Thedas/Dragon Age setting thread. I accidentally started a discussion in another thread and decided it would be better off to just start a new thread.
We were debating just how much of a presence Elves and Dwarves have left in Thedas.
>>43860624
Spoilers for Inquisition or no?
>>43860655
Sure, why not. I know there are some Wild Elves discovered in the Arbor Wilds.
>>43860697
>Wild Elves discovered in the Arbor Wilds.
Not so much Wild Elves as PROPER elves, undiluted by centuries of breeding with humans. They actually visibly look different; their features are universally narrower, they're much taller, and they have very prominent ears compared to most.
Imagine every elf seen in Dragon Age is either a Wood Elf (Dalish) or a half-elf (City Elf) and the ones discovered in the Arbor Wilds are High Elves.
They think Dalish elves are basically stupid and uneducated children who know next to nothing of their heritage.Which as it turns out is actually completely correct and the Dalish misremember everything they THINK they know.
Also, at least according to the novels (all written by the guy who writes the overarching plot of the games and the universe fluff), elves actually have relatively close to human levels of population (in Orlais it's almost a 1:1 ratio), it's just that they're really spread out and have no homeland and so kinda are scattered everywhere.Presumably Fen'Haral/Solas will be changing that.
>>43861082
So wait, was he a god or not?
>>43861234
Explicitly not, and much of his dialogue if you pay attention to it hints at...pretty much everything about him.
He was basically to his generation and culture what the Inquisitor is to his/her generation and modern Thedas, which is why he's so skeptical at the Inquisiton's long-term goals remaining benevolent; he saw how he "freed" the elves and how it basically ruined everything and then the Dalish made it even worse after the fact so he's all kinds of pissed now.
His primary character flaw (which doesn't show up much in the game but is there if you look for it) seems to be his absolute self-assurance that he knows the right thing to do.
>>43861082
I thought the diminishing of the elves had to do with the creation of the Veil.
Anyways, the 1:1 idea is interesting but it brings up the question of where all these elves actually live. Lore is pretty clear that the elves have no actual nation left on Thedas and all we know of that live within the explored regions are either ghetto-ized city elves or the nomadic Daelish elves. The city-elves probably only live in large urban centers (those attempting to live as a minority in smaller, more rural settlements probably don't last long) which make up only a small portion of the total population of a medieval-setting and the nomadic ones can't really support a very large population.
>>43860624
Practically none i would have thought.
The dwarves and elves are pretty much fucked.
City elves arent proper elves, dalish are few in number and shit.
Dwarves are culturally stagnant and are constantly infighting.
>>43860624
I think it's a boring ass setting but fuck me the one thing it has going for it that I LOVE is Tevinter. When will we get to explore that place? Mages having duels in the streets and shit? Goddamn I'd love that.
>>43862202
what if balen takes the throne
>>43862221
they're pretty badass
they've got the whole roman decline theme with mages and other exotic weapons and soldiers at their disposal but they also started to gain their strength back.
>>43862144
>I thought the diminishing of the elves had to do with the creation of the Veil.
Yes, but even beyond that they remember next to none of their history in any form that might be considered accurate; they're not just diminished, they're poorly informed and self-righteous about it.
>The city-elves probably only live in large urban centers (those attempting to live as a minority in smaller, more rural settlements probably don't last long) which make up only a small portion of the total population of a medieval-setting
Yeah, in a semi-realistic medieval setting this would be true.
Dragon Age isn't one.
Apparently the elf population is so high in Orlais because of the nation's urban density (which is higher then the Tevinter Imperium's currently is) and number cities, but also because they make up a significant underclass in Orlais with huge Alienages and a large portion of the elven population working as servants. When someone in Orlais talks about the elves, what they MEAN are the servants, of which there are many since Orlais is revolvingly rich and has a hilariously overbloated aristocracy, all of which have elf servants.
It's helps that Orlais is basically parked right on top of the Dales geographically speaking, so most of their population once their nation was destroyed ended up just moving to Orlais since they were already there.
It's actually a plot point in Masked Empire that Briala (and therefore Celene) having contacts just among the elves means that basically she knows everything going on everywhere in Orlais because elves are so ubiquitous on so many levels of Orlesian society.
If you don't like it you can go complain to David Gaider; he writes the games, comics, novels, setting stuff and basically everything else about Thedas and Dragon Age except individual character dialogue, so what he says goes.
