The dwarves of Dragon Age 4 are among the most ancient races of Thedas, though much of their empire has long been lost. They have a strict social hierarchy which makes distinction between dwarves of different castes, as well as dwarves who live on the surface like fan-favorite companion Varric Tethras.
Dragon Age 4 will likely see some big changes coming to the dwarves. The previous game set up questions about possible dwarven mages, the origins of the darkspawn and the dwarves themselves, and the future of the surface dwarves. This could lead to some big decisions to be made in the next game, with players who know the history of the dwarves being best equipped to guide their future in Dragon Age 4.
The Ancient History of the Dwarves
The dwarves have lived underneath Thedas for millennia. Their origins are unclear, though it is known that during the time of the Primeval Thaig the dwarves lived together with the Titans. In Dragon Age: Inquisition’s The Descent DLC, a Titan causing earthquakes across Thedas is revealed to be some sort of semi-organic macrostructure, with the deepest tunnels of the Deep Roads forming veins with red lyrium running through the rock like blood.
When Shaper Valta is struck by a pure lyrium vein – possibly becoming the first dwarf mage in Dragon Age – she also hears the Titan refer to the dwarves as its “children.” This makes it likely that the dwarves were somehow created by the Titans in their ancient history, with more to be revealed in Dragon Age 4.
When humans first arrived on Thedas, the dwarves formed an alliance with the - which still holds by the time of the Dragon Age games. When Tevinter sacked the elven city of Arlathan, some elves tried to shelter in Cadash Thaig, which the dwarves destroyed in order to avoid a diplomatic incident with their human allies. The bitterness between the two non-human races remains to this day.
The Dwarves and the Darkspawn
The dwarves of Dragon Age were once the most populous race in all of Thedas, though the elves and humans who lived above them on the surface would have rarely seen them outside of Tevinter. Their major cities, the twelve great thaigs, were connected by the Deep Roads which allowed for trade and travel without dwarves ever seeing the sunlight. When the seven Magisters Sidereal of the Tevinter Imperium, including Corypheus from Inquisition, used blood magic to enter the Golden City in the Fade and inadvertently created the darkspawn, it was the dwarven empire which suffered the most devastating losses. The darkspawn quickly overran the Deep Roads, and remain roaming the tunnels even between Blights.
According to the Chantry, the Maker punished the Tevinter mages and the Old Gods they worshipped by imprisoning the seven ancient dragons beneath Thedas. The darkspawn search for these Old Gods deep underground to infect them with the darkspawn taint and raise them as archdemons, triggering each blight. Only two Old Gods remain imprisoned, Razikale and Lusacan, but the dwarves are still in a constant fight against the darkspawn.
The loss of the Deep Roads led to the Thaigs becoming severed from one another and choosing their own kings. They eventually became overrun one by one until it was believed that only Orzammar, the dwarf city featured in Dragon Age: Origins, remained. However, in 9:12 Dragon, 18 years before the events of the first game, the dwarven capital of Kal-Sharok was rediscovered, though the dwarves isolated there refused to submit to the rule of the king of Orzammmar.
Castes and Culture
The dwarves of Dragon Age have an intensely conservative culture divided into a few key castes. The first major distinction is between the vast majority of dwarves who live their entire lives underground, and surface dwarves like Varric Tethras. Dwarves who have seen the sky are often permanently exiled from returning underground, though depending on which king of Orzammar rose to power in Dragon Age: Origins attitudes to this may be changing. Dwarves who go to Tevinter are not considered surface dwarves but foreign dignitaries and therefore are able to return underground thanks to the strong links between the two kingdoms. Others, like the Merchants' Guild, have formed their own surface-level heirarchy, which Varric somewhat usurps when he becomes Viscount of Kirkwall.
The rest of the dwarves live in a monarchical caste system. At this top are the nobility, including the royal family, which the Warden in Origins can be a member of. The middle castes include the warriors, miners, merchants, smiths and artisans. Below them is the servant caste, and finally below the servants are the casteless, who have no rights at all under the dwarven system and can only hope to improve their status by leaving for the surface of becoming “noble hunters” – dwarves who seek to have the children of higher caste dwarves. Dwarves inherit the caste of their parent of the same gender.
Millenia of proximity to both the darkspawn and the lyrium mines have had some side effects on the dwarven people. Mining the magical mineral lyrium has left dwarves with a mild resistance to magic, as well as an inability to enter the Fade when they dream. It’s also the reason that dwarves cannot become mages, though again this may be about to change in Dragon Age 4. Their constant battling with the darkspawn has left many dwarves infertile due to exposure to the darkspawn taint. This has put even greater pressure on their waning numbers, with Oghren’s dialog in Origins claiming that humans outnumber dwarves 100 to 1.
Faith and Future
Most dwarves do not abide by the Chantry’s religion, and have no official account for the origins of the darkspawn despite their constant warring. Dwarves practice a form of ancestor worship, as well as worshipping Paragons, dwarves selected by the dwarven assembly to be considered living ancestors due to their great deeds. When a dwarf is made a Paragon, they are also considered the first in a new noble house.
Golems like Shale in Dragon Age: Origins contain the souls of dwarves which were put into giant stone guardians to protect the thaigs, though the ability to create new golems has been lost to time. Dwarves who have lived noble lives are said to strengthen the Stone when they die, though the casteless and surface dwarves are automatically rejected.
With the mysteries of Dragon Age surrounding the origins of the darkspawn and red lyrium likely to be addressed in Dragon Age 4 as Solas the Dread Wolf tries to bring down the Veil between Thedas and the Fade, the dwarves could have a more central role in the next game. The Descent certainly seems to hint as such, and with surface dwarves like Varric Tethras now among the most politically powerful in Thedas, Dragon Age 4 could see the dwarves take on a very new role as they forge their future in the next game.
Dragon Age 4 is in development now.