#this is all word vomit im sorry i didnt even read through it. the MAIN thing im invested in is the inquisition as an

[kirkwallguy]

You're the lead of Dragon Age and decided to make an Inquisition Remake. What would you do, add and fix from the original game

oh god. i meant to write a paragraph because i think about this a lot but it became a whole thing. beneath the cut because it's long

you don't even know how often i think about this. i have like several visions for a different dai in my head and they're all kind of messy and complicated in a way that would probably require more time and resources than they actually had but, if we're just talking hypotheticals...

since i'm biased towards the mage-templar conflict i'd definitely put it in the foreground towards the beginning. since it was the main threat at the end of da2, i don't think it should last the entire game as the main focus, but having it be similar to loghain or the arishok in the way it feels like the big bad until the end of act 2 would work well. and starting as a soldier in the war would be a good way of grounding players in the conflict.

it would've been really fun to have an origins-style selection screen at the beginning of the game that lets you choose your 'side', different lineages can have different reasons for being there (a dwarf siding with the templars could be sent by the carta to set up a lyrium trade) but having two distinct openings to the game isn't TOO ambitious considering they had 5 in origins. then you'd go through a unique extended tutorial where you establish who you are and fight to reclaim haven as a base.

act one could be similar to dai and pretty much the same for both origins, you run around maps (smaller than dai tho lol) doing quests to aid people and gain notoriety. through reclaiming haven you've become second in command of your little corner of the rebellion. you recruit companions but maybe some are harder to recruit depending on your faction (think: having to do a quest to recruit arcade gannon in fnv, but if you're gay or stupid you can skip it). ofc to get that warrior/rogue/mage balance there could be a few people that are automatically unlocked by claiming haven, and it'd be fun if there was one companion from the tutorial who was exclusive to your origin.

then you have a main quest that gains the inquisition's attention (in the place of cotj/ihw) causing them to come to shut you down (in your heart shall burn). this introduces the herald of andraste (who doesn't have the mark but is still claiming andraste speaks to them in a joan of arc kind of way) and their army. it would be so fun if the core members of the inquisition were the same, varric, cass, leliana, cullen, all recurring characters who are now vague antagonists because they've all been pulled into this cult for some reason or another.

the inquisition is stronger than you and you retreat to your 'skyhold', but instead of skyhold it's actually a big fancy camp. then ofc in dai there's probably another 100 hours left in the game lol so i'd knock like 50 hours off that and keep side quests relevant like they did in da2. for main story quests, instead of here lies the abyss, i'd go for a deep roads quest (maybe with hawke?) to investigate the red lyrium, with the other faction starting to experiment with it and suffering its effects. then instead of wicked eyes it would be fun to do a similar quest but with a conclave, where you interact with the leader of the other faction and divine justinia gets assassinated (not exploded, just like stabbed a little bit). it's probably the inquisition doing the assassinating but they seemed to be with the divine sooooo???

end of act 2 is you going to make a move against the other faction because their use of red lyrium has left them vulnerable. your commander sends you off and you do a big infiltration battle in their base and yaaay you win. except the quest isn't over. and you go back to your camp to find the inquisition has invaded and your commander is dead. since you're second in command it's up to you to decide what to do, the inquisition has you by the throat and it's basically a choice between joining willingly or being conscripted. maybe you even only get the choice to join willingly if you've earned the herald's approval in previous quests idk. either way you and your companions / remaining troops are moved to skyhold.

act 3 is harder because i rarely get this far in dai lol. without the threat of cory it's kind of hard to see what the inquisition would be fighting for but if the herald becomes a kind of meredith parallel and wants to 'restore order' in a way that's becoming increasingly worrying, bordering on wanting to invade tevinter because the northern chantry are heretics, it would be fun if you were basically leashed and forced to do missions you don't want to do or feel good about at this point. again, kind of similar to killing the blood mages for meredith but intentional this time. you and your companions / people from your army (because i'm thinking there'd be an advisor or two. maybe the exclusive companion from the other faction's origin could be recruited in the previous quest as a prisoner somehow), start conspiring against the inquisitor. you get one or two people (maybe varric and leliana?) on your side and go searching through the inquisitor's things and find a map of the deep roads with an entrance hidden beneath skyhold. you all go down there and get the same lore as the descent dlc, but also find some red lyrium that speaks to you and promises not to hurt you because you're soooooo special and it can give you the power to do what you need to do. um. this is your well choice and you can choose to either take it or leave it. you know deep down that can't beat the herald without it but taking it will start giving you hallucinations/visions and it's obviously not a good idea.

