So, I've done a couple of threads like this in the past, where I'm just looking for ideas, or for people to poke holes in the ideas I have, and this is more of the same.

What I'm not looking to do: Just have Harry be another of the Warden's companion for a canon rehash. I started a story like that awhile back and at the moment that's not what I'm looking to do (which may come as a surprise to some).

Things to consider: I definitely want this to start in Dragon Age: Origins. It's the best of the series by far, and the one I'm most familiar with. Depending on how things go, this could span all 3 games. Also, Morrigan is <3

Getting Harry to any world is always tricky, but I figure there's no reason to re-invent the wheel when both universes have a built in mechanic, so might as well just go for the generic, easy route with Death Arch -> Eluvian. So, I figure the intro would be something short like :

[line break]

Empty. Empty… and cold. The voices from the Arch called out to him as he gazed at it, devoid of all emotion. A light veil hung from it, lightly blowing in the unseen wind. A voice, a very human voice, called out from beside him.

“And so it is, Harry Potter, that we do sentence you to death. If you have any last words, now is the time to say it.”

The man behind those words was fat and balding, wearing a set of red robes that threatened to burst with every breath. How that man had managed to become the head of the Aurors, Harry had no idea.

As for last words, Harry had little to say. He glanced down at his wrists, which were bound with ethereal steel. The manacles glinted unnatural in the dim torchlight, hinting at their true nature. He was naked as well, and quite undignifiedly so. The Ministry were not taking any risks in regards to him.

“There will be a reckoning,” Harry said slowly as he carefully looked around. Everyone was robbed with hoods drawn. None of their faces were visible, but he could make some pretty good guesses. “My death will not signify the end of an era. It will signify the beginning of a new one, where people will be held accountable for their actions. You will not win.”

The fat head-Auror snorted, and then with a laugh, he shoved Harry into the gate. “Goodbye, Mr. Potter.”

Harry was hurled forward and he accepted his fate. Dumbledore had once said that death was but the next greatest adventure. Harry had always felt like he had been living on borrowed time, and now payment was due. He closed his eyes as he fell through the veil.

His body did not come out the other side.

[line break]

The trick with any crossover is to not break the story. Unless that's what your goal is. That's not my goal. Harry apparating all across Ferelden slaughtering the Darkspawn wholesale with Fiendfyre is not my idea of good worldbuilding. There's got to be a process to things. Not to mention, Ferelden is a high-magic universe.

Anyways, the little scene above that I wrote in 5 minutes is meant to have Harry start on uneven footing. The idea is that those manacles are binding his magic, so he'd have to find a way to get them taken off. He's also naked, so he wouldn't have a wand. All of this is typical, arbitrary stuff, just to make sure the entire world doesn't get turned on its head from the get-go. Some people like that sort of story, I don't. I also know there's people who don't like taking away Harry's wand as a method of decreasing his power in crossover.

However, I see both of these things a temporary measures. Just plot threads for the first few chapters. Like, if Harry was an animagus (and he probably will be) then those manacles would ensure he can't transform. So, he'll need to find a blacksmith to take off the shackles. And in doing so, perhaps the blacksmith has a hunch that Harry is an apostate, so now Harry is on the run from the local templars for something he doesn't understand. Perhaps quite literally, since their might be a language barrier - (side note, I have often expressed my hate at the language barrier trope in pretty much every story of this type. I really hate having to sidetrack a story for weeks/months for a character to arbitrarily learn a new language.) And then getting a wand, well, that's not impossible. Shouldn't be much of an issue once he sets his mind to it.

But first, there's the one question - where exactly does Harry appear in the world? He pops out of an Eluvian somewhere, and can't get back through it for whatever reason (destroyed or whatever). I don't want to just place him during the Eluvian that appears in the one origin story, so my thought is to just put one wherever, since there's tons of these things hidden away and lost, or just outright destroyed. But where is the big question.

