Early Taliesin and Instant Zevran

This mod allows you to encounter Taliesin before the Landsmeet, and recruit Zevran immediately after Lothering.

How is Taliesin encountered now?

Particularly for players romancing Zevran, Taliesin's encounter only being unlocked so late in the game results in some odd pacing. As Taliesin must be confronted before Zevran's final coversations will trigger -- including his final romance dialogues -- you often end up having to delay the endgame just to wander aimlessly on the world map so you can see his full romance arc/hear all his conversations.

With this mod, Taliesin will appear as a random encounter in Denerim after completing any two of the following:

• []Resolving the situation with Connor in Redcliffe (if you went to get the Circle's help, you must have come back and finished saving Connor)

  []A Paragon of Her Kind

  []Nature of the Beast

  []Broken Circle

  []The Urn of Sacred Ashes

  Ideally, you should unlock the Taliesin encounter around the same time you get Alistair and Leiliana's personal quests, which involve heading to Denerim anyway.

  How much earlier can Zevran be recruited?

  Immediately after leaving Lothering. The exact sequence of events is:

  • []You'll get the first cutscene with Loghain after leaving Flemeth's Hut (vanilla behavior)

    []After leaving Lothering, the second Loghain cutscene will play, followed immediately by the nightmare of the archdemon and the conversation at camp with Alistair about it

    []As you leave camp for your first destination, the Zevran encounter will trigger

    How is this different from ZevranASAP?

    ZevranASAP plays the two Loghain cutscenes back-to-back after leaving Flemeth's Hut. This mod spaces them out so the second one plays after leaving Lothering. The time at which you actually encounter (and recruit) Zevran is exactly the same: while en route to your first destination after Lothering. ZevranASAP also does not include any changes to Taliesin's timing, but this mod does.

    Can this be installed on an existing save?

    It sure can! If you've already left Lothering and had the archdemon nightmare, the second Loghain cutscene will just trigger the next time you travel on the world map, even if you haven't finished any main quests yet. Then you'll just have to travel on the world map one more time to encounter Zevran.

    If you've already recruited Zevran, the Taliesin encounter will trigger the next time you travel on Denerim's map if two or more of the above five quests have been completed.

    Can I use this and ZevranASAP at the same time?

    No. You have to pick one. Sorry.