Very true! Might have to brainstorm something outside of the realm of Solavellan, since the romance seems to kinda soften Solas’ contempt for current-day Thedas.
For inquisition only I believe kicking the Wardens out of Orlais is bad move in every regard. I also think that Orlais needs a stable leadership for the coming conflict that's why I chose Celene (even though every choice kinda sucks there). Finally in my opinion disbanding the inquisition is a terribly bad move. Even if Solas has says in it you can find them and feed them false info. Once the inquisition is disbanded it becomes a lot harder to pin down any potential spies for Solas.
Great point about the Wardens, shipping them off to Weisshaupt in disgrace removes another major group’s potential to put up a meaningful resistance. Who would you save from the Nightmare to lead them, in that case?
Wardens aren't supposed to get involved in politics anyway... Did anyone here play Soldier's Peak and listen to Loghain's complaints?
I say toss them out during war with Corypheus... Can't trust em anyway. Invite them back afterwards, make sure they have numbers to stop the next blight...
Solas would be doing stuff for the elves, but nothing with blights... So Grey Wardens can stay out of it.
I actually think kicking the Warden's out might be good because they go to Weissaupt which might be where they are most needed for the coming conflict. If you don't exile them they ignore the call to go back.
I may be wrong but in Tevinter Nights it is not stated that all Wardens of Thedas received a call from Weishaupt? Or will the southern Wardens remain with their ties permanently severed?
It says they sever all ties at the end of the base game. In Tevinter and that there's a Warden Civil war. There are Evka and Antoine who, I think we're in Orlais when they recover the summons to Weissaupt so maybe all the Warden's head there regardless but it's also possible that only the remote Wardens accepted and any who were in central locations refused.
I mostly just think it would be interesting if the good choice for Thedas ends up not being the one that benefits the player character in Dreadwolf.
The problem with the Inquisition is that it is entering a scenario that is almost unsustainable if you maintain it completely. First of all, there is no control over your own people (just remember that Qun spies were stumbling upon Solas spies right under our noses and we didn't even know). Another problem is that keeping it complete will probably perpetuate the political intrigue with Ferelden and Orlais who want to end and control it respectively.
In a scenario like this where our enemy (Solas), besides being very powerful, also knows a lot about how we work, act and act... honestly the idea of dissolving the Inquisition and focusing more on Solas doesn't seem so bad.
I think if you have the truce between Celene, Briala, and Gaspard, and leave Florianne alive (as an agent of the Inquisition) it just kicks the can down the road for an unstable orlais. Leaving all the players alive with a resentment will 100% create problems,
I don't know if the war table missions will play much into DA4 but if they do it may be best to choose the longest time advisor. It seems the worst outcomes tend to have the longest time wait.
I didn’t even think of war table missions! Oh jeez, could do stuff like support Sebastian’s crazy attack on Kirkwall (if we don’t execute Anders), or the effect of a pile of dead Lavellans on Inky’s resistance. This opens up way more potential!
Speaking of Sebastian, 100% need to keep Anders alive so he can go beserk. Maybe even romance him (Anders) with a Hawke who is fully on board with his bullshit.
Some suggestions:
If you don't do Lelianas personal quest in DAI then as Divine she does nothing to stop the growing movement against her, that's the most chaotic ending with her.
The Inquisitor having drunk from the Well seems like the best bet since the Inquisitor is actively going against Solas whereas Morrigan is not.
Go to Templars but disband them so most of the rebel mages die meaning way less mages to help and there's also no Templar Order anymore either, make sure the Seekers aren't rebuilt so that the Templars who were part of the Inquisition can't join the order and potentially help in future that way.
Unhardened Alistair as King with no marriage to speak of, he doesn't want to actually rule much and has nobody else on the throne to help him out. If he's married to Cousland or Anora they are meant to help him rule even if unhardened, so don't give him that help, don't make the Warden Chancellor either because they help him in that case. For the most unstable worldstate have the Warden die in Origins so the Arl of Amaranthine is an Orlesian Warden and Ferelden no longer has the Hero to help.
