunity to weaken your enemies first? Doing so would be beyond stupid for any military leader.

The point is to invade anyway even if the opening attack fails.
 

Don't forget that the Qunari also have been said to have one of the most advanced, numerous and effective intelligence services in Thedas. Beheading every major ruler in the South with spies and saboteurs in a single covert operation? Governments today would kill to have such a card in their pockets.

This is all speculation. The plan was foiled before it was executed. So we don't know if they Qunari really have that capability or not. I doubt it. Hitting all leaders at once is impossible, and even if they could pull it off, the leaders would simply be replaced by their generals and seneschals.

Now add that the Qunari had never been known to pay much attention to written formalities (as pointed out by Sten himself) and that they loathe the meaningless sacrifice of lives if there's another solution (from the reason they finally relented in Rivain to the way they deal with people who keep resisting them), and the "Salarian School of Warfare" describes perfectly their known modus operandi:
 
In every war the salarians have fought, they struck first and without warning. For the salarians, to know an enemy plans to attack and to let it happen is folly. To announce their own plans to attack is insanity. They find the human moral concepts of "do not fire until fired upon" and "declare a war before prosecuting it" incredibly naive. In defensive wars, they execute devastating preemptive strikes hours before the enemy's own attacks. On the offensive, they have never telegraphed their intentions with a declaration of war before attacking.

Yeah? Fine. So where's the big Qunari war at? Oh their clumsy opening attack failed so that means call off all the warships? Absurd.

In hindsight, the planning was good. Had it not been for Solas, the Inquisition and the other Southern powers would have never known what hit them, so then an invasion would have been easier.

Speculation. The plot could have been foiled by the Inquisition naturally, or by any of the various noble houses across Orlais, Ferelden, or the Free Marches. It's also possible that the gaatlok would not have damaged the structures as intended, and that the plan would have failed on its own.

As for planning, it was terrible. They went forward with the plot even after Solas started attacking them. If they were serious, they would have called it off until a later time, or at least called it off from the Winter Palace and just hit every other place.

Failure didn't hurt them much either. Instead of losing an entire invasion force, it was just some soldiers and spies. Their army is intact for plan B: try to defeat Tevinter first before going south.

Defeating Tevinter first should always be the plan, in which case they would not bother with the South until then. Had they invaded the South, they would have lost, and their army would be spread too thin. Par Vollen would have fallen. But this is just another reason why Dragon's Breath was unauthorized. The Qunari can't beat the South. They can't even beat Tevinter.

Shock and awe.  A sudden beheading of the South would have thrown everything into chaos.

For five minutes. Then the heirs, generals, and seneschals would take over and restore order.

The South with no leadership and Tevinter would be reeling from the news.

Why would Tevinter be reeling from the news that the South was attacked?

They'd have no idea what to expect.  Where did the Qunari come from?  How'd they do it?  Plus with the Eluvian network, the Qunari could hit Tevinter from a multitude of angles.

What eluvian network? How many eluvians are in Ferelden? Only two that I know of. One in the Dragon Bone Wastes, and one in Soldier's Peak.

[Dai Grepher]

In Trespasser.

What part of Trespasser?

Yes. 
 
"In WW2, Germany went to war with Russia."
 
I said that without using the words Hitler, Stalin, invasion, authorized. All of those words are involved.

You used an example of which we already know the context. To match your example, Weekes never said "Par Vollen", he just referenced "the Qunari", which could mean anything from one qunari to the entire race.

I never said Viddasala disobeyed any order.

"Eh, yeah. This is where the 'kind of' comes in. Disobeying an order is by definition 'going rogue'."

http://forum.bioware...5#entry20204290

I'm just wondering what order she disobeyed under the scenario in which she hid everything she was doing from the Triumvirate.

[Almostfaceman]

What part of Trespasser?


You used an example of which we already know the context. To match your example, Weekes never said "Par Vollen", he just referenced "the Qunari", which could mean anything from one qunari to the entire race.


"Eh, yeah. This is where the 'kind of' comes in. Disobeying an order is by definition 'going rogue'."

http://forum.bioware...5#entry20204290

I'm just wondering what order she disobeyed under the scenario in which she hid everything she was doing from the Triumvirate.

 

What part of Trespasser? Think about my argument. I'm sure you'll be able to figure out my answer.

 

Then you link my conversation about the Arishok going rogue. Which is irrelevant, since I acknowledge Weekes made it clear that everything the Qunari do in Trespasser is not an offshoot, or a mistake, or anything that the Qunari are going to slap around anyone under their command for. Please pay attention. 

 

Of course we know the context of "the Qunari" in Weekes statement and video. The only person so far that seems to lack an understanding of this context is you. 