>and the nomadic ones can't really support a large population.
The Dalish are a VERY small segment of the existing Elven population, yeah.
I fucking love this setting, just wish the games weren't bad, and that the crunch in the RPG books wasn't so abysmal.
Played a bit with the RPG books, had an interesting scenario where my group was fighting a blood mage, and the guy was pretty powerful...and then gets the worst luck. He rolls terribly on his spell cast, then rolls poorly on his magic mishap. He drops to the ground and takes a dirt nap mid fight. Easiest loot ever.
>>43862202
>Dwarves are culturally stagnant and are constantly infighting.
I love how Varric happily points out in DA:I that the majority of "dwarves" in Thedas are like him; sure Orzammar might not consider them "real" dwarves but Orzammar's population is limited by their lack of space and resources as well as being constantly under assault by darkspawn while on the surface the dwarves can have as many kids as they can support regardless of cast and can do whatever they want to support themselves as long as they're good at it and so far have it pretty damn fine.
The Dwarven Merchant Guild is apparently so powerful (and spans all of southern Thedas economically) that the Orlesians can't afford to piss them off because they control the largest bank on Thedas as well as lyrium distribution.
Most of Varric and Solas conversations in some way revolve around this; Solas wonders how Varric can be so casual about the decline of Orzammae and Varric points out that the decline of Orzammar doesn't mean the end of the dwarven species and that NOTHING lasts forever anyway; instead things change as time goes on, even if traditionalists are whiny about it changing.
>>43862221
>When will we get to explore that place?
The next game.
They all but say it at the end of the last Inquisition DLC, which "ends" DA:I.
>Mages having duels in the streets and shit? Goddamn I'd love that.
They don't actually do that because that would be unbecoming of the Magisterium and upper class, who rule the nation with wisdom and grace.
Instead the do it behind closed doors. Everything in Tevinter is ritualized and formalized as fuck, all covering a disgustingly corrupt government and culture that uses it's special titles and fancy government and complex politics to cover up how messed up their culture is at this point from overusage of blood magic behind closed doors and widespread acceptance of demonology, blood magic, and other morally ambiguous studies that are pretty much universally abused by Tevinter.
>>43862425
He starts browbeating Orzammar into the modern age, basically.
So far it hasn't ever come up in any meaningful way in the later games, just mentioned in side-quests.
>>43863278
I liked the first game (felt very BG1/BG2), but then the series went Full EA Games and just took an ugly downslope.
I find it amusing to see parallels between DA and ME at BioWare; with DA the gameplay got progressively choppier (fighting is just a SLOG in DA:I, taking way too fucking long and is way too repetitive) but the writing and setting development improved over time (mostly thanks to Gaider being the main writer for EVERYTHING about it) while with ME the combat got less RPG-ey but faster-paced and more streamlined as befitting the vaguely modern small-unit combat tactics you employ until ME3 had what was by far the funnest gameplay in the series for me (that battle arena mode in the last DLC was addictive) but as the series went on it's internal setting consistency and storyline just got completely lost as the writing team kept changing.
>>43863578
I foudn the writing of some parts of Dragon Age got really...well, awful. Maybe it was just the pacing, and while i;m keenly interested in the whole potential conflict of 'City elves who don't care for Dallish shit being mad at the whole magic shit bring brought back' that can be touched on (because I really enjoy the elves in this setting) but I dread it because Gaider is apparently leaving, and how the quality of DA games went down
>>43860624
Something I noticed hearing descriptions of the geography in Thedas; the main continent of the setting is on the SOUTHERN hemisphere of the planet, not the northern as is more common in fantasy settings.
Note that the frozen wastelands are in the south of the setting and the northern areas are actually tropical like Par Vollen, Rivain, and Tevinter, suggesting that they're closer to the equator.
>>43863449
>The next game.
>They all but say it at the end of the last Inquisition DLC, which "ends" DA:I.
After being thoroughly disappointed in DA:I, this actually gets me hype for the series.
>>43863650
>I foudn the writing of some parts of Dragon Age got really...well, awful.
Gaider doesn't write any of the dialogue; they actually have individual writers for individual characters, because it's cheaper.
I think the only character dialogue he directly wrote in DA:I is Solas and Cole because they're both kind of very specific characters in the setting and needed to be handled right.
