Champions of Thedas - Dragon Age RP

[CAS1006]

I'll possibly fill one out later. Mostly because I love DA, and loved the DA:O style of set up. (As in the specializations and anyone can use any weapon.)

[Saarebas]

"Let the blade pass through the flesh, Let my blood touch the ground, Let my cries touch their hearts. Let mine be the last sacrifice. -Andraste 7:12"

Basic Information

Name
Paxton Arkwright

Species
Human/Abomination

Age
33

Gender
Male

Class
Mage/Warrior

Appearance
Paxton is a tall man, standing at 6'4 in height, with a muscular body build. His skin is slightly on the pale side and is peppered with scars from countless misadventures in his life, though there are a series of them that rack his arms that stand out among the rest. His hair is a dark, ash black and normally hangs down below his shoulders in a uncombed mess, though on occasion he has been known to tie it back into a loose ponytail. He has a slightly trimmed beard that covers the lower half of his face, left unattended for too long it will easily match that of a Dwarf's. His eyes are a bright amber color, on the verge of being yellow, and hold a certain sharpness to them.

Unlike traditional mages Paxton does not wear robes, instead he wears a set of leather armor. The armor is colored in a mixture of dark grey and black. He wears an amulet of Andraste under his armor almost at all times. Paxton has a large slightly tattered collared coat he normally wears over his armor. Another thing that separates Paxton from the usual mage is that he does not carry a staff at all, but two empty sword hilts that he uses to concentrate magic into spirit blades. Besides those he has a single dagger strapped to his right leg to use when traditional means fail.

Curriculum Vitae

Specialisations
Knight-Enchanter, Battlemage, Force Mage, Blood Mage, Reaver

Notable Traits
Master Of The Game
Paxton had spent years mingling with members of the highest society as he served as one of the Divine's elite mage guards. As such he is more than use to surviving the cut throat politics that Orlesian call their Grand Game, in fact he was once quite the avid player. Paxton can exchange words as well as the most pampered and schooled nobles Thedas has to offer. He once prided himself on his skill to fool bards, who were supposedly the most skilled members of the game
Andrastian
Paxton is a devoted follower of the Chantry. He worships the Maker and his mortal bride Andraste. He has memorized most of the chant of light, which is no easy feat, and has even at one point sung through the whole chant, which took about three weeks to complete. He is known to throw a Chant line or two into conversation if it relates to the matter on hand, he has even been caught singing the Chant to merely pass the time. Though many may find it hypocritical for Paxton to call himself a follower of the Chantry given his choice of combat use, Paxton says what he does is a necessary evil that must be done.
Elf-Blooded
Though one may not guess it from merely looking upon him Paxton is actually indeed a half-Elf. His mother was a Elven maid and his father the inn keeper where his mother work. The two fell in love and the product of their romance was Paxton. Because of this Paxton has a soft spot for Elven kind and their plight, often times getting into bloody fights whenever he hears someone use the expression "knife-ear".

Flaws
Battle Enthusiast
Master of the Game or not Paxton has no problem jumping into battle, he rather enjoys it in fact. If one's first attempt at talking fails Paxton would more than likely already be moving in for his first, maybe even last, attack on whoever they were trying to convince. He is basically the equivalent of a battle harden Qunari with the short temper of a drunken Dwarf.
Wanted By The Orlesian Chantry
Paxton's past has left him as a wanted man of the Orlesian Chantry, he has to be very weary any time he sets foot on Orlesian soul do to the great and wide power the Chantry holds there.
Wrath Within
Paxton is not alone in his own body or mind, he is in a sense an Abomination. For he harbors a demon of Wrath in side of himself. Unlike other mages who harbor a spirit of the Fade inside themselves and allow themselves to be over taken by it Paxton has tamed this beast to a extent. The demon serves as a resource of immense power and knowledge, but always posses a threat. If Paxton is not careful with his emotional state the demon can and has taken control of its host, at which point it brings Paxton's inner hatred and furry down upon anyone or thing near by, regardless of friend or foe.

