dragon age origins: solona amell
Sten: "Interesting strategy. Tell me: Do you intend to keep going north until it becomes south, and attack the archdemon from the rear?"
Warden: "It'll never see this coming."
So after finishing DA2 I have decided to replay Origins?! I have tried out all the different backgrounds, and while Cousland remains my absolute favorite I decided to give Amell a try as I've never played a mage before in Origins plus I like the idea of Hawke and the Warden being related. Its is actually really surprising that I have yet to complete a mage playthrough, usually mages are a favorite of mine in fantasy RPGs but Origins showed me how much awesome fun playing a rogue can be and now I am forever converted.
solona amell: I actually happen to really like the name Solona so yes, I was boring and left the default in place. In general I see Solona as a 'nice' person but I think when it comes to magic she can go dark because she's a bit power hungry in that respect.
appearance: Even though she's a badass I wanted her to have an air of innocence so I created a pale chubby heart-shaped type of face with a small, long nose, and big eyes and lips. Tilted Elfin jade green eyes, as bright as her cousin's Hawke's. I figure she hated being all covered up in the Circle so she's gone in the completely opposite direction (yes, SUCH A REBEL), and has given up her sensible robes in exchange for the terribly revealing Chasind Robes. No idea how Amell is actually meant to fight in , er, scraps of fur that outfit but perhaps she just hides around the corner shouting commands to Alistair, Leliana and Sten? I will probably outfit her in some armor as soon as the good stuff becomes available but until then she's enjoying her freedom from the Circle's oh-so-proper robe code.
Grey/white hair because it's well, different for me, usually I create characters with red or black/dark brown hair. I imagine that she used to have dark hair but then one day she tried and aging spell but when she reversed it the spell went wrong and her hair stayed grey because she couldn't figure out how to fix it at the time and then she just got used to the grey.
notes: The whole Jowan thing really interests me, even though it's not good as some of the other origin backstories. I really wish he had been made party companion, it would be have interesting having an 'evil' blood mage plus someone who actually knew the Warden before Amell joined the order. In fact, I have actually decided that my head canon is that in addition to Jowan being Amell's best friend she's also in love with him despite all the betrayal and whatnot (Awaiting the Dawn has gotten me into this ship). So poor Amell suffered from doomed unrequited love for a fool.
plot choices:
* Amell saved the Circle - since she's a mage it's the obvious choice.
* Cured the werewolves and gained the elves and allies - I guess this is the 'good' side of Amell where she wanted to save everyone for once, if there had been no way to undo the damage that had been done I think she would have sided with the spirit/werewolves.
* Destroyed the Anvil of the Void as she detests the idea of souls being trapped in a fate they don't want (Amell is a FREEDOM FOR ALL type person).
* Completed all companion quests, became known as the Dark Wolf (I have been trying to get the Dark Wolf title for ages but kept screwing it up).
* Left the Urn of Andraste intact, not for religious reasons (she doesn't believe in the Maker, or rather, she believes he exists but not as the being that the Chantry makes him out to be) but more because she doesn't agree with crazy cults. She left the high dragon in peace though, she has a fascination with dragons so she didn't see the point of killing the magnificent creature.
gameplay: In terms of gameplay, I went for a debilitator/crowd control mage, mainly using a sleep/waking nightmare combination. Force Field is a fantastic spell too, and I also use Cone of Cold and then Crushing Prison to shatter enemies. While the enemies are all stunned/asleep my Warden (Arcane Warrior DW: sword/dagger) and the rest of the team shred them to little bits while taking barely any damage. In my previous playthroughs I had discovered that I personally find the best team is two rogues, a tank and a debilitator mage. The thing I love about debilitator builds when it comes to mages is that you don't have to worry about friendly fire because most Entropy spells don't deal friendly fire damage. I have also been happy to find that even though my mage isn't capable of doing the weapon damage that a warrior or rogue does she still does a decent job - I keep her staff handy as an alternate weapon in case she needs to do long range damage.
Overall, I haven't felt as connected to Amell as my female Cousland, Cousland just has a more epic story, because as a noble she can become Queen and also there is the more personal revenge on Howe/Loghain. The default pre-built history for Dragon Age 2 is a male Cousland, and Cousland is my personal canon choice too.
I'm happy that I have played as Amell (I feel I got a tiny bit more insight into the life of a mage in Thedas), but I definitely find the mage class to be far more enjoyable (and more game impacting as far as the RPG aspect goes) in Dragon Age 2, which makes sense as that game is very mage focused. I'm not sure if this save is ever going to get continued in future games, I want to import it to DA2 but the thing is I don't enjoy Awakening. I've played Origins in full four times so far and Dragon Age 2 twice but playing Awakening again for a few minutes reminded me how much I dislike it - I've only ever gotten through it once but because I'll miss out on Awakening plot choices if I import a direct from Origins save I'm loathe to use a save where I haven't completed Awakenings and the other relevant DLC. I actually find the main storyline in Awakening interesting but it's just meh in so many other ways...
PC version of Amell :)