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There are three remaining dragon gods scattered around the underground. Sequels will take place only a few years later, but in the other kingdoms that exist in the setting and are only mentioned intriguingly in Origins. The Anderfels, Orlais, Antiva, Tevinter...
* Two, actually. You destroy Urthemiel, the Dragon of Beauty. Mystery and Night are left. Ooohh, nice evil monikers....
* Just one problem - it would be incredibly boring to have the same plot premise repeat itself over and over again. It's more likely that the next games concentrate on different kinds of threats, such as the Qunari, and might involve preemtive attacks against the Darkspawn, as well. This troper would be surprised if Morrigan's child failed to play a major part in the future stories, as well...
** If Morrigan's child is an Old God, technically he (or she) should be able to control the Darkspawn.
*** Not quite. The Old Gods clearly don't have a full control over the Darkspawn, since they get corrupted by the contact wit them. It's more likely that he is like a beacon to them, summoning them from all over the place unconsciously, as they hope to taint him back into an Archdemon.
** This would make a certain amount of sense if it involved an entirely new main character, but Grey Wardens aren't [[Mass Effect|Spectres]]; their job is only to fight Darkspawn/Blights, not preserve order in general or anything. The proper Grey Warden response to the Qunari would be neutrality and attempting to recruit some. But most of the game isn't spent fighting the Blight directly, but gathering allies against it; since those allies would be drastically different in a different region of Thedas, another game with an identical overarching plot would still be very different.
*** This all assumes that the next game is going to involve the Grey Wardens in some fashion, and this troper hasn't heard anything like that yet.
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* They explain what happens to prisoners in a Codex piece that comes up in the Deep Roads. Males are eaten, but females are subjected to a process that kills almost all of them, but turns the few survivors into Broodmothers who then give birth to the Darkspawn.
** {{spoiler|Although some are turned into Darkspawn or things like them, examples being the Blighted animals and poor Tamlen}}
* Word of God has stated that darkspawn are born from broodmothers, but broodmothers themselves are just a specific type of female ghoul. Just about any animal can become tainted/blighted, but they will not be actual darkspawn themselves.
=== The Darkspawn are immortal unless subjected to violent death. ===
The Ancient Darkspawn in the Dead Trenches would seem to be implying this, especially with the old Gray Warden helmet he's wearing. Most just die either in raids to the surface and the dwarven strongholds, or in fights against each other, but the few that survive will keep on getting stronger and better as long as they live. The Ancient may be a survivor all the way from the last Blight.
=== Dragons speak telepathically through the blood, and are of human intelligence. ===
By drinking the dragon's blood other races can communicate with said dragon, which is how they create groups of dragon cultists to guard their nests and care for their eggs. Related, Dragons are actually quite intelligent but the huge drop in their numbers means they now lack most of their culture or teaching, and have become little more than uneducated bandits and thugs.
* Moving on from this, the Tevinter Imperium was basically a giant Dragon Cult, with its leaders all having ingested the blood of the old gods. This link unfortunately went horribly wrong when these leaders travelled to the Black City, where this shared Dragon blood became the darkspawn taint.
** Hmmmm. If the dragons are sentient like the other races, would that mean they have their own mages as well? That might explain what the old gods actually are...
** The Codex states that one mage claimed an Old God taught him Blood Magic. If this theory is true they would be the most likely candidates to invent it in the first place, as blood is very important to them. Note that Fake-Andraste wants you to place her blood in the ashes in order to steal their power.
*** This could have possibly been accomplished, not by Dragons being telepathic, but by Blood Mages being the Magi equivalent of the '''Reaver''' warrior specialization - perhaps when Mages drink the blood of Dragons (including Old Gods) or demons (how most Blood Mages these days do it) they gain access to Blood Magic. While Dragons are said to be as smart as dolphins, it seems more likely that the first Tevinter Blood Mage was a Reaver cultist than the fact that a Dragon sat him down and explained to him how he could become a Blood Mage.
=== The Blight is the result of the Old Gods becoming Dragon-Abominations ===
Working off the theory about dragons above, the old gods were dragons with the Tevinter Imperium being one huge dragon cult. What caused the Blight wasn't the Magisters travelling to the Golden City, it was the old gods being possessed by demons.
* This theory is enchanced by the fact that most abominations are the result of blood magic being used to summon demons which then possess people. Guess what kind of magic the ancient Imperium used.
** Not to mention, one would wonder where the Archdemons got that title from, being creatures seemingly unassociated with demons.
** As shown in the Warden's Keep DLC, the power of the Darkspawn taint can be used to control what is essentially another form of blood magic. Perhaps because the taint has its roots in such power?
* As seen during the Nature of the Beast quest, a spirit possessing a living creature is capable of infecting people with a disease that either kills them or turns them into monsters, with the spirit being able to influence those infected.
* Demons just by themselves seem to have some kind of connection to the Blight, as the mages tower holds the same kind of corruption as the Deep Roads.
* Witherfangs' curse gives those who are infected with it traits from her host body, a wolf. While the darkspawn mostly just look deformed, their breeding cycle is almost identical to that of a dragon's-many males 'mating' with one much larger female, who gives birth to numerous offspring.
** Their features are rather reptilian.
* The soul transfer that happens when an Archdemon dies sounds suspiciously like the process that Flemeth, an Abomination, uses to get new bodies, and they are apparently similar enough that she could devise a way to hijack the Archdemon's soul mid-transfer.
* The only real difference between the Blight and Witherfangs' curse is that the Blight is capable of infecting ''everything''.
** Which could be explained by dragons being more powerful than wolves and perhaps the demons taking over the Old Gods being more powerful than the Lady of the Forest.
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Which means that in addition to whatever the Architect is planning, we have one more active Archdemon out there in the body of your grunt Darkspawn, excluding the whole "Morrigan is having an Archdemon Baby" possibility. And any other Old Gods the Darkspawn will dig up in the meantime.