My initial thought is to have him appear somewhere in the Korcari wilds. Morrigan sees him, and follows him while he slowly finds his way out of the forest and makes his way to a village (Lothering is the closest one, but I would rather make one up). She then saves him from the Templars at the last minute or something like that. I have (at least) two concerns with that. First, is I'm not sure how early on I want to introduce Morrigan. One one hand, it's a bit blunt with the eventually pairing, if she's just introduced immediately. But on the other hand, Morrigan is easily the best character in the series and giving her a lot of screen time isn't the worst thing. The second issue is the timing of everything. Would it be after the battle of Ostagar, with the woods teeming with Darkspawn, or before? After would be interesting, since it would mean that Morrigan didn't leave the forest with the Warden (perhaps due to Alastair). Before would mean that the battle of Ostagar hadn't yet happened, and perhaps the threat of the Blight isn't completely widespread yet.

Honestly, I'm not sure I like either option. I don't want it to turn into a canon rehash straight from the start, even if the story ends up having little to do with the Warden. So I'm thinking a take a small cue from the story I wrote previously, and have Harry arrive some time (months-years) before the start of the game. Enough time for Harry to get his shit together and maybe get a feel for the world at large. Have him escape off to the Tevinter Imperium for a bit before heading back to Ferelden when he hears of the Blight. Then at some point he can come across Morrigan and do whatever. Revolution, burn down the Circle Tower and open up their own Apostate safe haven or whatever.

So I guess I'm just looking for random ideas and suggestions.

 

My favourite character in the universe comes from the least popular game (and as a story/characters person, my favs are 3 > 2 > 1. I know that's unpopular), Isabela.

If you don't want a canon rehash, want to write a Harry in Ferelden story yet still give him reason to tangle with the games' plots, why not have him be a member of Isabela's crew? You seem to be set on Morrigan, so that probably won't fly. I'm also biased towards Isabela and anything that has to do with Pirates, so there's that too, lol.

 

I'm indifferent on Isabela. I like pirates, but I just don't think she's that interesting. I'm not against not using Morrigan, but in that case, Leliana or the Warden would be next in line. Of course, I'm not writing a story just for the pairing, but Morrigan's just too interesting to not use, especially given the whole Apostate mage thing and Harry not being connected to the Fade like other mages.

 

Interesting premise, why not have Harry pop out either in the Dragon Bone wastes which is in the Dragon Bone wastes in northern Fereldan, or he could pop out in Orlais. I like Orlais because it has a eluvian network thats in place but mostly deactive and its a Chantry hot spot so a much bigger faith population and more likely to call up the Templars since the White Spire in Val Royeaux is one of the larger circles, plus its home of the Seekers of Truth. Harry shows up could get by on bastardized french Templars are called eventually so he flees to somewhere he thinks Orlesians will never go, the backwater land of the Dog Lords, Ferledan. Once he gets there lo and behold they speak a variant of English so Harry could communicate but be like a US English speaker dropped in Australia, can communicate most but get hung up on local slang and culture references.

 

I'm not against Orlais. I'm not too concerned with language details either. It seems to come up in every other fic that I write, and I mostly just handwave it away for sake of story telling. I just find that using "Harry learning the language" as a plot point, even just a bullet point, is pretty boring. I'm not against doing it, but it's not high on my priorities in figuring out how to do it.

As for templars, I am on the fence about them at all. Harry being identified as an apostate and being hunted by templars could be an interesting plot point.... but I've literally already done that in one of my stories last year, where Harry timetravels to the founder's era and gets persecuted by them. It is one way to keep Harry moving though and to get him where he is needed plotwise.

Regardless of what happens, the first chapter definitely has to be a survival chapter. Harry finds himself in a strange new world, with nothing to his name.

Second chapter probably deals with getting the manacles off. Storming into the middle of a village naked and with wrist manacles is likely to raise a lot of eyebrows.

