Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2 Alistair (spoilers)

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Alright, ill start off with my choices in DAO. This playthrough (combined with what happened in DA2) puzzled my mind.

I think for the first time ever i didn't take alistair with me to the Archdemon, i took with me Morrigan, Zevran and Leliana, so he's left to defend the gate. When you kill the archdemon (i did the dark ritual with morrigan and gave the throne to Anora) and Queen Anora speaks to you in the throne room alistair isn't there. And she also says we should honor those who were fallen in battle and she specifically mentions alistair as well. As he is not in the room and we should honor him, he must be dead right?

Well i could live with that. Except now that i'm playing DA2 with that imported save file.

End of Act 2, the Qunari invade Kirkwall you come across a group of Grey Wardens. And suddenly, Alistair is there.

He doesn't mention anything from the blight in Ferelden so we can't make up anything from that.

Here is the codex entry i received after meeting him:

Alistar Codex entry

It says he's credited alongside the Hero of Feleden.

Did i just encounter a bug in DA:O where Alistair was supposed to be with me? Or did the save file from DA:O to DA:2 simply not include this?

The latter would seem really bad on biowares part.

Best Answer

Wikia mentions this DAO bug:

If Alistair was not made king, Morrigan's ritual was performed, and Loghain was executed at the Landsmeet, Alistair will be absent from the coronation if he was not part of the final party that faced the Archdemon.

I have a save like that, although I haven't imported it into DA2. No mention in the DAO codex that Alistair died -- and he couldn't have because he was there with Riordan when picking the final team, of which he was not part, so he could not have made the killing blow (regardless of the ritual). Even so, he could still get "credit" for helping to kill the Archdemon.

So he's not king, not dead, and not exiled/drunk, and just continues to be a Grey Warden: he would show up as he did for you.