A large piece of relatively unsettled land in southwest Ferelden, the Hinterlands were the site of my first true inquisiting. The area covers a stretch of hilly, fertile ground between the Korcari Wilds to the south and Lake Calenhad to the north. Amongst the large swaths of empty wilderness and farmland, there are several points of civilization to be found. The largest is Redcliffe castle, typically home to the local Arl, and its accompanying village. Another is the Crossroads, not to be confused with the other Crossroads, the alternate dimension you pass through when you travel via eluvian, this is just a place in the Hinterlands where some roads cross that has some people living around it. In recent years, the general area was relatively quiet compared to its surroundings, there were a few bandits and species of dangerous wildlife hiding in the hills, but nothing major. As such, many of the residents of the Hinterlands were those who had fled the troubles in Redcliffe looking for a spot of peace and quiet in the countryside. As you may have guessed by the fact that I had inquisiting to do there, that didn’t last. After they rejected the Circles, the rebel mages were given sanctuary in Ferelden by King Alistair and Queen Anora, only to have the Templars, who had by then left the Chantry, follow them. When I arrived in the Hinterlands, it was a battleground. Many of the mages and Templars were killing each other with no regard for collateral damage, several Fade rifts had opened and demons were spilling out, bandits and the Carta were taking advantage of the chaos, and there was a seemingly infinite supply of bears roaming the countryside. There were almost too many things to inquisit there, you could have driven yourself insane trying to solve all of the problems in one go. Fortunately, the Inquisition was able to persist and stabilize the region, bringing a relative calm back to the Hinterlands.