Skills
Fade Cloak, Fist Of The Maker, Blood Slave, Rampage, Elemental Chaos

Backstory

Biography
Paxton's life started like all mage lives do, he was stripped away from his family at the tender age of six and sent to the Circle of Magi, though to his fortune the Nevarran Circles have much more freedom when compared to the rest of Thedas when excluding the Tevinter Imperium. He was quite the talented student when it came to his studies, accelerating ahead of his peers. He was even the youngest apprentice in the Nevarran Circle's history to go through the Harrowing, at only the age of fifteen. It wasn't long after his Harrowing that Paxton requested to be transferred to the Orlesian Circle of Magi, The White Spire, in the hopes to study the magic of the Knight-Enchanters. As a fully fledge mage his request was deemed acceptable and he was transferred to the White Spire. The years after that Paxton did nothing but train in the arts of the Knight-Enchanter, which eventually not only did he become one but he was also requested to become one of the Elite Knight-Enchanter bodyguards of the Divine herself. Needless to say Paxton accepted.

Paxton spent years in service to the Divine, saving her life countless times from would be killers. He was held in high regard among the Chantry, they seeing him as what a mage should be, but all that changed once Paxton's secret came to light. It turned out for years that Paxton had not only been studying blood magic, but also practicing it actively, even going as for to drink the blood of a dragon and becoming a Reaver. All this was revealed when an assassin got the better of him, managing to fire an arrow through Paxton's shoulder, and was about to cut down the Divine. Paxton did the only thing he could think of to save her, he used blood magic to force the assassin to run his blade across his own throat. Though he saved her Paxton was labeled a Maleficar by the Chantry and was sentenced to become a Tranquil, though the Divine seemed remorseful about this verdict. He swore he never used the magic to manipulate anyone for his own personal gain, but no one cared about that fact and the matter was closed. The night before he was supposed to go through the Rite of Tranquility he managed to escape because someone left the door to his cell unlocked, something he questions to this day.

Paxton wandered for months, hiding from Templars and chantry members alike. Paxton had become so desperate for survival he eventually made a deal with a powerful demon of Wrath for power, allowing the demon to enter this world through his body. The demon attempted to over take Paxton's will, but underestimated the mage's power. The result was that the two were now bound together in a single body. Though he now had a demon housed inside of him Paxton had become remarkably stronger. He used this strength to evade or scare off anymore further pursues. He eventually was able to make it to the Free Marches were he spent a while staying with a group of fellow apostates, they were able to teach him about the arts of the Force Mage. Not long after his stay with them Paxton found himself in league with a mercenary group. At first he aligned with them as they provided the perfect cover from Templars, but he eventually formed a bond and kinship with his brothers and sisters in arms. The group, along with Paxton, at some point were hired by the reformed Inquisition as soldiers, which Paxton greatly approved of. With the Rift Crises averted and their job done Paxton and the group of mercenaries are now on the search for coin and new adventures.

Personality and/or Motivation
Paxton is a sharp fellow born with a quick wit and quicker tongue. He is just as likely to make a smart remark comment as he is to deck you in the face. He is quite hardy, loving a good laugh and drink. He is no stranger to manipulation, having been on both ends of it, and knows that you have to be carful around everyone as they more likely than not are waiting to stab you in the back. Though under his rugged exterior Paxton is quite the noble soul, holding strong in his moral code of protecting the little guy and destroying the evil doers. Though he does know in order to do good one may have to seem bad.

Player’s long term goals
Paxton is looking for a sense of belonging and meaning that he once felt while in the service of the Divine and before he became home to the demon Wrath. He thinks he may have found it in the kinship he feels with the mercenary group.

Relations
Many of the bridges Paxton had built over the years were burned when his being a Blood Mage was brought to light. Though he may be able to come upon a old friend, be they mage or Templar, from his days in the towers who wouldn't mind showing him kindness. His main connections and ties happen to be the other members of the mercenary group.

Secrets
Though the rest of the group is aware of his given situation with Wrath, Paxton tends to keep the fact that he communicates with Wrath on a nearly constant bases. He does not want them to think he is indeed being influenced by the demon.

[vancexentan]

Honestly I'm not sure if this roleplay will work out at the moment. As it is everyone is some sort of mage warrior except for the possible templar and my normal mage. Having a roleplay full of mages doesn't seem like something that would work.

[ActRaiserTheReturned]

@vancexentan

Dragon Age has changed. Most mages are battle mages, it's just that the regular mages only have a staff, which they probably use hit with. Magical energy is still charging their staff once they hit an enemy with a whack, but their still not uber warriors like real knights, men at arms and people like that, and they lack hard core stamina that rogues and fighters have. The real power of mages come with spells and mixing their magical abilities with their enchanted staves.

But warriors can still wreck a mage's day.

