Calpernia: From Corypheus to the DA 4 Party?

I definitely think there could be links to some of the more recent stories with this. Firstly, there is the group that were employing Lucanis to wipe out Venatori but particularly those who misuse slaves. So this group might either be a remnant of her spy network who are now revenging themselves on those former allies who clearly did not share their aims, or she could be alive and directing them to do the same. We know there is definitely a slavery abolishing movement in circulation now in Minrathous if not in the whole of Tevinter, to which those Venatori gravitated who appear to have been genuinely hoodwinked by Corypheus as to his aims.

Also, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Calpernia or her former loyal spies are behind the group associated with the Viper. The people of Tevinter that the Magisters forgot sound like slaves to me.

The mainstream Venatori (the really corrupt power hungry ones) are no longer freeing slaves, in fact they never were. That was Calpernia's pet project. According to TN, anyone joining the free the slaves movement are ex-Venatori who joined the cult in the erroneous belief they were going to make an end to slavery and then dropped out of it when they realised that was never the aim. So likely people recruited originally by Calpernia because that is what she believed Corypheus would do, as opposed to people like Erimond, who seem to have been kept away from her. It is one of his relatives who is still a high profile Venatori and not opposed to misusing slaves.

I have to agree with the naysayers here. If Calpernia is going to be an option for recruitment, I would only agree to it if she not only turned her back on Corypheus but the entire Venatori cult. It is obvious from TN that the majority of its leading players care nothing for the slaves they own but only how they can use them. Now my understand was that Calpernia was actively opposed to anyone who misused slaves and punished them for doing so. So to my mind she could be aligned with the people who are killing off Venatori but not still a part of them because she must know now that they don't give a damn about the plight of slaves.

On the whole I would agree with you except the writers seem to imply that hardly anyone seems to know what others are doing, even when they should be responsible for them. I need to check but I don't think Calpernia had been to the Hissing Wastes personally, so it is likely she wasn't aware what they were doing to the slaves working for them. The same is true of instances like the people in the Emprise du Leon. Okay, so they were more under Samson than Calpernia but surely she should know what was going on? Still, if Corypheus was so capable of hiding the fact of what happened to her former master from her, then presumably there was plenty more as well. Otherwise, what was being done to people who were effectively slaves, whether from Tevinter originally or not, doesn't ring true with how they portrayed her at the end and in WoT.

There were other things not related to slavery but certainly to magic that you would think a mage would question. For example, the crazy plot to get the Wardens to summon up a demon army and then think you could control them just because you controlled the Wardens. So if the Warden controlling the demon is killed, who controls it then? To my mind no one. The result, as we saw in the dark future, was a demon army rampaging across the countryside out of control. So how does that restore the Imperium? How does that make it a beacon of hope? The answer is, it doesn't. So maybe Erimond was a complete an utter idiot or just didn't care but we are meant to believe that Calpernia does and as a mage she would be aware of how horribly wrong it could go.

To be honest, the problem is with the writing rather than the characters because you have to ignore an awful lot of inconsistencies for any of the stories to work in DAI.

lol exactly. I remember in the dev diary video they saying they wanted more characters like Solas, someone who was either loved or hated. Well here's an example they can easily build upon.

In fact I think she could be an amazing foil for Solas in DA4 if they decide to mirror her arc with Fen'Harel. The conflict of interest is still there with her imo even after DAI, because she was essentially hoodwinked by Corypheus.

I honestly think any character, no matter how dastardly or villainous, can be given a redemption arc. And I think Calpernia has the backstory and relationships already set up to go in any direction the player chooses.

Personally I hope she is nowhere near the party.

Based off what we see in game, this is probably a valid criticism. What makes Calpernia interesting for me is largely found outside the game in her short story and WoT2, which is something I do find irritating about their approach to informing us about characters in the game. Within the game she seems to be something of a counterpoint to Dorian. He is an ally from a privileged background and defends the institution of slavery; she is an enemy who was a slave and wishes to elevate all slaves to true citizens of the Imperium. She also allows the idea that not all those supporting Corypheus are simply power hungry and only in it for themselves. This idea does seem to have been expanded upon in Tevinter Nights where there seem to be other former members of the Venatori who actually seemed to believe something similar to Calpernia.