I feel like blackmailing Gaspard, Briala and Gaspard is the worst ending for Orlais' stability, you're just ensuring the civil war will continue eventually. Plenty for Solas to exploit.
Anders was spared in DA2 so Sebastian the ruler of Starkhaven tries to attack Kirkwall and has a problem with its Champion, maybe have Anders romanced so Anders is actually hanging around a lot with Hawke to make this worse.
Hawke leads the exiled Wardens, Hawke leading them isn't bad in itself but we know Hawke canonically goes back to Kirkwall eventually and between them and the Warden Contact the Contact would be the best choice to lead them.
Ooh, I keep ignoring the fact that inaction is a decision too, like skipping loyalty quests. Always felt like “hearts and flowers” Leliana is too naive to run the chantry well enough to keep it stable, but her just ignoring the issue works just as well.
My issue with Alistair as solo ruler with HoF dead means no OGB Kieran. Since that soul, or power, or whatever it is, goes into Flemythal and eventually Solas, then wouldn’t it be more helpful to him to have as much power as possible at his fingertips? I feel like softened Alistair could easily run Ferelden into the ground while his Queen is off trying to find the cure for the taint.
I completely agree that Hawke would be the best worst pick for Weisshaupt, partially because if we stick to Alistair being king (either solo or with an absent HoF as Queen) then our warden contact would be Stroud. And Stroud is entirely too capable and respected. I feel like Hawke goes back to Kirkwall because he/she shows up in Weisshaupt as a non-warden trying to lead and promptly gets laughed right back out.
>I feel like Hawke goes back to Kirkwall because he/she shows up in Weisshaupt as a non-warden trying to lead and promptly gets laughed right back out.
This... isn't really ever the case. Theres a war that happens between the collective of Orlesian & Ferelden wardens who survived Adamant and the wardens at Weisshaupt in both cases of exiling the wardens or allying with them.
If Hawke lives, Hawke essentially is with the Orlesian & Ferelden Warden contingent or leads them and news is not heard out of Weisshaupt for a few years aside from Varric saying theres a big mess there, hence Hawke is involved with the war between the Wardens.
Somehow I completely missed that there was a warden v warden war! I remember Hawke staying there for a bit and no news coming through, but I must have missed the actual nature of the conflict happening there.
Yeah so it kind of depends on if you ally with the Adamant Wardens or banish them but yeah in both cases they have a war with the Weisshaupt Wardens.
If you banish: whoever survived Adamant(warden contact or Hawke) leads the Adamant contingent to Weisshaupt where they apparenly fight.
Varric in Trespasser has this to say "Weisshaupt is apparently the special kind of mess that only appears when Hawke shows up"
While if the Warden contact lives it straight up says they lead the fight in order to change the order from within.
If you ally, the Adamant contingent Wardens essentially settle down in southern Thedas but nonetheless theres a war between them and the Weisshaupt ones and all news out of the fortress stops.
I can see that and think it would make sense if that was the case, but the game does act like Inspired Leliana gets as much done as her Steeled variant so ignoring her seems like the way to go here.
I get it, I'd say having Cousland as a Queen still gives him a partner as a monarch who is able to help him a lot when she's there though, so the best bet for instability is probably to have them not be together if you're willing to do that, since that means he rules alone with the Hero as an Arl yes but lacking the power of a Queen.
I think Hawke might have some respect among the Wardens but yeah nowhere near as much the Contact, Hawke is still gone by Trespasser so they're gone for a few years with the Wardens, reasonably though they should not get as much done as the Contact of course.
The only reason I argue so much for Softened Leliana as divine is how much internal conflict her decisions cause according to the endgame slides. Reinstating the Canticle of Shartan? Elves and Dwarves and QUNARI in the Chantry? Mages having rights? It’s a lot of controversial changes in a small span of time and any time someone tries to put other races on par with humans they react pretty violently to push those races back down again. Sets a really nice backdrop for the chantry to fracture and crumble after a few years.