[vancexentan]

How so? The only characters who can canonically be warrior mages are the main characters and Vivienne. The only one's I can see having a handful of actual combat mages would be something like your characer. The Zealots? Normal damage mages. The elves? Keepers. Circle mages? Glyphs/healing/elemental mages. If the GM wants to run his roleplay like this and allow this amount of magi/battle mages then so be it. I just came in a moment ago but I look at the characters and I see no diversity gameplay wise and storyline wise abominations would probably never be allowed near the Inquisition with Cole only being inside due to him being a spirit and Justice was a spirit as well in Dragon Age Awakening despite inhabiting a dead body.

All I'm saying is that I don't find the way we're structured at the moment working out. I'm already tentatively in this and having these many battle mages is making my even more so.

[CAS1006]

My gripes so far is...

Everyone is extremely over fucking powered. I'm just being blunt.
Like, I like the idea of having the specializations back, as well as being able to train them to use other weapons, that is fine for Arcane Warriors or people just head strong enough to flat out change specialization. (More like class.) Which isn't that unbelievable.

And the other tree like character? I like it, but I feel two forms for that sorta unique things are a bit much...

And can we talk about a Milificar that literally everyone in the Inquisition would never barter with? (Ya know, everyone against demons.)

Again, I like the idea of persuading exploration and stuff. But somethings are a bit over doing it.

Vance so far is the closest I've seen to a normal DA Character. I dunno...

[McHaggis]

.

[The Fated Fallen]

Did someone say...



Champion?

[The Fated Fallen]

(Though I am confused as to why the Divine would have mage guards.)

@McHaggis

A diplomatic move, it makes it look like Mages are considered equal, and not prisoners.

Although my plate is a little full, I may consider making some sort of Rogue to balance out the characters in this RP. Indeed, all the magic in world can't help you against the unseen knife between the ribs

[McHaggis]

.

[CAS1006]

@McHaggis I have to disagree with you considering there are limitations in both games.
For example, mages are undeniably squishy regardless of how powerful or what abilities. But what skill building is there to do when everyone starts with max specilizations? I'd say two at max, and as for unique characters like golems?

The tree spirit is technically a Trent even in DA lore.
As for your cop-out reason, I call BS on the Inquisition not keeping tabs on everyone. It was literally the biggest thing to my understanding on DA:I.

Secondly, Merril isn't even that strong of a blood mage... Yeah, she is good with status effects. But that was honestly all she did best in my playthroughs.

But, at the same time, not my call... I just find it a bit much when everyone is absurdly powerful from the start.

[SimplyJohn]

@McHaggis I'd have to agree with @Genni, Imperial Templars are nothing more than guards rather than being Templars as they would be known in the south. If you'd still like to take the Templar tree as one of Marcellus's specialisations I'd still allow it of course, but some mention of how he'd managed to obtain the skills which would normally not be available given his background.

EDIT: In the time it's taken me to write this you've already done that, so you can ignore everything above.

One last quick note, could you change the 'Silent' trait name to something like 'Light Footed' instead? 'Silent' seems to imply that he's completely undetectable and I'd like to keep the option in play for a sufficiently skilled opponent to still manage to catch him should it ever be required for the plot.

---

@vancexentan Glass cannon Mage? Nice choice. I would have to ask you to choose Specialisations for him though, as this will deliberately limit his development during the roleplay. Having said that, based off the spells you've chosen for Gerald his current specialisations would be Arcane, Primal, Entropy, and Creation, and since I'm allowing each character a maximum of five you could still either choose another skill tree now, or leave it open for development later on.

Would you mind trying to avoid write huge block of text as well? They make for difficult reading and can give the impression of rambling. Breaking entries into paragraphs of a maximum length of about five or six lines long will make things a lot easier for me, and hopefully others. As an example:

While in Kirkwall {Gerald} grew to have a natural distaste and distrust of Qunari, Elves, and bandits of all shades and values. He viewed the Knight Commander as a tyrant, but understood what she was trying to do. He didn't support blood magic even under the direst of circumstances and despises it. He didn't support breaking free of the Templars either seeing them as a necessary evil in order to keep demons from infesting weaker willed magi. He wasn't overly fond of dwarves in the city but he found most of them harmless enough except for the Carta in which he found repulsive.

During the Qunari breakdown in Kirkwall he helped the younger and less powerful members of the Mage Circle by using his powerful fire magic to kill a Qunari Sten and a whole two squads of Qunari with only minor help from his allies. After the Annulment was ordered in Kirkwall he was near the edge of the city. A Templar whom knew him well allowed him to get out of the city using a merchant's boat, but not before he had to slaughter a rage and desire demon with said Templar's help.

