Veilguard Ideas: How I Would've Implemented Past Choices
If I could only add one thing to The Veilguard, it would have been sections where you could play as the Inquisitor dealing with the Super Blight in the South. This would actively show us and not tell us (through missives) what's actually happening in the South and allow the Inquisitor to make decisions that impact the state of the South post-game. Given the turbulent nature of Veilguard's development and production, I'd imagine adding these sections would be very resource intensive (time consuming, going over budget from having to rehire the voice actors for the leaders od Ferelden, Orlais, Orzammar and the Chantry, etc), but I think a nice middle ground option would've been to implement a simplified Mass Effect 3 Effective Military Strength type of system where major choices from the past games contribute to whether the South is salvageable and destroyed beyond repair.
Ideally, I would have 10 sets of choices (that would be chosen during character creation because of the lack of the Keep) that contribute to the end state of the South and each choice adds or subtracts points, needing 5+ points to save the South. If the total points at the end are less than 5, then the South is destroyed. Each choice will have a reasoning for the points given, reasoned by lore and ending slides from the games. I also wanted to balance out the decisions made throughout the games to allow anyone to still have a chance at saving the South i.e. not all of the “best/most moral” outcome choices will give you the most points and not all of the “worst/immoral” outcomes will take away the most points. With that said, here are the choices:
Did the Hero of Ferelden survive the Fifth Blight?
Yes +1 - provides Ferelden with a rallying figure.
No +0 - Lack of rallying figure.
Anora +0 - Lack of Darkspawn/Blight Expertise.
Alistair +1 - Darkspawn/Blight Expertise.
Anora and Alistair +1 - Same reasoning as before.
Anora and Warden +1 - Same reasoning as before.
Alistair and Warden +2 - Double Darkspawn/Blight Expertise.
Who rules Orzammar/Was the Anvil Destroyed or Saved?
Harrowmont with destroyed Anvil -1 - Isolated Orzammar without golem army to defend against darkspawn.
Harrowmont with saved Anvil +0 - Stalemate with the darkspawn because of the golem army.
Bhelen with destroyed Anvil +1 - More progressive policies and stronger ties to the surface allow Orzammar to gift and receive forces.
Bhelen with saved Anvil +2 - Same as before but with the added golem forces.
Was the Architect killed or spared?
Spared +1 - Based on Nathaniel Howe's mention of the Architect keeping the darkspawn quiet during DA2 and his awakened darkspawn helping the cause. Alternatively, this could be a -1 as the awakened darkspawn allies could unintentionally affect non-Warden allies with the Blight.
Was Aveline or Sebastian supported (War Table Mission)?
Aveline +1 - Strengthened Kirkwall.
Sebastian -1 - Weakened Kirkwall.
Were the Southern Grey Wardens exiled?
Exiled -2 - Lack of Grey Warden aid.
Not Exiled +2 - Abundance of Grey Warden aid
Celene - +0. She fostered a very artistic culture for Orlais and doesn't have the backing of marginalized groups in Orlais, namely the elves because of Halamshiral, but still has a decent standing army to defend itself.
Celene and Briala +1. Has the support of marginalized groups and efforts made through the eluvians before Solas wrestled control of the network from Briala help Orlais with having their forces expanded throughout the nation.
Briala pulling Gaspard's strings +1. Has the support of marginalized groups and Gaspard's military expertise, but it is an uneasy "alliance".
Gaspard +2. Military expertise with the largest army in Southern Thedas.
Celene, Briala, and Gaspard -1. Because the rule was forced by the Inquisition and the Inquisition has lost considerable power since the ending of Trespasser, the uneasy alliance negatively affects Orlais' military effectiveness.
Who drank from the Well of Sorrows?
Inquisitor +1. The Inquisitor can provide helpful knowledge from the Well to the Southern allies.
Morrigan +0 - Being busy in the North, she isn't able to provide direct aid.
Leliana -1 - With the Circles formally disbanded, there isn't an official way to call the Mages and Templars to arms.
Vivienne +0 - The restored Circle of Magi and Templar Order provide mages and templars to the cause but there is still a lot of infighting within the Southern Chantry because of Vivienne "tyrannical" decisions and her identity as a mage.
Cassandra +1 - A reformed Chantry allows templars and mages to work in sync during the Super Blight.
Was the Inquisition disbanded or did it become an honor guard of the Divine?
Disbanded -1 - Lack of additional forces.
Honor Guard +1 - Additional forces.
For example, using my primary worldstate, the South would be saved because I racked up 6 points.
Hero of Ferelden alive +1
Anora and Alistair rule +1
Bhelen with destroyed Anvil +1
Grey Wardens not exiled +2
Celene and Briala rule +1
Morrigan drank from the Well +0
One of these days, I may write missives like the ones from Veilguard from the Inquisitor to Rook describing the choices and the impact on the South to share.
Thoughts or any other sets of choices you would add? How many points did you get?
