Dragon age history. Dragon Age

27.01.2015

Tales about elves, gnomes, magic, evil wizards, dragons and creatures of darkness can be invented forever. Moreover, this can be done completely without relying on Tolkien, comrades. I just took it, and out of the blue began to fantasize, taking as a basis the following axioms: gnomes fight with maces and axes, elves are excellent archers and love magic, etc. As they say, we will assume that all unicorns are purple until you can prove to me otherwise. It’s true, we already have a lot of established stereotypes, on the basis of which we can invent scary, kind, sad and funny fairy tales. Probably, the guys from BioWare thought exactly in this vein when they decided to do something between The Elder Scrolls and Baldur's Gate. The scope for imagination, needless to say, is endless, as is the army of fans of this genre. This is not a post-apocalypse or interstellar flights: they love elves and dwarves more. All because this fairy tale theme Almost equally interesting for both children and adults. Children do not like living in a post-nuclear world or developing complex technologies that make it possible to collapse space and make a jump from one galaxy to another. In addition, the elf-dwarf theme was extremely popular in 2006, when development began, due to the relative freshness of the Lord of the Rings trilogy from Peter Jackson. The fantasy genre was extremely popular, so why invent something new if Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights had already been made? In general, BioWare, without properly moving away from the success of Mass Effect, announced Dragon Age.

The fact that the company was acquired by Electronic Arts caused a lot of concern among BioWare fans. The release of the non-standard Mass Effect puzzled many. Well, here’s some news about work on a role-playing fantasy. The public quite rightly expected that the new management hanging over the founders of BioWare would take up a new broom and begin revenge in a new way, however, as it turned out, all the fears were in vain. The Canadians from EA decided not to push the issue, but simply let the talented guys do what they know how to do. The end result may not be a masterpiece for the ages, but all the investments in the project have paid off handsomely.

At the time, Dragon Age's graphics were considered innovative. The screenshots released little by little were astonishing in their beauty as they were in the system requirements. Not everyone could play this game on a PC. In the year the game was released, literally every week gaming publications published various information regarding the project. We were promised open world, excellent, branched plot, many characters with their own stories and destinies, changing the story depending on decision taken and more than a hundred hours of playthrough. After Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Arcanum, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Icewind Dale, this has not happened for many years.

Well, in the fall, traditionally rich in video game hits, the game was presented to the general public in November. It is worth saying that 2009 was very different from current times, when more and more gamers are purchasing licensed games rather than grazing on torrents. Then on the territory former USSR Russian-speaking gamers did not amaze game publishers with their generosity, but, nevertheless, they decided to localize the game, and localize it efficiently, translating not only the text, but also the video. In the end it turned out not great, but just good. Dragon Age was too cool for home-grown localizers to take it and do the same. Consider the starting translation of the word “rogue” as robber. Although the meaning was much closer to “rogue”, “swindler”, “scoundrel”. Because it turned out that if we started playing as a human warrior, then we were given a character from a noble family with his own castle, army, servants, and our hero’s class, at the same time, was called nothing more than “robber.” Incorrect, but oh well.
Choosing a character was already, in fact, a game within a game. This have not happened before. Excellent graphics and many options for customizing the appearance forced gamers to sit for an hour or two in search of the ideal appearance of the main character. After that we could begin.

The surprises began already at the beginning. Depending on the chosen race and class, the starting location and plot plot changed. Players created different heroes in order to participate in all possible promotions gameplay, and also to record the moment when different initial lines were woven into a single plot ball.

Already at this stage it became clear that Dragon Age, despite all its charm, was just as clichéd as all previous BioWare projects. Anyone who takes this for granted, who likes all these cliches, becomes an eternal fan of the company. Those for whom these cliches cause nothing but boredom and nausea avoid all BioWare products. What is stamping? The fact is that main character, this is, as a rule, just a guy like you and me who, in a seemingly ordinary everyday situation, finds himself in the very whirlpool of events. Well, how can we avoid conflict? No way. That is why the world of the protagonist is invaded by known or unknown evil, which in the shortest possible time threatens to destroy everything good and good, leaving only everything evil and bad. The hero, which is not surprising, decides to fight back against adversity, and he always does this exclusively in a team of associates. A talented fighting team with diversified personalities - required condition games from BioWare. Anyone who doesn’t like playing in a crowd, leveling up everyone, keeping track of their inventory and paying attention to the emotional impulses of each member of the team should avoid games under the BioWare brand. Here, as in the films of Lynch or Tarantino, there is a lot of inappropriate conversations, jokes, philosophical discussions, as well as attempts to pour out painful things to the main character. Well, and, of course, a lot of sexual overtones plus blatant propaganda of homosexuality. All this was, is and, one must assume, will be in games from BioWare. All this was in Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect. All this was in the first part of the Age of Dragons.

