How Netflix’s Dragon Age: Absolution alludes to Dreadwolf with Tevinter

If you ask BioWare’s John Epler about it Dragon Age: Absolutionhighlights one aspect of the animated Netflix spinoff that is working towards the long-awaited fourth Dragon Age game, Dragon Age: Dread Wolf. And it’s not the last episode’s sting, when an old foe left for dead made an unexpected comeback.

Instead, Epler highlights the crew’s journey absolution was able to delve into the fictional land of Tevinter, a dark realm supported by slavery and human sacrifice-powered magic that fans have come to expect to be the setting dire wolf for almost a decade since the last scene of Dragon Age: Inquisition‘s final DLC adventure.

“The most important thing for us was […] to make sure we don’t shun or sugarcoat the sins of Tevinter, especially when traveling to such an extreme country,” said Mairghread Scott, absolution‘s showrunner, Polygon told.

It’s that unflinching look, Epler added, that “gives us opportunities to push more into conflict situations in the future. What do the people look like in it who are really good people and not just people who see themselves as good people?”

And if one thing was clear, as Polygon sat down with Scott and Epler via video to chat about it absolution, to them, Tevinter was not just a consortium of powerful mage-politicians, a specific type of architecture, or a location on a fantasy map. Tevinter was an opportunity to create intriguing, flawed, and perhaps frighteningly relatable characters.

[Ed. note: Some spoilers for Dragon Age: Absolution follow.]

Image: Netflix

absolution features a quartet of Tevinter characters: the reluctantly heroic Miriam, a formerly enslaved elf; her lover Hira, a magician who has turned her back on her country; Tassia, a warrior who believes her job is to protect others at all costs; and the main villain of the series, the Magister Rezaren Ammosine.

Rezaren is a portrait of denial – as he sees it, doing whatever it takes to right a wrong, reunite his family, and revive his brother. The reality is that he will never consider his “siblings” as anything but property, and he will never relinquish the superiority Tevinter offers him as a slave-holding, high-ranking mage.

“We write very likable villains who essentially encourage you to look away from their misdeeds,” Scott said, “but ultimately it was really important for me to try to look them in the eye as best I could. […] In a story like Dragon Age, it’s really easy to gloss over some of the evils of abuse, slavery, and the caste system. I found it really important that we look at these as realistically as possible – or as respectfully as possible; It’s hard to say it’s realistic in a fantasy setting.”

“A lot of the people who live in it [Tevinter] have deceived themselves or persuaded themselves Well, that’s the way it is‘ Epler said. “Rezaren is a person who sees Yes of course it’s unfair of course but that’s just the world we’re in. It’s interesting because I think that’s ultimately a lot of people’s Tevinter take. It also offers an interesting way of contrasting that with people who are in this society and might not see things exactly that way; They don’t just accept that things are like this.”

player from Dragon Age: Dread Wolf, judging by the brief teasers BioWare has released, will venture into Tevinter to confront Solas, a renegade mage and cult leader who was last seen rallying the world’s downtrodden to his cause, but who plots in secret to tear reality apart. In other words, in classic Dragon Age fashion, it’s a complex ethical situation that seems to be happening in an even more complex place.

Image: Netflix

For a twist, Polygon closed the chat with a simple question. From the expansive cast of Dragon Age: Inquisition, why choose Fairbanks (voiced by Matt Mercer), the freedom fighter of Orlesia, as the series’ most prominent character ripped from the games? As it turned out, there was a simple answer. And according to Scott, it had nothing to do with “the sheer joy of killing.” [Mercer] as often as possible.”

“Look, I’ll be honest, I really couldn’t bring myself to kill Harding,” Scott said, referring to one of them inquisition‘s fan-favorite (but not available to the player romantically) characters. “Like, No, I still hope to romanticize her. […] We also wanted to give our characters a real sense of danger. That the leader of the team and the guy who theoretically planned most of this plan died early on was a way of getting the audience to understand that all bets were off the table.”