The Main Story
The Prologue
The Mage/Templar War is in full swing, and a conclave has been called at the Temple of Sacred Ashes to hopefully iron out a peace treaty. Among the potential attendees are a Trevelyan noble (from the Free City of Ostwick) who's part of the Chantry, another Trevelyan who's a mage, a Dalish Hunter or First from Clan Lavellan, a Carta employee from Clan Cadash, or a Vashoth mercenary named Adaar. Then, it explodes, and the explosion rips a hole in the Veil. Demons are everywhere and one of the above attendees is dropped into the Fade, escaping with the help of a mysterious entity.
The poor sap then awakens in a dungeon with a glowing green mark on their hand, being interrogated by Leilana and Cassandra as the main suspect for the explosion as they are the sole survivor. They discover that their mark is known as the Anchor and it might be able to fix the Breach. With the help of Varric Tethras and an elf apostate named Solas, they are able to close the Fade Rift they had fallen into and later escaped from before passing out from exhaustion. The Breach still exists, but at least it won't grow any larger.
The Threat Remains
The person who closed the rift wakes up to some big surprises: First, that they're now being called the Herald of Andraste (it's believed that Andraste herself was the one to save them in the Fade), and second that Divine Justinia had ordered the reformation of the Inquisition. The Herald will be part of it, and it will be lead by Cullen Rutherford, who will command their armed forces, Leliana, who will command their espionage agents, and Josephine Montilyet, an old friend of Leliana's and the chief diplomat.
The Inquisition makes its headquarters in the town of Haven, and the Herald gets settled in. Sera, Vivienne, Blackwall, and the Iron Bull may be recruited at this point. The Chantry and the Seekers of Truth denounce the Inquisition, but nobody cares what they think. Lord Seeker Lucius has withdrawn the Templars from the capital, and Grand Enchantress Fiona has invited the Herald to the fortress of Redcliffe in Ferelden, which the Rebel Mages hold. The Herald must now take a side in the Mage/Templar war, by deciding to investigate one or the other faction.
Champions of the Just
Most of the Templars have gone and squirreled themselves away in a remote redoubt in Ferelden instead of doing their jobs, and the Inquisitor decides to investigate. After managing to secure an invitation due to Leliana and Josephine's efforts, the Herald heads in to find a dastardly plot in motion to corrupt the Templars into Red Templars by tricking them into taking Red Lyrium, headed by an Envy demon impersonating the Lord Seeker. The Envy demon engages the Herald in a mental battle and attempts to take over their form, but is thwarted by Cole, a spirit of Compassion.
The Envy demon then hides behind a magical barrier and his Red Templar minions, and to break the barrier the Herald has to gather the remaining uncorrupted Templars. They then face Envy in battle and slay it, uncovering evidence that "The Elder One" sent Envy to impersonate Corin in a plot that will eventually lead to the assassination of Empress Celene of Orlais and an army of demons being summoned. Thankfully, the Herald was able to stop this in time and the remainder of the Templars pledge their allegiance to the Herald.
In Hushed Whispers
Most of the Rebel Mages are currently headquartered in the castle of Redcliffe in Ferelden, and the Herald has an invitation from Grand Mage Fiona, without even needing to jump through any hoops this time. Of course, when they actually head there, they discover that a Tevinter Magister named Alexius got their first and secured an alliance... which he intends to use to force the mages into indentured servitude, because some Magisters are just walking cliches. Alexius's son Felix and his friend Dorian Pavus later tell the Herald what happened: Alexius discovered time travel and cheated his way to an alliance with the Rebel Mages by Save Scumming. The reason he did this was because Alexius is a member of the Venatori, an extremely sketchy Tevinter-supremist cult.
The Inquisitor and their party sneak into Redcliffe by a secret tunnel, and confront Alexius, who reveals that he joined the Venatori because they promised to cure the Darkspawn Taint that Felix contracted, which will otherwise kill him. He tries to use his time magic to erase the Herald, but Dorian intervenes, and they're instead thrown into a Bad Future.
One year into the future of Redcliffe, the Elder One has won. Orlais was thrown into disarray when Celene was killed, and an army of demons bum rushed everyone. Redcliffe itself is secure, with Future Alexius holed up inside in fear that he'll be killed for his failure to undo the events of the Conclave; as it turns out, time magic is only possible because of the Breach, so it cannot be used to alter the event that created the Breach. All of the Herald's companions have been trapped in the dungeons and infected with Red Lyrium, as has Fiona. Future Leliana and whichever two companions you chose to bring will come help out. After a boss fight with Alexius, Dorian is able to create a ritual to return him and the Inquisitor to the past, and the Herald's future companions all sacrifice themselves to buy time for the ritual to complete.
