I romanced Morrigan in my main save, so it had a of extra content for that whole thing. It's really just like, a sequel hook. I thought Finn and the other one, Ariane I think, played off each other well, but I'm not gonna remember them really.

The Varterral was goofy looking, and its fight was like, nothing. It was in the same arena as the high dragon in Awakening, but had none of the threat. It was just some spindly weird thing that sometimes spawned small dragons.

Also because I'd sold all my spare stuff before the archdemon fight, and I imported my epilogue save, my staff was gone. Not equipped and not in my inventory. I ended up using some sword I picked up.

"Veil Tear"? For real? BioWare, I came here to hunt a witch!

Sigh... Once again, the Warden sets out to do a thing and ends up babysitting a bunch of forgettable characters with bad builds. This time around, our party is composed of some elf, some mage and a Mabari hound, which may or may not be the same dog from the campaign. At least, this time around, their quest is something important to the Warden: finding out where Morrigan went after the defeat of the Archdemon.

It's the only reason why I'm willing to give it a pass, even though it has more or less the same issues as the rest of the DLC packs: short, buggy, does not include the original cast and is filled with busywork and poorly put together encounters. Also, the final conversation with Morrigan doesn't really provide any answers, but instead just vaguely teases events one can only hope get resolved in Inquisition.

By the Maker, it's amazing how low the bar for DLC was for Dragon Age.

Since every epic/dark fantasy setting needs cryptic and mischievous witches, David Gaider penned up Flemeth and Morrigan, two of the big players in the series’ overarching narrative. I kinda don’t want to spend too much time on Flemeth due to this, but she is important for Morrigan’s upbringing, what with the seclusionist mindset and unyielding manner for her to go out and explore much beyond their hut habitat, as well as that whole near-venomous nurture mentorship that he may have likely been influenced from the same sources as before (and maybe some Obsidian roots too, but that could just be me looking far too deep). From the maligned and typically callous background comes a spirited sorceress distanced from societal norms and the expectations that surround them - then, the Wardens come, battered from the failure of Ostagar’s stand, and she’s now transferred over to help them in their quest against the Blight, her arc’s trajectory branching onto different ends from there.

I like Morrigan, a lot, to the point she’s one of my absolute favorites to have come out of the RPG genre, let alone from Bioware’s environment. With the fronts of sarcastic retorts and impish intent lies someone that’s clearly impaired and damaged by not only her upbringing, but her estranged relationship with the one who raised her to begin with. Navigating dialog choices and seeing which ones to choose is an activity I never tire of, simply because it allows me to witness new angles and details about someone I already know so much about. There’s always an option to turn her away, but continue to persist and peel the barriers away, you start to see her open up in the form of a ring doubled as a tracking tool and a gift born from kindling intimacy. Continuously so disproving and malcontent about the feeling of love and kinship that unravels the closer the two develops and the Male Warden continues to perpetuate and express this notion, that the facade breaks off, her reservation and sorrowful mind laid bare and disclouded for the first time. It’s a common thought for one to spout about a character “feeling real”, which is sometimes coinciding with the other thought process of “they’re LITERALLY me fr!!!”, but I don’t want to hyperbolize my position to that degree, especially since to get The Most™ of it you’re nudged into doing the romance even if you’re not into that sort of thing (and considering how Bioware does it, who can blame those). A lot of it just comes from the mere back-and-forth of the dialog, exhausting them every single time yet never feeling worn from it, and also the from how her skillset as a mage is utterly bonkers, being able to dish out damage from the backline with ease. The final confrontation with her in this DLC, where you raise questions and receive vague answers, culminates in three choices: stepping into the ancient elven mirror Eluvian with her, letting her go, or stabbing her as she tumbles into it. While not a major choice that affects succeeding entries, it culminates the type of relationship the Warden and Morrigan have, and somewhat in a meta sense, the type of relationship the player has with her.

So, that’s all well and good, but she’s only a mere subject of the storyline here - the real plot’s about Gaider and Co. setting up a lot of shit for future games. The Eluvian mirrors, stuff about the Inquisition, Kirkwall, even referencing Mage and Dalish origin storylines to build upon the state of the world. This is like, fine? It’s kinda like what Bring Down The Sky and Arrival from Mass Effect did, plus this being the last DLC Origins will ever get meant that it has to be an epilogue and not a quasi-expansion like Lair Of The Shadow Broker was. Thing is, You can kinda tell everyone was antsy to start DA2 up, or maybe it was around then idk I forgot a chunk of the development mess for that game, so the skill and difficulty ceiling has been far, far lower than anything before it. There’s a gimmick about revitalized sentinels powered by Veil Tears that you have to manage by first defeating them and then whacking it away, but that’s it, the rest are some of the most benign and lackadaisical encounters in the entire package. Makes sense, at this point you’ve played Awakening and/or Golems Of Amgarrak (which was my case, don’t recommend it) and have obtained numerous stat growths and high-level gear and skills so there’s no reason to be put up with a challenge, but it, combined with the most amount of reused maps and assets, accentuates that feeling of “getting it over with”. Even the final boss, effectively the last test of strength you will ever face in this, is a joke that can be paralyzed with ease with most of its attacks being minor annoyances. My LV 35 Warden with a 121 Cunning growth was doing triple-digit crit damage the entire time though, so it at least gave me amusement.

Oh yea, on that note, remember what I said about the confrontation? Yea, the weight of that is massively shunted if you let your Ferelden Warden die at the final battle, so instead you’re transferring the Orlesian Warden from Awakening onto this which like… massively deflates the whole point and raises even more questions? I’m not sure why this branch would really care at this point, and it’s not like Morrigan made an effort to establish friendship between other party members before she dipped so that others would wonder what she’s up to, so I guess it’s just like, a menial task they gave to them because idk they really handled that Amaranthine business. It’s a strange thing, in order to get the most out of it you have to import a Dalish Male character, where you decided to romance her for the sentimentality, and finally partook in her ritual, thereby limiting and obfuscating the whole “roleplay” angle the base game was going for. Even the bits of lore, setups, and especially that choice on what to do with her don’t amount to much because the outline the team clearly had in mind at the time was severely affected by a multitude of reasons and factors, resulting in yet more stunted worldstates on their mad quest to Make Every Important Choice Matter. It’s an extremely confusing DLC, and something I suspect would be marginally better if the team decided to pool all effort and focus on expanding this to be more meaty instead of creating GoA prior.

I suppose a quick summary of my thoughts is that it’s the inverse of my feelings on the aforementioned Lair Of The Shadow Broker from ME2. Instead of a really nice storyline with numerous and unique opportunities chronicling a companion I don’t exactly care much about, I got a storyline centered around a companion I really like yet is propped up by the most half-hearted full circle story beats available. As a result, I’m not even sure if I want to replay this in the future; sure, it’s another short add-on that doesn’t require much time with heavy implications for the future, but it doesn’t have the sustenance to bother putting up with it. A damn, damn shame, and what a lackluster capstone to end my month-long endeavor on.