Most of the content of Dragon Age Central has been developer posts to the official Dragon Age forums, first opened in May 2004. But all things must come to an end, and these forums were shut down on 2nd November 2009, the day before the game’s release in North America.
Since I haven’t had time to add much other content to the site for most of 2009, I’ve decided to also shut down Dragon Age Central as it was, leaving it here as an archive.
The new Dragon Age Central is now a much simpler (and fully automated) website dedicated to making developer posts to the new official forum (on Bioware’s social site) easier to find and search through.
It’s been interesting running this site, and in a way I’ll miss it... but hopefully I’ll be too busy finally playing the actual game to care :)
Dragon Age Central
Updated: Monday, 02 November 2009 02:07PM | Synced: 447749 mins ago
Forum posts were made by game developers. Please do not take posts out of context. While these individuals will have special insight into certain game-related questions, they are by no means the final authority. Please read the full topic and all its replies before forming an opinion. Remember, all things are subject to change.
-{ 2008 }-
Forum Post
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: New video and Interview now available on Gamespot [+15]
Date: Friday, 19 December 2008 01:49AM Yes, they are a seperate race entirely. The Tevinter Imperium still exists, declined from its glory days. The qunari are not part of it, no. They are in a state of constant war with the Imperium, in fact, both of them struggling for dominance of the North. |
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Mary Kirby ~ Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: 1310 Dragon Reckoning [+2]
Date: Thursday, 18 December 2008 05:47PM
If you were part of a group that had no agriculture and no mines, how else would you keep yourself supplied enough to defend your people against enemies that did have those things? Some Dalish resort to banditry and some resort to trade, but they all need the things the humans possess. |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: The Dalish elves: Bygone glory (Part 2) [+2]
Date: Tuesday, 16 December 2008 09:01PM Each Dalish clan has its own Keeper. If you like. I think "tribe" sounds more primitive. The clans date back to the ruling clans of their old homeland. The Dalish are, for the most part, the descendants of the ruling houses of their homeland that was. A last clarification, then: they are the leader of their clan, both in the spiritual sense (keeping them on the correct path) as well as the literal. They are not thought of as a ruler, however. The families within a clan listen to the Keeper because the Keeper is wise and it is tradition. |
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Mary Kirby ~ Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: "I am not like other guys" [+4]
Date: Monday, 15 December 2008 08:29PM
Well, dwarves have no particular explanation for werewolves, since there aren't any wolves in the Deep Roads, let alone the were kind. If humans say they're demon-possessed wolves, that's good enough for the dwarves. Even the Dalish believe in spirits and demons and the dangers of possession. Probably better than humans do, when you get right down to it... |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: The Dalish elves [+13]
Date: Monday, 15 December 2008 07:03PM Oh... every clan is a little different. Some are more violent, some focus on trade with the shems, some focus on collecting lore or preserving the ancient crafts. It all depends on what their Keeper is like. Gosh. I didn't realize I was so subtle. Serious about both things, including the accent. |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: The Dalish elves [+13]
Date: Monday, 15 December 2008 06:48PM They're spread out all over Thedas in different traveling clans. Think gypsies. "Pick up" anything? I don't understand. Just a little bit. |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: The Dalish elves [+13]
Date: Monday, 15 December 2008 05:24PM
There is indeed a Dalish magical tradition. The reason you can't belong to it is:
1) We only have so many Origins. As someone mentioned before, they cover the origins that we're able to bring you, not every logical possibility in the world. Perhaps something to visit in the future? I would certainly love an Apostate Origin, myself. 2) Dalish magic doesn't work like regular magic, stemming from a hedge tradition. As awesome as that might be, it would require different rules entirely. 3) The player who is a Dalish elf already has a lot to absorb in his Origin about being an elf and what that means. To simultaneously try to explain what his magic is all about and why it is different from and an exception to magic everywhere else...? The *worst* thing you can do when trying to introduce a part of the world to someone who doesn't know anything about it is to start with exceptions. Again, it's something to maybe explore in the future. As it is, we can't possibly do enough Origins to cover everyone's particular whims. Gromnir figured this out back when we first mentioned them. What they're meant to do, however, is provide you an entry into the world and the game that introduces what it means to be your class or your race or your station, something specific to the choice you made at character creation. It's a specific design decision to make them as unique and elaborate as possible, and I'm afraid if someone's take on that is that IF we provide origins (as opposed to none) that we must therefore provide ALL possible origins... well, I'm afraid that they're setting themselves up to be displeased. Not that that's where anyone was going, necessarily, I'm just being cautious in my wording. |
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author: PCGZine interviewees: Unknown Categories: Quality:
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Source: Exclusive first look
Date: Saturday, 13 December 2008 11:33AM
PCGZine, a free online pdf magazine, has an exclusive hands-on preview article that features a few new screenshots. Excerpts follow - the last paragraph contains Origin story plot spoilers.
