The Enigma of Alistair | Fandom (2024)

Here are my thoughts...

Firstly, it would do everyone a world of good to consider the majority of DA "lore", that isn't the main games, to be non-canon, on the grounds that a lot of those stories revolve around characters and world states that are player determinate. Alistair "may" have traveled with Isabela and Varric to search for Marik, but that would require, A) Alistair to be alive, B) To be King (this story could work if he's a warden, so it's a maybe), C) Sten to be alive, D) Isabela to have been recruited by Hawke. Those are some of the main story points about that comic that are completely player dependant in-game. Alistair could have died to the AD, executed after the Landsmeet, become a runaway drunk, stayed a GW or become king, the last two being the only ways he could even go on that quest to find his father to begin with (given you substitute him being king with just being a GW in the comic). Just a few things to consider when using comics as "canon" lore.

Secondly, Alistair's thoughts on Templars vs Cullen's.

Cullen has been a Templar for more than ten years during DAI, he's institutionalised, indocturated, everything he knows and believes about the Templars is what he's been taught, what he's seen, and what he's experienced. To him, Lyrium is the reason Templars have their powers, clean cut, clear as day, thems the brakes. Hell, even the two Templars outside the Chantry in Deirum in DAO says that if a Templar stops taking Lyrium, they wouldn't be a Templar anymore.

Alistair was trained as a Templar all the way up to the point where you take your vows, recieve your first lyrium hits, and officially become part of the order, but fate, ie Duncan intervenes. So we have a fully trained Templar, but no lyrium to use the powers; powers we have to all but assume were taught to him on what they are and how to use them. "The other main focus of Templars is to hunt mages, to that end, we train intalents that drain mana and disrupt spells" ~ Alistair, DAO.

Alistair knows how the Templar powers work, and confidently states to the GW that lyrium isn't required for them to work, maybe they just make them more powerful, (Templar powers in DAO are pretty limited), or maybe lyrium does nothing and is just a form of control. Either way these opinions are Alistair's, and to him they might as well be facts, because he's the example, right? Well.....

Grey Wardens, the Joining and the Darkspawn Taint

GW are for all intents and purposes, magically created super soldiers. One GW is said to be equal to 100 darkspawn, having increased physical abilities, and a sixth sense to alert them to DS presence. So GW are powerful, more powerful than the average warrior, while also being an above average combatant before the Joining (usually); all these things comes from something right?

The Joining, a mixture of DS blood, LYRIUM, and Archdemon blood. Let's get the obvious one first, lyrium is a main component in the joining ritual, while also being the least important. Alistair, a fresh off the wagon Templar trainee, ready to become a Templar instead becomes a GW, but coincidence, the thing to become a GW just so happens to have the thing needed to become a Templar as well. Boom, Templar powers without needing lyrium, at least this is what Alistair believes, because surviving the Joining and seeing a fellow GW recruit die in the process, might just have made him not put two and two together after that little experience, and also never bothered to connect the dots after.

The Taint

"Blood magic comes fromdemons; they could counter every bit of lore I possess. But thedarkspawntaint, that is alien to them. And it has power." ~Avernus, DAO

We hear time and time again that the DS taint is a force that even the spirits and demons of the Fade are completely ignorant about. To say that the Joining is a form of blood magic would not be incorrect, but also not the same. Every GW has a mixture of lyrium, DS and AD blood inside them and it only gets more potent the more time goes on, to the point that GW will become indistinguishable from other DS, via the taint. Avernus study into blood magic has produced additional powers from the taint that a GW could take advantage of, one of which being Avernus's extended lifespan. Now I know that you can only get these powers from drinking the alchemy blood in Soldier's Peak, but the power does come from the GW own tainted blood, it's already inside them, they just need to wake it up, in a sense. What if Alistair's Templar training made him aware of the power that potentially all people have, but lyrium is the trigger to unlock it? The taint is a power that is equal to any demon or spirit, and the taint gained from the GW Joining doesn't go away, it's stays until death, and only gets more potent the longer you live, having lyrium be a part of the joining also adds to the fact that Alistair doesn't "take" lyrium to have Templar powers, he basically has a steady supply of lyrium and taint magic flowing in his veins until he dies, (or cures himself).

Of course I could be mad and none of this makes any sense and has no backing. I personally believe that is Bioware is so intent on Templars only having powers because of Lyrium, then don't retcon anything, just have the few acceptions gain the powers by other means, Cassandra doesn't take lyrium, she was made tranquil and then cured via Fade spirits, and she get powers similar to templars. Just say that the GW joining was the substitute for lyrium for Alistair to have his powers and nothing needs to be retconned, and character dialogue doesn't need to be ignored or just brushed under the rug as, "Well, he's lying, obviously"

^"to the point that GW will become indistinguishable from other DS"

Ghouls, not darkspawn.

Templars need to continually take lyrium to maintain their powers. And while the taint will stay in a grey warden's body for their entire life, I don't think lyrium does. However, taking lyrium once is still infinitely many more times than never taking it.

Ultimately it's easiest just to say that Alistair was wrong.

I meant that when GW go to the Deep Roads for their calling, the DS tend to not pay them any mind until they start killing them, because the GW are so tainted at that point DS can't tell them apart from other DS. Maybe bad choice of words on my part :P

And I agree, the current lore says that Alistair is wrong, and Templars do need to take lyrium to use their powers, but I don't agree with the ideas of either Alistair was lying about the lyrium, or that players should just ignore that conversation altogether. From Al's point of view, he wasn't lying in that he never took lyrium as a Templar, but I don't believe he ever made the connection with the Joining maybe having something to do with fueling his Templar powers. Al isn't really the sharpest bulb in the crayon box, so from leaving the Chantry to joining the wardens, it could be argued that he never even had the opportunity to even attempt to use his Templar powers before taking the Joining. And after, he's already ingested lyrium along with all the other tainted co*cktail juices, so now he can use his Templar abilities afterwards.

If anything the current lore just adds another point to Alistair being a goof, hell he even tells your GW that the joining involves lyrium and other stuff, the poor lad just can't connect the dots, (of course this was all before the retcons) but we still love him all the same.

Alistair's abilities come from lyrium, not the Joining ritual. Otherwise, all 'warrior' Grey Wardens would be able to replicate his abilities, but we are only ever shown one concrete example, and it is entirely dependent on player choices, so it hardly counts for the greater membership of the order. If I can make any estimation of the lyrium in the Joining mixture, it is to slightly alter the blight connection in it, allowing for greater longevity in the new host (Grey Warden) and less likelihood of immediate death or slow wasting death in the manner of ordinary ghouls. It is not a fuel of any sort nor does it confer any special abilities on its own. The darkspawn blood is that essential ingredient, and contains its own body of abilities that may be 'unlocked' later on.

Like Silver Warden says, it's easier to just declare Alistair wrong because, functionally speaking, he has the weight of the whole rest of the series against his incredibly subjective word. Frankly, it's a conversation that, as far as we players and the general writing should be concerned, should be retroactively stricken from the record; i.e. it doesn't happen, or its contents are now acknowledged as false.