History WMG / DragonAgeII

[[WMG: The Friends of Red Jenny are the Dragon Age equivalent of [[Franchise/MetalGear The Patriots]]]]

* ” The shadows will part and the skies will open wide.”

* According to the Codex, the Anderfels also have the most pious Andrastians in all of Thedas. So, Kirkwall, Orlais? They're small time compared to these hardcore motherfuckers. I could see them being Meredith taken up to eleven, like the Order's answer to Tevinter, trying to oust the Grey Wardens, turned the region into a hodge-podge of warring satraps led by Knight-Commanders who each have a different view on mages, the Chantry, etc. or who simply want power. Also, because Antiva has no army and Zevran (should he live) is positively assfucking ([[AnythingThatMoves hehe]]) the Crows (Antiva's one defense), this region will turn into an international gangbang as every nation starts looting the place for everything it has. Sebastian will take over Starkhaven, Aveline and Cullen will be fighting an urban war in the streets of Kirkwall, Isabela will be fighting a pirate war off the Rivaini coast, Fenris will be organizing a slave rebellion in southern Tevinter, the Archon will have to deal with DarkIsNotEvil types threatening his (or, even better, her) rule. Thedas will become one massive charnel house.

** {{Jossed}} by ''Inquisition'', but props to the person who wrote it because they did come pretty close.

** "Definately" nothing! This is a fantasy game with some immortal creatures in it. Suspended animation is a possibility, among other things. The Primeval Thaig is built in dwarven architecture even though it lacks the statues of the Paragons and other important details, so it's highly unlikely that anyone else could be behind it, unless they are some forgotten people who taught the dwarves all they know.

[[spoiler: Orsino]] never actually says he's going to attack Hawke, and right before his transformation he lets slip that he [[spoiler: helped Quentin.]] Hawke realizes this and immeadietly turns on him, which is why the boss fight triggers. Because no matter how you play him/her, it's pretty clear that Hawke loves his/her mama.

*** [[spoiler:'''Confirmed''' as of Inquisition: specifically, red lyrium is lyrium tainted by the Blight.]]

* ''Trespasser'' eventually reveals [[spoiler: that Dragon Age '''was''' about a full-blooded elf who '''did''' lead a slave rebellion and did change the world... and is about to change it, '''again''']], it just so happens [[spoiler: that said elf wasn't the player-controlled protagonist]]

[[WMG: Putting Tranquil through the Joining will restor his/her connection to the Fade]]
It was aleady established that Tranquility can be "cured" temporary (like in Karl's case - Justice's presence restored his emotions for a short time) [[spoiler: or permamently if a person is possesed by a Fade Spirit.]] We know Grey Wardens, even dwarves, dream about the Darksprawn, it means their minds are in the Fade when they sleep. If a Tranquil person was put through the Joining his/her Fade-connection would be restored, thus giving them their emotions and possibly their old magic talent back.

[[WMG: Varric is the only one who knows Ander's real name.]]

[[WMG: Anders is Justide. Anders is Vengeance.]]

* According to the Codex, the Anderfels also have the most pious Andrastians in all of Thedas. So, Kirkwall, Orlais? They're small time compared to these hardcore motherfuckers. I could see them being Meredith taken UpToEleven, like the Order's answer to Tevinter, trying to oust the Grey Wardens, turned the region into a hodge-podge of warring satraps led by Knight-Commanders who each have a different view on mages, the Chantry, etc. or who simply want power. Also, because Antiva has no army and Zevran (should he live) is positively assfucking ([[AnythingThatMoves hehe]]) the Crows (Antiva's one defense), this region will turn into an international gangbang as every nation starts looting the place for everything it has. Sebastian will take over Starkhaven, Aveline and Cullen will be fighting an urban war in the streets of Kirkwall, Isabela will be fighting a pirate war off the Rivaini coast, Fenris will be organizing a slave rebellion in southern Tevinter, the Archon will have to deal with DarkIsNotEvil types threatening his (or, even better, her) rule. Thedas will become one massive charnel house.

*** Governing takes a lot more than sitting in a fortress training soldiers or running through the Deep Roads killing Darkspawn. Roads have to be maintained, farms have to produce grain, coffers have to be filled with gold, people have to be bread & circused and nobles have to have their egos stroked. Wardens are good at one thing and one thing only: killing darkspawn. Some of them are former prisoners, some of them are thieves, or mages, or common grunts, but none of them are consummate politicians by trade. Also, Ferelden is a rather insular country that looks suspiciously at foreigners as potential interlopers. Loghain is merely this attitude turned UpToEleven. Having Wardens, who may be Free Marchers, Anders, or even Orlesians, come in to run an arling will simply not sit well with the nobility in the short term. Also, the First Warden likes to send in personnel from his personal circle, distrusting local men (Mistress Woolsey is one). All it takes is for that to turn into cronyism, and the entire arling becomes packed with toadies who answer to the first warden ahead of the King or the Landsmeet. Add in the possibility that the new WC could end up being a GeneralRipper, and it's a recipe for disaster. With the mage-Templar war under way, times are going to be tough. It might be the case that the WC will have to choose between devoting resources to the arling or to the deep roads. Also, the Right of Conscription is ripe for abuse. A noble bothering you? Conscript him and send him to the Deep Roads. A guard captain too [[ByTheBookCop by the book]] for you? Conscript him and send him to the Deep Roads. A running theme in DA is that unchecked power can and will be abused.

Furthermore, the story of the Old Gods closely matches the story of the Forgotten Ones in Fen'Harel's legend, what with the being imprisoned in a deep abyss (the earth) and in maybe a bit of a stretch, the Creators could of been locked in the Golden City, the heaven of the myth. Look at that codex entry again. The Tevinter magisters entrance into the Golden City may have been a kink in those plans, and the resultant breach was used as a means of continuing their eternal war, by unleashing the darkspawn on the prisons of their enemies or by the FOs themselves to circumvent their imprisonment. Kind of dickish in either case, but hey, they're gods. The Maker (a pissed Fen'Harel in this case) would certainly chastise those responsible for screwing with his plans.

I could use the mythology to try and reinforce my argument further, but in the interests of brevity, I'll state that Creator/BioWare doesn't generally throw out fluff without it appearing in their games in some meaningful fashion. The Fen'Harel myth was told outright by Merrill in something that could of been restricted to a codex entry (which it already was). And my experience in playing western RPGS, particularly ones that embody the essence of D&D, leads me to believe that eventually down the line you'll fight an actual "god" (not just a crusty dragon) of the mythology. In true Munchkin fashion, "If it has stats, it's there to be killed." Now how Andraste and the Old God Baby fits into this I have no frakking clue.

[[WMG: Lyrium is the LifeForce of the planet.]]

According to what we've heard so far, the opening levels will have Varric wildly exaggerating Hawke's adventures, only for Cassandra to force him to tell the truth. While he may continue to exaggerate at certain points in the game to annoy her, or maybe lie to her outright for some big Keyser Soze-like reveal, the main game will, for the most part tell the truth of Hawke's rise to power. In the DLC, Varric will be telling the story to someone naive enough to believe him (say, a barmaid he's trying to get into bed). He'll condense the story to about 3-4 hours of gameplay with all the [[ATasteOfPower benefits]] of the opening segment (but still challenging for players) and all the glorious, glorious ham. It will eventually devolve into a parade of CrazyAwesome like something out of WebComic/AxeCop. The DLC will end with Varric's version of the final battle, as Hawke, his party members, the friendly [=NPCs=], the Warden from the first game and [[Franchise/MassEffect Commander Shepard]], all riding griffins, charge the BigBad and his army of Archdemons, also riding griffins.

It's Kaddis. Feraldains love their MAbari after all so Hawke weres it on his/her face to display their heritige and so Dog doesn't get confused as too who's friend and foe when up to his ankles in blood.

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It's Kaddis. Feraldains love their MAbari after all so Hawke weres it on his/her face to display their heritige and so Dog doesn't get confused as too who's friend and foe when up to his ankles in blood.

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* Just to further bump up the [[HolyShitQuotient awesomeness of this WMG]], Varric is telling the story to an increasingly awestruck, yellow eyed, [[EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette raven haired]] 10 year old boy, whereupon Varric being finished the boy has to run off to his mother, [[spoiler: [[TheReveal Morrigan]]]], who scolds him for listening to such foolish stories, [[spoiler: considering they've probably been brought up with the reality of the situation, making this a chance for the child [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments to connect with normal youth]], such as outlandish FolkHero stories, [[TearJerker albeit momentarily]] as they have to come to terms with...whatever it is that they have to do, as well as to keep the SequelHook of the OGS and Morrigan alive and connected with the two games]].

* Just to further bump up the [[HolyShitQuotient awesomeness of this WMG]], Varric is telling the story to an increasingly awestruck, yellow eyed, [[EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette raven haired]] 10 year old boy, whereupon Varric being finished the boy has to run off to his mother, [[spoiler: [[TheReveal Morrigan]]]], who scolds him for listening to such foolish stories, [[spoiler: considering they've probably been brought up with the reality of the situation, making this a chance for the child [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming to connect with normal youth]], such as outlandish FolkHero stories, [[TearJerker albeit momentarily]] as they have to come to terms with...whatever it is that they have to do, as well as to keep the SequelHook of the OGS and Morrigan alive and connected with the two games]].

One of the ingredients in the construction of the sword is the egg of a dragon and part of what makes Vigilance the InfinityPlusOneSword is the power of the dragon's soul within it. The epilogue card for the sword states it seemingly has a will of its own. When it does show up again, it will be an EmpathicWeapon that changes its stats depending on the wielder's stats and what character is wielding it. It may not be too happy [[PoweredByAForsakenChild to have given its life to make the sword]], however, and at one point the player will have to decide to free its soul by destroying the sword or keeping it. If s/he keeps Vigilance the sword will slowly drain his/her health while she uses it and may change into an UnholyHolySword in later games; if the sword is destroyed the dragon's soul gratefully grants a permanent passive ability called, "Dragon's Blessing" that has multiple benefits such as protection from fire damage. The releasing of the soul will also be a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming.

* Lots of events meant to make the players [[MomentOfAwesome pump their fists]], [[HeartwarmingMoments cheer]], [[TearJerker cry]], [[PlayerPunch curse the name "David Gaider"]] will happen

** And he will be voiced by BenedictCumberbatch.

Nebulous organization working behind everyone's backs? Check. Mercilessly destroy any competition and/or threats to their organization via proxy? Check. Known to only a handful of people and manipulate even the most powerful and influential people (Both the Warden and Hawke as well as a possible King Alistair) in Thedas into working for them and not even providing them with any information about what they're doing or who they're working for? Oh yeah. Hell, they might even be seen as more successful than the Patriots because of that.

As opposed to most grey wardens believing that an archdemon jumps to a darkspawn after death to prolong the blight, what if the archdemon jumping was really a frantic attempt to cleanse itself? In the final battle, there were plenty of darkspawn littering the field, why seek out the Grey Warden? Why seek out the baby who's farther away? When an archdemon dies, perhaps the old god breaks through the taint temporarily and consciously searches for the closest, cleanest vessel. The taint is also fighting for control and forces the old god to enter only tainted bodies to preserve the blight.

When an Archdemon is killed by a grey warden, the archdemon enters the grey warden's body and regains a slightly-cleaner mind based on how far the taint has gone in the warden. However, the old god senses that the warden is just as tainted as the darkspawn so it decides to leave the vessel by killing itself. This freed purified old god then returns to their resting place or finds a fitting vessel to be reborn. This justifies the shrine to Dumat in Legacy which was still very much active. This also explains why the wardens throw away heavily tainted wardens like Larius who seem to be able to fight just fine despite a haggard appearance. If they're too tainted and the only warden around, the old god's mind after possession would not be clean enough to reject the taint's power.