>but I dread it because Gaider is apparently leaving
Well there's another franchise I can kiss goodbye.
I can genuinely say that the writing and fluff of the evolving setting was the only reason I still played it, because the gameplay is boring as fuck at this point.
Battles in DA:I felt like a raid boss in an MMORPG; it was all about waiting for cool downs and organizing your party in just the right way and exploiting/planning for looping enemy patterns.
Once you knew HOW to beat an enemy in DA:I as long as you weren't drastically under leveled or poorly equipped you WOULD beat the enemy 100% of the time, and the act of actually doing it in-game was a lengthy ritual at best thanks to how predictable AI behahior for various enemies was, and every fight was just making the slog through their HP until it died.
>>43863578
I was hoping DAI would be like ME3. Not in the whole "ending is planned as DLC" thing, which unfortunately it did - really fucking over last gen buyers in the process, but in the "we made the previous game too simple and want to add some complexity back".
I thought it couldn't get any simpler than DA2 was, but DAI's audience seems to be people who can't do more than "press button a lot of times".
>>43863766
Given that the only guy who was trying to keep the setting consistent is leaving the franchise (presumably because he's sick of EA's shit like half of BioWare that left is), I can't say I care anymore.
EA won't change the combat because DA:I sold well enough and EA doesn't have it's subsidiaries and sub-companies expend any more creative effort of do any more actual work then they absolutely need to.
>>43863278
I can't figure out what I dislike about the RPG's crunch. The system is straightforward enough ... but something about it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I think it's the whole "Dragon Die"/stunt table.
>>43863814
>DAI's audience seems to be people who can't do more than "press button a lot of times".
I hear almost nothing but complaints from DA's audience.
The core market of games like EA are idiots who listen to false advertising and people who are like the long-term fans of Games Worship; they know that all they're going to get is more abuse but instead if stopping purchase of the games they'll keep buying it and then complain about it later.
Me? DA:I was the last chance I give.
Only buying DA4 based on input from people who's opinions I trust and stuff I see when it actually comes out and ONLY when it comes out, nothing before.
I don't keep buying a series and hope it gets better; I stop buying a series once it's shit and get something else.
>>43857603
I love Dragon age and the approach of 'mostly dead races, but still have their influences in places', like how Dwarves play a big role in keepign the Darkspawn back, they're the only ones who can handle lyrium, stuff like that.
And I'm a sucker for the 'elves aren't immortal, but are still very different from humans' thing.
After Trespasser, I'm very, very interested in maybe an ensuing views-war between elves, though they can't exactly properly fight due to their situation. So it's siding with the people who see them as lesser, or going and following a cause they may not fully believe in.
>>43863847
Welp, there goes my hype. I don't mind the combat too much if the story or atmosphere is right. I actually like DA2 the most solely because I liked the atmosphere of Kirkwall and the much smaller-scale story. It wasn't about some world-ending threat or prophesied hero saving the mortal races, it was politics and ideologies boiling up in a single city. I'd really like to see more of that in a game set in Tevinter, a few big cities to see changes in as time and the story progress and more to do with warring mage-lords and backstabbing than some kind of threat we must unite under.
If they can get Tevinter right, I dunno, I'll be happy. Combat has never actually been a thrilling experience in these games.
>>43863981
According to the ending to Tresspasser, TONS of elves are leaving to join Solas. In the Masked Empire he already had a fairly extensive spy network already, and apparently he STILL had it all throughout Inquisition, he just kept it from you the entire time.
>>43864003
I liked the overall setting of Kirkwall too, I just hated the goddamn railroady story.
It pisses me off to no end that there's no way to stop Anders from going full retard and blowing up that nice old lady in the Chantry.
>>43863915
There's also the Rogues reliance on the Dragon Die to do anything of note, like envenoming a target with their poison is a DD stunt.
Like, well, gee thanks, but now i've specced into doing poisons and all this work, and then I get fights with zero doubles. thanks m8.
Rogues are utterly shit on in the RPG, you're better just making a warrior that knows how to scout and sneak.
>>43864003
>I actually like DA2 the most solely because I liked the atmosphere of Kirkwall and the much smaller-scale story.
