this was on of the questions and answers at raptr:
"Q: Ok so dragon age 1 was my favorite out of the 2 games. I liked the fighting stile better on da2. Ive beaten the first game with every charicter type. My fav was my dalish elf named turrin. In one of the endings i chose to breed my elf with morgan. Will their sons look half elf? And are you planning on bringing back race for charicter selection in the future games? Because honestley that was my favorite thing about dao A: There are no half elves in DA. The Human side always dominates the appearance. Hence Alistair (MD)" source:http://www.princessstabbity.com/raptr-q-a-with-the-bioware-devs-july-8-2014
has this just confirmed alistair having an elven mother?What do you guys think?Faye Cousland (talk) 23:43, July 8, 2014 (UTC)
SPOILERS FROM DRAGON AGE THE CALLING COMING UP:
In Dragon Age The Calling, King Maric had a brief romance with a female elven Grey Warden named Fiona, who became pregnant after gaining an immunity to the taint. She gave birth to her and Maric's son, who was born human and looked Maric The child was never given a name and was speculated to be Alistair. They did not say Fiona was Alistair's mother, but it seems more likely now that he is confirmed to be half-elven.
That or his mother was an Elven Maid and Maric has a huge thing for elves. Supergodzilla118 (talk) Supergodzilla118 23:45, July 8, 2014 (UTC)
That would mean that Goldanna is also half-elven maybe the mother as a thing for humans xp but yeah it seams pretty much confirmed and Fiona is now the leader of the apostate mages soooo she is important xpFaye Cousland (talk) 00:09, July 9, 2014 (UTC)
- That does not mean Goldanna is half-elven. The commonly held theory about Fiona being Alistair's mother was that when she made Maric to promise to make sure her child never knew who his mother, Maric agreed. Not telling Eamon the whole truth (because a royal bastard would have been bad enough, but a half-elven royal bastard would have been too much), Eamon knew what to do. A maid was pregnant and about to give birth, and as it turned out she died in childbirth. Presumably the child died as well because Eamon was able to pass it off as Maric's bastard as the newborn, throwing in the story about the maid and Maric having an affair. Goldanna raising questions was passed off as a child making noise after her mother's death and she was sent off with a couple of coins and told to shut the hell up. In essence, Alistair is a take on the changling, a child replaced with a doppelganger and raised in it's place.
- Alistair being a bastard is an open secret among the nobility in Ferelden, but only three people knew his mother was an elf, Maric, Duncan and Fiona. Two of those people are dead and conspiracies work best when there's only a couple of people in the know. So again, Goldanna is not Alistair's biological sister, she is not half elven.--Madasamadthing (talk) 00:31, July 9, 2014 (UTC)
The problem with the theory that Fiona is his mother is the timeline i mean duncan was like 16 or smth in the book and now he is in his 40ies and alistair is what? 20smth? also Rowan was still alive Cailan was really small. Its very unlikely i think.Faye Cousland (talk) 01:02, July 9, 2014 (UTC)
- Do bear in mind as well that David Gaider admitted that he screwed up the timeline with the first couple of novels. Cailan was in his very late 20s when he died (possibly 29 or so given that the Blight occurred in 9:30 Dragon), and Rowan was already dead for a couple of years by the time of the events in the Calling novel. Alistair would possibly be in his late teens/early 20s. Which makes sense seeing as how he was still a Templar initiate when he was recruited into the Grey Wardens and not a full Templar and the slightly childish and naive attitude he has, because really, he is still just a kid.--Madasamadthing (talk) 01:44, July 9, 2014 (UTC)
- Duncan was 18, not 16, during The Calling and the timeline isn't completely off. There's still roughly 20 years between the book and Origins. Jessica Sutter (talk) 02:28, July 9, 2014 (UTC)
Fiona is Alistair's mother. Confirmed on Twitter https://twitter.com/Mike_Laidlaw/status/486584356337487872. Turuzzusapatuttu (talk) 13:43, July 9, 2014 (UTC)
I knew he was a Royal Bastard...but an Elven Royal Bastard! :) 67.186.21.95 (talk) 14:45, July 9, 2014 (UTC)
What a load of shit! Yes I know the staff confirmed it, but it's still a poorly written plot element. Many problems with this.
1. Duncan's age and years in the Wardens before being near his calling (as said by Alistair) are put into question. He might be too young to match his age in Origins, or not near enough to his calling for Alistair to know he was in the final stages.
2. Loghain's statements about Maric nearly recognizing Alistair except that it would have disgraced Rowan and put Cailan's claim in doubt are basically made out to be lies. Loghain makes it sound like Rowan was alive while Maric cheated on her to conceive Alistair and may have even been born before Cailan. But if these are not true and Rowan was dead by the time Alistair was conceived, then... why didn't Maric claim Alistair again?