If the warden chooses Morrigan's ritual, the archdemon is attracted to the less tainted baby and regains and almost pure mind. It already has a clean-enough vessel so it remains where it is. This explains the theory that Flemeth is an old god. However, if they find their vessel unworthy, they will leave the body and search for another vessel. This also explains why a junior grey warden was needed. A grey warden with a deeper taint would cause the old god to avoid the heavily tainted baby or kill it right there.

Ideas around this is that the taint is tied more to the body and only infects the soul after. This is only roughly supported by the fact that we have not seen any spirits or demons who are tainted. That can explain the Archdemon's zombie-look: The Darkspawn probably tore an old god apart and filled it with their own flesh and blood. This will also solve the problem of Morrigan's ritual and the sacrifice causing canon problems. The baby was rejected or a warden killed the archdemon and the old god's soul is now lingering somewhere in Thedas. If Corypheus is the same deal, then it makes sense that he'd [[spoiler: possess Janeka or Larius]], the old god wants freedom from the taint while Corypheus has accepted it.

*** On the other hand you might not be giving Sebastian enough credit, throughout VideoGame/DragonAgeII his main problem is that he is conflicted between his vows as a chantry brother, and what he feels is his duty to reclaim his family's throne, after the events of the endgame [[spoiler: where Anders blew up the chantry with Elthina still inside.]] I can't see him being conflicted at all, in fact I can see him turning into a full on Determinator.

*** I had a feeling that Anders was prepared to die in order to serve justice for [[spoiler: the destruction of the chantry and death of innocents to come]] being possessed by Justice and all. It'd seem ironic for the spirit of Justice to deny Sebastian of both. Though, Anders always has been rather bias in his sense of justice.

*** Nah. Sebastian's badass enough that a fight between him and Anders wouldn't be that one-sided. But more importantly, it's made clear that the reason he hasn't gotten a power base in Starkhaven is because a) he was conflicted between Starkhaven and the Chantry, and b) if you convince him to reclaim his throne, he decides to put it on hold until the mage/templar conflict in Kirkwall is dealt with, since he (correctly) figures that's going to be a bigger problem. And given the events of the ending, I wouldn't be too surprised if he is running Starkhaven by the next time we see him, since he now has nothing to distract him.
*** Sebastian is no templar. If Anders doesn't let him within attack range and makes sure not to get hit by an arrow then it should be a reasonably easy fight for him. And don't forget that while Sebastian kept putting off building up his power base, others have had seven years to do so and Sebastian hasn't even ''been'' to Starkhaven since he was basically a male Isabela. It won't be so easy to just say 'hey, my family used to rule even though I'm practically a stranger. Follow me!' Even the likes of the Couslands and the Theirins in Ferelden had a great deal of difficulty once their family was killed off even though the Cousland starts trying to get support almost immediately and the Theirin line is a huge part of Ferelden national identity. 'Building a power base' isn't as easy as just showing up and wanting one.

*** Seb's hardly a stealth specialist and has a habit of announcing himself to people he hates before fighting them. Anders tends to do first, think later, so fightwise, gotta be Anders.

* I think that the confrontation will most likely happen in DAIII with the PlayerCharacter meeting with them [[spoiler:mid-sparing and will be forced to make a SadisticChoice. Whether or not Anders will possess any evil qualities will be determineable by his relationship with Hawke.]]

* In DA:O, Caridian could only make living golems by placing a dwarf inside a suit of armor and then filling it with regular lyrium. However, in the final fight with Meredith, she creates living statues merely by zapping them with her red lyrium. Red Lyrium has the ability to fill in the space of the living component so it really could be made of people.

*** Well yea, needs proper framing. Still, simply giving the opportunity to use the character customization on the Warden works considerably better than giving them a mask. The Black Emporium dlc even gives an explaination for any differences in appearance; a mirror that lets you edit Hawke's appearance comes with a lore explanation. Could be used on the Warden.
*** Unless the Warden is seen for less than three seconds, I don't think we'll see him or her, masked or otherwise. After all, you're going to want to talk to this person--but the Warden has no canonical voice. They'd have to pick a personality. Wearing a helmet or hood makes more sense than covering up a disfiguration, considering you can make your Warden butt ugly and that doesn't bother him.
*** Assuming the Warden is just an npc instead of a full player character alongside Hawke. See the Dragon Age WMG under future games. Likely? No. Awesome if it actually happens? Hell yeah.

*** And if the Warden decided to sacrifice his life at the end of DA1? This can't work with one of the biggest canonical choices you get to make in the first game.
*** Then the Warden doesn't show up and the replacement warden from ''Awakening'' shows up instead.
* Alright, so what if Bioware realizes they did a good job with KnightsOfTheOldRepublic, and make the player character or one of your companions [[spoiler:an amnesiac you wander upon who happens to be the lone survivor of some sort of darkspawn raid on a Warden patrol in the Deep Roads, and one of the main/side quests is finding out who they are]]

This is all but stated outright in the Primordial Thaig's codex entry, but I'm putting it here for completionism. Maybe they even intentionally gave it up to protect themselves from abominations. And related...

[[WMG: Sandhal is a dwarf mage]]

Caradin discovered one of those "primordial thaigs", and stole their knowledge, claiming to have invented them himself so he could become a paragon.

* Even rediscovering something like that would get Caradin considerable accolades. Maybe even enough for paragonhood in its own right. If this WMG is true, Caradin may even have been honest at the time about how he came about it. But as the years passed, the dwarves forgot that detail and assumed Caradin came up with it himself. The source of his knowledge just didn't come up when he met the Warden.

Going by many examples the most recurring thing is the origin of the blight. The Tevinter Blood Magi/Kings went through the Fade to reach the Golden City, Corrupted it, and as punishment were sent back to Theda as the First Darkspawn. Going by that story you call it's untrue. Why turn them into darkspawn, death is more fitting, or a personal eternal hell in the fade. Looking at all the backstory and the things left out of that story the Old Gods showed magi how to reach the golden city, why? More of the backstory of the Maker is that it created the Fade first and made the spirits, yet abandon them when they were not what the Maker wanted them to be. The Makers here shows its to be an uncaring god. And it shows again as its told multiple times that the Maker has abandoned Theda. Going by this it can be assumed that that once the Maker began to abandon the new creation of Theda the Old Gods started to Notice, by tricking or telling the Magi of what's happening the Magi went through the fade to stop the Maker from possibly Destroying Theda. By fighting the Maker in the Golding City the Anger and Rage from both the Maker and the Magi caused it to turn Black. The Magi almost Defeated the Maker until it forced its final hand to survive, by forcefully pulling itself and the Magi out of Fade. This weakens the Maker into what is now Flemeth, in the process corrupting the magi into the first Darkspawn. Flemeth learns that it cannot go back to the Golden City, Trapped in her own creation. In Revenge she hunted down the Old Gods, Killing some of the weaker ones, but only able to put the seven strongest ones to sleep. Once the Darkspawn grew into a large horde did one find one of the old gods, beginning the First Blight. During the Fourth Blight Flemeth learned of a way return to power, by absorbing the essence of an Old God. Waiting for the Fifth Blight she planned and experimented on how, finally coming up with the plan to (Spoiler) To use a future Host to give birth to an Old God. But unable to find an Old God she had to wait, learning that the soul has to be purified of the corruption she caused. By need of Blood Magic, A Host, and an unborn child of blood of a Grey Warden. Its possible that she tried to do this during Fourth Blight, minus the unborn child used to purify the soul of the Old God. It's also possible that she cannot birth or Kill an Archdemon for the reason she caused and is the source of the Darkspawn, needing others for it. The Warden is need only for a small amount of the Corruption to be used as a beacon for the God's Soul, Destroying the contained Corruption in the process. Learning from that to the events of DA:O. It's also possible that the soul of the God will only have enough power to allow Flemeth into the Golden City, There she can restore her former power. The fact that she cannot die almost adds to theory. If she were a Demon she has the chance to die, but its unlikely so as in Witch Hunt, Morrigan reveals that she is not a Demon, or even a mortal, telling her Lover/Friend/Ally that flemeth is more a danger than herself. During the Events of DA:O there is the option to find Flemeth old Grimore, Killing Flemeths current host and take her real Grimore. This Book possibly revealed more Grimores to other Secrets, Allowing Morrigan to piece together Enough to understand what Flemeth possibly is. It's possible Hawke story is this, revealing the truth, causing the church to ruin and causing the future civil war between those that continue to believe the church to those that believe Hawke. Even if Hawke isn't the Dragon God Baby this theory at least makes his story important to the series. Making the Baby in the Likely third game to be the protagonist, bringing Theda together once more in order for the smallest of chance to Defeat the Maker from Destroying the World.

And freeing an Old God from the Archdemon's blight via Morrigan's baby was her freeing another peer from the Makers's doings.

** Hawkes father was unrelated to the Amells.

According to what we've heard so far, the opening levels will have Varric wildly exagerating Hawke's adventures, only for Cassandra to force him to tell the truth. While he may continue to exxagerate at certain points in the game to annoy her, or maybe lie to her outright for some big Keyser Soze-like reveal, the main game will, for the most part tell the truth of Hawke's rise to power. In the DLC, Varric will be telling the story to someone naive enough to believe him (say, a barmaid he's trying to get into bed). He'll condense the story to about 3-4 hours of gameplay with all the [[ATasteOfPower benefits]] of the opening segment (but still challenging for players) and all the glorious, glorious ham. It will eventually devolve into a parade of CrazyAwesome like something out of WebComic/AxeCop. The DLC will end with Varric's version of the final battle, as Hawke, his party members, the friendly [=NPCs=], the Warden from the first game and [[Franchise/MassEffect Commander Shepard]], all riding griffins, charge the BigBad and his army of Archdemons, also riding griffins.

[[WMG: The book that Flemeth has you deliver at the beginning of the game is the same one Morrigan steals in The Witch Hunt DLC]]

It's been revealed the game will open with Hawke and his/her siblings being tasked with bringing a book to a Dalish clan. In the Witch Hunt DLC, Morrigan steals a book of importance from a Dalish clan and they attempt to retrive it.... By asking Flemeth for help. This all means that Flemeth planned on Morrigan finding and stealing the book, so everything is still working as she has expected.

* And [[spoiler: The Architect, and to a greater extent the Darkspawn as a whole, are the SpannerInTheWorks for her plan as Avernus (From Warden's Keep) has said that the Taint is the one thing that Demons/Abominations/Blood Mages CANNOT influence at all.]]

* Plus, Morrigan goes to Orlais if you didn't romance her and refused her ritual, and is seen in the Frostback Mountains, i.e. en route to Orlais, if you did. (I should also say I haven't played Witch Hunt, but my understanding is that at the end she goes through the mirror to a unspecified place)

* Plus, the Divine? We've already met her. In the ''Leliana's Song'' DLC, Leliana is rescued from a dungeon by Revered Mother Dorothea, who also inspires the Orlesian bard to dedicate her life to the Maker. Years later in Act III, Leliana is serving as Sister Nightingale, the Divine's "Left Hand." And during the (also DLC) quest "Faith," we discover a Codex page stating that in the time between DAO and DA II, the former Divine died and was replaced by Dorothea, now Divine Justinia V. And knowing Bioware, you can be sure this is going to come back around...
* The new Dragon Age novel - Asunder is going to be set in Orlais.

* Confirmed: It's basically allying Orlais and Fereldan against the threat.

** Or the Maker is the Dread Wolf
[[WMG: If you joined Morrigan in ''Witch Hunt'', The Warden returned to Ferelden not too long after.]]
During the "King Alistair" quest, Alistair mentions the Warden is back in Denirim, even if the Warden went with Morrigan into the mirror. Therefore, something must have happened that allowed the Warden to return at some point. This also means that [[spoiler: the Warden's dissappearance]] is unrelated to Morrigan.

