Dragon Age Franchise Discussion - Spoilers Allowed

[Nayr]

Since I see no ongoing DA threads, I figure I'll start one. For Dragon Age: Origins + DLC, Dragon Age II + DLC, Dragon Age III: Inquisition, novels, movies, etc.

And what a thing to start with, the next novel adaptation of Dragon Age has been announced.

Dragon Age: The Masked Empire, by none other than Patrick Weekes, senior Bioware writer and former member of the Mass Effect writing team, now moved to the DA team.



Description from TOR's website:

Empress Celene of Orlais rose to the throne of the most powerful nation in Thedas through wisdom, wit, and ruthless manipulation. Now, the empire she has guided into an age of enlightenment is threatened from within by imminent war between the templars and the mages, even as rebellion stirs among the downtrodden elves To save Orlais, Celene must keep her hold on the throne by any means necessary.

Fighting with the legendary skill of the Orlesian Chevaliers , Grand Duke Gaspard has won countless battles for the empire and the empress But has he fought in vain? As the Circle fails and chaos looms, Gaspard begins to doubt that Celene’s diplomatic approach to the mage problem or the elven uprisings will keep the empire safe. Perhaps it is time for a new leader, one who lives by the tenets of the Chevalier’s Code, to make Orlais strong again.

Briala has been Celene’s handmaid since the two of them were children, subtly using her position to help improve the lives of elves across Orlais. She is Celene’s confidante, spymaster, and lover, but when politics force the empress to choose between the rights of Briala’s people and the Orlesian throne, Briala must in turn decide where her true loyalties lie.

Alliances are forged and promises broken as Celene and Gaspard battle for the throne of Orlais But in the end, the elves who hide in the forests or starve in the alienages may decide the fate of the masked empire.

Sounds like a follow up to the civil war that broke out in Asunder. Ought to be good.

[Ingmar]

I have no expectations that any DA novels not written by Gaider will be any good at all.

DA3 thread:

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=22510.0

I would suggest you keep spoiler content to released games only.

[rk47]

can't polish a turd.

[Pennilenko]

can't polish a turd.

Yes, you can.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/polishing-a-turd-minimyth.htm

[Stormwaltz]

Patrick wrote Mordin, Tali, and Garrus. And this: http://www.amazon.com/The-Palace-Job-Patrick-Weekes/dp/0987824864

He's good.

[schild]

Are we really talking about Dragon Age novels in this thread?

Also, Origin. Just god, full stop EA.

[Reg]

Man, I'm one of the people who hasn't understood all of the Origin hate.  But a week ago I broke down and bought all of the major DLC for ME3 and started a new playthrough.  This is when I discovered that every fucking time I exit ME3, Origin sees fit to pop a goddam spam window up on my screen.  It's driving me wild with rage. Every browser in the world has a Pop-up blocker now and there's a good reason for that.

[Nayr]

Patrick wrote Mordin, Tali, and Garrus. And this: http://www.amazon.com/The-Palace-Job-Patrick-Weekes/dp/0987824864

He's good.

Interesting. I knew about Mordin and Tali, but I thought that Mac Walters wrote for Garrus.

Also I have The Palace Job on my Kindle. It's awesome.

[Nayr]

I have no expectations that any DA novels not written by Gaider will be any good at all.

From David Gaider on the Bioware Social Network...

"I'd have liked to do another book, but I simply didn't have the time. Thankfully, the book's in good hands. Patrick is on the DA team now, and is a great writer. I suspect that if you liked my books you'll like what he's done/doing with this one."

D-Gai approves!

This isn't the same as Mass Effect: Deception, where Bioware contracted a freelance writer to pen the novel, Weekes is a senior member of the Bioware writing team, and probably has as much knowledge of the Dragon Age universe as he does Mass Effect's.

[Threash]

Man, I'm one of the people who hasn't understood all of the Origin hate.  But a week ago I broke down and bought all of the major DLC for ME3 and started a new playthrough.  This is when I discovered that every fucking time I exit ME3, Origin sees fit to pop a goddam spam window up on my screen.  It's driving me wild with rage. Every browser in the world has a Pop-up blocker now and there's a good reason for that.

Steam does the same thing.

[Reg]

It doesn't do it EVERY SINGLE TIME I exit a Steam game. I've been playing ME3 in short spurts like 3 or 4 times a day and whenever I exit I get exactly the same goddam pop up for exactly the same crappy game I have no interest in. Steam might do it to me once a day around the time the daily specials change.  Sure it's spam but at least it changes.

