Reader Question Day #22 ADDENDUM – further thoughts on Dragon Age Origins
Apropos of our recent discussion on Dragon Age Origins, someone asked what choices I made in my playthrough of the game. Well, here they are – though note that of course this contains massive spoilers for Dragon Age Origins and its DLC if you haven’t played them.
After trying the various origin stories, I settled on the female elf mage with the default name and appearance. This caught my fancy because of the dramatic potential the character arc offered. After all, it’s not surprising that a human or dwarven noble would rise to lead Ferelden against the Blight – it’s what he (or she) was trained and born to do. But in the world of Dragon Age, an elf and a mage is doubly outcast, and the female elf mage looks like a harmless slip of a girl. Yet by the end of the game, this harmless slip of a girl would have defeated demons in their own realm, dared the darkness of the Deep Roads and returned to crown a dwarven king, thrown down a high dragon, rallied ancient enemies to stand united against the Blight, defeated Loghain Mac Tir in single combat, and plunged a sword into the skull of an archdemon.
That was what caught my attention – what kind of experiences would it take to transform a timid elven apprentice mage into the feared and respected Warden-Commander of Ferelden?
(This is partly what I mean by agency – a computer RPG needs to offer both an illusion of control and a sense of ownership in the player characters.)
So what key choices did this female mage make during the game?
-She tried to help Jowan escape from the Circle, since I decided that she would believe him falsely accused of blood magic.
-She refused to kill either Isolde or Connor, and instead saved the mages of the Circle solely so they could send her into the Fade to battle the demon that had control of Connor.
-She talked Zathrien into repenting and freed the werewolves from their curse.
(Needless to say, I put a lot of skill points into Coercion.)
-She destroyed the Anvil of the Void because she thought it evil.
-She crowned Bhelen king of the dwarves becuase she thought the dwarven caste system stupid.
-She fell in love with Alistair.
-She killed Loghain at the Landsmeet and made Alistair king, and managed to continue her relationship with Alistair while marrying him to Anora. (Again, Coercion.)
-She accepted Morrigan’s offer, and had Alistair impregnate Morrigan. This was mostly because I wanted to play “Awakening” with the same character, rather than a new one.
Anyway, I think those were all the major choices I made during the game. At some point I may replay it and make different choices to see what happens, but that probably won’t be for a while. I have books to write first, y’see. 🙂
-JM
Oh, so you didn’t sacrifice Alistair? Aww! 😉
Interesting take on why you choose the origin that you did, I choose the human noble, thought it was pretty well done too! My whole family slaughtered…by Tim Curry?!
-The Circle of Mage quests were a bit different for non-mages. But I ended up siding with the mages, so they would be spared. I left it up to the Templars to screen the remaining mages, in hopes they would catch any who may have been tainted. Though the Templars were the not the bad guys of the situation, just being cautious (I so wanted templars in my group at the end of the game, but all I got were mages…grrr!)
-I also got the elf to free the werewolves, it was time to end their purgatory, and have Zath let go of his rage.
-Also destroyed Anvil, because it was evil plain and simple. Plus the dwarf lady was nuts, that helped too.
-I crowned the rightful heir of the dwarves king (whats his name? Harrowmount?). See it plays it out differently depending on who’s quest you take up. It seems that if you went with Bhelen that became an issue, but I sided with the other guy, and the caste system was never mentioned in those quests. It was all about who was the rightful heir, and Bhelen was not, Harrowmount was. Not only that, but he was the better man of the two, Bhelen came off as scum in my play through. Now if you through in the caste system, I may have thought things out differently, but again, not really brought up when you were on Harrowmount’s side. Over all it seems to be a mixed result no matter what you choose. Side with Bhelen and you put a liar/cheater/murderer on the throne, but he does away with the caste system. Side with Harrowmount and you put a good man on the throne, and the rightful heir to boot. But there is a big backlash against the lower classes (something you don’t hear about until much later in the game, d’oh!)
-Also killed Loghain, would have been cool to convert him, but then Alistair would have flipped and ran off.
-As for the whole King thing…well that was interesting to say the least. Alistair did not want the job, so I took it, but I was not really king, more or less the Queen’s husband. I was kind of a prince, really. This was awkward with my love interest Leliana…but all things worked out in the end…because I went down saving the world!
