straightforwardly | 082 | In which I begin playing Dragon Age Inquisition

So, I started Dragon Age: Inquisition. I’m not going to admit when I started, because then I’d have to admit how much time I’ve spent playing it instead of doing other things. Suffice to say that I’ve spent most of my free time playing this game lately— I think the final polishes for the fic I was finishing up for

whitedwarfrabbithole was the only other thing to get my attention.

I have been taking notes, however, and since the latest main quest I did wiped me out a bit, I decided to take this time to try and start chronicling my process. (This is where all those notes help.)

Before I go any further, I should note that I… have definitely been somewhat spoiled for this game. It’s not everything, by any means, but definitely more than I was for the other Dragon Age games. Here’s what I knew before going in:

Most of the gender and race restrictions on various romanceable options.
At least a part of Blackwall’s secret.
At least a part of Solas’ secret, which is easily the one I’M SO DISTRESSED ABOUT RIGHT NOW. I just keep wondering how I would have reacted to if I hadn’t known! Agh. Stupid spoilers.
The big decision regarding Hawke, though not the circumstances around it.

Hm… I thought there was more, but I can’t recall anything else at the moment. Anyways. That being said, I should mention that I don’t want to talk about any of these until I hit those points in the game? (Well, some of them I’ve already hit, but still.) I might have been spoiled on a few points, but I’m sure there’s more to it that I don’t know, and I don’t want to get spoiled further.

Now that that explanation is done, with, on the the start of the game— with bullet points!

Time to play! ….Or, rather, time to wait for the game to install. The perils of playing a next-gen game on a last-gen console, sigh.

And now I’m running around doing a million different things in order to get my world state in, sigh. WHY IS THIS SO COMPLICATED.

....I don’t remember some of these choices. (In my defense, it’s been almost a year since I played Origins.)

*quietly ticks “Fenris alive and well” box* What? That’s totally what happened!

THREE HOURS LATER, I am finally ready to…! ...download an update. FACEPALM.

If you think that I won’t play a Dalish Elf when given the option to, you would be wrong.

I was planning on being a warrior, because I like running around hitting things (see: me in the last two games), but then ARCHER. I blame Varric, among other reasons. Let’s hope that I don’t die horribly because of this decision.

I was tempted to name her “Aredhel” to keep up the whole “naming elves after Tolkien characters” thing, but it didn’t seem to suit her. So, after some thought, I went with “Atheris” instead.

PONYTAIL OR BUN, PONYTAIL OR BUN. WHY IS THIS SO HARD. I love the face-tendrils with the ponytail, but the bun is so neat!

(Spoilers: I went with the ponytail. And one of these days, I am going to actually get a screenshot of my characters, but this day is not today.)

Oh god I am so confused about what’s going on. And how to navigate the area / read the mini-map. And how to play as an archer— everything feels so… weirdly distant.*

(*I should note that I did get used to it after a while, and now I love love love playing as an archer.)

So far, my Atheris is being kind of wary, but not ungracious. To be fair, she WAS just locked up and accused of something that she very likely did not do.

VARRIC ♥ ♥ ♥

So far, I like Cassandra (though we’re kind of purple-y at the moment), and am looking forward to seeing how everything goes with Solas.

Hello, Leliana! At last we meet. Apologies for… completely missing you in Origins, and so making you completely miss out on pretty much everything that happened in that game. But now I finally get to know you! ♥

From prisoner to a member of the Inquisition. Well, that was fast.

OH NO. Varric disapproved! DDD: This is a travesty, and must be rectified.

On the other hand, Solas can’t stop approving of me. It probably doesn’t hurt that Atheris is hitting on him, but even without that, it feels like I’m seeing “Solas Slightly Approves” every three seconds.

Hello, Cullen! I must say, the feathery-cape thing concerns me, considering what happens with the last character who reappeared with one.

CASSANDRA IS AMAZING. Atheris couldn’t resist flirting with her a bit, even though I-as-the-player knew that it was useless.

AND JOSEPHINE ASDFGHJKL; She and Atheris won’t fit together, I think, but my inner eyes tells me that there will be a future playthrough for her somewhere down along the line. ♥

The Hinterlands, where I will wander forever, until I die. ._. I am reminding myself that it took me some time to warm up to DA2 as well, and I do like all of my party members quite a bit, which is always a good sign.

Time to move on with the main story! On to Val Royeaux, and I had to look up how to spell that.

“I will go with her” OH CASSANDRA. ♥_♥

Why does no one listen to Atheris. She’s constantly telling people that she’s not claiming to be Andraste’s herald! She doesn’t even believe in Andraste!

My lord, Lucius is such a jerkface. Atheris wants to know if there is an option to punch him.

Speaking of which: it took me quite a while to figure out her personality, but I think Atheris is basically an outward face of calm with a lot of deep-seated bitterness hiding inside of her, and a strong drive to understand what’s happened to her (which explains why she’s been spending so much time questioning Solas about the Fade / the Breach) and fix things the best she can.

Aaaa, Cullen’s kind of a cutie. But I’m still suspicious of the feathers.

Leliana’s… suspicious of the Grey Wardens?

Hello, Blackwall. I know your secret. Or part of it, anyway.

Iron Bull is… not quite what I expected? His cheerfully confessing that he was a spy threw me for a bit of a loop, but Atheris decided that it spoke well of him that he was upfront about it, and decided that she’d allow him to join up, though she’ll definitely keep an eye out on him.

Sera… did not make a great first impression. Mocking elves is not how you get on my good side. See Fenris. (Watch, I’m probably going to warm up to her just like I did with him.) Vivienne, on the other hand, made a fantastic first impression. That clothing! *_* (Oh, and the whole freezing that guy thing was neat too, I guess.)

