Dragon Age: Inquisition — Story Playthrough — Part One
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Following on from my recent Dragon Age: Origins/Awakening/Witch-Hunt and Dragon Age 2 playthroughs, I've imported that entire world I've created into the Dragon Age Keep and have set it as my world for this new Inquisition playthrough. 😊
To recap: in Origins Caelyra Cousland, my Hero of Ferelden, was generally helpful. She discovered and honoured the resting place of the Ashes of Andraste, saved Redcliffe and the Arl's family, helped the mages at the Circle, brokered peace between werewolf and elf, and set Bhelen upon the dwarven throne. She cheated death at the hands of the Archdemon thanks to Morrigan's ritual which impregnated Morrigan with a child with the soul of an Old God. The Hero and her love, Alistair, remain Grey Wardens together while Queen Anora kept the Ferelden throne all to herself. Loghain, the traitor, was killed.
In Dragon Age 2 my very humourous and sarcastic Lyria Hawke, Champion of Kirkwall, tried her best to help all of mage-kind. Her brother became a Grey Warden and ultimately, at last, began to think of his sister as a wonderful person as opposed to detrimental magic harbinger. The Champion unintentionally freed Corypheus from his slumber, unintentionally helped her love, Anders, destroy the Chantry in the name of justice, and unintentionally began the great mage and templar war that has since ravaged the land.
Now we meet Iselia Trevelyan. Once of a noble family until burdened with magic, she was sent away and became a mage of the Ostwick Circle of Magi in the Free Marches, near Kirkwall. When the war began between mages and templars, she was forced to fight for her life against the templars despite not really wanting to take part in this madness. As one of the more sane voices in this conflict, she joined a delegation of mages who sought to broker peace with the templars at a Chantry conclave...
...
...but to no avail. The chaos worsened. And now she's a part of it.
Awaking in a dungeon, surrounded by armed guards and with a green glow dancing about her fingertips, Iselia was confused. She had been at the Conclave at Haven, home of the Temple of Sacred Ashes, with the Divine, several other mages and several templars, trying to come to a peaceful agreement... and now she was here.
Two women, Seeker Cassandra and Leliana, questioned her. The Temple of Sacred Ashes had been destroyed, the Divine was dead — everyone who had been there was dead — and only Iselia had survived.
Iselia had no idea what they were talking about. She had been at the Conclave, but didn't know what had happened. She had been there, and now she was here. She couldn't remember anything except... darkness, spiders, and the faint shape of a woman.
Cassandra took her outside and showed her what had happened. There was a great hole in the sky, as green as the strange mark on her hand, and every time it pulsed the mark on her hand pulsed too. It was clearly linked. No wonder they thought she had something to do with this. Did she have something to do with this?
The people of Haven glared at her as she was paraded past, blaming her for all of this chaos, and despite not knowing what had even happened, she started blaming herself too.
Cassandra demanded her help to fix this mess. That thing was on her hand and thus only she had the ability to make the sky whole again. They hoped it would make the sky whole again. Demons were pouring through that breach every minute and it needed to be closed.
Iselia didn't know how, she didn't even know what it was, but she agreed to help. It seemed like she had no choice. Cassandra unbound her hands and together they travelled across the valley to where a fade rift had formed.
Demons were pouring through the rift in the fade and they helped to clear them, alongside an elf and a beardless dwarf.
Once the demons were dispatched, the elf grabbed Iselia's hand and placed it against the rift, sealing it. She was amazed! If it had sealed this tear in the veil, perhaps it really could close the breach in the sky too.
The elf was Solas and the dwarf, Varric, and they accompanied Iselia and Cassandra as they continued onward to the next forward camp towards the remains of the Temple of Sacred Ashes. Apparently the largest of the rifts around here was there and it seemed linked to the hole in the sky. Maybe if Iselia closed that one too, the sky would be healed.
They fought their way through to the forward camp where Iselia met a man from the Chantry. Chancellor Roderick. He outwardly declared his anger of her and demanded she be taken to Val Royeaux to be executed immediately.
Cassandra stepped in and said that that would not be happening. They needed Iselia to close the rifts and thus fix the breach in the sky. They needed to get to the Temple of Sacred Ashes — they could go a quiet way through the mountain pass but there could be unknown dangers there, or they could go with the soldiers and embark upon a front assault of the demons that raged through the area.
Iselia felt that she would probably die soon anyway so said they should take the front approach. It would be quicker and more straight forward.
Alongside a group of soldiers, they stormed towards the destroyed remains of the great Temple.
