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Part of the fun of Dragon Age’s fantasy is that it’s inconsistent – or at least, inconsistent by the standards of fantasy RPGs, which often break down into a million neatly organised and interlocking codex entries. It all rides on who you speak to. The humans believe one thing about the origins and workings of Thedas, the elves another, the qunari something else entirely. These differences are the basis for many factional disagreements and thus, many core series plot developments. According to former lead writer David Gaider, however, there’s an “uber-plot” behind it all that may one day be resolved and bring the series to a close, assuming BioWare continue to refer to his original (and closely guarded) narrative documents.
Gaider recently spoke to Eurogamer‘s Robert Purchese, aka The Lovely Bertie, about how he and BioWare came up with the setting. The result is a jolly article on world-building, from which I have dutifully plucked out some intriguing snippets.
Amongst other things, Gaider asserts the importance of doubt and free interpretation when unearthing the history of Thedas. “To get the truth, you kind of have to pick between the lines,” he says in the piece. This is especially true of the oldest tales about the setting’s origins and in particular, the Fade, an engulfing dimension that is the source of magic. “In general, the further the history goes back, we always would purposefully obfuscate it more and more, make it more biased and more untrue no matter who was talking, just so that the absolute truth was rarely knowable,” Gaider goes on. “I like that idea from a world standpoint, that the player always has to wonder and bring their own beliefs to it.”
As Bertie points out, Dragon Age: The Veilguard could be a big step towards resolving Gaider’s original “uber-plot”. Without giving away too much, one story theme is the return of a bunch of ancient Elven gods who can remember the early days of Thedas. I have yet to play The Veilguard myself – Nic’s review is here – but in theory, those fey antiques are in a position to clear up any disagreement about, say, the precise nature of the ethereal Black City that supposedly once harboured the world’s creator.
“Yeah, we have access to people who can tell us the truth from first-hand experience,” Gaider comments, “although again, it depends on what the writers did with it.” He’s interested to discover whether Bioware have continued the “tradition” of leaving players in doubt about the fundamentals. Interested and perhaps a bit alarmed.
“I mean, will they one day definitively tell you about the Maker? Will we crack the big mysteries of the world and just make them answered finally? And does that ruin one of the central precepts that Dragon Age is founded upon? Maybe. Ultimately, that lore, when you make it big and you hint at it and hint at it and hint at it, it becomes a Chekhov’s Gun of sorts. Eventually you got to pony up.”
I like fantasy worlds that offer me a spectrum of competing lies, with truth inevitably found in the eye of the Beholder. While I’m not above the lure of a fully filled-out codex, I’ve always felt it’s a shame that so many RPGs default to treating the setting like an unlockable encyclopedia, where clarity and certainty are simply a question of putting the hours in. Mind you, I also think it’s a shame that so many RPGs keep you guessing about certain world and narrative threads, in order to leave room for sequels or expansions. Much like Dragon Age, I am an inconsistent being. Anyway, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is out today, and apparently people are going nuts about turns.