I've seen it a few times now; people don't like the Lost in Dreams sequence. I don't see where this problem lay, I find it rather fascinating; in the barest sense, it ties a lot of things together. It's my own baseless speculation, but are those who don't like this part, religious themselves?
When you talk to Wynne at Ostagar, she mentions the connection of of the fade and darkspawn. She'll also let you know, later on, about the spirits which don't show themselves; like Valor, if you did the mage origin; and if you notice, Lost in Dreams is lacking in any of these spirits. It's rather interesting, that "civilized virtues" are considered benevolent spirits (justice, valor, faith, etc.), while base instincts are considered demons (hunger, pride, desire, rage, etc).
It's only here that you'll find a lot of codex involving the black city (whether it was ever gold or not, is purely speculative on those who never deal with the fade... that would be the chantry folk). It's hinted - and I admit that I haven't read everything through - that the black city has always been black with corruption, and the first mages to get there, didn't corrupt it, but were corrupted by it. After all, this did happen centuries before Andraste.
For strictly combat reasons, Lost in Dreams gives the Warden several permanent attribute points. Most of these points must be won through combat, of which, differing methods must be used depending on your class; for the most part they force you to break from the kick in the door and slaughter everything. It was here that I learned the joys of long cast large AoE spells; being a SH/AW in Mage Asunder is meaningless, you are a pussy, end of story. For rogues, poisons and stealth suddenly have meaning. For warriors, you end up seriously accessing the worth of your armor and accessories. Often you find yourself in strategic dilemmas.
For all the cursing and cussing I did playing this mission of madness, I loved it. In the purest, it gave you an idea of the danger mages are always in. And showed you the power ranking the demons used amongst themselves; the stronger the demon, the more underlings, and everyone had a pecking order. It was a much more in-depth version of the mage's harrowing.
And just for shits and giggles. I love touching the lyrium veins; the Warden looks like s/he's orgasming. Shadizar666 (Ruck Rules) 22:08, February 26, 2013 (UTC)
I have a baseless speculation about the corruption in the black city. I think dwarves in the primeval thaig were older than the ones we know and they could be mages. However they made a cruel experiment in Fade, which caused a cataclycism and caused their extinction, now they are merely rock wraiths with no memory of previous life. Red lyrium is a corruption from the black city, when darkspawns are mutation of the corruption. Dwarves don't remember that because the 7 founders wanted generations with no memories of the dwarves from Primeval thaig and that's why sharper don't acknowladges events older than the memories. As I said baseless speculation made by using imagination.62.87.147.163 (talk) 22:24, February 26, 2013 (UTC)
I realize that there are attribute points to be gained in Lost In Dreams and I never complain when I get them, but my main problem with Lost In Dreams is that I felt it should have been tied in with the greater objective of "Broken Circle". It wasn't however and so as a stand alone mission it has no relevance within the greater context. --JordanHawker (talk) 04:24, February 27, 2013 (UTC) JordanHawker
I imagine people dislike the Fade sequence because of its length and too much backtracking rather than for religious reasons. Me, I'm one of those rare freaks who loved it. Not for lore -- not enough weird and otherworldly for my tastes -- but for the fact you could alternate between playing your class, a skeleton on fire, a floaty horror thing and a bloody amazing golem. Dorquemada (talk) 09:12, February 27, 2013 (UTC)
For me, it gets a little tedious after a while, having to constantly backtrack just to get a little farther. Plus, it's too long and comes a little out of nowhere. Still, I don't hate it at all. It's fun to use the various new shapes and see the various nightmare scenarios of the circle the fade created, as well as seeing your companions' personal dreams/nightmares (I think they'd have worked better if the dreams actually looked like real life once you entered them, instead of looking like any other part of the raw fade). However, I'm a little disappointed that it failed to take advantage of a perfect opportunity - giving the warden origin-specific dreams (Cousland could see his/her family alive, Amell/Surana could see the other mages making him/her First Enchanter, Tabris could have his/her mother alive, Aeducan could be king and on good terms with Trian and Bhelen, Brosca could be announced Paragon, and Mahariel could see Tamlen alive - just a few ideas that occurred to me). It'd have been a great way to add replay value to an otherwise straightforward quest mostly lacking in choices, reference the warden's origin, and perhaps even add character to the PC (has your warden gotten over his family's murder, or does the murderous anger still live on? Does the mage warden desire to be first enchanter one day or doesn't she want the responsibility? So many possibilities!). Giving all wardens a single, generic dream was a copout, IMO. Still, it's not a terrible quest, just not one of the game's best. Matt-256 (talk) 10:16, February 27, 2013 (UTC)
I'm one of those who liked the quest too. It was overally good and different from "go somewhere, kill someone, retrieve something" type of quests. -Algol- (talk) 18:57, February 27, 2013 (UTC)
I think people's problem is that no matter what you do, what race or gender you are, you play through the sectionh entirely the same, save for companion dreams and boss fight. Nothing you do changes anything in the story.