This was a bittersweet choice though, I got to save everyone, but lost the throne, widowed my wife and left poor leliana all alone, and worst of all, I had to create a new guy for Awakenings! Cue the following link:
http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/
Oh well, Andraste/The Maker would be proud 😉
That was just Origins though, perhaps you will someday list your choices for Awakenings/DA2?
Also, Morrigan…most annoying Bioware character yet?
“My whole family slaughtered…by Tim Curry?!”
Yes – Howe was an excellent villain, which made Nathaniel in AWAKENING quite an interesting character.
“Plus the dwarf lady was nuts, that helped too.”
And how! Poor Oghren.
“Not only that, but he was the better man of the two, Bhelen came off as scum in my play through”
The interesting thing about the Orzammar throne subplot is that there really isn’t a right answer. Harrowmont is a better man, but turns out to be an ineffective ruler, while Bhelen is a scoundrel, but turns out to be quite capable as a ruler. That was one of the subquests where the “illusion of agency” thing I keep babbling about was really well done – you can make a real and effective choice, but no matter which choice you make, there are negative consequences. Very much like life. 🙂
“The Circle of Mage quests were a bit different for non-mages.”
The Circle quests are fun as a mage, since your character basically gets to go back and save his/her childhood home. Plus for mages, it’s really like a second Harrowing – a mage character comes out much stronger with the Tevinter mage robe and all the additional stat points he/she can absorb in the Fade. And after all that, it’s fun to bring the boom down on Uldred and the desire demon in Connor’s head.
“As for the whole King thing…well that was interesting to say the least. Alistair did not want the job, so I took it, but I was not really king, more or less the Queen’s husband.”
I hardened Alistair’s personality after he met his sister, so he was more amenable to the job.
“which made Nathaniel in AWAKENING quite an interesting character.”
Yes he was. I pitied him really, with his evil father and all. That was the interesting thing about the evil dynamic in the game, you had two examples of classic evil: Arch-demon and Howe, but then through you a loop with the paranoid and machiavellian Loghaine. He was a villian to be sure, but not in the same way Howe was. Howe was just a bad guy, period. Where as Loghaine at the very least thought he was saving Ferelden. Then again, Hitler thought he was doing good too…
“Poor Oghren”
Ha! I don’t know about that, remember how he treats his wife and child in Awakening. Oghren is the fantasy equivalent of a dead beat dad.
“The interesting thing about the Orzammar throne subplot is that there really isn’t a right answer.”
True. It was mixed results regardless of your choice. I’m just glad they did not make all the choices in the whole game like that. Come to think of it, DA2 itself was very much in the vein of the orzammar quest line, much more so then DA:O. I think that was one of the drawbacks of DA2.
“Very much like life”
Yes, for some things at least.
On the subject of Hardening a character, it wasn’t always a good thing was it? I mean some of the changes in Alistair and/or Leliana were not for the better. Funny, it actual seemed to make them more libertine! Alistair/Leliana won’t be or have a mistress without hardening them first, and both will only agree to a, ahem, threesome if they have first been hardened (Note: I READ about this, did not actual try it myself! Hey, I may be a dude, but that does not mean I have no integrity!). There were some benefits, but also drawbacks (in a moral sense) for hardening them.
I have a question for you, whom did you like the least in DA:O and it’s expansion? And I mean party members.
As for me, in DA:O Morrigan drew my ire. Though I liked the woman who did her voice, the character herself was so contrarian that it got annoying taking her anywhere. Morrigan disapproves -10….Morrigan disapproves -20 etc, etc again and again and again!!! I ended up leaving her at the camp for most of the game. There were other offenders: Zevran was too, um, do I need to say it? Now see you played a female, so it was all good, but I was a man…so me and Zev did not really get along, ahem. He was also really cold (an assassin thing I’m sure). And Oghren could be funny at times, but other times his humor was so juvenile, and he too could be a pain in general. But none more than the witch from the wilds!
As for Awakenings, it’s a very short list. Anders, Anders, and more Anders! Not only did he seem like a cheap and ineffective copy of Alistair on more than one occasion (Bioware using it’s formula again), he just got on my nerves in general. He was too much of a mage rights activist 😉 Things went even more south in DA2, when he started hitting on me, and turned into a nutcase (okay, Justice helped with that). I still kept him in my party, but after he took out that chantry, I was like “you gotta go!”. Needless to say I ended up killing him in the end, which was weird for me, as I do not have a habit of killing off my companions!