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This page provides the storyline for the critical path of Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Background
Prologue
The Wrath of Heaven
The game begins in medias res, with the player character regaining consciousness in the Fade in the immediate aftermath of the explosion at the Conclave. A female figure of golden light helps them to escape the encroaching fearling demons and to return to the material world, where they black out once again.
Hours later, the player character awakens in the Haven Chantry dungeons, finding themselves in chains and with a strange glowing green mark on their left palm. As they are interrogated by Leliana and Cassandra Pentaghast, the Left and Right Hands of Divine Justinia V, respectively, they learn that the explosion had killed every other Conclave attendee, including the Divine herself, and ripped a massive tear in the Veil above the remains of the Temple – "the Breach". While the interrogators suspect the player character of being involved with the explosion, they recognize that using their mark is their best hope of closing the Breach before it grows even larger.
Given little choice, the player character follows Cassandra outside, fighting off demons as they make their way towards the Breach. En route, they encounter Varric Tethras, a former companion of the Champion of Kirkwall, and Solas, an elven hedge mage who prevented the player character's mark from killing them while they were unconscious earlier. With Solas' guidance, the player character uses their mark to close a nearby Fade rift, then continues their march towards the Temple and the Breach.
Arriving at the ruined Temple, the player character and their companions find red lyrium scattered around it and witness images and echoes of Corypheus' conversation with Justinia and the player character just before the explosion – a conversation the latter does not remember having. Solas explains that although the Breach is temporarily closed, it has to be reopened to properly seal it. Demons begin pouring out of the Breach but are defeated by the Chantry forces, and the player character uses their mark to seal it, passing out from exhaustion afterwards.
Act 1
The first third of the storyline covers the rebirth of the ancient Inquisition in 9:41 Dragon and its initial expansion of influence, primarily in Ferelden, putting an end to the Mage-Templar War, and culminates in the final sealing of Breach and the sack of Haven.
The Threat Remains
The inner circle of the Inquisition
Three days after the battle at the Temple, the player character awakens in Haven to discover that they have since been proclaimed the "Herald of Andraste" by the people, thanks to their heroic actions in sealing the Breach and to their miraculous rescue from the Fade by a mysterious female figure, who many believe to have been Andraste herself. Acting on the late Divine's final orders, Cassandra announces the re-establishment of the Inquisition with the purpose of restoring order to southern Thedas in the wake of recent catastrophes. The Herald is immediately conscripted into the new organization and introduced to Cullen Rutherford, the former Templar Knight-Captain of Kirkwall who now leads the Inquisition's armed forces, and Josephine Montilyet, an old friend of the Inquisition's spymaster Leliana, whom she invited to coordinate the organization's diplomatic efforts.
As the Inquisition is not officially recognized by the Chantry, Leliana suggests that the Herald approach Mother Giselle, one of the more forward-thinking clerics, who had last been spotted organizing relief for the refugees of the Mage-Templar War in the Fereldan Hinterlands. At Mother Giselle's suggestion, the Herald travels to Val Royeaux next, but the Inquisition is denounced by both the Orlesian Chantry and the Seekers of Truth. Lord Seeker Lucius Corin then abruptly withdraws all Templar Order forces from the capital, while the Herald is approached by the rebel Grand Enchanter Fiona, who invites them to Redcliffe. They also have a chance to recruit Sera, one of the friends of Red Jenny, and Vivienne, former First Enchanter of Montsimmard and current leader of the Loyalist mages, into the Inquisition's ranks.
Upon returning to Haven, the Herald is informed that the Breach still poses a danger until it is completely closed, and to accomplish this, the Inquisition has to take a side in the Mage-Templar War, as they need the support of either Fiona's rebel Circle mages or Lord Lucius' rogue Templar Order for the proper sealing ritual. The Herald is also given new leads to recruit Blackwall, a reclusive old Grey Warden, and the Qunari mercenary Iron Bull and his Chargers to bolster the Inquisition's forces.
Champions of the Just
Having gathered sufficient power and allies, the Herald journeys to Therinfal Redoubt, a castle in eastern Ferelden where the Templar Order has holed itself up in following the incident at Val Royeaux. Accompanied by members of ten of the most influential families in Orlais, the Herald's plan is to compel the Templar Order to assistin dealing with the Breachor face Orlais's wrath.
