The Plots of DA4

Still think Antiva shouldn't be involved in this game but in the next one so it can get more of a focus. I just see it getting the short end of the stick, barely being involved but Bioware still seeing that as enough and scratching it off the list like they did with the Free Marches after just Kirkwall. Especially if like in your video the only plot they'll go into is the Crows whom I couldn't care less about.
But I saw a rumor that Antiva actually isn't in the game, so I'll hope for that.

Where did you hear that rumor? 

The current Crow plotline is ripe with juicy drama, especially if Lucanis faked his death, so I can't wait for our PC to get in there and cause a reaction. I know that Viago and Teia have a thing, but it sure would be upsetting if our PC couldn't romance either of them... 

Got my Nevarra video, unfortunately I think we’ll probably be confined to the Grand Necropolis



Next week I’ll be looking at the Grey Wardens

You know, whilst I generally like to be upbeat and optimistic if I can, I really wonder if all that juicy artwork, the teaser trailer and various short stories were really a way of getting us excited about visiting these locations and then gently dropping the bombshell they were going to be in multi-player and we would be playing as one of several pre-set characters from the various factions. So, for example, the shots of Antiva were related to a multi-player campaign in which we played a Crow, possibly even the Crow lady (Teia) or her bare-chested companion (Viago) and concentrating on the defense against the Qun.

Meanwhile, our single player game was mainly going to follow a plot centred on Minrathous and would have followed the main story line with regard to Solas. That being the case, now the multi-player has been shelved, some of those locations and characters may have been folded into the single player game with side-plots involving them but adjusted to make them work in Tevinter. Hence the latest artwork being somewhat ambiguous but looking as though the Crows are fighting Venatori in Tevinter.

Mind you, I hope I'm wrong about this. If the Grand Necropolis is part of the main story then it will be interesting to go there and, to be honest, the Mortalitasi and the Grand Necropolis are the things that make Nevarra distinctive from other nations, just as the Crows are the thing everyone associates with Antiva.

Got my Grey Warden video

It looks very much like Weisshaupt fortress will be a big location, but it’s all speculation about why the wardens have been called there and why our PC will go there.

I admit I’m a bit worried about what gervaise talked about, that we’re getting these one off locations in these countries and probably won’t explore much else.

Why couldn't they go sorta AssCreed with it, and have had a different adventure in each smaller country lead up to the true DA4 finale in Minrathous? Dragon Age: Antiva, Nevarra, Starkhaven, etc. I would have bought all of them, $30 each, no questions asked, wouldn't have even cared if the protaganists we played showed up later if their overall goals were small enough (like, the Warden being out of things is a bit weird, but most of my Hawkes never cared about Cory).

I just work to the idea that the only way to deal with it permanently would be to discover the cause, although I can accept that we could just assume weird magic and leave it at that. Let's face it, up until Solas appeared on the scene the Blight was the greatest threat to the people of Thedas and possibly still is given some of the concept art they have been producing.

I still hold to the theory that Solas believes the current world is already doomed without him taking action and that he believes a major injection of magic is what is needed to "cleanse it with fire". So you could simply kill him and stop his plan but that doesn't deal with the underlying problem. Discovering the source of the Blight and a way of dealing with it without destroying the current world in the process is the challenge facing our new hero. If they come up with a solution to this problem, they will then have the option of persuading Solas to abort his plan and help with theirs or simply kill him to be on the safe side.

Well any halfway-decently built generic fantasy world will have multiple nations and cultures in the setting that interact with each other as part of the background world-building. I don't think it follows that there must then be a story set in every single country that was ever mentioned in the background lore.

Seems like people just set up certain expectations that BioWare never claimed any intent to fulfill (which is par for the course in this fandom).

Besides, there's no indication (apart from, again, the fans own doomsaying) that DA4 *is* the finale. It's a fantasy series, there is always scope for a bigger threat. BioWare can just keep making things up.

Still waiting for that EPISODE 3 of Half-Life 2...

Well...

The general feeling of DA4 is much like ME2, the Inquisitor is playing TIM to Solas and the Evanuris Reapers and needs a team to carry out a suicide mission which will stop the impending doom against the galaxy Thedas.

