Dragon Age, 10 curiosities you did not know

Dragon Age

Ever since Dragon Age: Origins was released back in 2009, BioWare has managed to win the hearts of many fantasy fans with its saga which, through ups and downs, has been able to carve out an important place in the contemporary gaming scene.

Dragon Age chapters are littered with hundreds of references, easter eggs and curiosities related to their development, and it is almost impossible to list them all. Below we list ten of the most interesting ones.

1. Good first

The name of the game world has a rather curious origin, which was told by lead writer David Gaider. Although it would appear to be a specially created name, in reality it is nothing more than the temporary acronym used by the development team while waiting to establish another definitive name. During pre-production, in fact, it was referred to generically as The Dragon Age Setting , or TheDAS . This was because Gaider did not like the name that James Ohlen (lead designer and creative director of the game) had proposed, and since he could not stand up to him (being his boss) to prevent it from being used he proposed to leave it open.

While developing progressed, however, they could not find another name that satisfied everyone. By then TheDAS had gotten into the developers head and sounded good, so it was decided to keep it that way.

2. Catchphrase

Morrigan and Flemeth are two central characters in the overall Dragon story Age, and appear linked to each other from different points of view. The developers seem to underline this commonality even indirectly through the choice of their lines of dialogue. In Dragon Age II as soon as Hawke meets Flemeth, she begins with the line “Well, well… what have we here?” , which is the same one Morrigan pronounces when she is first encountered in Dragon Age: Origins.

Surely this is not a mere coincidence, so much so that the same phrase is always pronounced by Morrigan when also makes its first appearance in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

3. Hasty Exodus

Dragon Age II was a disappointing title for many players, even enthusiasts. However, not many are aware of the circumstances that led to this result. In fact, the title was originally intended to be a sort of spin-off with a more limited scope, and would have been entitled Dragon Age: Exodus .

The problems arose when it became clear that Star Wars: The Old Republic would not be able to come out within the first months of 2011, therefore Electronic Arts demanded that BioWare transform the Exodus project into a real second chapter of the series which should have been released strictly in that period. The authors of the game found themselves having to develop a game of this magnitude in just 16 months, and this lack of material time resulted in various aspects that were later criticized, such as the recycling of environments. To make a comparison, consider that it took BioWare almost 7 years to develop Dragon Age: Origins.

4. Tragic expansion

Dragon Age II was planned a expansion entitled Exalted March , which would have constituted a "bridge" adventure that would have connected with the future main chapter of the series. In the new expansion, Hawke would have been involved in a new adventure that would have foreseen, among other things, the death of Varric, one of the most loved characters by the fans.

While the expansion was in pre-production, however , BioWare had already begun the important process of developing the Frostbite graphics engine, which would be used to create the next chapter of the saga and other productions. The development of the expansion would have removed considerable manpower from the engine, causing the jobs to be postponed. For this reason, the executive producer Mark Darrah decided to cancel the processing of Exalted March to focus all efforts on Frostbite and prevent it from taking too long to complete. The decision greatly displeased David Gaider, head writer of the series, who reacted by taking a month off work to cool off his frustration.

Some ideas and locations from Exalted March were still reused in Inquisition, but having to reorganize everything the new context, this led to letting Varric survive. And we are sure that many have been happy about it.

5. Sudden growth

In Dragon Age 2 the Qunari have a much more central role than in the first chapter and a certainly greater characterization has been dedicated to him, both psychological and aesthetic. If you have followed the series from the beginning, you will have noticed that the appearance of the Qunari is different from the first chapter. In Dragon Age: Origins, in fact, Sten was not so flashy and above all he did not have the large horns that we later saw associated with his race. In fact one of the notes that can be moved to Origins was precisely that in general the races did not differ much from humans, but the reason was mainly derived from technical limitations. In fact, for the Qunari, the authors had actually foreseen horns already in the beginning, but these proved problematic to manage in combination with helmets. To avoid technical problems, therefore, the developers chose to remove the horns from Sten in Dragon Age: Origins.

To justify this difference, notable from Dragon Age II onwards, a retcon explanation was provided according to which Sten would part of a rare type of Qunari born without horns.

6. A world of freebies

BioWare is famous for inserting easter eggs in their games (including Knights of the Old Republic ) and also with Dragon Age they didn't hold back, inserting winks to other fantasy works, but not only. The references are really many, below we list some of the most obvious.

