Highlights
- Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has the potential to bring the franchise's horror elements to the forefront, drawing from past games' depictions of darkspawn, broodmothers, blood magic, and so forth.
- Dragon Age is not a horror game, but the dark origins of many of its elements add a nice touch to its storytelling.
- The upcoming game's setting in the Tevinter Imperium, known for its blood magic and gothic-inspired architecture, presents a perfect opportunity to showcase these horror themes.
- The inclusion of horror elements in Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, such as possessed serial killers and dark catacombs, can enhance the overall experience and expand on the franchise's established horror themes.
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is on its way eventually, though it's been a while since fans last learned anything new about BioWare's upcoming action RPG. The sequel to 2014's Dragon Age: Inquisition is expected to shake the franchise up in several ways. This includes the transition to action combat, according to one leak, which some compared to 2018's God of War. However, there is still very little information about the title.
Among the unknowns is how BioWare will approach Dragon Age: Dreadwolf's tone, and there's a strong case for renewed eyes on the franchise's horror elements. Dragon Age has never been scary in the way a horror game is, but the original game delved heavily into some pretty horrific elements. This is most apparent in its depiction of Darkspawn, Demons, Blood Magic, and related ideas. Dreadwolf has an opportunity to bring the franchise's horror aspects to the forefront, and there are even some signs that BioWare is leaning in that direction.
Horror in the Dragon Age Setting
The go-to example of horror in Dragon Age would have to be the Darkspawn Broodmothers. Appearing in Dragon Age: Origins and its Awakening expansion, these are among the most viscerally disturbing creatures BioWare ever created. An example of what is essentially body horror, Broodmothers are the hideously mutated human, dwarven, elven, and qunari women that birth the endless legions of Darkspawn. The only thing more horrific than their appearance is the process of their creation, which involves the Darkspawn kidnapping a woman, infecting her with the Blight, and force-feeding her the flesh of other captives.
The Blight-infected Ghouls aren't quite as visibly grotesque, though they aren't doing too well either. The Blight corrupts their minds and bodies, slowly transforming them into mindless zombies. However, the saddest characters in Dragon Age: Origins are probably the sentient Ghouls like Ruck and Hespith, who still retain enough of their sanity to understand what's happening to them.
Meanwhile, it's hard to talk about the horrors of Dragon Age's Darkspawn without mentioning the Calling. When a Grey Warden’s blight corruption progresses to its final stage, they go off alone on the Deep Roads to die in battle against the Darkspawn. These Wardens are left to wander in the dark tunnels as the Darkspawn corruption destroys the bodies, and the Archdemon's song forces its way into their minds.
It's also worth examining how Dragon Age:Origins and Dragon Age 2 approached Blood Magic and Demons. Origins featured a quest called "Something Wicked," where players were tasked with exercising the spirits from an abandoned orphanage. This quest hits on several horror tropes, with players encountering ghosts and disembodied voices as they delve into the dark, blood-stained halls. The game's depictions of demonic possession are also quite unsettling, with most Abominations being grotesque, bloated monstrosities. Human-looking Abominations like Connor and Sophia Dryden aren’t as visually grotesque, but their creepy looks and mannerisms wouldn't feel out of place for a Resident Evil villain.
Speaking of things that belong in Resident Evil, The Golems of Amgarrak, a Dragon Age: Origins DLC, introduced the grotesque flesh monsters known as Harvesters, with a similar creature appearing near the end of Dragon Age 2. Meanwhile, a significant storyline in the second game involves a serial killer stalking the streets of Kirkwall. It culminates in Hawke's mother and several other women being killed and stitched together into a creature resembling Frankenstein's Monster. Again, these scenes aren't necessarily scary but horrific and disturbing all the same.
Darkspawn, possession, and Blood Magic played a much-reduced role in Dragon Age: Inquisition, and the game's tone skewed closer to typical heroic fantasy than its predecessors. However, it would be unfair to say that Inquisition abandoned horror themes. Undead-heavy areas like Crestwood and The Fallow Mire give off strong horror movie vibes, and the Codex entries include some very unsettling stories and descriptions. Special mention also goes to the side quest "Chateau d'Onterre," which sees players exploring a haunted mansion, and the Envy Demon from "Champions of the Just."
Dreadwolf's Horror Should be Front and Center
The upcoming Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has an opportunity to double down on the franchise's horror elements. The new game finally takes players to Dragon Age’s Tevinter Imperium, and it wouldn't be surprising if the game took players to the Anderfels and possibly Nevarra too. For anyone familiar with the setting, this is a greatest-hits compilation of Dragon Age's horror potential.
Tevinter is an entire empire built on blood magic, where every mage of any significant status engages in the practice, and things like necromancy and human sacrifice are commonplace. At least, if Southern Thedas is to be believed. The Imperium's cities are also densely packed with imposing gothic-inspired architecture that towers over the dark streets below. The Tevinter city from Dragon Age: Dreadwolf's 2022 trailer looks like someone told the artist to make a gothic horror version of Blade Runner. It would be a missed opportunity if there weren't at least one possessed Jack the Ripper and more to drive home the horror.
Meanwhile, the nearby Anderfels has something of a Darkspawn problem because most of its landmass is a Blight-tainted steppe permanently contaminated by multiple Darkspawn invasions. The Dragon Age: Dreadwolf gameplay leak also indicated it might see a renewed focus on the Darkspawn and everything they entail, and getting to the root of their horror is a must. Finally, there's Nevarra, Thedas' capital of necromancy. The Nevarran Mortalitasi aren't like typical fantasy necromancers and play an essential role in Nevarran culture. However, there are plenty of horrors lurking in the dark catacombs of the Grand Necropolis, as depicted in the story "Down Among the Dead Men" from the Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights anthology. Even the Mortalitasi don't have a complete idea of everything that's down there.
Not incidentally, the Tevinter Nights stories "Down Among the Dead Men," "The Horror of Hormak," "Callback," "Luck in the Gardens," and "Hunger" all deal with horror themes. If Tevinter Nights foreshadows the new game, it stands to reason that these ideas may play a prominent role in Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. That's hopefully the case, as Dreadwolf would otherwise be passing up some fantastic opportunities to expand on Dragon Age's horror themes.
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is in development.