But that's simply not the case: at least not anymore. Yes, DA lore was constructed in a way not too different from the way TES lore is structured. Your (players) knowledge of the world must be a form of interpretation of conflicting narratives – because they’re all there is, save for a very selected range of events with which you directly interact with. Even is the latter cases though TES games used to be very careful to maintain this dubiousness surrounding what’s going on, Morrowind is the classic and best example: we do not really know what exactly happened in this game. Was the prophecy genuine or was it simply a manipulation (by Azura, Vivec, the emperor, what gives)? What really happened at the Red Mountain (a background drama which is in fact the true plot of Morrowind, you have to dig quite deep to get that though)? What’s the Heart, what’s the nature of Ur’s existence and his true goals? We will never know definite answers to these questions even though we sort of interact with these events and these people. TES games are – or, precisely, used to be – written in this way on purpose. You almost never get ‘the truth’ – you are served ‘someone’s truth’ and that’s a world of difference.
Now, DA used to be similar. DA:O has a lot of lore which is pure speculation and where you can clearly see blatant lines where propaganda of different sides intersect and fight eachother. And on top of that there are some questions which are clearly written not to have definite answers to. Who’s/what’s the Maker? What’s the Black City? What’s the deal with the darkspawn? There’s a lot of that and yes, it gives this setting quality. It enables speculation, it creates a space for creative vagueness.
Dropping of this narrative strategy is where TES and DA differ fundamentally. DA, starting from DA2 and going full on with this in DA:I, just started to straightforwardly explain the setting in most mundane, cliché and worn out way imaginable. All that is mysterious and esoteric is just normal stuff but it’s old and forgotten – that’s certified boredom, it’s the most tedious of possible narrative strategies. It’s plainly speaking not interesting. And people complain about this because series started in a different place. Better place.