Heading to the Fallow Mire, because… I could? It was unlocked? In any case, that’s where I went next.

Oh, I like this Skywatcher guy! Why can’t I have him in my party?

Oh, yay, I got the Skywatcher guy! Only as an agent, not as a party member, but it’s the second best thing! And now I’m intensely curious about the Avvar.

After that, back to the Hinterlands, where I finally meandered my way to Redcliffe Village. It looks quite nice, which I’m sure that Lúthien would be pleased to know.

I picked up some side-quests, and apparently Atheris is King Arthur! …..And Lord Woosley is a Rage Demon, holy shit. I should have known something was wrong when that guy said that it talked to him.

Okay I am going to do less side-quests and more main story stuff, because there are so many of them and I need more meaty plot and character stuff before I get bored out of my skull.

So… the mages sold themselves to Tevinter? I love Varric and Solas’ reactions— Varric, with his “that was the single worst thing you could have done” because YES, and Solas because I found his sympathy for them rather sweet.

Ha, Dorian’s such a smug… I can’t think of a good noun for him. But definitely smug, in the best way possible. ♥ (My inner eye foresees yet another future playthrough for this one, cough.)

“There are worse things than dying.” And THAT’s not ominous at all, Felix.

Atheris decided to help out the mages, because she’s generally pro-mage (though not to the extent Hawke was), and templars are more of a Chantry-human thing. Besides, the mages basically sold themselves to Tevinter and neither she nor I saw that as having a Good End, while the templars are… just sitting there, as far as I can tell.

TIME SHENANIGANS! ♥ It’s like this game knows me!

Okay, I am totally friendshipping Dorian and Atheris now. So cute!

Oh Solas. D: I do really love that he instantly got what Dorian was talking about, though.

“Discovered New Area: Torture Chamber” OH NO LELIANA

Okay I’m being emotional all over the place. Just, everything. Leliana’s last stand. T_T

Agh, I’m really hoping that there’s allll the fic about this bad!future. Like, considering SPOILER, why/how did Solas end up in the position? And just… how everything played out, and everyone’s reactions to it. I have a need.

Oh, wow, Alistair. You’re… harsher than I remembered.

So now the mages are the Inquisition’s allies! As is Dorian, as I continue to friend-ship him and Atheris, hard. “There’s no one else I’d rather be stranded in time with” is a compliment of the HIGHEST order, in my opinion.

And her conversation with Leliana afterwards was yet another return to Feelings City. Leliana’s sacrifice definitely affected Atheris— “It was still a sacrifice, and still noble”— and probably made her look at Leliana with different eyes, but Leliana’s just so… accepting of it. Like, she’s not the same person we saw in the bad!future, but she looks at it and says, ‘yeah, I can see myself doing that, it’s not a big deal’, even though it is.

I took this opportunity to talk to all of my companions, since I hadn’t really done too much of that yet— and, with the newer ones, hadn’t talked to them at all.

Varric’s confiding about his concern about red lyrium made me want to give him a hug.

Eeeee, Solas! ♥ I love his reaction to the whole bad-future thing. Also, his line about how he can take magical surprises in stride, but would be baffled by Orlesian fashion was GREAT.

Atheris took the opportunity to FLIRT LIKE MAD with him, and, I have to say, he’s super interesting to talk to. This romance is proceeding well!

On the other hand, Atheris and Dorian’s friendship seems to have hit a snag. They definitely do not agree on the matter of slavery.

Cullen’s summary of the events of Dragon Age 2 is GOLDEN. Also, I want to see some Cullen & Varric interaction now.

Okay, I’m a bit amused about how Cassandra says “I don’t disapprove” RIGHT AFTER the game told me “Cassandra Slightly Disapproves”.

And Vivienne and Atheris are having sparks, of the negative variety. Let’s…. scamper away from this while we still can, shall we?

Apparently, Tevinter practices eugenics! Dorian is delightfully full of himself, in the most charming way possible. I know that I said this already, but I kind of love it. Dorian, that is, not the eugenics.

Oh, wow, the Breach closed much more easily than I thought it would. And here I was expecting something to go horrible wrong!

.....SPEAKING OF SOMETHING GOING HORRIBLY WRONG. Apparently, those templars weren’t just sitting around doing nothing. D:

Okay, so apparently it’s time for me to get all emotional again. Damnit, Chancellor Roderick, why did you stop being an asshole??? It was easier when I didn’t like you. >_> (Atheris is less forgiving, but she’s not going to be a jerk to the guy on his deathbed— it’s not like she’s heartless, after all.)

IT’S MULAN TIME!

Corypheus is the perfect target on which Atheris can let out all that bitterness and anger she keeps bottled up.

Huh, it’s kind of odd to see Atheris with a sword, considering that she’s always been handling a bow up until now.

Okay, this long tredge through the caves and the snow is dredging up even MORE emotions for me. I just keep thinking about what the various characters (Cullen, Solas, Leliana, etc.) must have been thinking about what happened to her and asdfghjkl; I am going to need fic.

Aaaaa, more feelings, with Atheris insisting that she doesn’t believe— and then Mother Giselle’s retort that everyone else does.

Yay, Solas! More of Atheris’ bitterness leaked out during her talk with him— when he was concerned about how people would react when they found out Corypheus’ weapon was elven in origin, she was all, ‘the humans always turn on us, eventually’. (Solas, UNSURPRISINGLY, approved. At this point, I don’t know what I’d have to do to get him to disapprove.)

And then, despite her expectations, Atheris was named the Inquisitor.

(Josephine’s exuberant cheer and her immediate embarrassment afterwards was adorable.)