#the exalted plains

[reagan-the-saunders]

Wolves On The Exalted Plains

[playitagainmyjohnny]

[heniareth]

The Exalted Plains in Dragon Age Inquisition look very mediterranean to me. Which is a problem bc aren't they located on the south of the map aka where it's colder in this southern hemisphere? Is there a biome that looks like this that is closer to the poles than the Mediterranean?

[enderevynne]

DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION ➤ OC GIFS: Evynne Trevelyan

↳ The Exalted Plains - In game

[pinacoladamatata]

"negative effects from 10 year wait for solavellan closure were minimal, study finds"

[vigilskeep]

TIP: sometimes when you get angry at the viddy game it is because you are dehydrated as hell

[elfcollector]

DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION (2014) — developed by bioware.

[roguetrevelyan]

Exalted Plains.

I think I’m the only one who’s never noticed the statue of Fen'Harel up there before. Oh, dear.

[kcwriter-blog]

Always finding something new in DAI. I never noticed that when you do the Riverside Garrison quest in the Exalted Plains, the hole that has the rift in it also has one of those metal trees you see in Trespasser. Given that and what’s in the pit beneath that giant hand, I’m thinking the Plains once belonged to Andruil or Ghili’nain.

[exhausted-archivist]

Evolution of DAI

I was going back through some news posts made by BioWare back during the marketing and launch of DAI and found some interesting things. In post of Exploring the Dales,

Emprise du Lion, the Exalted Plains, and the Emerald Graves used to ve one continuous map that they broke up to allow for more variation ad drastic environmental differences like what we ended up with. Dean Roskell, a senior level designer, explains that it wouldn't have felt natural to transition from a lush forest to frozen highlands, and that they needed more separation. Additionally, due to the three separate story arcs they had to consider, they split them up to allow you to play them in any order or even skip one. It aided in bringing balance to the levels in the game.

At one point, Emprise du Lion had a version where the villagers had more freedom. Meaning they had farms up and running, merchants trading; but this was changed because it didn't communicate that they were a group of people near the point of accepting death at the hands of the red templars. Making it a frozen landscape improved the narrative that it was an area on the brink of death, combining the red templar threat with the freak blizzard.

Ser Michel and Imshael being added to the area of Emprise du Lion was a decision made by the level design team as they wanted to bring in links from The Masked Empire novel that Patrick Weekes wrote.

The original starting point of the level of Emprise du Lion was actually where the three high dragons roost. When they moved the village down by the lake they had a large area they wanted to do something with and landed on three high dragons. Reportedly, it was three dragons instead of one really difficult one due to someone saying they couldn't do it.

Andrew Farrell was the level artist for all three Dales levels and came up with the idea of old coliseums surrounded by hot springs.

[revvethasmythh]

i do love all these datv reviews saying it’s a game that really rewards being thorough and doing the additional content and taking your time playing. as a woman who loves to dilly-dally and muck about, I am being catered to

[playitagainmyjohnny]

[heniareth]

The civil war in the Dales does make a lot of WWI allusions, specifically the German soldier's experience of WWI. "Western front"? "A scuffle or two and then back for supper?" (Both said by Marshal Proulx). The trenches? But... why? Because this civil war too is the result of the hubris of imperialists? I'm sure there were actual civil wars that could have been referenced, I'm not sure why they chose WWI and then didn't really do anything with that? It feels like it's just set dressing

[fiercestpurpose]

I really like the way they frame getting a snowy wyvern heart for Vivienne.

They call the quest “Bring Me the Heart of Snow White” and they flag that you can give her a fake heart of a regular wyvern. They’re deliberately raising the possibility that this could have dangerous consequences, despite the fact that it’s a pretty straightforward fetch quest. If you played Dragon Age II and remember helping Anders, it’s gonna ring some warning bells, but even if you didn’t, they’re not being subtle about it!

And then it turns out that she’s just trying to make a potion to cure the man she loves. There’s nothing nefarious or dangerous here, she’s acting out of love and care. The framing is deliberately misleading, playing on the player’s potential distrust for her based on what they’ve seen so far.

I love Vivienne’s writing, she’s an interesting character, she’s really fun to talk to, and she has some surprisingly emotional beats.

[daitranscripts]

Lost Temple of Dirthamen

God of Secrets

Related Location: Exalted Plains

The PC enters the flooded ruins. There is a small camp near the entrance.

PC: Someone's been here.

