Dragon Age is more than its average fantasy look suggests
It’s been a minute since the last Dragon Age game. The first game was released back in 2009, the last one in 2014. We have been waiting ever since. Why are people waiting though? If you take a look at Dragon Age, it has the look of an average medieval European fantasy setting. And it is! Kind of.
The setting (the continent the games are set on is literally called Thedas = “THE Dragon Age Setting”) consists of your usual fantasy races (some dwarves, side-lined elves, humans telling everybody else what to do), some monsters (very big spiders, a few dragons and beings called darkspawn that come in around four variations with some off-shoots) and a few political powers squabbling. Oh, and there is also magic.
Light spoilers for plot beats in all of Dragon Age
It is also very brown. Image: BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins.
When you see your first darkspawn, you will notice that they are exquisitely disgusting looking. A Grey Warden called Duncan recruits the player character into his ancient order. People in Thedas are vaguely aware that the Order of the Grey Wardens are the only ones standing between them and annihilation. Whenever the darkspawn decide to show up on the surface, it is called a Blight and is led by an impressively hideous Archdemon.
This picture doesn’t do the archdemon justice. Apologies to his monstrosity. Image: BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins.
Only issue is, the last Blight was a few hundred years ago and people have forgotten all about it. The current king of Ferelden (a country in the south of Thedas) thinks, he will be able to repel the rumored darkspawn horde without issue. Catastrophe ensues, as the king, his army as well as Duncan get slaughtered, due to a betrayal by the king’s advisor who held back his forces instead of engaging the enemy. His actions lead to a civil war that plunges the country into additional chaos. The player character, alongside an equally fresh Grey Warden human puppy called Alistair, are now tasked to figure out how to beat the Blight as the only two Wardens in the country.
The player character and Alistair, cheerily standing in front of a tree. Image: BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins.
Turns out, Grey Wardens were banished from Ferelden due to an attempted coup by a Warden-Commander a few hundred years ago, leaving the country in an extremely vulnerable position should the worst case scenario happen. Nonetheless, you and Alistair get some help from a nice old lady called the Witch of the Wilds (wonderfully voiced by the indomitable Kate Mulgrew), who tells you to use very old Grey Warden treaties to build an army to beat back the darkspawn and save the world.
Sounds easy enough. You against unbeatable odds. The usual.
You go on your merry adventure, recruit a few people to your cause, visit the underground city of the dwarves, help out an elven clan, mingle a bit in Ferelden politics, and then gather your army and beat the archdemon.
Nobody tells you that you also uncover the horrifying experiments that some dwarves undertake to save their species from extinction or that you stumble upon the bloody secret the elven clan you help out has been trying to hide for a few centuries.
Dragon Age is all easy set-up with a heavy punchline.
Fleeing your hometown from the Blight in Dragon Age 2, only leads to a massive amount of pain and misery in your chosen home of Kirkwall. And I mean massive. You lose most of your family. You can lose most of the friends you meet in the city. The entire city literally goes to shit as a terrorist (who you know and is probably your friend) blows up the power structure in the city (you unknowingly help), which leads to colossal bloodshed and a war.
The main character is deservedly pissed. Screenshot: BioWare, Dragon Age 2.
Dragon Age: Inquisition starts with a peace summit to end said war. That peace summit literally explodes when you start the game. You first get accused of murder, then get absolved of murder when everybody learns, you now posses a magic glowing hand that can close holes in the fabric between the real world and the world of the dreaming. Oh, and there’s now a giant hole in the sky that continuously spews demons.
And then it gets worse. You get declared holy and have to lead a religious army. Ancient evil wants to become a god (nobody know whether that would actually work, but you are trying to stop them anyway), takes out one the major powers in the world of Thedas, takes out a head of state, then takes out another major political power, just to blow up some ancient ruins and your headquarters. Oh, and then it turns out ancient evil was not even the most ancient evil around because you get betrayed by one of your closest followers, who is literally a few millennia old.
You and your closest followers. Spot the backstabber. Screenshot: BioWare, Dragon Age: Inquisition.
And now we wait for Dragon Age 4: The Dread Wolf Rises (what a title). There are a few major conflicts brewing in Thedas. Another blight. Magic going havoc. Most ancient evil fulfilling their evil plans. Everywhere the Dragon Age-series goes, things take the worst turn possible. It might look like your usual fantasy fair, but it is so much more.