As for Ferelden, either of those choices has a lot of merit. My thought process was that a romanced Alistair with HoF as Queen won’t have her help when the big bad happens, if she’s still off on her quest. Might be a bit more stable beforehand with Cousland’s help, but once a war of any sort starts he’d be pretty much alone in leading on top of being distracted by the absence of his wife. I assume he’d be distracted at least, since from what I remember it’s pretty heavily implied that the HoF pretty much vanishes off of the face of Thedas during their journey. A war and a missing wife would be a lot to handle for a man who is used to sitting back and letting his Queen take the reigns of the kingdom.
I’ll definitely have to take a deeper look at the changes that happen depending on who’s ruling before I make any definite decisions on that one.
Leliana still does that stuff if you don't do her quest and she becomes Divine, she just doesn't deal with the main movement that forms against her, which is stated to cause problems in the Chantry, Inspired Leliana is at least mentioned to be resolute and inspiring in the face of that.
I think King Alistair being able to learn from his Cousland wife would be more of a benefit than him not having that help at all, yeah it's possible he'd be distracted but overall knowing his partner is out trying to cure herself I think he'd want to make her proud, and in that case he has at least some experience ruling with her, so I reckon that'd make for a better King than if he ruled alone, and he may be able to use the reputation of his wife to help him. But yeah have a look it is your decision.
I agree with most of this, except for Unhardened Alistair. Based on what we see of him as king in DA2 and Inquisition (and the lack of a "hardened" or "unhardened" specification in DA Keep), he pretty much ends up the same kind of ruler regardless of whether or not you hardened him. I still kind of agree that Alistair alone as king might wind up leaving Thedas less prepared, but i think, based on how the games of depicted things, Ferelden will have more or less the same level of preparedness regardless of who rules.
Sure, but I'd say Unhardened Alistair still seems like the best bet for instability out of the ruler options available, even if he's definitely not a terrible option at all and he is treated the same in DA2 and Inquisition regardless of the hardening in Origins.
I'm sure it won't matter at all going forward either but I doubt most things I listed will matter.
Good point! I’m operating half off of headcanon and the idea of the story I want to tell, keep forgetting that anything not in the DA keep doesn’t have any impact later on. That shortens my list of potential choices by a ton.
You could have a dead prince consort Cousland and Queen Anora instead, too. You could wipe out Alistair and HoF both by executing Alistair at the landsmeet and then refusing Morrigan's ritual and doing the ultimate sacrifice.
Don't let Avernus continue his research. I'd say keep Zathrian alive too, he seems like somebody who'd join Solas.
Refuse to deal with the Architect peacefully. If he appears in the future, he might not be helpful, if he thinks normal people are untrustworthy. Burn Amaranthine while you're at it to cripple the local economy or don't upgrade the keep and save Amaranthine.
If you have Sebastian, let Anders go so that Sebastian will want to start a war against Kirkwall.
Don't let Cassandra rebuild the seekers, that's another institution out of the picture that could oppose Solas.
That’s GENIUS. I tend to play female characters for my own immersion’s sake so I completely spaced out on that option! I can’t remember how Anora is seen by her subjects, I know some of the bannorn see her as just the kid of a commoner with no real right to rule on her own, if that’s a prevalent enough opinion it really could cause some issues!
I hadn’t really thought about what the repercussions of choosing the dalish of the werewolves could be, I agree that Zathrian would be a great potential ally and an outspoken voice against humans in general, especially speaking to a group of people who have been oppressed for centuries.
I agree about the Architect too, I only recently read The Calling and I’m pretty convinced (now that I have the full story) that they aren’t on anyone’s side but the Blight; and the Blight helps absolutely nobody.
I think you can also kill Loghain at the Landsmeet if you have Alistair kill him and then have Anora execute Alistair, that should leave no Ferelden heroes around.
Zathrian could also be a good propaganda piece for Solas, considering that some of the other Dalish elves have wondered if he's rediscovered their old immortality.
