in the early game before the inquisition is founded, haven is your base
skyhold is rundown at first and needs fixed up

areas of the castle become available as they clear our the rubble. over time as the inquisition grows skyhold improves
there are soldiers on patrol, support staff and merchants

castle layout is standard but you make decisions regarding decor and renovations

decide if a tower being rebuilt is for templars or mages

dalish inquisitor can furnish the castle with dalish woodcarving

different thrones, decorations, heralds, banners, carpentry, symbology

castle appearance customization doesn’t affect inquisitor’s stats so as not to affect your gameplay

some operations that you send agents on can take a day real-time or more

some are multi-part affairs that require input from the inquisitor on how situations should be resolved once the dust settles
allies all find their own corners and make themselves at home. see their spaces become theirs as they personalize them.

leliana in the rookery

sera at the bar

dorian has a massive leather-backed chair

dis whole quote ““A lot of our fans missed the ability to interact with their party members and close friends, and just say ‘Hi, how are you?’ like in Origins,” Laidlaw says. “Many of them will be delighted to know that that is back, full force, in Skyhold. You walk up, ‘Hey Varric, how’s things? Tell me about Kirkwall.’ Getting a sense of their character, digging in. You can just go, ‘Plant one on me,’ which is pretty satisfying in a weird way.” In some cases, your main avenue to interact with your romantic interest is also at Skyhold. Your advisors Cullen and Josephine don’t travel with you as fighting companions, but they are still potential love interests. How you use your time at Skyhold with them can shape the direction your relationship takes.”

hold court and judge characters that come before you, depending on what you do. these scenarios are deliberatey crafted and not arbitary
the hand of korth’s father turns up and starts slapping ur walls with a dead goat
you can handle this a variety of ways presumably one of these is laughing at him. you can make him an ambassador
"One that I enjoy is a character who, over the course of the game and depending on what you do, it’s possible to almost talk them down rather than going into direct conflict,” Laidlaw says. “Sort of a social victory. I don’t want to into details as to how, but that character is then brought to you for trial. In terms of consequences, that character has a ton of information and could end up working with your spies, making them globally more effective"
or sentence them to be your court jester

you can exile, execute and in one case sentence a mage to tranquility
seriously just read the article