The Herald is greeted at the gate by Ser Delrin Barris, a knight of the Order who has been supplying Cullen with information on what's going on in the fortress. According to Barris, Lucius, whose behavior has become more and more erratic, has rearranged his plans to greet the Herald personally. The Herald requests an audience with the Lord Seeker, but is instead met by Knight-Captain Denam, whose erratic behavior convinces the Herald something is wrong. Denam states that Lucius had a plan for the Order, but the Inquisition's arrival at Therinfal has raised too many questions amongst the ranks, and now to salvage the plans, the Templars must purge their ranks of all those not "stained red".
At that point, the Herald and their party are attacked by Denam and members of the splinter faction within the Order calling themselves the "Red Templars". Fighting off attacks by more of the corrupted Templars, the Herald and their party learns that the officers and captains of the Templar Order at Therinfal have been exposed to and become corrupted by use of red lyrium and were slowly exposing the rank-and-file Templars to the substance to pervert them into serving whatever plan Lucius had in mind. Finding Lucius outside the entrance to the Great Hall, the Herald is attacked by the Lord Seeker and dragged into their own mind. The Herald learns the Lord Seeker was never been present at either Val Royeaux or Therinfal; what they have encountered was an Envy demon masquerading as him. The demon tries to gain understanding of the Herald, seeking to take their form and supplant them as leader of the Inquisition, but with the aid of Cole, a mysterious being who manifests themselves into the conflict, the Herald is able to regain control of their mind, expelling the Envy demon and exposing Lucius's true identity to the Templars.
With its deception revealed, the Envy demon hides itself behind a magical barrier and compels the Red Templars to defend it. The Herald and Barris rally the surviving loyal Templars to battle; the Herald is dispatched to bring in surviving Knight-Lieutenants and untainted supplies of lyrium to bolster efforts to bring down the barrier while the Templars fend off attacks by their corrupted former brethren. In the process, with Cole's aid, the Herald learns that the Envy demon and the Red Templars have ties to someone called the "Elder One", who is planning an assassination attempt on Empress Celene and plotting to summon an army of demons to conquer southern Thedas.
Once the task is completed, the Templars bring down the barrier and the Envy demon is slain by the Herald. Once the demon is dead, the Templars offer their services to the Inquisition to close the Breach as atonement for their failures. The Herald is given the choice of either preserving or disbanding the Templar Order as it exists, but either way, the aid of the Templars for sealing the Breach is gained.
In Hushed Whispers
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Felix and Gereon Alexius
At Fiona's invitation, the Herald travels to the village of Redcliffe. After closing a Fade rift that can seemingly warp time around itself just outside its gates, they discover that no one in the village has been expecting them and that the rebel Circle mages have, in fact, allied themselves with Gereon Alexius, a Tevinter magister who has recently usurped the Redcliffe Castle from Arl Teagan. Fiona claims to have no memory of meeting the Herald in Val Royeaux and informs them that the mages can no longer join the Inquisition. As the Herald begins to negotiate with Alexius, the magister's sick son Felix interrupts them and passes the Herald a note asking for a meeting in Redcliffe's chantry. There, the Herald meets another Tevinter mage named Dorian Pavus, who informs them that Alexius, his former mentor, has found a way to manipulate time itself and had used used it to travel back in time and to secure an alliance with Fiona before she ever went to Val Royeaux. Felix also reveals that his father has joined the secretive cult of the Venatori that is obsessed with the Herald and asks for their help in stopping him.
Should the Inquisitor still decide to pursue an alliance with the mages, Leliana devises a plan to infiltrate Redcliffe castle: while the Herald and Dorian distract Alexius and the Venatori, she leads her agents inside via an old secret tunnel used by the Warden during the Fifth Blight. When confronted, Alexius refuses to surrender and claims that everything he did was to cure Felix of the Taint he had contracted several years ago while in service to the Elder One, the Venatori's mysterious leader whom the cult believes will restore the Tevinter Imperium to its former glory. He then attempts to erase the Herald from the timeline, but Dorian intervenes, and he and the Herald instead find themselves transported a year into a future where without the Herald's presence, the Elder One has crushed the Inquisition, assassinated Empress Celene, and conquered southern Thedas with an army of demons, while the Breach has grown to swallow the whole world.