** True, but according to the timeline, ''Witch Hunt'' and that particular part of the game are seperated by about seven years. If the Warden stayed in the mirror, Alistair would have probably heard about it.
** Alternatively, they returned only shortly before their return to Denirim. Also possibly a bug, a retcon/rewrite(similar to Zevran, Leliana, and Anders all being alive again if you import a save where they all died), or a cover-up(the hero of Fereldan disappearing would be a big wound to morale). All possible.

Red and blue lyrium are both sources of magical power and they can both cause insanity with prolonged exposure. Blue lyrium gives resistance to its effects and by extension the Fade. Red lyrium has the opposite effect; exposure increases sensitivity to the Fade. It could even restore someone's connection to the Fade after it's been severed entirely. That's how Sandal became a Dwarven mage(see corresponding WMG above); Bohdan found him wandering the Deep Roads after he came in contact with red lyrium. Even Dwarves that don't have the potential to become mages are opened to the Fade and recover their lost ability to dream.[[spoiler: When Bartrand went nuts, Anders said that if Bartrand were anything besides a dwarf he would have suspected demonic involvment. He could easily have been wrong. Someone as greedy as Bartrand and newly exposed to the Fade would be a perfect target for a Desire Demon. Look at Meredith. Even before she got ahold of the lyrium idol she was stuck up and nearly completely convinced she was doing the right thing no matter how horrible it was. Once she become more sensitive to the Fade, even though she had not yet become a mage herself, she became a perfect target for a Pride Demon.]] The reason Sandal didn't become possesed was because the awakening of his magic severely impacted his mental facilities, leaving him much less desirable to any demons when there were so many mentally fit mages to take advantage of. He may even have effectively shut down his mind on purpose so the demons would leave him alone.

Yes, just like ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. It's the physical manifestation of the soul of the planet that Thedas is on and is the "Maker" that Andrastre charmed with her singing: the lyrium veins in II look very much like actual blood veins for a visual connection. The Fade is the mind/spirit of the planet with the Golden City housing its brain equivalent. The tainting of the City caused the Planet to go into shock and before it slipped into a coma it used its prophet to start a religion to unite its Children against the Darkspawn, which are symbolic of the damage inflicted by the Magisters and a "symptom" of the true disease. The final game in the series will be an incursion into the Black City to cure the Maker/Planet and eradicate the Darkspawn Taint forever.

** Those codex entries inspired the idea and IIRC the dwarves claimed the Stone told them how to collapse tunnels to stop a Darkspawn incursion. The Maker and the Stone may just be different names for the same thing. The Elves' Gods may be manifestations of the Planet like the Weapons. And, strange to even think it, Flemeth could be an expy of Sephiroth (long white hair, [[OneWingedAngel changes forms...]]) depending on what her final goal is if it involves destroying Thedas.
* Heck, the Darkspawn Taint itself could be an alien Virus that infects entire worlds, not unlike Jenova. The Tevinter mages weren't responsible for the Taint, they just the bad luck of being in the Golden City at the same time it was infected by the Taint, and they brought it back with them as the first Darkspawn.
* [[spoiler:Possibly confirmed in Inquisition. Red Lyrium is Lyrium tainted by the Blight, which only affects living beings.]]

[[WMG: The lyrium idol is connected to the Darkspawn and the remaining Archdemons/Old Gods.]]

Both the Mother in Dragon Age: Awakening and [[spoiler: Bartrand]] kept raving about how they wanted to hear "the song" again. That can't be a coincidence.

[[WMG: Red Lyrium created the Darkspawn.]]

* Also explains why she wants Hawke dead so badly at the end. Not matter who is romanced, it's always hinted that Anders is in love with Hawke. [[MurderTheHypotenuse Meredith was just eliminating the competition!]]

To expand upon the above WMG, and taking into account the considerable ambiguity in the epilogue as to what happens to Hawke and co. Multiple [=DLCs=] may be released with each of the party members as the "main" character (ala Leliena's Song). Depending on your relationships and choices, the story will change. The only issue may be certain storylines may be complicated to program, especially if its just for a DLC. For example, Isabela could potentially be with Hawke, [[spoiler: be on the run from the Quanari if she took the relic and didn't return]] or who knows what else. Thats ONE character...out of 8 possible companions (if all are left alive/still with you end game). Names could be stuff along the lines of -

** Bethany/Carver could have two stories: a story set in the Gallows with either Carver as a Templar or Bethany as a Circle Mage trying to figure out why mages keep disappearing and a Grey Warden story that works for both of them. Alistair (if a Grey Warden) could make a special appearance and maybe some of the Wardens from Awakening for the fans.

I just finished my first playthrough last night and got to thinking. As far as I know we only see Elthina and Meredith in one scene together (Act 3 with Orsino's public protest) but IMO the two did look to have quite a resemblence. Now Elthina does look old but perhaps not old enough to be Meredith's mother, but she mentions at one point having presided over some Chantry ceremony for Hawke's mother (I can't remember the name but Leandra was a baby so I'm assuming some sort of baptism) which given the age of Leandra makes Elthina a fair bit older than she might look.

** Of course Meredith would give a story like that about her family. Someone in the Chantry like Elthina wouldn't be allowed to have children after taking vows, the birth was covered up obviously. Meredith has had that cover story drummed into her since childhood. The only people who know would be Elthina, Meredith and perhaps someone higher ranked (probably deceased by the time of VideoGame/DragonAgeII) in the Chantry. Additional thought about this, perhaps it's not a cover story. Since Elthina likely couldn't raise Meredith herself, she'd be given to a family somewhere that could raise her. Then, the mage kills that family with Meredith surviving. Elthina uses her pull to have Meredith brought to a Chantry orphanage in Kirkwall so she can keep an eye on her secret daughter. Ok, so I'm totally making up my own story now but I'd like to see more development for Meredith.

** SO incredibly happy someone else pointed this out/feels the same way. He seems to be having almost a bit of his own rise to power story, playing on the sidelines to both the Warden and Hawke. Stands to reason he's being set up to be a compaion. Possibly the writers testing out if he's well-received enough by fans. Also, if made a companion in the next sequel, it might be interesting to have him be romanceable. Especially given his infatuation with the female Mage!Warden.

*** Not sure of his story involvement, but the VA tweeted a picture of himself in the recording studio, confirming that Cullen will at least appear in DA3.
*** {Confirmed. Cullen is a major role and a romance option for Female Inquisitors, but not a party member. He is instead the commander of the Inquisition's personal army.

* It follows that whatever Sandahl is, its ''her'' creation and likely a part of her Plan.

* He appears in VideoGame/DragonAgeII when a big expedition far in the deep roads is being organized, a subject of great interrest for the Wardens. Chances are that the Warden herself sent him to Kirkwall to have an agent in the expedition so she can have first hand account of what is found there. After the expedition, among Bodahn's repports are notes about Hawke which awake the interrest of the Warden who then order Bodahn to stay close to Hawke. This explains why Gray Wardens turn up during the Qunari Crisis and why the sibling comes back if a Grey warden at the end of Act 3: Bodahn was warning his boss of the looming crisis each time, who reacted by dispatching available troops to aid Hawke. That would also explain why Bodahn says that he's going to leave Hawke soon: after the current crisis, the Warden is going to send him on another assignment. Finally, it makes sense from Bodahn viewpoint: he specializes in rare, costly, lost artifacts, and Wardens have a knack at finding those, plus, he knows he's not getting younger and he needs someone to take care of Sandal, and the Wardens would have a big vested interest in taking care of a master enchanter who can kill single handedly Darkspawns by dozens.

*** ''why in the world would they be particularly interested in Hawke of all people?'' The Warden was not interested in Hawke, s/he was interested in putting someone in the Dwarven merchant guild of Kirkwall: Kirkwall and Amaranthine being rivals in the Waking Sea trade; even if Dwarves do not directly take part in the seafaring business, they do have vested interest in a lot of the city's activity, which probably includes its merchant fleet as well, and the First Warden made it clear in Awakening that he wanted Amaranthine to prosper as much as possible since such a success would create a precedent usefull for the order political clout.
*** ''At the end of Act 1, Hawke is just an immigrant who managed to get rich in an expedition and who can fight well'' At the end of Act 1, Hawke is in good terms with the captain of the city guard, with Varric who took over his brother business after his betrayal and disappearance and became an influencial member of the merchant guild, the Viscount and his son as well as with fellow Warden and former comrade in arm Anders: there is plenty of reasons for the Wardens to consider Hawke a person worthy of their attentions by the end of the first act.
*** ''And just how long was it being planned that the Warden has time to hear about it and send Bodhan over from Ferelden which, if Hawke's journey is any indication, takes two months?'' Hawke takes a boat in Gwaren, [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110319021316/dragonage/images/3/31/Ferelden.png at the southern tip of Ferelden]] and his boat was delayed by storms; Bodhan would have taken a boat at Amaranthine, which is a the opposite shore of the same narrow sea than Kirkwall, with probably no more than a week of travel. Plus, Hawke spent one full year working as a mercenary/smuggler before trying to become part of Bartrand expedition, wich means that he would have met Bodahn at least 14 months after Ostagar, and probably more, in you take into account the trip between Lothering and Gwaren and the Blight lasted less than a year and the Warden arrived in Amaranthine 6 months after the Batlle of Denerim, so it is coherent with the timeline: The Warden might have proposed Bodahn to keep working for the Wardens right after the last battle, and sending him to Kirkwall would have been one of her first decision as the Arl of Amaranthine, with those event not shown in Origin and Awakening because they were not relevant those two games plots.

Feast Day for Origins was fun enough, so why not have them give us another for the sequel? What to get everyone as an insult present:

*** I actually find this to be in worst taste than the taxidermy cat necklace. Give her a book on how bad apostates are or something.

*** Bring her to the Qunari Compound and she'll make a comment that a qunari killed one of her friends. Given Sten location and backstory it was almost certainly him.

* I don't think anything similar to the Feast Day DLC is likely to happen with VideoGame/DragonAgeII. Feast Day was built to exploit the gift giving system in Origins, but in the sequel there isn't really a gift giving system. You just find stuff occasionally and deliver it to your companion's home base. And IIRC the gift itself doesn't affect their friendship/rivalry meter one way or the other, the dialogue you choose in the conversation does.

[[WMG: In a similar vein, Varric ''does'' know where the Champion is]]

** This means that everyone will become mages. The elves claim that all of them once possessed magic and there are hints that dwarves once possessed magic, so it’s entirely possible that there was a time when everyone of every race could use magic, but for various reasons became rarer (and totally extinct among the dwarves). However, the codex entry on Mana and the Use of Magic states that the potential to use magic exists in everyone (due to their connection to the Fade), but only manifests in some. This means that, in theory at least, if that potential was forced to manifest in everyone, everyone could become a mage. Furthermore, those severed from the Fade (Dwarves and the Tranquil) apparently CAN be (re)connected to it, as evidenced by Oghren’s ability to dream after becoming a Grey Warden and the scene with Karl during Anders’ first personal quest in VideoGame/DragonAgeII (although the latter was only temporary, but it’s a start).

*** The Formless One-This entity is mentioned as being among the Forbidden Ones, four extremely powerful demons who taught mankind blood magic. The other three (Xebenkeck, Imshael, Gaxkang the Unbound) have names, while the Formless one does not. [[EldritchAbomination You know something is bad news when it is so powerful and evil that it doesn’t even have a name or a form.]] This one would fit with “The prison is breached” in that one could assume that the Formless One cannot leave the Fade until the Veil has been severely weakened (as by the aforementioned mage/templar conflict).

