Logically, I know that Dragon Age: Origins lets you play as whoever you want. I mean, the clue is in the name – there are six different origins to choose from. I regularly interact with other Dragon Age fans and hear about their wonderful characters. I love everyone’s Wardens and I cannot get enough of hearing about their world states.
And yet, I regularly forget that not everyone plays Dragon Age: Origins the way I do. It is not, in fact, the story of a teenage girl who was locked away in the mage tower her whole life and broke free to save the country she barely knew from the Blight. Nor is it a tragic story of star-crossed lovers eventually separated by duty or a tale of reluctant heroes and political intrigue, looking at how a race for the throne just leaves everyone involved miserable.
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Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Choice Stats Paint A Grim Picture
We don’t make many choices in The Veilguard, and we agree on everything too often.
Well, actually it is those things, because I made it those things. But it could be something else entirely. It can explore gender, religion, betrayal, revenge, and so much more. There’s so much that goes into Dragon Age: Origins, and I really ought to experience that.
I Can’t Stop Making The Exact Same Warden Over And Over Again
This is where I make a confession: I have played that exact same character three times in a row now. No, I haven’t just made the same decisions or romanced the same person. I have literally painstakingly remade my Warden in the exact same way in three consecutive runs of the game. She’s called Rosalind Amell, and I love her like she’s my child. I have come close to carrying pictures of her in my wallet so I can show her off to anyone who will listen. To me, she is Dragon Age: Origins. I’d barely recognise the game without her.
Oddly enough, she isn’t my first Origins character, or even my second. If I’m counting right, Rosalind is the fourth character I’ve made across two platforms, but she’s the only one I keep coming back to. In fact, I’ve not made a different new Warden since I played as her for the first time in 2017.
Worse still, she isn’t even from my favourite Origin! She’s a Circle Mage, and this is probably one of the weaker openings in the game. Seriously, don’t do it if it’s your first playthrough. I believe I chose to make her a human mage specifically because this would make her the cousin of Hawke in Dragon Age 2. I was going for a Skywalker Saga thing, I guess. Now, I stick with it because I am a passionate believer that humans make for some of the most interesting characters in the series, which is partially why I’m reluctant to give her up.
It’s All Alistair’s Fault
Oh, but I glossed over another major issue – I do also keep romancing the same person. As my unfortunate colleagues are all too aware of, I like Alistair quite a bit. It’s been almost ten years since I first laid eyes on his beautiful PS3 character model, and my obsession with him has only gotten worse. Unfortunately, he fits into Rosalind’s character arc so nicely that he’s become an integral part of Origins’ identity to me too.
This all stems from the fact that Origins’ approach to romance was very different from, say, Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Here, romances were more than a tacked-on sex scene towards the end of the game. No, getting with someone – especially Alistair or Morrigan – opens up a side of their character you wouldn’t see otherwise. Whenever I’ve tried to get with anyone else, I just miss that side of him too much. I especially miss what it adds to the politics at the end of the game as we navigate the Landsmeet. I miss how much it increases the stakes.
So, if I’m happy to keep playing Origins like this, why am I making it my New Year’s resolution to try something new? Well, it’s because the series has taken a very different direction from how I’ve interacted with the series in the past, and it’s time I move on, too.
Origins can be whatever you want it to be. The Veilguard, alas, cannot. It’s a story about the elven gods, whereas I’ve always been more interested in the grounded, day-to-day politics of Thedas.
This made The Veilguard an immense disappointment. Elven gods attacking Thedas? Cool – how is everyone reacting to this? Has this destabilised Orlais even more than it was in Inquisition? Has it flared up tensions with the neighbouring Ferleden? In Origins, the Archdemon isn’t the most interesting part of the game, it’s just the driving force that makes so many political conflicts come to a head, which is the real meat of the story.
Rosalind and Alistair were great for this more grounded approach to Dragon Age, but it’s a version of the setting that the series is clearly moving away from. I tried to brute force it by playing as a human in The Veilguard, but the game just didn’t offer me much in return, so I’m going to try and meet the series where it’s at. I’ll stop trying to resist, and replay the series with the knowledge that elven lore and world-ending stakes are what it’s all about now.
The royal soap opera I created all those years ago, with the King and Hero of Ferelden locked in a scandalous love affair, is staying in 2024. Well, it’s not, because I will no doubt still yap about it. I also have yet another half-finished playthrough of that exact character to beat. But I will explore the other sides of the series, at long last. Maybe a Dalish elf? That seems to be the most fitting now.
I’ll also romance someone else. I promise this to you all now. I’ve never even gotten with Zevran before! That could be fun, right? He seems nice.
Dragon Age: Origins is my favourite game of all time, and I owe it to the writers of this rich world to actually explore the different areas of it, not just the side that I’ve been hyper-fixated on for several years now. I might not enjoy it as much as the story of my precious human mage and her ridiculous human problems, but I’m still looking forward to seeing everything Origins has to offer again, and learning more about how it was subtly setting up The Veilguard the entire time.
