You thought Mage vs. Templar was complicated? JUST YOU WAIT FOR...

We've already touched on this on the previous pages. Take these two images:


Both show a landscape that seems to be literally breaking apart but instead of falling it seems to be rising, just as the localised area around the Sacred Ashes site did at the end of DAI when Corypheus opened up a big hole in the Veil again. This is why I was asking why gravity seems to fail without the Veil.   Are these images of events that will occur in our present next game or will we be shown them as visions of the past?

Now it would seem that the elves constructed a whole network of interconnected paths and pocket realms, of which the Crossroads is a remnant, that somehow existed between the Waking World and the Fade, sort of spanning the two, and held together by magic. When the Veil was formed, it split this in two, leaving the Crossroads attached to the Fade, although not wholly in it and the rest outside, resulting in wholesale destruction. I would mention here that the Crossroads is also slowly breaking down as a mage/elf Inquisitor can sense this when we visit there with Morrigan in DAI.

Whether stuff falls up or down when the Veil is removed is anyone's guess. To be honest, I think in the Fade which way is up depends on the person's perspective. Remember how we fall downwards at Adamant, open a rift into the Fade, continue falling for a while, then stop and float back upwards, reaching what should be the ceiling but on touching it, we fall into it and then the viewpoint changes to show we are now standing on solid ground with the opening to the Waking World now above us even though previously, according to what just happened, it should be a hole in the floor we are standing on. So if there is no barrier to the magic of the Fade bleeding into the Waking World, what happens?

Now there was a theory some time back that maybe Solas didn't create the Veil but just moved it, possibly back to where it was originally meant to be because the Evanuris had shifted it to allow them to make their magical constructs. This is what antagonised the titans and caused the backlash that initially destroyed their creations, so encouraging the Evanuris, in particular Elgar'nan, to seek revenge. I'm not sure I subscribe to that idea but it is true that the influx of magic through Breach is what disturbed the titan in the Descent and caused a number of earthquakes until Valta succeeded in calming it. So I would imagine that removing the Veil altogether at the very least would disturb every surviving titan, with associated earth movements as a result.

This is an interesting one because that would depend on whether the Black City was always tied to the Fade or not. It is also possible that what can be seen in the Fade is just a reflection of the city found elsewhere in the Waking World (or another pocket dimension), so whilst Corypheus and Co thought they ended up in the Fade, in fact making contact with the Fade illusion whisked them away to the actual city. Maryden sings a curious line in her song "Mercy for the Elves". She says: "Arlathan fell, deep beneath the oceans floor". This is very strange. The Dalish lore says that Tevinter sank the city they knew as Arlathan into the earth; something that Tevinter were happy to claim credit for even if, perhaps, it was the action of a titan that was disturbed by the amount of magic in play during their war. What neither side suggests is that Arlathan sank beneath the sea. So was this referring to what happened to the true Arlathan when the Veil was created? In which case, since the Dalish also believe that the Black City is the Eternal City and home to their gods, does the actual location lie beneath, say, the Nocen Sea? It is, after all, a curious shape as though something else once filled it. In which case, Minrathous, which lies on an island, may have originally been an outlying suburb that survived the fall.

I figured out the secret plan: out next protagonist is going to be a Spirit with a worldly corruption meter fluctuating based on our decisions.

And our ultimate goal shall lead us to re-entering the Black City.

As for me, put me in the camp of not wanting to choose either one. Let Qunari and Tevinter be a backdrop just like all the other petty squabbles over little things like who owns what land, who prays (or doesn't) to which god. Let our protagonist quietly go about stopping an ancient elven "god" from taking apart something all of them considered just another part of all reality. Let the griffons preen while we call forth Giants of the Earth to do battle against nightmares from the distant past in battlefields who's names will never be spoken. Let our imprint on Thedas be measured not in queens and princes and rogues who bow to us, but by the fact that they are there to bow to anyone at all. And let us smile, nod, and slip back into the stories heroes tell themselves to sleep at night.


(Sorry, waxing a bit poetic tonight. Seriously though, I would like very much for this to be the anti-Inquisition).

The "Arcane Archer" looks to me like a Crucible Knight using Loretta's Greatbow from Elden Ring.

Or close to it.

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This is not complicated: There is nothing worthwhile in the Qun.

I want a Helms Deep siege style scenario with Minrathous so very much.

I can picture now in my minds eye a stormy night with solders of the Imperium singing battle songs as Qunari cannons shred through walls and magical defences. Dealing with a bald elf pales in comparison to the idea of seeing a powerful empire and a dying one duking it out. Magic vs Gunpowder.

Make it a damn spectacle Bioware.