So, what did we get with the first part of Dragon Age? The main thing that can be noted is the prospect of a great adventure that can be stretched out for 70, or even 120 hours. Some people buy strength training equipment for home without exercising on them at all, believing that the very presence of such equipment will have a beneficial effect on muscle tone. It’s the same with this game: among everyone who purchased it or simply downloaded it pirated, not everyone completed this long game to the end. But, every time you turn on the computer or pick up the console, a person remembers that he has a great adventure in his stash and that someday, on the weekend, on the occasion of sick leave, vacation, vacation or other occasion, a person just like that, right with in the morning, without washing his face, he will turn on Dragon Age and begin to play through it with feeling, sense, and order. It is far from certain that such a chance will arise, but here it is as with lottery ticket in the inside pocket of his jacket. You get pleasure not from winning itself, but from the feeling of possible joy in the future.

But, nevertheless, there were those who passed the game. Some binge gamers overcame it immediately in the first few days, some went away within a month, some over a year. But the vast majority noted the complete simplicity of the plot, the variety of locations and simply interesting adventures.

The developers met halfway modern requirements, expressed, first of all, in a reluctance to read. Here we have a stark contrast with Baldur's Gate, where every rusty dagger lying around had a three-page description. In Dragon Age, reading opportunities were kept to a minimum. First of all, this concerns dialogues.

The dialogues in the game are made according to the proprietary BioWar pattern: aggressive, negative phrases were recognized without difficulty and were very different from the neutral or kind phrases of the hero. Here the contrast with the same Arcanum or Fallout is striking. In the last two games, when answering, the player could only understand by the power of his own mind, turning on logic, what consequences this or that casually dropped phrase would bring. In Dragon Age, it sometimes reached the point of absurdity. For example, you meet an evil wizard who says something like: “I will never help you - good elf! I've hated elves my whole life! I will incinerate you and send you to your kingdom Black Plague" Immediately the player can choose the answer option, which is marked as “belief”. As a result, the conditional elf answers something like this: “Come to your senses, unfortunate one! Our war will lead to nothing. Let's better discuss the peace plan." And then the Evil Wizard, ready to incinerate his enemy a minute ago, replies “Yes, I was wrong. Come to me, I will give you a powerful artifact that will help you in your adventures."

Many of the dialogues in this game take place in approximately the same vein. We can see approximately the same thing in most other BioWare creations. That is why you should treat such manifestations normally. Because if you are not satisfied with this kindergarten, you won't be able to play BioWare RPGs.

The same goes for battles. You do not take any part in the battle, other than choosing various skills. If you are attacked by a crowd of skeletons, just click on one of them and the hero will begin to methodically destroy one enemy after another. At this time, you are simply offered to observe the result. This is, to put it mildly, not Arcanum, not Fallout and not Soulbringer. If you don't like this kind of thing, then you won't be suspected of liking BioWare toys either. However, we got carried away.

So, Dragon Age was released and immediately received a lot of positive feedback from players and excellent press from gaming publications. The PC version of the game has a score of 91% on Metacritic. Most gaming publications unanimously gave it 9-9.5 points out of ten possible. The titanic work of talented authors was appreciated. The game received award after award from a variety of gaming publications, including Russian ones. Dragon Age was recognized as the best RPG of the year, the game of the year with the best story, the game with the best plot and dialogue, the best visuals, the best sound, music and simply the best game of the year. At the same time, making adjustments: the best game of the year for PC. On the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles, the game, although it was well received, did not become a bestseller. If on the same Metacritic the PC version of the game was given 91%, then the console versions were given 86 and 85%. Well, there is nothing to be surprised here: such games, to put it mildly, are not designed for consoles, and people who buy video consoles want to play slightly different games. More cheerful, less thoughtful. It’s not surprising that, let’s get ahead of ourselves a little, Dragon Age: Inquisition was decided to be made exclusively for the preferences of PC users. But we will return to this later.

First, a little about the plot. The plot in Dragon Age is far from a fairy tale. Here everything is much tougher and, if you like, more complicated. There is no obligatory reward for victory here, and a good deed will not always serve for good, just like a cruel, evil deed sometimes needs to be done for good. The background is this: there lived ancient sages who, like that Icarus, imagined themselves omnipotent and went where they were not asked. As a result, instead of gaining enlightenment, they mutated inside and outside, not only turned into demons themselves, but also called some kind of hellish fiends onto the earth, which caused pestilence, cold, famine and hyperinflation.

Everything would have continued like this until the victorious end of the dark forces, if a militia of valiant heroes and simply caring people had not stood in their way. Familiar events, aren't they? This very militia in the game was called the Gray Guardians. However, at the rank of Gray Guardian, the player will not be allowed to play immediately. Regardless of who he chooses, before joining the ranks of the Guardians, he will need to run around locations, complete quests, get used to it a little, and get accustomed to the game. Well, then the full playthrough will begin.

