#Jus tdoing this in case someone wants to have things clearer

[lairofsentinel]

The [nonsense] comparisons between Forgotten Realm and Dragon Age Lore

Without entering to a discussion of how valid or not Canon is, and what does it mean, we all can agree that within the context of dnd, Canon gives a frame where the community can be build characters and stories around it. Canon gives the basics so we all can produce around it or modify some bits without turning it into another thing entirely different to what it was originally conceived, and therefore, our contribution in the fandom is an interesting addition because we are sharing, as a community, canon basic rules.

With this said, I would like to highlight some things that keep being repeated and make no sense  when compared:

Dragon Age (DA) lore is totally different to Forgotten Realms’ (FR). And this produces that the characters within these worlds have different and totally opposite experiences about the “similar” thing in question. Especially when it comes to magic. I will sum up briefly this:

In DA, so far we know, there is no Weave as it is in FR. The Fade is not the Weave. The Fade is a plane of existance where mostly mages can access to via dreams [even though history has shown some exceptions, but we are not going into those details]. The Weave in Forgotten Realms is Mystra herself, and it’s like a translator: it allows the use of raw magic that only Wild-magic users can tap into it directly. The Weaves allows any mortal to cast magic if they study hard enough without losing their sanity with the use of raw magic. In the Weave there are some of Mystra’s previous Chosen Ones, living as spiritis, one with her, ready to be reincarnated when she decides it is needed. These are the Weave ghosts that have been added to the lore of FR recently. Again, Fade and Weave are not even similar. And the Veil in DA can’t also be considered similar to the Weave: it is a restriction between two world: the Waking World and the Fade. So no. There is no equivalent of the Weave in DA.

Magic comes from different sources in FR: you can study it and master it via the Weave, or you can be devout to a god or have a patron and they will provide you divine/”patron” power [clerics, paladins, warlock]. Bards are more like a “free to interpret” case since their magic comes from music or sometimes from a god, depending on the way you create your bard. In DA, there is no apparent source of magic, although it seems to be connected to the Fade. Mages are born with magic, and need to learn how to control it along their lives at the risk of being posessed by demons.There is no way in DA that any non-mage person can master magic [Let’s put aside the dilemma with the dwarves and the non-magical powers of the Titans, that’s a lot of [unresolved] lore in DA for this summary]

DA’s demons are not even remotelly close to Demons in FR. In FR we have demons [chaotic evil entities] and devils [lawful evil entities] who have been in war eternally in what it’s called the Blood War. Both factions want to control the planes, but first their need to deal with the enemy faction. Many secret organizations in FR work incognito to help Devils/Demons when this conflict ends up too inclined to one side. This is because these organizations are trying to keep Devils and Demons fighting 50/50 each other eternally since, once this conflict is solved, it’s mostly for sure that the planes will be conquered by the winning faction. That dire it is. Devils do not exist in DA, and its Demons are related to human’s desires and compulsions. DA’s demons also have, like the spirits, a reflective nature: they mirror what the mortals expect from them.

Dragon Age has no Wizards as Forgotten Realms has. Wizards are people who through a lot of effort, study, and intelligence have acquired the power to manipulate the Weave, or tap into it, to produce magic.  If anyone is midly qualified as a Wizard in the world of DA is Dagna: a person who has strongly studied magic by her own volition without a real “need”. But she can’t perform magic [yet].

DA’s mages are closer to FR’s sorcerers, even though they are not exactly the same. Sorcerers in FR are magic users who don’t need to learn to control magic because it’s natural to them. They tap into the Weave to take what they need. The Wild-magic sorcerer can tap directly into the Raw Magic, without touching the Weave and without losing their sanity, but the consequence is the randomness of their magic. Sorcerers don’t need to study to control their powers unlike the DA’s mages. In DA, mages develop their powers in their childhood and are unable to control them. Nobody can’t turn into a mage unless you are born with that “gift and curse” in DA lore. All mages in DA lore need a teacher, mentor, or studies in order to control their powers and prevent demon posession.

Probably one of the most important differences: Larian is not Bioware. Larian has always had its own mark for good or bad [just check all the previous games they did]. And Larian has a long, long history of being really bad at handling lore, even their own lore [DOS2, DOS1, Ego Draconis, etc]. Which I think it’s clearly shown in BG3 too. Even with borrowed strong lore, they manage to produce important plot holes and lore holes [Characters turning into Mind Flayers without being Tadpoled, Gods that are not gods, but quasi deity and therefore have no godly powers, extremelly confusing mixture of concepts that were well defined in 4th Edition and now are all the same in some conversations, but in others are different things, Weave that doesn’t exist, etc, etc].

#dragon age #forgotten realms #lore #Jus tdoing this in case someone wants to have things clearer #bg3