DA 4 Companion Speculation Thread (time for the new Scribbles and DHMG!)

The shadow Inquisition is an underground spy network that doesn't officially exist that only conspiracy theorists would know about.

They aren't going to go around asking people to join them or ask membership in other organisation saying "I'm part of the shadow Inquisition".

Dagna is an Artificer, and is even listed as such in Inquisition's files.  She could come up with some magical tool to quickly kill entire squadrons.  There's plenty of potential, in both story and gameplay, for her.  I also don't see Harding killing tons of people easily.  She's just another archer, which we've had a plethora of already.

You're barking up the wrong tree with the romance argument.  I don't give a crap about romancing characters.  

I have played Jaws of Hakkon, Harding barely did anything there.

Dagna is fun but is sweet enough she could give you a cavity, I don’t see her brawling into battle at time soon, she doesn’t come across as a fighter.

If we could choose a lady dwarf, my pick world be Volta. Dwarven historian, warrior, and now imbued with Titan magic?

Wynne, Merrill, and Cole didn't really seem like fighters either.  

My main concern is that we're probably only getting one dwarf companion, and I don't want it wasted on Harding.  They could bring back Sandal, Dagna, or Valta, or have an Ambassadoria or Kal-Sharok dwarf.  Harding is not interesting enough of a character on her own, and doesn't introduce anything new culturally(Ambassadoria/Kal-Sharok), or expand on lesser known subjects (Sandal/Dagna/Valta).

I believe Sandal will at some point will be back, with that said he sees what most of us cannot   he (in my mind is a seer) we will see its up to Bioware.

No, not every companion introduces something new or expands on something, but those are also characters I generally don't like and leave as permanent bench-warmers.

I'm kind of wondering if "tall guy(?) in robes" is another version of Qunari Daddy.

I think so too. They have similar style of clothes, similar pale skin, similar height. And Qunari Daddy has spiral tattoos on his bare arms and the tall guy has what appears to be spiral bangles on his bare arms. I think it’s different versions of the same concept.

Maybe some kind of light armored hornless Qunari warrior? Or a tall Avvar human barbarian?

I have to admit that I wasn't overly thrilled when I discovered he was the only one of my companions that was returning. However, it did fit his character that he might want to join up rather than retire from frontline action to domestic bliss.



Actually he allowed us to explore the nature of a "friendly" possession. With Wynne it was simply, I've got a spirit keeping my alive, and that was about it. You never got to discuss what that was about. Mind you, having recently re-played DA2, I think they left a lot of confusion and contradiction over exactly the nature of Anders' possession. Still it would seem it was always the aim to have Justice hook up with one of the DAA characters, it was just that Anders got the short straw, plus best suited the idea of wanting justice for mages. They really had to stretch credibility though to get the timescale to fit.



To be honest I think it was a very heavy handed way of having an excuse to bring back Hawke and bring new players/those who hadn't played Legacy up to speed about the link between DA2 and him. We never really did get to the bottom of why Varric was there at the beginning. At the end of DA2 Cassandra appeared to have been satisfied with his story and released him; then apparently changed her mind and he need to tell the Divine personally, or alternatively she was a fan of his fiction. It did also seem very odd that the Divine hadn't sorted out whether Hawke could be found or not before the Conclave started, so the two people most responsible for her safety would be at her side when she left the safety of Val Royeaux.

There isn't any real need to bring back any characters from DAI who don't have a reason to normally be in one of the northern states. Dorian is the obvious link character with the Inquisition, certainly so far as Tevinter is concerned. He fulfils that role in the comic series, just as Charter does in the Freemarches in the comics and Nevarra in Tevinter Nights. The problem with bringing back Harding is that she has no reason to be in the north, whereas Hanako is right, the Inquisition does already have agents there from the comics, at least two of whom are native to the area (Marius and Franchesca). However, the comic writer has hinted that whilst they haven't got that far in the comics yet, there will be a valid reason given why the main characters of Vaea and Ser Aaron will not be involved in events in DA4, possibly the others as well.

Nevertheless, bearing in mind how they did stretch credibility to have Varric involved from the beginning of DAI, you are probably correct and if they want to bring back Harding they will. Also, if the dwarven lady archer in one of the images is not Harding, then it is rather coincidental that both have the same race, class and hair colouring. Whether she is a full companion is another matter. I suppose that depends on how popular she proved with the writers.

Actually I was also recalling this quote from him on the Vaea thread in response to me questioning the timing of her appearance in Tevinter Nights:



So that sounded to me that Vaea and Ser Aaron at least are going to continue to operate separate from the characters in DA4 and if he also made those comments about Francesca, who is someone who would have a vested interest to still be involved in Tevinter, it does seem unlikely we will see any of these three again. Of course Tessa and Marius weren't Nuncio's creations, so technically the writing team on the latest comics wouldn't have to be told if they were going to be involved in DA4, assuming of course they survive the comic series. Tessa of course does have a closer connection to the shadow Inquisition through Charter, so she could pop up as a contact along the way but I doubt if she would appear as a companion.