Okay Heres What I Was Expecting From Worldstate Customisation:

Okay here’s what I was expecting from worldstate customisation:

Origins:

- gender and origin of the warden, so they could be mentioned offhand in a codex entry or a line of dialogue

- who they romanced, so it could be mentioned offhand or in a codex entry and, if Morrigan was romanced, she could have a line

- whether or not someone died killing the archdemon and who that was, to be in a codex entry or mentioned offhand, or possibly seeing their grave in weisshaupt

- whether Kieran exists and whether he had the soul of an old god, to have a follow up on the implications of that and to add depth to Morrigan

- who is ruler of ferelden, to be mentioned offhand or in a codex entry

Da2:

- gender and class of Hawke, so they can be mentioned offhand or in a codex entry and so can the appropriate sibling

- who they romanced, so it could be mentioned offhand or in a codex entry

- what happened to the surviving sibling, so it could be mentioned offhand or come up if relevant (eg if they’re a warden a possible brief cameo at weisshaupt)

- whether they’d sided with mages or templars, to come up in codex entries or offhand mentions, and to establish how Varric feels about mages because it depends on Hawkes choice

- whether they killed anders or not, so it could be mentioned in a codex entry especially if romanced

Inquisition:

- gender and race of inquisitor

- who they romanced, and the outcome of their romance partners personal quest, so that the route taken would carry through (eg pardoned blackwall vs warden blackwall)

- whether the inquisitor did the mage or templar route, and how, to be mentioned offhand or in the codex

- who was left in the fade, not necessarily to follow up on their fate but just so Varric could acknowledge if his best friend was presumed dead or not

- who is leader of orlais so that the ruler of the biggest country on the continent can be brought up at least in passing/codex entry, with possible cameo

- who drank from the well of sorrows, because yeah actually it is important which of these two characters is bound to the will of an elven god. Especially as it seems that one of them might now be said elven god. I’d expect this to have as much influence as Kieran’s existence did in dai, ie you still get to the same place but you have a slightly different route there. I cannot fathom how this isn’t relevant anymore

- who is the divine, to be mentioned in passing or in codex, but mentioned more in depth if the inquisitor romanced Cassandra who is now the divine because they have a whole situationship going on. It would come up if the divine was a mage.

- whether the inquisition disbanded or remained together as bodyguard of the divine. I honestly don’t know how this is a choice if the divine doesn’t come up

- inquisitors attitude to solas, with room for them to be very negative towards him on account of all the killing and murder and world destroying

You’d be able to customise this through character creator, and you’d be able to choose a default for each game seperately, so new players didn’t have to worry about the other games and people who only played inquisition could ignore origins and 2 and customise their inquisitor.

I don’t think this would have been unreasonable. Most of this is just for codex entries and offhand comments, and the bigger ones are inquisition choices. I get that they can’t have big effects beyond that. But the codex entries and offhand remarks are what we WANT. They’re what makes this world state ours. It would not have been difficult to incorporate most of this, and it would do so much for the depth of the game.

As it is, we have a major character who can’t even discuss whether or not she has a child because that wasn’t deemed important enough to include

have to control myself from getting too unhinged with it when i talk warden/warden romance because i always want to get into the body horror. in a romantic way

what do you think about the way dai handled the wardens?

see I feel like inquisition could've said something interesting about an organisation that can do whatever necessary in the name of saving the world, but they just? didn't do it well? (it's something I feel like is never really addressed with the power of the inquisition itself either but that's off topic). tdlr at the end because this got long whoops

like I think the idea of the wardens all panicking about getting the calling all at once is a really interesting idea! but the way the writers went about it was so??? like it just made the wardens (specifically clarel) seem really dumb? not with using blood magic, because despite all the anti blood magic stuff from the characters (especially hawke which is bizarre when they... can be a blood mage), da2/dai also tell us it's just a tool and not inherently evil. which is fine, we've seen that throughout all three games! but the fact that clarel and the wardens are listening to erimond and that none of them suspect him or question is plan is just so stupid. erimond is the most cartoon stereotype of an evil tevinter magister and will literally Evil Grin half the time and none of the wardens thought that was weird??