I noticed that BG2 has almost an indentical setup to DA2: you're in a big city and it's immediate surroundings the entire game, the city persecutes and imprisons mages, it's deeply corrupt and rife with inequality and crime, there's one tavern that everyone in the game hangs out in, and to advance past the very first part of the game you need an insane amount of coin to pay the guy who helps the plot move forward, and one of the major villains in both (Coryphyeus/Jon Irenicus) is an elaborate mage who's personal faith in the gods was so badly shaken that he feels the need to usurp their position for himself.
Since Baldur's Gate 2 is fucking awesome, I can only assume DA:2's gameplay is shit because after EA started much more directly meddling with BioWare's games and practically split the company in half and separate it's original design and writing teams (who have now all left and work in different companies) that it went to shit because of the videogame equivalent of shithead editors ruining everything.
>>43864037
Goddamn it I hated Anders. I wanted to like him because I played as a Mage for the (admittedly small) story significance and the fact he was a fellow mage who wanted well, but holy shit. I kind of wish he had been more of a mad conspiracy theorist or something.
>>43864028
What makes or breaks DA4's narrative for me (personally, not objectively), is how this whole situation handles Fenris.
If I get some BS explanation of Fenris joining Solas, i'm out. The Elven Gods, or whatever is hiding behind the veil that caused the Darkspawn, that's something that should stay away. It'd be like trading one form of slavery for another.
Hell, even though you can sell Fenris back to Danarius, that doesn't mean he can't pop up in some form.
I also want Qunari getting wind of all this Magic shit happening, and doing another full scale invasion to stop this. I want to be able to set tactics for armies, or to see large scale, organized combat. I want to see some random Soldier quivering in fear when he sees a Qunari canon come rolling up for the first time in his life.
>>43864037
This is why you don't make friends with someone who clearly had issues to begin with.
Hell, he even said that Justice wasn't a single entity anymore, it's not the case where he could talk with him, he was actively bound to a Spirit with a rigid code and that they were fused together. That's just asking for trouble.
>>43864003
>>43864037
Plus, Handsome Beardless Dwarf Crossbow Bard character.
I swear, it's like they decided to make the most deliberately Un-Dwarfy Dwarf ever, and it ended up being really entertaining just because of a solid voice acting and amusing writing.
>Varric: "I met a Ben-Hassrath once. Do you know Talis?"
>Iron Bull: *sarcastically* "I met a surface dwarf smith once. Do you know him?"
>Varric: "Know him? Tiny, I'm the head of the Dwarven Merchant Guild. Not only do I probably know him, he probably owes me MONEY."
>Bull: "Oh...well...no, I don't know Tallis. Sorry."
>>43864119
Oh yeah, DA2's combat is fucking horrendous. I only played as a mage, so some of the spell variance was okay, but at the end of the day, you really just are trying to spam the same shit in every single encounter.
I was never a big fan of Dragon Age, but I really liked the much smaller scale of the game, the whole thing with the Qunari and the mages v templars, it was a nice change of pace, especially when DA:I goes right back to world-ending threat territory with these not-Oblivion Gates springing up. The story was fine, it was functional, the characters were pretty goodI waifu'd psycho mage elf Merrillbut I just liked the feel of it overall compared to DA1 and Inquidition.
>>43863934
>Me? DA:I was the last chance I give.
Same. Not only was the game itself unsatisfying, but the version I bought was horrid and Bioware/EA's customer service is even worse.
>>43864193
I started out hating Varric, ended up loving him.
He, Merrill and...Guard Lady were my Dream Team every time. Fenris is a fucking cliche animu edgelord and I can't even remember anyone else. Never went near the pirate lady.
>>43864146
The Qunari are the most interesting orcs ever.
Well okay, I guess the darkspawn are closer to orcs (fuck I hated the later darkspawn designs BTW), but the Qunari are pretty much the "orcs" to the Tevinter Imperium from a cultural standpoint and gameplay perspective as the Big Strong Guy race.
Their whole viewpoint is entertainingly alien while still being capable of followed by someone not in the culture; I can even see the appeal in following the Qun for some people.
>>43864249
I liked Isabella a lot.
Not even because she was a Delicious Brown Fuckmachine, but because her entire personality is Generic Pirate Captain dude you see in cinema all the time (drinks a lot, has commitment issues, loves freedom and loot, has way too much sex, has a shady past and a heart of gold, has terrible BO and a host of absurd pirate stories to tell), only his gender has been swapped.
