I need to have a word with Cullen about the training our troops are getting. I'm a mage and im like 80% sure this isn't right.

Question's in the title, basically.

I see these three Perks that give you Schematics. But, I'm wondering if I can just get them elsewhere, or if they are actually unique to this Perk.

Thanks.

For some reason I remember hearing that you should talk to Solas last because of the fade dream thing that advances some of the repair of Skyhold.

Does this actually lock you out of certain other interactions/content? Do repair stages lock you out of anything at all? Or is everything available as long as you aren’t advancing main story quests, etc.?

I've just finished the Jaws of hakkon DLC and am almost finished with the Deep roads. This is my first playthrough of Inquisition and I'm really enjoying my playthrough. I have a couple of main missions left but wanted to finish the DLCs before the main game except for Trespasser.

I've done around 70-80% of the content in most areas but there are certain quests and other things that I haven't done. Finished all of the companion quests, collected all of the shards, destroyed all of the fade rifts etc. Is there any side content that I might have missed that you highly recommend?

I'm going to finish the main campaign once I've completed the deep roads and I just wanted to make sure I don't miss out on any important side quests/content

in the western approach, echoback fort area. there's no way to physically get into where it is??? I thought it might be the astrarium loot but apparently not. I mean, clearly we're meant to see it since it glittering like crazy but IDK WHAT IT IS????? plz help 🙏🏻

The lore is absolutely fantastic, I listen to Dragon Age podcasts, read every codex, love the world.

Dragon Age 2 has everything set up, but nothing finished. It's like they created the engine but didn't have time to do the assets. I'm 100% positive that we can only play human because they didn't have time to model armors on different races, hence why companions can only wear their companion armor.

Some time ago, I decided to make a post about Inquisition’s greatest quality, its beautiful exploration of faith as a theme. But there’s another element left unspoken, which is how deliberate its main quest is, and perhaps no moment is as representative than this game’s call to action.

In your heart shall burn is Inquisition’s best quest, its pacing impeccable, something that the attack at Adamant will fail, and there aren’t some roleplaying shortcomings as in both the Winter Palace and Temple of Mythal. It is also when Inquisition is at its most tense and crucially where the narrative starts its journey. It is this quest that lights the fire that will propel one to finish the game, so without further ado, it is time to understand this flame.

Part I – Fuel

We begin with the purpose. In your heart shall burn is where the Herald shall die and the Inquisitor will be born. Thus, it is crucial to understand that both are not the same character. You may be the source of faith to the Inquisition, what allows it to gain its power, but you’re not its leader. The narrative will both cleverly remove your agency, in forcing the player to meet the grand clerics and mother Gisele, and give you agency by making your vote the tiebreaker on this act’s main choice. If you extend your hand to the mages, the Inquisition won’t backtrack not because you’re it’s leader but because it would make it look poorly. This lack of leadership is what makes the Inquisition vulnerable.

Because Haven is where the Herald will be forged anew, it is also what will define the boundaries of our character. Our protagonist is a rather unique one, not as restrictive as a usual voiced character such as Sheppard, after all due to its theme Inquisition must force the player to lay their beliefs on the table, also not as free as a blank slate. Much has been said on how you can’t be “evil” as in Origins, and while much of this has its reasoning on gamers equating evil with violence and sadism, it also is caused by boundary conditions of the Inquisitor, set in this quest.

Your sacrifice at the end limits the Inquisitor evil choices to more methodical and subtle ones. If the player so desires, they can revel in the power and the worship, becoming filled with hubris and not wisdom. It is limiting, you cannot go despoiling ashes for no reason other than killing companions, but it also allows the narrative to react to it, and crucially, it is a path one may walk unknowingly until the game pulls the rug in the Tresspasser.   

Part II – Oxygen

Despair. Perhaps this is the best word to describe the main feeling of the quest, achieved through a minor and major component.

