Dragon Age: Origins/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

The song Leliana sings is about fate, embracing death and being mortal. This song is intertwined with Dragon Age: Origins completely. For one, it's the theme song of the game. For another, it's the entire theme of the game itself. Notice that everyone in the camp reacts to it with pensiveness, save Morrigan, who basically dismisses it. Morrigan wants to cheat fate and prevent you from sacrificing your life for a noble cause, the exact opposite of what the song preaches. During the entire game, the question of mortality comes up again and again - such as Zathrian's curse - in the game.
- Another one about the song but unrelated to what the other troper said (and unimportant). People think the song Leliana sings seems weird (which it does) especially with the musical instruments, bad lipsync and the voice difference. Maybe that's because the song we are hearing is the song Leliana is remembering instead of what she is singing.
Another Dragon Age example that made me smile when I first got it. The symbol of Christianity is a cross, right? Because Jesus was crucified. Now, Andraste was instead burned at the stake. And the symbol of the Andrastian Chantry? A flaming sun!
I just had one regarding the dwarves. While most dwarves have Scottish accents and also have a clan structure, the Dragon Age dwarves have American accents and some elements of democracy. While their society is far from egalitarian, they're the closest thing there is to a democracy in the setting. In fact, they may be modeled on the pre-revolution colonies, where wealthy families dominate a pseudo-democracy.
I had a tiny moment of Fridge Brilliance when confronting Flemeth as part of Morrigan's personal quest. When you run into her the first time, she's wearing regular clothes. The same is true for your second encounter, shortly after she saves you. But when you return to the Wilds to kill her, she's wearing a set of mage robes. She knew you were coming and had prepared for your arrival.
During a replay of the Dwarven Noble origins story, when you are about to enter Trian's room because King Endrin asked to summon him after the feast, it seems a little unnecessary that Trian's journal is lying there for you to see. And then, it makes perfect sense. His writings served as a warning all along! Awesome!
The official cover art for Dragon Age is a blood motif of a dragon, right? Okay, I get that, it's in the name. It's because the Big Bad is the archdemon and all that. Plus, there are lots of gore in the game so that makes sense too. And then it hit me like a rampaging ogre: the blood represents The Blight itself! The darkspawn blood, the blood that taints everyone, and that binds the darkspawn demons themselves to the archdemon. Not to mention the Grey Wardens themselves are joined this way: through blood! Wow. -Raverine
- Just doing a replay and I stumbled through Wynne's conversation about how phylacteries contain the blood of mages in case they go rogue. Also, who could've forget? BLOOD MAGES! Everything about the game is blood!
  - Don't forget, you can taint Andraste's ashes with/drink dragon blood.
So I was feeling a little guilty about my decision to slay the Architect (thus preventing any more future blights) but then I remembered: the Darkspawn are a parasitic race; the reproduce by preying on other peoples. There will never be peace with them and making sure they don't get any more intelligent is probably the best you can hope for!
Listen very closely to the Sloth Demon in the Circle Of Magi. His voice combined with his putting the player to sleep and controlling dreams makes the demon a pretty clear (and clever) expy of Freddy Kruger!
I finally realized why Alistair leaves you if you spare Loghain, and why you don't get a choice to spare Loghain if Alistair fights him. Throughout the game, despite his cheery demeanor, whenever Duncan and the other Wardens are brought up, Alistair invariably becomes sad and distant. It's quite clear that he loved his fellow Wardens, especially since they were the first family he'd ever really had and gave him a life he wanted to live outside the maddening, strict life of the Chantry. And Loghain took that away from him. That's why he follows the Warden around if the Warden is a monstrous, selfish, murdering asshole, and that's why he'll leave you even if he's your best friend (unless you do a damned good job convincing him otherwise). Throughout the whole adventure, deep down, Alistair has been carrying a deep-set hunger for revenge against Loghain for what he did. The best part is how marvelously understated this is. He doesn't go off into rants about vengeance or hatred, he doesn't make declarations of his intentions, and he doesn't talk to anyone about this bottled-up fury and hatred and pain he's carrying around. It only comes out when you bring up Duncan and the Wardens, and otherwise he keeps that incredibly bitter hatred for Loghain to himself. It may seem abrupt that he'll leave you if you spare Loghain, but I think that's just a result of the player not paying attention to what motivates Alistair. It makes an already-interesting character much deeper and more faceted.
