Tevinter Nights - Spoiler Thread

Yeah, I can see it. I was expecting the classic "the apparently less competent of the two will be the jealous traitor" but I was pleastly surprised at see the two being in good terms. I think it may be that we have Illario in the team (tho he seem a little too much like Zevran to me) , and Lucanis either dead or in a solitary mission and we may have to help Illario or decide which one will be the next first talon.

I feel anyway that helping the Crow stabilize their talons may be one of our missions. 

Indeed, I've noticed that too. I think DA4 will start with the beginning of a strong comeback for the Vints. The game could even start with the besiege and assault of Minrathous by the Imperium. A reverse Ostagar if you will. 

I've thought about it a lot and I theorise it was the Forgotten Ones who coined his title.

According to Merrill, the forgotten ones and creators were locked in an "endless war". I believe Solas and Ghilan'nain were deified for their roles in this war.

Ghilan'nain was made a god so they could use her creatures and materials (things like halla wool, hart mounts for riding into battle). Solas was a general who turned into a "god", which is why he seems to have so much knowledge on battle and strategem. Perhaps this was the time he shed his name like Abelas and became "Pride". When Ghilan'nain was made a god, she destroyed all her creatures that were too "untamed". I think Solas asked her to keep the sea creatures because they would come in handy for his schemes against the Forgotten Ones.

This might explain why he is always depicted as a wolf- because as he says, his title became his name. He used the image of the Dread Wolf to create fear amongst them so when he was deified, he was only ever known as the Dread Wolf. It simply worked in the Creator's favour- the Forgotten Ones would always be scared of them and Solas would always have the upper hand.

I think the main reason why Solas could walk amongst the Forgotten Ones without fear is because he was cunning and had a mastery of self - something they clearly admired (read Geldauran's claim). Furthermore, I think he actually earned his title in their eyes through deeds and his character, so they ended up respecting him.

well based on everything I have two counter points.

1. Maybe Strife is a defector from the Qun. A bit of a stretch I know but it does happen and could offer an explanation on how he knew the contents of the note or could read Qunlat.

2. It would make a LOT of sense for Solas to keep an eye on the Qunari and their battle plans. Given they directly have opposed him before... and if for no other reason then to make sure that his plans and theirs won't contradict. Hell I almost get the feeling that the Antaams rush to war might be their frustration at the lack of the Ben Hassrath's efforts to stop him.

To be honest, even if Solas wasn't an issue, I think the Antaam would have attacked Tevinter.

Firstly, whatever the leadership in Par Vollen tried to maintain, clearly they had been planning an invasion of the south once the Dragon's Breath had removed the leadership in various centres across the region. There would have been no point in blowing up the various governments if they weren't prepared to follow it up with a swift coup and even if their agents on the ground could accomplish this initially, they would quickly have required back-up as the various ruling elite recovered themselves. Therefore, the Viddasala was not acting alone on this as it would have made no sense to have done so and she did not strike me as a vain glorious mad woman. This was a plan that had been unfolding right from when the Breach first appeared. However, when her part was discovered by the South before the rest could be enacted, the leadership back tracked as they always do in these situations and denied all responsibility. Then tried to build bridges back with the southern states via the Divine. The problem is they then had their Antaam on stand-by for action with nowhere to go and rather than stand them down again, instead they renewed action against mainland Tevinter. Remember they have never officially not been at war with them. The Lomerryn Accord did not included Tevinter, who refused to sign, and the two nations have been engaged in sporadic hostility ever since, mostly on Seheron, but also on the mainland, the last occasion that the Qun tried invasion being 9:12 in the eastern Imperium around Qarinus/Ventus when they were successfully driven back by the Tevinter legions. Which is why it is clear that Tevinter must be in a mess this time round for the eastern Imperium to have fallen so easily to the Antaam.

Secondly, apart from the issue of the Antaam having been dressed up with nowhere to go after the Dragon's Breath plot failed, there is also red lyrium. As Bull informed us during his personal quest, the Qun were really concerned about red lyrium and Tevinter in general starting to use it. They wanted to stop supplies getting to Tevinter and clearly failed as the Venatori at least have access to it. Plus of course once you have even a small amount you can farm it on the surface with anything organic but particularly people and the majority of the ruling elite in Tevinter, but particularly the Venatori, have no qualms about using their slaves for nefarious purposes. The Qun agents in Tevinter would be aware of the situation on the ground and their reports would have caused concern back in Par Vollen. So to stop the growth of red lyrium use, which would bound to include actions against the Qun, the Antaam essentially engaged in a pre-emptive strike.

Which is why I also think it nonsense to suggest that Par Vollen are not on board with this. They may wish that to be the impression that is given to the South for political and diplomatic reasons but it makes far more sense for them to be behind the Antaam's action than opposed to it. So if the writers are going with the premise that the Qun are divided on this it actually makes everything that has occurred previously in the game, and what we know about their organisational structure, somewhat irrelevant. The Arishok does not have to consult with the other members of the Triumverate before taking military action because that is his responsibility and the Antaam would not attack without his permission. However, if anything the Ariqun would have wanted the action taken against Tevinter because of their concerns about the fact that the influence of the Venatori had not diminished among the ruling elite and the potential danger from red lyrium. So if anything, based on the reports of the Ben-Hassrath agents, they would have been encouraging the Arishok to take action.

