WMG / Dragon Age Inquisition Jossed

Warning: Spoilers Off applies to these pages. Proceed at your own risk.

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Jossed WMGs.

There will be a different starting story and even main for mages than for the other two classes

It'd be a bit weird leading an anti-magic faction when you yourself are a mage.

• Unless they give you the option to be doing it only so you can later betray and destroy it.
  • Mages could still side with Meredith in "The Last Straw", just saying. Also, the new Inquisition does not have to be exactly like the old one (especially considering what the old one has ultimately become). It is likely that the Inquisition will have to fight both mages and Templars, being simultaneously and anti-magic and an anti-anti-magic faction. EDIT: Also, as Asunder clearly shows, the Divine Justinia favors the mages' independence, and has lost the support of her previous Anti-Magical Faction over that.
• We have a trope for this. Seriously, am I the only one who played a Loyalist mage in origins?
  • For the record, no you are not. Though I was loyal to the Circle and not so much the Chantry, that meant abiding by the Chantry's laws and even recognizing the point behind most of them. Mages can be incredibly dangerous if left to their own devices, as so many of the Collective and Flemeth show us. It's not that big of a stretch for a mage to decide that policing his own is probably for the best. And there's no shortage of mages who'd be willing to smack the Templars around if given the authority to do so.
• So, this is apparently a non-issue at this point being that the Inquisition is not, in fact, an anti-magic faction so much as a close-that-big-ass-hole-in-the-sky-with-demons-pouring-out-of-it faction.
  • More accurately, the Inquisition is a find-out-what's-going-on-and-how-to-stop-it faction, which is rather befitting their name, as it concerns mainly inquiry.

They're going to Shepardize the Warden

Those who played through Mass Effect 3 noticed how Shepard's started cracking under the pressure and becoming something else than a mere shell for the player to inhabit. This time, they will reintroduce the Warden as a Suddenly Voiced NPC, wrecked by guilt over how he/she unwittingly pushed toward the Mage-Templar war, such turning what was a Featureless Protagonist into a more rounded character.

• They'll also use his/her family name, calling him/her "Lord Commander Brosca" (Dwarf Commoner) or "Lady Commander Surana" (Elf Mage), etc...
  • Also, there will be multiple family names that you can be known as, with each origin having a different surname.
• Alternatively, Hawke will be the one driven by guilt. After all, the Warden's part in the Mage-Templar War was small, whereas Hawke actually discovered the Red Lyrium and (possibly) helped Anders start the war. S/He may also have crossed the Despair Event Horizon, depending on how much of their family is dead and what happened to their Love Interest.
  • Maybe not that small. The Warden is potentially responsible for Fereldan Apostates being treated more leniently, the Annulment of the Ferelden Circle of Magic, and/or two to five mages (a few of whom fit the definition of "Abomination" pretty clearly) gaining significant notoriety/fame. To a mage/Templar, these facts wouldn't be so much overshadowed by the whole "slaying the Archdemon" thing as they would be reason to pay more attention to the issue.

Companion Speculation

Assuming we don't go by "Anders in DA2" rules (i.e. screw it, he's alive), let's assume a "Mass Effect" scenario (i.e. if they survived past games, they are companions; if they didn't, tough beans).