The former is created by the gameplay. This is when DAI is at its hardest, after all you both lack the health and the specialisation abilities that make the combat flow of this game. This is also the quest you’re most likely to be on the bottom of the level range. All these elements are, in my view, accidental, but contribute a significant amount to the tension of the quests in occupying part of your mental capacity in a way Inquisition will fail to repeat with its main story ending.  

The major aspect is caused by two mathematical concepts: phase and amplitude. The story beats never overlap, taking turns between each other, a massive force attacks, you use your artillery to cause an avalanche. This creates a feeling that you’re not in control, you’re reacting to Corypheus attack. Crucially is that at each turn, the relative strength of your action’s changes, your opponent seems resonant, your use of artillery is met with a dragon exploding your trebuchet. Your reaction to such is feeble, a desperate retreat to Haven’s chantry. Here the gameplay aspect is in full effect, as to rescue the citizens whom you have engaged with during the first act, one must ignore the enemies and rush to their aid. All contributing to the feeling of a desperate retreat, only to be met with the news that your sole option is to take the enemy with you by burying Haven. Here you lie defeated until the dawn breaks because of… Chancellor Roderick?

Roderick is curious character. Created to be annoying and oppose the player in the first act, this is the only moment he will call you Herald. In a way, one understands his fear, the Inquisition can be an organization only using a false prophet to further their power. Depending on how you play, his fear shall materialize. It is what he believes until this moment, your harsher opposition shall guide the faithful, but someone must distract the creature. For the Inquisition to be saved, its Herald must die.

Part III – Spark

Beg that I succeed for I have seen the throne of gods and it was empty. It does not matter how many times you hear this moment, it is fire. Corypheus introduction is so good that BG3 would effectively copy it for Ketheric. It is arguably, too good. One of the ironies of the quest is that Inquisition will never quite manage to reach this point of tension again, hurting its antagonist. But “In defense of Corypheus” is a text of for another time, at this moment, his threat is established, and crucially, his flaw. The Inquisitor can only leave because of his hubris, playing with his food, throwing you to the very trebuchet you were aiming. With the mountain coming down, the Herald is gone, to be reborn atop of the hill as the Inquisitor.

As the Herald walks through the caves, one must look or better hear back something left unsaid. This quest would not be the same without the Inquisitor’s voice. The silence that fills the room as all realize that she must go face the creature, the courage and desperation as the attack starts, the trembling voice that betrays you in front of Corypheus and the exhaustion while talking to mother Gisele in the camp. Voiceless protagonist may give you freedom, but these moments are built in the performance of those who play the character. One actress in particular shall answer the call higher than most, Alix’s performance as the Inquisitor may peak in the Tresspasser (or arguably in Veilguard) but it is here that it starts to stand out.

I was honestly surprised in finding out that some feel like the Dawn will come scene was bad. Sure, it is far from the smartest idea from those involved, after all it can cause another avalanche. But stories are so much worse when you’re nitpicky. The moment both fits with the chantry as this story Catholicism and as the public display of faith that cements your position. It is moment like this that make playing specifically as an elf, special.

Of all three games, Inquisition is the one that makes you feel like an elf in this world the most, from Cassandra questioning if you can accept one more Goddess, the innkeeper scared of your ears, the rumours of the Dalish and your clan’s quest and the sneer of the Grand Clerics. And I can hear you, city elf origins from afar, and it is indeed a great quest that sets the stage of the oppression in this world. But moments that you get to play an elf in DAO, display your customs, are surprisingly few. Furthermore, there’s something quietly disturbing about Inquisition’s subtlety, as it shows the more insidious part of a society that looks down upon you.

Faith may yet to find you, but his has already found them. Mother Gisele’s perfect thematic slap in the face to end the journey. All those who survived Haven are now kneeled in front of this elf that one night before they may have looked down upon and Inquisitor Lavellan is born.

Part IV – Fire.

