It wasn’t always easy for the Origins crew. Actually never.
The idea wasn’t bad, just the implementation… Do you remember the Nothing level from Dragon Age: Origins? The section is still notorious in the community today – because many found it so terrible. A mod called “Skip the Fade” is still one of the most popular fan content for the role-playing game.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard teases this story with an Easter egg that only those who have played Origins will notice. Don’t worry, we’ll stay spoiler-free.
Rook’s mouse joke
As part of a companion’s personal quests, Rook ends up in a dream world – and thus of course in the so-called nothingness in the Dragon Age universe. Rook has to free someone there and is warned that guards are already lurking. The character then says:
Great, how am I supposed to get past there? Maybe turn into a mouse and slip through holes? Fighting giant spiders?
The dry answer comes back from the companion:
No, you should get the guards out of the way!
If you want to know exactly and are not squeamish about little story spoilers:
Warning: the following paragraph contains spoilers
The dialogue takes place as part of Lucanis’ personal mission as soon as you return to the dream version of his prison. Malice is at your side and leads you to Lucanis.
That’s how it was back then: In Origins, the hero of Ferelden ends up in nowhere quite early on and initially has to make his way there without any companions. This is brutally difficult at times, especially as a magician, as you are easy prey for opponents. After all, you get special abilities, including the ability to transform into a mouse and crawl through small holes in this form.
Little by little you unlocked four skills that you could only use in this section: Mouse, Fire, Ghost and Golem.
The nothing section takes a long time if you don’t know by heart what you have to do and in what order. For many, this was more frustrating than fun – and the dreary brown-gray surroundings didn’t really help. But as mentioned, it has been around for a long time a mod for that, or you stick to walkthroughs.
Even if The Veilguard feels completely different than the older parts of the series, it is still full of little allusions to its predecessors. For example, listen to what songs the bards of Minrathous play – you might recognize the melody!
What do you remember about the nothing level? Was everything better before or did the section already annoy you back then?