If Isabella was a man, there'd be nothing special about her at all, but make her a woman and suddenly her whole thing is kinda weirdly humorous when you see just how awkward it is when the pirate character hits on EVERYONE.
>>43864193
All of the other fans of DA I know are female... and they're all still very sad there's no romancing Varric. It doesn't matter if they're otherwise into Anders or Bull or Blackwall or Cullen - they all wanna be able to romance Varric.
>>43864249
Varric is great, and I loved the hell out of Fenris. He's not entirely edgey animu lord, just so happens that's his backstory. While he's wound tighter than a virgin asshole, he's pretty compelling. I was sort of the opposite, never much was interested in merill.
Aveline was a gold tier character, though, and every character, wheather you like or dislike them, felt like actual characters, or were colorful enough to be entertaining.
>>43864252
I was kind of miffed that the first playable Qunari are Tal-Vashoth. A follower of the Qun would have been interesting as hell to play - though I guess that whole rigid caste system/strictly defined gender rolls is pretty antithetical to their stereotypical player base.
>>43864249
>Guard Lady
Aveline, the Manliest Woman on Thedas.
>Blackwall: "So...this Guard Captain lady I hear talk of back in Kirkwall?"
>Varric: "Yeah, she's stronger then you."
>Blackwall: "Right. Just checking."
DA:2 had some great party dynamics.
Even the characters who hated each other were awesome to listen to.
>Hawke: "Damn. We'll have to find a way around these bars."
>Aveline: "Maybe we could bash our way through?"
>Isabella: "That's right Aveline. Just hit it."
>Aveline: "Or we could try squeezing your fat arse through the bars."
>Hawke: "Ladies."
>>43864193
That is something I always liked about Oghren. He's a terribly Dwarfy Dwarves for the Dwarf God full of fightan and boozan and his life is entirely shit because of it. I found it a neat take on the whole thing.
Dread Wolf a shit.
>>43864252
>tfw Bioware will probably give us a more Iron Bull like character rather than another character like Sten
I want to see the HoF's Sten as a character in 4, since he's supposedly now Arishok.
Even better, I want to be playing the simple soldier who's just trying to survive what could amount to a 4 way warzone (Solas, Tevinter, Rest of Thedas, Qunari) and everything else in between.
Think a mix of Origins where you get a unique start up mission to get a feel for the character you picked, and 2 where you're playing a character who is otherwise not special, happens to be the right person for the job at the time.Give me a City Elf background or give me death
>>43864336
Aveline! That's her name, damn, I feel bad forgetting her name now, I really liked her. I remember getting her hooked up with that guardsman, I loved how awkward she was. I could relate. Would have gotten with her if I wasn't going for Merrill...don't know what it is about Merrill that gets me going, but DAMN gimme that silky elven ass
>>43864320
Varric's already in a committed relationship with Bianca though and he'll never cheat on her.
>>43864378
The problem with playing an actual Qunari is that player customization goes completely against the whole thing where Qunari actively suppress individualism within their strict caste lines.
And technically the Inquisitor is just a "Vashoth", since they never were born in the Qun at all and this never left it.
>>43864391
I feel bad forgetting her name, now. I loved her, she was great.
That's one thing I do miss, the party dynamics. I loved hearing everyone just chatter like idiots or joking on walks from place to place. I'm so used to stuff like Elder Scrolls where I refuse to have companions because they slow me down and end up dying, so it's just silence.
>>43864455
Not supposedly. He is.
He shows up in the comics as Arishok.
>>43864446
>implying Anders wouldn't be 100% all for the Fade being busted open for more mage supremacy
I have only played Origins, but I've followed the majority of the story through wiki surfing like a bitch, and Origins has far and away established itself as my favorite game purely for the characters and story. Oghren, Alistair, and Leliana have a permanent place in my heart. And Morrigan was honestly worth keeping around just for her banter with Alistair.
Man DA:O gave me such hope for the setting.
>>43864492
I like how in DA2 one of the random comments Hawke made during one mission is something that should occur to most RPG protagonists but never does.
>Hawke: "....we do a LOT of walking, don't we?"
That's it. No one says anything else.
It made me laugh because it's something you take for granted in most RPG's but in hindsight is kinda ridiculous.
