Though it had long been assumed that the next Dragon Age game would be set in Tevinter based on the epilogue in Trespasser, when BioWare formally announced Dragon Age: Dreadwolf it gave rise to a lot of excitement about finally getting to see the northern Thedas up-close. The excitement only ramped up once players realized that a good chunk of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf would take place in Minrathous proper. The reasons for this are plenty.
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A Tale of Two Cities: Kirkwall and Val Royeaux
Dragon Age: Origins saw the introduction of Orzammar, the dwarven city, and Denerim, the capital of Ferelden. Though they were perfectly serviceable quest hubs in their own right, it wasn’t until the sequel that BioWare started flexing its role-playing game legacy with the creation of Kirkwall. Had the second Dragon Age been given the development time it needed, Kirkwall may have well ended up as the next Athkatla, but given the circumstances, BioWare still managed to pull off an iconic city nonetheless.
Kirkwall wasn’t just the main hub in the sequel. It was a character in its own right, as Kirkwall radiated personality and was dripping with history, casting a long shadow across the people who resided in it. It shaped their lives over the course of a decade, and the city changed along with them. Hawke in Dragon Age 2 wasn’t just a champion of a rags-to-riches story – but the champion of Kirkwall, with their fate intrinsically bound to the fate of the city, and their fame a byproduct of its struggles.
When people learned that BioWare was switching to Frostbite for Dragon Age: Inquisition, it promised that the next game set in Thedas would be a visual spectacle, and there was one thing the players were especially excited about: seeing the Orlesian capital of Val Royeaux in all its grand splendor. Unfortunately, the depiction of Val Royeaux in Dragon Age: Inquisition left many fans disappointed. It was grand, but it was also just a small slice of the city and nothing more.
For having such vast deserts and open plains, the heart of the Orlesian Empire felt remarkably off. The market square was vibrant and exciting, but that was all Val Royeaux had to offer in Inquisition. It felt less like a bustling city, and more like a story node that served to connect plots together. By comparison, Novigrad in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and even Windhelm in Skyrim made Val Royeaux feel amateurish by comparison. It wasn’t a proper location for players to be immersed in; it was just there.
While a lot of Val Royeaux’s shortcomings can be attributed to the tumultuous development of Dragon Age: Inquisition, it ultimately produced an expectation for the audience that BioWare had to redeem itself with Dragon Age: Dreadwolf by making a proper metropolis in Thedas for players to sink their teeth into. No doubt the developers were listening, as there may be no better candidate left in Thedas than the capital of the Tevinter Imperium itself: Minrathous.
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The Neon Fantasy Streets of Minrathous
Though no extensive footage of Minrathous has yet been showcased to the public, a fair bit of concept art and trailer shots for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf center around this ancient city of magisters. It is simultaneously the largest settlement in Thedas, as well as one of the oldest cities in the Dragon Age setting. Minrathous is the perfect opportunity for BioWare developers to build their own Athkatla, and the artwork shown thus far gives it a unique visual identity.
As the city of magic, BioWare’s depiction of Minrathous seems to take this statement and run wild with it. Magical inscriptions glow across the streets at night, producing an interesting take on light pollution in a fantasy medieval world. Towering buildings, both old and new, are spread out across the cityscape in a chaotic, vertical fashion – evoking a feeling that the Tevinter Imperium, now pridefully decadent, has seen better days.
The Circle of Magi in Minrathous floats above the city, casting a shadow on the streets below, and establishing the hierarchy of power in Tevinter with an overpowering message. As opposed to the Circle towers of southern Thedas, the seat of magical knowledge in Minrathous is a literal circle levitated by magic and shaped like the crest of the Circle of Magi. The developers at BioWare make one thing perfectly clear: not even Dragon Age veterans have experienced anything quite like Minrathous yet.
If a popular Dragon Age theory is to be believed, Minrathous was built on the ruins of the ancient elven city of Arlathan, with the other half of Arlathan that got split into the Fade becoming the Black City. The mention of catacombs that run deep underneath Minrathous gives credence to the possibility of players exploring the ruins at some point in Dreadwolf.
Ultimately, though Kirkwall had a remarkable art direction and a truly commendable effort in its execution, Minrathous points towards having the one factor Kirkwall was missing: time. BioWare was given several years to make Dragon Age: Dreadwolf the best sequel to Inquisition that it could possibly be, and the project underwent several canceled iterations before it got to the one that was announced earlier this year.
The negative reception and collective disappointment of Anthem have no doubt humbled BioWare as a whole, but the team working on Dreadwolf is still the same one that built Inquisition. Though it is too early to tell, the depiction of Minrathous points that BioWare has something truly magical up its sleeves, and that the future of the Dragon Age franchise is in good hands.
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is in development.
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