Third chapter is getting himself a wand. As usual in this type of story, Harry shouldn't be completely defenseless without a wand. I kind of like the idea of him being a Grim animagus like Sirius (which also brings up the possible plot point of Sirius being somewhere in this world as well, but I'm not really a fan of that plot point, as it almost universally tanks a fic's quality)

Then, at some point, Harry has to run across someone from the chantry, or someone who is suspicious of Harry's nature. Because up until a point, Harry won't be using any magic at all, so the only suspicious part is him being in shackles.

 

He needs a goal beyond survive. Is this the harry saves people thing? If so will he latch onto morrigan and try to save her from her mom/past? Will he focus that to the entire world and do anti blight stuff?
Or is it the Harry, Avatar of vengeance, where he goes after the template and blows off the blight. Or maybe he sees the fade and mages as scary and joins the Templars as a Not!mage that brother gentivi finds or Cullen or whoever.

 

Harry has a strong sense of justice so he will come into conflict with the Templars and the Chantry. Very easy for him to draw parallels between them and the witch hunts of the Church, only the Chantry was/is successful. I would start the story in media res, with Harry freeing a mage on their way to the Tower/hitting a lyrium shipment/drawing a giant dick on the Tower/etc. Or you could start things with a meeting between people in power discussing the menace that Harry is/has been in hitting the Templars.

With Harry muddying the waters between the Mages and Templars, it's likely that their contribution to the defence of Feralden will be lessened (not like the Templars did fuck all anyway). With a weaker defence, you've got cause to slip Harry into things without turning it into a stomp. To be fair, things should still be a stomp with a HPverse wizard, but in this scenario you can do things like Harry animating/transfiguring a golem army without losing narrative tension by having the the Warden with all their forces that we know were successful in canon on top of that.

Also, Morrigan will see his unique abilities and be all over that dick, in an attempt to buff her Old God Baby even further if nothing else.

 

I think the most important question to ask is what type of Harry you intent to write. Your short intro suggests a darker, more jaded version of him in which case it might make sense to go for a more conflict driven and action oriented setup. But I have to admit that I personally have grown a bit tried of that approach and tend to a prefer a more light hearted, adventure oriented Harry with a less fatalistic worldview. Though there is something to be said for going the Shadow of Angmar route and start the story with him escaping, or perhaps getting recruited by the Wardens, from the Chantry/Circles/Coven of evil mages after months if not years of torture and experimentation.

Or if you want to do something really different have him end up at the royal court in Ferelden and explore the events of DA:O from that perspective (or maybe have him even end up as an ally/friend with Loghan...).

Eh, you could easily muddle the situation or even have him work with for example the Templars or the Seekers of Truth (the later being perhaps a better choice, especially if you with a Orlais start) if for example Harrys first encounter with a magic user is somebody like an apostate/blood mage or even if you with a "slower" start and have him live in a decidedly pro-Chantry village or the like for some time and getting told all those horror stories of mages and demons.

 

I like the parallels between Harry getting sentenced in his own world (for something he didn't do/political reasons) and then in the new world nearly having the same thing happen again from the templars or whoever.

So, in that sense, he'd likely be against muggles killing off magic users, even knowing the "reasoning" behind it. That would be some motivation, going forward, especially when he meets an apostate like Morrigan. He would definitely find it hard to work within the system.

 

I've been tinkering with a few ideas, and it seems like all roads just keep leading towards the same solution: the Wardens. Like, it's real easy to have Harry on the verge of execution by the templars, only for Duncan to walk up and give him a choice, join or die. And if death is chosen, then Duncan just invokes the Right of Conscription.

Funny, how that's pretty much how half of the Origin stories start.

It's pretty much the low hanging fruit of story starts. But I guess there's a reason for that. It's not a huge issue, since I like Duncan quite a lot as a character, but I don't want Harry as a Warden. So I guess Harry would go through with the whole thing up until the point where it's revealed he has to drink demon blood, and then he peaces out. Duncan would try and kill him to keep the secret (as he does in canon) but Harry would be able to get away easily once he has access to his magic.

