Dragon Age

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This page is about the Dragon Age franchise. For information on fandom and the main titles set in the DA universe, please see the pages Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Fandom
Name: Dragon Age
Abbreviation(s): DA
Creator: BioWare
Date(s): 2009-
Medium: various (including PC, game consoles, comics)
Country of Origin: Canada
External Links: Official Dragon Age page
Da logo.png
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Dragon Age is an original fantasy franchise created by the Canadian RPG developer BioWare. It was promoted as a "spiritual successor" to BioWare's early 2000s RPG hit Baldur's Gate[1].

The World

The continent Thedas

Dragon Age is set in a quasi-medieval world. The developer calls the genre "dark heroic fantasy" as opposed to "high fantasy"[2]. The writers have cited Game of Thrones as an inspiration to convey the "grittiness" of the setting. [3]

The only known continent is called Thedas. This continent contains 13 major nations; Anderfels, Antiva, Estwatch, Ferelden, Free Marches, Kal-Sharok, Nevarra, Orlais, Orzammar, Par Vollen, Rivain, Seheron and the Tevinter Imperium. The different narratives/story lines play out across these various nations.

While the first game, Dragon Age: Origins, revolved around a war between the people of the country, Ferelden and a supernatural invasion by monsters known as Darkspawn, the sequels introduced new conflicts.

The majority of Dragon Age II takes place in the city of Kirkwall and focuses mainly on the rise of The Champion, Hawke and their involvement in stopping a Qunari invasion as well as their contribution to a Mage/Templar war. Dragon Age: Inquisition in comparison is set in Ferelden & Orlais and revolves around the rise of the Inquisition and the closing a mysterious tear in the sky called the Breach [4] that is an opening into the world of demons known as the Fade [5]

The Franchise

Games

  • Dragon Age: Origins (Main Game, 2009)
    • Warden's Keep (DLC, 2009)
    • The Stone Prisoner (DLC, 2009)
    • Return to Ostagar (DLC, 2010)
    • Feastday Gifts and Pranks (DLC, 2010)
    • The Darkspawn Chronicles (DLC, 2010)
    • Leliana's Song (DLC, 2010)
    • The Golems of Amgarrak (DLC, 2010)
    • Witch Hunt (DLC, 2010)
  • Dragon Age II (Main Game, 2011)
    • The Exiled Prince (DLC, 2011)
    • The Black Emporium (DLC, 2011)
    • Legacy (DLC, 2011)
    • Mark of the Assassin (DLC, 2011)
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition (Main Game, 2014)
    • Jaws of Hakkon (DLC, 2015)
    • The Black Emporium (DLC, 2015)
    • Spoils of the Avvar (DLC, 2015)
    • Spoils of the Qunari (DLC, 2015)
    • Descent (DLC, 2015)


Others

  • Two books exploring the world's lore through documents called World of Thedas 1 and 2.

Novels

  • Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne by David Gaider, released on 3 March 2009, a prequel novel to Dragon Age: Origins.
  • Dragon Age: The Calling by David Gaider, released on 13 October 2009, set approximately fourteen years after The Stolen Throne.
  • Dragon Age: Asunder by David Gaider, first released on 20 December 2011, set one year after the events of Dragon Age II Act 3.
  • Dragon Age: The Masked Empire by Patrick Weekes, published in spring 2014, it is set in Orlais during or before the Orlesian civil war.
  • Dragon Age: Last Flight by Liane Merciel, published on 16 September 2014, it takes place in the same year as Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Comics

  • Dragon Age: Origins, a short webcomic set in the world of Dragon Age by Penny Arcade, released on 4 September 2009.[8]
  • Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, a short webcomic set in the world of Dragon Age by Penny Arcade.[9]
  • Dragon Age, a monthly publication with six issues written by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston, with art by Humberto Ramos and Mark Robinson, and published by IDW Publishing.
  • Dragon Age: The Silent Grove, a digital comic series by BioWare and Dark Horse Comics written by David Gaidar and illustrated by Chad Hardin. The first volume was released on 22 February 2012 and the final volume on 2 May 2012.
  • Dragon Age: Those Who Speak, a three-part comic series by BioWare and Dark Horse Comics written by David Gaidar and Alexander Freed, a sequel to The Silent Grove. The first issue was available on 22 August 2012.

