Role of Inquisitor and Inquisition in DA4

I fully understood why Teagan would object to the Inquisition. Of course it was a threat to his position at least but also his fellow members of the nobility.  However, that would have been true even if the Inquisition hadn't grown as powerful as it had. The traditional way of doing things in Ferelden is that the freeholders give their support and taxes to the nobility and in return it is expected that the noble will use these funds to protect them from any threats that the freeholders can't deal with themselves. In DAO Teagan was fulfilling that contract as he was down there in the village helping to defend them from the threat that was coming from his own family's castle. Essentially you do not have your position of Arl or Bann by divine right, as the nobility do in Orlais; you have your title because you do your job of protecting the freeholders and if you fail to do this, they are perfectly entitled to remove their support and offer the position to someone else. This system extends up through the ranks so the monarch is also there because they have the support of the Banns and thus, indirectly, the ordinary freeholders.

I constantly questioned what had become of the nobility who ought to have been defending the ordinary people from the threats they were encountering. We even had one noble in a War Table mission complaining about the number of refugees on his land (no the land belongs to the Freeholders, you are just a tenant) and asking the Inquisition to do something about it (do it yourself). Cullen, a native of Ferelden, was only expressing the traditional way of doing things when he suggested we should help the refugees against the noble. Essentially the nobles who just stayed holed up in the keeps instead of helping the people, lost their right to support by those people, whilst the Inquisition earned it. This was especially true of Crestwood. It was not Teagan's place to decide who should or should not occupy the keep there but the local people. Who do you suppose they would choose?

His other argument concerned comparing us to Sophie Dryden and her attempt to usurp the throne. What he seemed to forget is she only did this at the request of (at least some of) the Banns, who saw Arland as a tyrant and needed her as a legitimate figurehead in their rebellion against him. So whilst she went against the non-political role of the Wardens by her action, she was not in contravention of the Ferelden way of doing things.

My chief concern in disbanding the Inquisition or even making it the Divine's private army, was what would happen in the future in Ferelden when it came to the defence of the freeholders? Not only had the nobility failed to protect them before the Inquisition stepped in but they had then been able to sit back and do nothing so long as the Inquisition was doing their job for them. I hope that new heroes would arise among the ordinary people who could become the new Banns protecting the people but I'm not holding my breath on it.

So in raising his objection concerning our failure to leave Teagan was ignoring centuries of Ferelden tradition.

So he became Loghain. “I’d rather Ferelden burn from the Blighted monster rather than let the Orlesians in!”
Or he’s just feeling impotent because once again he couldn’t help his people while we could.
And ooh, we have a fort that was abandoned for years and run by bandits (which again, they did nothing to stop) and some little camps.

No, Teagen was character assassinated. Just another thing Trespasser ruined.

I'm not going to claim deep understanding of graphics applications but I do believe there's differences in what is used for the close up conversations and cutscenes and what is used in actual combat including animations, and combat AI. Assuming that the three characters you named were indeed planned to be in DA4 from the getgo, they likely would only be planned as non-combat interactions. (On a side note: if Cassandra were Divine she shouldn't be there at all. Too many duties in southern Thedas. Too many diplomatic implications of a Divine roaming the north. That part of Trespasser always bugged me and it would more than bug me in DA4.) All the expected things to do while adventuring as opposed to Camp, House, Haven/Skyhold would need to be added. There are narriative reasons to include Inquisition Companions, but not ones that are resource saving.

As for the Inquisitor, you are quite correct that this would be a heavier lift than adding Hawke was in DA:I. Whether that's worth it or not would be up to Bioware and the individual. See below on thoughts of that happening.




There's where we have a major diversion. I don't see Bioware sinking major resources into a two equal (or equalish) Protagonists in one title, especially given the long time since Inquisition came out and the need to hit a virtual home run on this project. Too much risk and getting away from core competencies. Doubling romances and other Companion entanglements while shortening time for them to develop is a recepie for disaster. There are, to me, only two options for DA4: a new Protagonist with little to no in-game participation by the Inquisitor (most likely but not certain at this point) or the Inquisitor returns as Protagonist and the whole other Protagonist thing never happens. (Had an odd thought: The Inquisitor no longer has a green. glowing hand so he/she MIGHT fit Varric's narration from the Teaser). Given this, my own direction was "What is the least resource intensive way for Bioware to give the Inquisitor a mission, maybe two to do in order to bridge the titles without breaking the bank or alienating those dedicated to their vision of the Inquisitor?" Thus, I assumed there will be no 'even' teams. There would be no romances or continuing romances for the Inquisitor. Yes, dialogue would be some different, but with a small mission set, not a bank-breaker. One last thing: you keep throwing around the term nobody like a curse. Someone else was a nobody before he/she walked out of the Fade...

Edit: I forgot twice now to thank you for the links to the Being Human clips. Thank you for those. I hope to review them soon and my apologies for not thanking you properly sooner.

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I think you mistake me for someone who is in for a debate on whether the Inquisitor should or should not be the Protagonist of DA4. I will quote myself on this subject.