* The First Blight lasted nearly two hundred years. The Grey Wardens didn't come around until nearly a hundred years into it. You don't think that in those hundred years, the armies of the Tevinter Imperium, who would have been more than willing to use blood magic, summon demons, and who knows what else, didn't kill Dumat at least once before the Wardens were founded? That's most likely how they know the Archdemon will just move to another Darkspawn body if a Grey Warden doesn't kill it. Besides, as you said yourself, the Blight doesn't end until the Archdemon is dead, whether it's in its original body or not.
** Yup. The first Archdemon got killed a bunch of times, and came right back. The codex says that people thought it's ability to come back from the dead was proof of that it was a god (because, you know, that's what gods do). The first Grey Wardens could feel it as the dragon died and was reborn, and they figured out how it was pulling off that particular trick. I doubt any other Archdemon is wandering around, given that the entire purpose of the Grey Wardens is to render them [[Deader Than Dead]].
** See the WMG down below re: Flemeth's ritual and Andraste for another speculation as to where the soul of the First Archdemon might be.
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** If you bring Oghren along with you when you talk to the guardian, he mentions that the mountain the Urn is on top of is absolutely filled with incredibly powerful veins of lyrium. Several centuries being exposed to the essence of magic, and being the focus of faith of tens of thousands of people, could be an alternate explanation for the Urn's power.
** Maybe she ''did'' bond with the mother of all benevolent Fade spirits... the Maker.
* If you haul Morrigan along with you to the Circle she will comment that the growths growing on the walls due to the abominations looks surprisingly similar to darkspawn corruption.
* Not exactly [[Jossed]], just made ambigious. An alternative explanation for the Ashes' power is mentioned - that they've crystallized the essence of the faith of all those who believed in Andraste. Like with real world religions, you can go either way with no more or less evidence to support you. Though that idea of an incredibly powerful Fade-spirit supporting her has quite a bit of charm to it...
** I very much doubt that the Chantry is a scam, all involved seem to believe in the truth of the Chant of Light and are at worst Lawful Stupid. It is however almost certain that the truth of the matter is a little different from what they believe.
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=== The "Maker" was a Pride Demon ===
Come on. What's more prideful thought than "I am the sole chosen and beloved of the creator of the Universe, meant to create a powerful religion that will last until the end of time"? The Tevinter Imperium actually saved the world by putting her to a torch, after their learned Magisters realized that she was in fact a powerful Abomination at this point.
* As if to add to this, in ''The History of the Chantry: Chapter 4'', an excerpt reads: "In these dark times, mankind scrambled for a light, any light. Some found comfort in demonic cults that promised power and riches in return for worship." The Chantry's goal is to convert the entire world into worship of the Maker, on the promise that He will build them a paradise. In other words, by the Chantry's own logic, He has promised power and riches in exchange for worship. So, the difference between the widespread religion to the Maker and these demonic cults is...?
** The Chantry does nice things (or at least tries to)?
** Who's to say that a demonic cult has to be evil? Even if you worship an unholy demon, one of the best ways to gain dedicated converts is a good public works campaign sponsored by your Ministry of Darkness.
** Also, looking at some of the fringes of what the chantry does, there's the templars. They are lyrium addicts that will go into dementia from it. They 'guard' mages against becoming abominations (wouldn't like any other demons to rise to the same power, would we?).
** The chantries teachings require them to spread the chant to all people, violently if necessary.
** A codex entry in the sequel mentions an apocryphal story about Andraste going to the top of Sundermount (a mountain important to the plot of the first act and a source of bad mojo from an ancient battle that occurred there) and returning in tears and clearly disturbed. Considering there's an {{spoiler|imprisoned demon}} atop Sundermount and that Flemeth {{spoiler|is resurrected there}} it raises some interesting questions...
* [[Fridge Horror|Revising the previous WMG]], Andraste didn't bond with the ultimate benevolent Fade spirit. [[Go Mad
* It might be a bit of a knock against the more blind followers of religions around the world, though whether or not its intentional remains to be seen.
=== The High Dragon Really Is Andraste ===
Andraste was a rare example of a Mage born with the power to change the world. AS her legend grew, she was eventually reborn as a dragon. The old gods where also originally powerful mages and legendary "heroes" of the Tevinter people before being reborn as dragons. This also happened to Flemeth. Had she lived, Dragon Andraste would have moved under ground to sleep, be awaked by the darkspawn, and become the Archdemon Andraste.
=== Demons are spirits who were originally corrupted by people. ===
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Justice doesn't deny their similarity, and affirms that demons have been corrupted rather than existing in a state of original evil.
* Alternatively, ''all'' spirits have been corrupted by proximity to humans - demons are just the ones unlucky enough to be corrupted by negative emotions rather than positive or neutral ones.
** That would explain the spirits of higher order ideals, like Courage and Justice. You could go one further and speculate that without that influence, spirits don't coalesce self-awareness, don't become entities, don't really ''exist''. Then you have to wonder what would be the Maker, if not an expression of something in the sentient condition. Sort of like a reverse Platonic idea.
* In the sequel Merrill admonishes Anders for thinking that there are "good" spirits as all spirits are dangerous to some extent. Even the noble Justice became Vengeance when Ander's anger corrupted him.
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The once in a lifetime/Age chance to play with stakes as high as the fate of nations and the lives of every one in Fereldan and possibly beyond, was too great lure to resist.
And if played skillfully enough, end up {{spoiler|OPENLY becoming the mistress of the King of Fereldan (while being an Orlesian!) and confessing being a Bard/Spy/Assassin to said King's face, and perhaps be more loved then the Queen by said King AND Chantry (as a lay sister) with Orlesian support to boot! Her children might actually be royalty one day...}}, playing the game far better than Marjolaine could have dreamed.
