Dragon Age Might Have Foreshadowed Veilguard Plot Details A Decade Ago

Summary

• A book in Dragon Age 2 may have sketched out major plot points for the next two Dragon Age games.
• These include a Rivaini messiah, a Qunari invasion of Thedas and the return of Fen'Harel.
• Dragon Age's lore is full of foreshadowing and prophecy.

Dragon Age is a universe packed with unique lore, history and characters. The depth of the lore is something to be admired, and you can tell that David Gaider and his team put a lot of thought into creating a sprawling world.

An even more impressive feat is that the writing team that worked on Origins and Dragon Age 2, several of whom are now gone from BioWare, may have sketched out some future plot details for Dragon Age: Inquisition and even Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

There's a book found in Dragon Age 2's Black Emporium called The Emergent Compendium by Scholar Bodaliere with allusions to future events, similar to the less-subtle Notes of Arl Foreshadow from Dragon Age: Origins.

The Future Awaits

The Compendium is a magic book wherein "new entries appear of their own accord." These entries are images accompanied by a line of 'gibberish'. In reality, these captions are a transpose cypher, where every letter needs to be moved back three spaces in the alphabet.

The first image is of "a newborn of Rivaini complexion," with the subtitle "Not He." We don't know a lot about Rivain, but the peninsula nation appeared in the 'Thedas Calls' trailer for Dragon Age: The Veilguard last year.

In that trailer, a Rivaini says "Glory to the risen gods, they've come to deliver this world." There's a kraken superimposed onto the map, so we might be dealing with some sort of sea god thing, but either way, it all sounds cult-y and the caption from the Emergent Compendium might be playing into that with a messiah-like figure.

The next is a picture of "a hornless Qunari with tightly braided hair," which can only be a reference to Sten from Dragon Age: Origins, the man who would eventually become the Arishok of the Qunari. His caption reads "The envoy lied honestly."

This is likely about Sten's answers when the Warden enquires about his purpose in Ferelden. Yes, he was being honest about investigating the Blight but perhaps only to ensure the Qunari's planned invasion of Thedas didn't happen prematurely. The Aantam, the Qun's military branch, is currently undertaking an invasion of Northern Thedas without the support of the other two branches of the Qun. As the leader of the Aantam, the Arishok (Sten) is presumably behind the invasion.

The third is less prophetic and more humorous, a picture of the scholar's wife subtitled "Post coitus, her husband a fool." The last is "two shadowed spheres among stars" with the caption, "An eclipse as Fen'Harel stirred."

Fen'Harel stirring is obviously about Solas 'waking up' before the events of Dragon Age: Inquisition. However, the eclipse imagery could be related to Elgar'nan, which we now know is one of the major antagonists of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

There's a prophecy in the second volume of The World of Thedas about the return of the Maker, which seems to heavily foreshadow the opening events of The Veilguard, as well as the events of the Inquisition.

These mini-prophecies are certainly consistent with the events of Dragon Age so far, showcasing just how far the series' lore goes back. Dragon Age: The Veilguard releases on October 31.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

WHERE TO PLAY

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the long-awaited fourth game in the fantasy RPG series from BioWare formerly known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. A direct sequel to Inquisition, it focuses on red lyrium and Solas, the aforementioned Dread Wolf.