Singles, lovers of heroes who cannot tolerate idle talk and annoying companions, will not like the game for the simple reason that you need to play here with a team of four heroes. Naturally, the team needs to recruit diverse citizens: a warrior, a magician, a thief, etc. At the same time, anyone can be put at the head of the team. This way, if you get tired of the main character, you can push him into the background and play as any other character

The attitude towards elves is also striking. Elves in Dragon Age aren't exactly cookie-cutter. These are rather short creatures, shorter than a human in stature, although they have familiar ears. However, the matter is not limited to growth: the elves here are a downtrodden, downtrodden race, despised by people. Almost all of November 2009 and until the January cold there was a deafening crash all over the world. This broke the mold of fans of Tolkien’s work, who were firmly convinced that elves were tall, proud, strong warriors, friendly with magic and bows. However, as it turned out, the guys from BioWare have a slightly different opinion on this matter.

But the gnomes here are what everyone is used to: small, squat, grippy, loving heavy weapons, due to which they are indispensable in battles. Speaking of battles. They decided to make battles in Dragon Age automatic. At the same time, the companions are not distinguished by either intelligence or intelligence, which is why in difficult situations they do not always act adequately. Therefore, players had to pause the game and give each hero from the four a command. When going through long, difficult locations, where new hordes of enemies were waiting for us behind every new door, around every new turn, it was quite tiring to do something like that. And if we add to this the fact that we had to tinker with each hero’s inventory, arranging and rearranging everything, then the game, during periods of military aggravation, turned into a rather difficult undertaking.

Otherwise, the success of the Dragon Age campaign also lay in the fact that all the gameplay was made as if from an online game. Firstly, by 2009 there were few role-playing games where a bunch of possible starting heroes had their own biography, which was not divorced from the main plot, but had a direct impact on the game. For example, in Arcanum the player had the opportunity to choose a unique biography for his hero, but this choice only affected the character’s game characteristics. Here, the pedigree and life background of the hero many times turned the plot in one direction or another.

So, secondly, to complete the so-called raids, we must assemble a classic MMO team with a tank, a healer, a mage and a ranger. Thirdly, this is a bunch of NPCs located in “peaceful” locations that will definitely give you some dangerous task. And although the last argument cannot be entirely associated with online RPGs, a certain parallel can still be drawn. So it turns out that we have quite a single-player campaign made as if for an MMO. But here, unlike MMOs, each location is polished to a shine, and the staged battles caused sheer delight. While MMOs have a lot of randomly generated spontaneity, this one has a highly polished story that can be played out in different ways. And, yes, there is an ending. The game can be completed. No more years of pumping and meaningless existence for you. Here you kill the dragon, go through the coronation ceremony and watch the final video, where they tell you exactly how someone’s fate turned out, what turn of history was depicted and how your passage influenced certain events. At the same time, you can go on a journey again, already in the rank of winner of everyone and everything. Approximately the same thing exists in Skyrim, where after killing Alduin and receiving all kinds of honors, the hero again sets out on the road, completing tasks of varying degrees of importance and killing the enemy with one blow due to excessive coolness.

This is what Dragon Age is like. Needless to say, the game appealed to a whole army of fans of this genre, those who yearned for Baldur’s Gate, although, to be honest, nothing can replace them, just as nothing can replace Fallout 2. In the wake of popularity, BioWare decided to forge money, without leaving the cash register, and released into next year six additions at once: Return to Ostagar, Awakening, Chronicles of Darkness, Leliana's Song, Golems of Amgarrak and Wild Hunt.

Summarizing the first part of this role-playing series, one cannot fail to note its revolutionary nature. Starting with the plot, and ending with a huge world and excellent graphics for those times. At the same time, the signature feature of Dragon Age is that attention to detail was felt in literally everything. Extreme attention. This is why our localizers were unable to reach the high bar set by the developers. That is why their “rogue” is a robber, “spirit apparatus” is a moonshine still, and the intonations and accents of the characters were not taken into account at all. In the original version, residents of different settlements and different nations spoke with different accents: some with German, some with French, some with Spanish, and some with American. But for our gamer, as well as for the localizers, this turned out to be too difficult. Either they didn’t consider it possible to convey this, or they weren’t able to, or they themselves didn’t understand, but the Russian version of the game lost a lot from this.

Moreover, it is worth once again being surprised by its popularity in the domestic open spaces. The first part of Dragon Age is still remembered, although five years have passed. They remember it as a first-class example that no one has yet been able to eclipse. The great potential invested by the developers could not be spoiled even by the localizers, although they honestly did their job and tried as best they could, like that pianist who should not be shot at, because he plays as best he can.