Films

The Fandom

Dragon Age fandom appears to be primarily spread across the following spaces:

BioWare Social Network

The BioWare Social Network, or the BSN, is BioWare's official forums, containing subforums for each individual game, as well as areas for fans to discuss specific aspects such as in-game romances, character development, and general universe lore.

Bioware developers themselves use this space to interact with the fans, responding to feedback or becoming involved in discussions, as well as using the forums to make announcements. These posters are identified by a BioWare banner beneath their avatars, and their posts are referred to as "dev posts".

The BSN has a reputation with some fans as being a rather inflammatory place, and is frequently the venue for conflicts regarding PC/console gaming, character bashing, and arguments about the inclusion or removal of RPG gameplay features.

DeviantArt

There is an active presence of fan artists for the franchise on DeviantArt.

Fanfiction.net

The Dragon Age fandom is active on fanfiction.net, where gen and shipping fics, AUs, character studies, speculative fiction and various other works can be found.

LiveJournal

The Dragon Age fandom on LiveJournal appears to be mostly centred around these hubs:

In addition, there are a number of character-specific communities, such as:

Reddit

The Dragon Age fandom has an active presence on Reddit and there's a handful of related subreddits.

Tumblr

The Dragon Age fandom on Tumblr is highly active. There is an active community of fanartists, graphic and gif makers, as well as fanfiction, memes and meta. Major active fandom tumblrs include dragonageconfessions, a confession tumblr with about the average conflict level for the genre, dragonage-headcanons, dragonagefriendlyreminders, and dragonaging, a spoilery blog aggregating pre-release information about Dragon Age: Inquisition. Other tumblrs include a plethora of character-specific blogs, RP blogs, ask blogs and the usual melange.

Fan Activities

Modding

Mods fall into a few categories, such as appearance, bug fixes, and storylines. Appearance-based mods do little besides change the look of various NPC. Bug fixes fix bugs, such as making unreachable content reachable. Finally, there are modules that create additional content for the game.

Mods are often hosted onNexusMods.

Game Exploration

Some fans of the franchise enjoy going into the game files to find dialogue and other pieces of the game that never made it into the game itself but were never removed from various levels of the game. Examples include uncovered Cullen dialogue.

Exchanges

Fan Theories

Dragon Age fandom has an active fan theory-writing community that primarily focuses on the lore of the games. Theories are typically posted on Reddit (see the Lore & Theories tag on r/dragonage and r/ThedasLore) as well as Tumblr. Examples of popular theories include:


Role Play Communities

Fanworks

Calendar

Fanart

Zines

See the Dragon Age Zines category for the full list.

Cosplay

Terminology

  • Ninjamance: Accidentally entering into a relationship with a romancable character without the player noticing it happening, due to not clearly labelled dialogue options. Particularly frequent and often complained-about in Dragon Age: Origins.
  • Rivalmance: A term used primarily in the context of Dragon Age II in which the player can romance characters who they have a rivalry with.
  • Wolf Hunt/Egg Hunt: Inspired by the Witch Hunt DLC, fans referred to the Trespasser DLC as Wolf Hunt or Egg Hunt before its title was revealed.
  • The Egg: Solas.
  • Murderpope: A nickname for Leliana in a specific worldstate where she is hardened and becomes the Divine.
  • MGIT: Modern Girl in Thedas, a trope featuring a female OC from our world ending up in Thedas.

Resources

Apart from the official websites, information on the entire franchise can be found in the Dragon Age Wiki.

References

  1. ^ Interview: BioWare Talks Dragon Age, Narrative and Crossing the Uncanny Valley. Accessed 6 May 2011. ...there are better quotes out there, but curse me if I can find them right now >_>;
  2. ^ Official DA:O FAQ. Accessed 6 May 2011.
  3. ^ 17 June 2009. Interview: BioWare Talks Dragon Age, Narrative and Crossing the Uncanny Valley. Accessed 6 May 2011.
  4. ^ http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/The_Breach
  5. ^ http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Fade
  6. ^ Green Ronin Dragon Age page. Accessed May 6, 2011.
  7. ^ [1]
  8. ^ Penny Arcade DA comics. Accessed 6 May 2011.
  9. ^ Penny Arcade DA comics. Accessed 6 May 2011.
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