Making their way through Redcliffe's dungeons, the Herald and Dorian find and free Fiona, Leliana, and the Herald's companions, who have been imprisoned and corrupted by red lyrium. Upon reaching Alexius, they discover that Alexius was tasked by the Elder One to find a way to travel back before the Breach to prevent the Herald's interference at the Conclave; however, this has proved impossible, as the time-altering magic is only possible because of the Breach, and now Alexius has barricaded himself within Redcliffe Castle, awaiting the Elder One's retribution for his failure. They also find Felix has since turned into a ghoul, and Leliana slits his throat, prompting Alexius to attack in rage. After he is defeated, Dorian begins preparing a ritual for him and the Herald to return to their time, but with Venatori forces at the doors, their companions and Leliana sacrifice themselves to buy them time. Back in the present, the Herald makes Alexius realize the futility of his actions, and the magister surrenders to the Inquisition. The monarch of Ferelden arrives at the Redcliffe castle and effectively banishes Fiona and her mages from Ferelden. The Herald can then either conscript the now-homeless mages into the Inquisition or have them join them as allies. Either way, the Inquisition secures the mages' help in sealing the Breach.
In Your Heart Shall Burn
Corypheus and his dragon among the ruins of Haven
With the alliance with either the Circle mages or the Templars secured, the Inquisition moves quickly and the ritual to fully seal the Breach succeeds without a hitch. However, as the Inquisition and their new allies celebrate, Haven is attacked by a corrupted dragon and a massive army led by the Elder One, revealed to be Corypheus, a former magister of the Tevinter Imperium who led the abortive attempt to claim the Golden City only to be cast out as one of the first darkspawn, aiming to capture the Herald and reclaim their mark. If the Inquisition supported the Templars, Dorian Pavus arrives at the Haven gates, warning that the rebel mages have been indoctrinated by Corypheus and are now part of the Venatori cult, led by a woman named Calpernia. If the Inquisition supported the mages, Cole appears instead and informs them that the rogue Templars have been corrupted into the "Red Templars", led by the ex-Templar Raleigh Samson.
While the Inquisition evacuates Haven residents through a secret mountain passage, the Herald leads a desperate defense of the village, rescuing many of its residents and killing one of the attackers' leaders (either Grand Enchanter Fiona or Knight-Captain Denam). As Haven is about to be overwhelmed, the Herald uses a trebuchet to bury the entire village along with a bulk of Corypheus' army under an avalanche. Corypheus himself attempts to stop them and to reclaim their mark with a magical orb, but the mark is now permanently bound to them. Furious, Corypheus vows to start again, that he will return to the Black City and set himself up as a new god in the Maker's stead to restore the Tevinter Imperium to the power it wielded before the First Blight. The magister tries to kill the Herald to prevent them becoming a rival, but the Herald escapes, firing the trebuchet in the last moment. Corypheus is whisked away by his dragon, while the Herald falls into an underground cavern. Regaining consciousness, they stumble through the freezing mountains until they find the Haven refugees' trail and eventually catch up with them.
With the morale of the Haven survivors dangerously low, Solas encourages the Herald to take the reins of the Inquisition and reveals to them the location of Skyhold, an ancient abandoned mountain fortress that can serve as their new base of operations. After a long trek through the mountains, the Inquisition claims Skyhold, where Cassandra and Leliana proclaim the Herald its supreme leader – the Inquisitor, – as the entire organization celebrates them.
Act 2
In the second third of the story, the Inquisition establishes itself in Skyhold and expands its influence into Orlais to stop Corypheus' corruption of the Grey Wardens stationed in Adamant Fortress and the Orlesian Civil War that Corypheus has been prolonging.
From the Ashes
As the Inquisition settles in at Skyhold, the newly-appointed Inquisitor is approached by Josephine Montilyet and Varric Tethras, who have new leads on Corypheus' activities. Josephine has uncovered evidence of an assassination plot against Empress Celene I of Orlais, who is currently negotiating with Grand Duke Gaspard de Chalons, her opponent in the on-going Orlesian Civil War, at the Winter Palace in Halamshiral. As Orlais is the only military power in southern Thedas that can match Corypheus' armies, the Inquisition has an express interest in ending the civil war and securing the support of its victor.
Varric, meanwhile, introduces the Inquisitor to his old friend Hawke, the wayward Champion of Kirkwall, who arrives at Skyhold as soon as Varric informs them of Corypheus, whom Hawke had already fought and seemingly destroyed in the past. Hawke informs the Inquisitor that they have asked an old Grey Warden ally (Stroud, Alistair, or Loghain Mac Tir, depending on the world state) to investigate the nature of red lyrium, but their contact feared corruption in the ranks of the Order and went into hiding somewhere near Crestwood. Hawke asks for the Inquisition to locate him.
Here Lies the Abyss
Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts
Act 3
The final third of the story occurs in early 9:42 Dragon[1] and sees the Inquisition finally take the fight to Corypheus himself, clashing with his remaining forces at the ancient Temple of Mythal, before destroying him for good as he attempts to reopen the Breach.
