8 Year timeskip

I'm hoping this is an indication BioWare will have (finally) learned how to do pacing and scale properly. The setting, like admittedly most things, don't use time well. The first couple of Blights took 100s of years yet Thedas is still (relatively) in tact, but a Blight which lasted only a year in Ferelden left perement scars...its never made a lot of sense...a Blight that lasted for a century plus given what we have seen IMO should have left Thedas unihabittable. And then the other big issues are it took only a year for DAOs plot, only two days with a 'forced march' to travel from Redcliffe to Denerim, and DAIs plot was only over a year as well as it turned out. I'm really hoping this is an indication that they will learn from Assassins Creed Odyssey in this regard a game which had their plot cover most of the back half of the Polypenisian war, about eight years I think I have been told. Likewise I am hoping that DA 4s plot indicates that it takes place over years as well, maybe not as long, but if we are going to be seeing siege warfare and us continent hopping all over Northern Thedas we will need to have a plot which will reflect that properly (Of course this is also assuming I have any clue about Thedas geography so its possible the continent is just really tiny )

With all this in mind I don't know how much things will actually change. I just hope this means the plots they want to include will have a chance to marinate for awhile and be set up within the world. That Tevinter's situation will be darker and similar stuff will be developping for the other potential nations. The biggest change however will mean our heroes that we are used to, given the fact they were already old many of them in Inquisition, will be even older and more out of the fight. Cassandra, Cullen, the Inquisitor Dorian, and Leiliana are all going to be getting up there in age and with I think Cass and Cullen being in their fifties especially they might be retired...or well...dead.

I wanted to comment on this since my lore senses are tingling.

The first few Blights did leave scars bigger than the Fifth Blight. The Western Approach in Orlais was’t always a wasteland, before the Second Blight. The Anderfels too is largely barren because of how hard it was hit during the first Blight. The Silent Plains too maybe, I’m not sure about that though.

That particular point doesn’t bother me so much, I don’t think Ferelden’s scars are as sever as all that. Additionally, the darkspawn were effectively able to rampage without real resistance due to the civil war. I agree with the general point that BioWare doesn’t have a great sense of timescale.

I see what you did there.

Remember back in DAO how we couldn't travel to or contact Weisshauppt because it was said to be thousands of miles away? Then in Asunder DG introduced sending stones between Circles (we could have used the one in Kinloch Hold to send a message to the one in the Anderfels), Leliana using ravens to send messages across Thedas in a matter of days and finally in Trespasser, Dorian produces his own communication crystal, which he says was down to his contact with the Inquisition. Huh? If such things were available, why weren't we using them before? Surely after the loss of the gryphons, fast communication by other means would have been a priority. The Grey Wardens were on good terms with Tevinter and the Circles across Thedas. So why on earth didn't they have communication crystals?

Then there are travel times. Dorian was able to return to Tevinter, spend some time setting up the Lucerni and yet return to the Exalted Council, all in a matter of weeks. Our agents were able to conduct missions across Thedas and whilst we had several different ones, they still seemed to be able to travel with great speed between what should have been far flung locations. Eluvians can explain fast travel now, although we shouldn't have access to them anymore, but back then? Catapults and other siege equipment are heavy and slow to move. How did we get them up to Adamant so quickly? They couldn't have been constructed locally because the Western Approach is a desert, so no resources.

So consistency isn't one of the writers strong points, particularly if they want to introduce a cool new concept which seems to contradict the past. I think the idea is that we should not ask too many questions and just "go with it".

The Qunari had been orchestrating a prolonged period of intelligence gathering at the suggestion of Sten when he was a junior officer. He had said that would be the only way they could achieve their goal of conquest. He said this after their last failed offensive against Tevinter in 9:11. Once he became Arishok, he could start to plan his future campaign based off the intelligence he was receiving.

The invasion made sense and its initial success as set out in the epilogue to Trespasser. I always thought the leadership back in Par Vollen only abandoned the Viddasala when the mission started to fail. A wholesale conquest of the south could never have been achieved without their backing and with the forces assembled but the element of surprise gone, it made sense they would redirect their efforts to the Tevinter mainland, bearing in mind that neutralising dangerous magic was now uppermost in their minds and they knew that red lyrium had been taken north by the Venatori.

