It has been awhile since the last What We Know article and a great deal of information has come out since then. Be forewarned of spoilers from the previous games and published materials below [I added a couple of tidbits of detail June 30th, noted in square brackets below].
We'll start in the beginning with the premise: Dragon Age: Inquisition takes place three years after the events of Dragon Age 2; the events in the books Asunder and The Masked Empire occur right before the game (the former looks at the mage-templar conflict, while the latter focusses on the Orlesian civil war). It is not a direct sequel to either prior game, in the sense that you are playing either Hawke or the Hero of Fereldan, but the events of those games impact what occurs (more on that below). Cameron Lee offers a succinct description of the premise (via Nerd Alert at E3):
You are at a peace conference between the mages and the templars...and a massive explosion happens--wipes out everyone [but] you get blasted into the Fade--which doesn't normally happen, people don't go physically into the Fade, but you do, and as a result of that you become marked. So you have this mark on your hand and it allows you to manipulate the Fade in various ways--there's a big breach in the sky between the Fade and the real world--demons are pouring through, lot's of little rifts opening up all over the place, and because of that mark, you're really the only one that can actually do something about it, but the other weird thing is that chaos is starting to spread all over the world--different nations are in chaos, different factions have been weakened, people are at war with each other--which is all very convenient. So as a player you get to form an Inquisition, which is a big organisation full of soldiers, spies, merchants, politicians, all with the goal of uncovering the truth of who is behind this, what is happening, and then bring stability to the world.
Lee was more specific about the opening itself with AusGamers:
At the beginning of the game when the head of the Chantry and the head of the Mage's faction they're going into the Temple of Sacred Ashes to this peace talk, and they're all killed. There's this massive explosion and this breach in the sky opening up, and the Chantry's in absolute chaos. It's headless. You've got infighting between different factions, you've got people saying screw it let's all retreat back to Val Royeaux and elect a new leader et cetera. So the formation of the inquisition is kind of always like a plan B that the head of the Chantry was considering, and then Cassandra starts to bring this all up after the events at the temple. And she's doing that because she knows that the Chantry was considering it and that the Chantry is just going to run off and talk about stuff rather than taking any action. So she sets things in motion via this loophole, picking up the Inquisition.
Along with the tear in the Fade and war between the mages and templars, there's a civil war in Orlais between Empress Celene and Grand Duke Gaspard de Chalons (along with an Elven rebellion in Hamalshiral), "The Empire is falling apart" (to quote Asunder). 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 the specifics of how this material will impact the Inquisition (albeit from the E3 teaser from last year we can deduce Morrigan is involved), so it's difficult to judge how much the Inquisitor will deal with it directly (some believe Briala from the aforementioned book is shown in the concept art below, but that's just speculation).
I'd initially been under the impression that the Inquisitor founds the Inquisition, but Mary Kirby makes it clear that it's Cassandra who creates the fledgling organisation. In the game lore, the first Inquisition was formed with:
[the] goal of protecting the people from the tyranny of magic in whatever form it might take; blood mages, abominations, cultists or heretics. A loose association of Andrastian hard-liners, the group combed the land in search of these threats and some say theirs was a reign of terror. Others say they were cast in a negative light by history because their investigations and even application of justice, protecting both mages and common people impartially, crossed too many powerful groups. In these accounts it is suggested that the group was already known as the Seekers of Truth and that the "Inquisition" moniker was perhaps pejorative
In the real world "Inquisition" is a loaded term (something I explored awhile back), and that's quite intentional. While your Inquisition might not be torturing unbelievers like the historical version, it could be a very hard, harsh organisation (including abandoning innocents to their fate, ala the Crestwood demo from last year). Regardless, as the Inquisitor you have a great deal of political power:
you have rights and powers that other citizens don't have, and you can use those to great effect. At the same time you also have to make decisions, moral decisions, about what's going to happen. Do you want to save a village from burning, or do you want that village to burn down?