- Made all the more sad if you're romancing him, get him to stay and marry Anora, and ask him afterwards about the relationship; he comments that what happened with Loghain has tainted it for him and "there is no us". At first this just comes off cruel and almost childish until you realise that what happened has added your character to the long list of things Loghain took from Alistair... and now Alistair has to marry Loghain's daughter and probably see him every day. No wonder he's snide and angry for the rest of the game.
- There's another element to this as well, and that is this: Riordan and Anora suggest making Loghain a Warden as his punishment for his crimes, in lieu of executing him. Alistair will never see being made a Warden as a punishment; for him, being a Grey Warden is an honor and the Wardens are his family, so to him, the suggestion of making Loghain a Warden is tantamount to asking Alistair to accept him as a brother and let him off scot-free for everything he did.
Leliana's tale about Flemeth off-handedly mentions that Flemeth can steal a woman's beauty through mirrors, and Morrigan's one piece of property as a child was a stolen mirror, later broken by Flemeth. These seem minor elements, a common superstition and a cruel lesson, respectively, until Witch Hunt, wherein Morrigan escapes through a magic mirror, implied to be bound to Flemeth's will...
note that Riordan's surprise attack successfully crippled the Archdemon's wing, which is the only reason the damn thing hangs around the top of Fort Drakon waiting to be killed by you instead of just flying away from the city.
During the mage origin story, Uldred is described as the leader of the Libertarians, the faction of the Circle that believes that mages should be free to use their powers as they like rather than submitting to the oversight of the Templars. He's one of the few mages who is genuinely proud of his abilities. Which is perhaps what leaves him vulnerable to possession by a Pride Demon.
Want to know a way your character can be convinced to spare Loghain? This quote from Riordan will explain everything:

Riordan: "We aren't judges. Kinslayers, blood mages, traitors, rebels, carta thugs, common bandits: Anyone with the skill and the mettle to take up the sword against the darkspawn is welcome among us."

- All six of those examples represent each origin option in the game and how people would react to you negatively. Kinslayers represent the Dwarf Noble because you either killed your brother or were blamed for his death. Blood mages talks about the Magi not only because that is the most common accusation of an apostate in the DA universe, even if an apostate hates blood magic, but also because the Mage Origin involves you helping a blood mage escape from the templars. Traitors represent the Human Noble because of the slanders Teryn Loghain and Arl Howe made regarding your family. Rebels would be best associated with a City Elf due to the stereotypes of elves being nothing but troublemakers (as well as the part where you rampaged through an arl's mansion and very likely killed his son). Carta thugs is the only justified example as if you were a Dwarf Commoner, because you actually did work for the carta. As for common bandits and the Dalish Elf origin, many people who are completely ignorant about the Dalish, including elves, would assume that they are nothing more than glorified bandits who only kill humans. No matter what origin you play as, once you hear one of those examples, you realize that you are judging Loghain as much as people judged you before you became a Grey Warden.
Why does Bryce Cousland choose "Pup" of all things to be the affectionate nickname of the Human Noble Warden? It plays into how the Fereldans are all big on dogs.
Ser Jory has the lowest willpower of companions during the Wilds part of Ostagar. Pretty fitting considering his reactions to pretty much everything scary.
For a while after the Joining, Grey Wardens apparently experience ravenous hunger when it comes time to eat... so do the Darkspawn.

Fridge Horror

a.) The Archdemons can not be killed, because when the body is destroyed, the spirit of the Old God will just jump into the next soulless darkspawn nearby. b.) The Gray Wardens infect themselves with the darkspawn taint so when they destroy an archdemon, the Old God will try to possess them, and be destroyed when merging with the Grey Warden's soul. c.) Flemeth teaches Morrigan how to become pregnant with the child of a Grey Warden, so the Old God will successfully possess the unborn child, that does not yet have a soul. d.) Flemeth became what she is when she was possessed by a demon, but instead of destroying her mind, the demons powers became part of her. e.) Flemeth also extends her life by possessing the bodies of her daughters.
- The logical conclusion: Flemeth wants her granddaughter to be the body that holds the Old God. And since she absorbs demons that try to possess her, stealing the childs body would make her absorb the Old God spirit, turning herself into a god. And it would probably have worked if Morrigan hadn't found out that Flemeth steals the bodies of her daughters and ran away with the child.
