et tu, loghain?

Qunari in Kirkwall is such a good point I can imagine gladiator battles held where captive Qunari are forced to fight in a display of power after their loss or perhaps Tal-Vasoth surviving by fighting in secret rings in the many tunnels of Kirkwall and the idea of these giant, scar-covered Qunari used as a symbol of power and intimidation and the whispers of those that still fight underground after the invasion like a constant reminder that Meredith can't reach the roots of the rot and the war continues to brew under her feet, there is so much wrong with Kirkwall it's so dramatic and I love it so much

yeah the qunari and the post-act 2 stuff is really compelling and has a lot of potential. we see how they're dehumanised and treated like less than people by the likes of petrice and i highly doubt that that was just a minority view, and particularly after everything i could imagine the nobles trying to reassert their control of the qunari by making them do fucked up stuff like gladiator battles.

i understand why this isnt the case for so many obvious reasons but i do wish tevinter used roman naming conventions

You Ma'am are a genius, Kirkwall in a Roman setting excites me so! I can just imagine Meredith kneeling at a statue of Andraste weeping that she'll never achieve such glory like a Ceaser/Alexander type thing. The way she would march apostates through the city like a triumph for herself. Looking over her maps and promising to conquer magic from all over Thedas once she removes the rot in her great home. And Hawke?? God Hawke building a reputation as this great warrior proving himself again and again in battle until the people of the city throw themselves at his feet as their champion while the elite sneer down as they watch him walk the steps toward them and their supposedly unreachable court. Just imagining how they would argue among each other as they watched his pedestal surpass them and all the drama of plots against him as he divides Kirkwall. Just the setting of this city that was once glorious and mighty and has slowly been rotting away and now needs a champion who will either take them back to their past or into a new future. I love how grand the politics of Rome we really do need more Roman inspired RPGs. (Also my education on Rome is very limited so sorry if this completely missed the mark)

gonna be honest act 3 meredith having fucked up little triumphs with the mages is delightful to me and i could also see it happening with any qunari held captive after act 2. but yeah its all about the rot coming from within the city to destroy it, its about the years of history of suffering eating the city from the inside out. its plotting and drama and giant golden statues while the population starves. kirkwall was made for roman politics i think.

also if you're looking for roman inspired rpgs obsidian's tyranny might be worth looking at, im only in act 2 rn but its inspired by iron age empires and clearly draws a lot of inspo from rome and its really compelling!

i also think between act 2 and 3 meredith had her own proscriptions with the justification she was punishing people who were harbouring apostates or something like that and that she would use the seized assets to help rebuild kirkwall, except the money ends up only going to the templars and chantry

Kirkwall as Denerome??? Just the idea of using Kirkwall as the setting for such a grand game of politics and blood is incredible but please explain please I hope it means what I think it does

in short its me saying 'what if instead of using medieval history/terminology/iconography as inspiration for the world building, the devs used ancient rome instead?' it was inspired by me watching a bunch of rome-related stuff over the summer (which has continued this week) and then playing origins and realising that the civil war backdrop + teagan showing up to the landsmeet fully armoured really has great roman vibes and then i just ran with it. though i do think kirkwall is a very good setting for it because, like you say, the ideas of politics and violence are very much built into it and isnt that really what rome is all about <3 (gross oversimplification but ya know. in the public consciousness anyway)

i think varric would get exiled for horny poetry like ovid (maybe) was.

sorry im reeling from the comment that cullen doesn't have political power because he leads the armies. don't make me tap the denerome au again.

also thinking about denerome reminds me of that one moment of genius i've had where i said ciaran hinds as caesar in hbo's rome is the perfect loghain in the prestige dragon age show that i direct in my brain.

also im thinking about denerome again (i say as if this is something anyone but me is familiar with) and i have to say kirkwall with its insanely shitty politics is perfect for it.