| Dragon Age | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing |
| Developer(s) | BioWare EA2D Edge of Reality TransGaming Capital Games Failbetter Games |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Creator(s) | David Gaider and BioWare |
| Platform(s) | |
| First release | Dragon Age: Origins November 3, 2009 |
| Latest release | Dragon Age: The Veilguard October 31, 2024 |
Dragon Age is a media franchise centered on a series of fantasy role-playing video games created and developed by BioWare, which have seen releases on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The franchise takes place on the fictional continent Thedas, and follows the experiences of its various inhabitants.
The first game in the series, Dragon Age: Origins, follows the story of a recent recruit to a legendary order of warriors known as the Grey Wardens. Their mission is to save the kingdom of Ferelden from being overrun by the Darkspawn, a monstrous race of subterranean-dwelling beings who swarm the surface world every few hundred years in a movement known as a Blight. A Blight begins when the darkspawn track down and awaken an Archdemon, a powerful dragon that controls the Darkspawn hordes. Its sequel Dragon Age II is centered around the eldest child of the Hawke family, a Blight refugee who moves their family to their mother's home city of Kirkwall in The Free Marches. There, over the course of approximately seven years, they begin as a criminal and work their way up the city's power structure to eventually become the Champion of Kirkwall. As such, in the midst of crisis and political unrest, they go on to help make decisions that influence all of Thedas.
The third installment, Dragon Age: Inquisition, centers on the Inquisition, an organization tasked with restoring peace and order to Thedas, which is suffering from multiple wars and being ravaged by a demonic invasion from beyond the mortal realm over a decade after the events of the first game. The Herald of Andraste, who later becomes the Inquisitor, is the only individual who can seal the rifts that bring demons to Thedas, due to a mysterious magical mark on their hand. They also help to bring peace to the political landscape. A fourth installment, Dragon Age: The Veilguard (formerly Dragon Age Dreadwolf), was released on October 31, 2024. It centers on Rook who was recruited by Varric Tethras to help him stop Solas, also known as the elven trickster god Fen'Harel, from bringing down the Veil. While disrupting Solas' ritual, they accidentally unleash two imprisoned elven gods – Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain – who then wreak havoc across Thedas with the Blight in an attempt to conquer the world. Rook, supported by companions and various factions, sets out to stop these members of the elven pantheon from achieving their goals.
The main series games have all met with commercial success as well as positive acclaim for their narrative, universe lore, character development, voice acting, and emphasis on player choices affecting the experience. The first three main series games have also been joined by a variety of expansions and downloadable content (DLC) add-ons. In addition to video games, the franchise has expanded to other media and which includes spin-off games, novels, graphic novels, comic books, a web series, an animated film, an animated television series, as well as other licensed products and merchandise.