*** A Greater Pride Demon-Probably the least likely and least interesting possibility, but the codex does mention that a single Greater Pride Demon that crossed the Veil would be a threat to all of Thedas. As with the Formless One, the weakening of the Veil due to the mage/templar war would be what allowed him to cross the Veil and what everyone see would be that pride preventing everyone from reaching a compromise (particularly Anders’ arrogance in taking it upon himself to remove the possibility of compromise which led to the war which led to the Veil being weakened which led to the Greater Pride Demon bringing even more destruction to Thedas).

** Actually has some basis in the game. Bathany can have a conversation with Hawke about how jealous Carver was when the Mabari chose Hawke.

[[WMG:The next Dragon Age game will not be ''Dragon Age 3'', but rather a follow-up to ''Dragon Age 2'', similar to ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood''.]]
''Dragon Age: Origins'' wrapped up its storyline quite nicely. However ''Dragon Age 2'' didn't resolve the whole "Chantry falling to pieces, world on the brink of war" element, and it would feel like a cop-out for that story, which was hanging over our heads from the first scene, to be resolved in DLC or an expansion. The better solution would be for ''Dragon Age 2'' to be part 1 of a 2-part game. A possible title for the second part would be ''Dragon Age: Rise to Power''.

[[WMG:''Dragon Age 2'' was the original project.]]
As noted on the main page, the main piece of evidence is that ''Dragon Age 2'' came out less than two years after ''Origins''. Creator/BioWare had planned ''Dragon Age'' to focus on Hawke, with the Blight merely serving as a backstory. However, they decided that defeating the Blight was worthy of its own game, and would also nicely introduce the setting, so they made ''Origins'' first. The basic storyline of ''Dragon Age 2'' was complete when work began on ''Dragon Age: Origins''. In their mind, ''Dragon Age 2'' is really ''Dragon Age 1'', and ''Origins'' is ''Dragon Age 0''.

** No, that wouldn't have worked because then they'd have to explain don't come after mage!Hawke when he arrives in Kirkwall or why they didn't alert the Kirkwall templars to be on the lookout for mage!Hawke (presumably different templar orders talk to each other). If DAII was the original project, it's likely they came up with a story about Hawke and co. fleeing to Kirkwall and playing a key role in a massive Mage vs. Templar civil war, but when they came up with a reason for Hawke to flee Lothering (The Blight) they realized they'd need a whole other game to set up the story and environment for the players. So they reassigned most of their Dragon Age writers and developers to Origins and left a skeleton crew to work on what would become DAII. After DA:O was released maybe they had planned to put the writers and devs back on Hawke's story but got sidetracked by Awakenings and the Origins DLC packs. Then I guess they just...decided to release DAII early and hoped no one would mind the recycled levels. Go figure why.\\

*** What about the fact that a huge draw of the game is the six different origins? VideoGame/DragonAgeII only lets you be mage Hawke or non-mage Hawke.

* I always thought "Origins" sounded like the name of a prequel. Indeed, after watching the Sacred Ashes trailer, I assumed that there was a preexisting game called ''Dragon Age'' that I hadn't heard of.

Both are minor but notable characters, both are pretty well fleshed-out and have interesting stories to tell, and both seem to fit important party roles (Alain a nuke mage like Merrill, Keran a tank like Aveline). The fact that you have the option to kill them doesn't matter, since you have this option with several other characters in DA:O that reappear in DAII (Anders, Zevran, Leliana). It could even be that if you sided with the Templars as Hawke, Keran joins your party, but if you sided with the mages, Alain joins.
** WordofGod says that it's a bug, that Zevran is alive if you killed him in DA:O. As for Anders: He only dies in one epilogue. However, they aren’t 100% canon and the developers just ignore them if they don’t fit into the story. So the only characters who can come back from the dead are Leliana and Oghren (Yes, there seems to be a way to kill him if he wants to leave the group in Origins.).
*** While Anders only dies in the epilogue and the epilogues are subject to change at any time, it is possible to hand Anders over to the Templars at the start of Awakening instead of recruiting him. This action makes his appearance in VideoGame/DragonAgeII impossible; while he could have escaped, he wouldn't be a grey warden(the only reason he was sought out) and he wouldn't have met Justice. So the retconning of this possibility, while it doesn't involve a characters death, still shows they're willing to select a hard canon.

*** As far as we know, the Warden-Commander, that is, the PC, was the only Warden in Ferelden with recruiting rights at the time, and really one of only four grey wardens total in Fereldan at the time (along with Alistair, Loghain if he was spared, and that one bloke who's still alive but crippled in the Architect's base). For this to happen Anders would have to have been recruited after Awakening, which pushes the timeline to restrictively short levels, and likely would have a bigger grudge against the Wardens for one selling him out to the circle. Not to mention Anders referencing the Hero of Ferelden to Merrill and telling Varric stories about Awakening.
*** Why in the world would the Wardens limit themselves by only having the guy in charge be allowed to recruit people? Similarly, it seems unlikely that all of Thedas would agree to allow the Wardens to recruit literally anybody they want (though not without consequences)...as long as only the one guy did it.
*** By that time, I'm gussing wardens from other parts of Thedas would be coming into Fereldan to replace the old ones. One of the replacements would most likely be a warden with conscription rights

*** Ok, to be clear. At the start of awakening, the only grey wardens in Ferelden are the PC and Loghain, assuming Loghain was spared(and Alistair, but he's not part of the order so he can't recruit). There were about a dozen Orlisian wardens who had just come to Fereldan, but they've all been killed/captured by the dark spawn literally hours before you have the option of recruiting Anders or handing him over to the templars. There aren't any reinforcements being sent. They've shown up and gotten themselves slaughtered. Awakening takes place over the course of a couple months with the only wardens being the ones the WC recruits, and the only supplies for the Joining at Vigil's Keep.
[[WMG:The Third game may have race option.]]
Do you ever think a third would have the race option like the first game since the second one only has a human main character

[[WMG: The Third game will have a pre-set race, but it won't be human.]]

* Unless something big happens to restore the Dwarves connection to the Fade and allows existing Dwarves to suddenly become mages, a Dwarven protagonist without the option to be a Human or an Elf instead is not going to happen.

* Qunari. Only option that hasn't been playable yet; even darkspawn got the Chronicles dlc. Could be either an orphan raised by humans, or a child of a tal'vashoth defector. Qunari can be mages, and for anyone saying they can't be rogues, well, no one noticed the qunari that snuck into the chantry and killed Mother Patrice until they saw the arrow sticking out of her, and that's only because he let them see him to send a message. So qunari can be stealthy.

[[WMG: Justice wasn't corrupted by Anders anger.]]
Apart from anything else Awakening-Anders never seemed that angry. More to the point, never in the games or the Codex is there a record of something similar happening. Abominations sometimes have more of the person and usually more of the demon, but they remain driven by the same urge that the demon represents. Wynne never mentioned a change in her spirit post reviving/bonding either. It seems odd that it's only Anders until one thinks: what does Anders have that the others lack? The Darkspawn Taint! Since the defining personality change in non-Wardens infected with the Taint seems to be unreasoning rage it's not a huge jump to think that it was the Taint that turned Justice into Vengance. And before anyone brings up Kristoff or Spohia Dryden, they were dead for while before being possessed, it was unlikely to work the same way.
* Pay more attention to Anders' ''Awakening'' dialouge. He was plenty angry. He just handled it differently than he does now.

*** We've also only seen one other person get possesed by a benevolent spirit, and she's exceptionally level-headed and accepting of her fate.
* The change may not have entirely been on Anders part. Justice reciveved the Lyrium Ring, remember, which he described as "different from the Lyrium he's used to" and producing a "song" that only he can hear- something similar to how Darkspawn experience their Taint. Its possible that that Song is what changed him to Vengeance just as the Song of the Elder Gods changes the Darkspawn.
* Another piece of evidence that the Darkspawn Taint does weird things to spirits: there are no Darkspawn abominations. Two games, one swimming with Darkspawn, not one shows up. Given that Darkspawn have little to no self preservation instinct, a complete dedication to the Blight and no problem with Blood Magic/Demon Summoning you'd expect to see a few take the Abomination route. Perhaps they can't, because the demons don't want in. Further supported by Avernus in ''Warden's Keep'', who said that the Darkspawn Taint is alien to spirits. Demons know the taint will do strange things to them and so avoid Darkspawn. Justice, being less experienced with the physical world than Demons, didn't know that.
* Here's a possibility - what if Justice was ''already'' a demon by the time he merged with Anders? Thinking about it, one of the chief complaints about VideoGame/DragonAgeII is that Anders just doesn't act like Anders. He's severe, obsessive, humorless, easily frustrated, bitter... in fact, he is ''much more'' like Justice than he is like Anders. What if Justice's removal from the Fade and exposure to the 'real' world had already begun his downward spiral into becoming a demonic entity? The Anders we meet in VideoGame/DragonAgeII is predominantly Justice; he can't hide himself as well in the Fade, or when he loses his temper, so he plays the 'split-personality' card, which explains the inconsistencies in just how cohesive their symobiosis is. They're mostly Justice, but Justice knows from what happened to him before that people react badly to a spirit in a human's body, and so he downplays it. So, really, Anders didn't corrupt Justice. ''Justice'' corrupted ''Anders'', and those little flashes of humor and charm he has every now and then are all that remain of him, in the same way that Kristoff's memories lingered in his dead body, and could affect Justice's outlook.

*** IIRC, Justice had a strangely overwrought relationship with Christophe's wife while he was inhabiting his dead body. The conflict between his duty, his fascination with relationships, and his host's recalled emotions may very well be entirely his own. His freak-outs, likewise, could actually be a result of Justice vs Vengeance rather than Anders vs Justice.

This actually makes almost perfect sense if you divorced it from the fact that neither party would ever let the crossover happen. Thedas is simply a part of the world slightly less insane than the rest of the world. The Fade and The Warp are practically Expies of eachother with almost all of the demons fulfilling similar or the same roles, for instance like many things claiming to be the creator of the universe The Maker is Tzeentch. The elven gods are also almost all the same characters as their Warhammer counterparts besides Asuryan, hell Ulthuan could have founded Arlathan as a colony that was unfortunately taken over by the Tevinter Imperium. The only major difference between the two settings is that the old world has been steadily averting MedievalStasis having invented gunpowder steam engines and going into an industrial revolution while Thedas has essentially gone unchanged since Andraste.

Going off the 'quirk' theory, DA3 will feature an entirely new protagonist who can be any race. Their parents will be merchants or something else equally race-opportune. The game will take place in Orlais, 15-20 years after VideoGame/DragonAgeII, or have the hero growing up the midst of the mage-templar conflict in Val Royeaux. Possible party members include:
* The OGS, but only if you did the ritual. He will be either a mage or some kind of warrior with magical abilities, like Fenris, only with a different source. His name will be Modred or a variant of.

*** [[spoiler: Morrigan's son Kieran does make an appearance, but he's still a preteen and therefore displays no combat ability. Besides making an eluvian connect directly to the Fade.]]

** Maybe Carver/Bethany, for a combination of this and the above Amell connection. If they're just in as a templer/mage, then the Warden member is Stroud.
** [[spoiler: Several grey wardens can make appearances, including Stroud. Not Bethany/Carver, though.]]

** A Qunari Protagonist sounds good since there mages have mask
** [[http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Maraas Maraas]] could work as a tal'vashoth companion. Easy going, laid back, pure mercenary. Gives a good explanation as to why he's in the party and has considerable potential for character growth.
*** He'd be quite old by the estimated time frame, but Loghain had to be in his 50's guessing by Anora's age. And maybe you have to convince him to stay once the scope of your quest gets too large, like how you had to convince Sten to stay in Haven.
*** More to support that - if you try to hire him as Hawke, he says he doesn't like to fight for causes, just simple things. I reckon he'd count 'mage/templar war' as a 'cause'.