>>43864528
Having played all the games, I like the Feel of Origins the best, and when it came to characters, I liked 2 better. Because it felt like 2 had this feeling of 'a lot of these people hate each others guts/lots of tension that is only held together by the other party members'. The characters felt alive, even if the game did not favors for them
>>43864119
It's hardly just that. The game cut corners and (like a lot of AAA title RPGs) is unwilling to allow you real freedom is giving impact to your choices, even negative choices.
>>43864252
I mean the Qunari/Tevinter thing is basically Turks/Byzantines. The Qun is obviously inspired by Islam.
>>43864559
>Hawke: "One of these days I'm going to visit some place that isn't a festering pit of demons or blood mages or darkspawn or criminals or weird cults."
>Hawke: "Maybe a beach."
>>43864146
how long you think the qunari can keep gunpowder from everyone else other people have got to be at least on some kind of path to figuring it out
>>43864320
To be fair I'm a guy and I wanted to romance Scout Lace Harding and only switched to Cassandra after that was a no-go.
Someone at Bioware is I to shortstacks with all these attractive Dwarve.
>>43864577
>The Qun is obviously inspired by Islam.
Eh....it's opposition to the Chantry and and it's constant assault of the Eastern Roman Empire equivalent is inspired by the various groups attacking them, but the Qun is as far from Islam as you can get.
It's something like....I dunno, Hindu caste systems stripped religious and social status combined with absolute Communism and no theistic beliefs at all.
There's really no real-world equivalent to the Qun, which is why they're so interesting to hear about.
>>43864588
Probably for a while. Since Qunari themselves have their spies to put a kink into any plan like that, and Dwarves will try to fuck anyone over who tries making it other than themslves
>>43864632
Man, I PLAYED a dwarf and wanted Harding in my fucking party.
Hated that I couldn't get a proper romance with her.
>>43864633
That's pretty much it.
the actions they take are more similar to the European colonization of American
>>43864644
>"Shok ebasit hissra. Meraad astaarit, meraad itwasit, aban aqun. Maraas shokra. Anaan esaam Qun."
>>43864689
Well SOMEBODY'S gotta show all those baas the way of the Qun.
>>43864528
I have also played Origins, which I feel is kind of a flawed but good game (in some ways just because any big scale, fantasy, isometric CRPG is going to run up against BG2).
I really liked the actual Origins in Origins and was disappointed to see them drop that, even if some (like the dwarven and city elf ones) were great and others (like the Dalish elf) weren't so good. One other thing I really, really liked is that the NPC dialogue/relationship advancement in Origins is not just choosing the best/friendliest/most positive response. There are NPCs like Shale, Sten and Morrigan who will react negatively to you doing so, so you have to actually understand the character of your party members to get friendlier with them which is just great.
Out of curiosity, did that stay in the later games?
I was also pretty invested in the Archdemon thing and looking forward to DA 2 and DA 3 being Archdemon 6 and 7 and then some kind of insane high concept fantasy finale where you start in Wizard Constantinople and end up warring in the golden city of the gods a la Mask of the Betrayer.
(On a similar note, I really wanted ME3 to involve weaponize all the weird artifacts and space phenomena you come across as attrition on the reapers - it was a big narrative disappointment to me that they made the decision you would just outgun the reapers in the game).
>>43864659
I wondered if they had planned her romance path (Harding) but just didn't have time to implement it in time or some such shit. Flirting with her is wonderfully awkward and her personality is actually one of the few female options that aren't terribad (looking at you Sera).
>>43864633
>but the Qun is as far from Islam as you can get.
I think that that it is absolutely not true. It has the idea of jihad, Janissary allegories, the distinction between nonbeliever not exposed to the Qun and nonbeliever who has been exposed to the Qun, it comes from a desert environment, features poetry fairly heavily, even its untranslated terms are kept similar to Arabic.
>>43864689
God DAMN, that reminds me of this one HILARIOUS game of the DARPG (only one we had ever) where as GM I had some Tal-Vashoth characters who experimented with humor....badly.
Some of my favorite jokes I have them are as follows, all delivered in a deadpan Sten voice.
>"What do you call a dwarf with an axe in his head?"
>"Wounded."
>"Ask me if I am a tree."
>"...are you a tree?"
>"No."
>"What is worse then a worm in your apple?"
>"A Blight."
>"Why did the darkspawn cross the road?"
>"To kill your mother."