back in skyhold you can tell things are gearing up for the final battle, you're getting the conclusions to companion quests and the sidequests are drying up. i'd really want to replicate that tense desperation you start feeling towards the end of da2 that imo was mostly just an accident since they ran out of time during act 3. it still hits tho.

it would be kind of cheap to have two final antagonists in a row be red lyrium crazed, so i think the herald here is just a product of the chantry. they're obviously getting more and more antsy about the northern chantry and you find out they're going to meet with a major tevinter leader, probably not the divine, but a magister powerful enough that you don't trust the herald to not do something that starts a war. if you took the red lyrium from the deep roads you get a final choice to either use it or leave it.

half way through the meeting with the tevinter person, the inquisitor starts acting suspiciously. if you left the red lyrium in the deep roads you just get a sense that something's wrong, if you took it from the deep roads but didn't use it you can hear the inquisitor's thoughts and know exactly what's about to happen but know you can't reach the inquisitor in time to stop them, if you used it you know what's about to happen AND can use your power to stop it (at the cost of your own life probably). either way, the assassination/attempted assassination starts a giant final battle as skyhold burns and you fight your way out. the herald dies but there are a few people still loyal to the inquisition who want to fight you

if you took the lyrium you die, if you didn't you're a fugitive or apostate who may have just started a war between the two chantries yaaay.

sorry this is so long i've been having little bits and pieces in my mind for ages and have wanted to sort through them by writing it down lol. the overarching story isn't too hard tbh, what makes da2 good is the side quests all being thematically coherent and i'm too lazy to do side quests rn.

[gildedmothroot]

im actually working on things other than character sheets i swear lmao

this is apharos! hes the main antagonist for the first section of my story. oc lore time!!!! the barlowe family is an incredibly close-knit and prideful bunch. very, very few individuals have ever moved away from the barlowe homestead when they settled in modern day midwest america, making the entity of the family as a whole potent and somewhat closed minded. the very first generation to grow up in their new home in america was especially centered on the family staying together, no matter the costs. part of this meant the older family members had an authoritarian grip on the rest of the family, making sure no one stepped out of line. a girl of the first generation, brighid, had "betrayed" the family (i will not say what she did here). in the eyes of her siblings and elders, she had tarnished their good name and was deserving of severe punishment. brighid didnt go down without a fight, the damage she caused and chaos she spurred left them infuriated, embarrassed, and eventually terrified of her. she was killed in a gruesome way and buried beneath an apple tree. because of the circumstances of her death, and the barlowes are always in close contact with the spirit world, they became convinced she would come back, either as a beast or a child, to enact her revenge. brighid had a dark freckle below the outer corner of her left eye. it was a trait that would appear every so often in the succeeding generations, sealing the fate of the child bearing it.  obviously, child murder is kind of a thing people dont want to admit to partaking it. so, over time, the barlowes manufactured their own kind of "boogeyman" as an easy explanation to themselves and the victims siblings, naming him apharos. with enough time and energy, apharos became a proper, identifiable entity. his sole purpose in existence was to keep the shame brighid inadvertently brought to the barlowes a secret, and extinguish anyone who (whether correctly or not) wanted to forgive her or allow a "reincarnation" another chance at the life they ended.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO that was a lot!! sorry for info dumping, i love talking about my characters even though not too many people have the time or will to listen to me word vomit :' ) uuuuuh some notes on his design!- being that he is sorta just an animal with opposable thumbs, he doesnt understand too many complex things (or at least puts that image out). he struggles with existence and is often time overwhelmed with depression or in a manic state. he likes bottles! being that the bodies of water in the overworld and belkar are connected, he is able to collect any garbage that passes through, and has taken a shine to empty bottles, hanging them on the pines of his terf to listen to the wind blow through them

uuuuuuuuuhh ye thats all i have to say right now, if you have any questions, ideas, or thoughts please share with me!! thank you for reading my essay : D