The big difference is that there is no Shepard in Dragon Age, we are basically taking the role of a fresh hero which may or may not be a seasoned badass but who will need to pull the same sort of epic stuff the Commander does.

In general I expect us to be on a recruiting spree across northern Thedas doing character focused missions to gain the companions needed for the big mission at the end of the game.

Besides getting a crew of crazy people to oppose Solas, we will also need magic that matches or surpasses his. Wheter we play as a mage, warrior or rogue we will need the means to stop him from petrifying us on spot like how the Normany needed the Reaper IFF not to blow up on the Omega 4 Relay.

In my opinion we should have multiples origin stories tied to factions and the ones we don't pick up are taken over by companions.

Here is how I imagine the next game will play like:

Origins:
-Tevinter Altus mage caught conspiring with anti-slavery group and is rescued by the (former) Inquisition. (Human mage)
-Anderfells Grey Warden finds out the leadership became corrupt and is rescued by the (former) Inquisition. (Human/Elf warrior)
-Antivan Crow gets meddled in a plot to kill the Queen of Antiva and is rescued by the (former) Inquisition. (Human/Elf rogue)
-Executor explores ancient elven ruins full of darkspawn in a secret mission but it goes badly and is rescued by the (former) Inquisition. (Elf mage)
-Qunari takes part in an important mission that goes wrong and because of that is branded Tal-Vashot but is rescued by the (former) Inquisition. (Qunari warrior/rogue)
-Dwarf of Kal-Sharok is caught in dwarven politics and flees to the surface just to be rescued by the (former) Inquisition. (Dwarf warrior/rogue)

If we play for example the Tevinter mage origin, the Tevinter female mage companion dies in our origin story while we get to potentially recruit the Grey Warden Human male warrior companion, the Antivan Crow Human female rogue companion, the Executor Elf female mage companion, the Qunari female rogue companion and the Dwarf male warrior companion.

If we play for another example the Dwarf rogue or warrior then the Dwarf male warrior companion dies and we get to recruit the female Tevinter mage and the others.

Basically our custom character substitutes one of the potential companions for the story and also affects in which order events play. Your Origin story is basically the first of all the side plots that happen regarding origins/companions and the others happens in the order which you chose to play.

You survived your origin story thanks to the (former) Inquisition's intervention but now you get to be that intervention in the other stories which are defaulted to a pre-established companion.

Besides recruiting 6 party members on the first act of the story you are joined by 3 companions from the (former) Inquisition. Namely Varric the rogue, a Human female mage companion and a Human male warrior companion.

Those three will join you at the end of your Origin story after your guest party members have all died for your escape, including the companion your origin is conflicted with. Also, at the end of the Origin quest you get to choose one of four specializations which is revealed to be the reason Inquisition agents searched for you, in essence you are famous underground for being a "insert your specialization here".

Each of the other recruitment targets is defaulted to a companion with the following specialization:
Tevinter Human female mage - Battlemage
Grey Warden Human male warrior - Champion
Antivan Crow Human female rogue - Assassin
Executor Elf female mage - Arcane Warrior
Qunari female rogue - Tempest
Dwarf male warrior - Berserker

In addition your Inquisition companions have the following specializations:
Varric - Artificer
Human female mage - Rift Mage
Human male warrior - Templar

After recruiting everyone you are throw into the first big mission relating to Solas who is trying awaken an Old God and must sacrifice either your Inquisition mage or your Inquisition warrior companion to survive the encounter. The companion you lost is replaced by either Razikale (mage) or Lusacan (warrior) depending on which of the Old Gods you intervened to save.

The Old God companions have the following specializations:
Razikale - Blood Mage
Lusacan - Reaver

Once you have the Old God companion, he or she will reveal critical information on how to fight Solas and that results in a new round of companion missions that deeply alter each companion. Those missions are also tied to which specializations each character will have besides their starting ones. You also have a mutually exclusive mission for each of the remaining specializations you get in the game.

