DRAGON AGE WORLD OF THEDAS SERIES

While Ferelden and Orlais are closely relatedВ geographically and culturally, Tevinter is the oldest human nation on the continent, has its own version of the Chantry considered blasphemous by the version found in Ferelden and Orlais, and has a government run by mages, which would be unthinkable to the South. It is very likely that Dragon Age 4 will take place in Tevinter, which is arguably the most foreign region explored so far in the game.

DRAGON AGE WORLD OF THEDAS SERIES

RELATED: Dragon Age 4's Various Religious Pantheons ExplainedДragon AgeвЂ™s half-commitment to cultural accents had put the series in a bit of strange position for Dragon Age 4. Dragon AgeвЂ™s Dwarves were originally intended to have German accents, and though this was dropped, the accents of characters like Cassandra in Inquisition seems to support the idea that Nevarra is the closest equivalent to Germany in Thedas. Dragon Age 2вЂ™s Merill speaks with a Welsh accent, and the near-destruction of the native Celtic population that would preserve the Welsh language by the Anglo-Saxons mirrors the fate of the Elves of Thedas at the hands of the humans. City Elves tend to speak in American accents, while Dalish Elves speak in English or Welsh accents.ДЄgain, accent works to give hints into the history of the races of Thedas. Qunari speak in gruff American accents, and so do most of the Dwarves who donвЂ™t speak in English accents. LelianaвЂ™s accent does a surprisingly subtle amount of heavily lifting for how unsubtle the accent itself is, helping align player assumptions about places not seen in the game without dropping a load of exposition on them.ДЄ few accent rules that have been established so far in the Dragon Age games are that characters from Orlais speak with a faux-French accent, characters from Ferelden speak with English accents, and characters from Antiva speak with Spanish or Italian-inspired accents. Orlesians, for example, take great pride in their food. Dragon Age: Origins takes place entirely within Ferelden, for example, but LelianaвЂ™s French accents not only makes it clear that Orlais is a parallel to medieval France in terms of its power, but also makes the parallels between the Chantry's prophet Andraste and Joan of Arc clear as well as a few cultural touchstones.

However, the accents of Dragon Age give players some of the most help in figuring out just what basic assumptionsВ they are supposed to have about these foreign lands. None of these parallels are one-for-one, with BioWare taking broad influence from some of these places and their histories while buildingВ its continent. NevarraвЂ™s emergence as a dominant force near theВ Free Marches вЂ“ independent city states вЂ“ mirrors the rise of Germany, while the shrinking borders and strategically adopted religion of the Tevinter Imperium resembles Byzantium. Ferelden might be considered Britain, Orlais would be France, and Antiva would be Spain while the Qunari conquerors that entered from the North via Par Vollen represent the Moorish forces that would cross the Strait of Gibralter in 711 AD. Like many fantasy worlds, the nations of Thedas have rough cultural equivalents in real world medieval Europe.

Dragon age world of thedas