3. Even if that were a lie, the extra lie of saying Alistair was the son of a maid who actually existed and who actually died giving birth is illogical. Why would Maric, Loghain, or Eamon link Alistair to a dead mother that was not his? Why not simply claim the mother was some unknown human at a Chantry? It doesn't make sense to link him to a woman who actually existed and already had a daughter (Goldanna). Also consider that this "lie" was not meant for anyone. It was basically just Maric, Loghian, and Eamon keeping this "lie" as a secret, in which case, what's the point? They could have just kept the truth to themselves.
4. What's with the amulet? If Fiona is Alistair's mother, then where did the Andraste amulet come from? Fiona didn't leave him that. And if that was a lie too, then why did Eamon bother piecing it back together? Eamon spent all that time reassembling another lie?
5. Why would Duncan agree to watch over Alistair if he was being given over to Eamon? That only makes sense if the child had no one to look after him.
6. Alistair being linked to Maric at all contradicts what Fiona wanted, which was for her child to be raised away from court. Same goes for sending him to an arling.
7. This basically makes Maric, Loghain, and Eamon horrible, horrible people. Aside from the Walter White-esque fabrication of giving a common amulet to Alistair and saying it was from his dead mother, there's also the fact that you're saying his existence in this world is the cause of his mother's death. Meaning, each one of his birthdays (name-days) is the anniversary of his mother... dying. ... ... ... Hip-hip-Hooray!
8. Again with the amulet, a scene that MUST have happened off-screen is Alistair thanking Eamon like he said he was going to do for piecing the amulet back together. So did Eamon fake a sentimental moment with Alistair when he thanked him? He must have because Alistair still thinks his mother was some dead maid! And for all we know, Eamon only pieced that amulet back together because it cost him 5 silvers and he was mad that Alistair broke it! He may not have even intended to ever give that thing back to Alistair! HOLY SHIT ALISTAIR'S LIFE IS DEPRESSING!!!!! Believe it! (talk) 19:52, July 9, 2014 (UTC)
- Basically the problem is that at some point there was a drastic change in what Alistair's character was supposed to be. I'm pretty sure he was originally supposed to be a good deal older. As for the other things, I think it's because this wasn't some grand conspiracy between Maric, Eamon, and Loghain- if it was I think the lies would have made more sense. It breaks down into three men who had different motivations and opinions
- 1. Maric, while he did want to keep Alistair, respected Fiona's wishes and sent him away to be raised without his heritage(s) hanging over his head. But he still wanted to make sure that he was well taken care of, so he sent Alistair to his brother in law, a man he presumably trusted.
- 2. Eamon, per Maric's (and by extention, Fiona's) instructions planned to tell Alistair that his mother was human and dead. This is where things get complicated. It's possible that Eamon intended Goldanna's mother to be Alistair's wet nurse, or foster mother, only for chance to intervene and she died in childbirth. Or perhaps Eamon just took advantage of the circumstances to provide an explanation for this mysterious baby he was looking after. I prefer the first one since it leaves more opportunities for a young Goldanna to overhear something and get confused about the father of her mother's child (as opposed to a foster brother. I also think the amulet was from Eamon all along, which is why he had it repaired.
- 3. Loghain. I just really don't think Loghain was in on much of this. He didn't approve of Maric's actions in The Calling, obviously, and didn't trust the Wardens. I'm sure the whole thing made him furious. I think that when he said Maric didn't acknowledge Alistair because it would be a disgrace to Rowan that was just his own (highly biased) opinion.
- So yeah, a lot of this is messed up because I don't think they planned it out, but it makes a certain kind of sense if your willing to give it a chance. More so than Maric being completely callous and a possible rapist, at least.--Liam Sionnach (talk) 20:20, July 9, 2014 (UTC)
What annoys me about this is that the codex clearly states that Eamon took Alistair in to save his sister, Rowan, any embarrassment. By the time of The Calling, Rowan is already dead. I know that David Gaider has said that the writers of the codex didn't consult him (or something like that), but still...if we can't rely upon the codex - which should be sacrosanct - well, what can we believe in? *melodramatic sigh* Isabeau Cousland (talk) 23:05, July 9, 2014 (UTC)
To me it seems like the story presented in the game about Alistair being the son of a maid was going to be correct and just that when The Calling was being written, they messed up and became confused about parentage and either they didn't catch the mistake in time or caught it very late that they didn't want to re-write everything and just decided to roll with it. 174.17.232.245 (talk) 23:24, July 9, 2014 (UTC)