What did you do today in Thedas?

I completed the landsmeet and almost all the side quests in the game. There's a few I didn't get cause of choices and what not, and I missed one of the love letters and I have no fucks left to give. haha! The engagement went off without a hitch, and I'm looking forward to eventually testing the mod that lets you marry Alistair as a non-human someday (maybe).

I am going to take a break before launching into the final missions though, as my game seemed to need it. It was lagging like crazy, and I need to eat and stuff. I might get to play the end later tonight, but if not tomorrow for sure! Glad to be finishing this up soon!

...That's exactly what I did during this part of the game!
I actually had that type of stuff written into my Warden's story though! Poor Arthur can't handle the claustrophobic underground and needed Alistair to comfort him, haha.

I think I'm going to play Awakening and the important DLC over the next three days now that I fi9nally have time off work!
I love Awakening so much and Leliana's Song is an awesome DLC. Witch Hunt works better with a romance, but was enjoyable with just a friend Morrigan to see them reunite at last.

Yes! I had that one installed and it was pretty great!

Started Awakening today! I still remember how excited I was to continue my Warden's adventure the first time! This expansion did not disappoint one bit.
I really love the atmosphere it starts with - the rain falling, soldiers calling out out for help. It's beautiful - if that is the right word for it, haha.
Meeting Anders was like love at first sight. He's hot and hilarious, what's not to love?
Arthur joked around with the guy and decided to accept his help.
Went through keep killing all darkspawn and rescuing survivors until - ugh - Oghren showed up....can't refuse help at such a moment no matter whom it might be I guess...
Still remember how strange and new it was encountering intelligent, talking Darkspawn for the first time. It definitely left me excited for what was to come - something so familiar yet so new!
Arthur encountered his husband soon after - and it totally gave me butterflies seeing him again. Arthur wished Alistair could join him once more but knew there were other matters he had to attend to. Alistair allowed for Anders to join the Wardens and prepared to leave - but not before giving his loving husband a goodbye kiss!
So Anders and Oghren joined up, while Mhairi met her unfortunate end. Can't say I really liked her character much anyway, no big loss.

Arthur then familiarized himself with the Keep and the important people - annoying, scheming nobles and all. Ugh...even learned there was a brewing plot on his life....he was tempted to "invite" the nobles to stay and root out the traitors and have their heads on a pike - but he resisted and opted to find this "Dark Wolf" character.
Also met the hunky captain of the guard - Garavel. Remember, you are a married man Arthur!

Went to the prison and found a Howe. Spoke with the man about his reasons for being there. Despite having a lot of hatred for Rendon, he couldn't hold that disgusting man's actions against his family - and Nathaniel seemed like he could be trusted not to attempt anything stupid. Made him a Warden.
Did some work around the keep including clearing out the basements of darkspawn and ghouls. Found some of Nathaniel's family belongings and returned them to him - which he was grateful for. Also agreed to help find his sister in Amaranthine and learned about his family's history.

Before heading to the city Arthur decided to help out some of his people - unfortunately he was too late for a group of farmers and it broke his heart. He wished he could have been there sooner as they had asked for him. He had seen enough death and destruction and wanted it to end - it being even more personal now that he was the King's prince. He was, however, able to rescue a girl from some bandits after tricking them and quickly putting an end to their lives.

Was going about my business in Amaranthine - until the game crashed! I'm assuming it has something to do with Anders' armor.
Will continue later!
Still though, I really do love the design of Awakening and Vigil's Keep is gorgeous, despite its small size. It feels full of life.
It might not be perfect for the reasons you've described, but I still think it is the best combat system in the franchise. I can't say I'm a fan of the hack-and-slash action-oriented direction the series has taken with Inquisition. It really, really bores me and was made worse with the lack of proper quests with actual interactions and choices. Dragons might be the only enjoyable thing about it for me...
In Origins I always enjoy pausing the combat and controlling the individual characters, setting tactics and everything and trying to decide the best course of action. I prefer this more tactical approach for the franchise, as that's part of what drew me in.

