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I basically wrote off Dragon Age after 2 but now you have reminded me that it exists and I've impulse bought a copy. I see that you can play as a Qunari mage and I vaguely remember an interesting side quest involving a gimp mage in 2. Anything interesting in that as a starter character like backgrounds in the 1st game or is that not a thing anymore?
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Mar 12, 2015 22:30
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Chance II posted:I basically wrote off Dragon Age after 2 but now you have reminded me that it exists and I've impulse bought a copy. I see that you can play as a Qunari mage and I vaguely remember an interesting side quest involving a gimp mage in 2. Anything interesting in that as a starter character like backgrounds in the 1st game or is that not a thing anymore? From this thread, the main DA:I one, and personal experience, it seems like almost everyone rolled a Qunari character for this game. Being two foot taller than the rest of the cast makes some cutscenes a lot funnier. Especially the romance ones.
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Mar 12, 2015 23:00
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Ha I'm sure the romance scenes are a joke anyway. I did enjoy the differences you got from race and background in first game, even if it was only a short little vignette. Guess I'll go muscle wizard for Inquisition and be as blasphemous as possible to as many factions as possible.
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Mar 12, 2015 23:03
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One of the really fun things about DAI is that telling people "no gently caress you humans I don't believe in your god" is totally an option and people still have to go along with you. I'm playing a nice, if reluctant elf so I'm not choosing those options but they're great.
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Mar 12, 2015 23:23
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More Templar-Mage background! In order to hunt down Mages better Templars take a highly addictive substance called lyrium to fuel their anti-magic abilities. The withdrawal symptoms of this include madness, hence the Templars killing just about anyone that comes near them...
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Mar 12, 2015 23:49
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It should be noted that the mages/templar thing is also an extension of the church and instituted as part of church policy. History lesson! The Tivinter Imperium once dominated the entire land of Thedas, controlling everything from up north down to where we are now in the south. Mostly they were known for using Blood Magic (which is basically drawing power from your life energy), to such an extent that they tore their way into the fade and physically went to the Golden City (basically Heaven) which caused corruption. That corruption lead to the creation of the Darkspawn and the first blight. However, as part of that particular feat of sacrilege, the Tevinter exposed their soft underbelly and Andraste proceeded to lead a string of military campaigns that pushed the Tevinter back up north, giving us the nations we play in today. Tevinter is basically the Roman Empire, the Chantry is the Catholic Church,. In the games "current time" they're living in the Western Empire that had fallen, while the Tevinter up north are the Eastern Empire (complete with alien belief group knocking on their door step in the form of the Qunari). Andraste is a mixture of Saint Peter and Joan of Arc. She was a prophet for the maker who managed to force the capitulation of an Empire, before being sold out and burned at the stake. She was born in Denerim, but now the Church has moved to Orlais. It should be noted that much of the political turmoil can be traced to the Chruch itself, with it's institutions of the Circle and Templars (and the Seekers of Truth like Cassandra), and the fact that it's used to promote the racism against Elves. I don't remember how long it's been since Anders blew up the chantry in Kirkwall, but two important facts need to be pointed out going into the game. One is that the Templar Order has withdrawn from the Chantry proper, and is instead going on it's own to attempt to wipe out the mage Menace. And the other is that the Templars were created as part of a treaty between two other organizations including the eponymous Inquisition.
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Mar 13, 2015 01:07
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Calax posted:I don't remember how long it's been since Anders blew up the chantry in Kirkwall, but two important facts need to be pointed out going into the game. One is that the Templar Order has withdrawn from the Chantry proper, and is instead going on it's own to attempt to wipe out the mage Menace. And the other is that the Templars were created as part of a treaty between two other organizations including the eponymous Inquisition.  Also, the Templars haven't withdrawn from the Chantry, they were called back to Val Royeaux in Orlais. Some of them said "gently caress you" and are still out causing trouble, much like while there is an official mage rebellion currently holed up in Redcliffe that's mostly keeping to itself there are also crazy apostates running around throwing haduokens at hapless peasants.
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Mar 13, 2015 02:34
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Schwartzcough posted:Haha, guess that's why Bioware's stories tend to be pretty good- they're not black-and-white. I'm usually a mage sympathizer, so your writeup is CLEARLY biased! It's not always a choice. Even in Denerim's relatively civil mage tower, the decision had been made to Tranquil Jonah without letting him undertake the Harrowing.