== Flemeth, Morrigan, and The Ritual ==
=== Flemeth is an Old God ===
The Old Gods are spirits possessing humans. Flemeth is an Abomination and she can turn into a Dragon. Unlike the Archdemons, she wasn't corrupted by her transformation.
* While it's hardly impossible that Flemeth could be a being ''like'' the Old Gods, it's highly improbable that she could be one herself - she's way too weak, for one matter.
** The Old Gods are not spirits possessing humans. The Old Gods are just flat out uber-powerful dragons (most likely). Morrigan's child on the other hand, will be a purified old god spirit possessing a human form. My personal theory is that Flemeth was created from the same ritual that created Morrigan's child, and that her goal here is to gain a powerful ally (one of equal power to her) to use in a war against the chantry. (Once the baby's grown.)
* We know that Flemeth told Morrigan of the ritual to conceiving an Old God, and that she sent Morrigan with us to prepare her for the body-snatching ritual. It seems very likely that Flemeth's plan all along was to body-snatch Morrigan's child, in which case it's not so much that Flemeth IS an Old God so much as that she wants to BECOME an Old God.
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=== Morrigan's ritual is entirely her own idea and not Flemeth's. ===
Before you leave Flemeth's hut after Ostagar, ask her for some advice in general. She says something like, "Trust not the weakness in men's hearts. Look to no-one to defeat the Blight but yourself. Else, it will always nip at your heels." Considering she needs the PC to ultimately back down from sacrificing himself - this advice seems a bit odd. Also, if Morrigan was in on this plan from the start - why did she continue to antagonize Alistair, one of only two (or if the PC is female - the only) sperm donors in sight.
* I think it's pretty unlikely that Morrigan came up with the ritual on her own. And here are my reasons why.
** Where would Morrigan get the knowledge for that a ritual like that, if not from Flemeth?
*** Well, depending on the players actions, there's The Black Grimoire or even Flemeth's Grimoire itself. Even if the player gives neither to Morrigan it seems unlikely that Flemeth had her grimoire on her constantly. If Morrigan is to believed, it seems that soul transference is Flemeth's schtick. She could have adapted the ritual from one of those.
** Flemeth's advice to the Warden seems to be more like "Telling someone else about the Blight and leaving it up to them won't work, you need to do everything yourself", which would fit if her plans were to send Morrigan along with the Grey Warden who slays the Archdemon.
** It's hard to imagine Flemeth letting her intended replacement body walk off into danger if there wasn't something worth the risk to be gained from it.
*** But according to Morrigan there is something to be gained to her walking off. The more powerful Morrigan is, the easier it is for Flemeth to acclimatise. Morrigan even suggested she might have wanted some peace and quiet to prepare for the ritual. And the Blight is a threat. Even to Flemeth.
** Morrigan antagonized Alistair because she didn't think it mattered if she did. She was brought up away from society and other people, and if you ask her about her upbringing she tells you she was raised to value survival above all else. She believes other people think the same way, so, in her mind, if she offered a way to save someone from dying, then ''of course'' they would take it.
*** Except she also knows that batting her eyes and being ''friendly'' to men is the best way to get what she wants. She even tells you that. She knows that Alistair wouldn't back out from his duty of killing the Archdemon, he would need a better reason than just survival.
*** More simply, she antagonized Alistair because ''she just doesn't like him''. Alistair is pretty much the anthropomorphic personification of every personality trait that Morrigan most despises: he's weak-willed, he's happy when other people tell him what to do, and he actively avoids seizing power. Add in that she's an apostate mage and he's a ''templar'', and, really, its not surprising that she spends most of the game unloading on him. Morrigan is sarcastic and cold even with people she ''likes''... someone she has no respect or affection for is going to get ''savaged''.
** Morrigan flat out tells you that she got the ritual from her mother, and there really would be no point in lying about it. It's not like it really makes a difference whether the ritual was her idea or Flemeth's, so it's kinda odd for her to be lying for no reason.
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=== Morrigan's child will be able to shapeshift into a dragon or even an archdemon ===
A human born with the soul of an Old God, who happened to have the shape of dragons? A mother who is an expert in shapeshifting, WHOSE mother was explicly shown to be able to turn into a dragon? I think it's pretty likely that (s)he'll learn to turn into a dragon, or perhaps even an archdemon, at some point. Also, the character itself would offer dozens of plot chances. For example, with that conditions, isn't the child likely to get tainted? Will it become a new archdemon? Or what would happen if it became a Warden? If it were to become an archdemon, would it be able to retain some sanity? Maybe it could use its human form to explain the darkspawn motives? Or could it, as a new archdemon, even be able to control the darkspawn and force them to do something good, providing the sanity is retained?
=== Flemeth is behind EVERYTHING. ===
She certainly seemed to be clairvoyant and the ability to see the future does exist in Thedas, as evidenced by the statue encountered in the Mage Origin story. Thus, she could easily have manipulated everything from the beginning. It was she who convinced the Magisters to go to the Golden City (she herself might even have been a magister), knowing full well what would happen to them. From there she bided her time until they found Dumat and the First Blight nearly brought about the end of the world. Taking advantage of these desperate times, she reveals the secret of tainting oneself and gaining the ability to slay the Archdemon, leading to the founding of the Grey Wardens. With the Blight ended, she retreats to the Korcari Wilds, the locals begin telling stories about this Witch of the Wilds, stories which she encourages so that her true identity will be lost to history, and she begins the practice of raising daughters whose bodies she can steal. Flash forward several centuries and Flemeth ventures into the Deep Roads to locate a certain newborn Hurlock Emissary, who she alters to be a different from all other darkspawn. Flemeth then goes on to raise Morrigan and wait until the Architect accidentally starts the Fifth Blight by tainting Urthemiel, the Dragon of '''BEAUTY'''. The events of Origins then play out and only two phases of her plan remain: to possess Morrigan Jr. (assuming that the Warden agreed to the ritual, but that seems like too good a plot point not to canonize) in order to gain power, eternal life, and eternal beauty and for the Architect (or his faction, if later games reveal his death to be canon, but that just seems like it would be a waste) to kill Razikale and Lusacan so that no one will ever have the power to oppose her.