• Leliana
  • Not sure if she'll be a temporary companion, but BioWare has stated that Leliana will serve as the Inquisition's spymaster.
• Cassandra Pentaghast
  • Confirmed! She and Varric are travelling together.
  • Also a confirmed LI.
• Connor Guerrin
• Jowan as your resident Blood Mage and demon expert.
• Lily, who joins when the Inquisitor visits the mage prison Aeonar to prevent a breakout. Far from the sweet girl in Origins, her Establishing Character Moment will be beheading a blood mage with two daggers. Having spent ten years in prison for Jowan's mistakes, their relationship will be... rocky.
• Rhys and Evangeline de Brassard (who only join—and leave—the party together, a la Khalid and Jaheira)
• Cullen (the concept art for one of the warrior characters certainly looks a lot like him)
  • Cullen will definitely be at least making an appearance, as per the most recent info.
  • He's a confirmed LI, but they STILL haven't said whether he's a companion, or just a very prominent NPC.
• Tallis (Assuming Felicia Day's not busy)
• Valor (Assuming the Magi Warden let it live; could possibly be possessing the Warden or could be simply met in the Fade)
• Maraas
• Varric (I could see him more fully embracing his bard instincts and deciding to travel to where the stories are)
  • Confirmed! He and Cassandra are travelling together.
• Feynriel (His Fade powers would be interesting. Assuming he still has them.)
  • Would probably be stupidly overpowered, though.
• The Messenger (Would be cool to have the one decent, good hearted darkspawn on our side)
  • To get around the problem of him being potentially killable, if he is killed he can state he was surprised to find he can body-surf like an Archdemon or Corypheus and ended up in another (unawakened) Hurlock.
  • I don't know about as a companion but having the Messenger show up in some capacity would be awesomesauce. If he was killed, he could be replaced by a similar Disciple character that plays roughly the same role like they did for some Mass Effect characters.
• Nyree, the female reaver from Dragon Age: Redemption.
• Gleam from the first Dragon Age comic. Also from the comic the Templar named Duty/Sadatt, her father. It would make for an interesting love-hate dynamic (heavy on the hate) and some serious side quest potential, especially if Gleam is romance-able. Gleam could also double as the Ultimate Blacksmith with her ability to magically create unbreakable weapons. Because she was raised outside the Circle Gleam will eschew traditional magic schools and be more of an Arcane Warrior. Duty will be a Templar with a personal skill tree similar to Aveline's where he protects the other characters, with a bonus for protecting Gleam.
• Finn and Ariane from the Witch Hunt DLC. Their Odd Friendship could be the humorous comic relief of the Inquisition, maybe even taking a Relationship Upgrade with the Inquisitor's help like Aveline and Donnic in DA2.
• Sketch from the Leliana's Song DLC. He knows Leliana, he's from Orlais and he had small cameo in DA2.
• Maevaris "Mae" Tilani from Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep. Because why else would Gaider invent an attractive good-natured Tevinter Flipping Magister, if not to finally give us a Sympathetic P.O.V. on the Tevinters, who have been as well as confirmed in the game already? Unless, of course, he decides to off her in the last issue.
  • David Gaider has already jossed the companion Mae theory on his blog, but said that her story is not over yet.
    • The most recent scuttlebutt says that we will be getting a sympathetic Tevinter magister character, however.
• Flemeth. Seriously.
• King Maric Theirin
  • Jossed by certain comic events.
• Empress Celene I of Orlais
• Charade Amell. Her skill with the bow has already been witnessed and her relationship with Hawke is just close enough to tie the two games together while remaining distant enough for interesting character development.
• Dagna: Heavily implied to become the first dwarven mage or close to it if you helped her leave Orzammar to study at the Circle.
• Bodahn and Sandal: Because why not?
  • Orlais is a confirmed location in DA:I, and Bodahn and Sandal were going to go to Empress Celene's court. So, we will probably see them. Maybe they might join the Inquisition, but if there are two NPCs who might have had their fill of excitement, its them.
• Hawke or the Warden. Bioware hasn't as of yet revealed the ninth and final companion because the character is a secret character, or the recruiting the character will happen in the mid or late game. Bioware could also be planning to surprise us by having a previous protagonist become non-playable, with their personality, class, and gender based entirely on the player's choices from the previous game.
• The companions are: Blackwall, Cassandra, Iron Bull, Dorian, Solas, Vivienne, Cole, Sera, and Varric. Should we close this topic, already?

Speculation on completely new party members

For party members that haven't featured in past games.

