I agree that some players do seem to have some disturbing ideas of the morality of people's actions in game but that isn't confined to Solas. I was always profoundly disturbed by people applauding Anders' blowing up the Chantry and then trying to justify it by saying there was only Elthina and a couple of Templars affected by it anyway. Still I'm sure they weren't going to go out and blow people up in real life, any more than those who seem to condone Solas are all white supremacists.
The real problem is how writers deal with the issues and resolve the storyline. Let us hope they don't make such a botch of it as they did with ME3.
I think the Andraste/Joan of Arc idea was actually a rather good one. I always liked her story and as Sister Petrine pointed out, the Chantry did try and make it look as though Andraste was all sweetness and light, playing down the violent aspects of her campaign, unless it became politically expedient to remember it because they wanted to call an Exalted March. There were always hints that how the Chantry had interpreted her teaching and maintained her legacy might not be entirely as Andraste would have wished. However. so long as we had limited knowledge about the growth of the Chantry and it was more in the background to events, as it was in DAO, it didn't really bother me that people in game didn't question it more. The elves seemed to have a hard time of it but then it wasn't great for mages either, although at least they had reasonably descent living conditions.
DA2 became more problematic for me because what the Chantry taught was far more relevant to the plot and it did start to raise even more questions in my mind about the double standards with regard to how the Chantry treat the nobles compared with the peasant population. It would have been nice to be able to take issue more with Chantry people on certain aspects of the Chant but then we had Anders banging on about it so much, even if some of his arguments were flawed, it at least meant someone was questioning things.
The problem with DAI is that your organisation and title is based off Chantry beliefs and the authorisation of the previous Divine. As a result there is a lot more discussion of religion but no one ever really questions the core issue for me, which is does the Chantry really have anything to do with the historic Andraste and what she taught, except in name only? I try to imagine how it would seem to my elf, who has been sent on a fact finding mission by his Keeper, and so makes a point of trying to find out as much as possible, including reading a copy of the Chant. He also did all his background reading on the history as revealed in game and backed up in the source books. Leaving aside his own race's particular issue with the Chantry, he finds it incomprehensible how people can maintain faith in an organisation that has such flimsy claims to legitimacy. It is not about whether you believe or not in the Maker. It is not about whether or not he believes Andraste was really divinely inspired. It is that they don't seem to have any respect for the faith they claim to believe in. And it is not as though people are unaware of what the Chant contains through being illiterate, because they chant the Chant constantly and are apparently meant to do so in full on a regular basis. Also apparently keeping to what is taught is important because the Chantry teach that if you are wicked or unfaithful you will be damned to wander the Fade for eternity.
For example, according to the abridged Chant given in WoT2, there are 5 basic commandments of the Maker. That doesn't seem much to have to adhere to but much of the time the only one they do, is:
1) You must believe in the Maker and no one else. Still he would have thought more of Cassandra if she had outright called him a sinner for believing in the elf gods than simply asking him to accommodate the Maker into his pantheon. He didn't have a problem with the Maker. He'd always thought the Maker had a problem with him. According to the Chant this is true.
2) Magic exists to serve man and never to rule over him. Foul and corrupt are they who have taken his gift and turned it against his children. From what he can tell this has always been open to interpretation. However, he is rather confused when one Chantry sister tells him that the number one their faith is rooted in the principle that "Magic is a corrupting influence in the world", when the Chant clearly calls it the Maker's gift. Then when he asks Mother Giselle about the issue she says that this may have been the case in the past but you have to see Andraste's words in the context of her time. Excuse me, he thinks, where does Andraste come into this. It is your organisation that says it is a corrupting influence, not Andraste.
3) All men are the work of our Maker's Hands from the lowest slaves to the highest kings. Those who bring harm without provocation to the least of his children are hated and accursed by the Maker. He notices that "without provocation" leaves a bit of elbow room but he does wonder how the Chantry can turn a blind eye to the training of Chevaliers that he has heard about, or the way servants can casually be killed in pursuit of the Game. Also after learning the assassin spec, which does not automatically mean he intends going around killing people in cold blood, Leliana seems to be advocating him authorising the murder of some noble just so his wife can keep her money and titles and have the commoner she loves. It seems to him that is murder pure and simple and yet she is a potential Divine. Should she really be suggesting this?
4) Those who bear false witness and work to deceive others know this: There is but one Truth. All things are know to the Maker and He shall judge their lies.
This was the point when he no longer had any respect for the Chantry or any of the major adherents he had contact with, apart from Cassandra who does seem to value the truth. He has lost count of the number of times he was encouraged to lie about who he was and what really happened at the Conclave in order not to disturb the faithful. Once again, there were numerous war table missions where Leliana, the potential Divine, suggested lying and deceiving people was the way to resolve the situation. For example, in getting Red Crossing to accept the peace offering from the Dalish or getting the clan to shut up about the truth about Ameridan. If people are so cavalier with the truth now, how can he be sure that anything in the Chant is genuine, when he knows that the Divines have taken bits out in the past for political convenience or added bits in at the insistence of Drakon and claimed it is all the Maker's truth?
5) Thou shalt not steal. It hardly matters whether they stick to this one or not but if he wanted to make a point, the Chantry and Orlais stole the Dales from the elves. Normally when you conquer a people you just remove their leaders and they continue to live where they always did. That's what they did with Ferelden but with the elves they rounded up the ordinary elves and sent them across Thedas to live in alienages, while they moved in humans to replace them. Really though, by this point he just doesn't care any more. He can't stomach the thought of actually serving this organisation as their tame peace keeper, so he disbands and goes back to his clan. Their gods might not be up to much but the Dalish teach a moral code attached to their names that they adhere to and makes sense to him. He'd rather have "faith" in that than the Chantry
Now what I would really like would be for the writers to acknowledge just how hypocritical the faith presented in DAI is. I'd have liked for someone to have given me one concrete example when everyone in Thedas having the same belief in the Maker was unifying in a way they wouldn't have been without it. Fighting the Darkspawn? People were doing that when they still worshipped the old gods. Fighting the Qun? They'd have surely done that anyway and in any case, where is the solidarity with Tevinter, who do after all, believe in the Maker, unlike the Qun. As for the other Exalted Marches against Tevinter and Starkhaven it is likely they'd have clubbed together against them anyway in the case of Starkhaven and was the march against Tevinter really unifying, given that, as I say, Tevinter believes in the Maker too? The Exalted March on the Dales? Well according to Giselle that wasn't a proper one anyway (in other words it was political). Having the same religion didn't stop Orlais invading Nevarra or Ferelden and there are numerous other instances where it seemed to make no difference whatsoever to world peace. That is what was so annoying about DAI in terms of the way that religion was dealt with. There is no one questioning the main belief system in Thedas even when it is obvious it is an illusion it is even a faith at all.
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