Dragon Age 4 is taking players to the Tevinter Imperium for the first time, and the shift makes sense. Dragon Age: Inquisition saw the player exert so much influence over southern Thedas as the Inquisitor – including directing the future of the Andrastian Chantry – that going north is an easy way for BioWare to tell a consistent story going forward without establishing canonical player decisions.
Although Dragon Age 4 will be set in the Tevinter, it seems poised to reveal far more about the world beyond the Imperium. Inquisition heavily hinted that players would learn more about the world outside Thedas in the next game, and there are multiple avenues for BioWare to explore places beyond the continent that the games have been set on so far.
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The North
Thedas has been the setting of every Dragon Age game so far – that’s even how the continent got its name. Thedas was originally short for The Dragon Age Setting, a developer in-joke that made it to Dragon Age: Origins’ release. Despite being the main setting, however, BioWare has hinted that some of the answers to Dragon Age’s greatest questions lie beyond the continent, to the north.
As far as has been revealed, Thedas was originally only inhabited by two major races – the Elves of the ancient empire of Elvhenan, and the Dwarves living below the continent’s surface in a series of Thaigs connected by the Deep Roads. Even after Solas created the Veil and cut the Elves off from the Fade, it was years before the human tribesmen known as the Neromenians arrived on the continent from the north. The Neromenians would eventually splinter into different factions, and it was even longer until they reunited as the Tevinter Imperium and wiped out the Elven empire.
The Origins Of The Qunari And The Executors
The Qunari also arrived on the continent from the north, albeit far more recently in Dragon Age’s history. The Qunari first appeared on Par Vollen in the Steel Age, swiftly conquering the island off Tevinter’s northern shore. It would be two years before Tevinter realized what had happened, sparking the Qunari Wars that would last long into the Storm Age.
Since then, however, humanity appears to have completely lost its pre-Thedosian history. The same seems likely of the Qunari, although it’s possible that the Qunari of Par Vollen have records of the time before the migrated south, especially if it relates to the foundation of the Qun.
Dragon Age: Inquisition hinted that, although humanity and the Qunari both had origins outside of Thedas, there were still forces outside of Thedas keeping a keen eye on the continent’s situation. The last game introduced the Executors, a mysterious group said to represent powers across the sea. Whether or not the Executors are another race is unclear – in Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights one Executor was described as hooded and having a strange voice that couldn’t be identified as having a particular age or gender.
It seems likely, however, that learning more about the Qunari and the Executors in Dragon Age 4 could be the key to players learning about the lands beyond Thedas. Dragon Age: Inquisition’s villain Corypheus made several comments that hinted that he knows the true origins of the Qunari. Corypheus will tell a Qunari Inquisitor that “your blood does not belong to your people” and calls the Qunari a mistake.
Iron Bull also gets aroused fighting dragons and if the Inquisitor romances him as a Reaver, a class that drinks dragon blood, he'll treat it like an aphrodesiac. This has led many fans to assume that the Kossith – the Qunari precursor race – could have been something similar to an Elf or human that somehow mixed bloodlines with dragons. If nothing else it would certainly explain the horns.
Inquisition’s Trespasser DLC heavily hinted that the Qunari Wars would be reignited in the next game as well, with the Qunari attempting to assassinate the nobility of southern Thedas. Another war with the Qunari plus Tevinter’s proximity to Par Vollen could see players learn more about the giant race’s strange origins than ever, which in turn could lend some insight into what’s happening to the north of Thedas.
Revealing more about the Executors also seems like a very likely way for BioWare to explore what’s happening outside of the main setting so far. Very little is known about their identity or goals, but after all the set-up in Inquisition another game seems unlikely to pass without explanation. The Executors suggest that there are still civilizations beyond Thedas, and the fact that the humans of Thedas are all descended from the migration of a single tribe raises the possibility that there are human kingdoms to the north that Thedosians have never heard of.
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The Future Of Dragon Age
Although the Qunari and the Executors seem like Dragon Age 4’s way in, exploring the setting outside of Thedas is also likely to reveal a lot more about the origins of humanity in the Dragon Age universe, and why the Neromenians left their homeland. There may be good reason for BioWare to set up other parts of the setting as well.
As the Dragon Age games go on, telling new stories in Thedas becomes increasingly difficult. In Inquisition the player chose the new Divine Victoria who would rule over the southern nation’s Chantry. Each choice had radically different implications for the region’s future, so it’s no surprise Dragon Age 4 is leaving for Tevinter, which is under the jurisdiction of the independent Imperial Chantry.
After Dragon Age 4, however, it seems likely the player will have made decisions with huge implications for the future of Tevinter, the Qunari, and the Elves of Thedas. This could make introducing parts of the setting outside of Thedas vital to the series’ survival, giving BioWare’s flagship fantasy franchise a fresh start.
Dragon Age 4 is in development.
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