In short, the game was a success. It raised the quality bar so much that it was unclear how BioWare was going to surpass its own achievements by making the second part of Dragon Age. And the fact that absolutely all fans of this game were sure of the second part. Optimists expected a real masterpiece, but pessimists believed that the authors had already poured out all their talent and would not be able to recover quickly, so the second part of the game would be, if not worse, then no better. By the way, there were much fewer pessimists, but, sadly, they turned out to be much closer to the truth than optimists.

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When I played the first part, I noticed that the plot of the game is much deeper than what we are given at the beginning and I decided to make some kind of holistic picture, because I myself was confused between nationalities and states (for example, I had difficulty understanding the difference between Tevinter and Thedos). It is simply impossible to briefly tell the story of Dragon Age, there are too many details, but I tried to present everything more or less clearly and understandably, so that those who are interested in what is happening in the game in general do not click on individual events, but perceive the history of the world holistically.

Church version of the Creation of the world

A certain God or Creator created everything that exists and gave life to all living things. It is he who the Church worships. He is depicted as a man, and the founder of the Church itself, the prophetess Andraste, is considered his wife. And despite the fact that the Church believes that it was the Creator who created life, he subsequently turned away from people, considering their mistakes. Once upon a time, the Creator built the Shadow as the first world, and the first creations were not people at all, but spirits, delightful creatures living in the Golden City and devoted to the Creator in everything.

But something went wrong, the Creator wanted to see the spirits like themselves, he gave them the ability to create, but the spirits did not use this at all, they lacked something to breathe life into their creations. Then the creator drove the spirits into the Shadow and began to create something new - life. The result was a world with living beings, separated from the Shadow by a Veil. New creatures could no longer change everything around so easily and spontaneously; they had to fight for survival. Seeing all this, the Creator decided to endow them with something that the spirits did not have, a divine spark - a soul. Envious of all this, the spirits came to the creatures in a dream and called them into their world - the Shadow. The spirits wanted to learn as much as possible about life, hoping to regain the attention of the Creator by gaining the experience of mortals: love, fear, pain and hope.

The spirits remade the Shadow so that it resembled the world of the living as closely as possible. However, the power of the spirits grew and many began to see the weakness of living beings and began to treat them arrogantly. The spirits saw the gloomy dark corners of the sleeping souls, where torment and nightmares reigned. The spirits began to understand that mortals are attracted to places that reflect their vices.

Having collected all the darkest things that they found in the souls of mortals, they turned into demons. Anger, lust, idleness, lust, pride - this is what gives demons their power. Demons inspired people to abandon the Creator and go over to false gods. The demons wanted to subjugate all living things, they built entire kingdoms of nightmare in the Shadow and dreamed of one day falling on the walls of heaven. And again the Creator decided that he had made a mistake, because he gave the living the ability to create, and they committed sin. The Creator built the Golden City so that all living beings could go there after their death. But this paradise was destroyed after the invasion of the Tevinter masters. The Golden City turned into the Black City, and the masters themselves became the first creatures of darkness.

Tevinter

The earliest mentions of the world of Thedas were found in ancient texts and legends, and they are not as reliable as we would like, although certain information is similar. Both among the Dalish Guardians and among the gnomes, Thedas exists absolutely without people; in those days, the entire earth was inhabited by elves, but the gnomes lived underground. The legends say that it was with the arrival of people that global changes came. The world, which had previously been in balance, began to change, endless wars engulfed the earth.

In the initial period, the distant ancestors of people lived quite peacefully next to the elves. Gradually, people began to unite into certain communities. The Tevinters, one of the communities, settled in the port city of Minrathous. People began to call themselves Tevinters and began to actively develop their magical abilities. From the elves, people learned how to enter the Shadow with the help of lyrium, and very soon magic became an integral attribute Everyday life. Various closed Circles of magicians began to organize, where they studied new techniques and improved their acquired skills.

The most powerful magicians united in the Council of Masters, which made the main decisions. In 1195 of the Ancient Era, a certain Magister Darinius became the first Archon in history, thereby creating the Tevinter Empire, and all Magisters were ranked among the aristocracy. The Empire gradually began to push back the Elves, first capturing Elvenan and then destroying Arlathan. The Empire quickly expanded its territories to the south and east, all the way to Ferelden and Rivain. In 620-540 according to Tevinter chronology began Civil War Between influential magisters vying for the position of Archon, this event marked the end of the golden age of Tevinter. But the Empire did not collapse and continued its conquests.

As a result, the ever-growing and strengthening human Empire of Tevinter practically wiped out the once-dominant elves from the face of the earth. By worshiping the ancient Gods, people spread their influence and religion throughout Thedas, and turned the elves into slaves. Those few elves who were lucky enough to survive fled from the wars into distant impenetrable forests and began to lead the lifestyle of hermits. The power of the Tevinter magisters was very undeniable. for a long time, until the first Pestilence came.

