Worn Out Welcome

I actually dont know much about Varric. I stopped taking him on missions despite he had the special gun - turned out he was totally inferior to even basic Sera.

Cuthbertbecket had already drawn my attention to this. Since I could never bring myself to use a Hawke who sided with Meredith in DAI, I wasn't aware of this conversation. It does seem to me, though, that they went too far here in trying to carry over some of the Exalted March plot. Hawke leaving Kirkwall out of concern over what was happening in the Wardens, at the request of Stroud (or one of the other two), at least made some some of sense, particularly as apparently (according to the codex) they left Averline and Bran running things in their absence, although there seems no reason why Varric couldn't have told Cassandra this.

However, the idea that Red Templars drove them out doesn't make sense with respect to the timeline or Cassandra's investigation. There is definitely no earthly reason why Varric shouldn't have told her of this reason for Hawke's absence or why Hawke wouldn't have told Varric about the red lyrium. Why wasn't Cullen aware of the the danger with regard to the Templars and so warned Cassandra when she recruited him from Kirkwall? The implication would be that a significant number of Templars were using it if they were able to intimidate Hawke into leaving. Also, if there was already this use of red lyrium among the Templars of Kirkwall, Varric should already have been aware that someone must have discovered the ancient thaig, which was not the case until he spoke to Bianca. Why would he be surprised at discovering red lyrium at the Temple of Sacred Ashes if he knew Templars were already using the stuff? Putting those words into Hawke's mouth, which only applied if Hawke was Viscount, seems an unnecessary complication to the situation in Kirkwall.

During my 1st DATV playthrough.

This is the kind of necromancy Ghilan'nain would be proud of.

No, she would take this thread's head and add it to the torso of another threads, and then add three legs from a third and fourth thread, and then throw in a couple of extra tentacles.