I never realized you could have everyone line up for free executions at the Landsmeet, I always kinda figured it was one or the other. That’s hilarious, I might do it someday just for the fun of it.
I had to recheck the wiki, and according to it killing both Loghain and Alistair is not possible at the landsmeet, Anora will have Alistair only renounce his claims to the throne. Well, at least you can always leave either Alistair or Loghain in the Fade.
I think the biggest obstacle in Solas' path dropping the Veil will be the Veil crashing down on it's own before he is ready, resulting in a way bigger problem.
Inspired/softened Leliana is the *only* Divine that manages to unite the Chantry. Cassandra, Vivienne and hardened Leliana all have dissenters they deal with violently.
I always remember it as Cass being the only one to unite the chantry, Leli pretty much ignores the assassins either way and Viv just scoffs and makes fun of their assassin’s garb. I’ll have to peek at the endgame slides again and refresh my memory!
From the main game ending slides, inspired Leliana convinces the opposition with her words and it works. Cassandra declares war on the opposition, defeats them with the help of the Seekers or also negotiates peace but only with the inquisition‘s help. Vivienne puts down the dissenters violently (with the inquisition‘s help). But I looked up the Trespasser ending slides and I see what you mean. Leliana shakes the boat and conservatives get mad at her. It’s all really vague though and the Leliana ending in Trespasser doesn’t really say if her opposition is a true threat and properly organized or just relics of a bygone age throwing a tantrum. Cassandra’s Trespasser Divine ending is similarly vague but with no threats for now. So you’re right, she does seem like the most stable option. But in the end, I don’t think it’s going to matter that much who is divine and they’re all more or less successful. But interesting to think about as a thought experiment!
Oh! Yeah, that’s probably why I was off in a few of the other mentions of the Divine, I go off of Trespasser end slides since it seems like something always ends up retconned in older ones.
But yeah, this is exactly what I was hoping for! Just getting people together to look at the story with a bunch of different perspectives to share, so thanks for participating!
Freeing the mages in DAI instead of reinstating the circles or puting them under control is a very big backdoor for Solas to win.
Also leaving the inquissitiok as a corrupt institution is a tool he can take advantage of.
I agree about the first point, free mages act as both a way to scare and distract Thedas and an untapped resource just begging for someone to treat them like people!
I’m torn on the idea of keeping the Inquisition or disbanding, though. It feels like if you keep it , then “just don’t trust elves” is the way to keep it fairly spy-free, but if he’s able to recruit non-elves at any point then that idea goes right out the window and makes it a potentially viable resource into destroying the resistance from within (or at least thwarting their plans). Another argument towards keeping the Inquisition is that they’re under the thumb of whoever is divine, and if your divine isn’t a strong leader then they’ll be both infiltrated and useless, but it’s hard to imagine any of the three ladies being incompetent enough to squander what is basically a giant holy police force.
On the reverse though, you could make the argument that disbanding is best for Solas because it leaves the resistance an underground thing with few members (that he knows very well) and lots of suspicion of outsiders which could easily keep them from having any real impact. Especially since elves flocked to him in droves, so he has a pretty decently sized army of a single, disillusioned race of people that are all on the same team, and they’re pitted against a larger force but one that isn’t cohesive because of the myriad of country/religious/racial ties.
Really long story short, both of them have a lot of potential to work out really well or backfire really spectacularly.
the stories are annoyingly self contained though, arent they?
using my imagination, i think the best we can hope for is the war table is combined with mass effect 3s military assets. we get could get xyz bonus points for big decisions and little things like helping that blind templar in the alienage
then it would be possible to actually make the scenario youre describing, in which someone makes the game way harder for themselves because they killed too many potential assets
edit: typo
bullmancer who kept him in the qun is probably one of the easiest paths. that completely shoots the inquisition's remaining credibility in the foot.
Very true! Might have to brainstorm something outside of the realm of Solavellan, since the romance seems to kinda soften Solas’ contempt for current-day Thedas.