Ferelden, Alamari, Chasinda

The Alamarri are one of the most ancient human tribes. They initially settled in the southeastern part of Tedase. The Alamarri are essentially the ancestors of the Fereldans, but they are not a single people. Sometime in 1220, the Alamarri came to the Ferelden Valley, part of the tribe remaining in the mountains and the other in the swampy expanses, also known as the Korcari Wilds. The Alamarri, who lived in the mountains, began to call themselves Avvars, and the Hasind, accordingly, are the inhabitants of Korkari. The separation of the Avvars from the Alamarri did not happen overnight, it was a rather long process. An example is the fact that the leader of the Alamarri tribes who organized the Sacred March on Tevinter was Avvar Maferath.

The Fereldans are descendants of the Alamarri. The leaders of the Alamarri were powerful warlords who lived in constant wars for land and power. Ferelden has always had two irreconcilable enemies, also descended from Alamarri. At the time when their common ancestors appeared in Ferelden, a bloody civil war broke out and one of the factions seceded.

Ancient legends say that many years after the Chacinds broke away from the Alamarri, they invaded the north, accompanied by strange white shadows and ugly swamp monsters. For some time they even conquered the Alamarri, but their power quickly ended when the Alamarri killed all the Hasindian shamans who summoned the shadows. A thousand years later, the Chasinds had a certain Flemeth, a witch of terrible power. Her daughters, known as the Korcari Witches, gathered an army of barbarians and other creatures and led them north. No one could resist them until a hero named Cormac led a combined army of Alamarri and dwarves from Orzammar and went against Flemeth. The Chasindas were defeated, and the witch leaders were burned at the stake. However, even now, after so many centuries, the Fereldans look to the south with caution.

But the greatest achievement of the Alamarri is that they were able to withstand even the mighty Tevinter Empire, when it was still the main force of all of Thedas. Tevinter almost won three times, but each time the Empire had to retreat to Frosty Mountains. The Alamarri united with the Avvars and Chacinds and drove the Imperials out of their land. For the fourth time, Tevinter was still able to capture western part quite a long time and build several fortresses there. But in the end, this success cost the Empire dearly. Fortified in the lands, they were subject to regular raids, and there were barely enough supplies. Tevinter managed to hold out in Ferelden for more than a century, but the barbarians had a new hero, he found a way to destroy the indestructible walls of Ostagar.

First Blight

The most common version is that it was the unlimited power of the masters and permissiveness that caused the disaster. In 800, the masters became so strong that they decided to touch the kingdom of the gods, as a result of which they entered the Shadow and returned as the first creatures of darkness. And the Ancient Gods whom they met in the Shadow were expelled and imprisoned underground. The first Old God to be corrupted and turned into a high dragon was Dumat. Dumat released the darkness and inflicted huge losses on the dwarves, after which he continued the war. He had almost destroyed all living beings when a certain order of the Gray Guardians managed to defeat him and stop the Pestilence.

The First Blight lasted about two hundred years, leaving the Tevinter Empire significantly weakened. Taking advantage of this, the prophetess Andraste attacked the Empire with an army of Alamarri barbarians from the north of Ferelden (according to one version, Andraste was an escaped slave, and her husband was Maferat). This conflict is better known as the Sacred March (180 - 165 ancient era). Tevinter no longer had enough forces to defend itself and the war was lost. Andraste proclaimed that magic should serve man, not man magic. This was a challenge to the Empire's traditional way of life. Andraste even goes against the masters, she calls the Ancient Gods false and blames them for the appearance of the Blight.

As a result of the won war, the teaching quickly spread and when Andraste was burned at the stake, this only strengthened faith in the Cult of the Creator and accelerated the spread. Elven slave uprisings and riots began. While the Empire continued the war with Rivain, the cult of Andraste grew stronger in the world. Even Archon Hessarian officially accepted this faith, as a result of which the masters surrendered to the church on their own terms, finally losing their former influence. Southern Tevinter split completely, but Northern Tevinter survived. As a result, the masters surrendered to the church, but on their own terms. The era known as the Divine Age begins.

Dragon Age - History of the World Part 1 was last modified: December 7, 2014 by admin

This Age saw a number of military conflicts. The main ones were the Battle of Soldier's Peak and the New Sacred Campaigns. The battle began at 7:05 of the Age of Storms in Ferelden. the previous king died without leaving an heir. Power began to be shared by supporters of Arland and supporters of Erlessa Sophia Dryden. Dryden was a very powerful leader and was supported by the Banns. And when Arland received the crown, Dryden was captured. Arland imprisoned Sophia and all her supporters. The Banns were against the execution and it was decided to strip Sophia of her title and force her to join the Gray Wardens. However, this did not stop the Banns from asking Sophia to rebel against King Arland. Arland executed many of the Cousland family who tried to raise an uprising, and eventually achieved their submission.