The fact is Tevinter is a decaying and degenerate shadow of its former self, beset by corruption among the ruling elite. To some the Venatori appeared to be offering a way to restore Tevinter to its former glory. Now the Lucerni offer an alternative vision. Of course, it is also possible to argue that Tevinter with its current power structure is not worth saving and should be allowed to fail so something better can replace it. That seems to be the view of the group introduced in the short story with the Viper. I must admit I find that faction interesting and hope we do see more of them in DA4. If Calpernia is part of that group then that will be a point in her favour. If she is still part of the Venatori then clearly she neither learned from her experience with Corypheus, nor really cares about the fate of slaves, bearing in mind how leading members of the Venatori abuse their slaves.

And i disliked that Bioware wasted the DAI slot with Blackwall instead of the much more interessing Cullen.

As a companion Cullen would have just been replicating Cassandra since they gave her a Templar spec instead of a unique Seeker one, so I don't really see the problem there. Cullen was still a romance option for those that wanted him and had his own scenes to develop his character the same as Blackwall did, so the only real difference was not having him in your party. My main gripe about Blackwall was that he was never a real Grey Warden and it was pretty obvious something was off with him from the outset but, as with Solas, you couldn't call him out on your suspicions and had to wait until he revealed himself.   I preferred having Cassandra as my main tank and usually never had more than one in my party, so both Blackwall and Iron Bull were redundant for me.

If Calpernia was included then she would be taking up a mage slot but that would be okay so long as her specialisation was appropriate to her and it didn't mean missing out on another character that might represent Tevinter, for example Maevaris. However, I actually think Maevaris would more likely be a contact or advisor, may be joining us for a quest like Hawke or Morrigan, than a full companion. Also, whilst I think Maevaris would be interesting and funny, she would be another member of the ruling elite and I'd like to have a Tevinter mage from the lower ranks. May be a Laetans like Myrion from TN, who knows that in Tevinter being a newly elevated mage isn't all its cracked up to be.

However, it has just occurred to me that if they want to give us a former enemy as a mage companion what about Fenris' sister? Although, I suppose the argument there is that she can be dead at his hands, so I guess that rules that one out. Sigh.

Does this short story go into any sort of detail about how Calpernia thought Corypheus was going to end/reduce slavery, or what she thought aligning herself with him would achieve? Because I find the justification very flimsy. If we're supposed to sympathise with Calpernia, then this goes beyond merely lacking characterisation. Her actions make no sense with her stated goals.

If we're comparing Calpernia to other potential npc companions, I think she already has a way more interesting perspective and backstory than most of the new people who have been introduced as of TN. She has the perspective being a slave as well as a high ranking Venatori. She also has insider knowledge on Corypheus and the orb. It does seem like the writers are setting up the Venatori as a faction of antagonists in the next game so I can see why having an insider in their group would be useful.

I don't think you can reasonably expect a character be a complete goody two-shoes while taking down slavery at the same time. Nothing is ever black and white as that, even Solas says he didn't take on mage-kings without getting his hands bloody. That is what is so interesting about Calpernia to me, and how she plans on achieving that goal, and if we can affect that in any way?

You absolutely can. We have such examples in our own history.

Maybe elaborate?

I'm really curious to hear who you think has made significant advances toward the abolishment of slavery that you wouldn't also condemn for something else 'utterly disgusting' they did or were or thought. That seems really, really unlikely based on your values so far as I've seen them expressed.

Even if it was the case though, the hypothetical existence of singularly good people who worked to free slaves doesn't really answer the question of why you'd need or expect any given character with that goal to live up to those particular few examples. Generally, the people who have done the most to end those institution throughout history were clearly still enormously flawed and controversial people by modern Western standards, even in regards to slavery itself.

I'm with Panda on this one. The biggest problem with this narrative about Calpernia is that it's just really hard to imagine her unironically joining Corypheus in order to free slaves without realizing that that's like setting the beehive on fire to free the workers from the queen. In which case she's insane, idiotic or just plain lying about her motives, and not reliable ally material in any case even if her intentions were something that did resemble pure.

The most interesting thing they could do with her in my view would be to let her just direct the remnants of the Venatori toward something that furthered the cause of freedom for the downtrodden or what have you, either intentionally or inadvertently, and then when the player character meets her and has to judge whether or not to approve of/support/allow/condone the organization's activities they have to weigh the actual good they're demonstrably doing right now against their judgement of her as a person. 

She doesn't have a leg to stand on if she's proposing to help you do good or anything like that, because her credibility is just too damaged, but if the circumstances had converged to objectively make her a current and relevant force for good in the world and we had to weigh that against her history and the likelihood of a betrayal... I mean, that could be a dilemma.