* She sure could have done a better job at putting her plot into action, because as it is, this is taking [[Gambit Roulette]] [[Up to Eleven]] It took nearly a hundred years before the first Grey Wardens formed to combat the First Blight, and another hundred years before they finally figured out how to kill the Archdemon. All accounts seem to imply that the death of Dumat and ending of the First Blight was nothing short of a miracle. For something that was vital to her plans and going to bring about the end of the world, one would think she'd take a more active role in moving it forward...
** Unless she had as much to gain during an ongoing Blight as she gains from it ending. But what?
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=== Flemeth was the dragon the Dragon Age was named after. ===
* A fair bit Jossed, in one of the Codices it is mentioned that at the start of the Age the name was already planned, but then when the announcement was due a dragon showed up and they changed it then and there. Dragon Age is the title of the decade/century/multiple centuries.
** How is it jossed? The above theory is about Flemeth ''being'' the dragon that prompted the name change.
** And it's almost certain that Flemeth is old enough to have been around then.
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More specifically, Morrigan (and every other "daughter" of Flemeth) is ''literally'' the personification of Flemeth's youth, innocence/inexperience and beauty: the "Maiden" aspect of a triune being. (''Dragon Age: Origins'' perhaps takes place during a "liminal" period wherein she transitions from maiden to matron, while Flemeth herself fully shifts from matron to crone)
In short, Flemeth is the Thedas version of figures like Hecate or ''the'' Morrigan. It's likely she predates the "Flemeth" legend and could be, in fact, the "Shadow Goddess" mentioned in the DA Traveler's guide.
Regardless: Morrigan's sending the Warden to slay Flemeth is not out of fear of ''possession'' (the simplicity of which Flemeth even mocks: ''"that she does... but do you?"'') but prompted by a full blown existential crisis. Flemeth expects this, of course, as it's something of a rite-of-passage for her maiden incarnation.
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=== The Joining is even more dangerous and difficult to survive during a Blight ===
Just because it pisses me off that Dwarf Wardens pass out in ''Origins'', but Oghren stays standing in ''Awakening'' for a cheap laugh.
== Maric the Manwhore, Alistair and other bastards. ==
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*** Alistair: You'd have liked her. You two have a lot in common.
** If you don't {{spoiler|sleep with Morrigan}} just before the big battle, that could mean that {{spoiler|her kid is the bastard child of King Alistar.}} Does anyone else smell a sub-plot for a future title?
** [[Fridge Horror|Oh dear God]], the child is {{spoiler|''Mordred''}}.
*** You all just blew my mind.
=== Alistair's mother is really Fiona, not some Redcliffe maid. ===
Arl Eamon and Maric used the dead maid as a coverstory to hide the fact that an elven mage was his true mother. When Fiona handed her baby to Maric during the epilogue of The Calling at no point did he think, "Oh crap! Another bastard to hide." The only person to might see through Eamon's lie was the maid's daughter whom he ran off from his castle, which considering the girl has just recently been orphaned seems a bit out of character. Alistair also seems to be quite skilled in his Templar abilities which do seem to require some skill in magic to pull off (and he is also not taking Lyrium supplements which may, or may not be required for those abilities to work). Magical abilty would appear to be a genetic trait as the Chantry discourages the mages from having relations and the Tevinter Imperium used to have records of all the geneologies of families producing gifted children. Alistair also has a strong liking for magical iconography. The lead writer David Gaider has also said that the game's Codex entries are not 100% accurate, merely reporting what characters believe.
* Who else suddenly wants to create an elven rogue or mage and get the sexy on with Alistair, just for the sake of irony and making bad jokes about Theirin preferences?
** I finished origins with a female mage elf (and i did not know about The Calling yet), romanced Alistair, and had him have a child with Morrigan. This, coupled with the "Mordred" theory definately blew my mind at many levels.
** Furthermore, {{spoiler|Fiona and Alistair will reunite. Ferelden has lost almost all it's Grey Wardens so will need a couple more 'on loan', and Fiona is an obvious candidate. She doesn't suffer the taint anymore so there's no reason she's not still living, and if the Architect shows up again she's the only one who can give necessary exposition.}}
*** {{spoiler|Having not read the book, I may not be in a position to comment, But apparently The Architect is the ''[[Big Bad]]'' for the expansion, so...}}
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=== The Fade is The Warp from WFB or 40k. ===
I defy anyone to look at a Desire Demon and not see it's the first cousin to a Daemonette; they are described as a sort of all-in-one package for things Slaanesh does. Sloth demons are in fact entropic entities and thus Father Nurgle's children. Rage demons are Khornate in their desires but owe their imagery to Khaela Mensa Kaine and the Avatar...who might just be an aspect of Khorne anyways. Shades, Revenants, and Ash Wraiths are various demons of Chaos Undivided or lesser beings represented in things like Dark Heresy. Abominations are painfully daemonhostlike. Only Pride demons don't fall into the obvious slot, not being even partially Tzeentchian.
* The mages also look ''a lot'' like psykers, in terms of their tendency to get demonically possessed and/or explode if untrained. That said, you can enter the Fade relatively unarmored, and come back in one piece; the Warp [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|isn't so forgiving]].
* Could just be a 'young' Warp, before the concentrated vices of multiple races twisted it into the Hell it is by the time of Warhammer.
* I think it's also important to note that there's a boss named Fulgrim. Which in my opinion shows that this game draws at least some inspiration from Warhammer.