The point I was trying to make to Hanako was that the same conditions would exist for a new protagonist in DA4 as existed for the Inquisitor (who wasn't the Inquisitor) at the beginning of DA:I. There's even a living former protagonist with a direct relationship to the Antagonist (Hawke to Corypheus) in DA:I. Want to elevate the idea of the Inquisitor as Protagonist in DA4, fine by me. Tar the other person and that just tars the character who would become the Inquisitor too.

Thanks for your time and interest.

Well the video last summer showcased not just Solas' VA but also two new ones, voicing the characters of Davrin and Belara. So if VA is one of the last things they do, then production must have been further on they we imagine it was. However, I don't think that was the case. Possibly these were voice test recordings of people during pre-production when they were deciding on who to use for particular roles and then they settled upon using the actors that appeared in that clip. After all, I would have thought it would make sense to select the cast for the characters during pre-production to ensure they would be available to use once they swing into full production. Of course, I may be entirely wrong about this and cast selection is something done at the last minute, immediately before the recordings are made, so feel free to correct me if that is so.

Dunno how it is with games, in animated films, voicework is one of the first things to be done as the entire animated performance is based around the VAs. Though technically, I suppose voiceovers are quite important for the acting of the mocap actors.

Voice acting is the last thing done, in Mod development .

For games with a budget, once your story is settled you can go ahead and record the VO, knowing that you might need to bring back a few actors for small additions or changes. This is more similar to film/tv production, where you shoot what you have ready, and reshoot what you missed later.

That's my armchair take... never had a budget hehe.

Solas' voice actor also mentioned once that it's a two year process. 

That is also tied into the choice on whether to work with the Qun or not. If you sacrificed the Chargers to keep the alliance going, the Qun are at some pains to mitigate the impact of the Dragon's Breath on that alliance and then in the epilogue to Trespasser it is mentioned how they are attempting to get the Divine to back the Qun against Tevinter. In view of the idea that the Qun are now meant to be split over the invasion, that seems odd since the request was coming out of the leadership at Par Vollen, who are meant to be against it, so the writers may not pursue that particular plot-line. However, it is also apparent in Tevinter Nights that the Ben'Hassrath, on behalf of Par Vollen, do seem to be working with the Inquisition against Solas but via Varric, so whether the Inquisition was officially disbanded or not, and who became the Divine, may result in some different quests, either as side missions or as War Table missions if that concept returns.

Ultimately, I think the Tevinter/Qunari conflict will have some influence over our mission against Solas, if only getting in the way of our efforts.   I get the impression that he wants to keep them at each other's throats so they will be less likely to interfere with his plans, particularly the Qun.

bsn.boards.net/post/1464859/thread

Don't know how true is it, but still.
Maybe if we launched some sort of movement on Twitter to keep Inquisitor in-game, the chances will be higher or them not cutting it?

If it is only the difference between some token appearance, like Hawke, and just a codex letter or two, like HoF, then actually I would prefer the latter. Personally, I don't feel that Hawke's cameo added anything much to the plot in DAI and diminished them as a character, particularly when it came to their attitude to loved ones (Fenris stands out for me because he was my canon romance). Then their story was concluded unsatisfactorily if they went to Weisshaupt, with nothing conclusive coming out of that visit, a few jokey remarks from Varric and then Hawke just appearing back in Kirkwall in the epilogue slides. Whilst I was irritated that they didn't say what ultimately happened to HoF, at least there was an explanation of sorts why we didn't see them again.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter what the fans think, they made their decision regarding the Inquisitor ages ago and are unlikely to change it now.

The odd thing is though that in that video last year, one of the team said how some people want to kill, Solas, some want to marry him and some want to do both. Whilst it could just be an example of how they write characters that split the fandom, I formed the impression that this was something that was still going to be addressed going forward, bearing in mind we know Solas is going to be in the next game. That leads me to think that there may at least be one final confrontation between Solas and the Inquisitor. After all, there is no real reason why the new PC would want to be romantically involved with Solas, unless they have some very weird sexual attraction to him based off him being their antagonist, so that could only refer to the people who had already played the game and their relationship with him as the Inquisitor. Maybe some players are still going to feel that way about him separately from their Inquisitor persona, but in my case it is entirely RPG. My Inquisitor who romanced him still has faith in him. My Inquisitor who was his friend feels betrayed. My new PC has not yet formed an opinion but it unlikely to see him as anything other than the enemy.

Exactly but I thought that maybe there could be some implied connection without it ever being a full romance, plus it is possible Solas could in some way influence the new PC emotionally as part of his strategy in ensuring the success of his plan. To my mind he has cut out any romantic feelings for the Inquisitor from his mind, beyond perhaps "never forgetting them". To be honest, I found his words to her to the effect that he never did anything she didn't invite, to be rather cold and cruel considering her feelings for him were based on a lie (or at the very least an omission of information). The only reason I have persisted with her affection is that it does give a completely different response from my male Lavellan, who feels utterly betrayed and not inclined to forgive.

Nevertheless, if the relationship they described of the player to Solas is going to continue going forward then that has to mean the Inquisitor is going to be involved in some way. Whilst some players might allow their affection for Solas as a character influence they way they play their next PC, I would imagine that most would wish their relationship to Solas for their new PC to be entirely based on events in DA4. That should preclude any desire to marry him or otherwise feel a romantic attachment to him.