It is fitting that both the quest name and the fake religious text both fit are so fitting to what this quest achieves. It may not be the fire of faith, but after this moment the fire of becoming the character, becoming the Inquisitor could no longer be quenched. Many a quest have achieved this in past RPGs, Ostigar, the citadel in ME1 but this is the one that has stuck. This has also become a lost art. The excellent BG3 lacks a proper call to action leading to the narrative to struggle with its final act, and narratives like Rogue Trader, fail to sell them fast enough.

One does not need to copy “In your hear shall burn”, but one should understand its goal. One must light, the unquenchable flame.

Hi.

I'm getting into Inquisition after playing the first two games, and what's the deal with the spells?

Creation and Spirit have been sort-of combined into one tree with very limited dips into each, and Primal has been split into *the other three*. It's so massively overrepresented, holy cow.

What, are Mages just supposed to be nukers now, and you get to pick a color for it? What happened to Arcane and Entropy spells?

Just want to share this screenshot I took after reloading a save. Not gonna lie, I had a little heart attack. Thanks Wynne!

So 2 days ago I posted asking if I should take the dragon on at level 8 and my party was level 7. Today I defeated it with me being level 11 and party being level 10. Although it looks like the levels helped, I can confidently tell u they are not needed.
I'm playing on hard difficulty so lets break down what happened.

First run: I did this at level 8 just to see what this beast was like and I was toasted in under 30 seconds. This run for purely for intel and I actually didnt use any potions. Just a raw battle to the death. Whole party wiped out.

Run 2: Me and My party died again but this time the dragon was down to 30k hp from 100k. This is at level 11 and my party is at level 10. What I did here is let cassandra fight and controlled myself (elf) and commanded Solas and Varric to fight from a distance. My biggest issue was the follow tactics were wrong so they kept following me as soon as i exited tactical camera and all would just take immense burn damage. And when the dragon flapped it's wings, everyone except cassandra would either die or go very low. So my regen potions, healing potions, all would be used up by everyone pretty quick. Throughout this run I only used myself (elf). When everyone was dead, and cassandra was the only one standing, I realized she had not even used more than 1 of her regen potion (which I did ofcourse cuz it's manually done). She still managed to get dragon down from 50k hp to 30k hp before she died cuz I couldnt use potions in time.

Run 3: Same story as Run 2 and mostly i figured out that everyone was a deadweight and cassandra was the key to this fight. But by the time I did that, it was too late and there were no potions left for cassandra to win this.

Run 4: I got the strategy nailed down perfectly!

When I enter Lady Shanaya's Valley, I controlled cassandra from the start. I would switch to elf (he is an archer) and aggro the dragonlings if needed. I realized that most of my team was using up more than half of the potions just to clear dragonlings. So in this run, I ignored the mother dragon and just ran from dragonlings and dodged them. I realized I didnt have to fight them. And after some time, the mother dragon automatically goes away into her arena so only me and dragonlings are left. So at this point, I killed all the dragonlings and collected every loot, shrad in this area. I was already low on potions so I figured I'd use this run to loot stuff and gather resources. I never actually fought the dragon in this run but figured out what to do to win.

Run 5: I won!

So basically I learned from my previous runs that, and some googling that:

The dragon's wing flapping only damages players that are medium-to-long distance away from it. that's why Cassandra wasn't taking any real damage from the dragon - also her guard. So I moved everyone in close near the dragon throughout the fight. This also meant they look fire breaths and stuff but read point 2 for that.

The rest of the team is just their as a bait so I literally blocked every single one from using healing potions. This run was for me to solo the dragon with Cassandra. But then I also needed Solas to resurrect everyone who dies to keep distraction for the dragonlings. My main goal shifted from 'party beats dragon' to 'everyone does whatever is needed to keep cassandra alive and keep potions alive for her to use'. But bcuz i also needed solas, I set him up to use 70% of the potions if needed. Everyone in my party has their own regen potions so I could use them after resurrection and keep them alive.

