BioWare artwork lead Matt Rhodes simply retains sharing explosive Dragon Age improvement particulars and alternate storylines on Twitter, all with accompanying idea artwork in addition. This newest revelation would possibly simply beat murdering Origins’ Sten in a draft model of the Trespasser DLC—it appears BioWare thought of bringing our Origins protagonist again for The Veilguard, however they’d have been sickened and horribly disfigured by the Gray Wardens’ Blight-based Calling.
Rhodes shared just a few idea items of the Anderfels area of Thedas, house to the Wardens’ Weisshaupt Fortress and the Hossberg Wetlands zone of Veilguard. The third piece is the actually stunning one, displaying a cloaked determine wrapped in bandages, their pores and skin mottled and purple-grey the place uncovered. They’re sitting on a throne with a Warden bodyguard posted behind them, and this character now not appears capable of communicate, as a substitute counting on a quill and stack of parchments to speak. They’re holding one such message as much as the viewer: “Do not let her see me like this.”
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“No person else appeared to love the ‘leper king’ path, however I assumed it would be cool,” Rhodes wrote within the caption, referencing the historic Baldwin of Jerusalem who was memorably depicted by Edward Norton in Kingdom of Heaven and in addition impressed the Leper in Darkest Dungeon. “The Hero of Ferelden has been laying aside ‘The Calling.’ The Blight takes extra every year, however there’s nonetheless an excessive amount of to do on the floor.”
This might have been an absolute bombshell if it had made it into The Veilguard. Dragon Age’s Blight-fighting Gray Wardens take a bit nibble of the stuff to get their powers. It means they’re capable of kill Archdemons, but it surely additionally begins a roughly 20-year countdown till they hear The Calling and begin reworking into maddened ghouls. As soon as it appears to be like like their ticket’s been punched, a Warden’s alleged to journey underground to the Darkspawn’s house turf and exit combating. In Inquisition, world state codex stuff had the Hero of Ferelden out searching for a treatment for The Calling—it is why they weren’t round to assist out.
Clearly, issues did not absolutely work out on this iteration of Veilguard’s story. Rhodes does not say explicitly, but it surely looks like our Origins hero additionally would have been First Warden of the order on this state of affairs—within the last sport, the Wardens are led by a bellicose chap straight out of central casting for an obstructionist police commissioner and voiced by none apart from Nicholas Boulton, Hawke’s actor from Dragon Age 2.
And just like the prospect of Sten getting blown up in Trespasser, this destiny for our Origins hero would have been a megaton bummer but additionally rad as hell. The “do not let her see me” message particularly is so goddamn heart-wrenching—it presumably refers to Morrigan, the hero’s pal and companion even when they by no means entered a relationship. The hero’s disfigurement and silence would even have elided questions of participant customization and voicing a beforehand silent protagonist—even in case you performed a dwarf, this presumably got here at a time in improvement the place world states had been nonetheless on the desk, and will have been addressed with a cheeky shortened mannequin.
I am principally a web impartial on this not having made it into the ultimate sport. On the one hand, whereas I actually cherished Veilguard, its model of Thedas undoubtedly lacks quite a lot of the strife, edge, and tragedy from earlier video games. Seeing the Hero of Ferelden like this might have been completely chilling and unforgettable. On the flip aspect, it might need caught out like a sore thumb within the swashbuckling, D&D podcast-core sport we wound up getting. I can blissfully faux my Origins Warden (Metropolis Elf Rogue, romanced Morrigan) is out doing errands for the Witch of the Wilds, possibly delivering a care package deal to their grownup son who was a demon god whereas he attends Redcliffe College, house of the Fightin’ Mabari.
This is not the primary time BioWare thought of doing one thing completely heinous to our Origins characters: In an early draft of Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Right here Lies the Abyss quest, we’d have had to decide on whether or not the Hero of Ferelden or Dragon Age 2’s Hawke will get misplaced endlessly in one other dimension.
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