- Which also leaves the question, what does Morrigan want to do with it? Since she wouldn't have get herself pregnant by Alistair just to save Alistairs life, she specifically wanted a demon-god child instead of getting a normal one from another man.
  - While she does probably have her own long-term plan, this troper always got the impression that Morrigan's main motivation at that time was to save the Player Character from dying considering that he/she is probably either her only friend or the only man she's ever loved.
- Made even more terrifying given the realization this god-child can technically claim rights to the throne as Alistair did, if you had Alistair become King as well as perform the ritual with Morrigan. Not to mention, since Grey Wardens have pretty short lifespans as is, by the time the child becomes an adult, both Alistair and The Warden will be gone with Morrigan being the only person involved in the ritual left; it's most likely no one but she will know what this child actually is.
  - And if you didn't bother to do Morrigan's personal quest involving Flemeth... Well, let's just say things could potentially get even worse if the child ends up a female.
This sets in when you realize that becoming a Broodmother might very well have been the fate that awaited a female dwarven noble PC had Duncan not been around to rescue her.
- Both Dwarf characters are male if not the PC, the king died mourning his sons.
  - That is the default, yes, but they were talking about if the DN is the PC. In this case, you have to be recruited but if Duncan hadn't been there...
- It gets even worse when you consider the fact this is a possible fate for ANY female PC you play, as in about thirty years she'll have to go on her Calling...
  - Female GW can be turned into the broodmother creatures but they'd be sterile broodmothers and the darkspawn can sense that they are tainted so it seems unlikely. And of course, it's not like you HAVE to choose death by darkspawn.
Caladrius, a late-game enemy blood mage, can use a blood ritual that sacrifices a room full of slaves to give you...1 measly point of constitution (5 HP). Then you think about how much HP he has compared to almost anyone else in the game...
At some point in Dragon Age you learn how golems are created: A dwarf is put in an armor and then liquid Lyrium is poured into his eyes. That's creepy enough as it is, but once you get to thinking, you realize what this means: in every golem encountered in the game there's probably a dwarven body locked inside - and since golems don't need to eat ...
- Granted, Caridin was a great inventor, even before he created the Anvil of the Void. Even so, after exhausting every other golem-making technique he could think of, sooner or later he decided to stick one of his fellow dwarves in a ten-foot tall suit of armor and pour liquid lyrium into the joints until the subject stopped screaming. Who the hell does that? Who the hell even thinks of trying it? Suddenly, siding with Branka against Caridin doesn't seem so bad.
  - Uh, except the fact that Branka wants to keep the Anvil and potentially use it to start making golems again, where Caridin wants it destroyed so it can't ever be used again. Which one of them is the bigger Complete Monster from that angle?
- Also, the Archdemon can see into the minds of and to a degree influence the actions of creatures with the Darkspawn taint. Grey Wardens drink Darkspawn blood to give them their powers, and it's at least acknowledged that Darkspawn can sense them. Maybe there's a reason Wardens are discouraged from holding powerful titles or starting families. Perhaps there are some loopholes or dampers that come with the Joining, but what about the Dalish Warden, who is infected even before becoming a Warden? The Archdemon had to know how to put together that ambush team somehow!
- If your PC is female and you talk to Alistair about the Grey Wardens, he will mention that he didn't know any women Wardens, and that there weren't a lot of them worldwide in general. He will also tell you that the Darkspawn taint is ultimately fatal, as the corruption eventually grows and spreads, and Grey Wardens who feel this happening go down to die fighting Darkspawn in the Deep Roads. Then, in the Deep Roads, you learn that Darkspawn kidnap women and transform them into Broodmothers to birth more darkspawn, a process that involves gang-raping them and force-feeding them the flesh of darkspawn and of their own kind. Now think about the implications: a female Warden risks capture and a Fate Worse Than Death and the Taint eventually transforms its bearer into a darkspawn anyway. No wonder the Grey Wardens don't choose to recruit a lot of women. . .
  - If it helps, Only a handful of women becomes Broodmothers, 99% either die or become an normal darkspawn, which isn't much better.
- While at Ostagar, if you talk with Ser Jory, he mentions his wife was left behind in Highever when he was accepted to join the Wardens. But if you play a human noble, Highever is sacked and everyone inside is murdered by Howe's troops.... Its not made clear whether Jory's wife was actually inside Highever Castle when it happened, if if she was elsewhere in the Highever region, but the implication can be chilling.
  - Uh, Jory was from Redcliffe, not Highever. But that's almost as bad, since there's a good chance his wife was eaten by zombies.