Lee added an interesting tidbit about the Mage-Templar conflict:
You can bring it into the conflict between the mages and the templars once and for all very early in the game, and you can align with one of those--you can decide who you want to bring into your Inquisition. When you make that choice you will see large pieces of content which are exclusive to that choice.
So there are two branching paths right at the beginning of the game--choosing a side, or attempting to mediate between the two--albeit given that there's a main antagonist the conflict is a symptom rather than cause of all the difficulties.
Who is the Inquisitor? A male or female of any race (Human, Dwarf, Elf, or Qunari), whose only restrictions are that Dwarves cannot be mages, Elves must be Dalish, and the Qunari must be Vashoth (those never part of the Qun)--the Elven restriction is the only one I find puzzling, but I'm sure there's a good reason for it. The surnames from each race are also set and have been revealed (via the Crestwood demo; the same order as above): Trevelyan, Cadash, Lavellan, and Adaar. The surname with the most direction connection to past player experience is Cadash, as that's Shale's background (DAO: The Stone Prisoner DLC).
Who joins the Inquisitor as part of the Inquisition? The entire group has been shown and only one remains unidentified.
Left to right: Cullen (DAO-DA2), Vivienne, Varric (DA2), Cole (Asunder), Solas, Cassandra (DA2), Iron Bull, Dorian, Leliana (DAO-DA2), Sera, unknown, and Blackwall. There are official bios on the website for the majority of those above--interestingly, all the characters from 2012's survey leak are present and unchanged. Not all of the characters above will be companions, as there are only nine, with Cullen, Leliana, and the unknown woman being NPC's. The companions consist of three's--three warriors, three rogues, three mages, and three women; I believe each NPC fits each class (warrior, rogue, mage). In all we have two Elves, a Dwarf, a Qunari, and Cole (who seems to be a spirit made flesh). The gender split is close (7 to 5), albeit 6 and 3 when it comes to companions (not the biggest of deals, but an interesting choice).
Assembling this group happens quite early in the game (within the first 30 minutes if I remember correctly) and it is possible to miss out on one or two. Mike Laidlaw and Mark Darrah (same link) also confirmed you can lose companions--down to one apparently if you make an effort to chase them away (I'd guess Cassandra is the core person who remains until the end). The image above is suggestive of The Last Supper, but thus far I believe the similarities are superficial (especially given the Round Table look in the Stand Together promo; I did look at the former implication which you can read via the link above).
Mike Laidlaw talked about the team being inspired by Game of Thrones for the characterisation:
I think that where Game of Thrones really shines, is with characters that you really care about and that are human, but flawed—and that's something that we've always strove for as well. Fantasy works well when you have people, people with all their ups and downs grounding against the wacky, you know, the mages and the demons and what have you…that's something that Martin does really well in my opinion. He makes characters that even though academically you know they're the bad guy, or academically you know they're wrong, he puts you in their head and helps you to understand whats going on with them.
And what about romances? Mike Laidlaw, when pressed on Twitter to confirm that there were more romances in the new game than Dragon Age 2 including the DLC (Sebastian), backpedaled:
Remind me to never use numbers when discussing the game. They are debated endlessly. Pretend I said, "lots."
Does this mean there are less or the same? It's not conclusive, since Laidlaw may not remember the exact number off the top of his head, but his qualification is worth keeping in mind. DA2 has 5 romances (Isabella, Merrill, Anders, Fenris, and Sebastian), while for DAI we currently have Cassandra and Cullen (no gender preference, if any, has been stated), Dorian (for male inquisitors [here's a great reaction to that from angelarts]), and Sera (for female inquisitors) confirmed with more to come (the Iron Bull is heavily implied). Cameron Lee discussed the mechanics of romance:
Romances are not about this sort of gamey approval rating; right so it's not like you can give people flowers and then sleep with them. Romance is a more nuanced and more organic and natural. There's these characters there with strong personalities with their own goals, [so] how you interact with them and how [you] may help or hinder or whatever their goals plays a part in that--a part in how your relationship builds with them as a "normal" relationship; and then from there what part do I want to take.