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=== The Old Gods are Reapers and the Maker is a Prothean ===
The Humans/Elves/Dwarves are all human off shoots made by the protheans from kidnapped Cro Magnons. The Old Gods are reaper avatars like the Collector General and the Dark Spawn are husks. Lyrium is element zero and mages are those who've been exposed to large amounts of it in utero. In the 2nd or 3rd Dragon Age Commander Shepard and the ''Normandy'' will show up to recruit the Grey Wardens, as they are able to sense the Reaper's intentions. Naturally, this will lead to [[Back-to-Back Badasses]].
* There's more implying this: aside from the possibility of Flemeth's death causing the immortality (we do have precedent for such: the Archdemon can survive by possessing any Darkspawn nearby), Morrigan's behavior in Witch Hunt is utterly different from the main game, subdued and submissive to Flemeth's will where once she was casually defiant to it. This approaches possible [[Fridge Horror]] if the warden agrees to Morrigan's plan, as Flemeth's two body hops away from a massively powerful host.
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=== Thedas is a part of [[Lord of the Rings|Arda.]] ===
Albeit the southern hemisphere of Arda. The continent of Middle-earth resides in the western part of that world. Dragon Age takes place around the same time as The Lord of the Rings.
=== Dragon Age shares a universe with [[Metroid]] ===
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=== [[Dragon Age]] is the very distant past of [[Star Wars]] ===
The Fade is fundamentally a place of unpredictability, but what if it becomes pacified, peaceful? Somewhere, somehow, the substance of the fade is drastically altered, and demons are weakened into smaller beings known as midi-chlorians. What was once a near tangible place of dreams fades into the background, a mere Force of nature. The black city, the old gods fade, and even the maker fade away, while the Quanari continue to develop technology. When the people of Thedas take to the stars, they bring hyperspace technology with them, discovering many other races capable of connecting to the fade/force.
Through this however, persists one figure. She was once known as Flemmeth. She emerged prominently once as Kreia, who reconnected a tranquil back to the force, before fading again from history.
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=== Dragon Age III will be a fight between... ===
A Flemeth possessed god-child and Superman, who fell to ferelden as seen in Dragon Age I.
=== The child in the "[[Superman]]" encounter will be much more important than a random [[Shout-Out]]. ===
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=== Thedas is also the setting for [[Claymore]] ===
Similarities between Grey Wardens and Claymores ([[Enemy
=== Thedas exists within the continuity of [[The Sandman]] ===
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=== The sequel will revolve around a war between religions ===
Morrigan will revive the worship of the Old Gods with the aid of her son, who will represent an alternative Messiah-figure to many, and will be both wiser than his years and a miracle-making prophet before he turns six. This ofcourse doesn't sit well with the Chantry, who will seek to raise an Exalted March against her. The Grey Wardens won't be happy about the kid's existence either, especially when there's a chance that he might be Tainted into an Archdemon, again. And meanwhile the Qunari are planning an assault of their own, bringing the philosophy of the Qun with them to mix things up even further. And you'll be in the middle of it all, determining which side will come out on the top, and trying to prevent a world war from happening.
=== Duncan will be back for Dragon Age II ===
C'mon, they [[Never Found the Body]]!
* Possibly Jossed by the DLC Return to Ostagar that will let you, well, return to Ostagar. Would be odd if there wasn't any chance whatsoever of recovering Duncan's corpse. And his cool, high-level gear, of course.
** {{spoiler|You don't find the body.}}
* Alternatively, Duncan will be back for The Awakening. The Architect has a vested interest in keeping Grey Wardens alive.
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* This one has been confirmed by [[BioWare]] as not true since not only is there the possibility for Morrigan to not have a child in the first place, when ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' starts the child would not have been conceived yet and when it ends the child would only be around 9 years old.
* Also, the "Witch Hunt" DLC, which centers around finding Morrigan is meant to settle her part of the story.
** Not that it really succeeded at doing so. Even if you kill her, the way she went off would easily make it possible for her to come back later.
* It's said in Witch Hunt that Morrigan Jr. is male, so unless they recon it, it's not going to happen. It's just unlikely that Bioware wouldn't allow you to play as a female character. Imagine the outcry of the Fans If you can only play a male human/ half-human.
* On a related note, Morrigan Jr.'s name will be... Morgan, because Morrigan does not seem like the type to put much effort into names. There will be much lampshading of this.
{{quote|'''Morgan:''' Mother wanted to name me after my father, but... for some reason it wasn't possible.}}
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=== Seranni will return in a sequel or expansion. ===
She is the only one in the Architect's faction who will definitively survive, regardless of the player's actions, leaving a way for the Architect's work to continue even in his absence. Furthermore, her sister, Velanna, may be in possession of some [[Plot Armor]] (especially since, if left at the keep while you save Amaranthine, [[Never Found the Body|no one ever finds her body]], giving ''her'' ample sequel oppotunity as well to continue that whole plot thread. But things may indeed [[It Got Worse|get worse]]. Seranni possesses the same sickly look that most tainted individuals bear, which means it might very well be possible she could become a Broodmother! Her mind seems to display signs of transformation, as she initially takes steps to ensure the Warden and company escape, before becoming fully complicit to the Architect and his plans, and is completely indifferent to the death of her clan at his machinations. Her decription of him as being "tender" is not very reassuring, either ([[Squick|among other things]]).
** Mere Tainting does not turn women into Broodmothers. It's a long, complex process that most candidates don't survive. Seranni is likely to be like Utha, who endured in the same condition for decades.
** She's not the only one of the Architect's faction who is still alive. In the Architect's diary he mentions a Disciple called the Seeker, who's apparantely behind all the problems in the Wending woods. He's also never fought over the course of the game.