I don't mind it, but I was really hoping I could come up with something that's a bit more unique, or intriguing. There's just not really enough toggles and dials to tinker with to differentiate it from a canon rehash other than to have it earlier than the siege of ostagar. But there's barely any HP/DA crossovers so maybe it'll be fine.

 

Would Harry be in Alistair's group of initiates or the DA:O group? I don't think Duncan conscripting Harry is a bad way to start the story, but I do think it would be more interesting if Harry doesn't get dropped in right at the start of DA:O. Alistair became a warden about a year before the start of the game.

 

I was thinking it would be before Alistair becomes a Warden. IIRC he's only a Warden for 6 months before the events at Ostagar. I don't want Harry to actually become a Warden, but I think the days/weeks before the joining could be a decent way for Harry to learn a bit about the world. And then there would be some amount of time between him escaping and then Ostagar. Though I suppose he could actually be intended for a joining after Alistair's as well, but I have it in my mind that I don't want him to be the same one as the Warden's (though I don't think we know how many joinings take place between Alistair's and the Warden's).

One small benefit would be a side-adventure where Harry and Duncan have to procure some darkspawn blood. TBH I'm not sure where they would do that before the Fifth Blight is fully underway - perhaps the deep roads?

 

The thing I always ask myself if you want a crossover with Harry Potter why take away his wand and or magic initially?
So if I understood it right you want to send him to ferelden with his magic bound by manacles, but then also found by Templers and treated as an apostate? How do they know that he is a mage if his magic is bound? He has no connection to the fade, which every other mage in Ferelden uses. And if his magic is not bound how would they catch him? The Templars only can manage the mages who have literally no idea or training to know what they are doing in dragon age. Look at Morrigan, your Harry should be at least as good as her with Magic (He can propably do a lot more than Morrigan) and she literally killed them by the dozens since she was what 10 or 12 and laughs about it when asked.

The main problem of this story is in my opinion how does the Harry Potter Magic interact with the Ferelden Magic and what kind of powerlevel do you want to give magic in general. Since in the game mages were really weak compared to what is stated in the lore, with mages being army killers there, while every one can resist a fireball to the face in the game. Then you have to ask yourself is Ferelden using the same magic as the Hp Universe? If not can Harry learn the Ferelden Magic or wise versa? Remember if it is not the same, which from what I remember of the game and lore it shouldn't be, and Harry starts without a wand he can literally do nothing from his normal magic and being incapable of creating a new wand never will, and if so why are you writing a crossover with Harry Potter?

You stated in the beginning that you don't want here apparating around and killing the darkspawn by the hundreds, but that is exactly what his magic should be capable of. I never understood why many fanfictions use Fiendfire to kill stuff like undead or ships when normal fire would do the job equally good. I mean that stuff can burn souls, so maybe use it against the magic immune/resitant monser or the heavily warded hideout, but against a few undead? Even in the Dragon Age Lore are wizards capable of killing darkspawn by the hundreds. But the thing is there are also Darkspawn mages and most of their troops are underground. So Harry would first need to find them and even then fighting an army supported by mages alone is a bad idea. How many darkspawn attacked in the first game? A hundered thousand or more? So what does it matter on that scale that Harry can kill hundreds or thousands? They are still outnumbered quite badly.

You said you don't wanna repeat canon steps or similar things, then ask yourself the question do you need a greywarden with Harry at all? Since Hp magic is capable of soul killing things there are now alternatives to the possible ends in Dragon age 1. For a start take for example Redcliff. Harry found the village shortly before the undead start attacking, what would or can he do? Or he found the elves being attacked by Werwolfs and decided to help. You could have him stumble about nearly every main quest in the game and have him decide to help and over the course of the quest maybe meet the main cast and/or Morrigan and take things from there.