Though he hated to leave the place he called home to whatever fate it deserved along with his fellow mages he knew he couldn't do much to help less he died with them. He fled to Gwaren and from there to the Free Marches where he lived with a relative for a short period of time with a family friend before arriving at wherever this roleplay will start.

@vancexentan

As a quick note, the adventure will be starting in Cumberland, the port city of Nevarra located on the northern shore of the Waking Sea, roughly halfway between Kirkwall and Val Royeaux. While most of the party have been with the mercenaries for some time, having been working for the Inquisition during the Corypheaus situation, I don't see a problem with your character having been a new recruit joining the party in Cumberland for the first time.

Edit: Well I apologize for spoiling it but there's no helping it now and the manga has been out for a few months now.

@vancexentan

Don't worry, I was just kidding about that. I've already read the plot synopsis online anyway. :)

---

@Saarebas I like the idea of having a possessed blood mage on the team, but Paxton's abilities don't seem to fit what I would see as one of the two alternatives for the character. Basically I'd allow it if he was either a corrupting distance fighter using enemies against each other before drawing out their life force to cause devastating bursts of energy or if he was a blood draining rage machine capable of ripping through the middle of an enemy force with his bare hands, but at the moment he's trying to be both.

Could you trim back one side of his abilities or the other in order to make him work better as part of the team? I'd suggest builds like:

Reaver Mage:

Knight-Enchanter, Blood Mage, Reaver;

Fade Cloak (acting like a 'blood mist' vampire ability),
Spirit Blade (growing claws made of solidified blood),
Blood Magic, (feeding off your victims allows you to keep fighting)
Hemorrhage or Ring of Pain (depending on whether you'd want to automatically do damage or do it yourself),
Devour, (blood is life!)
Dragon-Rage or Rampage (for when things get messy)

Bloodbender:

Battlemage, Force Mage, Blood Mage;

Draining Aura and Grave Robber, (area heal from enemies close by, with a boost if they're dead)
Elemental Chaos, (fill the air with blood and slice them apart with it)
Fist Of The Maker, (a giant bloody hand crushes down on enemies)
Gravitic Ring, (curdle the blood in your enemies, making it difficult for them to move)
Blood Slave (take control of a weak-willed enemy and make him attack his friends)

With Paxton's long-term goal it sounds like something he already has, rather than something he'd be working towards. Perhaps reword it a little to make it something like wanting to make sure the team, his family, stays together no matter what?

And I know that could get a little creepy if he takes the Bloodbender path, since he'd be able to control everyone to stay around the campfire toasting marshmallows and singing songs with him all night.

I'll make the same comment about long paragraphs again as I did for @vancexentan, just so he doesn't feel like I'm singling him out. :) Could you please try and keep from writing huge sprawling paragraphs covering lots of events. Breaking them up into five or six lines at most helps to keep things clear and concise.

And finally, this is a pet peeve of mine so feel free to ignore it but I never really like it when people make their characters too tall. The average male human height is between 5'2" (158cm) and 6' (184cm), anything larger than that would make your character freaking tall. While I could understand Paxton using his abilities to improve himself in that way, making him a more imposing and commanding presence, please be sure to actually make mention in the roleplay that he's always looking down on those around him, literally.

PS. SInce Paxton's magic is blood-based I did a little colour switch on his image...

Paxton, taking life one pint at a time

---

@vancexentan I don't think it's too much of a problem yet, since @Genni's Hroot is a healer spirit of sorts (except when she turns Ent, in which case she loses her magic altogether,) Gerald is a damaging type with spells which mainly just inflict or increase damage against the enemy and @Saarebas's Paxton will either be a magic-boosted tank or mainly a support debuffer depending on how he reworks his character.

Since we have the three different magical roles covered now I'll probably put a cap on anyone else going for a magic-based character, although if they's like to play a warrior or rogue with a little magic in their backpocket I may still allow that, as long as their character isn't packing a arcane bazooka. Having said that, if @Saarebas goes tank we may have room for a debuffer-style mage to fill that role instead, unless you'd like to tweak Gerald to switch into some other magic specialties?

---

@CAS1006 Just to be clear, this is NOT going to be a combat roleplay, and as long as characters have traits and abilities which suit them and could conceivably be used by them as part of a narrative I'm happy for them to have them. So far the only character who's worried me is Paxton, as he's overpowered in both magical and physical ability and I hope @Saarebas will take my advice in hand when rethinking how Paxton could fit on the team.

