Dragon Age Keep And The Broken Circle Crisis

dragon age
Dragon Age INQUISITION TANK YAYAYAYAYA

I have SO MUCH DRAGON AGE ON MAH MIIIIND I just have to spew it out somewhere. And I can’t do it on Twitter because I don’t want my mind and spirit to be limited to 140 characters. I need to be free. FREEEEEE! SO, hey! I should probably use this thing I have that’s made for blogging. Also, spoilers within. <3

So. At the time of this post, Dragon Age: Inquisition launches in 69 days (huehuehue) and I have to, like, prepare. And it’s at this very point – the thought of preparation — that my mind becomes all jumbled with a million and a half thoughts (more like three or four, but it doesn’t take much to confuse that lump of flesh between my ears).

keep

For starters, I FINALLY gained access to Dragon Age Keep on Monday. For those of you in the Fade, Dragon Age Keep is BioWare’s awesome and fancypants way of replicating the Dragon Age universe you shaped in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II. Basically, you tell the Keep what decisions you made in the past games, and voila! A WORLD IS BORN. (I don’t know how much I’m able to say about Dragon Age Keep as I haven’t received any formal instructions, so I’ll play it safe and leave it at that.)  

Now the main, story-altering decisions I made are easy to remember. But some of the smaller, side-questy ones are a bit tough to recall, and I want to make Inquisition’s world freakin’ identical to the world I’ve been playing in. In an attempt to ensure I’m on-point I’ve been reading through some of my old game logs, I’ve been skimming the Dragon Age Wikipedia as well as watching YouTube videos. Hell, I even booted up Dragon Age: Origins and have been scouring through my old mission logs. I’M TAKING THIS VERY SERIOUSLY.

HOWEVER. How-freaking-ever, I’ve come to a crossroads with one of the main branching storylines. Remember the Circle of Magi? Remember the glitch I encountered? As much as it pains me, I’ll go over it again. (Over three years later the emotional wounds have yet to heal.)

sloth
Isn’t the sloth demon cute?

During the Broken Circle quest, Dragon Age: Origins glitched and I was forced to skip the fight with the sloth demon as well as the Fade mini-quest. Let’s go over the immediate and long-term consequences of that glitch:

  • I missed out on permanent stat boosts I would have received in the Fade.
  • First Enchanter Irving died because I didn’t fight the sloth demon.
  • Because First Enchanter Irving was killed, the Circle was annulled.
  • I had to sacrifice Isolde in Redcliffe Castle because there was no Circle to conduct the spell I needed to save her.
  • Alistair yelled at me because Isolde was killed.
  • Dagna from Orzammar was refused admission to the Circle because Knight-Commander Whats-His-Butt was a douche.

I struggle because those aren’t decisions I would’ve made otherwise. But NOW, with Dragon Age Keep, I have the option to stand tall, puff out my chest and squish that glitch in the ground. LONG LIVE THE CIRCLE! LONG LIVE IRVING! LONG LIVE ISOLDE!

isolde
Sorry, Isolde. I DID IT FOR YOUR SON.

But I DON’T KNOW if I want to create a world where none of those terrible things happened. Glitch or not, it was my world, and I fondly remember the templars fighting at my side, I, uh…also fondly remember Dagna’s rejection to the Circle…I fondly remember Alistair yelling at me for killing Isolde… (Funny enough, “ALISTAIR MY GAME GLITCHED STOP NAGGING ME ABOUT THIS” wasn’t a dialogue option.) …Y’know, damn. That glitch screwed me over, didn’t it? Nothing good came from it.

But let’s say in 69 (huehuehue) days I’m playing Dragon Age: Inquisition and I see Irving just chillin’ somewhere, like, on a park bench or something. I’m inclined to think it would make me feel a bit off and possibly remove me from the story. Do you know what I mean? He friggen’ croaked. But, in my perfect game, the game intended, he would still be thriving in all his Enchanter glory.

THOUGHTS?!

WHAT SHOULD I DO FRIENDS. WHAT SHOULD I DOOOOO.

(I, um, also have a million other things — erm, more like one or two — to write about buuuut I’ve rambled enough. Until then please help me with this first-world crisis I’m facing.)

14 Comments

  1. To me, had you replayed, you would’ve redone those choices.

    Hell, didn’t you play this game like 5 times? You have 20 copies or so…

    Anyhoo, I would likely reshape the world to my intended whims, but I can see where you’d prefer what you had. Tough call.

    My gut says to stick with the glitch results.

  2. Dang it woman this is why you make multiple saves during rpging, in case you need to travel.back in time to fix things like this.
    Also noon mistake not saving before a major event. The auto save function is not bueno

    • I’m actually quite the save whore. I have like, 50 different saves. But I didn’t realize the consequences of that until it was too late. If I were to backtrack I would have lost many ‘a hours. So I rolled with it. And plus I had to finish DA:O (for the umpteenth time) before I started Dragon Age II. TIME CRUNCH.

      • Never even knew those sides to the storyline. Long way to backtrack but worth doing. Silly Blondie. So many copies , and you stuck with the messed up storyline

      • Well I’m replaying origins, keep, chasing morigan, then going into part two with hawk to replay that story as well, when inquisition comes out I will be ready on the PS,
        Added you on there as the Kromiumstar

  3. Simple. Two versions of the world. First one with the glitch’s side effects, then a second world where the glitch didn’t happen. That way, you can experience the Multiverse of options that you would not have had otherwise, but your first playthrough is organic to the world you created in the first place.

  4. Gah, this post gives me anxiety. Such a tough choice! I’d be having the same problem deciding my route but I think if I saw things through to the end, glitch and all, then I’d want to continue my story as I played it out… Ya know, that was your adventure and adventures rarely go as planned.

    Than again, you saw it through like what, a half dozen times or so? You could probably just pick your favorite ;) Good luck!

  5. Stick with the glitch. :) It’s your game – it’s now things went for you. My first playthrough ended HORRIBLY with Alistair HATING ME and me losing everything. I’ve replayed, I dunno, maybe ten times since then? And nailed the Alistair perfect ending a few of those times. But that first play is what I’m emotionally connected to, so darn tootin’ right I carried it on to DA2 and will with DAI, too.

  6. Change it! Any world where Alistair yells at you is the worst :( Also, I liked Dagna, and she’s so happy in the Circle… if I remember correctly.

  7. Why not do both? Thanks to Dragon Age Keep all paths are open. You’ll get the best and worst of both Worlds and you will get to satisfy your Head cannon (no glitch) and the BlondNerd version of Thedas you created.

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