The next DRAGON AGE™: Behind the scenes at BioWare

I'm pretty sure that whilst you could focus on dual wielding skills you could still use a bow. I distinctly remember my shadow assassin rogue, equipping a bow to fight the big dragon in Act 3 because I thought it was suicidal to get in close. Then when the baby dragons attacked, I switched back to my knives. It wasn't as seem-less as DAO with the toggle between the two weapon sets and I had to pause, go to the inventory and physically swap them over, but it was possible to do it mid battle. It annoyed the hell out of me when I discovered they had removed that possibility in DAI and the mechanics of dual wielding had me constantly stabbing at thin air, so I changed to being an archer straight away and never looked back.

So Hawke turning up with a bow using a bow wasn't a big surprise for me since I'd already done it in DA2.

I'm making a guess here but perhaps having the blight already stops you being affected by the lyrium. Don't ask me why that would be. They are constantly changing lore. In DA2 darkspawn were being attracted to Corypheus' prison by him. In DAI he was putting out a massive mock arch-demon signal via the Nightmare demon, yet only the Wardens were affected by it. Yes, a few darkspawn came to the surface but really they should have been pouring out in a mock Blight. Meanwhile, I wonder if the Old Gods were aware of what was happening from their prison/lair?

Actually it seems there is a cacophony of sound going on now in Thedas for those that can hear it. There is the song of ordinary lyrium, the song of red lyrium, the song of the arch-demon and presumably an indeterminate number of ancient darkspawn Magisters giving off some sort of tune, not to forget possibly the titans as well. No wonder those that can hear it are going crazy.

Hold on then, wouldn't the Grey Wardens who could hear Corypheus be hearing two songs then? And are we to believe that in the entirety of Orlais there wasn't a single dwarven Grey Warden? And if there was he didn't say, what's your problem? So everyone thinks, that's strange why can't he hear it? So I think everyone could hear it but of course it was the mages that he controlled and they can't be dwarven.

Wait a minute, in Legacy, the Carta dwarves had been eating darkspawn flesh and that allowed Corypheus to control them, so it has nothing to do with the Fade. It has to do with the taint. That is why his prison was swarming with darkspawn as well. The Nightmare demon was merely amplifying the false Calling so it spread over a wider area but it was still the same signal he was emitting from his prison. The writers just conveniently ignored that when it didn't signal a false Blight.

If Leliana was killed in DAO, that is how she survived, through a lyrium spirit copying her, just like the Compassion spirit copied Cole:

"The lyrium sang thought into being. Now time is stale, and the melody is called elsewhere. Until I am needed. I am free."

Some people call lyrium the voice of the Maker but that is clearly just wishful thinking because we have been told the Maker will never be confirmed to exist or not.

Well, it seems we're getting more better quality art from the trailer

"Dread Wolf" 

The Carta Dwarves were tainted and near Corypheus. They were directly influenced, no Calling involved.

In DAI, there is a few Wardens always with Corypheus who are clearly directly controlled as well (his respawn points).

The ones influenced by the demon are under "fear we are all hearing the Calling and accept stupid plans from Venatori" and technically only Clarel had to be affected to let the Venatori inside (then they can use blood magic to control the other officiers). Demons don't know what the taint is based on Warden's Keep DLC, they can't counter/use it and Blinky is in the Fade so his reach is still limited to those who can interact with it (dreamers and mage). And again, I don't remember a single Dwarf Warden in DAI...

Imagine the scenes if a blight ever broke out in Par Vollen.

Just armies of Ogres wandering around. Maker help us all.