Highlights
- Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will continue from Inquisition's Trespasser and take players to the never-before-seen Tevinter, where the Elven deity Fen'Harel - AKA Solas - awaits.
- With Baldur's Gate 3 raising the RPG standards, BioWare's Dreadwolf needs to offer something special to surpass it.
- A 'Dark Urge' background, inspired by Baldur's Gate 3, could add depth to the Dragon Age franchise by allowing players to embrace or resist their character's lust for killing.
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will be continuing where Inquisition’s expansion Trespasser left off, and this time players will be heading to Tevinter. At the climax of Trespasser, it was revealed that the Elven Sorcerer Solas is the Elven deity Fen’Harel, also known as the Dreadwolf. The cliffhanger also hinted that the next game will be in Tevinter, with BioWare later confirming that the next game would indeed be set there.
With Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 being very successful and raising the standards for RPGs, BioWare's Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will have to offer players a lot in order to surpass it. Baldur’s Gate 3 is considered the spiritual successor to Dragon Age, and filled the gap that BioWare was leaving by delaying Dreadwolf. There is one feature that Baldur’s Gate 3 has that BioWare could take inspiration from, which would make an excellent addition to the Dragon Age franchise and could potentially add a new level of depth to the story: Dark Urge.
Dragon Age Needs a 'Dark Urge’ Background
Baldur’s Gate 3’s Dark Urge Origin
The Dark Urge origin in BG3 has been a favorite among fans of the game, and is an origin character that players can choose similarly to how the companions can all be the origin character. However, the Dark Urge is fully customizable. With the Dark Urge comes new dialogue options with NPCs and companions, as well as a unique personal storyline for the player character and another NPC. The Dark Urge wakes up at the start of the game with amnesia, and as the story progresses, they learn that they have a lust for killing and that they are prone to murdering in their sleep. It is up to players to decide whether to resist the urges or to embrace them.
How a ‘Dark Urge’ Background Would Fit in Dragon Age
Dragon Age has had characters similar to the Dark Urge before, such as Anders who was possessed by a spirit of Justice and would occasionally black out and lose control of his body to the spirit, but he didn’t have the Urge to kill and murder. If Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is heading in the direction of having a faction-based class system that rumors suggest, then the games own Dark Urge could be a pre-set class, although having the Dark Urge as a background would likely be better and would allow players more in depth customization of their character. Dragon Age’s version of the Dark Urge could be someone who is suffering from demonic possession and survived with their free will intact, and didn’t turn into an Abomination, only to later find out that the demon is influencing their actions.
Tevinter is the Perfect Setting for a ‘Dark Urge’
The Tevinter Imperium is full of Magisters, and many of them use their slaves in unthinkable ways, such as Magister Danarius infusing Dragon Age 2’s popular companion Fenris with lyrium and turning him into his own personal guard, until Fenris eventually ran away. The player character in Dreadwolf could have been captured, or if they’re an Elf enslaved by a Magister and had something terrible done to them, they could end up with an affliction like the Dark Urge. It would make sense for a Magister try to bound a demon to someone and have them become a mindless loyal servant, but maybe the player character was too powerful or just lucky and survived with their mind intact, only to later find out that a demon has been manipulating them ever since.
In the Tevinter Imperium, blood magic is officially discouraged, but is widely practiced unlike in other countries in Thedas, which have outlawed it. Perhaps the player character practiced in blood magic when one day, a spell goes wrong, and they become corrupted since blood magic corruption is usually caused by a demon possessing the spell caster. Usually the spell caster will turn into an abomination, but the player character could survive, making that would be their background story. Instead of becoming an Abomination, the demon is trying to influence their actions. Ultimately, there are several ways to give Dragon Age: Dreadwolf its own version of the Dark Urge, so hopefully one of these paths is taken.
