Let's assume that Celene believes (and this is a HUGE assumption, considering the time spans involved, etc.):
1) There is a true Blight going on in Ferelden 2) The Blight will utterly destroy everything that it touches for the rest of anyone's conceivable life
Then why risk her own army to defend Ferelden? (With really, nothing to gain if we're assuming that she's not planning an invasion). From the map, Ferelden looks like it's a reasonable distance from Orlais...why not wait until they get closer to do something? Or, again, wait until the Fereldans have taken the worst of the Blight, then deal with it on their soil (with the idea that you can swoop in and rebuild later)?
And that's assuming that we all know that Blights = total ruin. Which I'm going to guess Celene doesn't know for sure, and may or may not be willing to risk. Even if refugees are pouring in, she has to be canny enough to not believe every word they say. (And I find it hard to believe that the Blight totally destroys everything. If it does, Ferelden post game is totally screwed as it's lost a huge percentage of its land.)
I also argue with the idea that "manpower deficit" would be considered a problem in Thedas. Up until the modern era, life was cheap. Honestly, most peasants would probably love to be able to get a lot of free land with no pesky inhabitants. (Heck, this is why the Americas were settled - free land is attractive, even if it is swarming with diseases and often hostile natives - at least if you're an impoverished peasant.) I can see a bunch of empty land with no infrastructure as a great opportunity for Celene. Dump a bunch of the irritating peasants and second sons into it, if they starve, bring over more. If they thrive, yay, more country under your command without having to deal with a pesky other group of people. It seems rather win-win if there's any value to the land at all.
...and, you know, even if the land is a barren wasteland...Australia, anyone?
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1) There is a true Blight going on in Ferelden
2) The Blight will utterly destroy everything that it touches for the rest of anyone's conceivable life
Then why risk her own army to defend Ferelden? (With really, nothing to gain if we're assuming that she's not planning an invasion). From the map, Ferelden looks like it's a reasonable distance from Orlais...why not wait until they get closer to do something? Or, again, wait until the Fereldans have taken the worst of the Blight, then deal with it on their soil (with the idea that you can swoop in and rebuild later)?
And that's assuming that we all know that Blights = total ruin. Which I'm going to guess Celene doesn't know for sure, and may or may not be willing to risk. Even if refugees are pouring in, she has to be canny enough to not believe every word they say. (And I find it hard to believe that the Blight totally destroys everything. If it does, Ferelden post game is totally screwed as it's lost a huge percentage of its land.)
I also argue with the idea that "manpower deficit" would be considered a problem in Thedas. Up until the modern era, life was cheap. Honestly, most peasants would probably love to be able to get a lot of free land with no pesky inhabitants. (Heck, this is why the Americas were settled - free land is attractive, even if it is swarming with diseases and often hostile natives - at least if you're an impoverished peasant.) I can see a bunch of empty land with no infrastructure as a great opportunity for Celene. Dump a bunch of the irritating peasants and second sons into it, if they starve, bring over more. If they thrive, yay, more country under your command without having to deal with a pesky other group of people. It seems rather win-win if there's any value to the land at all.
...and, you know, even if the land is a barren wasteland...Australia, anyone?