What We're Hoping To See In Dragon Age 4

In light of a recent blog post from BioWare’s General Manager Casey Hudson, we have reason to believe that something Dragon Age may be around the corner. With the blog post mentioning that the RPG developer is “excited to continue [Dragon Age’s] legacy”, Dragon Age fans have been abuzz with excitement over what future announcements could hold. While some fans have been hypothesizing that it’s most likely a mobile game or a remaster of Dragon Age: Origins, other fans are holding out hope for a brand new entry to the series.

Speaking as a hardcore Dragon Age fan, here’s what I’m hoping to see in Dragon Age 4.

Warning: Spoilers for previous Dragon Age games ahead!

Tevinter

The Tevinter Imperium is the oldest human nation in all of Thedas and also where everyone’s favourite mage and necromancer, Dorian Pavus, hails from. Despite being featured, mentioned, or pictured in literally every single Dragon Age tie-in book or comic, we still have yet to see any of Tevinter featured in the main games.

In fact, the ending of Dragon Age: Inquisitions Trespasser DLC showed The Inquisitor stabbing a dagger into a map marked “Tevinter Imperium”, a pretty strong indication that the next installment in the series could take place in Tevinter. With save file imports, we may even be able to see our version of The Inquisitor turn up in the sequel. That would be pretty cool.

Anders

Regardless of your opinion on the rogue mage and former Grey Warden, you can’t deny that Anders played an important role in Dragon Age 2, with his final act of blowing up Kirkwall’s Chantry marking a turning point in history, setting the scene for the mage vs. templar war of Dragon Age: Inquisition, and also destroying half of Kirkwall in the process. Of course, there is a chance that Anders is dead, seeing as players are given the option to either spare or kill him at the end of Dragon Age 2.

While writer David Gaider confirmed that if Hawke killed Anders, he is indeed ultimately dead, the same can’t be said for the spirit of Justice that shared Anders’ body during the events of Dragon Age 2. Fans have posited that, if Anders is alive, he and Justice have most likely been sharing a body for long enough to turn into an abomination. It’d be great if we could see Anders, Justice, or their amalgamation in Dragon Age 4.

Solas (preferably getting his just desserts)

If you haven’t played Dragon Age: Inquisition, here’s a quick summary of Solas: the bald elf in your party turns out to be a god from ancient times and he’s been playing you all along just so he can eventually destroy the world as you know it. This is expanded on in the Trespasser DLC, where Solas (or Fen’Harel, as he’s also called) reveals his real identity, removes the Inquisitor’s arm, and disappears through a mirror. It makes sense in context.

Many fans were surprised at the reveal and at his betrayal, while others found him suspect from the start. Regardless, almost everyone can agree on one thing they want for Dragon Age 4: the chance to confront Solas.

Thankfully, it’s implied in-game that Dragon Age 4 will follow the story of the Inquisitor and their friends tracking Solas down and trying to prevent the end of Thedas, so we can practically guarantee seeing him again.

The Evanuris

While we’re on the topic of ancient Elven gods, we should talk about the Evanuris, also known as the Elven pantheon and worshipped by modern Dalish (nomadic) elves. Of course, the Trespasser DLC revealed that the Evanuris weren’t really deities at all and were instead incredibly powerful mages who were simply revered as gods. To make things worse, it turns out that the face tattoos that modern day elves wear proudly were actually brands created by the gods to mark elves as slaves.

Only Fen’Harel and the goddess Mythal stood up against the other gods, resulting in Mythal’s death and forcing Fen’Harel to seal the other gods away in a place called the Beyond and setting him down the path where he would eventually become Solas. Seeing as Solas is now seeking to destroy the magical force and retrieve the other gods from the Beyond, there’s a high chance we’ll get to meet the rest of the Evanuris in Dragon Age 4. We can only hope it goes better than it did with Solas.

Old Friends

While Dragon Age: Inquisition did bring back some old friends such as Morrigan, Hawke, and Alistair Theirin, there’s still several people who we haven’t seen in a while. For example, the Warden’s potential companion Zevran Arainai hasn’t been seen since an optional side quest in Dragon Age 2 that’ll only show up if you fulfill certain conditions, and he only gets a brief mention in Dragon Age: Inquisition although it’s important to note that, like most companions, there’s a chance that Zevran was killed by the player and thus won’t be showing up again any time soon.

Other old friends we’d like to see include the Elven blood mage Merrill, the bird-hating golem Shale, the Chantry brother Sebastian Vael, the potential Grey Warden Nathaniel Howe, and of course, the Warden themselves. Of course, this being Dragon Age, there’s a very real chance that each of these people were killed by the player or never met at all, so there’s a chance they’ll only be mentioned in passing (or maybe even killed off off-screen) to save BioWare the trouble of having to program each character’s potential fate in.

Did Hawke or the Grey Warden companion survive the Fade?

About halfway through Dragon Age: Inquisition, there’s a quest called Here Lies The Abyss. The quest involves The Inquisitor, their party companions, Hawke from Dragon Age 2, and a Grey Warden companion (who you get depends on which world state you import) getting trapped in the Fade, fighting their way through demons, and finding out more of The Inquisitor’s backstory.

The Fade is a place between realms that’s inhabited by demons and spirits so naturally, it’s not going to be an easy mission, and at the end you’re forced to make a choice as to who will sacrifice themselves to let everyone else escape. The choice is always between Hawke and the Grey Warden companion, the latter of who can be either Alistair Theirin, Loghain Mac Tir, or Stroud.

Regardless of who you choose, the game warns you that they will ‘likely die’. The choice is usually agonizing, especially if you have an imported Hawke and an imported Alistair who both romanced someone in a previous game, and we have yet to see if the person left behind survived or not. I’d like to get some closure in Dragon Age 4, even if it does mean learning that the chosen companion died.

What would you like to see in Dragon Age 4? Leave a comment below with your thoughts!