Back in the past, Felix is able to talk Alexius down, and he surrenders. Crisis averted, but either Anora or Alistair shows up, and they're mighty pissed at Fiona for breaking their trust by inviting a Magister into their castle, especially given what that almost resulted in. Fiona accepts the consequences of her actions, and the now-homeless mages move to Haven as part of the Inquisition. Dorian also joins as a companion.
In Your Heart Shall Burn/From the Ashes
The Herald manages to finally seal the Breach. Finally, no more demons dropping out of the sky, everything's good now except for the clean-up, right?
Sadly, wrong. Either Dorian or Cole shows up to Haven to warn of an incoming attack. The Elder One, now revealed to be Corypheus from the last game's DLC, attacks Haven with a dragon and whichever faction the Inquisitor didn't save. Corypheus tries to take the Anchor off the Inquisitor, but it's stuck fast and the Inquisitor escapes by using a trebuchet to cause an avalanche and bury most of the attacking forces.
Afterwards, the demoralized survivors reunite and Mother Giselle raises everyone's spirits with a rousing rendition of 'The Dawn Will Come', prompting Solas to lead them to the fortress of Skyhold, which they turn into their new base. The Herald of Andraste is officially proclaimed the Inqusitor. Now, it's time for them to solve the two problems they discovered earlier: Celene's assassination and that demon army, which can be done in any order.
Here Lies the Abyss
The Grey Wardens are in trouble, and the Inquisitor has to help out. Varric knows a guy who can give them an in- Hawke (Varric lied about not knowing his whereabouts) and a Gray Warden ally, who can either be Alistair, Loghain, or Stroud. The Warden Ally explains that Corypheus has Resurrective Immortality, and that the Grey Wardens have begun all hearing the Calling at once. The plan to deal with this issue involves using blood magic to sacrifice themselves en masse to summon a demon army to go kill the two remaining uncorrupted Old Gods before they can be corrupted into Archdemons. Oh, and this was all at the behest of a Tevinter Magister named Livius Erimond.
... If this sounds like a terrible idea to you, then a) you're in good company, and b) you're absolutely right. The Warden Ally also pointed out how amazingly dumb it was, and for that he was declared a traitor by Warden Commander Clarel de Chanson. And, as everyone who isn't Clarel or her supporters probably saw from the beginning, the plan is a Corypheus trap. Remember how he could mimic the Calling even when sealed away, which manipulated Janeka into wanting to release him? He's teamed up with a powerful demon known as Nightmare to spread his false Calling to all the Grey Wardens and sent Erimond to manipulate the desperate Wardens into a solution that will hand Corypheus a nice big demon army to conquer the world with.
The Inquisition storms the Adamant Fortress and manages to interrupt Erimond's plans right in time. The Inquisitor is able to talk sense into Clarel, but although she defeats Erimond handily, Corypheus's dragon intervenes and causes her last spell to almost drop the Inquisitor and companions to their deaths, but the Inquisitor saves them at the last minute by opening a rift into the Fade.
This technically works, with the downside that they're in the Fade, with the Nightmare, and the Inquisitor doesn't know how to get them out again. Good news is, they meet Divine Justinia (or a spirit mimicking her; it's intentionally ambiguous), who reveals that Nightmare stole the Inquisitor's memories of the event, but they can kill Fearling demons to get them back. This is how the events at the conclave actually went:
The Inquisitor-to-be stumbled on Corypheus trying to sacrifice Justinia in a ritual to unlock the Orb of Destruction. The distraction allowed Justinia to knock the orb out of Corypheus's hands, where the Inquisitor-to-be picked it up. The ensuing magic explosion decimated the Conclave, dropped Justinia and the other person into the fade, and bound the anchor to the Inquisitor's hand. Corypheus still has the Orb but can't use it for anything as long as he does not control the Anchor. In the Fade, Justinia sacrificed herself to allow the Inquisitor to escape. She was the person people saw leading the Inquisitor out of the Fade, who they mistook for Andraste.
The Inquisitor and party are able to escape the Fade, but at the cost of Justinia and either Hawke or the Warden Ally being left behind.
Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts
The Inquisitor has some plot points from The Masked Empire to resolve. Gaspard is still plotting a coup, Briala is still doing her thing, Celene's still a bitch, and Corypheus is going to assassinate her. The Inquisitor accepts an invitation from Celene's sister Florianne to a ball in order to inform Celene of the upcoming assassination attempt, but Orlais being Orlais, it's not as easy as walking up to the Empress and telling her someone's coming after her with a knife. No, if the Inquisitor wants to do that, they have to play the Great Game like everyone else while sneaking around and digging up dirt in restricted areas of the palace. While doing so, they discover that Florianne herself is the assassin.
