Key Takeaways
- David Gaider revealed the inspiration behind Shale’s personality.
- Shale was initially imagined as an emotionless killer but was reworked by Gaider mid-development.
- A series of decisions led to Shale being day-one DLC.
Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age: Inquisition lead writer David Gaider has been giving fans insights into the writing process behind the original three Dragon Age games on his Bluesky account.
Gaider has made posts about Morrigan, Fenris and others in recent days, with last night’s post focusing on Shale, everyone’s favourite golem. Gaider was candid about Shale, one of the game’s more troublesome companions to make work.
According to Gaider, one of his junior writers Jay Turner (now a senior narrative designer at Obsidian) had the idea to make Shale “more of a robot, an emotionless automaton killer.” Gaider was sceptical as emotionlessness can often translate to bring when the concept gets realised, but Turner’s enthusiasm for the idea managed to sway him.
Shale Was Rewritten Mid-Development
Unfortunately this version of Shale “felt flat” and required revision, with Gaider ultimately taking over the character’s writing. The next challenge was finding a new direction for Shale… and the answer came to Gaider while staring out his window.
“At the time, they’d moved me out of the writers pit to instead be in a big office with the other leads. I had this corner desk by a window with an awful view…” Gaider explains. “What was so awful about it? It looked out onto the neighbouring roof, where there was only a HVAC unit to see. In the winter, pigeons would gather around it…”
“They pooped all over everything – there was this alcove around the access door, right? The pigeons roosted there and it was poop faucet city. Not only that, the pigeons used the HVAC like some kind of sex den. Angry, ugly pigeon sex. The only respite was when a hawk would appear and the pigeons scattered. Then I’d get maybe a day when there was a single pigeon corpse, like an exploded ball of down, to act as a scarecrow,” he continues.
“There’s me, staring out the window trying desperately to think what I’m going to do. But I can’t stare out the window, because gross. But what else am I going to stare at while I think? It was making me furious, I hated those pigeons so so much. And then it hit me: Shale is basically an animated statue, right? Something that pigeons are rather notorious for also gathering on? And so I wrote, I wrote like the angry, angry wind. I had zero time to do this so it was basically me vomiting all my annoyance at everything into a single character.”
And so, the sardonic Shale was born, slayer of pigeons and breaker of spirits. Gaider then explained that the character was close to being cut completely until the idea of Shale as downloadable content was pitched and accepted. However, EA delayed the release of Dragon Age: Origins by a couple of months, so Shale ended up as the oft-maligned day-one DLC.
In BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins, the kingdom of Ferelden is deep in the midst of an onslaught by the violent Darkspawn. You must join the Grey Wardens, an ancient order, and help put an end to the invasion.