[Mistic]

Shock and awe.  A sudden beheading of the South would have thrown everything into chaos.  The South with no leadership and Tevinter would be reeling from the news.  They'd have no idea what to expect.  Where did the Qunari come from?  How'd they do it?  Plus with the Eluvian network, the Qunari could hit Tevinter from a multitude of angles.

 

That makes me think, was Tevinter included in the Dragon's Breath plan? No doubt Tevinters brought Eluvians to their Imperium, after looting the remains of Elvhenan. Even Duncan in DA:O mistakenly believes the mirror from the Dalish Origin to be from Tevinter. However, I always got the impression the plan was for the South alone.

 

I wonder if you're right and the objective was to invade the Imperium all along, but we know from history that it wouldn't be the first time the Qunari waged war against all of Thedas at the same time. In 10 years they conquered most of the Imperium, Rivain and Antiva, and attacked the Free Marches. And it took more than 85 years for Southern Thedas to mount an organized response in the form of the new Exalted Marches, and they hadn't the excuse of saying "sorry, we're recovering from a Blight, several civil wars and a supernatural catastrophe, and all our leaders were killed in a surprise attack".

 

No wonder the Qunari believe the South is in good need of guidance. They struggle even to defend their own interests.

[robertthebard]

I'm just wondering what order she disobeyed under the scenario in which she hid everything she was doing from the Triumvirate.

I'm wondering the same thing. In order for your premise to be correct, she must have been disobeying orders, since she's acting on her own, so go ahead and lay out the orders she disobeyed, along with the sources for that information, preferably from codex entries in game, as opposed to head canon of events that never transpired.

Note: At this point, I'm going to have to insist on actual sources that demonstrate she was rogue. If you can't provide them, I'm going to continue asking until you do. Nothing that you've provided to date demonstrates this, and is, in fact, contrary to what Weekes has said in the interview in post one of this thread. If you don't have anything, perhaps it's time for you to admit it, and move on.

[The Baconer]

Note: At this point, I'm going to have to insist on actual sources that demonstrate she was rogue. 

 

No, no, the argument has morphed. Viddasala was a true Qunari, not a rogue. All parties are now, somehow, in agreement with the topic title. 

 

I love it. It's like playing Logic Jenga. 

[Giantdeathrobot]

When did we fight Viddasala?
 

 

Freaking what.

 

Are you next going to tell me Britain didn't fight WW2 because Churchull did not sucker-punch Hitler himself? 

[ModernAcademic]

You make it sound as if they began producing the DLC with Viddasala as a rogue faction and then turned that around mid-production. That's NOT what happened. Weekes states that they bounced around ideas during writing stage - and the writing stage is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, stages of game production.

 

People are confused mostly because people have pet theories and heacanons they want to believe in, for whatever reason. Heck, there were people confused with 'whitewashing' Qunari, only it later turned out that they simply don't understand Qunari logic.

 

I'll go ahead and guess you must be in love with me, since you always comment on my posts.

Thank you, my dear, but sadly I must let you know I'm engaged. Maybe in another life. Who knows. 

 

Weekes made a statement - reproduced by Almostfaceman a few posts above - that clearly shows the idea of Vidassala's group being considered a rogue faction was a strong one. As he puts it, the team had doubts about turning them into an official invasion force. Weekes made it clear that the devs ONLY decided to go for a full Qunari invasion after much deliberation. So the main idea didn't favor an official invasion, but a rogue faction acting in the South.

 

By taking into account how the Viddasala's actions are atypical to a Qunari - actively using foreign magic (eluvians and crossroads) to solve a problem - and even contradict one of the principles of the Qun philosophy - to see all magic as dangerous -, it's safe to assume the rogue faction premise was the main option for the devs to go with. The game pretty much makes that obvious, since Viddasala's group didn't act as though theywere commanding a Qunari invasion. They were carrying out a secret mission: to track down Solas. After all, he was the reason behind the creation of the Breach, which was the of the Qunari's main cause for concern and responsible for them taking more direct action in the South.

 

Therefore, no matter how much one tries to defend it, the Viddasala wasn't leading an invasion. She was leading a secret operation. And one that had NOTHING to do with an official invasion. She was LEADING AN INVESTIGATION. And one that, at some point, the devs decided to mingle with a secret takeover to try and make it look like some travesty of an official invasion. But the whole thing was so poorly done that one looks at Operation Dragon Breath and wonders just wtf the Qunari thought they were up to. 

 

Like I said before, the team shouldn't have started the development of the DLC BEFORE having a clear idea in mind of what the premise was going to be. They didn't. Which is why we're here, hunting down random statements, wasting our time trying to figure out what dev A, B or C really meant when talking about the damn DLC.