- Not enough Dragon Age fridge horror for you try this out. In the Human Nobles origin your house guest has an Elven servant you can seduce. during the Seduction you can learn some facts about her like how she has a daughter in the Alienage. When Howe's men attack they kill her. later in the streets of the Alienage the little girl is sitting saying how she's waiting for her mother to come back from Highever and there's no option to inform her. On The Bright Side She'll probably be dying and joining her mother pretty soon.
Just how much 'rescuing' did Duncan do in the above mentioned DN origin? The tunnels the DN was dumped into led to the surface (otherwise, since the DN was exiled from Orzammar, they'd never have made it back since they'd have been kept from going through), and the DN cheerfully slaughters a dozen or more Darkspawn just to find the Wardens with minimal trouble while functionally naked (Prison rags, hah) and with crappy equipment, scavenging what they need from the surroundings. If they really wanted to, they could've simply followed their trail, as I doubt the Wardens would've left Darkspawn alive in their wake, and whatever stragglers hid would likely be easily crushed since most of the horde was chewing up humans on the surface. The DN origin is quite possibly the only one besides a mage who obeys Irving and betrays Jowan where the candidate could survive on their own and go their merry way.
- Except that its entirely possible that the DN could have been infected with the Taint whilst journeying through the Deep Roads. Without Duncan there, even if the DN fought their way to the surface, they would have no idea where the Wardens were located, the route to Ostagar, nor that they were slowly succumbing to the Taint.
  - This scenario actually does come to pass in the second game should Hawke brings their sibling to the Deep Roads, where they end up contracting the Taint and without Anders present to locate nearby Grey Wardens, their sibling perishes before they reach the surface.
Fridge Brilliance: Flemeth really raised Morrigan to be Stupid Evil; she can't afford her daughter having an alternative world view as she's going to posess that body one day with all the magic that comes with it.
If playing the Mage storyline when you encounter Uldred in the Circle Tower you can pick options saying you aren't so different from him to which he'll agree happily. The demon possessing Uldred is a Pride demon and what demon did you encounter trying to tempt you in your Harrowing? A Pride demon. Especially Fringe Brilliance if your playing a morally ambiguous or evil character.
Fridge Brilliance: In light of the development that Qunari regularly have horns. Qunari like Sten, who are born without horns are said to hold a gift of greatness. They are rare, but when we see Sten's vision in the Fade, neither of his companions have horns either. Sten wanted to believe that his brethren were born great as well!
- We don't know that he's misremembering what his companions looked like. They could all three have been "destined for greatness" (depsite the fact they're missing a body part).
  - I don't think it was a gift of greatness, per se, but more of a gift that allowed them to do other tasks for their people. Specifically, Sten having no horns allows him to travel to places such as Ferelden to observe, as was his objective. It'd only make sense that he travel with Qunari who also did not have horns.
At first the idea of Thedas's humans and elves cremating their dead seemed like meanginless background fluff. After thinking about it, it seems to actually have a purpose. Humans and elves all have some connection to the Fade, even after death. Considering how many demons would be happy to take on a corpse and wreak havoc, it only makes sense that they'd start up a tradition of destroying the bodies of the dead to prevent such attacks.
- It's only the Andrastians who do this supposedly since Andraste was burned but getting rid of corpses might also be useful. The Dalish bury their dead.
DLC Fridge Horror *and* Fridge Brilliance from Leliana's Song. Leliana lies in a dark, dank dungeon after having been betrayed by her lover Marjolaine to a cruel Ferelden Officer. She is sobbing and crying. She never tells us what happened to her in that dungeon, and we assume it's run of the mill torture... until the corrupt Officer makes a cruel remark to her later in the story about simply asking if she "wanted more men." Note, in the prison cutscene, where the blood stains are.
- Perhaps some players assumed that a beautiful young woman, thrown into prison under the charge of treason, to be tortured mercilessly for a confession, and in possession of no rights whatsoever wouldn't be raped, but I wasn't one of them. When Leliana said that they did "awful things" to her to make her confess, I automatically assumed that rape was one of them. I don't know what it says about our race that it would have been unrealistic for rape not to have happened, but it can't be good.
Why is Branka a Paragon of her Kind? Dwarves, apparently an honourable, noble people, have a dark side to them, one that can look very very nasty to an outsider...
