DA4: Inquisition involvement and our connection to them

Well I heard a rumor that Cullen was working with Templars (presumably tevintier's) and was building them up to do something. It makes sense if you want to fight an ancient elven mage templars would be a good ally and the tevintier ones are a complete unknown to Solas.

Wild speculation:

Charter and/or Harding will be our Inquisition contacts, supplying us with information, quests, and maybe letters from the Inquisitor to read (like the letter from the Hero of Ferelden in DAI). Dorian will be an important NPC, but no longer with the Inquisition. Iron Bull, if alive, will make a cameo.

Hrungr: remember though, Cullen could end up a wandering madman/serial killer at the end of DAO

That's why it's only "extremely unlikely".

I think they just had no idea how popular he'd become in DAO. It was basically fan demand that convinced BW to bring him into DA2. But if they had intended Cullen to continue on in DA4 in that capacity, I'm sure they wouldn't have included had such negative world states for him.

Surely the Inquisitor/ess will give us a hand in the next game.

How involved with they be? Very, most likely.

How involved would I like them to be? Not at all. I hate the Inquisition as an organization.

I would personally like there to be an option early on in the game where the Inquisition approaches the PC and makes them an offer to join, and for the game to allow us to tell them to fuck off and handle the whole situation without their help, even working against them as they keep getting in our way.

That probably won't happen.

I sincerely hope that regardless of how involved they are in DA4, Bioware will have gotten them out of their system and we'll be able to move on entirely unaffiliated from them come DA5.

Some of my DA4 characters would agree to ally with the Inquisition, provided that particular protagonist and that particular Inquisitor share the same goals. But I would prefer the new PC stand on their own, and not be railroaded into being the Inquisitor's sidekick.

I'm curious; if we aren't tied to the inquisition and it isn't what draws us to the game's conflict, what do you think will motivate our character to be involved in the conflict?

Frankly at this point I'm beyond caring. The PC could be drawn into the conflict by Solas' forces ruining their flower garden or spilling their beverage on their shirt; so long as we're given the option to be unaffiliated with the Inquisition and to kill Solas as painfully and definitively as possible, I'll be happy.

Yes, there are. I'm a huge fan of Loghain & the Arishok. Loghain is, in fact, my favorite character in the whole franchise. And I'm one of the few people who actually likes Corypheus, and I sympathize with him a whole hell of a lot more than I do with Solas.

My issue with Solas is partly that the game very clearly wants me to like & sympathize with Solas. It very clearly wants me to view him as a tragic figure. 

Solas annoys me. His arrogance annoys me. His delusional martyr & savior complexes annoy me. His absolute certainty in the necessity of his plan while at the same time wallowing in self pity about how he has to do this horrible, monstrous thing annoys me. 

I don't care that he manipulated & betrayed the Inquisitor. He annoys me and for that I want to stick his head on a pike. 

Actually I identify with your sentiments here. I hate the fact that this was being pushed on you even to the extent of making the choice to try and save him the option to "redeem" Solas. First run of Trespasser my initial reaction to this was: "This guy has just admitted he is prepared to destroy life as we know it and I'm worried about his soul? Damn it Solas, I'm taking you down." However, if you choose the "redeem" option, the Inquisitor declares "I'm going to prove you wrong". Well that's not the same thing at all. All that means is that you could provide a logical argument that means he realises his original plan won't work - that's not redemption, in other words admitting your plan was evil - he is still prepared to kill all life, you've just offered him an alternative. Then back in the keep the choices are described as kill or redeem again. (Make up your minds).

Looking back on it, with the writers declared intent to close off the Inquisitor's story, it really made no sense. What does it matter what the Inquisitor wants to do if we are going to get a new PC next game? Am I going to be bound to a decision the previous PC made? Will my options be limited because of this? Will Solas only be deflected from his path of destruction if the Inquisitor declared they wanted to "redeem" him.

I like Loghain and the Arishok as antagonists too. There was a lot of wasted potential with Corypheus but then he was never intended to be the main antagonist of DAI since DG has admitted we only got half the story in the game. So it was always a case that the real villain was there under our noses, playing us, all the time. The sympathetic aspect of Solas was only introduced late in the day as well (confirmed by PW) and the romance was a big part of this. Originally he was envisaged as a more the Fen'Harel of Dalish legend that seems more of a trickster from the outset. It is ironic really that whilst he declares that he was always Solas and Fen'Harel came later, in terms of his character development by the writers the opposite was true.