I'll probably play the game again in a year, and it might be a gay Dalish/Zevran game for old time's sake, haha.
I hope you enjoy whichever you decide to play!

No crashing today, thankfully!
...The game's loading times did seemingly increase though, lagging here and there.

Anyway, Arthur and company traveled to Amaranthine to find out what happened to the Grey Warden Kristoff. Checking out the tavern, the group discovered that he was headed to a place called the Black Marsh.
While in the city, the group decided to find out what happened to Nathaniel's sister Delilah. She revealed the truth of her father to Nathaniel and the two spent some time together catching up. She did mention that her husband was much better than the "Cousland boy" her father was trying the set her up with...and Arthur told her that he had no interest in her anyway, since he isn't into women. Awkward.
Also ran into an old acquaintance of Anders' who told him where his phylactery was being held. Decided to check it out for him...only to be led into a trap. Normally Arthur would try to resolve things peacefully, but this was one lady he was happy to be rid of...as she had gone against his dearest husband's orders and Anders was a fine Grey Warden. Anders appreciated it, and it strengthened their friendship.
While he was there, Arthur did some cleaning up in the city by getting rid of thugs and smugglers as well as helping silly little orphans. Ran into an old friend, Wynne, and also encountered the "Black Wolf who was then paid to find out who the conspirators were.
I really, really love Amaranthine. It may be small, but it has so much atmosphere packed into it! It really does feel full of life, and it's the type of setting I like seeing. I can only imagine how much more interesting it could have been if it were larger! I love that you can get a sense of the desperate situation with the refugees and the trouble in the city. I want to see more like this in Dragon Age, and less of the empty, open worlds like Inquisition. I think little areas like this show that larger doesn't mean better.

Next stop for the group was the Black Marsh. Yet again, I really love the atmosphere here. It really does feel like an abandoned ghost town with the little remnants of what once was, made even more interesting by events to come.
Searching for the missing Grey Warden, the group encountered another talking darkspawn that sent them into the fade. They discovered that the previous inhabitants of the Black Marsh were being held captive by the Baroness. Encountering a spirit of Justice, Arthur decided to help him go against the madwoman and free the trapped souls.
Having been sent back by the Baroness, Arthur discovered that the spirit of Justice had become "trapped" in Kristoff's body.
Putting end to the demon, Kristoff decided to carry on Kristoff's memory and help fight against those that murdered him.
Also fought a ghost dragon. It was intense. B-)
Before heading back to the keep, Arthur went to check on the Black Wolf's progress. He was given information about the conspirators meeting at an old abandoned farm. The group headed there and quickly put and end to their scheming.

Back at Vigil's Keep, Arthur was informed by Seneschal Bran that he would have to hold court over some matters.
The first case presented was a farmer, Alec, who was caught stealing bushels of grain from the crown. Knowing that it was his responsibility to care for his people and the desperation caused by the blight, he told Alec that he could join the army and keep his family fed as well.
Next up was Danella, a soldier that deserted to protect her family. Knowing how important family is, Arthur offered to allow her family a place there so she could return to service.
Last was a land dispute between Lady Liza Packton and Ser Derren. Funny enough...Arthur had actually just killed Lady Liza Packton because she was conspiring against him...so this scene made no sense, haha. Lady Liza was promised land by Howe that belonged to Ser Derren. Because of hius burning hatred for that disgusting man, Arthur decided to allow Ser Derren to keep his land...and had Lady Liza hanged.
He wouldn't be showing any of Howe's allies mercy.

