Dragon Age



Dragon Age is a fantasy role-playing franchise developed by BioWare. The series focuses on the continent of Thedas, tells stories spanning multiple nations and various time periods. The series is named for the time it takes place in: the age of the dragon.

History
Dragon Age was first announced during the 2004 E3 expo. It currently has twelve installments, two of which are games, three are books, two are tabletop role-playing games, three are comics, one is a film, and one is a webseries. The newest addition to the series is the third book, Dragon Age: Asunder, which was released on December 20, 2011.

Games
The first game of the Dragon Age series, Dragon Age: Origins, was released on November 3, 2009. The expansion pack, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, was released on March 16, 2010. On July 8, 2010 BioWare announced Dragon Age II. which was released on March 8, 2011.

Novels
Currently, there are three novels: Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne, Dragon Age: The Calling, and Dragon Age: Asunder, with another one scheduled to be released in 2014: Dragon Age: The Masked Empire. The three released novels were written by David Gaider, the lead writer for Dragon Age series.

Comic books
There are six series of comic books for the series. The first one, Penny Arcade webcomic created by Penny Arcade and released on 4th September 2009 follows a group of templars trying to find Flemeth. The second comic book to be released was Dragon Age by IDW, published on 1st March 2010, and following the origin of a templar named Duty. The next comic book was another created by Penny Arcade, Penny Arcade Awakening comic; it takes place directly before the start of the expansion to Dragon Age: Origins, and follows Nathaniel Howe as he sneaks into the Vigil's Keep.

The last three to date are part of one series written by David Gaider.

Internet series
There are two shows released up to date. One, Dragon Age: Warden's Fall follows Kristoff as he investigates the darkspawn threat in Amaranthine before the arrival of The Warden-Commander. The second one, Dragon Age: Redemption is a live-action series that focuses on Tallis on a mission to capture a Saarebas. Both are prequels to downloadable content, to the Awakening expansion and ''Mark of the Assassin respectively. Warden's Fall was being released on a weekly basis for five weeks following 22nd May 2010; and the Redemption for six weeks starting 11th October 2011.

Film
BioWare has joined with FUNimation to develop an anime film set in the Dragon Age universe, called Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker. It was expected to be released for home video in 2011, but was delayed to 2012. It was finally released straight to DVD on 11th February 2012 in Japan, 29th May 2012 in the US, and 1st October the same year in Europe. The anime focuses on Cassandra Pentaghast, and her early career as a memeber of the Seekers of Truth of the Chantry.

Table-top RPG
Green Ronin have released two pen and paper RPGs based on the world of Dragon Age.

Dragon Age: Origins
The first game focuses on the Fifth Blight, a cataclysmic event where twisted creatures called darkspawn rise up and leave only death and corruption in their wake. The player character is a Grey Warden, a member of an ancient order who historically are the only ones who have stemmed the tide of evil. As well as defeating the archdemon who leads the darkspawn horde, the Warden must unite the shattered kingdom of Ferelden, which is in the grip of a civil war.

Dragon Age II
Dragon Age II spans ten years, and focuses on the adventures of Hawke, a Fereldan refugee who flees the Blight. They become a citizen of Kirkwall, and must reclaim their noble wealth and heritage by hiring on to a lucrative expedition. They are later tossed into a maelstrom of chaos and destruction, forced to intervene in a battle with the Qunari, and must then desperately attempt to ease the growing unrest between the templars and mages of the Free Marches city-state.

Major characters
While Dragon Age aims to focus on the world, and the conflicts within it, some characters inevitably become prominent figure of the series.


 * King Maric Theirin: Protagonist of Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne, and the rightful king of Ferelden who ended the Orlesian occupation and restored the Theirins to the throne.
 * The Warden: Protagonist of Dragon Age: Origins, and member of the Grey Wardens, an elite order of warriors devoted to eradicating the monstrous darkspawn.
 * Hawke: Protagonist of Dragon Age II, a Fereldan refugee who rises to power in the city-state of Kirkwall, and is involved in events that will change the world forever.
 * Flemeth: The fabled Witch of the Wilds remains an enigma, and her existence is still widely disbelieved, though she has saved the lives of many world-changing figures during the Dragon Age.
 * Morrigan: The daughter of Flemeth who accompanies the Warden and helps to stop the Blight, before disappearing following a mysterious and dark offer.
 * Leliana: A former bard turned Chantry sister, this deadly temptress accompanies the Warden, and becomes the left hand of Divine Justinia V, and carries out the Divine's orders throughout all Andrastian lands in Thedas.

Canon and continuity
The epilogues in the Dragon Age game series are not meant to be canonical: they should be treated as rumors or hearsay. Companions such as Oghren or Anders may die depending on the player's character choices, but become major characters in another campaign.

Any story written outside of the game series establish its own canon, regardless of the game events such as Dragon Age: Asunder in which Wynne and Shale are alive, or in the Dragon Age comic by Dark Horse where Alistair is the King of Ferelden. David Gaider explains:

"The nature of a novel means it must establish its own canon, and the novel's canon has no relation to the game's canon (such as it is). If you wish, think of the novel as an alternate universe where things took a specific path with regards to Wynne or other events. How those events would have played out in the world of your personal game might have been very different. I am not, however, telling that particular story."

Gaider also stated that "nothing happening in the novel [...] will directly tie into a future game. They are tangentially related at best."