The reason the Ben-Hassrath are largely uninvolved with the invasion is that they have got a far more important threat to deal with in Solas. So whilst the Antaam deals with the threat of red lyrium, the Ben-Hassrath continue their hunt for Solas. Seems a simple and sensible enough division of labour to me.  It would also account for why his agent was trying to stir up trouble and bring the Ben-Hassrath and other nations into the military action, also making any sort of co-operation between Par Vollen and Tevinter impossible, because he knows the Ben-Hassrath are on his case and, as Charter says, know more about his movements than anyone.   In some ways,  even without his threat of world annihilation, it is a true clash of ideologies.  The Qun offend Solas with their order and disciplined control of their citizens lives, he offends the Qun with his advocating of freedom of expression and opposition to the restriction and containment of magic and mages.  So long as they both exist they will always be in opposition.

They are more likely to say that is why they want to ally rather than it being the truth. If the Antaam's concern is red lyrium as much as Solas (and we have some evidence that it might be able to be misused by him too) then there is a need for speed, which is why they seem to be pushing forward so recklessly without waiting for the normal back-up of the other divisions of the Qun. Of course, Solas probably anticipated this is what would happen when he helped stop them in the South and that is why it probably plays into his plans to have the chaos of war concealing the actions of him and his agents.

The majority of the Ben-Hassrath are clearly focussed on tracking him down as are the rest of the Ariqun. Whilst the Rasaan is the spiritual advisor to the Arishok, she is also said to be the Ariqun in waiting. So for Rasaan to have left the side of the Arishok to focus on the hunt for Solas' true name, suggests the Triumverate are very committed to dealing with the threat of Solas. If that means working with members of the Shadow Inquisition or any other organisation that is committed to the same aim, they likely will. I think the reason they declined the invitation to attend Charter's meeting is because they did not wish to share information with anyone else and possibly also suspected infiltration of the meeting by Solas' agents, even if not actually the Dread Wolf himself. Any co-operation in the future is likely to be on a need to know basis in order to get the PC to work with them but they will always be working to their own agenda.

If Strife and his clan have not at least joined with Solas then what were they doing up in the area of Arlathan Forest in the first place? It might be the home of the elves but it is also still a part of Tevinter. Merrill was right; the clans would want to stay well clear of Tevinter in order to avoid the sort of thing that happened in an Old Crow's Old Tricks but also the slave hunters. Plus if the forest is full of ancient magical defenders they have a tendency to attack everyone, not distinguishing between modern elves and the other races, rather like the ancient elves that made them. Strife should have known this if his clan had been hanging around the forest for any length of time. Ancient defenders do not understand elven spoken by modern elves; the intonation and inflexion is wrong or something. This was true back in DA2 or the varterel there would not have killed the clan members in the ruins. So the clan would have been constantly attacked as they tried to make their way around the forest. However, if the clans needed warning about an imminent attack on Rivain, that suggests they were probably located on the far side of the forest nearer to the Rivaini border and thus in Antivan territory. We do know there are clans in the wilds close to Antiva City, so probably others further north as well. Antivan Dalish are known to be particularly aggressive towards outsiders but they do take city elves willing to adopt their way of life, as they would have taken Zevran had he wished to stay.

It doesn't make a lot of sense even for a straight forward Dalish; so either Strife has got a conscience about such things or may be he has a use for him. As Merrill would say "it was a nice story but it has a lot of holes." I find it pretty remarkably that an arrow went straight through him without so much as touching anything vital. He went some time before they got the arrow out and Myrion was able to do some simple healing magic, so he was awfully lucky or perhaps Saarbrak was actually a very good shot managing to aim it so it wouldn't kill him rather than accidentally hitting him in the back as he maintained. In fact it seems strange to me that they managed to outrun the Qunari for so long considering Saarbrak allegedly didn't have any problem tracking them. There was a lot that was odd about that story.

I think I will take all the stories in Dragon Age Tevinter Nights with a bit of salt. Dragon Age 2 taught me an invaluable lesson on the nature of the unreliable narrator. Nothing against Varric, he's brilliant, but he does exaggerate for dramatic effect, so I will take any tale set in Thedas with a grain of salt, especially when dealing with secretive and clandestine organisations like any and all the above who featured in this anthology in some shape or form.

I agree and they will continue to use the unreliable in-world narrator excuse if people object.



I prefer the approach that if these organisations should turn up in the future then I won't be surprised. After all, the Executors had already been introduced via the War Table Missions in DAI and the Lords of Fortune turning up in 3 separate stories does seem to point towards this previously unknown organisation making an appearance in the next game.

BioWare always had its own Canon to follow for the comics/books. Like a Dalish Warden self sacrifing, a King Alistair, alive (at least by the time of the book) Winnie, Shale and Fenris, for example. They just choose one version for their works outside the game, otherwise it would make these works harder to make. So, aside a little wink toward Solavellan fan, I would not make much of it. A non friend Inquisitor will surely have their dose of insults by Solas in game.

Addition: a bittersweet farewell in the book was, in my opinion, much more elegant and inspiring to finish the book in melancony than annoyed. 

Probably not but so far as the Inquisitor is concerned who accused him of not caring enough for the elves, I think he might at least have been thinking "...but you did say I should do more for the elves and I promised I would do what I can. Well....."