Every year the king’s atrocities became more and more terrible and many banns were already begging Dryden to intervene. Finally, she agreed. Arland found out about this, as a result of which he canceled the tithe to the Gray Wardens and declared that from now on they were no longer welcome in Ferelden. Many Guardians were also outraged by Dryden's interference in politics and did not support her when Arland's forces laid siege to Soldier's Peak. The siege lasted several months and ended with the death of Sophia. So Arland expelled all the Gray Wardens from Ferelden.

Sophia's brother and guardian of her infant son, Toben Dryden, saw no choice but to flee Ferelden on a merchant ship. Having reached Antiva, Toben began to drive completely new life, he started his own business and became a famous merchant.

Blessed Age

Taking advantage of the support of several influential banns who betrayed Ferelden, Orlais invades and strengthens the newly occupied areas. The Vigil Tower was the first fortress to fall to the onslaught, followed by the loss of Amaranthine and Redcliffe. In the battle for the village of Lothering, King Vanedryn Theirin was killed, and the sword Nemestos, the legacy of Calenhad the Great, was lost. In the same battle, Teyrn Ardal Cousland dies while trying to protect his king. Although his son succeeded him, the young king Brandel found himself unable to lead the country and Ferelden was mired in battle for the next two decades. In 8:44, Denerim, the capital of Ferelden, fell, which was a victory for Orlais. King Brandel disappeared.

Subsequently, King Brandel did not abandon attempts to drive out the Orlesians and created an army of rebels, but all attempts were in vain. The Orlais occupation lasted 78 long years. The people of Ferelden, who valued freedom above all else, were forced to submit to foreign domination. Orlais secured ownership of the Fereldan elves, who were sold as livestock. The Orlais knights robbed landowners, taking money, food, women and children.

If it weren't for Brandel's daughter Moira, who had all the necessary qualities of a leader, unlike her father, Ferelden would have remained in the same position. The Rebel Queen's campaign began with an attack on the arsenal in Lothering. With the captured weapons, the rebels were able to seriously oppose the Orlesian yoke.

A young landowner, Loghain McTeer, appears in the army. Possessing the talent of a commander, he quickly becomes an adviser to the young Prince Marik. The queen dies at the hands of the Orlesian authorities and Maric takes her place, Loghain becomes his right hand. The battle on the Dane River takes place, the largest event in Fereldan history, which became a new step towards the liberation of the country. The Fereldan army was made up of commoners and banns and, despite this, led by Loghain MacTeer, managed to defeat the Orlesian knights while crossing the River Dane. Loghain became a living legend and a symbol of freedom.

With the liberation of the capital by the rebels at 9:00, the war for the freedom of Ferelden was over, replaced by the need to restore what was lost. Ferelden and Orlais sign peace at 9:20 after Celene ascends to the throne of Orlais.

Age of the Dragon and the Fifth Blight

While many debate whether the Fifth Blight was a real Blight or a simple darkspawn outbreak, everyone agrees that it began in the swamps of the Korcari Wilds on the southeastern border of Ferelden. The Fifth Blight was provoked by the Architect, who awakened the Archdemon of the Fifth Blight - Urthemiel ( Ancient God Beauty).

Fereldan scouts conducting surveillance along the southern borders began to notice that the Hasind were leaving the Wild Lands in a hurry due to the unexpected appearance of hordes of darkspawn. Upon learning of this, King Cailan Theirin began to gather an army for defense. There is no doubt that there will be a new Blight; the Gray Guardians only confirmed this. Soon I got ready strong army, which moved to the Ostagar fortress, which served the Tevinter Empire as protection from the barbarians, this is where the horde of darkness was supposed to pass.

Soon the Gray Wardens arrived. They said that there are fewer and fewer creatures of darkness on the Deep Roads, which means that they walk on the surface, which only happens during the Blight. A few days later, the army of darkness attacks Ostagar and is defeated. Two more clashes occur, and once again Kaylan wins. The commanders began to believe that this was not a Pestilence, but the emergence of the creatures of darkness. There are no dragons or archdemon in the hordes, and without him there is no such danger.

However, the scouts soon noticed that a much larger horde of creatures of darkness was moving towards Ostagar, several times larger than the king's forces. Kaylan and Loghain McTeer come up with a cunning maneuver. Loghain will go into ambush, and the king will settle in the fortress. The horde of darkness will strike the king's army and the battle will begin. Loghain and the other half of the army will stab you in the back.

A few hours later the battle began. The king's troops fought bravely, but there were too many creatures of darkness. And when the king's troops requested help, Loghain unexpectedly ordered a retreat from the fortress, leaving Kaylan to die in an unequal battle. The Spawns also used the catacombs beneath the Tower of Ishal and captured the fortress of Ostagar while the main army fought the horde. Only two Gray Wardens survived.