* Sketch. He’s the only DLC companion of DA: O who reappears in DA 2. In his side quest Hawke has to kill assassins from every corner of Thedas, who are after his head because of some bad rumors. You never learn what kind of rumors set up some many different people and who placed them. Maybe this is a hint of his companion quest in DA 3. Future more he’s a former bard who once worked with Leliana. Given the hints of Orlais as locations for DA 3, he may play the "tour guide" who gives the player some insight in the Great Game of the orlaisian nobles. [[spoiler: And a meeting between Seeker Leliana and her former friend - and perhaps Marjolaine if you import a save were she’s alive - would be interesting.]]

** [[spoiler: Rhys? No. Evangeline? No. Cole? Yes.]]

She'll be able to get in on the ground floor of a player-character's story... but still manage to lose them when they disappear at the end.
* Confirmed.

* He's a member of your cabinet, but not a party member.

Anders is in fact [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Crazy Steve]], having knocked out Anders and assumed his identity. The real Anders is either dead, in templar custody(having been turned over to them by the warden and therefore never having been conscripted to begin with, and never meeting justice)), or back in Vigil's keep after a two month hiatus.

[[WMG: Kirkwall was designed by the Magisters to be a giant human sacrifice to create a [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist philosopher's stone]] or it's equivalent]]

* Also, Leliana makes a cameo in Mark of the Assassin.

In Ander's [[http://na.llnet.bioware.cdn.ea.com/u/f/eagames/bioware/dragonage2/assets/content/world/short_stories/anders.pdf short story]], there is a Grey Warden named Rolan who was a former templar (a fully fledged templar, unlike Alistair). He's shown to give Anders a hard time, so it wouldn't surprise me if he was the one who pushed to have Anders get rid of his precious kitty.

But contact between the two lands has been virtually non-existent, and most people in both are unaware of the others' existence. We know that other continents must exist in the Dragon Age world besides Thedas, because the qunari arrived from across the sea. Sir (Or actually 'Ser') Roderick was an Orlesian (or possibly even a native of Kirkwall) who somehow managed to gain a Qunari black powder weapon before he ended up in the Empire. The Spirit Monks were the Imperial equivalent of Mages, and the Celestial Bureaucracy and demons are both made up of Fade spirits from a different part of the Fade that focus their attentions on the Empire, not Thedas. It would explain why Varric knew that he couldn't name his crossbow 'Mirabelle' and why creating golems in both Dragon Age and Jade Empire is so similar. Or they could exist for the sole purpose of being shout-outs, but it's an idea I've been entertaining for awhile now.
* Neat idea, but with one snag. If the player character is female, Roderick will balk at the idea, since in his homeland "a woman knows her place... unless she's queen." The problem is the use of the term "queen"; Orlais has an empress, so he can't be Orlesian. Individual Free March states have their own terminology (Kirkwall with "Viscount/Viscountess", Starkhaven with "Prince/Princess", etc.), so there might possibly be a "King/Queen" combo. Alternatively, he might be from Antiva or Fereldan... actually, Fereldan seems more likely, given his accent.

*** I highly doubt it's Ferelden. Ferelden seems to be the most progressive country with regards to the equality of women and they're the one that the other countries marvel at for allowing women to fight. Accent aside, I'd say Antiva seems a better bet.

*** Roderick might not even be from Thedas at all, but from the same nation or continent the executors are from. It's across the ocean to the east, closer to the qunari homelands, explaining the access to guns. The executors are capable of travelling Thedas unnoticed, so they're presumably humans of a fairly similar appearance, which fits with Roderick. The Glass Ocean might be the same as the Amarinthine ocean, explaining how Varric knows of Isabella, indicating that the executor home continent, Thedas and Jade Empire all border the Amarinthine/Glass ocean.

[[WMG:Dragon Age II Reuses So Many Levels Because It's The Seeker's Imagination]]
Varric is probably saying... "so Hawke and the rest walked into a cave" or "so Hawke and the rest walked into a warehouse".
What we are seeing in the game is a Cave/Warehouse/Mansion that the Seeker is personally familiar with.
It only seems like the same Cave/Warehouse/Mansion because she's not making up a new one every time Varric says they enter yet another cave, she's just projecting Hawke and Company onto a location she knows.

What do I mean? Well, Hawke and his/her love interest (if he/she has one) run into the Warden in Orlais. If the Da:O Warden is dead, the Knight-Commander from Awakenings takes his/her place. The Warden reveals why he/she's disappeared for so long (something to do with the Divine, no doubt), and then the two join forces. When choosing your party, you have a
choice of either the Warden or Hawke (or both). Whoever takes control of the mission is the one you're controlling at that time, or the one who has most to gain for the completion of that mission. Naturally, the two will commit mass amounts of badassery that would send [[Franchise/MassEffect Commanders Shepard]] running back to the Normandy in tears.

* I also hope this turns out to be true - for Hawke, mostly. I've become incredibly invested in my Hawke and would be disappointed not to continue his story. I never really felt a real connection with the Warden, Hawke's another story, however...

->'''Hawke:''' Well aren't we a disappointing pair?

The Bone Pit was attacked again by bandits, darkspawn or regular dragonlings again, but by then Varric knew that Cassandra was believing every word that he said so he...exaggerated a little. I mean what hero worth their salt hasn't brought down a High Dragon?

Considering the absurd number of permutations the character can go through, programming him/her into another game would be a nightmare Bioware will probably want to avoid. The best we can hope for is that the Warden gets referenced as the HeroOfAnotherStory (Someone says: "Don't worry Dragon Age III protagonist, the Warden is handling the vaguely plot-important problem in the land of Not-Appearing-In-This-Game).

** Perhaps, but that implies that Wardens have unsurpassed political savvy compared to all other groups, purely by design. Very few characters act completely pragmatically, and no one is entirely omniscient. The Grey Wardens could have appointed a mage WC after the Hero left, but before things really went to hell in Kirkwall, as there are ten years separating DA:O from the end of VideoGame/DragonAgeII. Also, Grey Wardens as a whole don't really seem like born politicians. After all, their Right of Conscription allows them to conscript anyone, including politically valuable noblemen, thereby, ironically, destabilizing the very countries they seek to protect. I could see them being less concerned about having a politically acceptable representative and more concerned about a.) fighting darkspawn and b.) keeping Warden recruitment up. If a mage or an elf did those, everything else is secondary.
*** They don't ''need'' unsurprassed political savvy. Ask any idiot in Thedas (and outside of Tevinter in the last case) if an elf, dwarf, or mage can be a noble. They will say no because it's not some secret that nobles are humans and mages can't even live free, let alone inherit anything. Take the common people of Ferelden. They are superstitious enough to whisper about Anora being barren because the Maker was angry that they put a 'commoner' on the throne and they know that they can treat elves like crap and no one will care. If your average villager knows that, the GWs can be trusted to be aware of these same basic facts. I can see the GW risking a human mage if they keep the mage part a secret but they wouldn't be obvious about it. If the GWs are sensitive enough about Ferelden's feelings about Orlesians to keep the Orlesian Wardens to a minimum (as Mistress Woolsey insists that they are) then they're going to be smart enough to realize that hatred and prejudice would follow any openly mage or non-human WC. They might be able to pull it off and if there is literally nobody else then I can see how they would do that but I have a difficult time believing that the Wardens would not have a single human non-mage or secret mage that could kill darkspawn and recruit people to send to lead Amaranthine. The mages, elves, and dwarves could also be sent over and do a lot of the work, the WC just can't be an open mage, a dwarf, or an elf because the WC is now also the Arl/Arlessa. Now, while it is always in the best interest of the Wardens to play nice with the local authorities when they can afford to, normally if the people hate them it's not the end of the world. In Amaranthine, if the Wardens don't make an effort they stand the very real risk of losing Amaranthine and their precious precedent for holding land.

They're taking advantage of the extremely short Blight in the first game to deal major blows to the darkspawn. Throughout VideoGame/DragonAgeII the Wardens are seen furthering their experiments with tainted blood (Avernus from the Soldier's Peak DLC). working with the Architect (depending on the outcome of Awakenings) and investigating areas close to the Primeval Thaig. It seems odd that they would be consolidating their strength and moving with such urgency when the end of Blight usually means decades or centuries of down-time. It may be that the next Old God is close to being excavated by the Darkspawn and they're racing to beat them to the punch. A Blight during the Mage-Templar War? Not good at all. Hawke and the Warden disappeared because they're leading the charge.

* In the main, entirely possible, but as for the friend, probably not. She tells Isabela she's virgin and of all the people to lie to, Isabela would be the last.
* She has exactly one conversation with Isabela about lesbianism, and its more about Isabela doing EverythingThatMoves, rather than simply women. Bethany is a virgin, devout, and probably quite sheltered prior to the events of the games. I think it was more her shock at meeting someone so sexually open, rather than any indication of her own interests.
* Just a thought, Isabella and Bethany are having this conversation in front of Hawke, who is portrayed as a bit of a KnightTemplarBigBrother /Sister. Hawke even tells Isabella to stop at the end of one of Isabella and Bethany's banters. Wouldn't you claim to be a virgin in front of your overprotective sibling?
* I could easily see Bethany turning out to be bi-curious if nothing else. Also, she's a virgin in act 1 where she's 18/19. In act 2 & 3, she's been with the circle or the wardens for a few years, two organizations that aren't exactly known for strict codes of sexual conduct. There's nothing to say her virginity held up through those years(though that's largely speculation either way).
** True but there is a definite culture clash. The Circle may have a very free love environment but Bethany is pretty prudish in her talk with Isabela and is a virgin despite Carver not being one. Being thrust into an environment like the Circle so late in her life probably isn't going to make her see sex like they do. If Anders is right about no mage ever falling in love and it all just being about sexual gratification than I can't see Bethany getting involved much there.

*** I disagree. First letter I got from her after shipping her to the wardens was a bitter tale of isolation, feeling betrayed coupled with the torment of the taint nightmare's. When met alongside Nathanial, and later during the qunari invasion, she's cold and emptionally distant. I can easily see her turning to meaningless sex as a coping mechanism; easy, physical relief from the high stress of her enviroment. Healthy? Not particularly, and it doesn't seem to be working, but that'd be truth in television. As for the circle; Meredith isn't trying to keep the mages from getting laid, she's trying to keep them from turning into abominations. While she's likely much more strict than the ferelden circle, so long as every single mage isn't kept in solitary confinement(which they aren't), it'd be impossible to completely stop them from fucking.

*** Possibly {{Jossed}}. Bethany shows signs of attraction to Sebastian in ''Legacy'' and ''Mark of the Assassin''.
*** Doesn't rule out Bethany being bi, only shows that Sebastian is the only one in the group who's her type. Not impossible; a lot of people were put off by the other LI's.

[[spoiler: If you have a save where Leliana is killed or write this in The Keep then Leliana still appears, at the end of ''Trespasser'' instead of becoming Divine or training new agents it turns out she was a Lyriam ghost, having helped stop the threat she is free to go.]]

* Definately possible, but Maker, I hope not. Would make the later games a tad repetative, what with war, war and more war. Although I find it unlikely the Anderfels will become the Chantry's battleground at least. That's the Warden's home territory and some Codex entries in Awakening suggest that the First Warden is the power behind the throne/s there.

*** It's more than just Wynne. Pretty much everyone you meet who isn't a crony of Loghain (and even some of them) basicly says "I know what Loghain said, but I don't believe the Wardens would do that." Even when publicly denounced by a national hero the Wardens remain popular in Fereldan. Add to that being saved by them and maybe having one as a popular king and I'd say that Fereldan is likely to back the Wardens, particularly if the Hero was a nice guy, but even if he wasn't.