Along with the core group of followers, the Inquisitor is in charge of a large number of men and women, the most significant of which are called agents. Cameron Lee explained the concept to gamermd83 and the essentials follow (second paragraph is from AusGamers, link above):
You earn agents as you essentially build up your Inquisition, and then from that you can use your agents and use that influence and power you built up through the Inquisition to do a variety of things: it could be hey go and get me this rare crafting material, it could be repair this bridge...it could be I want to go and start to look into this main part of the story. ... There are hundreds of operations that you can send your agents on, and those operations will change depending on the actions and decisions you make throughout the course of the game. ... To progress through major parts of the story you have to have a certain amount of influence, your Inquisition needs to have a certain amount of strength.
All throughout the game you will slowly build up the Inquisition to be in a position of power, people recognise you for who you are and what authority you wield. The Inquisition has three main pillars right, they have a military force lead by one particular character [Cullen seems like the obvious choice here], you've got a secret facet with spies and assassins lead by Leliana from DAO and then you've got a political pillar, which is all about the politics, the backroom deals and the connections you have... not just through nobles but also through merchant houses and stuff like that. And the area you decide to invest in both in terms of how you decide to grow and customise your Inquisition but also the types of content you decide to engage in is all up to the player. So if someone wants to play that kind of Game of Thrones-y political aspect they can definitely do it and that flavours the whole game and it impacts the whole game. They're still going to have to go around and kill some things themselves, but having that powerful political organisation will be reflected as well.
We'll also be sending out companions (and NPC's) on various missions throughout the game (the best demonstration of this was the E3 demo, which can be seen a number of places in interviews including the link above from IGN).
Along with the characters above, others from previous games have been confirmed: Morrigan (from DAO; she was featured in the E3 teaser from last summer and apparently she'll be more "mature"), Flemeth (DAO-2), Alistair (DAO-2), Dagna (DAO), and Queen Anora (DAO). The Alistair inclusion will not occur for those who sacrificed him in Origins. There's also an unidentified character from the novel The Masked Empire who can be encountered in a side mission (most likely Ser Michel, although possibly Mihris or even Imshael). It's hard to imagine Empress Celene and Gaspard du Chalons won't make an appearance.
The developers have hinted that Hawke and the Hero of Fereldan (if alive) will be referenced in some capacity, but in my opinion they won't appear given the huge amount of variables those characters can have (even though cameos have been reported, later changed to a "solid possibility"; I don't believe that means they will appear in person). Steve Butts at IGN gives us a hint at the kind of thing we can expect while describing the E3 demo: "You’ll be able to claim the banner points in the game in the name of the Hero of Ferelden."
Returning to the question of the backdrop of DAI, what about our prior actions in DAO and DA2? These can be carried over via the Dragon Age Keep. As Lee explains:
What we wanted to do with the Keep is have that ability for people to be able to recreate their save -- particularly for Gen 4 platforms -- and that's quite a detailed list. There's hundreds and hundreds of choices in there, and most of it's narrated and there's pictures and text and stuff like that. So they should be able to recreate to the same detail their save file through that Dragon Age Keep online process, and then pull that save game down onto any platform.
In the Nerd Alert interview (link above) Lee said there's about 300 different choices to be made (the site includes narration, animations, story and lore--more may be added, although it's unlikely to impact elements in the game at release). Lee also said decisions made within DAI will be uploaded to the Keep to be used in future games. There is a default background for newbies or those who want to start fresh: a Dalish Elf was the Hero of Fereldan (Origins) and died ending the Blight (Alistair becomes king), while Hawke is a mage (Dragon Age 2) and sided with them against the templars.