Now nothing prevented the creatures of darkness from entering the interior of the land of Ferelden. The horde of darkness soon destroyed Lothering, and spread across the southern lands of Ferelden, destroying everything in its path. The situation was further worsened by the outbreak of civil war in Ferelden.

This conflict began a little earlier - Rendon Howe kills Bryce Cousland, Teyrn of Hiver, for the sake of his land. After the Battle of Ostagar, Loghain MacTeer blames the Gray Wardens for the failure and places a bounty on their heads, in addition to appointing himself regent for his daughter, Anora. Earl Rendon Howe becomes Earl of Denerim. Many Banns did not like Loghain's actions, and the Fereldan nobility split into two sides. Earl Eamon was poisoned by the renegade magician Jovan on Loghain's orders, but the Guardian's intervention saved the magician's life. Loghain sells the elves into slavery, hires the Antivan Ravens to kill the Guardians, and appoints Earl Howe as his advisor.

As the politicians fought each other and the horde moved further north, two Gray Wardens went to different peoples to call on them for help, using ancient treaties. They visited the Circle of Mages, the Brecilian Forest, the dwarven city of Orzammar and Redcliffe Castle.

Arriving at the Circle of Mages, the Guardians encounter the templars. The templars explain that the tower was captured by the possessed and demons, and none of the magicians in the tower could survive. The guards go to check if this is really true. They manage to find the surviving magicians, as well as the First Sorcerer, who was held captive by Uldred the Maleficar, who started this whole nightmare. The Guardians manage to win, but there are not many survivors.

Arriving in the Brecilian forest to the Dalish elves, the guards learn that they are suffering from attacks by werewolves. The guards find the lair, and it turns out that the main leader wolf is a spirit from the shadows, the Mistress of the Forest. She talks about werewolves - it turns out that they are victims of a curse sent by the Clan Guardian Zatrian once upon a time due to the fact that his daughter and son were killed by people from their village. The guards have to choose between werewolves or elves.

Things weren't going well for the dwarves in Orzammar either. Their king died, and of the three sons only Belen Educan remained. Many lords consider him a parricide, and his main opponent is Lord Harrowmont. The Guardians are forced to understand the game of both contenders, which leads them to the farthest reaches of the Deep Roads in search of Perfect Branka, who was looking for Perfect Caridin's ancient knowledge of creating golems. It turns out that in order to create a golem, you need to infuse a soul into it, Karidin himself will tell the Gray Guardians about this. Branca is obsessed with the idea of ​​producing golems. And the Guardians again have to choose between an army of golems and gnomes. Returning to Orzammar, they help choose a new king.

The allies were gathered, but civil war and division in Ferelden prevented the start. The Gray Wardens encountered the Archdemon in the Deep Roads, and also saw an army of darkspawn that was marching to the surface. The guards are sent to Redcliffe, to Earl Eamon, but he turns out to be ill. In addition, the village is attacked every night by an army of the living dead, and there is no news from the Earl's castle. The guards help cure the earl. Eamon finds out what happened while he was sick. Having become the leader of the rebellion against Loghain, he convenes the Assembly of the Lands, where he must choose the ruler of Ferelden. At the Council of the Lands, the Guardian finally has the opportunity to challenge Loghain. Ultimately there will be a duel with Gray Warden, and Loghain will lose. As the only surviving child of King Maric, Alistair has a claim to the throne and can become king himself, along with Anora.

But during this time, the Blight destroys the southern lands of Ferelden and spreads to the central lands. There are squads of creatures of darkness everywhere across the country, and everyone understands that soon the Archdemon himself will strike. As it turned out, the Archdemon wanted to withdraw the allied troops away from Denerim and strike at the capital of Ferelden. Ferelden troops reach Denerim in just 3 days. But having arrived there, they see how the creatures of darkness, led by the Archdemon, destroy the city.

Having struck the army of darkness, the allies recaptured the main gate. Soon they reach the elfinage and, with the help of the militia, begin to liberate other areas. The Archdemon, expecting the rapid arrival of troops in Denerim, left a third of the army in the forests near the city. Having waited for the right moment, he orders the horde to attack. But the warriors at the main gate were able to withstand the blow.

Gray Guardian Riordan, at the cost of his life, wounds the Archdemon in the wing, depriving him of the ability to fly, and Alistair (or Loghain) and the Guardian make their way to the fort where the wounded Archdemon was hiding, it is there that the Gray Guardians kill the Archdemon. The Fifth Blight ended here, and so quickly that other parts of Thedas did not even understand that it had even begun. The losses suffered at Ostagar and Denerim undermined the security of the kingdom. No one now knows how this will affect future events.

Dragon Age - History of the World Part 3 was last modified: December 7, 2014 by admin

Dragon Age History Lessons

Dragon Age History Lessons

WITH BioWare's screenwriters have never been lazy, but with Dragon Age: Origins they outdid themselves. They were given a difficult task - to come up with new world and revive it.