As it stands, I still like it. It was one of the best ones in the game, especially when I played through it for the first time. Henio0 (talk) 19:04, February 27, 2013 (UTC)
- The hardest part I found, was the blurriness. I had to keep rubbing my eyes and getting coffee to keep from falling asleep. Shadizar666 (Ruck Rules) 20:03, February 27, 2013 (UTC)
The reason why people dislike that quest so much is that its a pretty much several large areas to backtrack, with no chance to visit a shop once started. At least with the other "hated" questline, the Deep Roads, people can break it up into managable chunks: "Got onto the map? Alright, back to Orzammar and sell some loot!" The Circle and the Fade? Nope, you have to go through it in one long slog. The only real consolation and positive way to look at it is that you get seven levels worth of stat increases on top of the 1 or 2 level increases you're going to get anyway. --Madasamadthing (talk) 23:44, February 28, 2013 (UTC)
- So the problem lay with unpreparedness? I don't understand. You don't receive any items in the fade, so you don't need to sell inventory. The only reason a shop would be necessary, is if you're sloppy with your fighting, and going through poultices like a drunkard; which could be prepared ahead of time. Even on nightmare, without being a Mage, it's not impossible to complete Lost in Dreams a go through less than a dozen Health Poultices. Shadizar666 (Ruck Rules) 01:23, March 1, 2013 (UTC)
- You missed my point. Its not about preparedness, its the fact that the Circle Tower and the Fade are the single longest unbroken section of the game. Orzammar can be broken up into chunks, complete a section of the Deep Roads and you can go to another part of Ferelden. Denerim, its a lot of little visits. But both the Circle and the Fade? It is an incredibly long quest that you have to complete, as in you cannot go anywhere else. Its simply boredom and the monotony of the quest that means its disliked. --Madasamadthing (talk) 20:11, March 1, 2013 (UTC)
- So only the parts that cater to ADHD are what makes the game good? Shadizar666 (Ruck Rules) 02:31, March 2, 2013 (UTC)
- No. But if you have to spend two or three hours backtracking through a tower and a world's dreamtime, you can understand why the Circle is considered to be one of the weaker questlines. The rewards are great; you get 8 levels worth of stats through the quest, and more likely than not you can get the dragon scale armour pretty early on if you're smart, but its the monotony that can frustrate a great deal of players. It has nothing to do with ADD or catering to the players who like actionactionaction. Its monotony and backtracking that really gets to players. You might like the Fade, but for a lot of people, the Circle is the questline they want to get out of the way as soon as they can. And its not for Wynne. --Madasamadthing (talk) 00:55, March 3, 2013 (UTC)
- So only the parts that cater to ADHD are what makes the game good? Shadizar666 (Ruck Rules) 02:31, March 2, 2013 (UTC)
Lost in dreams was the part where I fell in love with Dragon Age. I loved the idea of one critical mission actually branching off of and looping back around to another. I loved the fitting blurry, dreamy feel of the world. TheUnknown285 (talk) 10:24, March 15, 2013 (UTC)