What was your reasoning for the Well Of Sorrows decision?

The way the concept of "God" was explained to me in Theology in high school was that His free will is at least as important a defining feature as His power, and that when the Bible says we're made in His image and likeness, it's speaking more about our ability to decide whether or not to obey God than it is about our power to build skyscrapers or program computers or train animals. So by that metric a PC who drinks from the Well is more of a god when they walk in than they are when they leave, and would be even if the power it granted was more than a bit of extra knowledge and a dragon.

Anyway, back on topic: I've gotten three Inquisitors to that point. I think all three had Arcane Knowledge and thus guessed at the price (as if Abelas wasn't clear enough on it anyway.) The first decided that he can't risk giving up his free will to a being whose intentions he didn't know, and that if it had to be either him or Morrigan who loses their free will it's less risky for it to be Morrigan; she's dangerous, but at least she doesn't have control of a military cult that Varric jokes can conquer Ferelden by looking east. (And its not like that cult didn't have a bunch of mage members, since that was a Conscript Mages run.) The second decided, selflessly, to pay that price rather than let another take it on. The third... was a clan First.

I wondered why Abelas would just up and leave after guarding it for so long. However, it does make sense if you have Solas with you because what he says to Abelas at the end is not what he tells you. He basically says to him that his current duty is at an end. I'm pretty sure that Abelas has a good idea who Solas is or at the very least thinks he is a follower of Fen'Harel or a noble of old Arlathan because he recognises him as one of his People and Solas does not have vallaslin. It would seem only the priesthood of the gods and the slaves have vallaslin (if Solas is to be believed), so Solas would be recognised as someone of authority. The only thing that didn't make sense is why didn't Abelas drink from the Well himself? That way the knowledge would be preserved but no one else unworthy would get it.

By the time we reached the Well, I'd pretty much had it confirmed to me that Solas was not the humble apostate he had claimed to be. The words of Abelas to him confirmed what I had long suspected, that Solas was an ancient elf (naturally I never guessed he was Fen'Harel). The fact that Solas was so against Morrigan drinking and yet would not drink himself, set alarm bells ringing more than anything else, even if he didn't specifically warn me not to. I reckon he was pulling a double bluff as far as Morrigan was concerned; really he wanted her to drink because he knew full well what the consequences would be.

The plot itself though was very contrived. We went to the Arbor Wilds with the intention of stopping Corypheus using the eluvian there. We had no prior idea that specific knowledge there would defeat him and even after we saw him transform, there was still no reason to think that anything we would find in the ruins would help us with the problem. It was still a case of stopping him reaching the eluvian. Then all of a sudden it becomes imperative to drink from the Well because we don't want him to get it (so why not destroy it?) but there is still no reason to think that it will help against him. In the end it only really helps if there is no OGB because it tells us to go to the altar of Mythal. Otherwise Kieran runs off into the Fade and we meet Flemeth there. It is she who gives us the information, the Well just confirms its veracity.

At the end of the day just how much information did it give us? The translation to a few old texts and the ability to command some spirits. Doesn't seem much in return for the loss of autonomy.

The well of sorrow it gives as much knowledge as Mythal want to it's host to have.The voices are bound to her so she is the only one which decide how much the host need to know,and since Flemeth has never shared her secret unless it helped her i can only imagine that the host will gain very little from it.

The only Inquisitors I have that drink from the Well of Sorrows are Lavellans who believe that the wisdom contained therein should go to an elf, not an uppity human witch, or quizzies who don't trust Morrigan as far as they could throw her. So they drink from the Well, because they don't trust Morrigan's ultimate goals or ulterior motives. 

All my other quizzies let Morrigan drink, because they recognize that there is an unknown danger and price to be paid for drinking from the well, and they might as well let Morrigan pay the price since she is so willing. 

The well of sorrow was inspired from the Norse mythology.
Mímisbrunnr (Old Norse "Mímir's well") the well associated with the being Mímir, located beneath the world tree Yggdrasil. The Prose Edda relates that the water of the well contains much wisdom, and that Odin's eye sacrifice to the well was in exchange for a drink from it.

Cole's comment on the Well which went something along these lines :- "There would be too many voices in your head, talking over you. You do not want them."
made me think that the well could have somehow influenced the mind and the behaviour of the host in the long run in addiction to bound them with Mythal,so i decline it unless I possess an Inquisitor who is already bound to Mythal.

Having said that the well of Sorrow isn't going to be important going forward any more than any other imported consequence has any chance of being important going forward. At most it might provide some flavor dialogue or some slight variation on a scene but no meaningfully significant narrative variation that's why I really felt like Morrigan's huge cameo was unnecessary, and giving her this power - which in the end will likely mean nothing, just like the OGB .- just sounded ridiculous to me. Some mage advisor that your character doesn't know, joins your party toward the end, and demands all this power?

This is why I didn't like that the choice was even presented in the first place. It seems like a terrible idea to drink from the Well, but otherwise the X-Factor known as Morrigan gets some kind of special powers... and we can't refuse this nonsense outright by either destroying the well or by allowing someonelse to use it other than her or the Inquisitor?

me? i had none. oh my characters' reasoning? well for lethrias (my dalish) he saw not reason not to trust morrigan, and she wanted the well's knowledge. he did think she should be more careful about it (yes he was worried about morrigan, get over yourselves people!), but if she wants to have and as far as he could tell she was trying to help (regradless of the fact she also had an agenda, like who doesn't?), so as far as he was concerned she could drink from the well if she wanted.

now, 2nd playthrough, satine (female dwarf) she just wanted the power, so obviously she drank from the well. she couldn't care less about morrigan


i think those two will suffice, there were a lot more characters for me but that will be enough. personally i think story-wise morrigan is kinda useless if she's not the one drinking from the well, so you know, there's that.

Drink from it myself most of the time, my inquisitors aren't afeard of no puddles.

Well that's a good reason to drink I I guess ah ah...