Dragon Age Inquisition Playthrough - A Soul Stealing Interlude

This is a post about Morrigan and Flemeth's storyline in Dragon Age Inquisition, and it contains some big spoilers about these characters. I know the game's been out a while now but the mystery surrounding Flemeth is one of the most interesting parts of the series, and there may be some of you who want to keep the revelations a surprise. So, there's your fair warning. For the rest of you, let's start by recapping these characters' histories from the previous playthroughs:

Funny, I don't remember Flemeth turning into a skeleton with a book for legs.

In Dragon Age: Origins, Flemeth saved Amastacia and Alistair from dying in the Battle of Ostagar and told her daughter Morrigan to travel with them to build an army using the Grey Warden treaties. During their attempt to use one such treaty with the circle mages of Lake Calenhad, Amastacia carelessly ransacked the First Enchanter's office and handed a musty tome he found to Morrigan, since he thought it was kinda icky. It turned out to be Flemeth's grimoire and within its pages, Morrigan discovered that her mother had been prolonging her life for countless generations by possessing the bodies of her daughters. Knowing that she was next to be possessed, Morrigan asked Amastacia to kill Flemeth, which the dwarf managed to accomplish in a failed attempt to backstab Morrigan. This should have been the end of Flemeth....

However, unbeknownst to Morrigan or Amastacia, Flemeth had already come to the aid of the Hawke family by then, during their escape from the darkspawn invasion of Lothering. In exchange for securing their safe passage to Kirkwall, Flemeth made Chickene Hawke promise to deliver an amulet to the Dalish elf tribe living near Sundermount in the Free Marches. This amulet contained a piece of her soul, and when Merrill performed the appropriate ritual, she regained her physical form about a year after her "death" at Amastacia's hands. Meanwhile, Morrigan asked Amastacia to share her bed on the night before his battle with the Archdemon in Denerim and Amastacia leapt at the opportunity without listening to the reason why. That reason: when the Archdemon was killed, the soul of the Old God it possessed was transferred to the baby that Morrigan just made with Amastacia. When Morrigan comes to Skyhold in Dragon Age Inquisition, we see that baby is now a 10 year old boy named Kieran, and he has some odd mannerisms.

He's also unusually sensitive to bloom lighting.
It's a serious allergy, affecting thousands of video game characters every year....

We've now reached the point in the story where Morrigan has absorbed the power of the Well of Sorrows and has asked to speak to Torquemada in the garden to discuss plans for the final confrontation with Corypheus. Once we arrive there, we don't find her in her usual spot by the gazebo, though. So, we check in the eluvian room and are surprised to find that the mirror has been activated and Leliana is standing next to it. She tells us that she found Morrigan in a nearly panicked state, which is weird because she usually shows no feelings other than disdain, and all she said before she ran through the eluvian was that Kieran was responsible. Leliana suggests that we follow Morrigan through the eluvian while she gets some mages to back us up. For better or worse, Torquemada now has a great deal of experience in other dimensions, so she doesn't hesitate to step through the portal once again.

We find ourselves not in the ethereal gateway between eluvians, but in the Fade itself... which shouldn't be possible. We find Morrigan almost immediately, who seems genuinely distraught and says Kieran shouldn't have been able to activate the eluvian at all, let alone use it as a portal to the Fade. She has no idea where he could have gone and since the Fade is infinite, he could literally be anywhere. We remind Morrigan that we're a video game protagonist and all she needs to do is follow us to the quest marker. She scowls at us, but she's not ready to give up looking regardless so we start searching the Fade together.

Flemeth, you wicked creature. You had better not be giving Kieran any fashion advice.

Sure enough, we find Kieran but he's not alone. An old woman with yellow eyes, white hair and an outfit that screams "villainess" is kneeling beside him and Morrigan angrily addresses her as "Mother." Torquemada is confused, but Flemeth confirms that she's the boy's grandmother and she helped him open the portal to the Fade. This leaves plenty of questions unanswered, but Morrigan explains that Flemeth possesses her offspring to extend her life and is no doubt looking to possess Kieran now. Flemeth coolly replies that Morrigan took an ancient power for herself just as she took an ancient power for herself, so Morrigan is in no position to judge. She elaborates by saying that Morrigan hid Kieran from her well until now, but when she took the power of the Well of Sorrows it allowed Flemeth to find him.

This is when we learn how Flemeth became such a powerful witch in the first place: she didn't make a deal with just some Fade spirit. She made contact with what was left of the elven goddess Mythal herself and Mythal remains a part of her. Torquemada and Morrigan say that's impossible but Flemeth tells her daughter to ask the new voices in her head. Morrigan reluctantly says that the voices tell her it's true. Torquemada's still not sure she believes that, but turns her attention to the immediate matter at hand and asks Flemeth what exactly she wants. Flemeth replies that she only came for one thing and Kieran tells Morrigan he has to go with her now.

One dialogue option here is, "how can you be an elven goddess? You're not an elf!"
...If that's your biggest concern at this moment in the game, you have some funny priorities.

Morrigan angrily tells Flemeth that there's no way she's letting him go with her. She admits that at first her interest was in the soul of the Old God but now Kieran is simply her son. Flemeth tells her that she might allow her to leave with Kieran but promises that if she does, Morrigan's life will be under constant danger. One way or the other, Flemeth will find a way to settle the score. Morrigan replies that she doesn't care. Flemeth can possess her right now if she wants but she refuses to be the kind of mother to Kieran that Flemeth was to her. Flemeth thinks for a moment, then kneels down beside Kieran again.

A wave of blue energy washes over Flemeth and Kieran. Kieran asks his grandmother if this means the dreams will stop and she says they will. Kieran thanks her and goes back to his mother. Flemeth tells Morrigan that a soul cannot be forced on the unwilling, then departs. What this means is that Flemeth just took the soul of the Old God that Kieran was carrying, and he's pretty much a normal boy now. It's entirely possible that this was Flemeth's end goal throughout the entire series thus far, but what she plans to do with the Old God soul now that she has it, we have no idea. Regardless, Torquemada, Morrigan and Kieran all return safely to Skyhold after that. Morrigan is happy to have her son back safely, but she laments the fact that he was supposed to have an important destiny and that's now in Flemeth's hands. Also, she balked at the fact that taking the power of the Well of Sorrows would bind her to the will of Mythal, and she now realizes that this essentially binds her to her mother's will.

Morrigan, it's obvious. Her plan is to cement her status as badass recurring villain for future Dragon Age games.

As far as I know, this is the last we hear about these three characters' stories in Inquisition, but it's a nice conclusion to the conflict that was set up between Morrigan and Flemeth in the previous two games. This does raise some new questions and I feel like the explanation of "Flemeth is Mythal" kind of comes out of nowhere, but I can't complain too much. I know I would have been disappointed if Morrigan returned for Inquisition but Flemeth didn't make an appearance, too. Really, I'm just glad that the writers gave these characters their moment in this game and didn't save the content for DLC or something. Anyway, the next update should be the end game so join me then to find out how Torquemada's story concludes!