*** We do hear a little bit about the WC that takes over after the Warden leaves. The new WC is willing to allow a templar clearly still loyal to the Chantry into the GWs in order to harass Anders before he merged with Justice. This not only risks the Chantry learning GW secrets (which would be disastrous given how unpleasant and outright blooc magic-y they are) but it threatens the precious autonomy the Wardens have since they have ''never'' allowed the templars or anybody else to police their Wardens. The one thing that makes up for how awful being a Warden can be for mages is freedom from the Chantry as long as they stay with the Wardens and now there is a precedent for a templar to keep watch on mages even within the Wardens. That's pretty much all we know of the new WC but it really does hint of either corruption or incompetence.
*** Well, fine. But one bad move doesn't by itself preclude the possibility of Fereldan backing the Wardens.
*** No but which is more likely: the WC only makes noe disastrously and pointlessly stupid decision during his reign or he has a habit of ruling poorly? Even Alistair at the beginning of DA:O when he's very new, has barely gotten any darkspawn experience, and hasn't even been told about the sacrifice required to end a Blight realizes that GWs can't take orders from the Chantry and that mage Wardens need to be left alone.

The book from DA:O which suggests Andraste was actually a very powerful mage will become a major plot point. The mage underground will find it, make copies of it, and distribute it. The Chantry will try to destroy the copies, but the harder they ban the text, the more popular it will become, and the ideas within will cause even more religious upheaval in the Chantry, causing a Reformation-like schism with dozens of splinter Chantries forming in Ferelden and in eastern Thedas.
* The Mages will search for evidence that Andraste was a Mage to help their cause and discover unsettling truth abouts the Prophet that the player will decide if they should go public with.

One of the ingridients in the construction of the sword is the egg of a dragon and part of what makes Vigilance the InfinityPlusOneSword is the power of the dragon's soul within it. The epilogue card for the sword states it seemingly has a will of its own. When it does show up again, it will be an EmpathicWeapon that changes its stats depending on the wielder's stats and what character is wielding it. It may not be too happy [[PoweredByAForsakenChild to have given its life to make the sword]], however, and at one point the player will have to decide to free its soul by destroying the sword or keeping it. If s/he keeps Vigilance the sword will slowly drain his/her health while she uses it and may change into an UnholyHolySword in later games; if the sword is destroyed the dragon's soul gratefully grants a permanent passive ability called, "Dragon's Blessing" that has multiple benefits such as protection from fire damage. The releasing of the soul will also be a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming.

* A cure for the Blight will also be a bio-weapon against Darkspawn. You can be sure that the Wardens will want to weaponize it and you can be damn sure the Architect isn't going to be happy about that.

Think about it. While a vital part of the endgame plot, the choice to go through with the ritual is still just that - a choice for the player to accept or refuse. This means that Bioware has to plan for the likely possibility that players decided not to go through with the ritual in any way. Following from this, they can't make the Old God Child a vital part of the plot because that would mean substantially overwriting player decisions, a huge betrayal of the Bioware RPG experience. Therefore, when the Old God Child does get referenced, it will be in a rather shallow way (similar to the way they handled the Council's survival in VideoGame/MassEffect2). What does this mean for Morrigan? Well, who's to say that Flemeth really expected her to get pregnant and wasn't just stringing her along for other reasons...

* I agree that the old god child is actually not as important as people think. If the old god child was important then that would isolate all the players who didn't choose to do the ritual. Rather, I believe the fact that Flemeth knows a ritual like this and knows that it will work against an archdemon is the important information. This isn't a ritual you could just look up in books after all.

* If the Warden/Alistair/Logain said no to the ritual, Rhiordan might have said yes and not told anybody.

[WMG: Morrigan joined the grey wardens]]

[[WMG:Anders and Elthina where in leage]]
[[spoiler: Elthina knew Anders was going to blow up the chantry and Helped him if you did not]]

Imported from the [[Fridge/DragonAgeII Fridge]]: why are blood mages and abominations so over-represented among the mage population of Kirkwall? Because the more harmless apostates who did not dabble in blood magic and demon summoning have already fled to Ferelden. The ruler of Ferelden (Alistair, Anora, or even the Warden him/herself) was helping the mage underground behind the scene. Sure, during the time-skip between Act II and III, Meredith's crackdown on the underground led to its collapse in Kirkwall, but not before it helped a lot of mages to escape to the more mage-friendly Ferelden (either because all its local mages were killed during the rite of annulment creating a big demand for mages and therefore an incentive to be softer toward mages than Meredith, or because after being saved by the Warden and taking part of the Battle of Denerim, the Mages became more popular and well liked in Ferelden). If Alistair is king and comes to Kirkwall, the real reason of his visit is to exfiltrate the last free members of the underground, including Anders. Since Meredith got wind of Alistair's visit, she moved fast to stop him from acting, forcing him to leave Anders and the Hawke team to their fate. Anders pessimism would be in this case less despair caused by his "failure", but the sign that he cannot read the situation clearly: most harmless apostates successfully fled to Ferelden, but, seeing only Kirkwall and the situation in the Gallows, Anders started to believe that the underground had failed, paving his way toward more extreme methods.

** Tevinter Magisters are not above enslaving their fellow mages, according to Fenris, and Feynriel saw a magister killing another one in duel. Tevinter values magic, not mages, and except perhaps for the most powerful among them, Tevinter does not seem to be the safest place for mages. Ferelden, on the other hand, would be a much safer place: the local circle is less a prison than the Gallows and its monarch is willing to lend a hand to apostates. Actually, assuming that one's Warden maintained a very pro-mage attitude during Origins and Awkening and pushed for as much as autonomy as possible, It would not be hard to imagine Alistair inventing more and more preposterous excuses regarding Fereldan mages: ''«Six apostates were seen in Denerim? Nononononono: They're legitimate Circle mages who requested they're transfer to Ferelden to help with the rebuilding of our nation. No one approved their transfer? I'm sure someone did: the paperwork must have been lost, or burned down, or something... Three templars hunting down a dangerous apostate were found beheaded in a house in Amaranthine? Of course the Warden Commander is not involved: it's... probably Darkspawns: you know, post-Blight mayhem and all that... Apprentice Connor Guerrin was seen in Redcliffe without supervision? Did I approve him leaving the Tower? Why, yes, it was, hum... for Field Training, it'sa, haa... new, experimental, educational method that aim to... make mages more wordly and... give the general public a better opinion of mages, I MEAN: give the mages a better opinion of the general public, so that they can... you know... have non-mage friends and acquaintances and become less tempted to rule over them and all that, its... most definitely NOT me indulging in nepotism»''

As a result of the previous WMG, instead of being spared, Ferelden will become the main bastion for mages in the mage-templar conflict, which will push Ferelden and Orlais to war, once again.

(This goes along with the “The ruler of Ferelden was in league with the mage underground” and “The apostates who fled to Ferelden will make it the center of the Mage faction” theories above).

* There are a lot of issues with this theory. For one, the Stolen Throne shows that Orlais didn't have much of a vested interest in Ferelden and the emperor sent someone he disliked and was trying to get rid of to govern it and allowed him to do as he pleased, which is hardly how one would treat a valued property. They lost the rebellion but that really seems more like a lack of commitment to really retaking Ferelden than Orlais literally being unable to hold it. Remember, Orlais is constantly at war with its neighbors and so it really didn't need another war going on with Ferelden. That doesn't make Ferelden stronger militarily than Orlais. Ferelden defeating the Blight in two years does not mean that they are more amazing than other nations. In fact, given the civil war and general anarchy, they were probably ''less'' prepared for the Blight than any nation except the Anderfels when the first Blight broke out. It was a fluke that the Archdemon chose to reveal itself so early in the game and that a GW managed to kill it instead of someone else (if someone else had killed the Archdemon and it possessed a genlock, more than likely you'd have a genlock-shaped Archdemon that would be ''impossible'' to track). You're right that this will bring forth a new wave of nationalism but the other nations aren't lacking for nationalism either so that's not a Ferelden advantage. The Ferelden nobility is rarely united about ''anything.'' It's canon that they've fought a war over an apple tree before. The Bannorn will ''never'' get along. Temporarily unite in order to face external threats, possibly (though it's not assured). This might help if they were invaded again but it won't keep them a unified and strong nation. And the Orlesian nobles petty bickering is actually one of the nations' ''strengths''. A previous emperor created 'the Game' that all of the nobles are embroiled in while stripping them of any real power so Celene is the one making all the decisions instead of trying to get a coalition to agree to what's important. There also isn't much reason to think that all these apostates will flee to Ferelden who, while wanting to make life better for mages, hasn't advocated letting mages live freely anywhere which is what many apostates want. Their struggle with the Chantry also isn't exactly common knowledge and Hawke only finds out by chance. Ferelden ''is'' considered the backwater of Thedas so between that and the mage paradise that is Tevinter, most mages are probably going to choose Tevinter. Sure, there's anti-Tevinter propaganda that the Chantry spouts but they also hate apostates and the apostates are likely to take Chantry word with a grain of salt. It's also important to note that, mages or no, Ferelden is a tiny and poor land and that, game mechanics aside, a few mages can't stand up to an army and hope to win and the mages will ''always'' be greatly outnumbered by other troops (and so will the Ferelden troops). Ferelden has a ''long'' way to go before it becomes any sort of superpower. And while the Warden and Hawkes' nationalities might not ''hurt'' Ferelden, they really won't help it, either. Hawke especially since, despite being called the most important person ever, events would have largely played out the same way if she hadn't been there.
** Yea, I'm not seeing it. If nothing else, Ferelden's hurt too badly by lack of numbers alone. Nearly half the nation fled to the free marches and most of them never came back, either because they had nothing to come back to or because they couldn't afford to. The half that stayed...well, between the darkspawn, the civil war, and the warden carving through anyone who got in his way, that population's got hit pretty hard and that isn't even taking into account the fammine and disease that comes with warfare. Which brings up another point; a good bit of Ferelden's blight lands now. That corruption doesn't go away easy; that's fields that no longer grow crops, herds that have been slaughtered, and a lot of people without a lot to eat.

* The Qun will spread like wildfire in the former imperium, as slaves fed up with the magisters cruelty and corruption will embrace the new philoshophy.

*** Sten met two ''novice'' Wardens, and Alistair may be an immature manchild, he's still a formidable warrior; the Anderfells have thousands of ''experienced'' Wardens: it makes sense for the Qunari to go first after easier targets, like the already decadent Tevinter and keep an harder to conquer country for after they get a strong footing on Thedosian mainland. The Anderfels and Ferelden would not be ''spared'' by the Qunari, they would merely be ''saved for last''., for different strategic reasons (the Wardens guarding the northern nation, the difficulties to have a reliable supply line to attack the southern one directly from Par Volen)

*** Remember Sophia Dryden's rebellion? a few dozen Wardens nearly deafeted all of Ferelden armies. Wardens ''are'' nigh-unstoppable killing machines, that's their order entire ''raison d'être''
*** You mean Sophia Dryden's rebellion that we know virtually nothing about but involved a very difficult to siege fortress and a veritable army of demons? You can't just say that all Wardens are nigh-unstoppable killing machines. Becoming a Warden doesn't make you any stronger than you were before, it just makes you better able to sense darkspawn and capable of killing an Archdemon. Sure, the Wardens like to recruit only the best but this doesn't make them one-man armies. They are just elite fighters, not superhuman. Remember how all of Duncan's Wardens died at Ostagar and the Warden and Alistair would have been killed if not for Flemeth? Remember Nathaniel getting overpowered by a few guards? Remember every Warden at Vigi's Keep being slaughtered by darkspawn? Nigh-unstoppable killing machines would have been fine, particularly in the last case.
*** FridgeBrilliance: Dryden's rebellion happened when the Fereldan Wardens were at the peak of their power: strong enough to challenge a full standing army. During most of Origins and Awakening, the Wardens are weakened and disorganized after two centuries of banishment and the slaughter at Ostagar: The real goal of Awkening is to bring back the lost power and influence of the order in Ferelden: sure, the conflict between the Architect and the Mother is what catches most players attention, but plotwise Awakening is as much about the Warden learning to govern a province (taming the restless nobles, gaining the support of the commoners, maintaining the rule of law, etc...) and if s/he [[GuideDangIt plays their cards right]], the GoldenEnding describes a Warden-ruled arling of Amaranthine as rebuilding itself fast from the damage done during Awakening and becoming home of no less than two (if not three if you count Alec's knights) powerfull millitary formations (the Silver Order and Vigil Keep's Wardens). in VideoGame/DragonAgeII, Act 1 quest ''Secret Rendezvous'' shows that Amaranthine is, at most mere months afters the end of Awakening, able to challenge Kirkwall's merchant fleet, which implies that the GoldenEnding is mostly the canon one. In other words: in Origin and the begining of Awakening, we see Grey Wardens in an abnormally weakened state, Awakening shows the order rebuilding itself and becoming once again a force to be reckoned with, and by Act 2 of VideoGame/DragonAgeII, they treat the ''Qunari invasion of a neighboring city-state'' as a skirmish of secondary importance, not even business-as-usual material.
* The other thedosian nations, weakened by civil war will keep on fighting a [[HopelessWar loosing war]] against the technologically superior Qunari.