• A female kossith (Qunari or not), Bioware's probably gotten the point that we want one of these ladies in the party by now. She may even be romanceable—if they find a way around the fact that the Qunari (and kossith in particular) have no concept of romance without mutilating the canon.
  • An orphan Kossith who was raised by humans, maybe?
    • She could be a recent convert, too, abandoning the Qun but not becoming Tal Vashoth. She could explore emotions Qunari normally repress or interpret differently, embarking on an EDI-esque What Is This Thing You Call "Love"? sidequest, with hilarious (and suddenly not-so-hilarious if handled badly) results. Or she could be confused by her human/elven/dwarven upbringing, trying to emulate what she sees and not quite getting it right (though that would probably end tragically). It could happen. *shrug*
  • The initial assertion; that qunari don't have a concept of romance, isn't entirely accurate. Qunari have love and romance, they just don't express these feelings sexually.
  • Not to mention it's been confirmed that it's their society that bans them from having sex romantically, not necessarily their biological wants, and if people get caught doing so, they are sent to be 're-educated'. So saying they're not sexual would be like saying that humans aren't usually sexual because the only ones you know of are the puritans.
• A dwarf love interest. Another first; plenty of people were disappointed about Varric not being a romanceable option.
• A dalish archer. We've had a couple keepers, but we haven't had the iconic dalish archer on our team yet.
• An actual honest-to-God abomination. I see either a Desire or a Sloth demon being most likely; the Desire demon could be curious as to what the mortal experience is like and be content with living under the radar. The Sloth demon would just be too lazy to go out an cause a ruckus.
  • Even better: a Pride Demon possessing a Mabari: Mabaris are smart, so no one will be surprised if a mabari hound display a high level of intelligence, Pride demons are smart so it could refrain from trying to possess two-legged people and catching templars attention. mixing demon's magic with a Mabari would make for a funny case of a four legged Arcane Warrior. Also, just like the "virtuous" justice became more and more similar to a violent demon in contact with the physical realm, the demon would become more and more like a "good" spirit: maybe life in the physical realm is so much fun that being a good law abiding hound is a worthy trade off, or maybe it grew fond of its owner.
• An Ash Warrior- anyone else remember those guys?
• A chasind or avvar barbarian
• A Slyvan, albeit one that possessed a short tree and is about the size of Shale. Why, yes, my companion is a talking dogwood, what of it?
• A werewolf that can control his/her transformation, but still looks incredibly wild and feral even in human form.
• An ancient rock wraith from the thaig rumored to be under Orlais, who may also be the original prototype for golems.
• Black Whirlwind. He does take a world tour in the endings of his game.
• Someone from the Anderfels, or another unvisited region of Thedas.
• One of the Warden Amell's siblings. David Gaider announced that the PC can't be an Amell, but no word on party members (yet).
• A romanceable Lady of War for a change. So far all romanceable girls belonged either to the mage or to the rogue camp, and only three warrior ladies (Mhairi, Ariane, Aveline) were recruitable at all—with only one of them actually permanent.
  • Confirmed, although not a new character, Cassandra is romanceable.
• If we're going by previous games, we can expect variations on: a storytelling archer (Varric, Leliana), a possessed healer (Wynne, Anders), a flirty rogue (Zevran, Isabela), an amnesiac Super-Soldier (Shale, Fenris), a Religious Bruiser (Sten, Sebastian)...
  • Alternatively, we will have an Andrastian devotee (Leliana, Sebastian), an apostate who has no idea about human society (Morrigan, Merrill), a lawful character (Alistair, Aveline), a dwarf who had some relative betraying him (Oghren, Varric), and a mabari.
    • And at least one Adorkable romancable companion (Alistair, Merrill).
    • And a Well-Intentioned Extremist Anti-Villain, either recruitable early on or a late-game Heel–Face Turn, who can either be executed for his crimes or spared and brought along on a Redemption Quest at the cost of losing another party member who really wants him dead (Loghain, Anders)
    • And a perv who loves bizarre euphemisms (Oghren, Isabela)
    • And at least one attractive, blond, hazel-to-amber-eyed snarky guy (Alistair, Zevran, Anders, Varric), probably romanceable and probably with some sort of ponytail. (Seriously, somebody at BioWare Has a Type.) Also, a pale-skinned, black-haired female mage love interest (Morrigan, Merrill).
  • A big tough scary warrior who's actually sweet once you get to know him, and only appeared scary because of shyness. Because that would make a cute romance option.
    • Possibly Iron Bull aka Sexyback, the qunari warrior who's shown up in trailers and promo images and is popularly believed to be a companion.
  • Somebody who had a mental breakdown and killed a bunch of people who had been nothing but nice to him. Bonus points if he has dark skin and white hair and/or a heavily negative opinion of mages and magic (Sten, Fenris).
• A downloadable rogue character. In the beginning, the Inquisition doesn't have a whole lot, so you have to gather people for your party and you encounter this rogue character while doing that and you offer a position him or her and they accept under one condition, you help them rescue a friend of theirs that's been captured. You agree to do so and during the quest, you see that the rogue is decent, but nothing to write home about. When the quest is done, you find out that the friend is an animal, and not just any animal, it's a griffon. The rogue found the griffon when it just hatched and they've been friends ever since. They will also wonder if that griffon is the last one and Varric will mention the Silent Grove, a haven for the dragons and speculate that there may be a similar haven for the griffons. The rogue and griffon will work like the ranger and other animals from DA:O and their companion quest's will involve finding clues to see if there is a griffon haven and finding it.
  • Jossed, at least on the downloadable part. The rest of it may be feasible, though.