Blackwall: Not for some time. The camp is abandoned.

Iron Bull: I doubt they left all their stuff here out of charity.

Cassandra: And never left.

They come across the first veilfire rune.

PC: It's strange that I can understand that.

Solas: The secrets of this temple have remained unspoken for too long. They wish to be known.

Vivienne: Ancient magic at work, allowing any who come to understand the secrets of this place.

Dorian: A spell of comprehension, perhaps? Amazing that it still functions.

They find the first remain of the God of Secrets.

Mage PC: The altar’s absorbing the fire, eating the magic. Non-mage PC: It’s as if the altar’s waking up.

After the party defeats the first group of enemies and collects the remains.

PC: It's… warm.

Cole: It's alive.

Varric: Juicy, too. Pleasant!

Sera: Ugh. Why are you touching it? ㅤㅤ ㅤ

Solas: It is alive because the creature connected to it is alive. It is but one piece of the whole.

Vivienne: A form of blood magic. Organs kept whole and separate… as punishment, perhaps?

Dorian: All part of a ritual, I'd say. Whoever that belongs to, they're not dead. Not really.

Mage PC: Kept fresh through magic. Part of a ritual of some kind… elsewhere in the ruin?

They find one of the dead explorers.

Iron Bull: Stabbed in the back. Poor bastard.

Blackwall: An explorer. What killed him, I wonder?

Cassandra: One of the explorers from the camp. Where are the rest of them?

PC: One of the explorers. Or his remains, anyway.

The PC finds another explorer.

PC: Another one of the explorers?

Cole: He hid here. He died afraid.

Sera: Died with his loot. That's stupid.

Varric: Took his chest and crawled into a corner to die.

If the PC walks under the small waterfalls, their torch gets extinguished.

PC: Aaand the torch goes out.

The PC finds a locked gate in the sanctuary.

Cole: The whispers are louder in there. I can see them. PC: You can see the whispers? Cole: Yes.

Varric: This place is bigger than you'd think.

Sera: Deep one, this. I wonder what it's hiding?

PC: No way through this gate? Wonder what it's made of.

They continue exploring and find a key.

PC: Where could this key lead?

Cassandra: One of the passages back in the ritual area, perhaps?

Blackwall: I bet the poor fools never had a chance to use it.

Iron bull: Treasure room, if we're lucky.

PC: Somewhere back in the ritual area, perhaps?

They return to the locked gate.

PC: So this is where the key leads.

The PC decends the stairs into tthe center of the temple.

Dorian: And here's where the magic happens. Literally. Solas: The heart of this place. Here is where the ancient rituals and prayers took place. Vivienne: The old magic is strong here. I believe this is the heart of the ruined temple. Mage PC: The heart of the temple. The old magic is incredibly strong here, I can feel it. Non-mage PC: This must be the heart of the ruined temple.

They start to place the remains on the pedestals.

Dorian: Careful. Bringing those organs here, putting them back together… who knows what will happen? Solas: I recommend caution. There is no telling where this ancient ritual will lead us. Vivienne: Just be careful what you're assembling with those organs, my dear. Ancient rituals like this could lead to anything. Mage PC: It's part of a ritual, tied to the organs. A summoning rite of some kind?" Non-mage PC: Now that’s interesting.

They place all six remains.

PC: That did the trick.

Varric: Check out the mysteriously appearing thing in the middle.

Vivienne: And the last piece of the puzzle appears.

Blackwall: And some type of artifact has appeared.

Sera: See? Bad idea. Why do you have so many?

Cole: One more to do, and then he comes.

Dorian: Are we really doing this? Best prepare yourself, then.

They summon a demon and defeat it.

PC: So that was the high priest of the temple.

Solas: Imprisoned in silence and despair by his own followers. A sad legacy.

Vivienne: Filled with despair and imprisoned forever by his own followers.

Dorian: Rather sad, if you think about it.

On the way out, sided templars: Venatori: Excellent! It seems you have done out work foe us this time, Inquisitor. PC: Venatori! Don’t they ever give up?

On the way out, sided mages: Red templar: They have the artifact! The Elder One requires it! PC: Red templars!

[dragonageconfessions]

CONFESSION:

I'm in the medical field. During the pandemic, I worked twelve hour ships at my local hospital and had to deal with constantly being verbally abused and threatened. And while I would continue to hold my head high and try to care for people to the best of my ability, sometimes during my breaks I would think how handy mark of the rift would be to deal with some of these assholes.