The Lord of the Rings: in Dragon Age: Origins, by undertaking the random encounter "Treacherous Path" it is possible to find two corpses near a camp; one of them bears a note on which it is written: “ Why? Why didn't we get the eagles? ”, a reference to the famous controversy about whether Frodo and Sam could have reached Mount Doom on the backs of the Eagles of Manwë. Star Wars: always in Origins, when we free Anora we find her wearing armor and we can comment: “Aren't you a little too short for a guard? ”, A clear reference to Princess Leia's comment when Luke rescues her from her cell. Full Metal Jacket: in one of his dialogues Zevran says: “ You meet interesting people and then you kill them ”, which is a sentence extremely similar to that of soldier Joker: “ I really wanted to see exotic Vietnam, the jewel of East Asia. I wanted to meet interesting, inspiring people with a very ancient civilization… and kill them all. ” Game of Thrones: one of the swords that the Keeper can obtain bears the name of Oathkeeper (Oath), the same name as the sword made by Tywin Lannister and given to his son Jaime, who in turn will deliver it to Brienne of Tarth, who he will give it that name. It might seem just a coincidence, were it not that the authors themselves have admitted that the novel series "A song of ice and fire" by George R.R. Martin was among their many sources of inspiration. Portal: in one of his lines of dialogue, Sten says: “Where is the cake? I was told there would be cake. The cake is a lie. ”, a clear reference to the famous phrase from the Valve title.

7. Dream Team

In Dragon Age: Inquisition during the mission "Here lies the abyss" Hawke, or the protagonist of Dragon Age II, and a Gray Warden are involved. Well, initially the latter should have been the Hero of Ferelden, the protagonist of Dragon Age: Origins. This would have meant that the protagonists of all the main chapters of Dragon Age would have met in that mission.

Unfortunately, the idea had to be rejected due to force majeure, since it would have been too complicated for BioWare to replicate decently a character so customizable by the player.

8. Spectral Corruption

In Dragon Age: Inquisition initially the authors had foreseen an additional scene for Cole right during the end of the game. In fact, if the player had not completed his personal quest and had brought him into combat against Corypheus, a cutscene would have been unlocked in which the latter would have taken control of Cole and turned him against the Inquisitor.

To realize this idea, however, the developers found it difficult to balance the battle that would ensue. Furthermore, if you think about it, it would have been a matter of employing an additional work effort that would have been directed to those very few players who would have chosen to ignore Cole's mission, but who for some reason would have brought him into the final battle.

For these reasons, the idea was rejected and the authors chose instead to allow Cole to participate in the final battle only if the player had completed his personal mission.

9. Dragon power

Any fan of the fantasy genre is fascinated by dragons, emblems of majesty and power. However, we have bad news for more conservative players: all dragons in Dragon Age are female, and this includes high dragons and great dragons (which differ in their older age). The male specimens of the race are in fact all drakes, which never grow wings.

The mighty race of dragons has a matriarchal structure, quite similar to the lion community, but with reverse roles. When male drakes reach maturity, they seek out a female dragon's lair in which to be welcomed; here their role is to hunt to get food and protect the young. They can live for about 100 years, but more often they are killed while defending the den or fighting with other males for the right to mate with the female.

10. Under the same sky

Given BioWare's tendency to quote, it is not surprising that in the Dragon Age games there are references to the "cousin" series Mass Effect and vice versa. Some are so evident as to push some fans to theorize that the two sagas take place in the same universe, somehow.

In Dragon Age II, in the mission “ How to frame a templar ” we meet a certain Conrad Vernhart, who is an obvious reference to Conrad Verner, a passionate fan and rival of Shepard. In Dragon Age II's "Mark of the Assassin" DLC Assassin Tallis wields a dagger called Thane. The name was chosen by the reference actress Felicia Day, who had chosen Thane Krios as a romance in Mass Effect 2. In Dragon Age: Inquisition it is possible to hear Cullen say that he must “ calibrate the trebuchets ”, and according to Leliana and Josephine seems to be something she does quite often. A subtle reference to Garrus from ME, very often engaged in his infamous calibrations. In DA: Inquisition's "The Descent" DLC, if Dorian is in the party he can be heard complaining about the slowness of the elevators and suggesting that they need background music, a reference to the elevators in Mass Effect that served as game loading screens. game. Completing the DA: Inquisition Vivienne's Inner Entourage mission unlocks the Sorcerer's Throne, which looks remarkably similar to a Mass Relay from Mass Effect. In both Mark of the Assassin and Inquisition it is possible to come across Krogan heads hanging like hunting trophies on the walls. And vice versa, in Mass Effect 2 during Kasumi Goto's mission you come across a statue of an ogre from Dragon Age. Thedas has two moons, and the surface appearance of one of them is the same as the planet Klendagon seen in the first Mass Effect. The developers have revealed that the same image of the Valles Marineris of Mars was used for the surface of the two celestial bodies.