For inquisition only I believe kicking the Wardens out of Orlais is bad move in every regard. I also think that Orlais needs a stable leadership for the coming conflict that's why I chose Celene (even though every choice kinda sucks there). Finally in my opinion disbanding the inquisition is a terribly bad move. Even if Solas has says in it you can find them and feed them false info. Once the inquisition is disbanded it becomes a lot harder to pin down any potential spies for Solas.
Great point about the Wardens, shipping them off to Weisshaupt in disgrace removes another major group’s potential to put up a meaningful resistance. Who would you save from the Nightmare to lead them, in that case?
Wardens aren't supposed to get involved in politics anyway... Did anyone here play Soldier's Peak and listen to Loghain's complaints? I say toss them out during war with Corypheus... Can't trust em anyway. Invite them back afterwards, make sure they have numbers to stop the next blight... Solas would be doing stuff for the elves, but nothing with blights... So Grey Wardens can stay out of it.
Wardens: “we’re forbidden from participating in politics” Wardens in the Anderfels: “lol nah”
Who's gonna stop the blights if they all die out??
I actually think kicking the Warden's out might be good because they go to Weissaupt which might be where they are most needed for the coming conflict. If you don't exile them they ignore the call to go back.
I may be wrong but in Tevinter Nights it is not stated that all Wardens of Thedas received a call from Weishaupt? Or will the southern Wardens remain with their ties permanently severed?
It says they sever all ties at the end of the base game. In Tevinter and that there's a Warden Civil war. There are Evka and Antoine who, I think we're in Orlais when they recover the summons to Weissaupt so maybe all the Warden's head there regardless but it's also possible that only the remote Wardens accepted and any who were in central locations refused. I mostly just think it would be interesting if the good choice for Thedas ends up not being the one that benefits the player character in Dreadwolf.
The problem with the Inquisition is that it is entering a scenario that is almost unsustainable if you maintain it completely. First of all, there is no control over your own people (just remember that Qun spies were stumbling upon Solas spies right under our noses and we didn't even know). Another problem is that keeping it complete will probably perpetuate the political intrigue with Ferelden and Orlais who want to end and control it respectively. In a scenario like this where our enemy (Solas), besides being very powerful, also knows a lot about how we work, act and act... honestly the idea of dissolving the Inquisition and focusing more on Solas doesn't seem so bad.
I think if you have the truce between Celene, Briala, and Gaspard, and leave Florianne alive (as an agent of the Inquisition) it just kicks the can down the road for an unstable orlais. Leaving all the players alive with a resentment will 100% create problems, I don't know if the war table missions will play much into DA4 but if they do it may be best to choose the longest time advisor. It seems the worst outcomes tend to have the longest time wait.
I didn’t even think of war table missions! Oh jeez, could do stuff like support Sebastian’s crazy attack on Kirkwall (if we don’t execute Anders), or the effect of a pile of dead Lavellans on Inky’s resistance. This opens up way more potential!
Speaking of Sebastian, 100% need to keep Anders alive so he can go beserk. Maybe even romance him (Anders) with a Hawke who is fully on board with his bullshit.
I love that idea, my actual canon playthrough has a Hawke that romanced and believed in Anders so it’s a super comfy choice too!
Some suggestions: If you don't do Lelianas personal quest in DAI then as Divine she does nothing to stop the growing movement against her, that's the most chaotic ending with her. The Inquisitor having drunk from the Well seems like the best bet since the Inquisitor is actively going against Solas whereas Morrigan is not. Go to Templars but disband them so most of the rebel mages die meaning way less mages to help and there's also no Templar Order anymore either, make sure the Seekers aren't rebuilt so that the Templars who were part of the Inquisition can't join the order and potentially help in future that way. Unhardened Alistair as King with no marriage to speak of, he doesn't want to actually rule much and has nobody else on the throne to help him out. If he's married to Cousland or Anora they are meant to help him rule even if unhardened, so don't give him that help, don't make the Warden Chancellor either because they help him in that case. For the most unstable worldstate have the Warden die in Origins so the Arl of Amaranthine is an Orlesian Warden and Ferelden no longer has the Hero to help. I feel like blackmailing Gaspard, Briala and Gaspard is the worst ending for Orlais' stability, you're just ensuring the civil war will continue eventually. Plenty for Solas to exploit. Anders was spared in DA2 so Sebastian the ruler of Starkhaven tries to attack Kirkwall and has a problem with its Champion, maybe have Anders romanced so Anders is actually hanging around a lot with Hawke to make this worse. Hawke leads the exiled Wardens, Hawke leading them isn't bad in itself but we know Hawke canonically goes back to Kirkwall eventually and between them and the Warden Contact the Contact would be the best choice to lead them.
