Chateau D'Onterre

I'm a big fan of horror, so one of my favorite side quests in DAI is Chateau D'Onterre in the Emerald Graves. I really wish they did more with it than just finding a Revenant in the end - it had the makings of a really good horror side plot. The notes you find almost reads like a found footage type of deal.

I find myself thinking a lot about what happened to the little girl there and the fate of the family. What do you guys think happened there? Also any headcanons, ideas, thoughts about the sidequest?

Ooooh, I love that quest! I just went through it again this week, actually!

I agree with you that the devs could have done more with it, though. The first time I played, I fully expected to end up facing the possessed little girl in the end, perhaps even interact with her (or the demon possessing her, more likely), in true horror movie fashion. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed when it was just a regular mini-boss fight.

Also, I think the atmosphere could have been even more spooky. The orphanage in DAO had ghostly voices of children echoing through the walls (and actual ghosts too iirc), which I think was pretty neat.

As for what happened, I think the d'Onterres' daughter was a mage, but instead of sending her to the Circle or find a tutor for her (like Isolde did in DAO), they kept her hidden because it would have been a disgrace on their family name. It's also heavily implied that they were physically abusive towards her (you can find a very disgusting codex entry in the library about how to prevent magic in children, which involves drowning the child almost to death!) Untrained Magic+Abuse+Loneliness=A demon taking advantage of the girl and possessing her, resulting in the death of everyone in the estate. There's also another codex entry that suggests the father had a templar from the Circle come with a mage to do something to keep his daughter trapped inside the estate (the magic box, I suspect?) and that why the demon couldn't get out.

Yep! A revenant is pretty lazy - especially since they built up to it a great deal. Some eerie voices would've definitely added to the atmosphere. Or maybe like in DA2 where a door shuts or a light turns off to amp up the whole "this place is haunted".

I agree with that! Especially the part too where she wrote in her diary that she was only allowed to speak to her nanny and how she wished she could attempt the party. She was definitely vulnerable enough for a demon to pursue.

I really wish we learned more about her. It was too interesting to keep as a small side-plot. Maybe even end up having it as war table mission at least as a continuation if you finished the quest.

Well, we do get torches lighting up on their own in the beginning and walking corpses But the fact that there are a patio and huge windows to let the daylight in does dampen the spookiness. Bioware really should have gone full horror movie on that one, especially if they were going to use the undead child trope!

I also wish we had more to go on, maybe some NPC comments about "that creepy house in the Emerald Graves" or some superstitions about the d'Onterre family, maybe even before you venture there. The small handful of codex entries we can find are enough to be intriguing, but not much else, unfortunately. And I would have loved a war table mission! I can almost imagine the agents' reactions when they return! I bet Rylen's would have been priceless!