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Mar 13, 2015 04:58
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Gotta add that young Mages are kept in the dark what the Harrowing is. If the head Mages, or Enchanters, think they are ready, they're just taken at any time, even at night, and thrown into the figurative lion's den. Also while the Rite of Tranquility was initially used as an alternative for Mages who did not want to do the Harrowing or used for Mages who were deemed "unstable," currently it was heavily used as a punishment to keep Mages in line by the Templars. In bad cases, that includes abuses with the threat of Tranquility if the victim told anyone. The worst case was, unsurprisingly, in Kirkwall with a Templar Captain who was not only making Mages who had passed their Harrowing Tranquil, which is illegal by Chantry Law, and was heavily implied to be sexually abusing the Tranquil, but they even tried to convince the Order to consider going for "Tranquil Solution." SgtSteel91 fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Mar 13, 2015 |
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Mar 13, 2015 05:12
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Veloxyll posted:It's not always a choice. Even in Denerim's relatively civil mage tower, the decision had been made to Tranquil Jonah without letting him undertake the Harrowing. Er, did you mean Jowan?
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Mar 13, 2015 05:24
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Yes. It's been a few years. I forgot his name!
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Mar 13, 2015 05:25
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Veloxyll posted:It's not always a choice. Even in Denerim's relatively civil mage tower, the decision had been made to Tranquil Jonah without letting him undertake the Harrowing. Not only that but they allowed Mages to be put into solitary confinement (up to a year!).
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Mar 13, 2015 05:27
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Oh, yeah, the Lyrium that Templars take? It's addictive and destroys the mind after a while. Alistair in DA1 didn't take it because he was just about to take the vows when he was recruited to the Wardens. Cullen does take it (having been the Templar who was going to put a sword through the Mage Gray Warden, and being the sane templar at Kirkwall, although if the Gray Warden was a female mage he also had the hots for her). You run into at least one Templar who's Lyrium Addled. in DA1, and the guy is basically a little kid, being sheparded around by a younger member of his order. Lyrium itself is unique because its not that well explained in the game lore. If ingested it can provide power to mages and templars, and it's used to create runes. The poo poo is like Tiberium from Command and Conquer, in that it does whatever the devs need it to do at any given point. Also, only dwarves can actually mine it (because they're unable to work magic), and legally the only people who can buy it from the dwarves is the Chantry, as another method of controlling and manipulating the Circles and the Templar.
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Mar 13, 2015 05:42
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Calax posted:History lesson! So to put it another way, pretty much every major crisis threatening Thedas as we know it can be traced back to either 1) loving Mages, 2) loving Tevinter, or 3) both. I'm not saying the Harrowing and Tranquility are anything but awful, and I'm definitely not arguing that the Templars aren't oppressing and brutalizing the mages or that their mistreatment of people who ultimately didn't have a choice in their fates (fun fact I forgot to mention: magical talent is something you're born with whether you like it or not, and trying to suppress it generally works out very very badly) wasn't a big factor in triggering the Mage Rebellion we're currently dealing with. I am, however, saying that most common humans have very good reason to be afraid of mages. Dalish Elves (IE, the ones traveling the world in nomad caravans as opposed to the ones living in ghettos in the human cities) have a significantly different arrangement with their mages, as I believe Solas will explain if you ask him, but the history of the Elves in this setting would be yet another  and right now I should get back to actual work, so I'll leave summarizing that Codex entry to someone else...
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Mar 13, 2015 08:56
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Currently Dalish mages are considered apostates but accepted because it's more trouble to keep bringing them in than to let them run wild (as it were). Each Dalish clan is led by a Keeper, who is a mage. Most of their magic is passed down from their ancestors and is supposedly from the Dalish Empire that existed prior to the Tevinter showing up in the south. The only other mage that's really allowed within a clan is the First. Basically if the Keeper dies, the first is the immediate successor, and is taught everything they need to lead the clan. In fact, if you pick an elvish mage for Inquisition, you're a second magic user in the Clan so they deliberately send you out into the world to find another clan so that the keeper can focus on their First. Each of the different PC's has a tiny backstory to them that effects the game in ways (Human warriors/rogues are members of a Free Marches noble house, Elves are Dalish spies sent by their Keeper, Qunari are renegades that were hired as guards.)