What about various dangling plots, like the Architect (DAO: Awakening), Morrigan's Old God Baby (Origins), or Corypheus (DA2: Legacy)? They are unlikely to significantly impact the Inquisition storyline given that it can be played without those elements available (the Architect could be dead and the Hero of Ferelden may never have had the Old God Baby with Morrigan). However, those plot lines will be addressed in some way if they were involved in your story. As Cameron Lee explained last September (specifically in reference to the Old God Baby):
If players did decide to have a kid with Morrigan, and not all of them did, so that's the thing--I can't talk too much about it, unfortunately--but, you know, certainly if you were to have a kid, you know, that would make you a little bit more human, I would imagine, so you might see something about that.
Stretching over two nations [Orlais and Ferelden] with 10 unique terrains ranging from forests to deserts, swamps to mountains, Dragon Age: Inquisition will be absolutely massive when compared to the previous two games. “This is the biggest game in our studio’s history,” Darrah told us. “It’s the largest RPG we’ve ever made. There is more story-based content in Dragon Age: Inquisition than any other BioWare RPG." Noting that this is the first open-world game from BioWare, Mark also let us know that Inquisition “will set the bar for all of our future games.”
I believe the 10 unique terrains equates to 10 significant locations, but that must remain inference at this point. Ferelden (the setting of DAO) and its neighbour Orlais (which includes the Dales) are the nations in question. We know of the following locations either via the official website or the Crestwood demo (listed roughly east to west):
-The Hinterlands (confirmed, Ferelden and includes Redcliffe; appeared in the E3 demo)
-Crestwood Hills (confirmed via the Crestwood demo; it's in Ferelden; appeared in the PAX demo)
-Frostback Pass (confirmed via the Crestwood demo; may include Orzammar)
-Therinfal Redoubt (confirmed, although where in Ferelden is uncertain)
-Halamshiral (confirmed, in Orlais and presumably part of a larger region)
-Emprise du Lion (confirmed; within the Dales)
-Exalted Plains (confirmed; within the Dales)
-Emerald Graves (confirmed; within the Dales, likely near or in the Arbor Wilds area)
-The Southern Desolation (confirmed via the Crestwood demo; almost certainly in Orlais)
-The Western Approach (confirmed, Orlais and includes Griffon Wing Keep and the Fortress of Adamant; appeared in the PAX demo; the fortress is featured in Asunder)
-Nahashin Marshes (confirmed via the Crestwood demo)
-The Fade (confirmed)
This makes for 9 of 10 locations (Therinfal and Halamshiral are within larger areas), 10 if the Fade is included (although I doubt it counts as a place of exploration and expansion of influence for the Inquisition). What these areas do not include are the Heartlands of Orlais (containing the majority of large settlements), while consisting of the western slice of Ferelden. For the map below the actual areas will be much smaller, but it's the approximation I'm aiming for; the numbers match where they are listed above, excluding Halamshiral and Therinfal.
The point about the size of areas is worth emphasizing. We know from the demo's that the Crestwood Hills region is bigger than all of Dragon Age 2 combined (apparently 15 minutes in-game to walk from one end to the other), while the Hinterlands are bigger than all of Dragon Age: Origins combined. Interestingly, the latter is described as medium-sized, which suggests that Crestwood is (relatively) small and that there are much bigger environments. The girth of these areas is meant to give us the open world experience. As Mike Laidlaw explained to joystiq's Susan Arendt:
"In each level, I wanted there to be at least one cave, one dungeon, one something that no-one tells you to go to," he explained to me. He said that his design team had to "break some old habits" as they were creating the enormous open world that would become Inquisition. Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 both made sure the player knew about every last thing they could possibly do, and Laidlaw wanted to make sure not everything was quite so obvious. It meant that there might be content in Inquisition that might never be seen, but it also meant that there was a point to exploring the game's stunning locations beyond just hitting the next point of interest on the map.