What Pride Had Wrought
The Final Piece
Doom Upon All the World
Epilogue
After the destruction caused by the Breach and the War against the Elder One, the nations and organizations of southern Thedas are left with much to rebuild. The Chantry is finally free to turn towards the election of a new Divine: a month after the defeat of Corypheus, Divine Victoria is chosen to ascend to the Sunburst Throne. The measures she enacts are controversial from the start and several sects arise within the Chantry to remove her from her position. The Inquisition's power, ever growing, causes concern to many across Thedas.
At an unspecified time after the defeat of Corypheus, Solas finds Flemeth by an eluvian. They greet each other as friends, and Flemeth calls him 'Dread Wolf'. She tells him that giving his orb to Corypheus was a mistake, to which he replies that he was too weak to unlock its power after his long slumber and that he should be the one to pay the price, but that the People need him. He apologizes to her, which she answers by embracing him and apologizing as well. As they embrace, blue light emanates from Flemeth as she seemingly turns to stone while Solas' eyes glow of the same blue.
Trespasser
Under increasing pressure from Orlais and Ferelden, Divine Victoria decides in 9:44 to call the Exalted Council to give the Inquisitor a chance to determine their organization's fate. Ferelden, represented by Arl Teagan Guerrin, believes that the Inquisition should disband now that its original mandate has been fulfilled, while Orlais, represented by Duke Cyril de Montfort, would see the Inquisition under its control. Tevinter also sends an ambassador, the newly-appointed magister Dorian Pavus. The Exalted Council doesn't last very long before things start to go awry.
Leliana has found a dead Qunari soldier in the Winter Palace, and asks the Inquisitor to investigate. Following the blood trail leads to a fully active eluvian which brings the Inquisitor to the Crossroads. The eluvian from which the dead Qunari came seems inactive, but another one takes the Inquisitor to old elven ruins with potentially hostile elven spirits. The Anchor, which has become increasingly unstable over the last two years, interacts with the magic of the ruins revealing a story of Fen'Harel leading a slave rebellion against the Evanuris. The Inquisitor finds more Qunari in a hidden armory at the edge of the ruins, and their papers reveal plans to infiltrate the Winter Palace.
A second eluvian leads the Inquisitor to the Deep Roads, where a former templar who has converted to the Qun warns that the Qunari are led by the Viddasala, and that she's been stockpiling both troops and lyrium as part of a plot called 'Dragon's Breath'. The information he gives them enables the Inquisitor to destroy the lyrium mining operations with gaatlok. On their return at the Winter Palace, they learn that one of their soldiers has assaulted a palace servant accused of smuggling in gaatlok. Leaving Josephine to deal with the political fallout, the Inquisitor leaves again to find the Viddasala.
The third eluvian leads to the Vir'Dirthara, an old elven library said by the spirit of the Archivist to have once contained all the knowledge of Arlathan, before Fen'Harel created the Veil and sundered it from the Fade. The anchor is once again affected by elven magic, and is becoming more and more painful. The Viddasala is there as well, and she reveals that 'Dragon's Breath' was a plot to kill most of the southern leadership to ease a Qunari take-over, in an effort to save the south from being further corrupted by magic. She claims that agents of Fen'Harel have disrupted those plans before retreating to the Darvaarad. At the Winter Palace, the Inquisitor learns that barrels of gaatlok were found in seats of power all over southern Thedas, and that Qunari spies in the Inquisition are partly responsible. As the Anchor gets increasingly unstable and threatens to kill the Inquisitor, they leave for the Darvaarad through the formerly inactive eluvian.
When confronting the Viddasala in the Darvaarad the Inquisitor finds out that Solas is the agent of Fen'Harel who has been opposing her, and that it was his spies in the Inquisition who revealed the existence of the Qunari plot. The Inquisitor follows the Viddasala through multiple eluvians in more elven ruins to reach Solas before she does, in the hopes that he will be able to prevent the Anchor from killing them as he did at Haven. Solas, after turning the Viddasala to stone with a blink, reveals that he's the elven god Fen'Harel and that he plans to destroy the Veil to restore the ancient elves, no matter the cost to the rest of Thedas. He takes the Anchor from the Inquisitor's arm before leaving through a massive eluvian.
The Inquisitor, now missing a left arm, returns to the Exalted Council to decide the fate of the Inquisition: serve under Divine Victoria or disband entirely.