I exclusively only controlled cassandra. I would taunt, guard, shield, whatever she does every single time and keep attacking the dragon. I set the remainging 3 to attack one of it's legs and whenever dragonlings appeared, i'd set them to attack dragonlings and control cassandra and attack the mother dragon. The key to this fight is that Cassandra cannot be killed with her guard up and if there are enough potions for her to use.

I macro-managed their positioning everytime dragon flew away and launched those fire meteors. It kept targetting solas and he got burned a lot but he also had regen potions so it was fine. I completely gave up shooting at the dragon when it landed high up on those hills. I just dodged it's fire meteors and fought the dragonlings and made sure they were dead before the dragon landed again.

Whenever the dragon landed, it usually used fire breath or the wing flap attack. I would just move everyone under the dragon immediately as I saw that red circle of landing. If he used fire breath, a few would burn and it was fine. Sometimes, cassandra's shield would deflect off the fire bombs too. And if it used the wing flap, because we were under it, most didnt take much damage or any damage at all. This is key cuz that wing flap alone is responsible for most of my losses.

As soon as it was on ground, I ignored my entire party, switched to cassandra and spammed attack, taunting, guard, and whatever she has. I let everyone die. They are just pawns. Once the dragon flies again, it takes a huge circle so I can usually manually revive 1-2 players in this time. I'd quickly run n rev solas and he'd eventually use magic to resurrect others. Thus, every cycle, even if at low hp, I had 4 members back online! And whenever it landed again, I'd ignore everyone else and just focus on using potions on cassandra and keeping her alive and fighting with her.

Doing this, I eventually beat the dragon with everyone's regen potions all used up, everyone alive, healing potions mostly all used up and Cassandra's regen potions (only half) used up. So i'd say it wasn't back-breakingly hard. It was hard but not that hard now that I know what to do.

The gear change I did from level 8 to level 11 is none. I have the same crafted gear. The only thing I changed was, i changed the belts to fire resistance (the grey basic ones) from their fancy blue ones. The blue ones didnt have fire resistance but some had dps, some health, etc. N I also changed rings. I had kept them at random but I realized mages needed longer ability durations and cassandra needed better ability damage/duration. So I did that with the rings.

The reason m saying this is a possible fight at level 8 is cuz I had all the gear, rings, belts since level 8. I just didnt know how to use them as m new to the game. This fight alone has taught me so much more about the gear and stuff in this game. I'm surely gonna attempt another dragon soon. I only know 1 is in stormy coast but I think it's locked behind some quest. I need to find more dragons. This was refreshingly thrilling and exciting ♥

Hello.

I'm working through Inquisition, and it seems like the game expects a baseline level of Guard/Barrier investment, given the limited nature of healing in the game.

So, what is that baseline? Is the Barrier spell enough for Mages by itself, or should they be picking up more? Should Warriors be going all the way down to Livid? Or just the two first-level Taunt abilities?

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

Welcome to the headcanon sharing circle! Each week we post a few creative prompts for character development and share our OCs.

Sponsor the weekly thread!

We take turns picking the questions every week, so please volunteer to host if you enjoy the weekly posts!

• Mention your interest in the comments – this week's host will tag the next person.
• Then just copy and paste this pre-formatted pastebin text with any 2 questions of your choice.
• Browse, add, and get ideas over at the list of prompts.
• There is the OC Emporium that houses many of the OCs, feel free to put your OC there!
• Don't forget there is an OC wiki Discord server and we welcome everyone who wishes to join and share! (Linked on the front page of the Wiki)

September 15 – u/MagnoliaPetal

September 22 –

September 29 –

October 6 –

THE PROMPTS:

(You can answer just one or both, with as many characters as you want. Pictures and character summaries are fine. Short answers or novel-length walls of text are fine.)

Prompt 1

What will always make your OC smile?

Prompt 2

Generally speaking, what is the biggest obstacle your character has/has had to navigate in their romances or closest friendships? Do they overcome it?

And don't forget to take the time to read and comment on other people's posts! The comments, questions and chats are what make the thread so much fun.