For the six recruitable specialists, those companion missions result in a hardened and a softened personality state that ties with which specialization the companion will choose with my ideas being as follow:
Tevinter Human female mage - Battlemage + Blood Mage (hardened) / Arcane Warrior (softened)
Grey Warden Human male warrior - Champion + Reaver (hardened) / Berseker (softened)
Antivan Crow Human female rogue - Assassin + Tempest (hardened) / Bard (softened)
Executor Elf female mage - Arcane Warrior + Blood Mage (hardened) / Battlemage (softened)
Qunari female rogue - Tempest + Assassin (hardened) / Artificer (softened)
Dwarf male warrior - Berserker + Reaver (hardened) / Champion (softened)

For the Inquisition characters and Old Gods, they can neither be hardened or softened and thus have fixed additional specializations:
Varric - Artificer + Bard
Human female mage - Rift Mage + Battlemage
Human male warrior - Templar + Champion
Razikale - Blood Mage + Rift Mage
Lusacan - Reaver + Templar

The general idea is that the six specialists don't have a fixed morality while the five fixed companions do with Inquisition characters avoiding blood stuff and the Old Gods picking new powers that draw their curiosity and conveniently replace the base power of the guy who died.

Anyhow, once everyone has been upgraded to better face Solas you learn that he has located the Red Lyrium Idol and is about to execute his plan to break the Veil.

In the following main mission you and your peers manage to actually fight Solas to a standstill until the Inquisitor intervenes and makes good on his promise at the end of Trespasser.

If the Inquisitor swore to redeem Solas then he talks him down, if he swore to stop him by all means he gives Solas a mortal wound and Solas curses at his former companion.

It is then that the plot twists and everything goes to hell. Basically Mythal controls either Morrigan or the Inquisitor (depending on who drank from the Well of Sorrows) to finish off Solas in a way that revives her and destroys the Veil.

That's right, Mythal played Solas to finally revive in the flesh and get her revenge against the other Evanuris who murdered her.

While either Morrigan or the Inquisitor becomes a thrall to Mythal the other one sacrifices him/herself to buy time for you to escape her wrath.

Once your party has gotten away, Solas spirit reveals himself and laments how he died a fool and that his companion/friend/lover died/became enslaved because of his folly.

Mythal begins her revenge in the earnest, hunting down and killing the recently awokened Evanuris before they regain the strenght to oppose her. The years spent as a broken spirit drove her mad with revenge and lust for power as she sees herself as the only one fit to rule Thedas.

This is a good thing for you and your party since while she is focused on killing other bastards that could be a nightmare to face at full power you are left free to gather the scattered and confused factions of Thedas to fight against her.

That is the focus of the third act of the game, gather every power you can to defeat Mythal while Razikale/Lusacan urge you to become the dark lord of Thedas and Solas's spirit/Varric urge you to be a hero and not fall to madness.

You play six main quests which decide the fate of Tevinter, the Anderfells, Antiva, the Executors, Qunari and Kal-Sharok as well as wheter each of your five faction related companions turn on you based on their relationships with you.

After gathering every faction in the north through alliances or coercion, after being empowered by the aid of titans, dragons and spirits or by harvesting them you finally launch an attack against Mythal on the Black City which will change the fate of Thedas forever.

In the end you slay Mythal whose soul flees to either Morrigan or the Inquisitor but as they regain control of themselves she becomes trapped inside a vessel that serves just as her prison because the unwilling cannot become possessed. However, now the game does it's final twist as the protagonist reaches the Maker's throne in the heart of the Black City.

If you have been a "good" character then you reject the idea of sitting on the throne but Razikale/Lusacan betrays you and tries to take the throne for her/himself at which point they are killed by an unknown power that calls himself the Maker and possesses your character declaring that with all Old Gods dead he is now free to rule the world again.

If you have been an "evil" character then you take the throne at Razikale's/Lusacan's goading only for the Maker to posses you and kill the Old God with your hands before declaring that with all Old Gods dead he is now free to rule the world.

Your remaining companions led by your love interest escape vowing to free you from the Maker's control which leads to a DLC where you get revived in a new body and plots to destroy your old possessed one.

That was a crazy ride.