- Dwarves also admire determinators like nobody's business, and Branka is one taken Up to Eleven.
Taking from the Qunari redesign, at first it seems a bit weird that natural born-hornless Qunari would be considered destined for greatness while the Tal-Vashoth who voluntarily remove their horns are scum of the earth to the Qun. But that's actually the whole point. Tal-Vashoth removing their horns is their way protesting the fatalist nature of the Qun, a philosophy that's no so big on the concept of people making their own choices about what they will to do. It's effectively saying Screw Destiny to the Qun because it symbolizes them choosing their own lot in life instead of it being fixed for them by an outside force.
When entering the phylactery chamber in the Circle of Magi, I was always initially confused as to why there was a room that was filled with mist and inexplicable bits of snow and ice in the corners. It seemed oddly out of place. Then it finally hit me: it's the mage equivalent of a refrigerator and the cold is to preserve the blood! Duh! Yet at the same time, brilliant!
One would think that since Ferelden's more rough-and-ready and "barbarian"-like than its neighboring nations, that the attire of the nobility would consist of more practical leathers, tunics, and furs than their foppish bright colors and puffed sleeves. But Ferelden was occupied by Orlais for over a century before the game's story began. So it's easy to assume that the Orlesians influenced the nobles' fashion and changed it from something like this to this.
- Much like how the anglo-saxons were influenced by being under Norman rule when William the Conquerer invaded.
Having just finished a playthrough in which my Warden was Alistair's lover and Morrigan's friend, I just had a minor epiphany. When trying to get my character to persuade Alistair to do the ritual with her, Morrigan acted very nonchalant about her request, even though she knew it must have been tearing up the Warden to have to convince the man she loved to sleep with another woman. She even offers some passive-agressive guilt, claiming if the Warden REALLY loved Alistair, she'd give him the chance to save his own life. This seemed contrary to how Morrigan acts after you befriend her, where she warms up to you considerably and seems fairly sympathetic to you from that point on. Yet in one scene she seems to regress back to her old self, only to swing back again when bidding you farewell at the gates of Denerim. So what's going on? And that's when it hit me: Morrigan is wearing a mask for this scene. It is killing her to ask her only friend to do this, but she doesn't have a choice if she wants to save her life. She's shut off her emotions for this because she sees her feelings on the matter as less important than saving the Warden. She may have her own long-term plans concerning the god child, but it becomes fairly clear that her main motivation at this point in time is saving her friend.
Fridge Brilliance: It always seemed a little bit odd that Wynne would turn on you if you destroyed the Urn of Sacred Ashes as she never seemed to be overly devout, certainly not to Leliana levels. Then comes DA2 when we see that joining with a Spirit of the Fade can have pronounced alterations on the mage's personality. So of course Wynne would try to kill/abandon you. You've just destroyed one of the most highly regarded holy relics in Thedas, and Wynne is joined with a spirit of Faith.
- The Fridge Brilliance on that point kicks in even during the first game: Eamon's son, Connor, who is possessed by a desire demon, becomes completely different from his usual self. Also, in a moment of Fridge Brilliance meets Wild Mass Guessing, if you defile the ashes, the two party members who immediately attack you, regardless of approval ratings, are Wynne and Leliana. Maybe the Cult of Andraste was right about their prophet being reborn - they just had the wrong entity.
Fridge Brilliance and Fridge Horror (at least from the Templars' perspective) in one: in the Mage's Circle quest, why is the Templar's Nightmare by far the most difficult section of the Fade to navigate? Because the Templars are obsessed with upholding the law and order of the Chantry. Spatial relations are probably the most well-ordered thing in the world; if even they prove unreliable, we have truly entered a Templar's nightmare.
Where Alistar presented the rose from Lothering...that that has to be the same rose that Leliana saw that made her think her vision was true!
- Fridge Brilliance: When Alistair gives the player that rose, he says pretty much the same thing that Leliana does when you ask her about her vision. "In the midst of darkness, there is still beauty." With that in mind, it makes tons of sense that they could end up as a couple in Darkspawn Chronicles.
