datv: the plot (part one)
In the beautiful vision, more is made of solas’s desire to keep the gods imprisoned. rather than the evanuris binding and corrupting the old gods into archdemons, the archdemons have been bound to them to draw on their power (by the ancient imperium, seeking to empower their own gods at the cost of the evanuris), and they act as both amplified powers and jailors, riling elgar’nan and ghilan’nain and pulling them in their wake. as this shared and amplified power allows elgar’nan and ghilan’nain to break free from their fade prison when solas’s ritual is disrupted (and ghilan’nain to free andruil with her), the other gods remain alive yet trapped; in your first conversation with solas, after berating you for interrupting his ritual, he impresses on you the importance of recapturing the blighted gods and binding them to their prison again. for their own good and that of thedas. he also lets slip that killing the last two archdemons will end the blight, ‘curing’ elgar’nan and ghilan’nain. this is, in fact, a guess — he doesn’t, and can’t, know this for sure, but he needs rook’s assistance in trapping them back in the Fade, and views this as the way to garner that support.
with the other gods still trapped, and their blood connected to the fade prison, rook is able to establish a connection with the other evanuris: you can initially attempt to contact them, but their responses are incomprehensible, warped out of recognition or understanding by the blight. warden rooks in particular have unique dialogue here, regarding the communication as something akin to experiencing the Calling, but amplified to the point of being unbearable. in an attempt to clarify that communication, Harding suggests visiting kal-sharok, as dwarves who have lived closest to the blight, and the only culture that has shown any ability to live alongside it. as an isolationist culture, the kal sharok dwarves aren’t originally willing to let you into the inner city, and rook & co are forced to complete various trials before earning an audience with the spiritual leaders. part of this quest chain includes competing in a tournament, an echo of the orzammar Provings, but significantly darker and more ritualistic. not all the quests need to be completed in order to access the city, but you’ll earn more respect for doing so.
the shapers of kal-sharok reveal a ritual akin to the joining that will allow the participant to communicate with the blight (and maybe-slightly blights you a little bit don’t worry about it) — the default choice here is for harding to undergo this, but dwarf rooks are offered the chance. non-dwarven rooks can undergo the ritual, but only if they’ve already proven their worthiness. the culmination of this quest is gaining the ability to communicate with the blighted evanuris in order to talk to june, who will pass on instructions for duplicating the lyrium knife.
in the meantime, you are receiving word of the devastation andruil has been leaving in her wake as she moves across thedas, popping up seemingly out of nowhere and levelling towns, forts, and travelling companies, apparently indiscriminately. there are a couple of sidequests in each location (arlathan, minrathous, antiva, rivain, nevarra) which involve picking up the pieces remaining after andruil has passed through. solas will reiterate, every time, that this is evidence of her loss of control, her blight, the importance of getting her locked up again.
at weisshaupt, things proceed as normal — the choices regarding the first warden, the increasingly desperate battles to get to the wardens, and the oppressive presence of ghilan’nain and her archdemon. the first warden/tactical choice is reframed, with rook approaching with a battle plan rather than a plea for escape; the outcome of the siege is laid firmly at their feet, as the tactician to make the choices. You can choose whether to support the first warden’s all-out assault on ghilan’nain and her archdemon, proposing to leverage the force of battle to strike, or to propose the game-accurate retreat into weisshaupt to use the dragon trap. whatever you choose, solas will comment on in your head — he is more generous and gentler with rooks he doesn’t respect, and particularly harsh with rooks he both likes and respects as he foresees the inevitable outcome of the mission — and whatever you choose, the end result is the same: wardens die in droves, and weisshaupt falls.
partway through the battle, andruil appears: rather than side with ghilan’nain, she attacks the archdemon, and flashes of this fight can be seen overhead as you fight through the darkspawn. it comes to a final battle between you, andruil (wounded, and in visible agony), and the archdemon razikale. there is a lull in the battle when razikale is badly wounded, and ghilan’nain draws in close, brought in by the pain of the archdemon she’s bound to: lucanis wants to take the opportunity to take his attack, but davrin argues with him. as one of his gods, and one visibly wracked with grief and pain, he is unwilling to let her be killed; he argues for focusing attention on the archdemon, theoretically curing the blight and freeing her. rook can tell lucanis to hold off, or encourage him to take the chance, which impacts their relationship with both men, but either way, lucanis will make the attempt and fail, and you’ll be forced to finish the fight with the archdemon.
when you’ve brought razikale to the ground, the time comes to take the killing blow. davrin, arguing that it should be a dalish elf who frees ghilan’nain (and taking easing the suffering of the mother of halla / now unknowing mother of monsters as a sacred duty to him in particular), will always be the one to take this; grey warden rooks can offer, but he will insist they’re still needed to cure elgar’nan, and end the blight. he takes the final blow, but before razikale’s soul can kill him, andruil steps in. she absorbs the dragon’s soul instead of davrin, leaving her mortally wounded. weakened, alone, and wracked with grief, ghilan’nain steps in, and absorbs the remains of her once-lover, the Calling amplifying to the point of agony for the grey wardens (incl warden rook) in her grief, then vanishes. with ghilan’nain gone and andruil and razikale dead, davrin and lucanis will descend into a vicious fight about the outcome of the mission: it is now undeniable that the evanuris are neither incomprehensibly mad nor beyond saving. davrin is rethinking his faith and his religion in the wake of this experience, taking on a holy duty to save his gods from their suffering; lucanis only sees a faint, unreliable hope of curing the blight, and would prefer to take the fastest path to end the risk to his people before elgar’nan and lusacan can cause more devastation.
(next - solas in datv, part four)
(previous - solas in datv, part three)
