How did reading DA books impact the way you view Inquisition? **Spoilers**

Fir me? Not at all.

Played all the games before reading the books.

People said that The Stolen Throne would help you understand Loghain. I did understand him more; now I know, instead of suspect, that he would rather be executed in Origins. It also helps me understand the Fereldan throne responisbilities would make nearly anyone miserable. So, kinda glad my cannon elf let Alistair stay a Warden.

The Last Flight made me feel more angry for the elves by like x a million.

The Masked Empire made me understand that no matter how effed up they are, Briala and Celene love each other. And that Gaspard will never be my canon ruler.

And the one about the Grey Wardens (The Calling) made me cry so hard at the dog scene. But also showed the darker side of the Wardens WAAAAAY better than Adamant ever could. IT also showed the epic side of the Wardens. You could embrace their entire picture. Adamant was kinda one sided and...absurd.

I was never a big fan of Fiona, and her appearance in Asunder didn't make a lot of sense to me. Anyone could have been Grand Enchanter - why her? As a result, whoever she was in DAI didn't really phase me at all, other than being just one more NPC who ate a bowl full of stupid. Now if Adrian had somehow been in DAI, I would have hated her on sight and wished for a way to kill her immediately.

For myself, I liked the away Asunder picked up where DA2 left off regarding the mage-Templar conflict. So it now baffles me that the developers chose to focus Inquisition on Corytheus and red lyrium and relegated the mage-Templar war to a training tutorial in the Hinterlands. At minimum, they could've made Adrian one of the bosses you have to fight in the apostate encampment in the Hinterlands.

I liked ME and it was sad to see the Orlesian Civil War also sidetracked by the Cory plot. I would've liked more interaction with Briala, Celene, and Gaspard. (Was anyone surprised they made Celene so old in WEWH? Celene and Bri are Bards and Gaspard a chevalier, but they see no action in WEWH.) I hated Gaspard at first, but came to appreciate his sense of honor while in the world of eluvians and how he chose not to expose Michel de Chevin after finding out he was half elf. Finding out that Celene was ultimately responsible for the death of Briala's parents makes me wonder how they can make reconciling Celene and Briala a solution for WEWH. And as for Michel, at the end of the book, he vows to kill Imshael. So why didn't they involve him in that boss fight?

As to Fiona, I actually liked seeing her in Inquisition after having read the Calling. Perhaps her notoriety as a former Grey Warden who lost the taint helped her rise to First Enchanter.

I read the Masked Empire after I played Inquisition, but after I'd read, I realised the backstory around certain characters that appeared in the game, if only briefly - Michel de Chevin, Mhiris and the desire demon - sorry, choice spirit

It would have been interesting to have some of that knowledge within the game itself.

You can get some of that via some of the Inquisition Perks.  For example, if you get "Nobility Knowledge" or however they called it, your Inquisitor will recognize Michel de Chevin and say something about he had been dishonored.  Also, if you had brought Vivienne with you, she would've recognized Michel as well.  (It's a pity taking Vivienne with you on WEWH doesn't serve to enlighten the Inquisitor on Orlesian politics as much as one might think.)  That said, I thought the perk system was pretty lame and more knowledge from the books incorporated to the games.  I guess they were concerned about confusing gamers who hadn't read the books.  

My favorite is in Leliana's blurb about assigning Michel, she mentions Briala's eluvian network! Why didn't THAT come up before, especially when Morrigan drags one into Skyhold? I think Cullen is the only one who mentions being worried about it, but only if you click on him in his office at the right time. Otherwise, no one says a word.

Ditto on pretty much everything! The books made the world of DA richer and DAI -- despite its immensity -- barely scratched the surface or focused on the wrong things.  I did like the way Briala was depicted; she was easily the prettiest elf in DAI even with the mask!  (Starting with DA2, in trying to make elves a more distinctly different species of people, they made most of the them rather homely.  Briala and Merril being key exceptions.)  As to Celene, they made her an old woman?  From ME, I expected her and Briala to be about the same age.  I would've expected Celene to be mature (she was a possible marriage prospect for Cailan after all) but not elderly.  As to Gaspard, a lot smaller than the big brute I imagined in the book. 

Reading Asunder made me get to know Cole's background story and his friendships with Rhys and Evangeline more. I wish we got to see Rhys and Evangeline reunite with Cole in the game instead of just having a war table mission. Also, the part about reversing the rite of tranquility, that had connection to Cassandra's personal quest when she finds the missing Seekers.

I also read Masked Empire and doing the WEWH main story quest, I can't stand Celene, Gaspard and Briala. They were stupid enough to not only cause the civil war in Orlais, but they didn't notice Florianne took advantage of them to plot her machinations. I forced all three to work together. They deserve each other. As for Michel and Imshael, at least you help Michel destroy the demon. But in a war table mission where Celene attempted to reconcile with him, Leliana had a good point that if Celene wished to reconcile, she would've done it publicly instead of sending a messenger to meet with Michel in secret. As for Mihris, in one of my runs, my Necromancer told her off and Mihris was like, "Fool! May the Dread Wolf take you!" Solas was in the party and I'm sitting there going, 'He's standing right next to you!'

Yes, that was Mhiris.
Celene will attempt to reconcile via war table mission after completing WEWH and recruiting Michel. The war table mission is only available if Celene rules alone.

Mhiris was rather homely in the Hinterlands! lol I appreciate that they wanted the elves to be more distinctive as a race, but did they have to make so many of them so ugly? (Key exception being Briala.) Interesting that Celene immediately reaches for Michel when she can't have Briala. In my run-throughs, I always did the "make them all work together" solution or the "lesbian love connection" solution of reuniting Celene and Briala. I never did Celene alone.

For myself, I did not come away from the book thinking Gaspard was particularly racist, at least by Orlesian standards.  Yes, he does arrange a particularly racist theater production to manipulate Celene into trashing the alienage of Halamshiral, but he did that so he could ambush Celene and her forces in his effort to take the throne.  (One of his few attempts at playing "the Game.")  I was impressed by the fact that after being beaten by Michel and then having Michel's dark secret revealed to him, he let Michel go free with no strings attached.  It demonstrated one of the key themes of the books was to compare the code of the chevaliers with the practitioners of the game.  Chevaliers are honest and direct and honorable but they forever seek to prove themselves in martial activities including war.  The Game is a chess match where the player is ready at all times to sacrifice pawns to achieve a greater end.  Celene has some progressive inclinations, but is quick to sacrifice others if it is in her self-interest.  Think the purging of the alienage and the much earlier death of Briala's parents.  As to which one is better, reasonable people may differ...