No, but really, I think the fact that Audacity, the demon in the cave, is a pride demon is a really key thing. Merrill’s fatal flaw is NOT pride. It really isn’t. It’s DESIRE. All through the game, she is wanting to fix the mirror, to recover knowledge of the Dalish. She isn’t proud of her abilities. She’s desiring to recover what’s been lost. Merrill WANTS.
But Marethari? She’s extremely proud. She’s certain she knows best. She has a blind spot for Merrill, caused by parental pride. She cannot get past the belief that she’s absolutely right, and she gets consumed in that parental pride all through the game.
In fact, there’s a really good argument to be made that Marethari was possessed by Audacity from at least Act 2, if not all game long. Think about it. We see with Anders/Justice that, for a time, being bound to a demon can not impact someone’s everyday life too severely, but eventually, they will be consumed by it. Act 2 is where Marethari asks if Merrill intends to return to the clan, despite the clan being openly disdainful of her and telling stories of her blood magic, the kind that got Pol killed. Then she bends (if not breaks) the rules of the Dalish agreement she and Merrill make to give Hawke, who made no agreement with her, the tool that MERRILL negotiated for.
And then in Act 3, she has kept the clan at Sundermount to be close to Merrill, she goes from ‘the clan still has business here’ to ‘the clan will not leave until MY business is concluded’ in the space of about a minute, and then arrives AFTER Hawke and Merrill in the cave, but already has bound the demon to herself? There is no possible way that she could have done so before Merrill reached the cave. So the demon was already bound to MARETHARI, and well before Hawke and everyone got there, and I fully believe she was bound at least as of Act 2.
And that’s why Audacity is a pride demon. Because he’s feeding on Marethari’s pride, not Merrill’s desires.
This is an elaboration of this post.gilivhan does a pretty good job of explaining things, but I noticed an error in generation two (regarding the law of independent assortment), so, as a biology major, I thought I could help with this.
I’m warning you, do not venture forth lightly. This is a verylong post.
the one thing I always think of when I think back to dragon age is the dialogue you can have with zevran in dao that triggers when you decide to leave all mages to die a horrible death in the circle? the way that he completely starts questioning your authority, explaining to you that you are an atrocious person for doing this and thinking like this and especially that this is the one time trying to flirt with him backfires completely because he calls you a fucked-up manipulator for it? like i love that so much because he not once stands up for HIMSELF in dao, he’s very passive to what happens to him, but in this moment he decides to throw away any dignity he has and BEGS for these people’s lives - he doesn’t know ANY of these people, but he is the only one who stands up for them out of all companions you can bring along (some do actually protest your choice a bit and you might lose some friendship points but NOTHING like the conversation with zevran)
I used to think Cailan sent Alistair and the Warden to the tower of Ishal just to protect Alistair. I mean, Return to Ostagar revealed that Cailan knew he was going to die. So he was making sure that Alistair – who he likely viewed as his heir – survived the ordeal. You can actually argue with Cailan at the war meeting and he will insist that you and Alistair go to the beacon together. He wanted Alistair to live and he wanted to make sure YOU kept him alive.
I can’t remember where I read it, but Cailan actually kept tabs on Alistair and showed an interest in his life. He cared about him, or at least, he cared about how useful his half-brother could be to him one day in the face of Anora’s infertility.
But after playing Ostagar recently again, I’m also thinking Cailan sent you and Alistair because he didn’t trust Loghain’s men to light the beacon (late to the table, I know). And Loghain puts up a big fuss about trusting the wardens with it because it’s implied that Loghain’s men sealed off the tower earlier in order to sabatoge the beacon signal. The men there did not expect darkspawn. They likely let in the horde on accident while trying to sabotage the beacon (my guess is they were destroying the floor that led upstairs so no one could get to it). So this is why the darkspawn group are “ahead of the horde” as Alistair points out.
But Loghain’s reaction when the beacon is lit is not one of shock. He was there when Cailan sent you and Alistair to light it, so maybe he already knew his plans were screwed, and when the beacon was lit, he figured he’d just leave anyway. Either way, he wins: the Orlesian wardens and chevaliers would die and/or never enter the kingdom, and Cailan, who Loghain perceived as a threat for trusting the Orleisans, would die with them.
The dlc Return to Ostagar is supposed to further prove that Cailan sent for reinforcements and wanted to wait for them, but Loghain kept the Grey Wardens and the cavaliers out because of his fear and paranoia against the Orlesians.
I mean, it’s one of the few things Wynne is actually right about (lol). Cailan was pretending to be a boob to keep everyone’s morale up. But he knew they were going to die. Because of Loghain.
Cailan congratulated my character on becoming a Grey Warden yesterday, and for the first time, I chose the line, “I don’t feel that special.” And Cailan answered, “Oh, but you are. Every Grey Warden is needed now more than ever.”