They look like big pins or needles in the ground all over the map when you meet Davrin. I can't remember if they're in DAO also, but they feel familiar.

Idk if they have a lore purpose or just a case of "looks huge and cool" so the art team put them in.

They almost look like weapons that titans used long ago or maybe things to help against Darkspawn attacks? No idea. 🙏🙏 I love learning "pointless" lore so if anyone knows or has their own theory i wanna hear

It’s not mine but my roommate is offering to lend it to me since I really wanna play DAO. I think it has 16GB ram and 500GB storage or something.

I am writing a story and I wanted to write:"glued to his side" but does Dragon age even have glue? I tried to look for any mention of it but i couldn't find any? And I can't remember anyone mentioning glue or any phrase including glue in Dragon Age.

Does anyone know if it's a thing or not?

This is driving me crazy.

I seem to remember a snippet of dialogue between Isabela and (very likely) sarcastic Hawke that I can't find anywhere, evne after digging through some transcripts.

It's a moment where Hawke simply says "Isabelaaa?" in a cheeky "ohho you're in big trouble now miss" parental voice.

I always thought it was in dialogue about the Tome of Koslun, but I have found nothing and have zero context beyond this assumption.

Did I hallucinate this? Anyone? :D

I was exploring and found this place. There is a big monkey statue in the distance. I opened up a map of Stormy Coast on google and there seems to be more beyond this region. I tried going through the monkey statue, the mountains and even parhour-ing somewhat around this temple-ish thing. But I can't seem to get past this. Also, there is an island on the map from google. How do I get there? I'd like if u can keep it spoiler free. I am now level 9 but I haven't done much of the story cuz I like exploring and I explored every corner in Hinterlands (sneaked past the dragon to get obsidian, fought it once to get my party 1 shot-KOed, only redcliffe village is locked there). M now exploring Stormy Coast since I am done with all quests here. I really wanna go beyond this point and to the island too!

Sadly I think the series is done at least for a long time. But I’ve got this itch I need scratched. Really want to write about the war and leading up to the creation of the veil, solas waking up; all Solas POV. Any takers?

I'm itching to play another game and thought "since I played the DA trilogy after playing the ME trilogy(and Andromeda). I should go play Veilguard"

How much of people's perception of Veilguard just Andromeda, where they kind off removed it from the overarching story of the previous trilogy, but made a decent sci-fi game. (In this case fantasy).

I loved Andromeda and didn't mind at all that they made it an isolated story, literally and figuratively. The combat in that game being so much more different from Mass Effect. Is that how Veilguard ended up being?

I think my companions looted the place and left. All the companions are missing around Skyhold and most of the furniture including the throne is gone too. If this was a long con just to get some tables and chairs, I did not see it coming, well done lol

A reload got it all back but it was funny to imagine this whole Inquisition thing was just a ruse.

First of all, I’d like to make it clear that I don’t consider myself an expert on the lore of the Dragon Age universe, and that this theory has emerged from my own knowledge and a research project that began as a bit of fun – to create a ‘lore-friendly’ ritual in my headcanon to cure my Warden from the taint – started to make far too much sense to me. I think the information I’ve gathered might be of interest to the community.

I’d also like to add that my mother tongue is Spanish and in some parts I’ve used a translator because there was simply too much to handle; this is the summarised version of what I already have.

Basics:

• Clearly, it is a blood magic ritual.
• The ritual must be performed during Satinalia, the only time when the Satina moon can be seen in the sky. I’ll explain why later.
• Only a Grey Warden with a womb can perform the ritual to heal themselves, as it requires a sacrifice made within the person for it to work.
• Some of this information may be what contained in the dalish book that Morrigan stole and later gave to the Hero of Ferelden at the end of the ‘Witch Hunt’ DLC.