Possible Player Backgrounds

• Note: With the reintroduction of races, the selectable backgrounds have been replaced, as per Word of Gaider.

Warriors

• Orlesian Chevalier: You are from the Orlais' warrior elite, mighty and proud. A skilled combatant unrelated to the Mage-Templar War, you scoffed at the conflict and arrogantly boasted that you could take down both armies by yourself. The next day, the Divine called upon you to accept that offer.
• Templar Trainee: You once wanted to join the Templars, trained to be part of them... but then the Mage-Templar War began. Recognizing the madness of it all, you abandoned the order before your final initiation. With all the Templar training and none of the associated loyalty, the Divine deemed you the ideal candidate for leading the Inquisition.
• Loyalist Seeker: A devout Andrastian, you rejected Lord Lambert's annulment of the Nevarran Accord and remained loyal to the Divine, along with Cassandra and a few other Seekers of the Truth.
• Common Soldier: You were just a regular army (or city guard) captain of common origins, elevated by the Chantry for your honest and dependable reputation and disdain for double-dealing politics.

Mages

• Last Loyal Mage: You are from the Loyalist fraternity, sincerely believing that Templars and Mages should work together for the greater good. With the war at odds with these beliefs, you abandoned the Colleges and turned to the Divine herself for guidance. She placed you in charge of the Inquisition, hoping that your idealism could put an end to the conflict.
• Apostate on Parole: You have been an apostate all your life, living a magical existence unrelated to the Circle. Finally, the day came when you were captured by the Chantry... but surprisingly, they did not kill you. Instead, the Divine offered you clemency if you would lead the Inquisitors and put an end to the war. Naturally, you accepted.
• Tevinter Magister: You are from Tevinter, land of the magisters and free of the Chantry's oppressive glare. This war between Templars and Mages is not the concern of your kind, but you have always been lacking in social stature. As such, you offered your services to the Divine, hoping to gain control of the Inquisitors and all the benefits that come with it...
• Badass Family: You are the younger sibling of the Hero of Ferelden and the cousin of the Champion of Kirkwall (or just cousin to the Champion if a Warden other than Amell was imported). It seems your family is meant for great things.
  • It seems my theory has been smushed. David Gaider himself announced that the new PC can't be an Amell. Still, that would've been awesome.