* In desperation, the chantry will call Ferelden for help: their few advantages (mages, powder, proximity of Orzammar, [[BadassAdorable lots of Mabari descended from Origin's dog]], [[OneManArmy The Warden]] -who will conveniently reappear at the nick of time-) will give Southern Thedas dwindling forces the second wind needed to turn the tides of war.
* Lots of events meant to make the players [[MomentOfAwesome pump their fists]], [[HeartwarmingMoments cheer]], [[TearJerker cry]], [[PlayerPunch curse the name "david Gaider"]] will happen

[[WMG:The Maker didn't want to turn His back on the Spirits, but he had to because they were ''[[AxCrazy batshit insane]]''.]]

[[WMG:Demons are the ''real'' masterminds behind the First Darkspawn.]]

Alternatively, the First Darkspawn were a kind of Abomination, but the plot and result were the same.

In either event, [[SpannerInTheWorks the demons didn't predict the Grey Wardens]].

* The problem here is that in Origins DLC the Darkspawn taint is discribed as being alien to demons.

At the end of the Legacy DLC, [[spoiler:it's implied that Corypheus survives by body hopping into the hopelessly tainted Larius.]] The Architect could do (and probably did) the exact same thing with Seranni.

[[WMG: The Architect [[spoiler: is related distantly to one of the Original Magisters.]] ]]
[[spoiler: Not exactly sure how Darkspawn genetics work, but he had enough of the Magister's Original Soul/Spirit/DNA in him to form a sense of self-awareness. He was like Corypheus in reverse.]]
** Or perhaps he ''is'' [[spoiler:another of the Original Magisters]] rather than being just related to them. He just has no recollection of it. [[spoiler:After all, Corypheus' mind seemed quite a bit hazy when he woke... Perhaps it's something similar? I can't quite remember what else there is to the Architect, so I might have mixed something up there, though.]]

* And he'll be ''married'' to fellow ''Witch Hunt'' party member Arianne. Talk about an OddCouple.

* Seems more likely than the other way around like other people are saying--after all, Hawke's personality is way easier to track then the Warden's. Hell, it probably would even be possible to track his/her stance on mages/templars, by recording who they were aggressive/diplomatic to.
** Seems to me that's backwards logic. The warden's personality being harder to track should make him an easier player character; one who's choices are in our hands, than an npc(who's decisions are set). As for events in previous games; consider what Bioware's doing with mass effect and it's interactive comic lead ins; they can do something similar(technically they already did) with Dragon Age, letting you choose the decisions made in previous installments.

When the Darkspawn are finally defeated for good, tensions will flare between the Grey Wardens and the people of Thedas as the Wardens struggle to adapt to a world that no longer needs them. The nobler Wardens will happily give it all up and settle down, but the rest won't want to give up the power and prestige they've grown accustomed to. They will eventually start demanding compensation for the centuries of work they did fighting the Darkspawn, which the nations of Thedas will probably not want to give them (the accumulated interest alone would make them turn white as a sheet). From there things will spiral out of control until the Grey Wardens become an imminent threat to Thedas.

Now you might think that that won't happen since all the Grey Wardens will eventually succumb to the taint. But will they? Dragon Age: The Calling hits us with the revelation that if a Grey Warden is strong enough the taint will turn them into a ghoul rather than killing them. And of course Avernus proved that it's possible to extend a Warden's lifespan long after the taint should have killed them, perhaps even indefinitely. Not to mention if all the Archdemons are dead, the Grey Wardens would no longer hear the Calling that pushes them to go down and fight the Darkspawn in the Deep Roads.
** If this does happen it won't last for more than a couple of generations. If the Darkspawn are all dead then there is no more blood to make Grey wardens.

** This isn't a dichotomy. It's not giving them an Arling, letting them be a noble, letting them have a great deal of political power to distract them from doing their job (especially in places not in Ferelden where Darkspawn sightings are considerably rarer) or rendering them completely powerless. Soldier's Peak is a good idea. It's a nice, solid fortress for them to use. Vigil's Keep is not because that's an entire Arling and we haven't seen anything good come from Wardens in positions of political power. They only need enough power to do their job and have the power to conscript people and fight darkspawn unmolested.

*** Origins' plot happened, in part, because everybody competent in Fereldan completely ignored the Wardens' advice until the Blight was on top of them. The backstory implies that this isn't an unusual thing. If anybody less capable than the near-unstoppable Origins' Warden were around, the Blight would have lasted for decades after the 'spawn got Fereldan's resources. The Warden's provide a valuable service and do benefit from autonomy, but without any real, direct power, all they can do without going completely renegade is nag people until they remember that they're sitting on top of an endless army of evil monsters. If they kept real political titles, then they'd be much more effective at rapidly responding to the darkspawn and have less need for extreme measures like assassination. There are enormous risks, but the benefits would probably be enough for the First Warden to risk it.

*** The only notable abuse of power not directly related to stopping or preventing a Blight was Sophia Dryden's rebellion, which was pretty well justified considering how terrible a king was ruling at the time. I admit that the Wardens' policy of "anything to stop the Blight" is more than a bit worrying, but the sheer scale of the darkspawn threat does justify it. Outside of a Blight, everybody above ground seems to completely forget about the Darkspawn horde beneath their feet. All it takes is one bit of intelligence to turn the 'spawn into the most deadly force in the world. The previous Blights took decades to resolve, leaving innumerable casualties and wide swaths of land completely uninhabitable. All five of them were beaten by the narrowest of margins. There's still two (well, two-and-a-half) Old Gods waiting to be turned. Even if they were both killed, the darkspawn wouldn't just disappear. Maker knows what'll happen when they don't have the calling to distract them. If it Wardens had some actual political power, they might be able to get the resources to at least understand what the 'spawn are and how to beat them. If they had more proper channels to work through, maybe the Wardens wouldn't need to resort to dangerous, morally questionable measures so often. I have no doubt that abuses would occur (not every Warden Commander will be as nice or effective as you could make yours), but at least it'd get the people of Thedas out of their false sense of security and realize how much danger they face. The biggest risk would probably be potential backlash against the Wardens from either the Chantry or commoners.
*** Governing takes a lot more than sitting in a fortress training soldiers or running through the Deep Roads killing Darkspawn. Roads have to be maintained, farms have to produce grain, coffers have to be filled with gold, people have to be bread & circused and nobles have to have their egos stroked. Wardens are good at one thing and one thing only: killing darkspawn. Some of them are former prisoners, some of them are thieves, or mages, or common grunts, but none of them are consummate politicians by trade. Also, Ferelden is a rather insular country that looks suspiciously at foreigners as potential interlopers. Loghain is merely this attitude turned UpToEleven. Having Wardens, who may be Free Marchers, Anders, or even Orlesians, come in to run an arling will simply not sit well with the nobility in the short term. Also, the First Warden likes to send in personnel from his personal circle, distrusting local men (Mistress Woolsey is one). All it takes is for that to turn into cronyism, and the entire arling becomes packed with toadies who answer to the first warden ahead of the King or the Landsmeet. Add in the possibility that the new WC could end up being a GeneralRipper, and its a recipe for disaster. With the Mage-Templar war under way, times are going to be tough. It might be the case that the WC will have to choose between devoting resources to the arling or to the deep roads. Also, the Right of Conscription is ripe for abuse. A noble bothering you? Conscript him and send him to the Deep Roads. A guard captain too [[ByTheBookCop by the book]] for you? Conscript him and send him to the Deep Roads. A running theme in DA is that unchecked power can and will be abused.

[[WMG:Dragonage III will be about a Half Elf who will be destined to [[{{SlaveLiberation}} change the world..]] ]]

* Trespasser eventually revealed [[spoiler: that Dragon Age '''was''' about a full-blooded elf who '''did''' lead a slave rebellion and did change the world... and is about to change it, '''again''']], it just so happens [[spoiler: that said elf wasn't the player-controlled protagonist]]

* [[spoiler: Jossed. Corypheus works alone (because underlings don't count) and is tossed into the Fade without a safety net. Also, I suspect that if the Architect caught wind of Corypheus' plots, The Architect would gather intel quietly and then realize that he doesn't want any of this on him.]]

* Jossed: The protagonist wields a one-handed sword with no shield, and the only female companion with anything resembling a BreastPlate is a mage who isn't interested in checking out the size of the inquisitor's Anchor.

* There is some evidence against this, with artefacts of the elven gods showing up in various places, such as the bow "Falon-Din's Touch" in Origins and Andrastes Ashes supporting the existance of the Maker. Of course both could just be magic.

*** Malcolm Hawke was forced to restore the seals holding Corypheus using blood magic some thirty years prior to the DLC as they were failing. Once Hawke was trapped within the only real choice was destroy Corypheus before one of the groups involved (the Carta, Darkspawn, [[spoiler: Janeka]]) used his/her blood to free their master. Yeah, Hawke could have lived out the rest of his/her life in there, but would anyone have picked that option?
*** I wouldn't say it was the best possible outcome but more like the only reasonable outcome. It was either live in the deep roads, die, or free Corypheus. We also don't know if [[spoiler: possessing a grey warden]] makes him any weaker. Its akin to how an archdemon posesses a darkspawn if killed. Assumingly they still retain the majority of their power or find a way to regain all their power since the blight continues.

* Varric will come up with a hypothetical tale of what would have happened if the elder Hawke had thrown themselves infront of an Ogre instead of one of his younger siblings. Carver and Bethany end up making the trip to Kirkwall together, and are constantly being torn apart by the mage-templar politics of the city. We explore their ten years in Kirkwall in fast forward, and how events would have unfolded around them.

*** Darkspawn Chronicles wasn't much loved given that it was impossible to figure out how things must have gone down to give Alistair the allies he had and why would anyone in-game want to hear about what Varric thinks may have happened if Hawke had died? Besides, if Bethany didn't get dragged to the Circle or Carver joined the templars, they would have died or become Grey Wardens down in the Deep Roads. And then a few more people might have died before the Arishok could be brought down by Meredith and Orsino's forces but it would have been done and Meredith's forces would have slaughtered Orsino's during the Rite of Annulment pretty much the same way it goes down if Hawke ''is'' there so there wouldn't really be much of a change from canon.
*** When I said Darkspawn Chronicles, I simply meant a hypothetical, non canon situation. If Carver and Bethany were the protagonists, things may have unfolded differently, and they may not have contracted the taint in the deep roads. Hawke got the ball rolling in a specific way in Dragon Age 2 when he impressed the Arishok with his abilities. Bethany, Carver, and the rest of the party might not have been good enough to draw that attention. The Qunari issue may have gone over completely differently. As would the Mage-Templar issue.