What happens next depends on the Inquisitor's choices and reputation with the court. If they have a good reputation, they can publicly expose Florianne and capture her. If not, she's a boss fight. If the Inquisitor decides they really hate Celene, they can let the assassination succeed and then fight Florianne. Depending on what blackmail you found and what choices you made, the outcome of Gaspard's coup could be any of the following:
- Celene remains in power.
- Celene remains in power, having rekindled her relationship with Briala.
- Gaspard becomes Emperor.
- Gaspard becomes Emperor, but Briala has blackmail material on him and becomes the true power behind the throne.
- All parties are blackmailed into reluctantly working together.
Either way, Orlais is no longer in danger of a civil war and can now support the Inquisition.
What Pride Had Wrought
All Corypheus's plans so far have been thwarted, but if there's one thing he isn't, it's a quitter. His new plan is to take advantage of the Well of Sorrows at the Temple of Mythal. The Well of Sorrows contains the combined knowledge of all Mythal's servants, which Corypheus hopes might allow him to learn some new way to achieve his goals. Whoever drinks it will be forever bound to Mythal's will, but Corypheus has a way around that; he'll get his general (Raleigh Samson if the mages were chosen, Calpernia if the templars were chosen) to drink, then bind them with a seal that will force them to answer questions truthfully.
Corypheus and the Inquisition head into the Arbor Wilds to the Temple of Mythal, where they encounter its elven guards who think that both sides should get lost. The Inquisitor can ally with Abelas if they solve a puzzle and prove that they respect Elven religion, though they can also just brute force their way through. They'll also face Corypheus's general within, and can avoid a boss fight by doing a quest prior; Samson's armor can be destroyed by a rune (leaving him helpless as it was compensating for side effects of red lyrium), and Calpernia can be told of Corypheus's plans for her (causing her to immediately go Screw This, I'm Outta Here). Then either the Inquisitor or Morrigan will drink from the Well to deny it and the temple's Eluvian to Corypheus.
Now, on to shocking lore reveals: One, the humans didn't destroy the ancient Elven empire, it destroyed itself in civil war. Two, 'Flemeth' is actually a Fusion Dance between a woman and a fragment of the Elven goddess Mythal. If Morrigan's son Kieran has the Old God's soul, she'll want Morrigan to hand him over, but will instead just remove the Old God's essence from him when Morrigan stands up to her and declares that she'll be a better mother to Kieran than Flemeth was to her. Flemeth will also reveal that Corypheus's "archdemon" is a High Dragon corrupted by Red Lyrium, and that killing the dragon will render Corypheus temporarily incapable of resurrecting himself. She then leaves.
Doom Upon All the World
Having been thwarted at every turn, Corypheus now returns to the site of the Breach in hopes of re-opening it with the Orb... or failing that, destroying Thedas out of spite, because he's an asshole like that. The Inquisitor and their party rushes to stop him. The Red Lyrium Dragon battles the party's own magic high dragon (either a shapeshifted Morrigan or a High Dragon known as the Guardian of Mythal that the player tamed because of the Well of Sorrows). The Red Lyrium Dragon wins, but the player is able to finish it off, rendering Corypheus vulnerable. The Inquisitor then rips the Orb from Corypheus's hands, breaking it in the process, and uses the Anchor to destroy him. Finally, Corypheus is gone for good and the world is saved... but Solas is disappointed that the orb was broken, and leaves for parts unknown.
... Except for Solas, who meets with Flemeth and reveals that the orb was his to begin with, he gave it to Corypheus (and regrets that particular decision considerably), and he's Flemeth's friend. He then draws some sort of energy from Flemeth, who turns to stone.
Character Quests
The Lone Warden
One of Leliana's people has seen a Grey Warden called Blackwall going around and helping people. The Inquisitor goes to question him to see if he's involved with the Grey Wardens' strange behavior, but he isn't. Blackwall can, however, be recruited after you help him kill some bandits.
Explanations (Romance Sidequest)
Blackwall and the Inquisitor go to visit the spot where Blackwall failed to save another warden from an attack, something he's regretted ever since. The Inquisitor finds the Warden-Constable's Badge for him.