[Paelos]

I'll never use Origin because of A - their ridiculous ban system where you can lose everything for complaining, and B - the fact they actively planned to use Origin for spying on you until they were caught red handed.

[Nayr]

Shame we have to wait a year for the novel to come out. But I suppose we have to give Patrick time to write it. lol

I wonder how it's going to tie in to DAIII. Lot of rumors and small bits if info from Devs imply that the game will be either set in Orlais or we'll be able to visit it. So the novel is either going to be set before, during, or after Inquisition.

And since Patrick is handling characters like Empress Celene and Duke Gaspard, I wonder if he's writing for those characters if they do appear in Inquisition.

[Reg]

I just did a little googling and found out how to turn the pop ups off.  All it takes is a couple of small changes to a .xml file and they're gone.  Now I can quietly go back to being one of the guys who doesn't really care about the Origin/Steam rivalry.

[Stormwaltz]

Interesting. I knew about Mordin and Tali, but I thought that Mac Walters wrote for Garrus.

Mac did Garrus in ME1. Patrick did him in the later games.

[Ingmar]

Man, I'm one of the people who hasn't understood all of the Origin hate.  But a week ago I broke down and bought all of the major DLC for ME3 and started a new playthrough.  This is when I discovered that every fucking time I exit ME3, Origin sees fit to pop a goddam spam window up on my screen.  It's driving me wild with rage. Every browser in the world has a Pop-up blocker now and there's a good reason for that.

This doesn't happen to me. Interesting.

[Phred]

Can someone who is having this problem go to contol panel/privacy and set the popup blocker to on? I believe Origin as well as other programs use the built in IE framework for web interactions so setting IE to block popups should work.

[Nayr]

Interesting. I knew about Mordin and Tali, but I thought that Mac Walters wrote for Garrus.

Mac did Garrus in ME1. Patrick did him in the later games.

I guess that explains the Garrus x Tali hookup in ME3. xD


Shepard: I'm really happy for you. Both of you.

Tali: Thanks Shepard.

Garrus: Appreciate it. Guess it helps to have something to come back to.

Tali: What do you mean "to come back to"? This is just a fling, Vakarian. I'm using you for your body.

Garrus: You're so mean. And I'm okay with that.

[Stormwaltz]

Garrus: You're so mean. And I'm okay with that.

Totally a Patrick line.

[Nayr]

Garrus: You're so mean. And I'm okay with that.

Totally a Patrick line.

Guess this also explains where the calibration jokes came from. lol

All in all, I'm not worried in the least about The Masked Empire. After I heard that the ME Team had their final meeting, I was kinda hoping he'd move to the DA team, or write another book(I enjoyed The Palace Job a lot lol) so this is the best of both worlds.

[Reg]

Can someone who is having this problem go to contol panel/privacy and set the popup blocker to on? I believe Origin as well as other programs use the built in IE framework for web interactions so setting IE to block popups should work.

I just tried it. I never use IE so I ran it for the first time in ages and discovered that the pop up blocker was indeed disabled.  So I turned it back on, backed out the .xml changes I made to Origin and the pop ups promptly returned.

So, unfortunately it looks like I've got to go with the .xml fix. I wish your way had worked - it was a much cleaner solution.

[Phred]

I turned it back on, backed out the .xml changes I made to Origin and the pop ups promptly returned.

Darn sorry :(

[Ingmar]

Are you running it from Origin, or starting it up from a shortcut that starts up Origin every time you run it? I'm guessing it does popups on startup, just like Steam; if you leave it running you probably won't see them, just like Steam - I just leave it going and don't have any popup spam.

[Reg]

Nope.  There is a pop up on start up that I haven't disabled because I think it's reasonable to advertise that way.  There's a line in the .xml file that I could have modified to turn them off.  The pop up I was complaining about happens every single time you exit an Origin game.  So I'd been seeing the same annoying ad several times a day.

I've no idea why it isn't happening to you but trust me it's been happening to enough other people that I googled a bit and easily foumd a fix for it.

C'mon Ingmar, you know I'm not one of those irrational "I WILL NEVER PLAY AN ORIGIN GAME NO MATTER HOW GOOD IT IS BECAUSE ORIGIN IS A BLIGHT ON NATURE" guys.  

edit: To actually answer your question - I normally just leave Origin running all the time until I need to do a reboot.  So I'm not mixing up the start up pop up with game exits pop up.

[Ingmar]

Oh, I know, I was just trying to figure out why I apparently have diplomatic immunity.

