New Dragon Age Short Stories for DA Day

So they did kinda mess it up already. Not entirely sure if it is a typo, but the EA site defaulting to local language took me to the German version of the story, and there it is written as Kessal. Kinda reminds me of how localised Star Wars sometimes turns prison rock Kessel (of 'Kessel flight' fame) into 'Kossal' or something like that.

Kieran is "quantum" though, he only exists if you follow the right quest chain.

it does beg the question though how the Evanuris didn't notice back when he brought the Veil up.

I wonder if DA Kassel is inspired by real Kassel in Germany. And if so, do they have a cool "looks like something from Dragon Age" castle there too

The screaming skull was screaming because he wanted to be buried with his wife, wouldn't make much sense for him to leave their grave.

Either of the two Mourn Watchers in the story might be the mortalitasi that the greater dread looking guy from that bts group shot is bonded to. Since Tevinter nights seem to indicate that they need to be bonded to a mage with Audric.

As a side note, i just realised that Emmrich is the name of the other Mourn Watcher in Tevinter Nights, I'd previously only remembered Myrna's name.

I'm so happy with the 8 year time pass between Trespasser and DA4! Makes sense to me and gives the writers a lot of room to maneuver. It will be very interesting to hear what has happened in those eight years: in Ferelden, Orlais, with the Grey Wardens, with our former companions & characters, etc.

No but I think it was sort of implied in DAO that she was around the same age as the Warden. Also, I would assume she was only late teens/early twenties because she was not yet married (something that the Dalish would encourage at an early age) and there was never any mention of a deceased sweetheart (which is why Marethari wasn't married). Whilst Keepers probably delay getting married because of the amount of training they need to get through, normally they do marry (at least that was the case in DAO) if for no other reason than the hope of passing on their magical bloodline. (Again, according to DAO where increasing the number of mages among the clans was thought important)

There are 2 ways they could approach this. The first would be to say that the initial invasion caught Tevinter by surprise and the warring factions in the Magisterium initially prevented a robust defense (which they said in the epilogue to Trespasser) but eventually Tevinter did manage to make a counter offensive which stemmed the tide. This then left the east side of the Imperium under occupation but the west side largely untouched. The Antaam also did strike against Antiva (as hinted in Tevinter Nights) which brought the other nations in on the side of Tevinter because the Qun had broken the Llomerryn Accord. This meant the Antaam were now effectively fighting on two fronts, which weakened their overall ability to make further gains. If they were still (allegedly) acting without the backing of Par Vollen, this would also have inhibited their progress since the other two branches of the Triumverate would have normally been responsible for supplying the army, etc, which would also have mitigated against further progress.

The second approach would be to do as you suggest. Have the Qun make uncontested progress across the Imperium until only Minrathous was left unconquered. In this scenario I would think the Antaam would have ignored Antiva when unable to make an easy conquest (see Tevinter Nights) and focused entirely on the old enemy. As the Llomerryn Accord would have been respected, the other nations would not be able to come in on the side of Tevinter without breaking it, something they would all be reluctant to do. If the Inquisitor worked with the Qun in DAI, it was said at the end of Trespasser that the leadership on Par Vollen had approached the Divine with a view to her backing the Qun against Tevinter, further isolating the Imperium. Note in this scenario it would seem Par Vollen was backing the Antaam so they might well do a deal with the surrounding nations to supply their forces, which would aid their efforts against Tevinter.

There is, of course, a third option where they do nothing to reconcile the conflicting accounts given at the end of Trespasser compared with those of Tevinter Nights and our prior knowledge of Tevinter's previous history of successes against the Qun and simply have the Antaam making unstoppable progress against them with the other nations sitting quietly on the side-lines not wanting to get involved even if the Antaam did start a second offensive against Antiva. Meanwhile, Par Vollen keep maintaining it has nothing to do with them so technically they are not breaking the Llomerryn Accord. Quite why anyone would believe that after Trespasser is anyone's guess.

Personally, I find all these alleged rogue elements in the Qun, acting without the backing of Par Vollen, rather hard to swallow, certainly when it comes to the Antaam having greater success as a result. The strength of the Qun has always lain in their discipline and organisation across all 3 branches of the Triumverate, allowing people to specialise in what they are best at. Their weakness, if you like, is not having developed individual members to have the ability to adapt and switch to other activities easily. An army needs auxiliary personnel to supply food, mend armour and weapons, transport equipment around from one location to another and provide advanced medical care. That was the responsibility of the Arigena. They also need people to supply intelligence about the enemy, keep up morale, deal with dissent and deserters and process prisoners. That was the responsibility of the Ariqun. The army just does not have the resources or expertise to undertake these duties effectively, as evidenced in Tevinter Nights.

Eight years between Trespasser (9:44 Dragon) and the speculated year (9:52 Dragon) is the running theory.

Well an 8 year gap would give the new protagonist some space to breathe from the baggage of the inquisitor.

He's still Morrigan's son. Which means that even without the soul of an Old God he's still a very interesting character with unique upbringing and possibly the heir to the throne (if his father is a Cousland who married Anora or Alistair or even if his father is Loghain he could still have some claim to the throne considering he's the Queen's half-brother).