up until dai we/the characters see the wardens as this group that seems like it knows exactly what it's doing, is always going to be around, is completely necessary, and can't really 'fall' aside from in battle against darkspawn. having them be suddenly vulnerable and in need of help could've been really interesting! it could've also been an opportunity to actually tell us more about the wardens origins. solas has this belief we've never seen before that the wardens are actually fools/potentially completely wrong with the way they're going about defeating the blight, but we're never able to find out why he thinks that or what he thinks the alternative is (this is a general fault with his character imo, they never let you push him because he has to stay Mysterious). there's a lot about the wardens we don't know, and I feel like dai would've been a good time to tell us more since we're facing off against one of the og magisters who started the blights.

it all just feels very contrived to push the 'inquisitor chooses to kick the wardens out or not', so as a result a lot of it just feels?? stupid sjekskw especially because at this point even despite what's happened ... the wardens are the only way to stop a blight? and so many of the companions are like oh kick them out :/ but guys... what about the blights??

on the other hand, I actually really like the fade quest. it's so different from the fade quests in previous games and its really interesting seeing the 'raw' fade. the scene where clarel is dying and blasts the red lyrium dragon as she's reciting the wardens oath and the ledge crumbles as everyone falls into the fade is actually one of my favourite scenes in the game. the whole falling into the fade feels a lot more ?? natural I guess than some of the other quests in the game and is genuinely a surprise when it happens.

basically I think that dai could've done something really interesting with the wardens as a group who are usually the people you turn to when things are extremely dire suddenly needing your help, instead of oh a whole group of people are blindly following a cartoon villain without question, isn't that bad of them we should punish them!

this is off the top of my head, but i think an interesting way of doing it that would tie more into the main story maybe would be to have that corypheus is directly influencing the warden commanders (cut erimond out completely), since we know he can do that, and he's managed to spread that influence (maybe still using the nightmare demon), and that the wardens themselves turn to the inquisitor after hearing about how they survived corypheus at haven and allied/recruited the mages/templars. (it was weird to me that clarel was like??? corypheus is dead tho?? like surely she would've heard the rumours about haven at least? anyway). maybe if you ally with the mages, fiona tells you the wardens have reached out to her for help, or you're able to ask her opinion once the wardens have reached out through hawke or something. it would make the whole 'the inquisition is developing into a group that people respect and see as a source of help' feel more real I think. have the build up to fighting the wardens at adamant be longer and more in depth, with the warden contact taking the inquisitor to meet more wardens and giving us the opportunity to learn more about the order or something. personally I've always wondered if the first warden, or whoever created the wardens, was one of the original tevinter magisters like corephyus. I think maybe also get rid of the demon army bit? because I'm not sure I get why corephyus even needed one if his main goal was to break into the fade. like why not just influence the wardens to obey him into gathering people for a sacrifice to enter the fade like he did with the other magisters?? idk

anyways ajaja this got long so tdlr: I think dai handled the wardens 'corruption' poorly and that helping / saving the wardens from themselves could've been really interesting but ultimately is kind of annoying and in the end kind of feels like bioware being like surprise this organisation we told u is good in dao is now the enemy!

Origins Timeline

Origins is epic in scale, and we know it takes place over the course of about a year (Ostagar happens in 9:30, the Archdemon is killed in 9:31).

I wanted a good reference for how long my Hero had been on the road at each part of the game (partly because this would inform their relationships to companions, partly just for reference because I'm a nerd).

So, without further ado:

(click to see the pictures in better detail)

So I've estimated that the whole journey from the moment you leave Flemeths Hut to the moment you reach Denerim and begin preparing for the landsmeet to take about 9 months and two weeks. That's accouting for a total of 6 months of travel (you're on the road a LOT in origins, I think way more than the game can accurately give you a sense of) and 3 months and two weeks doing the various quests you actually play through in the game (with about a month and a half spent in Orzammar).

I used the following resources to help me work things out, as well as focusing on the gameplay and lore (it doesn't make a lot of sense that you'd be spending days and days in Honnleath, for example).

Lavalampelfchild's timeline

Grogblogging Origins Travel Times

myrandacousland's Ferelden Travel Distance and times

Please be aware you may need to make your own maps and timelines to get an accurate idea as the way you go will definitely affect how long it takes your warden (if you cluster activities to one region or if you go back and forth loads). But I would say 9 months and two weeks is a good rough estimate for how long that part of the game takes.

I would then say a further two months are spent on the Landsmeet and everything running up to it/you being captured/the Alienage/everything in Denerium.

I would then reckon the end of the game would take a further month-ish from there, considering you have to travel to and from Redcliffe.

ah yes because circles and templars under the control of the orlesian chantry definitely don’t exist in antiva, nevarra and rivain

I love speed runners