Greetings. I would like to talk about what I think is the giant elephant in the room when it comes to Dragon Age games and that is Bioware's blatant favoritism towards Andrastianism. Bioware has repeatedly, time and again, under different Lead Writers (formerly David Gaider, currently Patrick Weekes) stated that they will never flat-out prove or disprove the existence of the Maker. However, in the same vein, Bioware has decided to do the complete opposite with the Dalish Pantheon and the Stone, whom we now know respectively as the Evanuris and the Titans.
This is blatant favoritism and bias towards the Maker because what this implies is that the Elves and Dwarves have to confront the reality of their faiths and be shaken by the reality of their faiths but Andrastians are shielded from this. For example, the Andrastian's faith in the Maker and the Herald of Andraste is portrayed sympathetically throughout the game despite having no basis in fact, and even being proven wrong multiple times throughout the games such as as Adamant and in Trespasser. The Andrastian narrative and characters such as Cassandra Pentaghast and Mother Giselle constantly lecture the protagonist, and by extension, the player about how faith is not and should not be based on reason or evidence; as long as choosing to believe in something gives people hope and purpose and that this is a good thing.
Meanwhile, the narrative and the characters constantly pour fecal matter all over the Elves for retaining faith in their religion and traditions despite having no evidence at first, and then basically keeps calling them stupid for retaining faith in their beliefs after it has been revealed that their religion and beliefs are not all based in strict fact. Worse still, while the truth is presented as being completely irrelevant to the value of faith for Andrastians, that same game turns around and acts like the truth behind the stories of Elves is what is really important, and the Elves are morons for deriving faith from something not factually true and thus should abandon their faiths and beliefs.
This is also done to an extent to the Dwarves who choose to believe in the Stone. The Dwarven Inquisition members that we have such as Lace Harding and Varric Tethras (in essence, the Dwarf representatives of the Inquisition to the player) are Andrastians (and Varric continually mocks the Dwarven faith) and the Dwarves that worship the Stone such as Valta and Renn are either killed off or vanish under mysterious circumstances. If the Dwarven protagonist choose to worship the Stone, he or she is either ignored or has their beliefs washed away by the Andrastian members of the Inquisition after a dialogue with Josephine in Haven since after that dialogue, your Dwarven faith is never brought up again, its all Herald of Andraste and the Maker ? Why can't the Dwarven protagonist see themselves as having the Ancestor's Blessing or the Blessing of the Stone ?
My question is why this double standard is present ? Why should one group of the faithful in Thedas be allowed to retain an almost naive and innocent perspective of their faith ("Andraste's Chant is familiar across kingdoms, a source of shared custom.." but the Elven Creators and the Dwarven Stone are not sources of shared customs ?) while the other groups are denied this ? Bioware has stated that it intends to make games where everyone is flawed in some way so why not portray the Maker and Andrastianism in the same critical light they portray the Evanuris ?
Frankly, there is plenty of dirt on the Maker and the Andrastian religion that is depicted in the Codex and in the World of Thedas but none of the protagonists we have had so far, be it the Hero of Ferelden or Champion of Kirkwall or the Inquisitor is allowed to bring it up in some way. From a critical perspective, we can see that the Maker is a narcissistic masochistic indifferent god who cannot stand dissent and practices adultery. As Morrigan put it eloquently, the Maker is "an absentee father figure..". He also turned his back from his creations because they did not act they way he wanted them to do so even though it was he who created them and gave them free will. Worse still, the Maker effectively steals the lawfully wed wife of a mortal man to claim as his own and then later, he lets her endure torture as well as immolation at the stake. Lastly, he stated that unless his followers spread his teachings all over the world, he will not return to them or really give much of a damn about them.
How is it that we can have Solas talk about Falon'Din's vanity but we cannot have anyone, not even the protagonist bring up the Maker's vanity and adulterous behavior ? The Maker's vanity to want his word to spread to all four corners of the world, which is no different from the Qun's doctrine to spread their teachings throughout the world, has caused tremendous loss of life, and massive conflicts, just like Falon'Din's vanity for adulation created oceans of his follower's blood. Furthermore, we know from multiple Codex entries that the Andrastian Chantry as we know it, is established nearly 200 years later after the death of Andraste by Kordillus Drakon I. Drakon I used violent coercive force to push forth his version of the Chant, Maker, and Andraste while wiping out many others such as Daughters of Song and driving other such as Blades of Hessarian to obscurity. This means that Andrastianism as we know it today, is not brought about by Andraste's blessings or the Maker's will, it was created through intolerant violent coercive political force. Yet no protagonist is allowed or even given the option to bring this up.
I for one would have loved to confront Mother Giselle or Cassandra Pentaghast or Sera about how their Andrastianism is not actually the true vision of Andraste or the Maker since Andraste died 200 years before the Andrastian Chantry was formed, it is in fact the vision of Drakon I which is instituted through violence and coercion. It is also truly odd and hypocritical how the Andrastian Chantry frowns on and even ridicules its followers who have visions. To them, only Andraste's vision is the valid one but ironically, it was Drakon I who wrote the Canticle of Exaltations describing his visions. How is this not heresy but Leliana's visions, for example, are inappropriate or scorn-worthy ? Oh, that's right, because Drakon I was the one who created the Chantry through violent force so his visions are not in question.