Revelations
Blackwall leaves the Inquisition to stop the execution of a man named Mornay. The Inquisitor, naturally, follows. Before Mornay can be executed, Blackwall reveals that he isn't actually a Grey Warden, his name is Thom Rainier, he was once Mornay's commander, and he actually committed the crime (killing the Callier family) that Mornay was accused of. The Inquisitor can have Thom released into their custody, whereupon they can judge him and potentially have him return to being their companion.Promise of Destruction
Cassandra wants to know what's behind the disappearances of her fellow Seekers of Truth and gets the Inquisitor to come along. Once at the Seekers' hideout, you discover that Lord Seeker Lucius Corin (yes, the one replaced by an envy demon in the Templar quest) has gone off the deep end and joined the Apocalypse Cult known as the Order of Fiery Promise. He further reveals that this is because of the dark secrets of the Seeker order and gives Cassandra a book about the secrets they've kept; most notably, that the Rite of Tranquility was originally part of their initiation. Cassandra is left devastated and pondering her faith in her order.
The Ideal Romance (Romance Sidequest)
Despite being a tough-as-nails warrior princess, Cassandra is also a sappy romantic. So if the Inquisitor woos her, they're going to have to do it right, with candles and flowers and everything. It's up to you to give Cassandra the perfect fairytale date that she's always dreamed about.
Subjected to His Will
Cole has a bit of a problem: he's a spirit, and Corypheus is a mage. Mages can control spirits against their will, and Cole naturally doesn't want that to happen. Solas gets him an amulet to protect him from Corypheus, but it doesn't initially work. Varric theorizes that this is because he's too human for the amulet to fully consider him a spirit. Varric and Solas then offer alternate solutions for the problem. Solas, who knows how spirits work, wants to teach Cole to better embrace his nature as Compassion and leave his human identity behind so the amulet will work. The more worldly Varric instead wants Cole to embrace his human identity and fully become human, so he won't need the amulet as humans cannot be controlled like that. Whichever the Inquisitor chooses, it works and Cole is happy to not be torn between two worlds anymore.Perserverance
Cullen has a major problem; he's a Templar, and Templars are all addicted to lyrium. Cullen is trying to go Cold Turkey, but the withdrawal is affecting him badly and he's worrying about not giving his best for the Inquisition. The Inquisitor can either encourage him to continue detoxing, or to use lyrium again. In any case, his fears are unfounded; clean Cullen is, if anything, a better help than lyrium-using Cullen.Happier Times (Romance Sidequest)
The Inquisitor and Cullen go on a lakeside vacation.Last Resort of Good Men
Dorian deals with his father, who tried to use blood magic to forcibly change Dorian's sexuality, because Dorian was too gay (and too much a hopeless romantic) to give him heirs.
The Magister's Birthright (Romance Sidequest)
Dorian asks the Inquisitor to get him a special amulet.The Captain of the Chargers
The Qunari offer their assistance, because that big hole in the sky is everyone's problem. Iron Bull is a Ben-Hassenrath who also leads a mercenary company and spies on the side (he tells you this right out because an Inquisition that couldn't figure that out would just be sad). Iron Bull offers you a deal: he becomes your companion and his Bull's Chargers serve the Inquisition, he gives the Qunari the occasional intelligence report, and he tells you more about the Qunari.
The Demands of the Qun
During a seaside mission, Iron Bull gets given a Sadistic Choice: Either the Bull's Chargers die, or a Qunari Dreadnought is destroyed. The Inquisitior determines his choice. If the Dreadnought dies, he becomes Tal-Vashoth but still has his friends, and if the Chargers die, the Trespasser DLC changes.
Tough Love (Romance Sidequest)
The Inquisitor and Iron Bull kill a dragon together to fulfil a Qunari romantic custom where two partners each wear half of a dragon's tooth.
Of Somewhat Fallen Fortune
Heraldry from a Herald (Romance Sidequest)
An Unexpected Engagement (Romance Sidequest)
The Left Hand of the Divine
A Friend of Red Jenny
Sera introduces herself to the Inquisition by shooting a Jerkass noble and stealing a bunch of mercs' pants.
The Verchiel March
A Woman Who Wants for Nothing (Romance Sidequest)
All New, Faded For Her
Solas wants to know the whereabouts of a Spirit of Wisdom friend of his, only to find that the spirit has been summoned and corrupted into a demon by a group of dumb mages. The spirit dies, and the Inquisitor barely restrains Solas from straight-up murdering the lot of them.
Seeing Red
Varric has had some experience with red lyrium, and knows firsthand what it does to people. So he enlists the Inquisitor to help destroy red lyrium nodes.
Well, Shit
The Imperial Enchanter
Favors the First Enchanter
Bring Me the Heart of Snow White
Vivian needs a wyvern's heart for an alchemical formula that might cure her deathly ill fiance, Bastien.
