Foreshadowing / Dragon Age II

• A component Anders needs for the ritual to separate himself from Justice is called sela petrae, and can be found growing on sewage. A chemistry student begins to recognize saltpeter, which fits. The ritual isn't a removal. It's a bomb. Another component, drakestone, is most likely sulfur.
  • Another thing to note is that after you've distracted the Grand Cleric of the Chantry, at the end of the quest, she notices a troubled Anders and hopes that his visit to the Chantry has given his soul a "balm."
  • In that same vein, at the beginning of the Justice quest, it's possible to ask Anders about the components of his potion. At one point he says "just mix the ingredients together and boom... Justice and I are free."
  • Anders actually received some foreshadowing for this during his first appearance in Awakening regarding the same event. When you are in the Silverite Mines and see some darkspawn underneath a religious statue which can be destroyed with a ballista, Anders cheerfully remarks, "I'm always up for a bit of iconoclasm." Considering that Awakening was being written at the same time that Dragon Age II was being planned, this is probably no accident. (One imagines the writers snickering evilly.)
• The loading screen for the Templar's hall is a graphic of Meredith being consumed by darkness. The previously warm color scheme now swamped with black makes her eyes glow red, much like in the end battle.
  • Offhand comments that Knight-Commander Meredith became significantly more reclusive and fanatical right around the time you lost track of the Obviously Evil red glowy Artifact of Doom should set off every alarm bell in the savvy player's head.
  • In Varric's Act 2 companion quest "Family Matters," Bartrand reveals that he sold the idol to a woman. "She glittered like the sun, but her heart was ice." It doesn't make a lot of sense then, but once you get to know Meredith, it will.
• The banter between Sebastian and Anders contains some pretty blatant examples, most obviously the conversation Sebastian initiates discussing Anders' plans to become a martyr if he must. He also potentially approaches Hawke with his concerns about how far Anders is willing to go. He's right.
  Sebastian: Don't think he won't choose his cause over you.
• The first scene in the game has Cassandra leafing through Varric's book, which has a page with stylized portraits of most of Hawke's eventual companions. The only ones missing are the sibling (since the player has not yet gone through character creation to determine Hawke's class, and thus it's unknown which will survive) and Sebastian (since he's DLC exclusive).
• An extremely subtle one can be found in the Hanged Man as early as Act 1. Go to Varric's rooms and enter his bedroom. He's got a bed, a bookcase, and a very large piece of wall art... which seems to depict Kirkwall at the center of a stylized explosion. It's very easy to overlook, since there's absolutely no reason to go into his bedroom at any point; also, unlike most other art pieces seen in the game, it's unique and is not seen anywhere else. (It can be spotted once or twice in the next game, though.)
• Players keeping an eye out for notes find several, collectively called "The Enigma of Kirkwall," discussing oddities about the seemingly random street placements and mass human sacrifice with no appreciable gain, leading to the conclusion that someone was attempting a massive spell in the area. It's eventually revealed that the Veil in the area is so thin that demons have begun possessing Templars, mages are spontaneously turning into abominations and learning blood magic with remarkable ease, and the Qunari steadily grow more enraged despite many overtures to peace with them. It could also more readily explain why Justice was corrupted into Vengeance, since Anders was previously more concerned about escaping the Templars than fighting them. While the intention of The Plan behind the spells in Kirkwall remains unconfirmed, it has a definite effect by the game's end.
• In Act 1, during the quest "The First Sacrifice," if you choose the "Why should I care?" option when talking to Emeric about tracking down a serial killer, he comes out with this gem. Cue Act 2...

  Emeric: What if one of the women who died was someone you loved?

