Quote Originally Posted by ArcaviusGreyashe View Post
All the riftwar cycle take place in the same universe, but it is several different duologies/trilogies/quadrilogies. Some characters do appear in multiple ones, there is one character that does appear in all of them and could be considered the riftwar cycle main character, but you don't have to read the riftwar legacy to understand the serpentwar saga.
With a book series, you can be certain that the events of the other books have happened in that universe even if you haven't read them.

With this game, so far, you can be certain that your character has lived through all of the MSQ and built those relationships with any recurring characters.

The ability to create a "season two character" who hasn't actually been through any of the preceding events is horrendously messy for storytelling purposes (and what happens if the player makes use of New Game Plus), and also says that the events of the first arc don't need to have happened at all.

A skip to the start of season two, on the other hand, says "you are fast-forwarding over events that did happen, but this is a good place to pick up the story".