Arthur's last stop for the day involved looking into massacres at the Wending Wood. It was quickly discovered that an elf was behind all the murders. Confronting her, he showed the madwoman no mercy for her crimes. I say that Arthur's reason for this is that because he is the Prince-Consort of Ferelden, he won't tolerate such crimes against his people, those he sacrificed so much to defend. She had murdered many innocents and her crimes were an unforgivable offense.
But the truth is...I just don't like Velanna. The only character I hate more in this franchise is Varric. I just can't stand her character, the way she presents herself, and her attitude. She has no redeeming qualities for me...
This is all made worse by the fact that she is voiced by Grey DeLisle. It's a petty reason, but I can't stand her voice because she ruined one of my favorite characters. She took over the role of Daphne Blake from her previous long-time actress Heather North Kenney and has done the character very little justice since then. I know, I'm shallow.

The group was then rapped in a mine by what seemed to be the leader of the talking darkspawn.
Breaking out of prison with the help of Velanna's sister, the group eventually confronted this "leader", but he managed to escape and they made their way out.
This actually made me nostalgic for the Dragon Age novels. I really enjoyed reading them and have a soft spot for Utha because of it...but I guess I'm also just a fan of female dwarfs in general.

Returning to the Keep for some much needed rest and relaxation...Arthur found that some peasants were rebelling.
Apparently thereew's a lot of ways this one can play out and end...which is what I like to see from these games.
I was unsuccessful in talking them down, so Arthur decided to give the people the food they needed. I'm not sure what's required for talking them down, but I think I've only successfully done it once.
Yeah, it's just my personal preference. I don't like that there's no strategy involved and that it's much more restrictive/linear than Origins and even Dragon Age 2.
I don't mind hack-and-slash gameplay occasionally and it can be quite fun, it's just not what I want from Dragon Age. The combat system in Origins is part of what drew me in because it reminded me of what I loved about Final Fantasy 12, but so much better!

Hmm... I have a question. I want to build a "perfect" red!Hawke, so I went back to a rare moment in DA2.

It happens in the Act2, if Hawke sends Feynriel to the Dalish in the Act1, and visit on the Sundermount before of the “Night Terrors” (Feynriel’s quest). The Dalish hunter tells, that the Templars tortured an elf, and interrogated him. The Templar didn’t deny that, in fact, says, they’ll continue this – they’re ready to kill every elf (she don’t care about the “knife ears”) for their escaped “property”: Feynriel…

So: there's a peaceful and a bloody solution. Which one should I pick with Ralph Hawke? Which would his decision? (Background) 

He Killed Karras as well (he can't lie) and the Templars at night, who wanted to avenge him.


To kill the Templars, especially with blood magic, surprisingly satisfying. I'm rather inclined to the violent solution, but the peaceful one also has some points (perhaps, the Templars will not abuse the clan anymore, and Ralph, while hot-headed and aggressive, never kills just for fun, only for reason – true, mostly he find a reason, so he's not a diplomat...) Questions, questions...

Here the video with both solution:

Sigrun is always the companion I recruit last, even though I love her. It's just the way I've always played Awakening, haha.
It did always bother me that you had to jump through hoops to get her quests working.
I installed the mod to fix her quest, so hopefully it works! I think I've only been able to successfully complete it once.
It seems we've both broken our games with mods as we have similar issues!

Catilina From what I've read, it definitely seems like you should go with the bloody option! Sometimes you just can't avoid it!

Yeah, I also read that Dragon Age doesn't always play nice with pc's with multiple cores. So that could be part of why it doesn't run well on my laptop. I lowered the graphical quality some though, and it is working a bit better but it looks pretty bad on the lowest setting. I moved the textures back to medium though. the lowest setting for those made everything look like PlayStation 1 graphics and it was just too bad for me to deal. I'd rather deal with the freezing. It's all quite maddening that it won't run fine with medium settings when Sims 4 with much better graphics performs so much better on my laptop. sigh...oh well, that's life. lol!

