Human is the bare minimum generic for any multi-race RPG. Elf or Dwarf (for the first and third games) provide some of the most unique insight due to their upbringing. The Vashoth protagonist of Inquisition is little more than a human because they lack any connection to the Qunari, and their perspective is even less than Iron Bull's as a *side character*.
Are you high? What are you on about? Just because both Rowling and the DA staff ripped off of Tolkien does not mean they are analogous to one another. Get off the high horse.
I always attributed the approval spikes to be a bug in the character flags. He may be a Spirit (watching from the Fade), but logically, he should *not* be affecting party approval until *after* you actually add him to your party.
They could release teasers until 2041 and still never release a game.
So long as they are *adding* features, rather than removing them, I think I could be reasonably satisfied. The moment a series (like DA or Mass Effect) starts removing features more than they create, the red flags should start flying all the way up.
Most of the people who support "mage freedom" in the game would be the first people to call for templars to come if their neighbour's kid one day set the hay bales on fire with just their hands. And the people who think "blood magic is just another form of magic and carries the same dangers" would be the first calling for its abolition if there was even a slight threat to themselves. How's that for a hot take?
Could you provide an example of this supposed "inaccuracy"?
Male Warrior in DA:O, female Mage in DA2, and Male Warrior in DA:I
I beat all of Origins' achievements on console with no cheats or mods, and I beat all of Inquisition on Hard without cheats on console. I think I'm entitled to screw around with the game now. :P
Trust them within reason. But never, ever stop assuming that others may have ulterior motives. People instinctively look for ways to secure themselves as a survival mechanism. Altruism is an admirable trait, but often one of the first that gets cast off during crises.
Hawke, as far as I was concerned, was always *BioWare's* character, not mine. My Warden had a lot more 'head-canon' wrapped around him because it was that the Origin only provided your story, but left a LOT open for you to decide for yourself both within it and after it. Hawke has way too much of BioWare's narrative needs forced on them. Many of the choices in DA2 basically don't go anywhere, and barely feed into the next game. The complaints around Hawke's possible personality shift have been as varied as they are justified for Inquisition's portrayal of the character.
Both royal governments in Orlais and Ferelden needed a scapegoat to get attention away from their own inability to manage their countries and protect the people from a threat. They fear that the Inquisition is viewed more favourably by the common people than their own rule (and they're right to be afraid). They fear that their respective armies hold more sympathy towards the Inquisition than to their sovereign lieges, and they are right to be afraid. So it behooves them to try and dismantle the Inquisition or leash it to their respective cause because the Inquisition is doing a better job than they are.
The Exalted Council was paaaaaaaainful to go through because it's like a kangaroo court. You've got a borderline sycophant on the Orlesian side trying to brown-nose you into handing over the reins to your army and spy network, and on the other you've got an indignant Teagan who apparently did a complete '180' on his views about Wardens. He even tries to demonize you for liberating one of his country's old fortresses from bandits. BANDITS. And then using said fortress to secure the road so that civilians would not be attacked.
And THEN we get the whole "Solas has infiltrated us from top-to-bottom so now we HAVE to disband or face diiiiiiiiire consequences" element which just goes to prove both the Orlesian thumb-sucker and Fereldan asshat completely right about how busted the Inquisition is. Trespasser was not nearly as good as we might have fooled ourselves into thinking it was.
As a further note, the public truce is arguably the worst option because none of the initial grievances are actually resolved. All the Inquisitor basically does is blackmail all three parties with scandalous information that may be rendered utterly irrelevant outside of the Ball itself, like Gaspard's mercenaries. Without an heir, Gaspard is the rightful claimant to Celene's throne. Making him into a puppet of Briala is potentially disastrous for the elves, not necessarily a benefit. If it ever gets found out that the rightful emperor has been blackmailed by an elf, and Celene's former lover at that, heaven knows what reprisals the Chevaliers would demand on the elves, and they'd probably get them too.
Even if Celene reconciles and cooperates with Briala, as the war indicates, Celene has a tenuous grasp over her own empire if HALF of its standing army was willing to oppose her.
Gaspard, for practical reasons. He has a LOT less political or scandalous baggage that can be exploited. Also, all of his 'guilt' at the Ball is circumstantial. Like, what did he do? Bring in mercenaries when he shouldn't have? Someone (Briala) was actively having the ambassadors and diplomats MURDERED to sabotage the peace talks. Game or not, that's just fucked up when the country is in the midst of civil war. Celene is apparently a patron of the arts and supports academia (such as it is in Thedas), but her reign is riddled with scandal.
I know a lot of folks don't like Gaspard because of his irredentism towards Ferelden (political idea that advocates for restoration of 'lost', 'claimed' or historical territory to a nation), but I don't think that should be the Inquisitor's concern. First and foremost, because Cory is the bigger threat, and the civil war needs a quick end with a strong military ruler to lead what's left of the armies, and second, because the Inquisitor is not Fereldan; they're from the Free Marches. Why should they care about the territorial dispute between Orlais and Ferelden?
I think the premise assumes they actually *deserve* a nation. Last time they got one, it became an oligarchy and effectively reinstated a caste system. Even when left entirely to their own devices, and mere years or decades removed from their escape from bondage, they managed to create a society with no real equality. I don't think the elves can be trusted with their own governance, and I primarily play elven characters in Origins and DA:I. And if we start considering what *human* nation we'd be willing to supplant in order to give them what I think is just a new Dales for them to royally screw up, I think we have to acknowledge that it would almost inevitably lead to military intervention... again. And what would become of the elven mages in the Circles of Magi? How would their status be dealt with? Is this new nation of elves going to repatriate them? Would the Chantry allow any elven mages to leave, even in that organization's weakened state? I consider that very unlikely.
I think what the lyrium does for *non-dwarves* is to forge an artificial connection to the Titans and allowing them to use that connection to 'shut out' the Fade from the physical world. But I think dwarves had this ability originally because their titanic connection was still intact in the past, and can clearly be remade (in the case of Valta). So assuming that's true, a dwarf 'becoming a templar' is basically just trying to regain a piece of their natural state in a fashion that's harmful to them rather than awakening. (due to lyrium's effects when *ingested*, since dwarves' "immunity" is only 'skin-deep')
Well, my option isn't listed, but I didn't duel him OR fight his troops. I surrendered Isabela and the Tome so that his army could finally leave the city.
None. Start over with a fresh cast of companions. Having the same cast of characters spread over three games in a world of several countries, hundreds of cities and villages, and over a decade of wars, Blight, and rebellions is not exactly realistic to me anymore. Thedas is a whole continent. We can probably find enough exceptional people to fill the ranks of the next installment.
@Elegyyy There's no official explanation. She's basically cured *miraculously* through unknown means. It's never since been replicated for any other Warden.
In terms of symbolism, they're exactly the same since both versions represent the sword wielded by Archon Hessarian that pierced through the flame of the pyre to kill Andraste in an act of mercy. The Templar Order adopted this symbol presumably for the imagery of a righteous sword striking through evil to 'save the innocent from suffering'.
I think the direction of the sword's point changing means little beyond artistic inconsistency as @Thehumaneldar points out above.