* The prophecy also has a double meaning featured somewhere else on this WMG. Sandal's Prophecy can be viewed as a premonition of [[spoiler: the final act. "one day the magic will come back, everyone will be just like they were" refers to the world returning to when the Tevinter ruled and mages were free. "The sky opens wide..." refers to when Anders blows up the chantry, his bomb splits the sky above Kirkwall. And "He" is Anders since when he rose to stand up to Meredith and Orsino, the Chantry exploded. "Everyone will see" can refer to the literal meaning that everyone saw the bomb(Pretty hard to miss) or that everyone now sees what oppressing mages will lead to.]]

[[WMG: DAIII will be more templar-centric]]
In both games, our main companions are mages and we learn a lot about the mage side of life and how they are hunted and oppressed. DAII was completely mage-centric (Other than the qunari storyline, almost every other big storyline was about mages). This painted templars in a fairly-bad light but we know there are good templars out there and the fault isn't entirely on them. Having a templar-centric DAIII adds another viewpoint for us.

** It was a more understandable poor light for the mages. We learn that they're being oppressed, abused, and sentenced to tranquility. It doesn't explain all their actions but it does explain why many turn to blood magic because they're tired of the way they are treated. We know little about the templar's life. Are they constantly in fear of the mages they guard? Does being 'trapped' in the mage circle affect them in any way? Does their lyrium addiction leave them in crippling states like some real life drugs?
*** The first and third questions about Templars are sort of answered. Cullen for one is understandably terrified of BloodMagic after the events of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' and claims that the Templars fight a losing battle against maleficarum everyday. Meredith is a KnightTemplar because of a traumatic experience with magic that killed her entire family. You also meet an ex-Templar named Samuel who is suffering from lyrium withdrawal symptoms so bad that he is reduced to begging on the streets for another pinch of "dwarven dust". And before that in ''Origins'' you meet another Templar in Arl Howe's dungeon who is suffering lyrium withdrawal and is barely coherent as a result. A templar-centric game would still be pretty interesting.
** [[spoiler: Jossed. DAI is only "templar-centric" if you pick their faction in the first act, otherwise not so much.]]

[[WMG: The messenger never goes to the Hawke estate when Hawke is at home because he is terrified of the Mabari]]
Every owner of a big dog knows that it does'nt matter if your furball is [[GentleGiant the friendliest mammal on the planet]]: there are people who are deadly afraid of big dogs. Hawke's Mabari may be a BigFriendlyDog to anyone who's not [[UndyingLoyalty one of Hawke's ennemy]], he still is a huge wardog with enough strength in the jaw to crush a grown man chest: so it's understandable that the messenger always come to give letters to Hawke when Hawke is outside since s/he takes the dog with him/her: while Hawke (and the player) understands that the dog is merely happily, playfully, offering a friendly bark to greet the visitors, the messenger may be thinking "Oh Maker, please, this dog is going to eat me alive"

"There's a ghost in my lungs...and it talk in my sleep...etc" is quite obviously Anders who is possessed by Justice who has completley changed him. The rest of the song is shared by the Hawke family. One-by-one the family falls, Malcolm Hawke is already dead, one sibling dies in the beginning, the other [[spoiler: possibly dies or disappears from Hawke's life (There's no ending that your siblings followed you after all)]]. And of course, [[spoiler:Hawke's mother dies as well]], and Gamlen most likely ran off for safety at the end. Hawke as implied in the epilogue, [[spoiler:disappears as well]]

So we can suppose that the black city is actually the manifestation of something huge in the physical world: something like huge veins of red lyrium. Now we know that the Dwarven kingdoms were in good term with the Tevinter imperium of old AND that Dwarves found red lyrium. Now remember that the first succesfull rebelions against the imperium started 300 years before the magisters tried to enter the Golden City and that Tevinter had been on a steady decline ever since. The powerful blood magic of the magisters did not suffice to keep the imperium lower class from rebelling, '''and''' the near-constant state of quasi-civil war was weakening the imperium even more. So the magisters tried to find a way to reverse this decline before it gained too much momentum: and here arrives red lyrium, found by the dwarven allies, which is way more potent than ordinary lyrium: wanting to exploit this new ressource in order to save their crumbling empire, the magisters went after the Fade manifestation of red lyrium: except that instead of merely giving them more power, it overwhelmed them like it would overwhelm Bartrand and Meredith more than 1.000 years later.
* Maybe the darkspawn weren't an accident at all, but a biological weapon made purposefully by the Imperium. That's why its tied to their gods. I would bet the Empire would have fallen if not for the darkspawn.

* Hawke makes it! Along with Alistir, Sten and several other possible options. You can make Hawke up the way you envision s/he appears and story details are ripped from your save or The Keep, Varric finally decides to come clean after Corypheshits shows up.

* Given how devoted he is to the Chantry and how [[spoiler: Anders's bomb]] was religious terrorism of the worse kind, it doesn't seem likely that he'd let Anders walk free no matter what his friendship is. On top of that, Elthina was a mother to him. Not only is his promise [[spoiler: to kill Anders]] backed by religious fury, [[ItsPersonal it's personal]]

** A fairly reasonable exception, too, given that he mentions Karl was his "first". He probably wasn't as jaded about love back then, or at least he let his feelings get the better of him because it was new and exciting. That, and Ferelden is mentioned several times as being a pretty homophobic place (it's mentioned a couple of times in DA:O), so maybe Anders just doesn't want to bring it up with the Warden or with female!Hawke. Plus, although Anders talks mainly about women in Awakening, he does take on a mildly flirtatious tone in at least one banter with Nathaniel ("not when I'm naked, I don't").\\

** An interesting idea though. It would follow the pattern already set by KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 1 and 2 where the canon Revan was male and the canon Exile was female. The preset games you can pick from when making a new DAII playthrough also mention that the 'canon' playthrough is a male human noble, so 'canon' Hawke may very well be female to keep things equal. Now if only a female PlayerCharacter could be used in the marketing every once in awhile! Come on, Bioware!

Given that the Warden is the player's avatar, it makes sense to make the Warden's side the player's choice: it could be done in an action prologue: start the prologue with demons and abominations roaming around, give the player the control of the Warden dispatching them, at the middle of the prologue have the Warden crossing path with a bunch of templars and mages about to jump at each other throats, then give the player a choice between the Templars, the Mages and Neither. The choice will then affect the second half of the action prologue as well as the rest of the game (things like whether the Warden and Hawke end up becoming allies or ennemies which factions and which zones will be friendly or hostile, or which NPC will be joinable: for instance, a playable Cullen may joing a neutral or pro-templars Warden but not a purely pro-mage one while a playable Feynriel may join a neutral or pro-mages Warden but not a purely pro-templars one)

Somewhere, I can’t quite remember where, the number of Circles in all of Thedas is said to be 18. After the events of Origins, I think the Fereldan Circle can be written off. Even under the Mage ending, barely any of the mages survived. Even ten years later, it’s unlikely that they’ve recovered enough strength to make a meaningful contribution to the mage’s efforts. Ditto for the Kirkwall Circle. The Starkhaven Circle was destroyed, and any survivors merged with the Kirkwall Circle, so see above. While we haven’t actually seen the Circle in Val Royeaux, it’s described to be even more draconian than the Fereldan Circle. It’s also in the capital city of the Andrastian Chantry, a.k.a. Templar Central. Draconian measures plus a huge complement of hostile guards trained specifically to defeat you? I think you can safely be written off. That leaves 14 other Circles, scattered all across Thedas. Additionally, both Orlais and Fereldan only have one Circle for the entire kingdom, and the Kirkwall and Starkhaven Circles are said to be the only ones in the Free Marches. Basically, all of the mages in southern Thedas have been defeated before the war even begins.

* That would be the height of anti-climax, and make VideoGame/DragonAgeII sound like an even ''more'' pointless game. This is the conflict that has supposedly brought the Chantry to the brink of collapse, remember? Also, the Ferelden circle still had plenty of mages. Did you not see the army marching past Lake Calenhad during the intro to the FinalBattle? Honestly, if this turns out to be a "shadow war" when its played up as a war that could set Thedas ablaze, it would probably be the death knell of the franchise.

He started in the Tevinter Circle, but was freed by one of the magisters who recognized his potential and power and became his apprentice. Since his mentor turned out to be a monster (like many Tevinter magisters) and Malcolm was a good man at heart he decided to escape. He probabely had to do something terrible (maybe involving useage of Blood Magic) to disappear for good. Since then he was on run the from both templars and his former mentor. This backstory could explain how Malcolm knew Blood Magic and yet was reluctant to use it, why he viewed his own magic as a curse. It would also explain his own personal motto about magic "serving the best in him, not the most base." He knew both extremes (the Circle and magisters) and understood that mages cannot be left alone but also shouldn't be locked like wild animals.

[[WMG: The Tevinter Imperium returning to its' former Glory will not be a wholly bad thing, nor will it be any more inherently Evil than any other Nation]]

Take a look at what we know of the Imperium: one of the things they're most infamous for (blood magic) is actually outlawed, even if not as concretely as it should be. We also know plenty of Blood Mages (like Avernus) who aren't inherently evil, or at least because of what they do. We also know a great deal of the problem comes from the fact that they aren't even connected to the same Chantry as most of the rest of Thedas, which is one of the few unifying factors between Orlais and Fereldan or what have you, which doesn't do anything for their stigmatization. We also know that to a very great deal, they and their forebearers were the bedrock upon which Human civilization in Thedas was built. I doubt any of my fellow Westerners would deny what we owe Greece and Italy, but at the same time i doubt we'd like to stomach all the various misdeeds of Sparta/Athens/Rome/Byzantium/etc.

[[WMG: Flemeth could be an uncorrupted Old God who has no connection to the Darkspawn Taint.]]
When an Archedemon dies, it's soul travels through the Taint to another Darkspawn and is reborn that way. Flemeth, not having an army of potential hosts to choose from, does the equivalent by transferring her soul into her daughters. Also, assuming that the dragon is her true form, it looks visibly different from the obviously corrupted Archedemon, and in ''[=DA2=]'' it looks different from the regular high dragon as well.

There was going to be another human origin, a commoner from Lothering, that wound up not making it into the final release. Granted, Hawke isn't ''exactly'' a commoner, but isn't Fereldan nobility either, and there's something appealingly symmetrical about taking WhatCouldHaveBeen and spinning it off into another game instead.

The first time Isabela suggests that she'd be glad to have you as a crewmember on her ship, one of the dialogue options is to protest that you're not much of a sailor. The second time, though, the only options are to either agree or claim that you have other responsibilities. Conclusion -- Hawke learns his way around a ship in the interim. (Isabela was probably not involved in this series of events, as she was avoiding Hawke.)

Anders assumes his anger corrupted Justice, but Justice was capable of anger before. It's just that now that he's in a living human body with more active emotions and stronger memories, Justice is more sensitive to Anders' emotions and pain. The first time he comes out, it's because Anders just saw that his lover was magically lobotomized and led him into a trap, making Justice react to defend his friend without issue. The second time in Dissent is also when Anders is distressed, but Justice goes a bit out of control because he's referred to as a demon- something Justice has always feared being, and during an emotionally distressing moment. In the Fade, Justice is pretty calm and reasonable.

[[WMG: Tallis and Leliana have a...history.]]

In Inquisition, Iron Bull mentions that many Saarebas were in their late teens and close to the end of their formation when they start displaying magic powers, which drastically changes their lives overnight as a result. Ketojan might have been a young Ben-Hassrath trainee when his powers manifested: that would explain his attachment to the Qun despite being a mage, having spent years learning its tenets with the stated goal to one day enforce them, a planned existence derailed by the awakening of his powers.

[[WMG: Dragon Age and WarhammerFantasy share a universe.]]