>>43864577
The Qun always struck me as being reminiscent of Plato's republic
>>43864795
Actually Par Vollen's a jungle, not a desert.
>>43864720
Fenris had a similar idea, that if you were a blatant asshole, or you were too pitying for the sake of being pitying he didn't much like that. No other character comes to mind in the later games. Despite, say, Iron Bull, being qunari, but he's ben-hassrath, so bullshitting and acting 'normal' is his job
>>43864845
The Qunari didn't originate in Par Vollen though, did they? Multiple verses of the Qun refer to a desert environment.
>>43864845
Everything in its right place, yeah. I mean I feel there's a lot it in that is similar to Islam, more so than any other extant religion or even, potentially, philosophy. I'm sure one of the devs even described the Qunari as militant Islamic borg or something. But that definite works as another good illustration of it, and obviously people disagree.
>>43864893
We don't actually know anything about where the Qunari come from.
Par Vollen is where they are in Thesas and both it and Seheron are tropical jungles, but it's possible they came from a desert somewhere else.
Even Iron Bull admits that not only is it pretty vague in their own records, they don't particularly care enough to find out or ask.
>>43864888
Bull is also by his own admission a really bad Qunari due to his personal issues and all the time he's spent going native.
>>43864830
how did me describing the qunari as European colonizers remind you of that
>>43864830
I wish the group I was playing DA RPG weren't all play by posters.
We had two Tal'vashoth pc's, and one of them was a hot blooded lesbian who was really embarrassing and all for Glory (Who consistently got defeated by the Naive, Ferelden Farmer who picked up a sword out of necessity) and the other was an awkward thief who never did much. thing just kinda fell apart at one point
>>43864976
The Tal-Vasoth had set up an burgeoning colony in Ferelden to use as their home, and their practicing "southern people's humor" to blend in and make others comfortable around them.
Their shitty jokes didn't really help with the blending in at all of course.
>"What do you call a King on a toilet?"
>"Your Majesty."
The DA series has a lot of justifiable criticism leveled at it but each game does at least have a few standout characters.
>tfw you will never experience a good DA game ever again
>>43865202
You never know, someone might give enough of a shit or have enough fun to out some good work into DA4. Here's hoping they go to town with Tevinter and make it as awesome as it ought to be.
>>43865202
Please stop. My heart can't take it.
>>43865202
Inquisition wasn't bad. It was no Orgins but it sure as shit was better than the abortion that was dragon age 2
>>43865294
I couldn't even finish Inquisition it was so bland, plus the combat (which is an absolute trial) was not improved upon in any way, shape or form and it was just plain ugly to look at, but I thoroughly enjoyed DA2. At least it had some great party dynamics and a change-up to the regular fantasy cliche of world-ending threat. Watching the politics, personalities an ideologies tip over in Kirkwall was interesting and getting to be a part of that actually made it fun for me. Not that it was a perfect game, holy fuck did it have a lot wrong with it from stale combat to retarded dungeon design and that fucking dialogue wheel.
>>43865202
I want to believe.
Speaking of, has anyone thought of running a tabletop RPG in DA's setting, but ditching the official rulebook in favor of a better system?
>>43865392
I like a lot of DA2. Even the gameplay changes weren't all bad, and the tactics system was actually better than Origins. Act 2's as good as it ever got, though, and I'd love to see more like that.
I was always a little sad that siding with the Arishok just wasn't an option. Kirkwall was a hell of a mess, and the Qunari might have actually improved it.
>>43865392
I enjoyed DA2 once I started playing as a mage. As a fighter it was a chore.
>>43865684
My first playthrough of DA:O I built my character entirely to be able to pick Fireball at the end of the tutorial. Absolutely worth it.
>>43865684
Mage is absolutely the way to go in that game, if not all of them. I feel like magic just feels more natural to the combat systems they implement.
Now if they'd actually implement an element of danger into it from demons and the like, it'd make the class a lot more interesting.
>>43865898
They did that with the tabletop RPG. There's nothing quite like having a boss mage take a dirt nap because he rolled poorly and is now wandering the fade
>>43865898
Would you really want an RNG mechanic that makes it so you can randomly get possessed while casting spells? I'm fine with there being some gameplay and lore segregation there because that sounds incredibly frustrating
>>43865417
I have an idea to use Warrior Rogue Mage as a replacement for the crunch heavy DA rulebook, but so far, it's just been a thought