I would not start with the beginning of Harry being sentenced to death, if you do not want to go full AU in your Harry Potter world and thereby invalidating most of our knowledge about that setting. I mean when in canon did the Ministry ever dare to challenge a powerfull wizard? That is the whole reason they did so little against Voldemort in the first place. And how the seventh book ended there is little chance of your outcome happening. So you would need to change Harrys whole backstory, how the war went and so on for your opening to make sense. Then what about Harrys friends are they all dead? Does Harry want to go back and change things? The start you want to use here creates alot more problems than it solves in my opinion. You could always use interuppted ritual gone wrong or an accident or something like that without having to write a massiv Au about the last years in the wizard world. I would likewise not have him arrive years before canon starts, because the ripples he causes by then will be simply to great, since I cannot see him accepting the main status quo in most lands, so you would need a reason again why he didn't do anything for all that time.

And think about Hp magic and its power like this. Even if Harry could kill the whole army of Darkspawn and their Dragon, what would that mean? What would that change? As far as I can see Harry got never good enough with authority, that he would accept the chantry reign over mages or let himself be locked in the mage circle. He doesn't even have a personal connection to the fade so what could that do to him anyway. What I am trying to say is the more powerfull Harry is the more the conflict gets shifted from only against the darkspawn, to against the chantry, Loghain, or maybe the Greywarden himself. And also the more powefull Harry is compared to Ferelden the more interesting become the ripples he causes and how other factions react to him. He could break the hold of the Chantry and Templars on the Cycle if he wanted and then you write about how that changes the world, or what religious wars follow this. It was after all an option at the end of the first Dragon Age Game.

Another thing you have to think about is your pairing. What likes Harry about Morrigan and who did they meet or why did they click? What do they see in each other? Would Morrigan still want to try to create her baby out of the soul of the Dark god if she knew Harry Potter magic was heritable? What would they do together and what goals do the have? Does Harry want to return to his own world?

Edit: Also how and why can Harry speak the language and if not how does he get around that?

These are the main tough points I could think of for your crossover idea, hope that helps.

 

I read through what you just said, and I honestly feel like you didn't read anything I wrote. You kind of just spitballed the same things I pointed out right back at me. But that's fine. I don't mind repeating myself.

1) I don't want a super!Harry. No MoD or anything like that. It's so boring.

2) Trying to have two different magic systems co-exists never works. It's perhaps the biggest downfall of the Denarian Trilogy.

3) Restricting Harry's magic. Like I said in the first post, I don't like it. Might or might not be necessary, depending on the narrative I'm trying to tell. Nothing is set in stone yet.

4) Language barrier. Again, Like I said in the first post (and plenty of my other story threads), I don't like it. The whole point of telling a story is to tell the story, and you can't do that if characters can do nothing but mime and point to try and communicate with each other.

5) Templars. Second post. I say the Templar identify Harry as an Apostate. The how's and why's are up to interpretation. This thread obviously isn't a detail by detail outline of everything I'm looking to write. Connecting the dots is something that comes with time.

6) I don't know why you'd think I'd have to go full AU in the HP world at all. Really doesn't matter though since the reader can fill in whatever blanks they want.

Anyways... Like I said, these are just ideas. I definitely don't believe there's only one way to write a story. I know plenty of people think it's impossible to mesh two magical systems together, or that Harry's only course of action is to slaughter battalions of soldiers by himself and solve all of the worlds problems singlehandedly. Like, it doesn't even matter. It's first and foremost about the characters and the world, that's why the game itself is so highly regarded. And you're right. Nothing would change if Harry did all that. The dragon gets defeated in canon without Harry. But when you go down that line of thinking, why even bother with a crossover? So when you ask why involve the wardens at all, the answer is simply because I think it could be a cool narrative, and Duncan is a great character. That doesn't mean that's what is going to happen though. I could still very well ultimately just have Harry fall out of an Eluvian with the Elder Wand and just start a harem while easily dismantling every political situation with my ability to navigate the Dragon Age wikipedia and inundate the story with foreknowledge.

