DA4 - Beginnings, Backgrounds and Origins

By random fate, we happened upon Cory and the Divine. By random urge, we went to catch a ball because the Divine thought it important and so, with no understanding, you shoot for it. You wake up with everyone hating you and blaming you for the destruction. And only a mixture of Solas adding importance to your fate by pointing out the hand (which he knew exactly what it was), and Lel and Cass's grief demanding they get answers kept you from being burned in your sleep by the people of Haven.

Then, at sword point and a general preference for being alive, you closed a rift, not knowing it would put your life in danger. You nearly die again from that. But you don't. And because you randomly had the power in your hand to close a rift, mixed with the rumor of the Golden Lady, the ignorant peasants of Thedas raise you up as the Herald. Lel, Jose, Cullen and Cass have no idea if you really are MAker's Bride Led. Eventually, regardless of your belief, Cass joins them because she wants it so badly. Whereas Jose says something along the lines of, "She'd like to think it were true." And in Lel's case, she stops short of openly admitting she doesn't believe at all. She goes out of her way to tell you how you're hardly good enough to wipe her fancy boots on if you don't tell her she'd be a great Divine.

This Counsel can't stop arguing- they all have very strong opinions about how the Show should go but perhaps Jose and Lel both know that to pick an official Leader is to also pick someone that must inspire the people. And none of the counsel is that. How convenient, then, that the ignorant peasants look to you as a Herald of Andraste. And being super intelligent and LEl like, Solas secretly tells you the way to Skyhold because YOU must LOOK like you know shit. You also have a fresh mind, nor are anyone's friend-- and, conveniently, have been doing the Counsel's bidding even as they try to prop you up as the Puppet Emperor.

Now, I'm not saying the Quiz doesn't run around and do some of the Foot work. But the real movers and shakers, the people actually keeping this shit together, is Lel, and Jose. Josephine specifically. Such a subtle woman, but if she hadn't been there the organization would have flat out failed due to lack of money and Public Relations. Wish we could have voted her in as Divine.

Anyway, because you've been thrust into this position, and the game literally does not allow you to fail no matter what comes out of your mouth (and they limited that to an extent, carefully.) You are then conveniently in all the right places to make all these other decisions.

You are essentially Leliana, having used the Game against it's Players at the Winter Palace. But you can also totally suck at that and still keep Celene on the throne.

Saved the Wardens- What were we saving them from? No. They destroyed themselves. We stopped a Demon Army only because Cory's Bad Luck Dragon dropped us off a bridge into the very part of the Fade we needed to go to stop the Demon Army. And by the way... we couldn't have gotten in without Cullen's Army skills and all those ignorant peasants joining up.

I love Dragon Age, but the more I think about the Inquisitor, the more I feel like a chess piece Solas, Leliana, and Josephine are kindly and not so kindly manuevering about. That I can RP making "good decisions" that don't upset my companions too much is more of a benefit than a requirement to the position. The worse that can happen if I'm a bad one is that I won't have as many friends and Cass will get plastered-regretting that she'd caved into Jose and LEl about using me as a puppet Leader.

I know my point of view clashes strongly with others I respect on here who may read this. But to point out the flaws and potential negative feelings of the role does not mean I disliked the game or think your take on it is wrong. In the end, I only speak an opinion of the emotions this game has made me feel.

Both in MEA and DAI I felt I was just a person trying to make silk out of sow's ears. The scene wehre you thrust your sword up declaring your intent is very quickly followed by walking into Skyhold and seeing that it's a total wreck. Your moment of feeling like a powerful hero, chosen one, is over. Now get back to work.

I agree with this. I still like the comparison I made to sort of explain how the hierarchy in the Inquisition works. The Inquisitor is the soul of the organization, inspiring everyone and leading it. Josephine is the heart of the organization, keeping everything running using connections instead of blood. Leliana is the mind of the Inquisition, gathering and processing all the information. And Cullen is the arm of the organization, directing where and how it'll strike. An organization like a person can survive without an arm or even a mind, but they cannot survive without a soul and a heart. 

That's a ridiculous argument and you know it. Even the best RPGs have limitations on what you can do because there is only a finite amount of data for a game. 
Sorry, but the Inquisitor is the leader of the Inquisition. The game says so. The developers say so. Logic says so. 

And with that, let's drop this since we are offtopic now. 

Oh there would. It would just be smaller scale battles, so more like guerrilla warfare rather than two armies marching onto the field(though that should happen a few times too for the crucial stuff). 

Yet such a turd

Same here. Mind you, if they do give us race options then it is almost a given that you would be a city elf considering that it was made clear in DAI that there are no Dalish in Tevinter (except possibly as slaves but then more likely to have been captured as children so detached from their culture).

I really missed the backround stories from DA:O. I hope we'll get them back in DA4 but I'm not so sure about it as I think they're much harder to do with a voiced MC

Personally I'd also like to be a human who's not a noble for a change, although if we really are in Tevinter (and therefore a native Tevinter)I can imagine being a noble if you're a mage, while with other classes you start out as a slave. I can see elves being slaves but don't know if a dwarven slave could work given Tevinter's good relationship with the dwarves

I think the partial origins/varying introductions could work the best. Just enough to make your character feel unique while not being overly complex or too disconnected from the main plot.

Since I know we will never get true origin stories back I'm kind of hoping for a situation where we get a vague, easy to headcanon, backstory and that the first third/half of the game is us creating our character in a sense. We are making the sort of choices and accomplishing specific things which pique the Inquisitor's interest into recruiting us. Basically a more mild version of the Hawke style narrative where our importance builds up overtime. But not over 10 years haha. More like 2~ years.

Oh right! Completely forgot about the casteless  I guess that would make sense

Don't know about you all, but I'd like to play as a demon like cole in da4 that has some sort of connection with Solas.

I won't even ask for an origin story like we had in DAO (even though I would REALLY love that), but I hope Bioware will at least give us a proper introduction to our character and not just throw them into the action and say "what you were before doesn't matter". I like my characters to have a background and not be a complete blank slate. It really makes it harder for me to get attached to them. I know some people prefer it that way but I really don't.