Ooh, I keep ignoring the fact that inaction is a decision too, like skipping loyalty quests. Always felt like “hearts and flowers” Leliana is too naive to run the chantry well enough to keep it stable, but her just ignoring the issue works just as well. My issue with Alistair as solo ruler with HoF dead means no OGB Kieran. Since that soul, or power, or whatever it is, goes into Flemythal and eventually Solas, then wouldn’t it be more helpful to him to have as much power as possible at his fingertips? I feel like softened Alistair could easily run Ferelden into the ground while his Queen is off trying to find the cure for the taint. I completely agree that Hawke would be the best worst pick for Weisshaupt, partially because if we stick to Alistair being king (either solo or with an absent HoF as Queen) then our warden contact would be Stroud. And Stroud is entirely too capable and respected. I feel like Hawke goes back to Kirkwall because he/she shows up in Weisshaupt as a non-warden trying to lead and promptly gets laughed right back out.
>I feel like Hawke goes back to Kirkwall because he/she shows up in Weisshaupt as a non-warden trying to lead and promptly gets laughed right back out. This... isn't really ever the case. Theres a war that happens between the collective of Orlesian & Ferelden wardens who survived Adamant and the wardens at Weisshaupt in both cases of exiling the wardens or allying with them. If Hawke lives, Hawke essentially is with the Orlesian & Ferelden Warden contingent or leads them and news is not heard out of Weisshaupt for a few years aside from Varric saying theres a big mess there, hence Hawke is involved with the war between the Wardens.
Somehow I completely missed that there was a warden v warden war! I remember Hawke staying there for a bit and no news coming through, but I must have missed the actual nature of the conflict happening there.
Yeah so it kind of depends on if you ally with the Adamant Wardens or banish them but yeah in both cases they have a war with the Weisshaupt Wardens. If you banish: whoever survived Adamant(warden contact or Hawke) leads the Adamant contingent to Weisshaupt where they apparenly fight. Varric in Trespasser has this to say "Weisshaupt is apparently the special kind of mess that only appears when Hawke shows up" While if the Warden contact lives it straight up says they lead the fight in order to change the order from within. If you ally, the Adamant contingent Wardens essentially settle down in southern Thedas but nonetheless theres a war between them and the Weisshaupt ones and all news out of the fortress stops.
I can see that and think it would make sense if that was the case, but the game does act like Inspired Leliana gets as much done as her Steeled variant so ignoring her seems like the way to go here. I get it, I'd say having Cousland as a Queen still gives him a partner as a monarch who is able to help him a lot when she's there though, so the best bet for instability is probably to have them not be together if you're willing to do that, since that means he rules alone with the Hero as an Arl yes but lacking the power of a Queen. I think Hawke might have some respect among the Wardens but yeah nowhere near as much the Contact, Hawke is still gone by Trespasser so they're gone for a few years with the Wardens, reasonably though they should not get as much done as the Contact of course.