The team of authors led by David Gaider did an excellent job with the role of the demiurge. The Kingdom of Ferelden, located on the continent of Thedas, is not just another “cardboard” fantasy state inhabited by people, elves and dwarves. This is an integral world with a thousand-year history, living according to its own laws, in which everything is logical and justified. Nothing escaped the attention of the scriptwriters: neither the political structure, nor the social ladder, nor issues of everyday life and morals. The authors of BioWare tried to make their gaming universe seem familiar to gamers, but not banal. For example, if you think that elves are a noble, enlightened people who know all the secrets of magic, and it cannot be otherwise, then Dragon Age: Origins is not the game for you.

First lesson. The beginning of time

AND The history of Ferelden is rich in events, and if we begin a detailed retelling, this article will turn out to be a thick book. Therefore, we will limit ourselves to a summary of the chronicle. Let's bring things up to speed, so to speak.

The Age of Dragons was preceded by eight other eras, each of which lasted exactly one hundred years. The countdown begins from the creation of the Doctrine, the leading religion of Ferelden. This doesn't mean she's the only one. Elves do not believe in the Creator, but worship other gods; the golden-skinned giants Qunari have their own aggressive faith. The situation with the calendar is reminiscent of ours on earth - we calculate chronology from the birth of Jesus Christ.

The first age was called Divine, the second Glorious, the third was the Age of Towers, the fourth - Black, the fifth - Noble, the sixth - Steel, the seventh - Storm, the eighth - Blessed. Name new era give for the year 99 of the century. The name “Solar” was prophesied for the ninth era (the sun was considered a symbol of the Orlesian Empire, which conquered all of Thedas), but the unexpected happened - dragons returned to Ferelden. They have not been seen for many hundreds of years. It was believed that dragons had long been exterminated by hunters.

The ninth century was called the Dragon Age. There is nothing good about this name. People believed that the awakening of dragons foreshadows pain, violence and destruction. Unfortunately, this is what happened.

Dragon Age History Lessons

Dragon Age History Lessons

Lesson two. Pestilence

IN Pestilence is considered the greatest evil in the Dragon Age universe. No, we are not talking about an incurable disease. According to legend, in ancient times, magicians tried to capture Paradise. All the inhabitants of Thedas were punished for their insolence. The Creator sent Pestilence, countless hordes of various evil spirits led by the invulnerable Archdemon. Monsters crawling out into the world from underground know no pity: they kill everyone in their path. But that is not all. Along with Pestilence comes Corruption, a leprosy that spreads to people and turns them into monsters. Corruption infects all living things, even the earth and trees, changing the landscape. Where yesterday there was green pasture, today there is a wasteland with a river of lava in the middle.

To stop the Blight, you must find and defeat the Archdemon. And this needs to be done quickly, because the armies of evil spirits are becoming more numerous and stronger every day. It is unlikely that the inhabitants of Thedas would have survived if not for the Gray Wardens. An ancient order of elite warriors has been defending the world for many generations in a row. The Gray Guardians sense monsters and know how to fight them. They are well prepared, equipped and fearless. It was they who put an end to the Blight in the Glorious Age and killed the Archdemon in the Blessed Era.

The evil spirits have spread throughout the bolts and caves, but without a leader they do not pose a serious threat. People began to believe that Pestilence might never return. Naive...

Dragon Age History Lessons

Dragon Age History Lessons

Lesson three. New hero

H The four hundred years without Pestilence were glorious times. But no one is saying that the people of Thedas have stopped fighting. The confrontation with the religious fanatics of the Qunari continued for several centuries. They come from across the sea and spread their faith with guns. Magic helped defeat the Qunari. Golden-skinned giants hate magic, relying only on science. People took advantage of this. In the Storm Age they defeated the Qunari. The fanatics fired their cannons, but in response, lightning and fireballs flew at their ships.

N and for three generations Ferelden was part of the Orlesian Empire. Then an uprising broke out in the country. After decisive battle At the Dane River, which mysteriously coincided with the awakening of the dragons, the kingdom gained independence. It would seem that, freed from occupation, Ferelden will flourish. But alas, these dreams were not destined to come true.

The New Blight found people, dwarves and elves unprepared. Moreover, they became entangled in disagreements and intrigues. The Archdemon can only be defeated if all nations unite. The Gray Wardens cannot cope alone. There are too few of them, and the warriors are no longer the same as before: they have forgotten a lot. The Order needs recruits. fresh blood. And it just so happened that the choice of the leader of the order, Duncan, fell on you. Yes, your time has come, hero. It's time to stop the Pestilence and deal with the Archdemon. Forward, for Ferelden!

Dragon Age History Lessons

Dragon Age History Lessons

Based on materials from the official website dragonageorigins.ru