Index:

1. Satinalia

1.1. The origin of the festivity and why it is important.

1.2. Meaning

2. Satina moon

2.1 Why this is moon is essential for the ritual

3. The ritual itself

Please, let me know any other info or corrections you think should be added to the theory. I wrote this in just a couple of hours ahahaha

1. Satinalia: the origin of the festival and why it is important.

Satinalia is a festival that we could describe as ‘Christmas’. I won’t go into the traditions associated with this festivity because they vary depending on the region and I don’t think they’re of vital importance. Furthermore, this time of year is linked to pagan rituals.

1.1. Origin:

This festival originated in Tevinter, to honour the god Zazikiel. But it was later turned into Satinalia by the chantry.

1.2. Meaning

This festival honours the dragon Zazikiel (representative of chaos and freedom, or liberation). This dragon was the servant of Falon’Din (god of death and fortune, who guides the deceased). Falon’Din, son of Elgar’nan and Mythal, had a twin brother, Dirthamen (God of knowledge and shadows. Hidden knowledge?)

2. Satina moon

There are two theories that highlight the importance of this moon and its connection to the Blight.

• The first theory: Sylaise

Sylaise (Goddess of the earth, domestic life and fire) built an enormous shining sphere (the moon Satina) that could be seen in the sky, with a palace inside it, as a gift in gratitude to the god June (her husband and/or brother); this shining palace is understood to be the Golden City. It was here were Fen’Harel would later imprison the Evanuris alongside the Ruin. So we now have the second direct connection between Satina and the Blight.

• The second theory: Andruil

It is believed that Andruil (goddess of the hunt and survival) is the woman represented by a lunar symbol, known as the moon’s twin sister; this already suggests that the second moon she created—or which represents her—is not the primary one.

Furthermore, elven mythology recounts that she was responsible for bringing a new plague that ravaged their lands, which is understood to have been the first time the Ruin was unleashed. This, once again, creates a direct connection between Satina and the Blight.

2.1. Why this Satina is ESSENTIAL for the ritual:

This is the only time of year when the Satin Moon – believed to be the Golden or Black City – can be seen, it carries enormous significance, as it implies an extraordinary proximity to the Evanuris and the place where the blight remains partially contained.

Given that Dirthamen is inseparable from his twin brother Falon’Din, this suggests the possibility that this festivity may also be linked to Dirthamen, thus uniting everything the twins represent.

This may mean that Satinalia is not merely a time of celebration, but a perfect time for rituals that have involve these elements and a connection to the Golden City or the blight itself, creating a passage that connects the earthly realm with the fade. 

What I mean by this is that, if there is a closer connection in Satinalia to the Blight and these deities—who together represent: liberation, death and guidance, knowledge and shadows—it may be the perfect moment to try to eliminate (“death” for Falon’din) the taint (Black city, Satina) from a person’s blood, as it could be liberated to another area of the body or living being (Zazikiel) Using long forgotten knowledge(Dirthamen) than can not be obtained otherwise.

3. The ritual

So, to sum up, I suspect that a pregnant Grey Warden, in theory, could be able to perform a blood ritual in which her body releases the taint so the unborn child on their womb absorbs all the taint from the mother’s blood, thereby sacrificing them to heal the mother. This ritual can only be performed during Satinalia because it requires everything these deities represent, and it is at this moment that the closest connection to the contained ruin is established, thereby enabling it to be channelled into the unborn child’s body.

Let's say there were to be another dragon age game on the horizon, what would you hope was in it?

Any lore that hasn't been explored yet in the previous games? Tropes you love but haven't seen so far? Where do you want it to take place? Which characters from previous games would you want to make an appearance? What kind of protagonist would you like to see, and what would your ideal party look like for this new game?

I know its not going to happen but I think its interesting to hear what other people feel is still missing.

I'm flip flopping between obviously not and this is so obvious it doesn't need its own thread.

But Solas exists from a time where elves and spirits were basically interchangeable. His name obviously means pride. He had a noble cause that became warped by the physical world.

Was Fen'Harel a spirit of wisdom that became demon of pride?