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In Awakening, he reveals his grand plan to help the Darkspawn: use the immunity found in Grey Warden blood to cut the Darkspawn off from the call of the Old Gods. And so far, it appears to work great! The Darkspawn are freed, and even become intelligent, thinking creatures like him! If you side with him at the end, then it's implied he goes on to free all the Darkspawn in this manner, and even if you kill him, his followers escape to the deep roads anyway, so they could theoretically carry on his work even without him. So what's the problem with this scenario? ''The immunity of a Grey Warden doesn't last forever''. It's only a matter of time before a Grey Warden's immunity runs out, and then they start hearing the call of the Old Gods themselves. So all the Darkspawn that were freed will eventually go right back to trying to find the Old Gods/destroy the world. Except they won't go back to being mindless monsters, they will ''keep'' the intelligence they gained, even as they serve the Old Gods. So in the end, all the Architect accomplished was to make the Darkspawn an even bigger threat.
* Part of the Architect's original plan was to find and kill the Old Gods, though it's unclear if he still planned to do this after the plan changed from tainting everyone else to immunizing all the darkspawn. Of course, Awakening proved that intelligent darkspawn can still carry out mini-Blights (and probably larger scale ones given the opportunity) without an archdemon if they have some type of leadership, so in the end it seems that none of the Architect's plans would ever work in the long term.
* Alternatively, the Architect's plans will work ''[[Gone Horribly Right|too well]]'' and he'll create Disciples as smart as he is, but minus his more [[Affably Evil|affable]] qualities. Becoming intelligent does not mean that they turn good after all. We've already seen how the Mother and her spawn turned out.
* Considering that his two major attempts at meddling in the backstory {{spoiler|turned Urthemiel into an Archdemon and created The Mother}}, it's almost a given that this is going to happen again if he is allowed to survive.
=== The [[Dragon Age]] sequel won't allow game transfers. ===
I should probably rephrase that they * might* , but a lot of your personal decisions won't make a difference. I'm ''really really really'' hoping I'm wrong, but everything seems to indicate that. Besides the incredibly short amount of time in between this game, and the new game (February 2011), Awakening ignored an obvious decision: whether your character sacrificed themselves. Besides that, the obvious [[Sequel Hook]] of the God Baby...if they choose to be faithful to your decision, you'd think a ''gigantic'' plot element would be missing. Then there's Eamon's foreshadowing of Connor, if you didn't kill him: that's another plot point they'd have to ignore if they allowed your decisions to carry through. I know they did this for ME, but the decisions of [[Mass Effect]] 1 aren't as phenomenally important as they are in [[Dragon Age]]. Perhaps this can be avoided by the game occuring in a different country (who cares who's king of Orzammar when you have Kal-Sharok! Who cares about the Ferelden Circle when you can visit Orlais' Circle! Who cares if you're Queen of Ferelden, when you can be the Empress's kid! I have a strong feeling the next game will occur in Orlais.), but that's just a different way of ignoring your decisions: by making them unimportant.
* This troper is inclined to believe that the game will allow a partial transfer, the same as the Awakening, with a few most major choices pre-written, but a few others still free to change, along with your stats and appearance, ofcourse.
* This has been Jossed by [[Word of God]]; [http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/3153797/1#3154321 you ''will'' be able to trasnfer your Origins and Awakening saves to Dragon Age 2], although who knows what choices you made will truly have any effect...
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=== Dragonage 3 will take place in the Anderfels ===
See above.
* If the series is successful and continues on long enough, then yes, there will be a Dragon Age game in Anderfels one day. As certain as there will be a Dragon Age in Rivain, Tevinter, Antiva, Orlais and any other nation on the map. So please, if this WMG turns out to be wrong don't make a WMG saying "Dragonage 4 will takes place in the Anderfels". At least not unless there are actual hints about Anderfels as a possible setting of the next game.
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and we shall rise }}
Seems to suggest that at some point maybe we'll be able to raise a battlefield of dead Wardens to fight for us (''Return of the King'' comes to mind as a model). And it will be awesome.
=== Sten will be a [[Legacy Character]] ===
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Total lack of social skills combined with savant-level skill in one area? Sounds like autism to me. He may also be the first recorded [[Autistic Badass]].
* Well, he ''is'' outright called a savant at one point (according to Bodahn)--but I'd say he doesn't really act like an autistic kid. He seems to be mostly aware of the outside world, and the number one feature of austism is an inability to understand or communicate with others. And, sheesh, I'm going to be incredibly surprised if there isn't already a trope labeling how austistic kids have special magical powers that allow them to shape the world. Maybe Sandal, if autistic, would be the first autistic kid with physical superpowers. And anyhow, it's pretty much stated it was the exposure to lyrium that made him that way.
** Ever heard of high-functioning Downs? Just because they ''say'' it's lyrium doesn't mean it is-this ''is'' the Middle Ages we're talking about here.
*** Well, being made Tranquil, which is sort of like a Magical Lobotomy for mages that turns you into a emotionless robot but you can handle enchantment and potentially mind melting and lethal magical stuff called lyrium so being born with brain damage might give you some of the same benefits. Though Sandal seems lucky enough to retain a personality (could be because he is dwarf.) Tough to test because Dwarves don't become mages and are born resistant to magic/lyrium anyway.
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=== Loghain's coup was long planned ===
In the human noble start Howe does something suicidally stupid, attacking another noble. He knows the king however won't be any position to make him pay the piper for it though. Similarly it's later shown that he's torturing another noble's son, and has another different noble's son locked up in his dungeons. Add in his smuggling and money laundering and he knew, and has known, for some time the king would die. The only way he'd know that is if Loghain told him of his plans. Probably why Howe didn't have his troops at Ostagar. Loghain isn't a man driven to protect his country, he's a cold manipulative regicidal bastard.
* Loghain doesn't care about his country!? The reason he killed the king was because he saw the man as too idealistic and wasting the country's forces fighting the Darkspawn! His enmity to the Orlesians is what drives him, not some psychopathic tendency towards the aristocracy.