Rogues

• Kirkwall Gump: You saw it all... the beginning of the conflict. Growing up on the streets of Kirkwall, you watched Hawke's achievements over the years until that fateful day. Knowing this, the Divine hopes your "insider knowledge" will give you the edge to help put an end to the war that stemmed from those events.
• Fereldan Exile: Your family was a staunch supporter of the corrupt Arl Howe and suffered greatly when his crimes were exposed. Exiled from your homeland and stripped off all status, you make a daring gambit to salvage the family name by volunteering to lead the Inquisition and bring an end to the Mage-Templar War.
• Orlesian Bard: You are part of Orlais' mysterious culture of troubadour spies, a master of song, deceit, and deadly precision. After a high-profile mission goes awry, you are captured and imprisoned, only to be saved by the most unexpected of sources: an offer to apply your skills to a greater purpose and lead the new Inquisition.
• Antivan Crow: All your life, you were trained in the art of murder. You came to Orlais for a job only to be betrayed by your comrades. Now you are working for the Divine while trying to escape the wrath of the most feared assassins' guild in all of Thedas.

Any of the Above

• Grey Warden: With the advent of the Commander of the Grey in Ferelden, the Wardens have become far more active in recent years, becoming more and more involved in world affairs. It's clear that they possess more knowledge and power than they let on, and the Chantry would like to know what they are. They offered to make one of the more skilled Wardens the new High Inquisitor in hopes of gaining the Wardens' trust, and one day becoming privy to their secrets.
• Tal'Vashoth: You're a human who was raised under the Qun and later abandoned it. The Chantry has chosen to promote you as a symbol of their righteousness and superiority over the Qun.
• Shipwreck Victim: You have no memory of your life before washing up on a foreign shore, save the instinctive skills that impressed the Chantry guards that tried to capture you. The Divine offers the chance to lead the Inquisition to discover the secrets of your past. The question is, will what you discover be better off forgotten?

The prologue will feature the Inquisitor saving the Divine's life

This is how you come to her attention, leading her to appoint you as the new Inquisitor.

• The Inquisition is not part of the Chantry, so that's highly unlikely.
• Jossed due to the revelation that you're the Sole Survivor at ground zero for the opening of the ginormous hole of doom between the Fade and Thedas. However, you've got the Left Hand of the Divine as one of your advisors and the Right Hand of the Divine as one of your companions, so the Chantry does look to have an interest in the Inquisition at the very least.
  • A bit more than just an interest, the Divine is the one who came up with this whole idea in the first place.
  • I mean, sort of? You save her from Corypheus's ritual but she then gets stuck in the Fade while leading you out.

Mabaris will be back

Among the Old Save Bonuses will be an optional quest where Hawke's and the Warden's Mabari will have a Tail to Tail Baddasses moment, just because.

• The protagonist will have his/her own Mabari hound:
  • It will play as a mix between DA:O and DA2: that is the Hound will not take any spot on the team and will always be summonable by the protagonist, but it will level up and be fully customizable like any other team member.
  • If Hawke and/or the Warden join the party, even as Guest Star Party Members, there will be Party Banter between the Mabaris, and somehow, Hawke, the Warden and the third protagonist will perfectly understand what the dogs are barking
  • The third Mabari will be female. And have its own Romance Sidequest. Why? Two words: Mabari puppies
    • If this is not an official thing, I offer to loan my skills at 3D modeling and texturing to any modder with the coding skills to make this a thing. And you must be able to pet and cuddle the puppies for real, not the silly "dog bounces around while the Warden stands there like a stump" thing we had in Origins.
  • Sadly Jossed, the devs have said there won't be a mabari pet this time around.
  • Confirmed in Trespasser, though.

The party will be overrun with mages

The party in Origins was mostly warriors, and DA2 was mostly rogues. Following the pattern, DA 3 will be mostly mages.

• Objection: Without DLC characters, DA2 only had two rogues, Varric and Isabela.
  • DLC characters are being included for this discussion. Shale for Origins and Sebastian for DA2. Carver and Bethany are not being considered as they're mutually exclusive and leave the party eventually, anyway.
    • In which case the WMG becomes something more along the lines of "There will be a DLC-only mage party member for the first time in the series."
  • There will be no DLC characters and otherwise the party has an equal 3-3-3 class spread.

