Summary
- Dragon Age: The Veilguard has a few cameos but its limited World States made Origins’ Warden a near impossibility.
- That almost wasn’t the case, though, as concept art from Matt Rhodes shows what The Hero of Ferelden might have looked like.
- Rhodes’ version of the character shows them looking incredibly withered due to putting off The Calling.
Matt Rhodes, lead concept artist at BioWare, has shared some of his ideas for an early version of Anderfels in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, including a creepy look at what Origins‘ protagonist looks like after all these years.
Although Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s story focuses on a brand-new protagonist called Rook and is mostly light on cameos from previous games (likely due to the trimmed-down world states), that hasn’t stopped players from wondering how everyone is getting on. Although we only get to see a select few fan favourites in the final release, it seems that BioWare had plans to bring back a few more noteworthy characters.
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One of the biggest characters that fans hoped to see in The Veilguard is the protagonist of Dragon Age: Origins, The Hero of Ferelden (also known as The Warden). While the final game’s world states make references to both them and Hawke a near impossibility, a piece of concept art suggests The Warden was going to show up in a rather dishevelled state.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Concept Art Shows Off A Withered Hero Of Ferelden
As pointed out by Twitter user Hrungry, BioWare’s lead concept artist Matt Rhodes recently shared a new batch of art on ArtStation that looks at an early version of Anderfels. Beyond showing the first image from the game’s development that explored the idea of griffons making a return, Rhodes’ art also shows a cut cameo from The Hero of Ferelden, who has seen much better days.
The Warden is shown with an incredibly withered and near-death look, which is explained by Rhodes as being a consequence of them putting off The Calling. For those who don’t know, The Calling is something Grey Wardens eventually become afflicted with, which suggests their end is near and that they’ll become a powerful Darkspawn.
While most Grey Wardens go to the Deep Roads to take down as many Darkspawn as they can before death after hearing The Calling, it appears that this version of The Hero of Ferelden has been putting it off, causing their grim appearance. In reference to the art, Rhodes said, “The Hero of Ferelden has been putting off The Calling. The Blight takes more each year, but there’s still too much to do on the surface”.
Of course, Origins’ protagonist never ended up making it into The Veilguard, which could be due to BioWare not liking Rhodes’ concept for the character. Rhodes notes within the post that “Nobody else seemed to like the ‘leper king’ direction” that his art was suggesting, but that he thought it would be pretty cool.
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