I would have loved to have a protagonist confront the supposed Seeker of Truth (it should have been Seeker of Faith, not truth), the Revered Mother Giselle about how their religion is not what they say it is and deal with the consequences. I would have loved it if Lavellan could have confronted Ameridan about being friends with a violent warmonger like Drakon I (I can understand forming an alliance but Ameridan explicitly stated that Drakon I was one of his oldest friends) who is alienating multiple interpretations of Andraste's teachings (possibly even Ameridan's own interpretation of the Maker and Creators) in order to consolidate his power.
The only thing we know with absolute certainty is that once upon a time, there existed a woman called Andraste from the Alamarri tribe. At a certain age, after her marriage with Maferath, she experienced something and soon, she called the visions from something as the Maker's wisdom and together with her husband and the tribes, they began a war against the Tevinter Imperium and along the way, the managed to secure an alliance and friendship with the Elves lead by Shartan. Later, due to Maferath's betrayal for unknown reasons (perhaps it is jealousy of the Maker, perhaps it is to prevent further loss of lives that he made a deal with the Imperium or perhaps it was both), Andraste was captured, tortured and burned at the stake by Archon Hessarian. Hessarian, for whatever reason, repented his actions and converted. This is all we genuinely know.
Yet somehow, Andraste's words such as "Magic exist to serve man, not to rule over him" has been twisted to mean locking up mages in specific buildings, having legions of gullible men and women (Templars) become addicted to a highly dangerous substance (Lyrium) to watch over these mages and near absolute control over mages, having an agreement with the Dwarves to restrict the trade of this dangerous addictive substance to keep the gullible legion on a leash and then on top that, having an elite team (Seekers of Truth) formed to watch over all this. Yet the protagonists cannot really bring this up.
In fact, Jaws of Hakkon DLC should very well allowed us to question the validity that Templars are part of the Chantry because we learn there that a Templar is simply a specific fighting style involving the usage of magical substance that can be addictive, which is not very different from a Reaver. There is also the reality that Shartan and his teaching were removed and whitewashed away from the Chant of Light even though Andraste and Shartan, Human and Elf, fought side by side against the Imperium, despite the fact that there are many City Elves who are Andrastians.
So the reality of the situation is that Andrastianism and the Maker are as flawed as the Evanuris and their teachings as well as the Qun and their teachings and the Dwarves and their teachings. Yet, throughout the series, especially in Inquisition, Bioware has shown blatant favoritism, blatant protectionism, blatant obscurantism and blatant sacrosanct towards the Andrastians and the Andrastianism while not granting the same courtesy to the Elves who believe in the Evanuris, to the Dwarves who worship the Stone, to the Qunari who follow the Qun and even to those who worship the Old Gods. I mean, wanting to have your teachings spread to all four corners of the world in order to make your God give a damn about you or wanting to spread your teachings by force as dictated by your philosopher-founder to achieve some form of utopia is not very different to those who wish to enter the Golden City to gain power. For all we know, the majority of Old God worshipers probably just behave like Varric or Cassandra or Giselle or Leliana - They take the good stuff and ignore the crappy ones or deflect them with claims of faith or have their own individual interpretation.
If Bioware wish to portray all peoples, all religions and all gods as flawed in some way, then they should extend this courtesy to Andrastians and Andrastianism instead of sheltering them from the possibility that their faith is wrong or flawed. Heck, I would have loved to confront Andrastians at the end of Trespasser because according to Andrastianism, the Maker created Thedas and everything in it, including the Fade, Spirits, Veil before turning away. Yet in Trespasser, Solas mentions that it is he (and his agents) who were responsible for creating the Veil and we learn that there is an entire line of story about Thedas' origin that does not involve the Maker at all. I would have loved to ask Cassandra or Giselle or Sera if they are going to be worshipping Fen'Harel now since he created the Veil and since Maker created the Veil, therefore logically Fen'Harel should be seen as the Maker and see their response as they try to stammer and deflect that their religious teachings is wrong with claims of faith.
I often wonder if Bioware is simply engaging in Andrastian favoritism and protectionism because they are afraid of causing offense towards real world monotheistic religion such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam because criticism of Andrastianism can be seen by some as criticism of Christianity and some would take it further and see it as criticism of monotheism. I mean, we have see how Christians react to entertainment that is critical to their faith when you see their responses towards films such as Da Vinci Code, Agora, and Passion of the Christ. Are they afraid of possibly losing sales or something ? In the same vein, I do wonder if Bioware has no problem with criticizing polytheism or animism because they know polytheists and animists don't really care or if because majority of Bioware developers are from Christian nations and therefore might have a problem with criticizing monotheism but have no problem with criticizing polytheism or animism ?
Anyway, these are my thoughts on the matter. I hope that Bioware address this favoritism in their upcoming games by giving us Human followers who are not Andrastians as well as proper Dwarven followers who believe in the Stone. The only one we have had so far is Morrigan and as for Dwarves, Oghren is not a shining example of Dwarves and Sigrun does not look like she is returning again. Likewise, they should allow the protagonist, Human or non-Human alike, to question the Andrastian faith, to be critical of the Andrastian faith and deal with the consequences such as accusations of heathenous blasphemy or a healthy philosophical debate or what have you.
Have a nice day and cheers. I am curious to hear your thoughts and comments on this matter.
It is Bioware's world and they can portray it any way they want. They're obviously vague about the existence of the maker in all three games, but Dragon Age is not an Atheists vs Religion game. It is a very small part of the overall game. When the major players in the current plot are very religious you are going to have a lot of characters speaking about the Andrastian faith as if it were fact. You seem to be coming at this from a meta perspective, which I normally don't mind, but in a situation like this you can't mix your real world perspective with a video game unless you're looking to be upset about something.
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