On a recent playthrough, I was playing a female human noble who left Bann Vaughn in his jail cell. (I knew what a monster he was from a city elf playthough) Because I roleplayed my character as mostly good-aligned, it seemed out of character for her to leave one of Howe's prisoners behind, having helped everyone else. At first, I would have just dismissed it as a brief moment of metagaming. But then I thought about my character some more and had a realization. My character is a noble. Vaughn's evil tendencies are probably well-known among the nobility (he's not exactly subtle with his mistreatment of elves and women), but he gets a pass for being the Arl of Denerim's son, even though he's probably disliked by the other nobles the same way Howe is. Hell, my character's family has probably met with Vaughn's in the past over political matters and it wouldn't surprise me at all if Bryce Cousland, being a smart man, had even warned his daughter to give Vaughn a wide berth, knowing what kind of person he is. Having heard all this about him, and then witnessing him claim that elves aren't people and all but bragging about all the evil things he's done, my good-aligned warden would quickly realize that Vaughn does belong in a prison cell and would not feel at all conflicted about leaving him to rot in one.
I had a minor one whilst laughing at Alistair being mocked for capitulating to his junior (the Warden). Seeing just about everyone in the party snipe at him at least once for being lower in the chain of command was funny—until I realised: just about every origin character has been groomed to be a better leader than Alistair. The Cousland family is just beneath the royal family in terms of status and power, and Bryce Cousland is just the sort of man to make sure all of his children receive a good education in how to rule rather than just his eldest (indeed, the Human Origin starts out with the player character being made regent of Highever when Teryn Cousland and his oldest son are riding out to war, even though Teryna Cousland is entirely capable of fulfilling the role, precisely to give you a chance at leadership experience.) Similarly, the dwarven noble is second in line for the throne of Orzammar, and is considered by many people to be an even more desirable candidate than their older brother. The dwarven commoner, having spent most of his/her life looking out for the family and fending for his/herself, would have excellent survival skills (and, depending on how you play, appears to be the dominant partner in the duo with Leske). The city elf is apparently the oldest child of a large extended family whilst the Dalish elf is of the warrior class, and both are helping keep their people alive through harsh conditions and against lots of human predators, making both origins adept in survival and leadership. The mage origin doesn't have leadership experience going for it (comparatively), but from the character dialogue it's clear you are supposed to be very strong-willed and exceptionally talented in magic, which also implies a high intelligence. Now contrast Alistair, who was a bastard son raised as a servant before going into Templar training, has never had any control over his life, and had always been told what to do before Duncan came along. Poor guy.
On two occasions near the start of the game, you come across madmen ranting about the darkspawn, and it's only after you've finished the game that things start to make sense. The first is a soldier at Ostagar that was poisoned by darkspawn and is ranting about the horde that's bearing down on him and everyone's going to die. He has the Taint, just like the Wardens, and can actually sense the darkspawn! They sound like demented ramblings to us, but he's completely right. The second is a Chasind in Lothering ranting about how everyone's going to die, then points at you and announces that he can sense the darkness in you, you're a dark creature that's only the first of others. Wardens have the Taint, they carry darkspawn blood in their veins! Again, it sounds crazy but he's completely right.
- Point of fact, the first guy is explicitly not infected with the taint: He's just scared shitless.
Several bits of brilliance about Sten in light of all we've learned about the Qunari in Dragon Age II:
- Sten is swift to join the Warden to atone for his failures. One of the key components of the Qun, however, is that it gives every Qunari purpose. The Warden's arrival and offer to take him along to fight the Blight gives him a new purpose that would be acceptable within the confines of his role in the Qun, which is why he is so quick to accept this. Aside from atoning for his failures and continuing his mission for the Arishok, the Warden offers him a chance to continue being a warrior and fulfilling his overall purpose.
- Sten is so quiet around the others. The reason for this is elaborated on in the Codex. Aside from lacking respect for the others beyond immediate combat utility, he apparently doesn't command a full control of the common tongue in Ferelden. For the Qunari, not possessing mastery of a skill is shameful if displayed in front of others. Sten doesn't fully speak the local language, so he keeps quiet and is standoffish so he doesn't embarrass himself.
- Sten's objections to the Warden straying from directly fighting the Blight, i.e. going to Haven, stem from not simply his role as a soldier but also because of your role as a Grey Warden. Wardens fight the Blight, and by moving away from fighting the Blight to perform other, seemingly unnecessary tasks, you are deviating from your role, which is a big no-no to the Qunari. Sten disapproves of helping Redcliffe because its not your job to protect that village, its your job to fight the Blight. Sten disapproves of going to Haven because its not your job to hunt down mystical cures.