The characters are also supposed to be the survivors of the Fifth Blight, the Mage Rebellion and the Corypheaus Tea Party (is there an official title in-universe for the events of Inquisition yet?) and so I'd expect them to be quite highly developed both in skills and backstory.

The events of Origins, Awakening and Inquisition have also allowed for entirely new entities to exist in Thedas who wouldn't have been seen before, namely Golems, Awakened Darkspawn and Spirits both physical and possessing others, which so far have only been seen in the games as characters like Shale, The Architect, Justice and Cole. I'm just glad no-one's tried to create a Harvester character yet (although it would make a very effective tank. :P)

With Hroot, the transformation was my suggestion as having a Mage/Warrior with that mix of abilities was a little strange, and didn't really gel well as a mix. @Genni suggested having the Ent as a companion to Hroot, acting as her muscle, but with Guardians of the Galaxy not that long ago it felt a little too much a rip off of a certain pair appearing there, and I'd rather not have people drawing comparisons with Drax and Gamora. :)

The idea of having the transformation irreversible means that Genni will have to choose carefully when she switches between them, so that she's not simply changing form every few seconds as she jumps between opponents, and I feel it balances the character into a 'Pulverizing Blows Shale' and a helpless healing shade. I've worked with @Genni before and I trust her to be able to use the character appropriately when it comes to the actual story.

As for the Maleficar, since we were a mercenary company with ties to the Inquisition, similar to the Valo-kas and Bull's Chargers mercenary companies rather than actual members most of the Inquisition wouldn't be aware of our actual composition, and wouldn't ask for too many details as long as we got the job done. After all, 'Dalish' of Bull's Chargers was "not a Mage" and none of the Templars in the Inquisition ever brought up any doubts about her while she was wandering about Skyhold, and our company would've been more 'field agents' than recruits, rarely if ever visiting Skyhold.

At the moment I'm planning on having a Warrior: Weapon and Shield, Battlemaster, Champion possibly with a little Tempest or Artificer thrown in for good measure. I don't want to set anything in stone too early though as I'll try to build my character to cover any gaps we have in our ranks.

[SimplyJohn]

@CAS1006

From the games we've already seen the 'heroes' working alongside Wynne, Justice, Anders and Cole, all of whom could be branded as Abominations by overly zealous members of the Chantry. While Paxton may be a little closer to the Dark Side than any of those I can conceivably believe that he'd be able to hide his condition well enough to be accepted by the company, although that will all depend on how maniacal he acts during the actual roleplay, which will be down to how well @Saarebas can write for him.

If he gets too extreme, or behaves in a way which would cause suspicion, then it's possible that a visit from the Templars would be introduced into the narrative, and the party would have to decide whether to let them cart off the dangerous Abominations, argue the case for their Maleficar comrade, or fight to the death to protect their possessed Mage.

[CAS1006]

Hmm... Your answer is quite satisfactory and eases some of my doubts. (If not many, also I apologize if I seem... judgmental?)

[SimplyJohn]

No problem, best to be sure of these things before committing to them too much. :)

I'm still looking for input on the timeline to establish the state of Thedas for the adventure and would appreciate any comment, suggestions or corrections. While I think I have a handle on which events affect others with the complexity of the DA:Keep system I'm not sure whether I have any impossible combinations or not.

Did someone say...

Hawke's male counterpart

Champion?

@The Fated Fallen

In the timeline I've set up for the adventure Hawke was a female rogue, but I've no problem having you play as a male counterpart to her. :)

[CAS1006]

I am about to be a devil's advocate here... but it would be more interesting of Hawke sided with the Templars.
Aaannnd... I want to say the Arish'tok (Might have butchered that.) returned with the book/relic rather than War.
Hawke as Viscount.

The Dalish clan unharmed, minus the death of the Keeper.
Maybe have Myrill step in line as the next Lorekeeper after she learned about the demon in the mirror?

I cannot give an exact for the Inquisition line. (I only made it to roughly 12 hours in to the Time Mage arc. Tevinter is pretty dickish, but god are they cool. Excuse me "Maker" are they cool.)

[McHaggis]

.

[SimplyJohn]

I am about to be a devil's advocate here... but it would be more interesting of Hawke sided with the Templars.
Aaannnd... I want to say the Arish'tok (Might have butchered that.) returned with the book/relic rather than War.
Hawke as Viscount.