They fought through demons and a few men died, but Iselia managed to close another rift and clear the way to the Temple. They could now enter it and close the largest of the rifts. Solas said that since it was the first rift it should hopefully do the trick.
As they crept through the remains of the Temple, they heard voices... voices that gave some insight into what had happened here. The Divine had been there, Iselia had been there, and an unknown man had been there... it was the unknown man who had started this, telling unknown followers to prepare the sacrifice. The Divine had called out to Iselia for help.
There were also piles of lyrium, red instead of blue. Varric whispered to Cassandra that it was red lyrium, like back in Kirkwall. It was evil. They needed to stay away from it.
They reached the bottom of the Temple where a massive rift pulsed before Iselia. A Pride Demon manifested before them, a hulking creature with armoured plates that were near impossible to break through.
Iselia soon discovered she could use the power of the rift to disarm the creature and they could kill it.
Once it was dead. She closed the rift... and blacked out.
Iselia awoke, several days later, in a bed and not in a prison. An elven serving girl walked into the room just as she woke up and reacted in awed terror. Backing out of the room as quickly as she could, she stammered that Cassandra wanted to speak with her once she had awoken... she was in the Chantry, then high-tailed it out of there.
Before leaving the little house, Iselia looked around the room and found a note written about her. She had been asleep for three days while the mark pulsed across her flesh. The physician looking after her had been worried and desperately wished they could station a templar there.
A mage since childhood, she was all-too used to people being scared of her. This was nothing different.
Exiting the house, she headed for the Chantry... unnerved as people lined the streets to watch as she passed, their heads bowed almost reverently. Hushed whispers surrounded her as she continued on her way.
When she arrived at the Chantry, Cassandra and Leliana were there arguing with Chancellor Roderick. He was adamant that Iselia be arrested and executed. Cassandra and Leliana weren't having any of it. As far as they were concerned, after witnessing the memories of the fade-ghosts in the Temple, Iselia was innocent. Nearly everyone else was a suspect, including him.
Before Roderick could argue further, Cassandra slammed a leatherbound book onto the table and declared that it was a writ from the now-deceased Divine giving them permission to create the Inquisition anew. They would restore order to the land and Roderick could just deal with it.
Cassandra invited Iselia to be a part of this new Inquisition. She had the mark, it would seal the rifts, and while the breach in the sky had not yet been mended, they could work out a way to fix things.
Iselia had no other prospects and she still had this green mark on her hand. She accepted Cassandra's offer.
Over the coming days, the Inquisition was officially set up in Haven. Leliana sent message-ravens across the land declaring the newly created Inquisition to all corners. A woman named Josephine was hired on as their diplomat, an ex-templar named Cullen served as commander of their forces, and Leliana stepped into place as spymaster — a role she seemed very well suited for.
They discussed the best way to go about closing the breach in the sky and it was suggested that they needed a great mass of magic. When Iselia closed that first rift, the breach had weakened slightly but it was still strong and proud and green in the sky. If there was more power available to pour into Iselia's strange mark, perhaps it could be closed for good.
They also needed to work on their diplomacy, which was exactly why Josephine was there. Apparently the people had begun to revere Iselia because of the mark and rumours of a woman who had helped save her at the Conclave. They believed the woman to be Andraste and Iselia her Herald to save the world.
The Chantry was displeased, to say the least, and they needed more support before even thinking of approaching anyone for their help in powering Iselia's mark.
Iselia wasn't so sure about being the "Herald of Andraste," but she had always accepted the Maker and the Chantry's teachings, and she would try her best to live up to this strange role she had been given.
A Chantry mother near Redcliffe had asked to speak with Iselia.
As it was Iselia's first adventure as spokesperson for the Inquisition, it was suggested that Iselia look for any opportunities while she was out and about to expand the Inquisition's influence. Even just helping the lowest peasant would benefit the Inquisition and get their name out there further. As the deeds of the Inquisition grew, they would be taken more seriously and it would be easier to gain allies and deal with this mess... and ultimately restore order to the world.
Once a noble of the Trevelyan house, her titles and life had been removed once she came into her magic and was sent to the Circle. She had fallen into her life as a Circle Mage and accepted her fate... until all had gone to hell thanks to the mage rebellion and war against the templars.
Now, here she was, an unlikely spokesperson for the Inquisition, and looked upon with a religious reverence not usually reserved for mage-kind. It was certainly an odd chain of events. But she had accepted her fate before, and she would accept it again.
It was time to become a spokesperson for this Inquisition and do her part to save the world.
Until next time! 🐲⚔️
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