[Reg]

It caught me by surprise too.  It seems to have originally started months ago - at least the dates on the work-around threads are all quite old.  And I never had any problem until I bought that ME3 DLC last week.  Perhaps doing that forced an otherwise optional update to Origin. Heh, but really I have no idea.

[Sjofn]

It isn't happening to me either, that is weird. And I even got that ME3 DLC too!

Clearly you have had a gypsy curse put upon you.

[Nayr]

Maybe Origin has preferences.

If it likes you, you get no popups or hassle.

If it hates you, it makes gaming hell for you. lol

[Nayr]

More Dragon Age info.

The last comic series of the Alistair/Isabela/Varric trilogy is already underway. And it's full of revelations.

1. King Maric is ALIVE. Meaning that Flemeth's warning of a blight happening in Ferelden after his death(The Stolen Throne is when this happened) has not yet come to pass.

2. The Qunari have an alternate story of King Calenhad(founder of Ferelden and Alistair's ancestor). Apparently Calenhad made a bargain with a "mysterious witch" in which he would drink dragon blood to become a Reaver and unite Ferelden on her behalf.

3. The Qunari's story also implies that the witch gave Calenhad the blood of an old god. Because Titus needs the blood of Calenhad's descendants to acquire the power of "dragonfire" and ultimately become as powerful as the old gods. Reavers are uncommon, but not too rare, so if he wants Calenhad's blood so badly, there had to have been something special about it, especially considering he thinks it can turn him into an old god.

4. The mysterious witch is obviously Flemeth. It explains why she saved him in The Stolen Throne and made him promise to give his blood to Yavana to revive dragons.

These comics, in relation to other things, also make me speculate on existing lore.


In The Silent Grove, Yavana tells Alistair of an age before man and even before the creation of the veil which separates the Fade from the physical world where Dragons ruled. Flemeth appears to be on the side of the dragons as well. She wanted to preserve the soul of Urthemiel, and she wants Maric and Alistair's blood to revive powerful ancient dragons from slumber(sound familiar?) but she opposes the darkspawn, who originate from the magisters who stepped into the already black city(as revealed by DAII: Legacy) which taint the old gods and turn them into the monstrous archdemons.

So it makes me wonder. Maybe the Golden/Black City belonged to the Dragons and old gods in the age Yavana spoke of. But something happened that caused the City to be destroyed and corrupted, and creating the veil was a way to seal off the taint and prevent it from reaching the physical world.

Then along the way, mankind appears and hunts the dragons to extinction, enters the black city and unwillingly carries the taint into the physical world, creating the blights.

If this speculation is correct, it would explain Flemeth's hatred for mankind. And her opposition of the taint and darkspawn. It also brings to question what is behind the taint, and is that the true evil we'll have to face before the story is over.

And there's the Dalish to consider. Their lore seems to have a bit of fact to it, and they have a relationship of mutual respect with Flemeth, who they dubbed Asha'bellenar, the woman of many years. Back in the day, the Dalish were allegedly immortal, but would go into an eternal sleep(probably death but they're too proud to admit it) and they all once possessed magic, but lost the gift and their "immortality" when man appeared and enslaved them. They also had their own pantheon of gods and another pantheon unelaborated on called the Forgotten Ones(iirc) which might in fact be the old gods(seven forgotten ones = seven old gods). And in their lore, the dread wolf, Fen'Harel was another deity who could walk among either pantheon and tricked them, imprisoning them.

So if we bring this to the table. The imprisonment of the dalish gods could be hyperbole for the creation of the veil and imprisonment of the old gods. Fen'Harel could be the source of the taint.

[Reg]

Just as an FYI Dragon Age Origins amd Awakenings plus all 9 dlc packs are on mid-week madness on Steam until tomorrow at 4pm Pacific for $7.49.

[Nayr]

Well in case anyone doesn't know, Dragon Age III: Inquisition will apparently be unveiled at E3.

To which I must say: About damn time, and this better not just be a small clip(a plot description or some technical details would be nice)

[Reg]

The way I see it, the longer it takes to release the less likely it is to be a too-short game rushed out the door by EA.

[eldaec]

Problem with I have getting at all interested in bioware overarching story arcs is that we know full well that as a team bioware make no effort to maintain continuity of themes or intent from one chapter to the next. A new writer will do whatever he feels like in DA3 with no regard for anything that isn't an explicit historical fact, and is pretty unlikely to build on anything seen so far.


Speculating on existing clues is less fun once you realise the writers are making it up as they go, and will retcon anything in their way at the drop of a hat.