So Awakening update. I finished the Black Marsh quests and beat the spirit dragon. Such a neat fight! I've gotten Anders, Nate, and Sigrun's personal quests finished. I don't have oghren's done yet. I'm a bit worried it might have glitched on me. but I'm hopeful that one more gift might trigger the last talk. Justice's quest is almost done and will finish up tomorrow for sure. hmmm...that leaves Velanna after that-and I am quite sure I'll have to deal with not finishing it unless I install a mod or something. I hate when they tie story important missions to random encounters.


I got some help from Dirk to adjust which cores are used when playing origins-and I am not sure but I think turning off some of the cpu's helped a bit. Still too early to say for sure, but it seemed to be peforming better-even after I turned the graphics back up to medium. so here is hoping that I won't start getting freezes again.

Well...it's done. I've completed all of Dragon Age Origins.
I'm already feeling it, missing everything I went through with my Arthur Cousland. It's such an emotional and satisfying experience for me.

First I started by playing Leliana's Song. I've always liked this one. It's pretty interesting going through Leliana's past and seeing how she ended up in Lothering's Chantry, as well as the introduction of the future Divine. I remember having a little crush on Sketch, he's so adorable! And Silas....well...

I think the gif says it all, haha. I'd romance him in a heartbeat!

Next was Witch Hunt. This one definitely brings all kinds of feelings with it. I love how it starts off where it all began...Flemeth's Hut. It feels like it's been ages since the Warden first woke up there after the battle of Ostagar and set off to stop the blight with nothing but his future husband and a witch of the wilds at his side. It's a strange sensation being back there, seeing the spot where you killed Flemeth as well.
Finn was another cutie I had a crush on! And Hadley? Well I think the above gif also sums it up pretty well! He's hot and I desperately need a canon Templar boyfriend, haha.
I really love the banter between the characters, it's hilarious, as well as eavesdropping on the two mages talking about pets and Kirkwall. Also love the mentions of Anders and his little scribble in one of the books!
I just really, really don't like that rumor being spread around about poor Arthur having a sexual encounter with Isabela...ugh...

Anyway, next stop was some ancient ruins. My first time through this was as a Dalish Eld. You can imagine how I felt going back there. That was where it all began, where my poor Theron was on a simple hunt with his boyfriend and ended up exploring caves with him...which ended in disaster and heartbreak. It felt strange being back there again, an overwhelming sense of nostalgia for everything that had happened, as well as just being back where my adventure in Thedas first began...and how I was immediately drawn into an interesting new world. This is one of the reasons it felt right being a Dalish the first time, as well as the relations in Dragon Age 2. It will always have a special place in my heart.

Next stop was deep roads, boring as usual but cute commentary from Finn!
In the end, Arthur ended up finding Morrigan nearby where he defeated The Mother previously. He was so happy to see her again, and it was adorable seeing her playing with his Mabari, Hewie.
He wanted to offer her help with whatever is was she needed, but she told him she needed to do it alone. He was relieved to at least have had the chance to see her again and get some answers, as well as the gift she left him.
Honestly...this makes me wonder if they ever had plans for the Warden, despite their claims that they never want to use the Warden again.
Witch Hunt left me excited so what was to come, it really seemed like it was setting up something grans...but the games have failed to deliver and I was never satisfied with what followed.
I kind of do wish we could have had the chance to continue the Warden's adventures and seen his story ultimately resolved...instead of being left like that, never knowing what this "gift" was and what they were up to afterwards. I also feel the same way about Hawke's story being completely dropped in favor of Inquisition and the Inquisitor. I would've loved that expansion.

Anyway...next up is Dragon Age 2. I'm looking forward to it, but I haven't decided if I want to continue using the appearance mods or just go back to the vanilla game!
I'm glad you were able to figure something out! I can't imagine trying to play on the lowest settings!
I was only ever able to complete Velanna's quest once because of how ridiculously difficult it is to trigger. It's such a shame Awakening is so buggy...
But now I don't have to worry about it because I always kill her anyway because I can't stand her.

So, what do you think would fit your Warden more? Or did you just want to mix things up and ignore what your Warden might do?