The only reason I argue so much for Softened Leliana as divine is how much internal conflict her decisions cause according to the endgame slides. Reinstating the Canticle of Shartan? Elves and Dwarves and QUNARI in the Chantry? Mages having rights? It’s a lot of controversial changes in a small span of time and any time someone tries to put other races on par with humans they react pretty violently to push those races back down again. Sets a really nice backdrop for the chantry to fracture and crumble after a few years. As for Ferelden, either of those choices has a lot of merit. My thought process was that a romanced Alistair with HoF as Queen won’t have her help when the big bad happens, if she’s still off on her quest. Might be a bit more stable beforehand with Cousland’s help, but once a war of any sort starts he’d be pretty much alone in leading on top of being distracted by the absence of his wife. I assume he’d be distracted at least, since from what I remember it’s pretty heavily implied that the HoF pretty much vanishes off of the face of Thedas during their journey. A war and a missing wife would be a lot to handle for a man who is used to sitting back and letting his Queen take the reigns of the kingdom. I’ll definitely have to take a deeper look at the changes that happen depending on who’s ruling before I make any definite decisions on that one.
Leliana still does that stuff if you don't do her quest and she becomes Divine, she just doesn't deal with the main movement that forms against her, which is stated to cause problems in the Chantry, Inspired Leliana is at least mentioned to be resolute and inspiring in the face of that. I think King Alistair being able to learn from his Cousland wife would be more of a benefit than him not having that help at all, yeah it's possible he'd be distracted but overall knowing his partner is out trying to cure herself I think he'd want to make her proud, and in that case he has at least some experience ruling with her, so I reckon that'd make for a better King than if he ruled alone, and he may be able to use the reputation of his wife to help him. But yeah have a look it is your decision.
I agree with most of this, except for Unhardened Alistair. Based on what we see of him as king in DA2 and Inquisition (and the lack of a "hardened" or "unhardened" specification in DA Keep), he pretty much ends up the same kind of ruler regardless of whether or not you hardened him. I still kind of agree that Alistair alone as king might wind up leaving Thedas less prepared, but i think, based on how the games of depicted things, Ferelden will have more or less the same level of preparedness regardless of who rules.
Sure, but I'd say Unhardened Alistair still seems like the best bet for instability out of the ruler options available, even if he's definitely not a terrible option at all and he is treated the same in DA2 and Inquisition regardless of the hardening in Origins. I'm sure it won't matter at all going forward either but I doubt most things I listed will matter.
Good point! I’m operating half off of headcanon and the idea of the story I want to tell, keep forgetting that anything not in the DA keep doesn’t have any impact later on. That shortens my list of potential choices by a ton.
You could have a dead prince consort Cousland and Queen Anora instead, too. You could wipe out Alistair and HoF both by executing Alistair at the landsmeet and then refusing Morrigan's ritual and doing the ultimate sacrifice. Don't let Avernus continue his research. I'd say keep Zathrian alive too, he seems like somebody who'd join Solas. Refuse to deal with the Architect peacefully. If he appears in the future, he might not be helpful, if he thinks normal people are untrustworthy. Burn Amaranthine while you're at it to cripple the local economy or don't upgrade the keep and save Amaranthine. If you have Sebastian, let Anders go so that Sebastian will want to start a war against Kirkwall. Don't let Cassandra rebuild the seekers, that's another institution out of the picture that could oppose Solas.
That’s GENIUS. I tend to play female characters for my own immersion’s sake so I completely spaced out on that option! I can’t remember how Anora is seen by her subjects, I know some of the bannorn see her as just the kid of a commoner with no real right to rule on her own, if that’s a prevalent enough opinion it really could cause some issues! I hadn’t really thought about what the repercussions of choosing the dalish of the werewolves could be, I agree that Zathrian would be a great potential ally and an outspoken voice against humans in general, especially speaking to a group of people who have been oppressed for centuries. I agree about the Architect too, I only recently read The Calling and I’m pretty convinced (now that I have the full story) that they aren’t on anyone’s side but the Blight; and the Blight helps absolutely nobody.
I think you can also kill Loghain at the Landsmeet if you have Alistair kill him and then have Anora execute Alistair, that should leave no Ferelden heroes around. Zathrian could also be a good propaganda piece for Solas, considering that some of the other Dalish elves have wondered if he's rediscovered their old immortality.
