[DATV ACT 3 SPOILERS] Finished the game - frankly baffled and sad

Ending Spoilers: A few thoughts and feelings from a fan and lore nerd who fell in love with the games as a teen and was hopeful that, at very least I'd get some interesting lore and story.

The story/lore choices made concerning what happens in the south of Thedas during DATV are devastating and a clear attempt to create a 'clean slate' for the franchise going forwards.

Spoilers to the game are mentioned going forwards -

Simply put: Ferelden, Orlais, and the Free Marches have basically been wiped clean - any previous influences that our characters may have had on these areas is wiped away by the Blight (aka BioWare) and therefore will likely not be mentioned in any games going forward.

  • Ferelden is basically left blighted, save for Redcliffe and small pockets of resistance in Denerim.

Ferelden, if it ever appears in the franchise again, will likely never address who rules the nation or whatever influences the Warden had on the land. The land will claw itself up from the ashes devoid of the influence we had on it.

  • Kirkwall suffers the same fate, and what remains of its residents have fled to Starkhaven.

Kirkwall has been over-run and those who escaped are held up in Starkhaven. Whatever influence Hawke had on the lives of those within Kirkwall has been waved away and destroyed by the Blight, likely to never be mentioned again.

  • Orlais has been over-run outside of resistance around the area of the Winter Palace, and venatori infiltrators have made the political situation within Orlais tenuous.

Orlais has been set-up with the venatori threat for a coup to completely invalidate whatever choice of ruler was made in DAI. Whomever the Inquisitor backed will likely be assassinated, and if Orlais appears in the game again it will be with a new ruler.

As someone who has been so invested in the lore, characters, and story of the game...this is devastating. It would be one thing if the game was bad but the story contained to Tevinter, for example - but this goes beyond as it retroactively changes everything for the worse and literally wipes everything clean. The greatest appeal and strength of this series was that it felt that you shaped Thedas - I adored every little bit of dialogue or codex entry that popped up in DA2 and DAI about things that happened in previous games!

It's baffling, and honestly comes across as mean-spirited, making the decision to deliberately target the places that our characters had the most influence.

  • The Warden may as well have let Urthurmiel win since Ferelden appears to be utterly blighted and Denerim, the heart of its nation, is destroyed.
  • Nothing Hawke did ever mattered, at all - and what little mattered was never from their own agency thanks to the Executors.
  • The Inquisitions efforts to restore order across Thedas was all for nothing, because nothing remains of them from in-game.

Unless if Dorian pops up in a DLC with his bloody time amulet and big reset button for the game then this is world of Thedas that remains.

With each game in the series up till now I finished each game with the feeling that the world was getting bigger, more complex, and now it just feels empty, shallow, and hollow.

I still love the previous games, I always will, but I'm terribly sad at the choices that were made in regard to them. I'm happy to end the series with DAI and Trespasser, but just wanted to get my thoughts out.

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Edited to include that I forgot that it's set up that the venatori are going to assassinate whoever you put in power in Orlais...huzzah.

Also edited to make it more readable and organized based on a post I made on my tumblr lol

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Edit for clarity:

I absolutely agree that there should be devastating consequences for a double blight, but it comes across more as an attempt to clean slate rather than as an inevitability of what is going on with the evanuris. Telling us that the south has fallen - specifically the areas where DAO, DA2, and DAI are set - in a few sentences and a missive does not give it the weight it deserves in my opinion. Yes, they can rebuild - but whatever they rebuild will no longer include anything from the Warden, Hawke, or Inquisitor.

I didn't expect all or even any of my decisions (outside the three given to us) to be taken into account, but I certainly didn't expect for them to go scorched earth on the possibility of ever seeing the effects of those decisions either.

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Final Edit:

I completely missed the last missive at the end of the game where it's revealed that Redcliffe is gone and the remaining people of Ferelden are starving..."The fate of Redcliffe is the fate of Ferelden" - King Calenhad.

Thanks, BioWare?