 

Have you thought about involving Harry with the plot of the Gods? Dragon Age's lore is rich in that aspect. From the Fade to the Black City. It's all about them. We know Inquisition happens because Fen'harrel woke up, but what if he had taken action earlier? Perhaps sending Harry to Ferelden himself as some sort of champion? Or simply as a pawn, manipulating him from the shadows. You could end up with a totally different plot for the three games if you consider the ripples.

 

I don't say you have to write a super Harry or something you just have to think about the things he easily does in canon and how they would interact with your plot. For example for the main part in book seven they cast wards over their tent at night with things like muggle repelling charms and other charms that other wizards could not find them. Ron himself could not find them again when he knew where they should be, so could anybody in Ferelden find Harry if he doesn't want to be found?

To the two magic systems thats one of the main problems with crossovers. But would saying they are one and the same work better? Or would your idea go along the lines that mages in Ferelden just have way less knowledge than the wizards in England? If yes could Harry teach some of that to Morrigan? Again this might not be your focus or interest and you might Handwave this point completly, it is just something that I always look out for in crossovers.

And what I meant with the dragon and its defeat, in canon it was stated that it only can be destroyed, if a grey warden absorbs it soul and both get destroyed, or if Morrigan creates here completely normal child out of it. But here was my Idea could Harry destroy the Dragon and its Soul without any of those requirements? Would means that destroy Horcruxes work and if yes how does this change the story?

And all that was more to the point of your idea of having Duncan save Harry from execution, because if he has a Wand he would aquire how you stated, who could even try to do that? Between teleportation, mind magic, muggle repelling charms and similar things how would they capture him, try to excecute him, or do they simply find him while still in manacles? And that is without stuff like master of death or super Harry. On a similar not what was your idea of the origin of the wand? Since as far as I know no mage ever used somthing other than a staff in Dragon Age? And if they have does this means they have the same Magic and Harry now also has a connection to the fade? And while you can of course Handwave stuff like that or how the Templars recognize him as an apostle, its one of the things that greatly interest me in crossover how the different setting actually interact.

You can also of course handwave the language or say he knows a translating charm, but again it can be an interesting point how and why he understands the locals and if yes which since there are more than ten languages or so in Dragon Age.

To the last point with nothing changing if Harry is that powerful that was not what I meant. It was more in the direction, what new problems does so much power create in the hands of an outsider and a mage? Does the chantry try to act against him before the blight is over? If they notice what he can do with minds, do his new friends an companions begin to question themselves if they follow him out of their free will? How do Loghain or the Earl react? What about the other factions? What would they want with power like that and what does Harry want? You can become King after all in Dragon Age, but what new problems does something like that create? These were just some Idea how to make the story about other things than power, since the actual strength of the darkspawn is quite unclear. And more along the lines if wizards like Harry can kill hundreds of foot soldiers, what can the darkspawn mages do and what does this mean for the conflict?

To the thing with the Au Harry Potter world, you said Dragon Age is a great Character study with awesome characters and I fully agree. It is just your Harry will mostlikely act a little different then from canon and while of course the reader can think of all the reason himself with his imagination, I always like the reasons for the main changes, so I know where the characters starts better. That way I can follow the change in the Character from this startong point better then if I also have to imagine the whole backstory, that made him the way he is.

This is not meant as critism or that you can't write things a certain way, I have read alot of fics in many directions here, those are just questions I ask myself when I read your ideas for the story. I propably have my focus on very differnt things than what you want to tell in your crossover, it is just those were the questions I asked myself when I read your ideas and posts.

