atiya-nagrano:

i do think you can interpret the warden as having been deliberately sabotaged in being made warden-commander (and that is my interpretation). they’ve been warden for a year. they’ve met a grand total of 3 wardens, possibly adding avernus if you do soldier’s keep. they’ve been given shall we say a rudimentary overview of what being a warden entails. at least one big reveal is locked behind the alistair romance. none of the origins except maybe but quite-frankly-not-rly aeducan and cousland are well equipped to handling a territory as large as amaranthine pulling double duty as arl/essa and warden-commander. warden-commander for all of ferelden, when duncan seemed to kind of just be freelancing it.

weisshaupt is reluctant to send more than riordan after having a bunch of wardens turned away. they’re all of a sudden v confident abt filling vigil’s keep w orlesian wardens in a way that’s weird even taking into account loghain being out of the picture. even if the darkspawn hadn’t slaughtered anybody, that’s kind of provocative! that’s kind of a huge mess for the new fereldan commander of the grey to manage! and if your hof dies, then they just straight up send an orlesian to be commander! this is bad diplomacy even if the wardens and ferelden have historically been on good terms, which they have not!

but then everybody gets slaughtered DAY ONE and…………….no reinforcements are sent? it’s just ‘well you better recruit some more!“ the first warden sends woolsey DIRECTLY, and she is, as far as i can tell, just sort of there to manage money and observe how the wardens having legitimized control over an arling impacts their influence. i think she’s also reporting back, tho this is conjecture on my part. her presence is bizarre, esp given that varel is local, gable has been working in the area for a while, and garevel is ambiguous but at least willing to go toe to toe w woolsey.

i think, esp in a worldstate where the warden-commander is the surviving hof, that weisshaupt makes them warden-commander with the intention of forcing them to either resign in disgrace or otherwise be removed. humble the person who survived the unsurvivable! ensure their legacy crumbles before it has time to set! make them inconsequential so that all the other wardens aren’t asking 'well how’d THEY survive. it’s possible to survive killing the archdemon??’ i think weisshaupt isn’t interested in curing anybody but they certainly have huge archives and resources with which to conduct that kind of research. but curing the taint does create a scenario where wardens could just up and leave, and that weakens warden power.

a surviving hof warden-commander starts performing joinings straight away. they potentially don’t know wardens are infertile. they’ve had zero training. AND they’re expected to balance the needs of a hard-hit arling as well as building the fereldan branch of the order from the ground up. if i am the warden i’m going hey it kind of seems like i’m being set up to fail.