• If you interact with the Chanter near the Chanter's Board in Act 1, she says "And Andraste did say, 'Those who harm the house of the Maker do harm unto the Maker Himself.'" A small nod to the immense amount of harm the house of the Maker will suffer before all is said and done.
• In Act 2, you may notice a woman named Evelina standing next to Tomwise in Darktown begging for money to feed her starving children. You don't gain anything for giving her money or not. She later turns out to be a Blood Mage who is taking orphans under her care. In Act 3, she turns into an abomination, and you have no choice but to kill her.
• A little gem from some banter between Isabela and Anders:
  Isabela: You want to free the mages. Let's say you do, but to get there you kill a bunch of innocent people.
• An example that ends up straight or subverted: during Varric's exaggerated intro for a mage playthrough, Carver is wearing Grey Warden armor. While this does foreshadow a possible fate for Carver, it's not the only one, and it's the player's choices that determine whether it's accurate.
  • That's because Varric is just repeating what the rumors say. If that does happen, Cassandra says, "So the Champion's brother was a Grey Warden!", indicating that this was part of the legend.
• If Hawke's sibling is brought to the Deep Roads, then following a battle with some darkspawn during the expedition, the cutscene with Sandal will briefly show Carver/Bethany clutching their face. Later, it will become evident that Carver's/Bethany's infection with the darkspawn taint likely occurred during said battle.
• Early in Act 2, Hawke can have a conversation with their mother in which Leandra contemplates the possibility of remarrying. She makes the observation that it's "refreshing to think I could still be courted at this age." Later in the act, she receives flowers from a suitor - who turns out to be a Serial Killer, and she's his final victim.
• During the confrontation over the elf Qunari converts, the Arishok asks what Hawke would do in his place - which is how it all ends if Isabela comes back. After the Qunari leave, Meredith sees the cheering nobles and briefly gives Hawke a seriously nasty look before naming them Champion.
• When questioning Isabela over her lost ship, she mentions being run aground by the reef. A rumour at the Hanged Man mentions how the Qunari dreadnought was said to be fighting another ship before both were run aground by the reef.
• Trying to take Isabela with you whenever you enter the Qunari compound will lead to her making an excuse and running away. It's obvious that something's up but you won't find out what until the end of Act 2.
• During Varric's companion quest "Questions and Answers" early during Act 1, you can ask him what kind of person Bartrand is, and Varric tells you that he's the kind of dwarf that would sell his own mother if it would mean a better share in the lyrium market. Then, at the end of Act 1, Bartrand betrays his own brother without so much as a second thought, simply because he doesn't want to share the profits.
• At the beginning of Act 2, when Cassandra brings up Anders, Varric reminds her that he was the one who introduced him to Hawke with a hint of disgust in his voice.
• Should you encounter Leliana in Mark of the Assassin, despite the conversation being civil, Tallis nearly craps herself. This is because she's secretly a Qunari spy, and (for those who had not finished the game yet) Leliana is a Seeker/Left Hand of the Divine - in other words, just the woman sent to stop the threat of Qunari spies and invasion.
• There's also some foreshadowing for Dragon Age: Inquisition and the tie-in novel Asunder. Both the game and the book deal with the possibility that the Rite of Tranquility can be reversed by binding a spirit to a Tranquil person. Anders nearly accomplishes it in his recruitment mission, by allowing Justice to possess him while Karl is present.
  • Anders's possession by Justice/Vengeance also foreshadows the revelation in Inquisition that spirits can be corrupted into demons by the will of the person summoning them - so a benign spirit of Justice was corrupted by Anders's hatred of Templars into the demon Vengeance.
• Several for Inquisition regarding Flemeth:
  • When Flemeth is resurrected, she refers to Merrill as "one of the People," even sounding somewhat fond of her. She pointedly asks Merrill if she knows who Flemeth is beyond the title of Asha'bellenar, and remarks that the People bend their knee too easily, generally making it very clear that she is connected to the elves in some way.
  • Merrill mentions in Act 1 that most people who encounter Asha'bellenar tend to wind up in little pieces, hanging from the trees. She says in Act 3 that those who anger Mythal are erased, as if they never existed in the first place.
  • Flemeth is resurrected at the altar of Mythal on Sundermount. The third game reveals, at the very end if not sooner, that she in fact is sharing her body with that elven goddess.
• There are some hints to the true nature of Red Lyrium that gets revealed in the next game.
  • Players who completed Awakening might notice a similarity between Bartrand losing his mind, because he can no longer hear the song of the lyrium idol, and the Mother losing her mind because she can no longer hear the song of the Old Gods. It's an early hint that red lyrium is Blighted.
  • Anders generally shows the greatest aversion to the lyrium idol of Hawke's companions. He describes it as, "definitely magic, and not the good kind," when it is first discovered, and later borderline begs Hawke not to allow Varric to keep one of the idol's shards. As the only Grey Warden in the party, Anders is sensing the Blight within the lyrium.

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