* Indeed. If you read ''The Stolen Throne'', then you know that Loghain couldn't care less about personal power, or what people think of him. He cares about nothing but the country - he's the living image of a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]. Loghain probably started planning his coup when Cailan declared that they should get help from the Orlesians, and wouldn't back down. That's the one thing that he couldn't take, no matter what. Remember that the arrangements for the battle of Ostragar must have taken weeks or months - there's no indication that Loghain would have made any of this plots before this time. Even Arl Eamon's poisoning happened after this, as you know if you play the Mage Origin. Also note that most of the atrocities blamed on Loghain were done by Arl Howe, who Loghain turned blind eye to in order to have at least one loyal ally among the nobility. Loghain didn't want Cailan to die because he knew that most of the nobles would turn against him if that happened, but if it was a choice between Cailan and Ferelden in his mind, then there was no comparison.
** It has been confirmed by [[Word of God|David Gaider]] that Loghain was plotting against Cailan before Ostagar. Arl Eamon was also poisoned before The Battle of Ostagar. The Redcliffe knight in Lothering says that Arl Eamon has been ill for months. He even uses that fact as an argument ''against'' Loghain being involved. Loghain's section in the It Just Bugs Me topic has more discussion on how heavily Loghain was involved in things like the Cousland massacre.
*** Er, the person who poisoned Arl Eamon was none other than Jowan the Blood Mage. The same Jowan who escapes the Circle Tower during the Mage Origin story. The poisoning can't have started before Jowan escaped, which in turn happened right when Duncan came looking for recruits to deal with the Blight at Ostragar.
*** This is true—however, it doesn't mean Loghain didn't get ahold of Jowan before Ostagar. We don't know when Jowan was captured by the templars, and it's possible only an emissary of Loghain instructed him to poison Arl Eamon. It's only a day's journey to Redcliffe from the Circle Tower, and presumably much more from there to Ostagar. The time frame is still possible.
** I'll accept that Loghain had been planning against King Cailan for quite a while, but it wasn't because he had some deep-seated hatred of Cailan or the aristocracy. It was because the King placed too much trust in the Grey Wardens, a move that Loghain saw as at best, foolish, and at worse as inviting Orlesian spies into the upper reaches of government.
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If the Warden is female, she never shows any attraction to men. Her attraction to a male Warden is a combination of [[Even the Guys Want Him|Even The Lesbians Want Him]] and [[If It's You It's Okay]].
* One thing might kill that theory: in the alternate continuity of the Darkspawn Chronicles, it's implied that Alistair and Leliana hooked up.
** Maybe Alistair has the "Just for you" ticket as well.
* From what she divulges from her past, it does sound like she's had several casual relations with men as a part of her bardic profession, and didn't mind about them. It's just that her only serious relationship before the game was with Majorlaine.
* Should be noted, she does express some interest in men. If the female warden is romancing Alistair and not Leliana, she eagerly inquires about Alistair's preformance. The warden can comment basicly that he's good but inexperienced. Leliana says its cute, that he's like a little puppy, which is good because it means he can be trained; she's definitely speaking from experience.
* In fact, it actually seems ''easier'' to romance her as a male Warden. There are several dialogue options right out of the gate (Neutral approval) that only appear/only work if the Warden is male ("Those initiates couldn't have been more lovely than you,"), which allow a male Warden to initiate a romance with her fairly early on. A female Warden, however, has to raise her approval to a high level (+50) first, then wait for her to make the first move, choose the right dialogue options, and express interest. Or complete her personal quest and talk to her about Majorlaine later, an option that requires an even higher approval (well over 70) and is also available to male Wardens. If that's all ''against'' her usual sexual preferences because even the lesbians want him, then we're talking about the male Warden's hotness being carried to [[Serial Escalation|ridiculous levels]]. (The male Warden is so hot that he turns lesbians straight! At neutral approval! With a single flirtatious comment!)
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=== Leliana is the reincarnation of Andraste. ===
Strange that this hasn't been brought up already. Both are singers, and both hear the voice of the Maker. It isn't impossible.
* Maybe Leliana used to be an Andraste impersonator. And a lot of <s> fans</s> faithful Fereldans are damn sure the <s> Queen</s> Prophetess is not dead.
=== Leliana is the [[Narrator]] of ''Origins'' ===
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=== The purpose of the game is to set up Bioware's personal version of the King Arthur Legend. ===
Alistair, the bastard son of the dead king who had been secretly raised by the king's uncle, bears remarkable similarities to King Arthur. It is also possible to make Morrigan, who David Gaider admits to having based off of Morgan le Fay, have sex with Alistair. In a future game Morrigan and Alistair's son (Mordred) will likely return and wage war upon Ferelden.
* Oh, someone else made this observation! I'll point out that Maric ''might'' have slept with Flemeth to conceive Morrigan, making Alistair and Morrigan half-siblings, as Arthur and Morgan le Fay were. Alistair seems to be a bit more of a Arthur/Lancelot type, whereas Calenhad definitely fills the role of a King Arthur/Queen Guinevere, by cheating on his wife with his [[The Lancer|Lancelot]]-equivalent. In that sense, an Anora/Alistair child (with him as the role of the damned Lancelot) would be a Galahad, no?
* I'll also add in that there is a random trigger scene (similar to the Starfang/Superman scene) that has an axe in a block of wood—you are asked to pull it at out, you do, people hereld you as the future king/queen. Obviously it's just an homage, but it's worth mentioning. And Alistair makes no comment on this, BTW—nor do you need to be a Cousland.
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Think about it. When you meet the pair in Denerim, Herren is only interested in making profit and he "helps" Master Wade by taking care of the public relations part of the job by fronting the store. Meanwhile, Master Wade is only interested in working with very exotic materials (making good games) and in Awakening loudly complains about having to work with "lesser" materials (making shovelware, low budget maybe?). He also gets very annoyed when you suggest the idea that his work be fast because he doesn't like to be rushed, much to the chagrin of Herren who would rather have Wade pump out armor faster.
