A massive desert in southwest Orlais, the Western Approach is a wasteland full of ruins that needed inquisiting. The place wasn’t always a barren pile of sand, however. It used to look a lot like the rest of southern Orlais, apparently, with lots of plants and trees and fully intact buildings. And then, over 800 years ago, the darkspawn happened. The Western Approach was hit hard by the Second Blight thanks to the darkspawn swarming out of a nearby canyon, the Abyssal Rift (sometimes incorrectly called the Abyssal Reach), and wreaking havoc. The land itself was corrupted by the taint, and centuries later it is still a miserable wasteland home to only the hardiest forms of life, most of them poisonous. The entire region is littered with the ruins of ancient buildings that are slowly being taken by the sand. The Inquisition was interested in the area because the Venatori were interested in the area. Corypheus had sent his Tevinter minions there to investigate several of the old sites and we moved in to deny them those opportunities. It was also the place where we discovered what was really happening with the Grey Wardens, as we found Erimond leading the Warden mages in Cory’s demon-binding scheme there. One of the few structures still standing in the area was the nearby Warden stronghold of Adamant Fortress, which the Inquisition had to storm in order to stop all of their nonsense. Even with all of its interesting history, the Western Approach was an annoying place to inquisit, despite the ample supply of RaMOs. Deserts are generally unpleasant places, and knowing it shouldn’t even be one apparently makes it worse, another of the odd things I learned while inquisiting. Its best function is as a warning to the world that the darkspawn are a threat to literally everything they touch, even the ground they walk on.