To traverse these large areas players will have access to mounts for the first time in the Dragon Age franchise (from a basic horse to a creature that looks like a cross between a nug and a water buffalo, a lizard of some kind (referenced at E3), a red hart (not a halla), and bog unicorn (both via the deluxe edition), but there will be no mounted combat as Mark Darrah explains:
the feature was deemed to be out of focus with the series’ core combat systems. After all, players already have additional party members and Dragon Age’s combat emphasizes the use of tactics to properly utilize the different companion characters. The developer chose to continue to focus on party mechanics instead of adding mounted combat into the mix and potentially altering a setup that is already proven to work. Aside from game design, Darrah also revealed that the inclusion of a mount system in general was something that the developer wanted to be careful with since it is new to the series. Adding mounted combat on top of everything else would also require the new mechanics to be built from the ground up on the game’s Frostbite 3 engine. Ultimately, the time and resources necessary to accomplish the task wouldn’t have been worth the effort for a feature that wasn’t deemed to fit well inside the game to begin with.
While the Inquisitor is mounted his companions will disappear until you dismount. I also have a suspicion that one of the ways we'll bounce around between locations is via Eluvians (this is not a unique thought), now that they have been re-activated (The Masked Empire)--if that surmise is correct, Briala would definitely be involved since she currently controls them.
To make the open world dynamic, the devs have incorporated a world master system. The emergent system will reflect the changes you make in the environment, so if you (for example) extensively hunt bears in an area, their population will be depressed or go extinct (the same goes for resources you might gather). As Cameron Lee explained:
We have the World Master system, which flows into everything from creatures to NPCs to bandits. The player has, for example, driven out a particular faction from an area – based on decisions and actions they take – and another faction may move in and take their place
The comment about factions is interest and I'm curious to see how that changing dynamic will work in-game. As for resource collection, what's our motivation? Two things: 1) to take advantage of the expanded crafting system, 2) the changes in DAI that will prevent players from amassing hordes of healing potions and auto-healing between encounters (thus requiring crafting). Lee (same link) discussed the new system:
Generally how it works is you have kind of like a template, and that template could be for armour, or it could be for weapons or other pieces of equipment. You can insert different metals, different materials, into the different slots of that template and that will keep the shape of the item, but it will change the physical characteristics of that item--so it will change the look, it will change the stats, so you can really customise how you look and how you're building your character.
This customization extends to bases--some of which are purely aesthetic, but others have game impacts. Some of these game-relevant mechanics are discussed in the PAX demo from last year, where bases can have a focus (military, diplomatic, or economic) and each has its own set of advantages (the specifics of which have not yet been fully discussed).
As for classes, the selection is familiar: Warrior, Mage, and Rogue. Each has three specialisations, not all of which have been delineated, but should allow enough flexibility to provide variation in play styles and for everyone to find something that suits them. It's difficult to truly dig into the specifics until more is revealed, so I'll bookmark that for now and come back to it when more information is released.
[Some housekeeping I missed when I posted this via the BioWare forum:
-Skyhold Keep will serve as your "party camp" location, as well as the base of the Inquisition. It is at least partially customizable.
-All of your companions will be there (like in DA:Origins), so you don't have to run around the map finding them (like in DA2).
-There will also be several others keeps/castles/strongholds you can take throughout the game to serve as a strongholds for the Inquisition. It is unknown if these will also function as companion-interaction locations, or if you will have to return to Skyhold for that.
-You will be able to change your companions armor and weapons (even weapon types), although they will maintain a sort of "personal style" to anything they wear.
-Combat will be far more tactical, placing emphasis on elements such as positioning, elevation, chokepoints, and preparation, with a strong focus on teamwork.
-There will be no level scaling. This means that you may encounter areas or enemies that are too difficult, and you'll have to come back to them when you are stronger.