** Oh, this is great! Haha! Made even better, because [[Word of God]] confirms they're in a gay relationship. XDD
*** And now, Herren just turned out to be a Desire Demon in disguise. And thanks to that, they're the only survivors of the Denerim Massacre in Darkspawn Chronicles. I think that may lend some credibility to this theory.
=== The Dragon Age is not just an age in Thedas; it applies to the real world as well! ===
The titular Dragon Age was so named for dragons were once again sighted in Thedas after having been thought extinct long before. It seems that after the game's release, there are a whole bunch of other fantasy RPGs coming out or just on the horizon, all of which involve, you guessed it, dragons suddenly reappearing in the world. And just like the Archdemon, when these guys appear, [[It Got Worse|things get bad]] fast. In [[World of Warcraft]]: Cataclysm, Deathwing awakens and reshapes Azeroth. In [[Guild Wars 2]], the Elder Dragons come alive and wreak havoc in Tyria. In [[The Elder Scrolls]] V: [[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim|Skyrim]], dragons appear in Tamriel, and can only be stopped by a lone hero.
How is this all relevant? It seems that a very literal Dragon Age has been ushered into the world of RPGs. Dragons are making a comeback as the [[badass]]es they are, after going through some nasty [[Badass Decay|decay]] for so long. And they're PISSED!
"Oh," you say. "Dragons are a cliche. A bunch of unoriginal fantasy stories is hardly anything to excited over, let alone make a silly WMG on [[TV Tropes]] for." But you could be wrong! It's all an omen, and Bioware was letting us know something important. The dragons are coming back to Earth to unleash unholy vengeance on humanity! Run! Run for the hills before it's too late! None will surviiiiive!
* [[Bring It On]]. I have three words for the dragons: heat seeking missiles.
* I suppose the ''[[The Saga of the Volsungs|Volsunga Saga]]'' will become more widely read in such an event... A training manual, so to speak.
=== The Finn and Ariane where given "naive" personalities intentionally to make the Warden seem older. ===
The thing is this is the Warden's last adventure. And while they might not look, or even ''be'' that much older than either of them, they've already been through their Origin, the Blight, the Awakening, and the Amgarrak expidition by this point, where as Finn's never left the tower, and Ariane's never left her clan. In a way they're a lot like what the Mage and Dalish Origin characters could've become if the events of their Origin stories had never happened. They represent the Warden's lost innocence, while the last encounter with Morrigan represents the end of the Warden's adventures. If the Warden doesn't {{spoiler|Join Morrigan beyond the Fade}} then they'd likly go to walk the deep roads after Witch Hunt. Either way, this is the end.
* Uh, where are your getting the idea that this is the end for the Warden? I agree the Warden has probably been greatly hardened from the events of Origins and Awakening, but the whole point of Witch Hunt is clearly to act as a kind of sequel hook, hinting at further adventures the Warden will have, probably involving Morrigan and her child. Dragon Age 2 further confirms the Warden will return. Even if this weren't so, chances are the Warden still has plenty left to live for. Acting as Commander of Fereldan's Grey Wardens for one. There's also the possibility of him/her being king/queen of Fereldan and having numerous other duties to attend to. Depending on one's actions during Origins, they've also probably got a lover and friends to go back to and, depending on your Origin, surviving family. All this, with about thirty years remaining until the taint kicks in, what makes you think the Warden is going for a jog in the Deep Roads anytime soon?
* I agree the Warden still has a bit of life left in them, but I still like the idea of the two "youngsters" making the Hero of Ferelden feel old. It seems poignant in some ways.
=== The Warden disappeared because (s)he was trying to bail out of the series. ===
We all remember that last blurb at the end of ''Awakening'' that claims the Warden eventually disappeared under mysterious circumstances. As of yet, we have no idea why...perhaps because it's not related to the workings of the Dragon Age universe at all! The Warden has left the series because (s)he didn't like where it was going.
Though it's not universal, many players were not only left disappointed with how DAO's expansions turned out, but were also uneasy with how [[Dragon Age 2]] looked before and after release. Some even went so far as to abandon the series. But who's to say they were the only ones? Maybe the [[Player Character]]s themselves became so horribly disgusted with the forecast of ''Dragon Age'', that they too left as a [[Rage Against the Author|rage against Bioware]]!
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=== Alistair isn't the last of Maric's kids. ===
Think about it: we know that either Alistair was lied to about his parentage, or Maric has another bastard running around out there. And who do we meet, but a guy who's a mage (like the mother of the possible unknown baby), has a similar sense of humor to both Alistair and Maric, and [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb21710/common/skins/common/blank.gif looks] suspiciously like [http://journal.wheel-of-games.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/cailan_330x280.png Cailan] and [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb21710/common/skins/common/blank.gif Alistair]?
Hell, for bonus points, check out [http://social.bioware.com/project/2754/ Anderstair], Alistair with Anders' hair.
As far as I know, we're never really told about Anders' family—which, as a mage, probably isn't something even he himself would question. Plus, his sweetness with Ser Pounce-a-lot reminds at least ''this'' troper of Alistair (even the [[Penny Arcade]] [[Shout-Out]] in ''Chronicles'' lends support - Barkspawn, anyone?), and even the kingly sibling is seen as somewhat silly and childish. At first I wondered if Cailan was voiced by Greg Ellis...only for them to later cast him as Anders.
I'm just saying, if Anders isn't either Alistair's brother or Wynne's son (see earlier WMG), I will be supremely disappointed. Besides, it's rather amusing thinking of a templar and apostate being brothers, and the idea that at least one of his sons would get a touch of Maric's manho-itude.
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[[Category:Wild Mass Guessing/Video Games]]
[[Category:Dragon Age]]
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