In the eleven months since E3 a lot of information has trickled out about Dragon Age: Inquisition. I gave an broad overview earlier in the week and thought I'd go a little deeper and take a look at what we know about the adversaries and locations in the game. Developers have emphasized a multiplicity of factions that must be dealt with, which stands in stark contrast to Origins (DA1) and Dragon Age 2, both of which focused on one central problem (the Blight and the conflict between mages and templars respectively). While the next iteration of Dragon Age has an as yet unknown main antagonist, it has a much broader swath of fires for the Inquisitor to put out. Be forewarned of spoilers ahead (from all canonical material).
Locations
The Inquisition will battle from Ferelden to Orlais, although the bulk of the action appears to take place in the latter. Specific large locations revealed include: the Frostback Mountains (the boundary between the two kingdoms), the Dales (the Orlais side of the Frostback's), the Western Approach (southwestern Orlais), Nahashin Marshes (northwestern Orlais), and The Arbor Wilds (south of the Dales). A number of more specific, smaller localities are also known (via the initial link above unless otherwise noted): Halamshiral (north of the Dales), Exalted Plains (the Dales), Crestwood (in Ferelden, likely near the Frostback's), Griffin Wing Keep (Western Approach), the Southern Desolation (the Western Approach?), The Waking Wood (the Arbor Wilds?), the Dust Plains (the Western Approach?), and The Adamant Fortress (southern part of the Western Approach; a location from the Dragon Age: Asunder novel).
In addition, we know the Inquisitor will spend at least some time in the Fade and that he or she will visit the Deep Roads and a Dwarven thaig (this could be Orzammar, although as the franchise seems keen on not revisiting previous locations, Kal-Sharok (in the southern Anderfells) or an entirely new thaig).
Adversaries
The background entering Dragon Age: Inquisition includes the Orlaisian civil war between Empress Celene and Grand Duke Gaspard de Chalons (along with an Elven rebellion in Hamalshiral). The war is at the heart of The Masked Empire novel, but the book does not resolve the conflict. None of the information provided by the developers has touched on how this material will impact the Inquisition (albeit from the E3 teaser we can deduce Morrigan is involved), so it's difficult to judge how much the Inquisitor will deal with it directly (scenes from Hamalshiral imply interacting with Celene, and some believe Briala from the aforementioned book is shown in the concept art below, but that's as much as we can say).
Another piece of the backdrop is the war between the mages and the templars, whose seeds were sown by Anders in Dragon Age 2, reaching the point of outright war in the novel Dragon Age: Asunder. There are few specifics about how this conflict will impact the Inquisitor either (for the Red Templars, see below), although the attachment of the templar Cullen and former circle mage Vivienne to the Inquisition form connection points--as does Cole's inclusion (a character from Asunder).
Beyond the background, the major plot point of the game is the breach in the Fade, allowing demons to directly access Thedas. There's been no indication of organisation amongst the demons, so they don't seem to represent a faction. Frankly, other than mentioning the breach itself and showing a few demons nothing has been revealed. Closing the breach would seemingly end the demon problem--something that does not address the other issues faced by the Inquisition.
Somewhat akin to demons, we know multiple dragons pose a serious threat to the Inquisitor. Dragons seem to be largely solitary enemies, although given all the dragon imagery associated with the Inquisitor, plus Flemeth's involvement, it's likely they mean more than just a few difficult fights.
Much more speculatively, it's possible the Qunari could feature in a small way, although my feeling is that if they do they would be attached to the Iron Bull's story and not part of the main plot.
The Red Templars have been very prominent in released material. This organised group seems to be composed of templars who switched from taking regular lyrium to red lyrium (the substance discovered in Dragon Age 2 that drove both Meredith and Varric's brother Bartrand mad). We know nothing about their goals, but I'd speculate it relates to Meredith's final solution of killing all the mages. The game's pre-Alpha demo showed the group near Crestwood, although it's unlikely that is the only area they will be encountered in.
Another group featured in released material are the Venatori cultists, but we know even less about them. In the same demo above they were found in Griffin Wing Keep, and an earlier demo it was confirmed that the Western Approach was an area of particular interest for them. Given the Tevinter symbols on the cultist pictured above (perhaps what's been meant when I've heard that Tevinter mages are enemies to be encountered), they have a connection to Imperium, and as such I don't think they will be strictly localised.
That, as far as I've been able to discern, is that. Other factions may exist and there's a host of details missing, but it does paint a picture of the kinds of issues and locations our Inquisitor will tackle. I suspect political and diplomatic tactics will differentiate the backdrop problems from those of the Fade or fanatics like the Venatori, but time will tell. If I've missed anything, or if you spot errors, please let me know!
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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