The Dragon Age series has a lot of optional reading for its fans, from the books to the comics and the in-game codices that can be found all over Thedas. This is because the games attract players who love stories, characters, and lore. However, gamers that do not always read the codex entries they find in the castles and swamps are missing out on one of the elements that make Dragon Age so great.
In the flow of the game's story is wrapped up in the gameplay, it is understandable why codices would be skipped in the first playthrough. That is why reading all the codices is actually a great goal that adds to Dragon Age's replay value. Some players replay to make different choices, others to play on another difficulty, and some have been picking the games up again so that they can read all the codices before Dragon Age 4 comes out.
What Makes Codices So Interesting
Codex entries found throughout the games offer a lot of information about the world of Thedas, and what makes many of them interesting is that they are often pieces written by characters themselves in the Dragon Age universe. As such players do not just learn about the world, but they do so through the perceptions of others like Chantry scholars, Grey Wardens, and the Dalish. In fact, some codex entries even contradict each other, which makes sense since they are based on the experiences of different individuals and cultures.
What some players may not know about Dragon Age: Origins is that some entries differ depending on what background gamers choose at the beginning of the game. For example, a Dalish Warden will get codex entries about their own culture, while humans will get entries written by humans. Also, in all the games, certain codices update depending on the players' choices.
For hardcore fans that like theories, the codex collection has been a big deal. Knowing what Solas hinted in Trespasser has made fans go back and comb through the series' codex entries to find whatever they can about the Evanuris, Old Gods, Fade, and ancient elves. There is more to dig into as well, such as The Descent DLC, which hinted to fans that dwarves can have magic and that lyrium is connected to creatures called Titans. This has made fans dive into codex pages, hoping to piece the lore puzzle together as to the truth of Thedas' history and magic. Fans looking into codices have given rise to Dragon Age's most popular theories, from the Evanuris being the Old Gods to Andraste being an Old God baby and qunari being elves that were experimented on with dragon blood.
The Humorous Codices
The codex entries are not all about being lore-heavy, as many of them are actually quite funny and contain many easter eggs for players to enjoy. Examples include "Plants vs Corpses" instead of Plants vs Zombies and even easter eggs to previous Dragon Age titles, like the message in Inquisition that says "Can I get you a ladder to get off my back," which was a line of dialogue the protagonist would constantly say in Dragon Age: Origins.
A fan favorite codex comes from the Jaws of Hakkon DLC, and is about Storvacker the bear. The entire codex is a near-word-for-word quote from the movie Mean Girls, except instead of talking about a popular girl, the codex is talking about a popular bear with lines like "One time, she met Alistair Therein, fabled warrior of the Fifth Blight, and he told her she was pretty." Even the writer of the codex is an easter egg, being named Reginald de Gorge which is like a fantasy name for Regina George. With some excellent jokes and meaningful lore, those that missed out on Dragon Age's codex entries may want to focus on them more in future playthroughs.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is available on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