@CAS1006

I was planning to have Anders, and by extension Justice/Vengeance, still alive, but unless anyone else has an objection then I have no problem have Hawke support the Templars. He'd still be missing however, as either way he'd vanished from Kirkwall when the Seekers came hunting for him.

There's always the possibility that even with Anders dead Justice/Vengeance is still around somewhere, and the mystery as to where he went could make for an interesting plot development...

The Arishok has to die. Isabela is still alive and free, and currently with Hawke somewhere, and so Hawke must've saved her from the Qunari, slaying the Arishok in the process.

The Dalish clan unharmed, minus the death of the Keeper.
Maybe have Myrill step in line as the next Lorekeeper after she learned about the demon in the mirror?

@CAS1006

I had wanted to kill Merrill off, since I live in North Wales and her accent really bugs me, but again I have no problem with the clan surviving and her being made Keeper following Marethari's sacrifice, and several years living in the Kirkwall alienage after being banished by her clan.

During the Mage Rebellion Merrill could've returned to her clan and taken her place as Keeper as they saw that in their time of strife previous petty decisions had to be set aside for the greater good.

We could also make the Hero of Ferelden a Dalish Elf, which would then tie Merrill to him as well?

[CAS1006]

@McHaggisI liked DA 2 a lot more my second playthrough. Which was a month ago. (Didn't like it as much when I was 16, 19 now.)
And I supported the Templars as a mage. Mostly because it is hard to feel sorry for a group the pretty much does terrorist level shit because "We don't want to be weapons, so let us be weapons, by becoming super weapons, aka blood magic."

Like the Thrask story arc? I supported mages for a while, I stopped really bad Templars and even spared a "Blood Mage" from execution. I respect Meredith to a point where she is a patriotic and wanting to prevent outright genocide, but when you completely bomb a neutral party simply because of intolerance? After you did nothing but try to help the "Oppressed" ? You just lose sympathy because they go to extremism.

So yeah, I support the Templars in that situation simply because they just wanted to protect the city from Mages losing it and attacking everything on sight. Yeah, remember the First Enchanter? He turns on you really fast regardless of decision.
Meredith only turns on you because of the Red Lyrium Idol. If she was without it, she would not have killed you for trying to help enforce the idea of law and regulation.

Think of it this way. If everyone tries being extremist, how far will others go to make security to protect neutral parties from the one? The Neutral outweighs the one.

As for Fenris? I wanted to like him when I was younger. (Thought I was gay at the time due to certain friends trying to coddle me. I'm Asexual as in I just do not care, if you are cool? Then that is super.) But ended up hating him due to his broody nature.

[SimplyJohn]

It feels as if a Hawke that supported the mages is the typical canon playthrough (as basically who is really insane enough to support Meredith?) and really the Isabella-romance aspect of it wouldn't work if he let the Arishok take the book. 100% in favour of mage-friendly Hawke rather than Templars, if only because why would Hawke support the ruthless templars when her own sister is a mage?

@McHaggis

There's an option in DA2 to return the Tome to the Qunari if Isabela returns with it, but then the Arishok demands her as a prisoner as well. If you then choose to fight him the cutscene after the battle shows the rest of the Qunari leaving, with one of them carrying the Tome, while leaving Isabela at Hawke's side.

This is the only way to prevent all-out war with the Qunari and keep Isabela at your side. And not to give too much away but I'm planning on Isabela's involvement at the beginning of the story to help get things started, and she needs to have been both in contact with Hawke and hold her rank of Admiral. Without having the relationship there Isabela would either be a Qunari prisoner, or a shoreline raider.

I played a version of DA2 where a Mage Hawke became so grief stricken after the death of his mother at the hands of a Blood Mage that he had an affair with Fenris which ended his relationship with Merril, backed Meredith unconditionally and executed Anders without hesitation. There's reasons either way for making the decision on who to support, which is what makes the game so fun.

If possible I would like to see Starkhaven included a bit. So if Anders was allowed to live by Hawke, Sebastian goes back to being prince and wages war on Kirkwall. Could be interesting if the city was still under siege of sorts?

@McHaggis

Whether we go to Starkhaven will be something the characters will be debating at the beginning of the story. Basically we'll be sitting around a campfire on the outskirts of Cumberland discussing the rumours and leads we've gathered and trying to decide where we should go next. It should give everyone the opportunity in character to establish who they are and what their motives could be, without them just standing up and reciting their biography to everyone.