Lore Video #12: The Guerrins of Redcliffe

Thanks! I try to gloss over the stuff that’s influenced by our in game actions directly, especially when it’s epilogue content like that, so the information in the video holds true for everyone.

Well, as someone who shelled out good money on the two volumes of World of Thedas, I would be disappointed if the entire history recounted therein were to be discounted, even though I am the first to admit that both volumes do contain errors which I feel that had they been "ruthlessly fact checked", as claimed in the preface of WoT1, should never have made it through into the published version. It is annoying when information in World of Thedas directly contradicts codices in the game or doesn't fit with what we know of character histories in game. Of course the stock answer by both the writers and other people when these errors are pointed out is to attribute it to the different interpretations of history, which I am getting rather tired of by now, but is probably how they would account for any discrepancies in this case.

That said, it seems odd that the writer should decide to make an issue over this particular piece of history. After all the Battle of River Dane occurred in 8:99 but victory in Denerim didn't occur until a year later. If Maric was concentrating his efforts on the eastern side of the kingdom, it stands to reason that the Orlesians in occupation of Redcliffe, the most defensible castle in the realm, would stand their ground. The Orlesians originally invaded the country in 8:24 when King Vanedrin was killed but it was another twenty years before the sack of Denerim when the Orlesians finally claimed victory. Even then the Fereldens fought on in a guerrilla war. So whilst taking back Denerim might be regarded as the official reclaiming of the country by Maric, certainly by Ferelden historians, there was still the likelihood that pockets of the Orlesian occupation would remain, particularly if they had a defensible stronghold. Vigil's Keep was clearly one and Redcliffe another.

So I don't see the problem with the history as written in World of Thedas 2. Whilst some of the old resistance fighters were concentrating their efforts on Vigil's Keep in the north-east, others were fighting to recover Redcliffe Castle in the south-west. Vigil's Keep could have fallen after Redcliffe. After all, Eamon's forces were said to have been aided by Isolde feeding them information which probably helped liberate it ahead of Vigil's Keep.

Anyway, World of Thedas was an official Bioware publication that was stated to bring together the lore of Thedas up to that point and not "fanfiction", something that could more correctly be attributed to books and comics which are told with a particular world state in mind. I was more angry about the renaming of Qarinus occurring in a comic (with the apparent blessing of Bioware) for fatuous reasons that seemed to fly in the face of everything we had been told about Tevinter valuing their past and which contradicted the map of Thedas in WoT1 and information given in game in DAI.

Keep making your videos Heimdall using all the source material available to you. I look forward to seeing your history of the Couslands.

I also note that the History of Ferelden quoted in game comes from the pen of the Chantry Scholar, Sister Petrine, who may have omitted niggling little details like Orlesian holdouts when declaring the liberation of Denerim being the culmination of the war. Plus the Wiki points out the discrepancy in dates when she says that the country was under occupation for 70 years but that would only be true if you take the original invasion by Orlais in 8:24 as the beginning (74 years to be precise). Whereas the Orlesians only claimed victory when they sacked Denerim and drove King Brandel into hiding in 8:44 (56 years). Of course these latter dates are given in the infamous World of Thedas timeline.

However, the only correction to the timeline about the occupation given in the List of Errata in WoT2 was that Rebel Queen Moira was born in 8:45 rather than already leading the guerrilla war at that time. These corrections were attributed to Brother Genitivi and of course the section begins with a him saying that he once gave a lecture about the difficulties with gathering historical information and that "Sources may conflict wildly" and so despite the "ruthless" pursuit of accuracy by the author of World of Thedas, it is only understandable that Genitivi managed to find a few errors in the material.

Essentially, as I say in my previous post, it is the writers' standard get out of jail card when they write conflicting pieces in this way. However, to omit source material because of the contradictions is being less than honest with the historical record by only giving one version.   The impartial scholar has to use all sources and hope that somewhere among them all lies the truth.