 

It's been quite a long time since I played DA, so my memory of lore might not be lacking, at best. But some thoughts I've had since I first saw your thread:

Lyrium kills mages on contact, and I thought that a processed version could inhibit magic use - I'm sure I remember lyrium cuffs, although that could be from a fic, or just plain wrong.

So you could have Harry appear, without his wand, and be found by the Templars. They see him do some minor wandless magic - a minor banishing charm, or cleaning the mud off his robes, or something. A small utility.

They bring him in as they think he is an apostate, and find out he doesn't react as mages normally do to lyrium - it inhibits his ability to use magic at all, but he reacts to it more like a normal human, in that it causes severe damage. Have this come out during a trial, in a reflection of the original trial, except when it comes out that he might not be an apostate, the court listens, and withholds a verdict for a short period. After all, mages who don't run the risk of being corrupted by the denizens of the Fade would be a valuable commodity.

If you're doing a trial scene with the Templars, have two other Mages go first - the first one dies to the lyrium, the second one is already possessed, and tries to murder everyone. Harry gets a front-row seat to it being put down.

You've said you don't want two completely different uses of magic, so maybe have the mages of the two worlds use the Fade differently. DA Mages pull the power directly from the Fade, HP Wizards refine the Fade through their soul (or something) first. It's why Mages have a mana pool - they drain the Fade in the area 'around' them, whereas Wizards pull from the Fade overall. Or something. Or maybe simply because he can only cast small spells, they're only as ripples amongst the larger waves of the Warp, and so go almost unnoticed.

So the Templars explain this to Harry - the risks of demonic incursion, why magic is so restricted, and ask his help. They won't need to kill mages if he can teach them how to use magic safely. But he can't teach much, or many people, or some other limiting factor.

And if all this is happening a few years before the first game, you can set it amongst the war the Ferelden Revolt, and have Harry apparate out, something he'd never told them he could do, back to the spot he first landed, as it's the only other place he can clearly visualise. And from there, escapes into the fens...

 

I have put a decent amount of thought into Lyrium. Its processed form is what is useful, and it's used by both mages and templars. My thought isn't to just have it some completely binary substance, like having raw Lyrium just kill a mage 100% of the time, regardless of how powerful the mage is - it's not the killing curse. On the other hand, I don't want to make it so Harry is some special snowflake and is simply immune to the effects and goes about his day snorting lines of Lyrium.

I had two ideas for how the Templar discover Harry who has his magic arbitrarily restrained. The first was the manacles themselves that were restraining him, which would be magical. Wouldn't need magical restraints except for someone who is magical, so that would mean Apostate. Or at least, that's the conclusion the Templar would reach. Alternatively, a Templar's daily lyrium intake would simply let them be more attuned to magical forces, and they would simply be able to detect a mage, regardless of whether or not he was bound like Harry was.

 

I've worked on this a bit more and I'm still stumped. I've tried 5 or 6 different starts and nothing is really working for me. I've tried different arrival scenes in various locations, some with his full power, some without, I've tried him in midst of researching, I've started him in Tevinter, but nothing is really catching my attention. The only one that I think could get some traction is just having him start in the korcari wilds, but that just feels so lazy. So, that kinda just leaves some non-darkspawn related action scene elsewhere that somehow ties in with the story. Being attacked by another apostate who wants his knowledge can work, but I'm just not sure where it leads other than marking off the checkbox that says "no exposition in the prologue"

 

Have him start in the Fade?

It would be a good cross over point between HP world and Dragon Age. It would also be an interesting start as Harry would be physically in the Fade, which is only mentioned in Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition (I believe). He could run into the heroes when they are mentally in the Fade and help them out.

Eventually he could find the Mirrors, and is able to escape into the real world. Perhaps it is in the Fade he loses the Elder wand (but maintains his own), and something or someone picks it up and it works for them. It may be a way to create a big-bad that can magically be similar to Harry.

Without creating a creature that can use HP Magic, I don't see how HP doesn't end up extremely overpowered. Apparition alone will be game changing.