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Mar 13, 2015 09:04
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Calax posted:Currently Dalish mages are considered apostates but accepted because it's more trouble to keep bringing them in than to let them run wild (as it were). Each Dalish clan is led by a Keeper, who is a mage. Most of their magic is passed down from their ancestors and is supposedly from the Dalish Empire that existed prior to the Tevinter showing up in the south. The only other mage that's really allowed within a clan is the First. Basically if the Keeper dies, the first is the immediate successor, and is taught everything they need to lead the clan.
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Mar 13, 2015 09:18
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They don't really bring it up, but I think the implication is that if something like that were to happen, the First from another clan would be called in to take over as Keeper.
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Mar 13, 2015 09:37
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Alavaria posted:Sounds rather unstable, has any clan had both of them die in a disaster leading to horrible things, it seems like it has to have happened before... There's one time where the Keeper died and the First was potentially exiled if the clan wasn't killed by a misunderstanding. Calax posted:In fact, if you pick an elvish mage for Inquisition, you're a second magic user in the Clan so they deliberately send you out into the world to find another clan so that the keeper can focus on their First. Each of the different PC's has a tiny backstory to them that effects the game in ways (Human warriors/rogues are members of a Free Marches noble house, Elves are Dalish spies sent by their Keeper, Qunari are renegades that were hired as guards.) I never played Elf Mage but I thought they were the First who was sent to the Conclave as a spy? Speaking of which, this 'leave the extra Mages out into the woods' is a recent development and one, imo, doesn't make sense for the Dalish. Before this game, it was said that Mages were becoming rare in Dalish clans so they made sure to have Mages in each clan. A clan with extra Mages would hand them over to a clan without any. SgtSteel91 fucked around with this message at 09:45 on Mar 13, 2015 |
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Mar 13, 2015 09:40
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Calax posted:They don't really bring it up, but I think the implication is that if something like that were to happen, the First from another clan would be called in to take over as Keeper. There has to be super special secrets  Granted if you got it, the secret would be like "+1% health" and you'd be like what is this.
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Mar 13, 2015 09:42
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SgtSteel91 posted:There's one time where the Keeper died and the First was potentially exiled if the clan wasn't killed by a misunderstanding. Well that's the point, Your player character was an extra mage and until they found another clan to home you, you're sent to the conclave to spy. As to special secrets, I think that the only major secrets are more like oral traditions, where the Keeper keeps trak of the history of their clan. Of course it's a ridiculous game of Telephone so nobody is really sure about the way past. Something I just remembered that should be mentioned. The Tevinter worshipped (at one point) a series of Old Gods, I think there were 8 of them overall. Why is this important? Because the Old Gods are real, and their part in the modern ages is that they're what are found by the Darkspawn that trigger a blight. Each of the Old God's sleep under the earth and the Darkspawn are driven to dig and find them. Once a darkspawn finds the Old God as it sleeps, they corrupt it turning it into an Arch Demon.The Blight featured in the first Dragon Age game is the Fifth of it's kind, meaning that there are at least 3 more blights left before the Darkspawn run out of Old Gods to convert into Archdemons.
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Mar 13, 2015 09:51
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It's actually 7
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Mar 13, 2015 10:09
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Calax posted:Well that's the point, Your player character was an extra mage and until they found another clan to home you, you're sent to the conclave to spy. No? Unless I misunderstand Dalish lore, the First is the Keeper's apprentice and successor. If they get any more mages after that, sure, they're probably going to be sent to another clan, but the First stays. Being sent to the Conclave was obviously meant to be a temporary leave. A Keeper basically decides everything for their clan, including where to go, so having the future Keeper get a first-hand look at how Thedas might develop in the close future strikes me as perfectly reasonable. A bit risky, maybe, but then again nobody was expecting the Conclave to blow up. e: Huh, looking at the character creation blurb for the Dalish mage, the game never actually calls you the clan's First. I was convinced it did. I just read "apprentice to the clan's Keeper" and assumed that made the PC First  Doesn't say anything about the PC being an extra mage, though, where'd you get that from?