What I don't buy is the idea of it continuing to be a success despite a schism in the Qun, as suggested in Tevinter Nights. The last major offensive by a united Qun was in 9:11 and was successfully defended by Tevinter. The army needed the backing of the other two branches of the Qun to maintain their offensive because it would not be successful without adequate supply lines and resources that were the responsibility of the Arigena and Ariqun. Arishok Sten understood this. Tevinter feared him because he was a thoughtful Arishok who valued intelligence gathering and undermining the enemy from within. Why would Sten break with the Ariqun when they were giving him the information he considered vital for success? Why would he advance recklessly without giving thought to ongoing support by auxiliary forces supplied by the Arigena? Why would he consider invading Antiva before Tevinter was secured, thus breaking the Llomerryn Accord and bringing in the other nations on the side of his enemy?

I'm hoping that false information was being given out by the Ben'Hassrath in order to confuse not only Tevinter but also Solas, who the Qun are very aware of as a threat, and this is something that we will eventually discover to be the case. Otherwise, I am rather disappointed how the current writers dealt with the Qunari invasion and wasted the previous set up with Arishok Sten. The only alternative would be that Tevinter succeeded in assassinating him and that is what caused the Antaam to go rogue.

I must admit I do wonder about who was responsible for checking that biographies given in WoT2 matched our experiences in the games. Sten wasn't the only example. They completely messed up the history of Marethari as Keeper of the clan. In the Dalish origin story we were told that Mahariel's father had been Keeper of the clan before her and had been killed around the time they were born. The store keeper of Zathrian's clan also remembers them. Now I would assume Mahariel was in their late teens (early twenties at the most) because they had been considered too young to know the tragic history of their parents before DAO. Yet WoT2 says Marathari became Keeper of the clan in 8:82, which would make Mahariel nearly 50 years of age. That is a pretty glaring discrepancy and quite unnecessary considering the important part was that Marethari asked a favour of Flemeth at the time she assumed the role of Keeper which Flemeth later called in, resulting in Marethari taking the clan to Sundermount. Mind you that didn't square with the ending to DAO either if you play the Dalish Warden because their foster mother was at the celebration gathering and it was implied the rest of the clan was there as well. Clearly the writer of the biography in WoT2 had never played the Dalish origin or even checked with the writer of it that they had got their facts right and when deciding to use clan Sabrae as the contact in DA2 the writers on the game ignored the discrepancy with the ending to DAO. Mind you, there are a lot of things they ignored from the epilogue to DAA as well and in DAI seemed to ignore the events of DAA altogether, so expecting consistency in writing is probably a vain endeavour.

A lot of times I think writers of these sort o fstories I think just think if it sounds cool just go with it. They're not too worried about consistency. Besides it can be difficultt omatch everything up especially if there's a lot going on in the story that they want to tell.

I’m into the time skip! It gives more wiggle room for the writers to work with, gives more distance to our prior PCs, and should let them set more up for DA4.

In regards to Solas, he may be extremely powerful, but he’s trying to unmake the fabric of the universe: that isn’t a snap-your-fingers sort of spell. I can see it taking this time to gather his resources, allies, and perform. Not mentioning the Inquisition which has potentially made the path to a No-Veil world less straightforward for him.

Commenting my initial thoughts first.

8 years? I was under the impression that Solas tearing down the Veil was kind of an imminent threat.

As for my current protags, that means my Inky is in her early 30s and my Warden is almost 52, damn. I guess she’d be starting to feel the effects of the Calling by then... And Hawke, well, she’s dead.

Going to read the other comments in this thread now.

Edit: alright, I have several thoughts but I’m not sure how to accurately put them down in words, so I’ll make a more coherent post later

Not really. The only protagonist that matters to his plot is still as close as ever regardless of time passed. Unless they make them even more worthless and give up on the world and everyone they care about after a few years.