What’s really sad is that … Cailan was right. Cailan, the guy who everyone thinks is this big boob, was actually RIGHT about the Blight and the necessity of the Grey Wardens and the chevaliers. And it’s Loghain who is wrong, because Loghain will always see Cailan as little more than a child hopping around asking for war stories. One of the guards by the royal tent says Loghain has known Cailan “since he was swaddled” and talks to him however he pleases. That line alone perfectly demonstrates how Loghain views Cailan through the “father filter” and sees him as little more than a hyper boy whose real father failed him. So of course Loghain isn’t going to bow to a kid he perceives as a foolish child and a traitor for not only trusting the Orlesians (who he will always view as the enemy) but also considering marriage to the empress.
What’s really great about the battle of Ostagar, though, is that the line is so blurry, it’s easy to say the exact opposite: that Cailan really was a boob and Loghain was protecting his people.
Personally, I lean in favor of Cailan putting on an act.
Can I admit that I don’t get why it matters to Cassandra that Tranquility can be reversed
@apostatefrog@v-arbellanaris HMMM okay interesting. That all makes sense to be except that in the way she reacts it seems like discovering Tranquility can be reversed is a huge part of what’s shaken her faith in the Seekers, and she does talk about looking into reversing it and being concerned that the mages will be too volatile after, which makes me think that she thinks it should be reversed if possible? I guess I don’t really get how “the seekers had this secret and I wish they had been more open about it but I agree with what the ultimately did with it” is supposed to shake the foundation in her belief in them
based off dialogue & approval w her, i think she very much feels like oh yeah it turns out some of the templars were abusing mages, but the fault of the seekers was not looking into that properly and settling The War before it could start. (idk how she missed the entire annulment of dairsmuid or the fact that it was the prev seeker who broke the nevarran accord but eh) but finding out that the seekers were just as culpable for those abuses – by having had the ability to reverse tranquility from the very start & having it be exposed that they deliberately kept that a secret, that The War was to continue to cover up that lie – is maybe part of what shakes her? but then again during that post-quest chat, she seems fairly… idk. there were already rumours that they found out how to reverse tranquility long before the quest – it comes up in ambient dialogue in haven between mother giselle and avexis in the chantry. so, yeah, it makes no sense that this discovery is what shakes her belief in the seekers, and i don’t think it’s entirely that either just based off how grimly she can tell the inquisitor about what she found.
so idk… maybe more of her shock/horror comes from her, and the other seekers, having been made tranquil against their will, without their knowledge, and had that reversed? maybe it’s her personal feelings of betrayal, feelings of violation, that really shake her beliefs in the seekers as a whole. in dawn of the seeker, and during that quest, she really seems to see the seekers as her family. to find out they essentially lobotomised her, then put her up to get in contact w a spirit (we know the chantry doesn’t really differentiate between spirits and demons). and her struggle seems to be more about the purpose of the seekers – which she thought was fairly clear cut, only to have the idea of them like being just as power-hungry and power-grabbing as any other structure in thedas.
i also think for her as a character, the one thing she really can’t abide is duplicity. she gets into a lot of conflict w varric about lying abt things, she’s antagonistic w the herald when she thinks theyre lying about what they remember, from what i can tell, she finds the game distasteful for similar reasons. so maybe, more precisely, her issue is that the seekers lied to their own group members about what was going on in their order for years and years?
tbh i think a lot of this can be attributed to bioware’s inconsistent writing, but the duplicity thing is a good guess for in-game canonicality. when you talk to cass in her cutscene post-promise of destruction, you can tell her that the rebellion was needless, but she just says “maybe, but it was a long time coming.” so i don’t think that’s where her shaken faith stems from
it really does read like it is her feelings of personal betrayal that are the biggest source. i really dislike that cass had the perfect set up for a redemption with no follow through, but it’s not exactly, ah, unusual to have a templar character experience similar things to circle mages without gaining any sympathy for them
It’s worth bringing up again that the Toolset’s notes on Zevran has this to say:
“Zevran is a member of the infamous Calabrian guild of assassins known as the Crows, though not by choice – he was sold as a young slave to the Crows and trained to become one of their operatives. While he has worked as an assassin in Calabria, his first major assignment was to come to Ferelden and hunt down a surviving Grey Warden – who just happens to be the player. Upon being defeated by the player, Zevran leaps at the opportunity to offer the player his allegiance in exchange for a chance to escape from the Crows once and for all.”
(Calabria was the original name for Antiva.)
Anyway I just thought was worth reminding that Zevran was soldinto the Crows for three sovereigns as a little boy. Zevran was a slaveto the Crows.The Crows buy slaves. They are not fun and exciting or right. They are a group of assassins who buy young children, raise them and train them to know nothing but killing, and kill those children if they try to escape. And Zev was a victim of that. He did not choose to be an assassin, it was forced on him and he accepted it as being his only option.