Veriun fucked around with this message at 12:26 on Mar 13, 2015 |
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Mar 13, 2015 12:18
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kaosdrachen posted:So to put it another way, pretty much every major crisis threatening Thedas as we know it can be traced back to either 1) loving Mages, 2) loving Tevinter, or 3) both. I will point out that this is based on Chantry lore, which coincidentally is an organization that is hugely opposed to both Tevinter and Mages. Ask the same questions of an apostate mage, or of a Tevinter citizen who believes in the Black Divine, or heck a Dwarven believer in the Stone, and you will get very different answers. And we kinda do know at least some of Chantry lore seems to either be bullshit, or at least has been edited for political reasons. Further, for different people, you will have very different views as to what is actually a crisis in this universe. Like, for the average person in Orlais, the progress of the civil war is far more important than all this stuff happening in Denerim or Kirkwall. In Tevinter, the only problem with magic is the issue of social inequalities, and your reformers in government are also mages. The idea of putting your intellectual class under the thrall of a bunch of drug addicts is simply laughable. For the dwarves, the Blights are awesome - they are the one time the war with the Darkspawn abates and they can rebuild a bit of dwarven civilisation. More Blights, yes please.
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Mar 13, 2015 14:14
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If we got to discussions with our researcher, she explains the Dalish practices on extra mages. I don't exactly recall what Butts can say about it, but it's not nice for her kind.
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Mar 13, 2015 19:17
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GuyUpNorth posted:If we got to discussions with our researcher, she explains the Dalish practices on extra mages. I don't exactly recall what Butts can say about it, but it's not nice for her kind. They get exiled if no other clan needs a Keeper or First, yes, and she gets pissed if an elf mage PC tries to suggest they have anything in common.
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Mar 13, 2015 19:27
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If I remember the lore correctly recent generations have seen a sharp increase in mages per capita which is also taxing all the flawed systems for dealing with mages in Thedas.
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Mar 13, 2015 22:37
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 I get by with a little help from my friends Back in Haven for a quick visit with our pals. Squadmates reveal quite a bit of their personalities through dialogue so it's best to pay attention when talking to them if you're looking to romance someone or just generally keep on everyone's good side. As a general rule when making major plot decisions you'll inevitably piss somebody off to some extent. You can make up hits to approval by conversation and doing personal quests for people; everyone has one. Note that our advisers do not have approval/disapproval so you don't have to worry about them leaving. We've got one more video in Hinterlands and then I'll progress the plot. After that we'll have access to 4 new squadmates and I can start taking votes on party makeup.
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Mar 14, 2015 23:57
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Considering how deeply religious Leiliana is in Orgins (from what I know), it was interesting to see her faith shaken by the death of someone she truly admired and looked up to. Is this idea of her questioning her belief system come into play again, or will it, as she states, "Never happen again"?
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Mar 15, 2015 06:12
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Yagyumi posted:Considering how deeply religious Leiliana is in Orgins (from what I know), it was interesting to see her faith shaken by the death of someone she truly admired and looked up to. Is this idea of her questioning her belief system come into play again, or will it, as she states, "Never happen again"? Not directly, but she certainly will continue to question how she acts on her beliefs and accomplishes her goals.
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Mar 15, 2015 06:20
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Next update is rendering, and so it's time for our first vote! Please rank the following adjectives in order of importance: Sapphic Sassy Stoic Studly And then I need to know if we go with fuhgeddaboutit, no fucks given, or gently caress that guy. I'll keep it open for 24 hours.
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Mar 16, 2015 02:50
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Blind votes are best votes! Stoic Sassy Sapphic Studly fuhgeddaboutit
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Mar 16, 2015 03:08
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Sapphic Stoic Sassy Studly And give no fucks.
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Mar 16, 2015 03:15
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Studly Sassy Sapphic Stoic fuhgeddaboutit
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Mar 16, 2015 03:20
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Studly Sapphic Stoic Sassy
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Mar 16, 2015 03:55
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Sassy Studly Stoic Sapphic And let's go with fuhgeddaboutit
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Mar 16, 2015 04:13
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Sapphic Sassy Studly Stoic gently caress that guy Obviously 
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Mar 16, 2015 04:15
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Stoic Sassy Sapphic (seeking) Studly but gently caress That Guy.
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Mar 16, 2015 04:38
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Sassy Stoic Studly Sapphic Fuhgeddaboutit Is it sad that a lot of us probably have an excellent idea of where you're going with this?
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Mar 16, 2015 04:53
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CommissarMega posted:Is it sad that a lot of us probably have an excellent idea of where you're going with this?
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Mar 16, 2015 05:25
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I just want a lesbian or gay who is sassy to stoicly gently caress that guy 
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Mar 16, 2015 06:11
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