Dragon Age

Or, knowing Cole, it's a typically Cole-esque oblique reference to lore which has yet to be fully unpacked in-game.

And may or may not literally come from dragon blood. Old God soul!Kieran says a Vassoth Inquisitor's blood isn't there own, Corypheus says they're not even a race, and Bull speaks of Qunari legends that they're related to dragons.

edited 24th Oct '16 3:18:40 PM by SilentColossus

Which makes me believe that the Qunari were born out of Blood Magic involving Dragon's Blood to create the strongest warriors. A kind of eugenics. The connection is made even stronger as Iron Bull claims not to be a reaver, yet has the classification of Reaver and takes on all the mannerisms/fighting style of one. He claims to have "just stumbled upon it", but if its related to consuming Dragon's Blood and Iron Bull/All Qunari have Dragon's Blood in them...

"Maybe there's something tying us to them: deep in the blood"

And which in turn allows me to bring up "Maybe Kossith were lizardmen all along!" tinfoil hat theory

edited 25th Oct '16 4:33:47 AM by SpookyMask

Speaking of bigotry from the companions, Solas notable is only willing to consider misjudging the Dalish, and will insist that they must have had a part in the Inquisitor's personality.

For a human, dwarven, or Qunari, though, he will insist he is right about most of them being awful, with you being a special snowflake.

edited 25th Oct '16 8:55:33 AM by SilentColossus

Has anyone seen that "Make Thedas Great Again" Tumblr?

Definitely do not read these latest spoilers, mine or the others, Tam. For your own enjoyment.

Other than his reaction to the Qunari/Kossith, bigotry is not quite the word I'd use— Expendable Alternate Universe is more like it. He can clearly find something to admire in individual humans and dwarves, and he even respects the Chantry's good intentions, while dwarf and Qunari society, and the Circle, are legitimately oppressive and exploitative. He's not wrong for calling Thedas out on these things. He doesn't view this world as quite real, but it's because doing so would mean accepting that his own world is dead. Whether or not there's an actual chance of saving his world or bringing it back seems less clear-cut.

His reaction to the Dalish is all the more interesting. Many of them are zealots and quite murderous, according to the Codex, although as I've said further up-thread they are fighting for survival in frequently hostile territory. But his disdain for them comes down to them propagating a religion of Happiness in Slavery, worshipping ancient tyrants while painting him as the equivalent of Satan, when all he was trying to do was free them. Granted, we don't know the methods he used— from the sound of things, it was a pretty brutal war, and we only have Solas's word for it that his motives were pure. I'm inclined to believe him, because I think that makes for a more interesting villain for DA 4, but we just don't know.

No, but googling it shows a post comparing Trump and Corypheus.

He calls humans short-sighted, Qunari violent, and dwarves dull and unimaginative. Them creating oppressive societies isn't really the point he is making, as he is willing to admit the ancient elves did that even before The Reveal. But still, only for the Dalish (i.e, elves) is he willing to admit they might be capable of greater contemplation than he initially considered.

Well, I wouldn't say it's fair or without bias, but it's not based on presumption. He's spent time travelling all over Thedas, observing its people. Whether or not those sweeping judgments are inherent to a given race's nature is another matter, but they are based on experience as well as the ingrained Can't Argue with Elves/Our Elves Are Better prejudices that Solas certainly has. This being a medieval fantasy setting, his 'You Are a Credit to Your Race' speech ends up being a deliberate case of Values Dissonance, meant to evoke a 'Fair for Its Day' response— while also bringing it into question from the player's point of view.

Don't get me wrong, Solas is still racist and supremacist by his actions, but bigotry carries with it a refusal to examine other beliefs or possibilities. Semantics, I realize, but the fact that Solas is able to acknowledge that others could be right and he might be wrong even if he does not ultimately accept it is important to his character. He's going ahead with his Corypheus MKII plot anyway, which is what makes him the villain, but it's played sympathetically and I find that interesting.

edited 30th Oct '16 1:59:40 PM by Unsung

Dragon Age has never really been heavy on the Values Dissonance as much as other fantasy settings, so I'm not sure I agree with that. What makes someone a bad person and someone a good person is generally the same as it is to us. Never once did I get the feeling we're supposed to get mad at the system more than the actual oppressors.

I was actually referring this.

edited 25th Oct '16 2:25:28 PM by KarkatTheDalek

Oh god, that's great.

Hmmm...

Hmmm...

Is it too late to start Solas President 2016 #Solas President 2016?

On the US election issue, all that's needed to sum it up is what "The Who" said in "My Generation" -

"Meet the new boss

Same as the old boss."

But that's kinda off-topic. What's interesting me is those Astrarium puzzles. They're tricky, and they remind me of when at school we were asked to draw pictures without lifting our pencils off of the paper and make sure we never went over the same line twice. I hated them then as I was rubbish at them, and it's no different now.

Thank goodness for online guides is what I say to them.

A lot of the astrariums were easier than they looked since once you knew the point you needed to start with a lot of it just falls into place for you. Given that any isolated point with only one connection is your starting point, that solves a lot of them right there.

Just did the three in the Storm Coast. They were very tricky. I tried on my own a few times each then said sod this and went googling.

I'm honestly surprised I actually managed to solve all of them without having to look at a guide. Normally I go running to Google the moment I see these sorts of things pop up, especially with minigames like Lights Out.

I didn't mind the astrariums. It's the unmarked quests where you can roam all over the map and miss them by inches that sent me to the forums.

@Karkat.

Okay, that's brilliant.

Anyway, I don't mind Astrariums. I do not have the patience for them, though, much like finding shards.

edited 26th Oct '16 6:40:41 PM by SilentColossus

I liked the Astrariums. Love puzzles and it broke up the monotony of gameplay. I only wish that they had a more worthwhile reward.

I also liked the Astrariums and was disappointed by the reward. Inquisition has a bit of the same problem the first Mass Effect had: they flood you with so much useless shit that it gets obnoxious to even bother with inventory. Oh good, a unique fire staff, let me throw that in the pile with the other 67 I found on this outing.

Even the new gear added with Trespasser couldn't make them worthwhile.

Just remove the stupid inventory limits if you're going to do that. Verisimilitude is already out the window when random bandits keep dropping wizard staffs and whole suits of armour.

Or else dial down the amount of random drops, and try and make the loot you find in chests that much more unique and tactically valuable. And just have everything scale with you/not scale at all, so that the differences between gear actually matters. Everyone who cares about optimal numbers is already crafting anyway. I hate crafting.

I liked the idea of crafting but it's one of those things where I probably would have cared more if I could step outside without 87 helmets being dumped in my lap.

Also, tiny bonuses are dumb, another thing that held back crafting. +2% Fire resistance! +4% critical damage! ...that's stupid and I don't care. Any percentage-based bonus immediately stops being worth the effort to learn if it's only a single digit.

edited 28th Oct '16 2:57:59 PM by TobiasDrake

Yeah, you do get a lot of loot dumped on you fairly quickly once you get involved in fighting things. I like the crafting though - I'm used to doing it after spending so long on the Bethesda-era Fallout games and their Elder Scrolls titles.