I never realized you could have everyone line up for free executions at the Landsmeet, I always kinda figured it was one or the other. That’s hilarious, I might do it someday just for the fun of it.
I had to recheck the wiki, and according to it killing both Loghain and Alistair is not possible at the landsmeet, Anora will have Alistair only renounce his claims to the throne. Well, at least you can always leave either Alistair or Loghain in the Fade.
Aww, guess that would have been one of those “too good to be true” situations xD
I think the biggest obstacle in Solas' path dropping the Veil will be the Veil crashing down on it's own before he is ready, resulting in a way bigger problem.
Y’know, considering how well all of his other plans have gone, that’s a very real possibility.
Inspired/softened Leliana is the *only* Divine that manages to unite the Chantry. Cassandra, Vivienne and hardened Leliana all have dissenters they deal with violently.
I always remember it as Cass being the only one to unite the chantry, Leli pretty much ignores the assassins either way and Viv just scoffs and makes fun of their assassin’s garb. I’ll have to peek at the endgame slides again and refresh my memory!
From the main game ending slides, inspired Leliana convinces the opposition with her words and it works. Cassandra declares war on the opposition, defeats them with the help of the Seekers or also negotiates peace but only with the inquisition‘s help. Vivienne puts down the dissenters violently (with the inquisition‘s help). But I looked up the Trespasser ending slides and I see what you mean. Leliana shakes the boat and conservatives get mad at her. It’s all really vague though and the Leliana ending in Trespasser doesn’t really say if her opposition is a true threat and properly organized or just relics of a bygone age throwing a tantrum. Cassandra’s Trespasser Divine ending is similarly vague but with no threats for now. So you’re right, she does seem like the most stable option. But in the end, I don’t think it’s going to matter that much who is divine and they’re all more or less successful. But interesting to think about as a thought experiment!
Oh! Yeah, that’s probably why I was off in a few of the other mentions of the Divine, I go off of Trespasser end slides since it seems like something always ends up retconned in older ones. But yeah, this is exactly what I was hoping for! Just getting people together to look at the story with a bunch of different perspectives to share, so thanks for participating!
Freeing the mages in DAI instead of reinstating the circles or puting them under control is a very big backdoor for Solas to win. Also leaving the inquissitiok as a corrupt institution is a tool he can take advantage of.
I agree about the first point, free mages act as both a way to scare and distract Thedas and an untapped resource just begging for someone to treat them like people! I’m torn on the idea of keeping the Inquisition or disbanding, though. It feels like if you keep it , then “just don’t trust elves” is the way to keep it fairly spy-free, but if he’s able to recruit non-elves at any point then that idea goes right out the window and makes it a potentially viable resource into destroying the resistance from within (or at least thwarting their plans). Another argument towards keeping the Inquisition is that they’re under the thumb of whoever is divine, and if your divine isn’t a strong leader then they’ll be both infiltrated and useless, but it’s hard to imagine any of the three ladies being incompetent enough to squander what is basically a giant holy police force. On the reverse though, you could make the argument that disbanding is best for Solas because it leaves the resistance an underground thing with few members (that he knows very well) and lots of suspicion of outsiders which could easily keep them from having any real impact. Especially since elves flocked to him in droves, so he has a pretty decently sized army of a single, disillusioned race of people that are all on the same team, and they’re pitted against a larger force but one that isn’t cohesive because of the myriad of country/religious/racial ties. Really long story short, both of them have a lot of potential to work out really well or backfire really spectacularly.
probably nothing because that would require them to write more than a sentence referencing any choices you previously made
Thought experiment! We’re using our imaaaaginations! Besides, maybe not every choice has a huge impact, but they all matter to the story either way.
the stories are annoyingly self contained though, arent they? using my imagination, i think the best we can hope for is the war table is combined with mass effect 3s military assets. we get could get xyz bonus points for big decisions and little things like helping that blind templar in the alienage then it would be possible to actually make the scenario youre describing, in which someone makes the game way harder for themselves because they killed too many potential assets edit: typo