Dragon Age and Faith
Discussion came up briefly on the BSN yesterday about complaints about Andrastian characters' faith, which got me thinking. Didn't seem like the right place to post this, so... I've actually found DA to be interesting for myself in terms of its reflection of faith. I was raised in a very, very devout Catholic family so a lot of the ritual of the Chantry feels familiar. Over the last 10-15 years I've become agnostic atheist, and DA has been a way for me to RP through some of my feelings about religion and loss thereof. My first (human) Warden was reasonably devout, perhaps more from a sense of tradition than thoughtful faith; her values and morals came from her parents and her internal sense of goodness and justice as much as the Chantry. My second warden (Brosca) was first and foremost a survivor, a pragmatist. She put her value in people, not gods or ideals. She was primarily a humanist, I think. Hawke, likewise, was not overly pro-Chantry. She had spent her whole life hiding from them, although she recognised their significance as an institution and that individual members could be good, kind people working in a sometimes corrupt or flawed structure. She was by far the most cynical, though, and the angriest, pushing back against the perception of the Chantry as an unquestioned source of "good" and of moral authority. My Trevelyan, now, was probably the most spiritual. She was a believer in both the Maker and the power of the Chantry to do good in the world. In terms of the mage-templar war and the abuses, she aligned with Cass and softened Leliana about wanting to see a loving, open, inclusive Chantry instead of a political or military institution. I actually wrote a short passage in my fic about how Corypheus' taunts get to her, in a way that is very familiar to my real life experience. The thought that she may have to to reexamine and reconsider all of her morals, values and beliefs through the lens of a world where there is no Maker and no objective truth, it is terrifying. Ultimately her experiences and her friends and family lead her to decide on the opposite path from me (she keeps her faith), I suppose because she can see that her faith has value to her life. So for me, it's been an interesting journey through DA, going from doubt and questioning, wanting to believe, rejection, anger and judgement, fear, despair, feeling lost and shaken, and trying to come to some kind of acceptance of religion and faith and their place or value in the world, in something other than black and white terms, and more objectively in spite of the damage done to me. Maybe it's easier for me to relate or sympathise with characters like Cass or Cullen because I can see part of my old self in them.
