How Leliana Predicted Dragon Age: Inquisition

(cross-posted on www.nowloading.co)

Mythal’enaste, Athena. More Leliana?

Yes. More Leliana. I swear I play more games than just Dragon Age…

I was playing through the beginning of Inquisition again (hence all the posts) and I had an interesting thought and would love to know your opinions about it. In Dragon Age: Origins, Leliana describes a so-called prophetic dream, where:

“In it, there was an impenetrable darkness. It was so dense, so real. And there was a noise, a terrible, ungodly noise. I stood on a peak, and watched as the darkness consumed everything. And when the storm had swallowed the last of the sun’s light… I fell. And the darkness drew me in.”

She also comments:

“In my dream I fell. Or… maybe I jumped…”

She is quite adamant that this dream was “different somehow” to other dreams. The Guardian at the Temple of Andraste accuses her of vanity and attempting to model herself like Andraste, to which Leliana vehemently denies that she is “did it” for the attention.

At the time, my pragmatic Warden had been fairly benign about her dream, telling her to believe what she wanted to believe. So what if she had made it up due to boredom in the Chantry? So what if she feared fading into nothingness after the exciting life of a bard? Her dream, or her fantasy, or her delusion, had moved her to help me (the Warden) and my cause, granted me a fantastic archer, and had earned me a good friend and, as was the case with my Dalish elf, a happy and sappy romance. Who cared what her dream meant, or if it meant anything at all?

And then I played Inquisition.

Minor spoilers for beginning of Inquisition ahead. You’ve been warned!

Let’s go bit by bit:

“I stood on a peak.”

Haven and the Temple of Sacred Ashes is on top of a mountain, as experienced in Origins and as seen on Inquisition’s menu screen

“And there was a noise, a terrible, ungodly noise.”

The Temple of Sacred Ashes, filled with members of the Chantry, explodes in the very beginning of Inquisition.

“There was an impenetrable darkness.”

Leliana was Left Hand of the Divine and one of the two people very responsible for the Divine’s well-being. The Divine’s death during such a troubled time would certainly cast a shadow on the harsh sociopolitical events in Inquisition. Alternately, the darkness could represent the mire of said sociopolitical events coupled with the demons now raining down from the sky. Darkness, indeed.

“I watched as the darkness consumed everything.”

The sky is split open, demons pour out of it, and the upper echelons of the Chantry were destroyed. Demons and Fade rifts begin appearing all over Thedas, wrecking havoc as the Chantry barely survives the loss of their Divine.

“And when the storm had swallowed the last of the sun’s light, I fell, and the darkness drew me in.”

Leliana’s anger is apparent at the beginning of Inquisition. She is a much different character than the bard we knew in Origins who “tried to be merciful.” She’s lost a lot in the past decade, and done some things I think she regrets (not getting into the books too much here, though). Perhaps the last bit of sunlight is the Divine, her friend and trusted mentor, who was now taken from her. But most interesting to me is this line:

“I fell… or maybe I jumped.”

The Divine worried about those who would draw Leliana back into the shadows and darkness of her old life, and then proceeded to do so herself through the work given to her as the Left Hand of the Divine. Leliana went willingly, following the Divine and doing her bidding. So did she fall, not having control over her path, or did she jump into the darkness herself?

Thanks for bearing with me; I can’t promise to stay away from pure speculation-based topics, but I think it is so important in life to sometimes look past the face-value of something (like my Warden did) and entertain that there could be something greater to what we are experiencing, either in ourselves or in others.

This is especially true in a game like Inquisition where not everyone is who they appear to be. It seems fitting to revisit who Leliana is and at least entertain the fact that she could be both more and less than we give her credit for.

What do you think? Is this possible? Plausible? Or have I let my fondness for the Orlesian bard run amok in my head?

Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you soon!

–Athena Tseta

PS I realize this is assuming either quite a bit of forethought or great attention to somewhat minor details on the developer’s part, but, like I said, in a world where so many aren’t who they seem to be, it at least seems plausible that Leliana’s nightmare held other meaning within it.

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