Calpernia: From Corypheus to the DA 4 Party?

Mass Murderer - more than practically every other leader that we are willing to work with in DAI and several companions as well? (Think Celene, Gaspard, Briala, Cullen (he only objected to the arrest of Hawke not the annulment), Blackwall, Iron Bull, Cole, etc.
Tevinter Loyalist - in much the same way as Dorian is except that she actually condemns slavery.  (Bear in mind he approves if you let her go free)
Walked away because she objected to the way he was using them all. "If he would misuse me, he would misuse them all" (May not have got the quote exact but you get the general idea.) For some reason she was under the impression that Cory would abolish slavery (not the only Venatori to think this according to Tevinter Nights).

To be honest I don't think any of his minions thought Cory was going to destroy the world. After all, what would they rule over if that was the case? Short sighted and stupid maybe to think it would end in a good way (for them) but not intentionally promoting world destruction, except perhaps Lucius and the Promissors.

I dare say many of those elves who supported Fen'Harel's rebellion against the Evanuris didn't expect it to end like it did, particularly as he always operated on a need to know basis, which essentially meant he told no one what he intended to do. So it was probably the same with Corypheus, although I seem to recall his intention was to become the god the world deserved in order to restore Tevinter to greatness. It was only after we destroyed his plans utterly that he decided "F**k it, if I can't have the world then neither can you." Bear in mind Corypheus didn't have foresight, so he probably wasn't aware that ripping apart the Veil would result in the destruction we see in the Dark Future.

Based off knowledge gained from the game that is understandable. If you take the CoJ course you do get hints that there is more to her than simply another Corypheus minion. However, you actually have to read her short story to really get a sense of her character and that unlike the rest she is not someone from the upper echelons who thought themselves entitled to more but a slave who knew what it was to have no power and whose welfare was entirely under the whim of her master. That is what made her interesting and would actually give her something in common with the new PC if the latest trailer is to be believed.

WoT2 also confirms that her reason for joining with Corypheus was to fulfil her dreams of revitalising Tevinter by uplifting those currently enslaved to be true citizens of the Imperium because she believed in the worth of people unseen by the powerful. At the time, this made her an interesting character because it was a counterpoint to Dorian and Maevaris, who whilst opposing the Venatori and what they stood for, nevertheless saw nothing wrong with the institution of slavery. Of course this distinction has been watered down somewhat by the revelation in Tevinter Nights that Dorian has now freed all his slaves.

What I find disappointing is that character development now seems to take place in media outside of the games rather than within them. If they did bring back Calpernia then I would hope they would not simply assume people would either remember her from DAI or have read all the associated books and comics but would actually take the trouble to explain and develop her character in game.

For me it showed character growth. Dorian's attitude towards slavery was perfectly understandable given his background and upbringing. He admits it never even crossed his mind to question it before he came south. Then he also points out the hypocrisy of people who condemn his country for slavery and yet have such abject poverty and mistreatment of people in the slums and alienages of the south. However, in TN he says it was due to the influence of someone in the south that he changed his mind on the subject, at least where his own servants are concerned. (It is left open whether the person who influenced him was the Inquisitor, Solas (they have a discussion on the issue where Solas doesn't really give him much room for excuses) or someone else he encountered in the south, even possibly Calpernia).

The opposition to slavery isn't just a modern one. It depends on the culture. So far as Thedas is concerned, Andraste's motivation was to free people from slavery as much as spread the religion of the Maker, something the Chantry is apt to forget, particularly the Imperial Chantry. The way I see it is that now we are heading to Tevinter we are going to encounter people who may well be like Dorian when he first came south and that will not automatically make them a bad person. However, my PCs will always object to it but because of in-world history of slavery and the abuses under that system, not because of anything in the real world.



Actually it is very easy to understand because slaves in Tevinter are trained in a wide range of duties and professions. Slaves can be trained as personal soldiers or body guards (Marius and Fenris) or to serve in the army (Shartan) but they are not granted military ranks, so are basically canon fodder. Fenris said as far back as DA2 that mages could be slaves and Calpernia was just such an example, only trained enough to prevent her from being a risk to her master and living in constant fear of being given to the Circles to be experimented on. Others, like Myrion in Tevinter Nights, are elevated to Laetans class simply because a Soporati citizen sees the benefits to themselves to adopt the mage into their own family, thus giving the mage citizen status. That is essentially the difference between slaves and everyone else; they are not citizens and thus have no rights at all.

If a generous master decides to free them, they become Liberati but still not citizens. This may allow them to join a Circle of Magi, if they can afford it, and be an apprentice. They can also own property. However, Liberati cannot serve in the military and have little power politically. We have also been told that the Tevinter Sicarri are largely from slave backgrounds, whose families are essentially held to ransom against their loyalty to the organisation. The agents of the Sicarri can be from any class.

I still feel that a slave background would be the most appropriate for a Tevinter setting if you are meant to be powerless at the beginning as this doesn't mean you would have no training at all, just no status within Tevinter.

Also i believe that Bioware is well aware that most players have sided with the Mages and not with Templars. I mean the canon worldstate /

We can only speculate at this point. Though if that is Calpernia in this concept art, she seems to be taking an active hand. But... it's still concept art, so who knows.

I wonder if they put the more interesting lieutenant on the CoJ side in order to encourage more people to take it. Calpernia's plot line was way more interesting than Samson. Madox was only vaguely interesting if you had played DA2 and so knew the connection with Samson but at the same time if you had played DA2 then it was puzzling why Corypheus would have recruited a washed out has been like Samson to be his joint second in command. Also, at least with Calpernia it made sense that he would be using a mage as his "vessel". Any filling out of Corypheus character also only occurs on the CoJ side. As a result, even though I am sympathetic to the mage cause, I found role playing reasons to go with the Templars as my canon run, plus it meant I got rid of Fiona who I thought a terrible leader of the mages.

Even if Calpernia doesn't return as a companion, I do think we will see her again.

Based on the tidbits discussed in the Twitter thread about the livestream where a dev talked about returning characters, I don’t expect her to return as a companion.

No, the Nightmare Demon was merely amplifying it but Corypheus was actually giving off the false Calling. He was doing so when he was imprisoned in the Vimmarch Mountains which was why the place was swarming with darkspawn.

I suppose it is possible that the Nightmare Demon was projecting directly into the minds of the Wardens but I thought it was simply a case of widening the range of it.   It wasn't just in their dreams; they could hear it all the time, just like they do with the real Calling.   I thought that was the whole point.  When you first become a Warden you only have the bad dreams but as time goes on it starts affecting your waking mind as well and that is when you know it is time to go into the Deep Roads.

There was a bit about returning characters, and how characters that die/have different endings or fates might not be used again in an important role.