- Upon retrieving his sword, Sten's comments if the Warden isn't sure they aren't Ashkaari, which is a Qunari title meaning "One Who Seeks". While his tone indicates he's joking (and making a Stealth Pun that the Warden does a lot of seeking), its also possible he's expressing his new-found respect for the Warden. Being Ashkaari means having complete and utter understand of ones role and purpose in life, thus having reached enlightenment, which is the goal of the Qun. While the Warden initially confused Sten with their seemingly erratic decisions, Sten now recognises the Warden's role as an Ashkaari of the Grey Wardens. This would also explain why after finding Asala, he voices his opinion but does not question the Warden's decision to go to Haven, since the Warden is following the demands of their role.
Lots of people complained about the decisions Alistair made in Darkspawn Chronicles, saying that they were out of character for Alistair, all-around goodguy and idealistic hero. However, Alistair is a man who is afraid of leadership, lost, alone, forced to make decisions for himself that he hasn't been trained for and lacks the confidence to do so. And in such a scenario, who will Alistair have following him, belittling him, whispering poisonous lies in his ears while asserting her much stronger personality? No, many of the decisions made by Alistair do not fit him, but they perfectly fit Morrigan, who likely took over the group herself, using Alistair as her figurehead.
- Also, consider what the lack of a Warden means for Alistair's mental state. Alistair repeatedly states that he hates to lead, preferring to follow another person's commands. This is why he defers to the Warden's leadership in spite of the fact he's technically the senior warden. In Darkspawn Chronicles however, there is no one but Alistair to take up the responsibilities of leading the group. Alistair has to fit into a role he doesn't want, in addition to dealing with the grief of losing Duncan and the other wardens at Ostagar. It's also likely that the Warden's possible friendship/love is part of what helps him heal and keeps him fundamentally the same good person. Taking all this into account, an Alistair without the Warden's support would likely become a much harsher and more ruthless person, much more likely to make the crueler choices if it means defeating the blight.
- It also makes sense that with Morrigan's influence, she would advise him to make choices that were more about strength, hence why he'd save the Anvil and side with the Werewolves, both of which are are good on the offensive. The problem is that this meant that Alistair's force had little in the way of defensive strategy which the Dalish Archers would have provided to take the flack off of the ground-forces. Similarly without recruiting Wynne, Alistair had no-one to keep his companions healthy and able to fight, instead relying on the sheer offensive power Morrigan provided to win battles. By not finding the Urn of Sacred Ashes and failing to save Arl Eamon, this meant the Redcliffe forces lost a brilliant tactician and general, which hurt his chances drastically. Without the Warden's presence Alistair became very ruthless, but this also meant there was no-one to stop Alistair from being reckless.
Wynne attacking you if you defile the Urn of Sacred Ashes makes a lot more sense when you remember that she is an abomination. Technically, she is an abomination wherein the spirit is a virtuous entity but that also means that she is bonded to a creature that does not perceive the world the same way as humans do, and instead perceives it in terms of absolutes. This becomes especially notable when you compare Wynne to Anders and note how both of them can be irrational regarding their particular issues. When Wynne turns on you, it is not entirely of her own volition, as just like Anders and Justice, Wynne's spirit is driving her to attack you to protect the Ashes.
The Guardian of Andraste's ashes never really spells out who he is, but the Codex, as always, gives a clue. The entry for Havard's Aegis talks about an old friend of Maferath and Andraste called Havard who swore to protect them. When Andraste was betrayed, he tried to protect her but was fatally wounded and left for dead. By sheer willpower he made it to where Andraste was executed, but when he touched the ashes, he was cured, and told that "the Maker shall never forget you so long as I remember." Then he gathered up the ashes and went back to what would be Ferelden. That's the Guardian!
One of the main problems of the DA universe is that entities from a higher plane of existence are merging with people, thereafter controlling their actions and influencing their decisions (=a being called an Abomination in-universe). But then again... what does a player do when playing DA? We take over the main character, control her actions and influence her decisions. And we may not be from the Fade, but we definitely come from a "higher plane of existence". So, like it or not, that means each and every DA main character is a kind of abomination, and every player is a kind of demon.

Fridge Logic

How does anyone know that taking out the Archdemon costs the Warden's soul? It's not like anyone has actually been to the afterlife, and the player only encounters a handful of ghosts. All that can be verified is the Warden dying and the Archdemon not reincarnating.
- Grey Wardens can sense the darkspawn—and thus, each other—on a direct metaphysical level, via the Joining. They'll know.