-For dialogue there are three possible "wheels" that you can encounter during the game: The Tone Wheel is the "standard" option that you see most often in DA2. You are selected dialogue for the purpose of conversation and exposition. Your character's choices reflect his overall attitude and demeanor. The tones from DA2 (Diplomatic, Sarcastic, and Aggressive) have been replaced with Noble, Clever, and Direct; the Action Wheel is for making a hard-line choice between two (or more) options. It is not tone-based (such as the Accept/Deny quest options in DA2), and all options are "neutral" in terms of tone. To avoid confusion, each option will tell you explicitly the intent of the selected option; the Reaction Wheel is for reacting emotionally to a situation. Instead of choosing your tone, you choose an emotional reaction (such as "Sad", "Enraged", "Confused", etc.). The "Stoic" option is always available for a reaction-neutral response.
-Conversation will also be more dynamic, allowing you to just walk away mid-conversation.]
What about our antagonists? We know there's a hidden figure behind the tear in the Fade, but besides that person (or creature), who will the Inquisition be fighting? The Red Templars have been very prominent in released material. This group seems to represent the templars who are fighting the mages and have made the switch from regular lyrium (supplied by the Chantry until the Navarran Accord is annulled by Seeker Lambert in Asunder) to red lyrium (the substance discovered in Dragon Age 2 that drove both Meredith and Varric's brother Bartrand mad). I'd guess their goals are more extreme than simply defeating the mages.
Another group featured in released material are the Venatori cultists, who appear to be the extremists on the mage side of the equation. They use Tevinter symbols, but it's not clear if they have formal support from the Imperium (perhaps what's been meant when I heard that Tevinter mages are enemies to be encountered--one was featured in the recent E3 demo). There's certainly reason to wonder if they have a connection to Corphyeus (see above), given that players neither decide his fate nor need to have played the DLC he's featured in to be involved--why else set up a story in which he always escapes? Still, it's idle speculation on my part as there's no specific evidence to suggest his involvement.
Along with these two factions there will be demons, dragons, and bandits to fight, along with dealing with Orlesian politics (including the Elven rebellion). Mike Laidlaw briefly mentions the political element to Machinima, saying there was crossover from The Masked Empire, but didn't get into specifics, so as it stands the mage-templar conflict seems like the main organised groups to be confronted.
As for the gameplay itself, the story can be played through in 40-50 hours for those who eschew side quests and speed through the main story line; overall there's 100 hours of play available. The devs don't expect you to be able to do everything in one playthrough (indeed, given that some choices close off possibilities, this seems impossible). There are a few unique endings, along with about forty major variances based on your choices (there are hundreds of minor differences beyond that). Also of interest, there's content intended to be played after the main plot is wrapped up:
the preview states that most of the content in Emprise Du Lion is so difficult that the player won’t even be able to experience them until the post-game, implying that there is going to be more content for the player to explore even after the campaign has ended.
As Cameron Lee told Rock Paper Shotgun:
There’s a whole area in the game – it’s one of the highest level areas in the game, we kind of designed it for people to play after they finish the story – that’s kind of a pitched battle. So you and your party come through and push the enemy back and back, further throughout the whole area. And from that, the village that’s nearby changes. Maybe there’s more merchants on the roads and stuff like that, which then affects the in-game economy as well. It’s quite a complex and dynamic system.
One thing we won't get before the October 7th release is a playable demo, as Allan Schumacher explained to Game On:
[He] explained that putting together a demo would take time and resources away from the main development of the game. With that in mind, the task of completing Dragon Age: Inquisition itself has been given prominence over taking people off of the project in order to create a demo. [He] clarified that work on both of the series’ previous entries were completed in time to allow the team to build their demos. With Dragon Age: Inquisition, however, the developer is in a much different situation as there is still work to do before the game’s launch. Before the title releases later this fall, fans will get a chance to setup their game save early as Bioware plans to launch the Dragon Age Keep before the game comes out. The Keep will let both new and returning player dictate how past events transpired in the recent history of the Dragon Age universe. The web-based app will be used exclusively to determine player decisions from the first two games in the series as opposed to imported existing save files.
To me this isn't a big deal, but I can see it being a source of criticism prior to release.
That's all the information I've been able to find. If there are any omissions or errors please let me know.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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