The main character in the promotional material will be portrayed as a rogue

This was first proposed on the DA2 WMG. The Warden was heavily promoted as a warrior and Hawke was heavily promoted as a mage. Likewise, the primary promotional love interest will be a warrior, completing the trio of Morrigan and Isabela from 1&2 respectively.

• Called it! -Blackie62: the one who proposed it back on the DA2 WMG.
• The promoted warrior love interest will be Cassandra.
  • Aww, I'm kind of hoping that they'll hook up Cassandra and Varric.
    • New OTP! They will, of course, deny everything up until the point Cassandra tumbles out of Varric's tent in her smallclothes with a crossbow bolt in her nether regions while he insists that Bianca is very sorry. Not even our master storyteller will be able to spin that as Not What It Looks Like.
• Jossed, the Inquisitor has only been vaguely seen in marketing, having a human/elf build and the only thing regarding class is that sometimes the Inquisitor has a twohanded sword.

The multiplayer will affect the single play by...

Unlocking items and weapons by reaching challenges, ex. defeating a thousand opponents or grant passive abilities to characters of specific backgrounds or classes.

• Jossed. The multiplayer has since been confirmed to not affect the SP campaign at all.

It will be possible for your player character to be Morrigan's god-child from DA:O

C'mon, it's about time that plot thread makes a comeback, even if it requires specific old save data to happen. Plus, Morrigan appears to be addressing the player character directly on the reveal trailer. This would require the child to have grown up quite fast, or the game to take place a few decades after Origins, though. Being the god-child will either be an origin option, or it will play into every origin (with the choice only changing how they led their lives until that point, not the conditions of their birth).

• Jossed, the OGB is only around 10 years old and has art as such in the official art book.

The giant tear in the Fade is located over or near Kirkwall.

The Veil is notoriously thin there.

• It could also be Adamant Fortress. The veil is also thin there, and Pharamanond's experriments released a lot of demons in the book.
• Or the Soldier's Peak. Seriously, you can't hike a mile without landing in a place where the Veil is thin in Thedas.
  • Jossed. BioWare has stated that a) the Veil tear was deliberate, not accidental, and b) the original tear was opened over the Temple of Andraste's Ashes, where there was a peace summit at the time for the Mage-Templar War, in order to prolong said war. Yeah, conspiracy's a big part of DA:I, apparently.

The tear in the Fade is located over Andoral's Reach

It is caused by the largest number of mages gathering in one place since the height of the Tevinter Imperium. Puts the whole Templar-Mage conflict in a new light...

• Jossed. The Breach is opened over the abandoned temple where the peace talks between mages and Templars are held.

If he's alive, Zevran will appear in the final boss fight

• He's taken part in the final of Origins and the end of II (provided you did his side-quest and had Isabela or Varric with you). If he manages a hat-trick, it'll cement his rep forever.
  • Jossed, he won't be showing up this time around.

"Scribbles" is a mage from the Lucrosian fraternity

I can't take credit for this one: I got it from a poster on the Bioware forums. It has been confirmed that you can specialize Inquisition strongholds into one of three areas: warfare, espionage, and economic. Leliana is the Inquisition's spymaster and most likely represents espionage and it is widely speculated (and possibly confirmed) that Cullen represents warfare. The third advisor, fan nicknamed "Scribbles" likely represents the economy. Scribbles appears to be wearing mage robes and her being a mage would work with Cullen being a warrior and Leliana being a rogue. The Lucrosian fraternity believes that mages should use their powers to acquire material wealth. A Lucrosian might make a good economic advisor.

• As the person who first proposed this on the BSN, this troper, obviously, supports this.
  • And now it is my sad duty to note that this theory has been Jossed; Josephine is a member of an antivan noble/merchant family.

"Scribbles" will actually be called that in-game as Varric's nickname for her.

Because that would be amusing.

• Jossed, sadly.

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