For the last 15 minutes, the two Elves we’re watching on the screen have been engaging in some proper old-school dungeoneering. Since entering the underground ruins they’ve been ambushed by the walking dead, various vicious traps, spiders the size of bears (not to mention an actual bear covered in spikes known as a ‘Bereskarn’), and these Elves dispatched them all through careful use of skills, tactics and items. [...] Those ruins they’re exploring are actually old Elven ruins. [...] when one of them starts reading the Elvish writing off the statue, a conversation option lets you express confusion as to how your friend can even read. [...] in Dragon Age the Elvish civilisation suffered a little setback. [...] the humans of the world [...] managed to enslave the entire Elven race and only recently upgraded their place in society to scrawny servants. The few Elves who’ve fought back [...] have taken refuge in an enormous forest and it’s playing as one of those rebels that makes up one of the game’s six Origins. Character creation in Dragon Age is as much about you choosing your Origin as your race, class and gender. [...] For example, one of the Origins starts you off as a noble who’s obsessively training against their cosy upbringing to become a great warrior. Or if you choose to be a Mage you have to pick a special Origin that has you battling through the tyrannical schooling that all magic users in the world are forced to undergo. Before Mages can wander the world like free citizens they have to display control over their abilities, with those who can’t (and, horribly, those who are just too gifted) undergoing a kind of magical sterilisation that leaves them slow, emotionless and unable to anything but enchant things. The general idea is that as well as providing a unique opening to everyone’s game, your chosen Origin keeps popping up, even after the six plots have converged. Your race, upbringing, class, history... all of it changes how people react to you in this prejudiced world. [...] nothing in Dragon Age is good or evil, nothing is right or wrong [...], the only consequences of your choices are the physical and emotional consequences in the world and in your chosen party. [...] Every party member gets a percentile bar in their stats that shows their current opinion of you - a bar you can give a boost by giving away special ‘gift’ items to them. Returning to the Elf origin one more time, it’s one of these choices that kicks everything off once you first pick the origin. On an otherwise calm and safe day, you and your old friend pounce on three humans trespassing through ‘your’ patch of forest. The humans claim they’ve lost their way, but now they’ve found where you live, if they return home the secret could spread. So your options are to let them go, kill one to scare them or slaughter them all. I ended up killing one of them right there in cold blood, and I always play lovely men in RPGs. But letting them go just felt too foolish. Like I’d be betraying my race over squeamishness. So up came the arrow and down went the main, his friends screaming in terror. |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: The Dalish elves [+13]
Date: Thursday, 11 December 2008 06:58PM The vhenadahl is more of a reminder to the city elves of what they once had. To the Dalish it's just a tree -- or maybe, to a degree, a symbol of the importance of the lore they're keeping alive. They're keeping it alive for their lost brethren, after all, for that one day when they have a new homeland and they can teach the city elves all that was forgotten. |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: The Dalish elves [+13]
Date: Thursday, 11 December 2008 06:19PM Many do, yes. The Grey Wardens are not Ferelden, and will take whatever help they can get. Each tattoo represents one of the elven pantheon, that elf's chosen patron. The Dalish tattoo their forehead as a rite of adult passage, as a way of making it absolutely unmistakeable to any observer who they are and what they believe. |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: The Dalish elves [+13]
Date: Thursday, 11 December 2008 06:17PM Not normally, no, though sometimes violence can get out of hand if a village tries to drive out its neighbouring Dalish clan by force... or if human travelers stumble into the area the clan is camping. Not all Dalish clans are the same and some do resort to thievery and banditry (though they would no doubt not describe it as such), and thus they are universally looked upon with fear and suspicion. No, not any more. |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: The Dalish elves [+13]
Date: Thursday, 11 December 2008 05:53PM They are homeless, wandering the lands in tightly-knit clans... so, yes, they can sometimes be found in remote parts of Ferelden. |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: The Dalish elves [+13]
Date: Thursday, 11 December 2008 05:27PM This is correct. "Flat-ears" are elves who live outside of the alienage and try to integrate into human society. Elves are not slaves (not in Ferelden, anyhow), nor are they restricted to the alienage except by circumstance (which is still a pretty hefty restriction, especially for people who have likely never left the city they were born in). Some elves do strike out and look for the Dalish, leaving the alienage behind. The issue is finding the Dalish. Not to mention the fact that not many city elves know what the Dalish are all about, either -- it's not like the Dalish advertise. |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: New Grey Wardens video and information now available [+21]
Date: Thursday, 11 December 2008 03:15AM The Dalish Elf is, in fact, one of the origin stories that you can choose at character creation. Remember how we've talked about elves being the ones who submitted to human rule, making them second-class citizens within human society? The Dalish are not those elves. That's about as much as I'm willing to say about that for the moment. |
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author: Bioware interviewees: Unknown Categories: Quality:
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Source: Deep Stalker
Date: Saturday, 06 December 2008 03:03PM    Deep Stalker: Vicious predators of the dark, deep stalkers carve small tunnels through the stone in search of prey. Scaled like a lizard but with the head and frightful maw of a worm, the deep stalker walks and leaps on two legs and is able to curl up into a ball that will be indistinguishable from the stone around it. Rarely are there any signs of an impending deep stalker ambush, and even more rarely do unwary victims survive such an encounter. They attack with a mighty leap, their razor-sharp foot claws bared for the kill, or they spew acidic spittle that begins to digest their prey. The only chance most stalker victims get is when one of their companions falls; the stalkers are beasts, after all, and most will stop to devour a kill before moving on to the next fresh victim. Deep stalkers are found throughout the Deep Roads. They feed on anything they can get their fangs on, including the harmless nugs, the deadly spiders, and even the vile darkspawn that walk the world below. |