Guest Post: Murphy's Perfect Dragon Age - Part Two

 In the first part, we talked about setting, a villain, and a villainous plan for best-selling game Dragon Age: Hypothetical. But here’s something that’s really important: A hero. Who can heroically do things and have a heroic title like ‘the Grey Warden’ or ‘the Champion’ or ‘the Inquisitor.’

 So, here is my suggestion:

 The Archon.

 Now this is a slightly difficult one to pull. The Archons are the rulers of Tevinter, usually coming from a small group of family lines, and always human mages, which kind of scuppers a multiple class and race system.

 But let’s glance back at the villainous plan. A demon of enormous power and age has been born on Thedas as an abomination of unimaginable power. The unwilling sacrifice of slaves and magisters alike has resulted in the death of the Archon and many of the most influential people in the Imperium and rocked Tevinter. The Venatori have taken arms in all out civil war under the banner of a demon.

 In this chaos, one figure has become praised not just for their early heroism, but for displaying the powers associated with an Old God: Nobody knows where or how they got said powers, only that they displayed them during the event that we’ll term the Sacrifice. Similar to the Inquisitor, only a lot more, er, unholy.

 With the backing of several powerful magisters, several influential members of the Chantry, and the people, this person is made the new Archon, intended to rule as a figurehead during the Tevinter Civil War.

 So, let’s take a look at possible origins for this Archon.

 Human Mage: The child of a powerful magister - we’ll call him Magister Aurelia - who has been raised in luxury and full knowledge of their magical power, and is said magister’s rightful heir.

 Human Warrior or Rogue: The child of Magister Aurelia, again, but they have no magical ability, making them the black sheep of the family. They’ve been passed over for being the heir, with that honour instead going to a younger sibling.

 Elf or Qunari Mage, Warrior or Rogue: Former slaves (and a Tal-Vashoth, in the case of Qunari) of Magister Aurelia, who were freed by her three years prior to the story and have become her right hand attendant. While this courts controversy, Aurelia is known as a particularly odd magister, and the player character has gained a surprising amount of respect and privilege.

 Dwarf Warrior or Rogue: Originally from Orzammar, a close advisor of Magister Aurelia, who has been granted Tevinter citizenship as a free person. They have gained much respect from the nobles of Tevinter.

 Over the course of the story, this player character would ascend to being Archon, and have to accrue influence and military might. They would also discover the source of their mysterious Old God-y powers - specifically, that they aren’t Old God related at all, but demonic, stemming from experiments Magister Aurelia conducted on them without their knowledge - experiments which are derived from rituals performed by the ancient magisters who entered the Golden City, and which form the basis of Nightmare’s attempt to become an Old God.

 Next time, I want to look at companions, both in terms of who you take in your party and three advisors who will stay at your base, so tune in then. By which I mean read.